Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 27. The Trial Begins.
After some delay, in the early afternoon of the next day Laien was taken to the trial. At the moment, he was being led to the building which was supposed to act as the Royal Court by two relatively powerful martial masters under Sauras’s orders. From what he could tell, the two should be at least martial masters of the fourth rank; sure enough, they looked displeased to be used for a task of this kind. Additionally… they weren’t exactly pleased with the course of actions the first Prince decided to take, but since they were under Xin’s orders to obey the first Prince, they could do nothing about it.
“I wonder how the trial will go?” Laien mused quietly. He really wanted to use his spiritual sense to check if those two were as strong as he suspected, but since it would be quite rude he was restraining himself.
“Well, I guess even if it comes to exile like Sinra told me I should still have at least ten years in the worst case scenario before the all-out battle for the crown begins. I can just become strong enough that when I return at a right time, the other side will have no power necessary to throw me out,” he assumed calmly, for some reason feeling quite calm and relaxed after the long sleep he had. He even had enough time to do some light training in the morning what only improved his mood further.
“You sure seem to be in a good mood for a person who is about to be made into a criminal,” one of the two crimson-haired men said in a neutral tone. He wasn’t making fun of Laien nor speaking sarcastically, he wasn’t pitying him either. He was simply intrigued to see a child act so composed in face of those events. He had seen many, many adults freaking over much less… but this twelve-year-old seemed to be unlike any of them.
Laien gave the man a curious look. He thought that his hair wasn’t as bright red as Sinra’s or Injar’s, then answered the question with a shrug of his shoulders. “We still don’t know what will happen. Also, there’s no point in worrying now when I can’t change anything anymore. As long as I don’t repeat the same mistakes everything should be fine,” he explained casually, the words spoken by Sinra having taken a deep root within his heart.
The crimson-haired man raised his eyebrows. A second later, a slight smile appeared on his face. “I saw your fight in the semifinals. You’ve got talent. No matter where you go you will live a good life as long as you keep training,” he said quietly, feeling quite regretful that their Kingdom would lose a youth with not only this much potential but such a good character at such a young age. All because of some stupid quarrel between Royals… couldn’t they all come together and work for the benefit of the country instead of fighting for the crown every generation?
“Why are you speaking as if it’s already decided?” Laien inquired, asking this question only since he felt the man harbored no ill intent towards him and might answer him honestly.
“You know that in the Royal Court you will be judged by the three Grand Viscars, right?” the crimson-haired man asked helplessly. “You really think they are going to be objective? This whole trial is only a play to satisfy the common folk and create a pretense of justice, the Viscars will make the verdict Prince Sauras demanded of them regardless of how the trial goes,” he explained to Laien, even himself unsure why was he helping an enemy of his master. Perhaps he wanted to ease his sense of guilt by this meaningless piece of information he was giving Laien? At the very least the boy wouldn’t be as shocked when the verdict unlike the one he expected came.
“This trial will mostly be about the consequences that are going to be applied to your allies. Your case is a foregone conclusion, they don’t want you in this country,” he elaborated on the matter, then looked around, exchanged a glance with his friend and stopped Laien for a short moment. “Listen, kid, do not tell anyone you know that from me,” he began saying and only after receiving a nod from Laien did he continue.
“No matter what, don’t let your Master lose his cool and try to force the verdict his way. The reason this trial was delayed is because Prince Sauras and all our allies were gathering their forces from all over the country. I fear that even with as much Great Masters on your side as you have, you are going to be cornered and crushed one by one,” he revealed grimly. He didn’t know if Sauras would ever go that far to obtain what he wanted... but one couldn’t rule out the possibility.
“Why did you tell me about it?” Laien asked suspiciously. He needed to admit the advice was sensible even if Sauras’s forces weren’t big enough to suppress them, but how many people would again end up dying only for him to get his own way? He truly no longer wished to rely on Rudford, he wanted to be strong enough to tread a path of his own!
The man considered what he should say for a second or two and in the end answered honestly. “Maybe I am just tired of seeing this depressing side of our world. You seem to be a good kid, so I gave you a little advice. Try to not waste it.” he said and sighed slightly while his companion looked away and shook his head. Just like his friend he also saw no point in those internal struggles, but he didn’t feel quite responsible enough to take any action and abandon the comfortable life he was living right now.
“Mm, thanks, I guess,” Laien said and scratched the back of his head. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel about a subordinate of Sauras’s giving him advice out of the goodness of his heart, but all in all, he probably should be happy he was being warned at all.
“You are welcome.” The man chuckled helplessly. He didn’t feel fully comfortable since he shouldn’t have done what he did, but it certainly helped to improve his mood a little. He pushed Laien on the back and began walking again, knowing the boy was expected to appear in the Royal Court soon.
“It’s the place. Go in.”
Laien looked at the man, then swept the surroundings with a quick glance. The building itself and the area around it were guarded by multiple experts from the Heavenly Flame School. Most likely, the nearby buildings of the Royal Palace were all filled with experts of the three Great Families… “They sure prepared well. No surprise though, they are dealing with so many Great Masters on our side,” he smiled at the thought and after taking a deep breath, he approached the relatively normal-looking door in front of him and pushed it open.
Immediately, he found himself being looked at by hundreds of pairs of eyes. He couldn’t help but shiver a little with so many people staring straight at him with obvious malicious intent and disdain. This kind of feeling… it was the first for him. “It’s much worse than fighting in front of a huge audience… It feels like everyone is against me,” he murmured quietly, just barely stopping himself from reaching out to the Aspect of Tranquility in order to calm himself down. What use would it be if he never learned how to face stress without artificially suppressing his emotions? With a strong resolution to keep his calm and act dignified, he began walked forward to the lone chair placed in the center of the Royal Court.
“It’s similar to the Royal Arena, only the seats are less numerous and don’t reach as high into the sky. Well, there’s also the thing that I will be the main attraction instead of some duels.” he tried to occupy his mind with those thoughts while giving his best not to shrink under the new to him kind of a pressure. By the looks of it, the leaders or representatives of pretty much all significant noble families, martial schools and other organizations present at the Grand Gathering were invited to witness his case. The worst of it was that the crimson-haired man from before seemed to be right. In those people’s eyes, he was already a criminal and only needed to be properly punished.
“Where is everyone though? Why aren’t there more people from our side?” Laien wondered restlessly as he sat on the hard, uncomfortable chair. Suddenly, he sensed a familiar presence through his spiritual link and looked at a specific spot in the huge audience. When his and Yin eyes met, he instantly became much calmer. Rudford and the other Great Masters, Yin and all his friends, they were all here. He wasn’t facing all of this alone.
He even chuckled a little when he felt how Yin attempted to communicated something akin to ‘Don’t worry! It will be ok! Give your best!” through their spiritual bond. In contrast with the tense atmosphere, the message itself and the clumsy way Yin tried to deliver it by were just so out of place they managed to blow his nervousness away.
“Oh, I Eleonora, Anna, Alex and the others are here too. So if Finella and Laura… they don’t seem to be looking at me like the majority people here. Now that I look properly, quite a few people seem to have rather neutral expressions too,” he noticed calmly and laughed at himself. He had been so nervous he overexaggerated everything he was seeing.
He looked up at the balcony in front of him where the three Grand Viscars were seating themselves at and recognized two of them. One was obviously Lamuel, the King’s younger brother whom he had met at the banquet while the other one… ugh. He couldn’t quite remember his name anymore, but he was the fatass who got humiliated by him and Anatis a few days ago in the crimson district. As for the one who sat in the middle, he appeared to be so incredibly old it was a surprise he didn’t turn into a corpse yet.
After Laien’s appearance the clamor in the hall had subdued momentarily, but now it again began to rise. As if awakened by it, the really old Grand Viscar opened his eyes a bit wider and spoke in a surprisingly strong voice. “Quiet! We are beginning the trial. Firstly, may the prosecutors speak. Prince Sauras, if you would please present the charges,” the old man’s strong voice resounded within the building, silencing the thousands of chattering nobles and other various influential characters.
“As as a representative of the Royal Family and on behalf of it,” Sauras stood up from his seat and spoke up loudly. “For the crimes of the person accused, I demand the capital punishment,” he stated clearly, what instantly resulted in a huge clamor erupting in the court. Requesting a twelve-year-old to be punished according to the martial law? Such a thing had never happened before! Even if Laien’s crimes were great, many nobles and practitioners present felt that it was too much to demand his life; after all, it was the Great Master Rudford and his allies from the Twin Phoenix School who did the killing, not this boy. They might have despised him… but they weren’t completely irrational.
“Don’t screw with me!” Rudford roared furiously, raising to his feet and frightening the people near him out of their minds. For the very majority of the audience the presence of a Great Master alone was hard to stand, but when Rudford’s natural aura of strength changed into a wave of killing intent those who were unlucky enough to be close to him began trembling uncontrollably, very literally about to piss their pants from fear.
Rudford turned to look at Fohan, his eyes filled with fury. It wasn’t what was promised! However, Fohan only raised his eyebrow and smiled a little. Indeed, he did promise something like that… but was there anyone who wasn’t allied with Rudford who could confirm that?
Also, in Fohan’s opinion, it was stupid of Rudford not to realize they were setting the bar up high to lower it a little in the end to get both the result they desired and the public support for being ‘benevolent’. Those martial masters… to Fohan, they were letting their emotions rule them way too often. What, could he have expected Sauras to perfectly keep his word and put even him on a chair similar to that brat’s? If so, then he really was too naïve.
An anxious silence befell the Royal Court as Rudford kept staring at Fohan. At a moment like that, the Grand Viscar leading the trial would usually speak up and remind the person of the place he was in, but in this case, the offender was Rudford! One of the strongest experts of their Kingdom! None of those three Grand Viscars wished to carelessly cause his anger to shift upon them.
In all honesty, the three of them felt rather oppressed by the major parties involved in today’s trial. The Great Masters from the three major Martial Schools, Clan Leaders of the three Great Families… out of which Fohan Cail who took over the clan from the Valius family was definitely the scariest… and even the most influential Royal Children. All those people were here and had their own expectations of them; just one word spoken could easily end up offending any of them.
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Truth to be told, no matter what kind of verdict they gave today, they would end up offending someone they didn’t want to offend. They really were between a rock and a hard place… or at least, two of them were. Both the old man and Lamuel would have rather never participated in this trial to begin with; this whole experience was simply too nerve-wracking for them.
“Master Rudford,” Sauras continued calmly. “Because your disciple deceived you, over six hundred martial masters of our Kingdom were killed. You tell me Master Rudford, would simply exiling him be any punishment at all? The boy would just live without worry somewhere else in the world and would perhaps seek revenge in the future, especially given how talented he is. We’ve spoken about it and reached the conclusion that capital punishment would be most appropriate given the circumstances. Or are you perhaps saying that if someone is affiliated with you then he should be pardoned for any crimes he might have committed?” he questioned, with each sentence sinking Rudford’s image lower and lower. He obviously wouldn’t execute Laien in the end, but he wouldn’t miss a perfect opportunity to undermine his opponents’ influence either.
Rudford barely held himself back from roaring again. To him, this whole trial was already too much of a farce and now, he needed to listen to those shameless lies about Laien! He no longer understood why they agreed to go through with this trial anymore. He really should have told Sauras that if he wants to ‘punish’ Laien, then he needs to face the whole Red Dragon School! Perhaps then he wouldn’t be forced to sit in this circus filled with monkeys!
“You are speaking as if Laien was guilty!” Rudford spoke very loudly, pretty much on the verge of shouting. “We both know that this story of yours is made up! Do you believe I will stand and watch as you demand something as ridiculous as having my disciple killed?! Have you lost your mind, First Prince?!” Despite trying really hard not to, Rudford still began shouting towards the end. Just imagining the possibility of losing his family again was causing all his reason and patience to be thrown out of the window and tramped under countless feet.
Sauras smiled calmly, allowing no trace of sarcasm to sneak onto his face. “Master Rudford, are you trying to say that the deaths of six hundred martial masters of the Great Families and of the Fire Serpent School is a lie made-up by us? I can’t help but see your behavior as unbecoming of a man of your position. I fear to say that, but do your words mean you aren’t willing to abide by the verdict of the Royal Court, whatever it may be, Master Rudford? If so, then I need to ask you to take your words back” he stated, stirring up a wave of whispers amongst the few thousand people in the audience. Wasn’t First Prince practically implying the Great Master Rudford would betray the country and ignore the law if the verdict wasn’t to his liking?
“Death…” Laien mused silently. Unlike Rudford, he managed to keep a cool head and realized that Sauras most likely didn’t intend to force the original punishment he demanded. However, the mere possibility of the events somehow developing so that he would be killed filled him with dread. It was one thing to face death in battle and a whole different thing to wait for someone to make the call whether you could live or not.
“Take my words back?” Rudford asked along with a disdainful laughter. “Maybe you want me to apologize too? What is this farce? You know very well that this whole incident is the responsibility of Fohan Cail! How come he isn’t even being trialed as we agreed? His subordinates wanted to kill my disciples! Had I come a second later, both would have been killed and the ones responsible would be nowhere to be found!” he roared, by this point having caused all the weaker people present to be so frightened they could barely breathe.
Good Heavens, was another battle about to break out right here in the Royal Court? If so many Great Masters began fighting here, they would all be pretty much as good as dead!
“Master Rudford, you are overexaggerating,” Sauras continued speaking while maintaining perfect calm and thus, coming out as much more believable party compared to Rudford. “What you are speaking about is only your interpretation. The martial masters of the Cail Family were indeed fighting the boy, but they were only attempting to apprehend him. Perhaps you, Master Rudford, are still under the assumption that your disciple had told you the truth and you refuse to think or recognize the obvious facts. Why don’t you face the matter calmly, without causing a commotion in the Royal Court?” he asked, his words meeting with a strong support from almost all people gathered in the building. Even if Rudford was right and was telling the truth, they wouldn’t have listened to him while he was emanating a murderous aura and yelling at everyone.
Rudford frowned, cursing in his heart. He wasn’t clueless enough to not notice he was losing more and more ground after each exchange of words with Sauras. Gritting his teeth, he sat down with a lot of force, causing a dull ‘thud’ to resound through the court. He decided to bear with it until it would be his side’s turn to speak. Then, he would explain everything from the beginning. Since there was no solid evidence against Laien’s supposed crimes, it would be word against word. He reassured himself in this way, doubting that the Grand Viscars would uphold Sauras’s demanded punishment in this case.
Sauras gave Rudford a long look before following suit and sitting down. He could have said more, but it would only wash away the impression everyone got from Rudford’s thoughtless actions. “Went better than I thought it would. This damn geezer was right, Rudford gets overly emotional when that boy is involved. Oh well, the first act is over. For the time being, I can calmly enjoy watching the show,” he mused silently, pretty satisfied with how the case was developing. In the process, he would obviously antagonize Laien to himself… but it wasn’t something that could be helped. He needed to weigh the pros and cons of each decision after all.
Having seated himself comfortably, Sauras relaxed and allowed a slight, barely noticeable smile to appear on his face. “Originally I thought I would be competing with teacher over the control of our alliance. Who would have thought we would become allies in the end? If anything I should rather be thanking this boy and Rudford,” he thought and in consequence, needed to hold back a smile and a laugh. He really needed to keep up a perfect act in this place; just one bad expression could sow the seed of uncertainty in his version of events in all those who saw it.
Subsequently, Fohan stood up and began telling the ‘whole story’ from the beginning. How Laien had gotten involved in a conflict against Masi two years ago, how he bumped into him in the Two Weeks City and tried to humiliate him… then how the fight broke out and how Masi ran to Zhira to request help, only to get killed by Laien and for Zhira’s subordinates to get unwillingly involved in a bout.
Listening to Fohan’s lies Laien gave his best not to do the same Rudford did and start shouting at Fohan for being a lying, shameless fraud. He closed his eyes and attempted not to listen to Fohan, but the most he could do was to keep breathing steadily and trying to keep his cool. Fohan Cail and Sauras… he would definitely repay those two people for what they did in the future.
What ended up surprising Laien and diverting his attention from what was being said was the fact that his spiritual connection with Yin suddenly grew considerably stronger. He opened his eyes and glanced at Yin, and Yin looked back at him. Now that they could sense each other’s emotions more clearly, the two of them were able to tell that just a second before they were both equally enraged with Fohan and Sauras. Did being on the same wavelength cause the connection between them to deepen? Apparently at it indeed did.
By the time Laien and Yin finished getting used to being constantly aware of each other’s feelings and emotions, Fohan sat down and the old Grand Viscar shifted his gaze to him. From what Laien knew about the procedures, it was his turn to defend himself; a hard task considering the ninety-nine percent of the people present was looking at him as at a criminal and wanted him dead.
Gathering the courage, one so very different compared to the one required to fight, Laien stood up from his uncomfortable chair and spoke; at first in a somewhat unsteady voice.
“Do you all really believe that I have done all those things? Why would I forsake my everything to attack some young master in the middle of the night? Fohan Cail claims that I wanted to humiliate Masi because of the old grudges I had with him, but if that was my goal and a hidden desire, one which would push me as far as killing Masi, then why didn’t I do anything to him for the past two years? You all must be aware of my position and the kind of influence I wield, it truly wouldn’t have been difficult to destroy Masi’s whole family and cover the event up had I wanted to. Had anyone in the Red Dragon School been a corrupt with power, evil person, wouldn’t something like this have happened already?” he questioned, the tone of his voice becoming calm and confident towards the end.
The few thousand people who had been looking at Laien with cold eyes now began questioning themselves, many beginning to doubt the version of Fohan Cail’s. It was as the boy was saying, if he really wanted to, wouldn’t he have killed this whole Masi ages ago? The family this young man was from wasn’t all that strong or influential, it would be easy for the Red Dragon School to crush it and cover the matter up; no one would care or complain. So, why would a boy with a great future ahead of himself not only start killing people on the streets but also get into a fight with a large group of martial masters? Even if he counted on Rudford arriving quickly and saving him, wouldn’t he have been in a lot of danger before that?
“I’ll tell you what really happened,” Laien spoke up again after an intentional, brief pause. “The man who dares to accuse me being a murderer is the one who had my little sister be lured out of the Red Dragon School, then abducted! He feared his own ally, first Prince Sauras would have trouble obtaining the crown with the Red Dragon School supporting the seventh Prince and wanted to use both my sister and me to threaten my elder brother!” he exclaimed, steadily raising his voice and filling with very real anger and resentment. Towards the end, he locked his gaze at Fohan… and so the gazes of everyone in the audience followed along with a great clamor which erupted as soon as he finished speaking.
Given how much disinformation there was about the events which occurred yesterday’s night, it was the first time many of those nobles heard this version. Somehow… many of them found it more believable than what Fohan Cail and the first Prince were claiming to be true. Laien’s arguments were simply too convincing for them not to give everything a second thought. Additionally, the reputation of the Cail family might have never been bad… but they were definitely perceived as a shady, scheming type. Only a fool would give them his complete trust just because they claimed something to be true.
Laien wanted to smile but wisely refrained from doing so according to Tei’ru’s old teachings. He withdrew a certain letter from his interspatial ring, raised it up in his hand and used his spiritual energy to amplify his voice to speak over the overbearing clamor. “This letter was delivered to the seventh Prince’s mansion two nights ago along with the interspatial ring of my little sister. The contents forbid me from telling anyone she had been abducted and order me to immediately head to the southern district of the Two Weeks City, alone under the threat of my sister’s death! ” he shouted, this time throwing all the nobles and influential people into a state of a total turmoil.
Given the eyesight of many martial masters gathered in the Royal Court, it wasn’t hard for them to read the letter which Laien was holding up and displaying to everyone. When they saw the broken seal of the Valius family on the letter, they recalled how Cail family overtook the Valius family… and even though it wasn’t exactly right, they assumed the Cail family must have indeed been behind everything! Yet despite that, they were shameless enough to frame a twelve-year-old boy as a criminal and request having him put to death! This was so infuriating they had no words to describe their anger and frustration after being so cleanly deceived by those bunch of liars!
“It’s getting dangerous,” Sauras murmured to himself, his expression both grim and amused at the same time. “I never expected this boy to present his arguments so clearly and effectively. Had he been under the tutelage of someone well-versed in politics? We were prepared for our arguments to be undermined and to lower the demands from a capital punishment to the permanent exile, or even an exile for a period of time… but at this rate it’s going to be us who will end up under a trial,” he noted quietly and gave Fohan a meaningful look. If his teacher wanted to do something about this, then now was the highest time.
“Anyone can forge a letter and make up a story!” Fohan stood up and enhanced his voice with his Qi. “All criminals try to frame their accusers and turn them into villains when they are out of other options! The indisputable fact is that because of this boy, over six hundred martial masters died when they didn’t need to! Who was right or wrong before that doesn’t matter!” he declared and indeed extinguished some of the eagerness of the audience, but didn’t change the opinion many of them came to hold.
“Damn it, I just told them all my version of events,” Fohan frowned secretly. “I didn’t expect the kid to speak so well or I would have omitted some parts to twist them later. Now I have no choice but to press the argument in an unnatural way. Why wasn’t I told about this damned letter anyway…?” he groaned inwardly, slowly starting to think that this trial might not have been as good of an idea as he thought it would. It seemed to be a perfect opportunity to get rid of the linchpin of the seventh Prince’s alliance, but could it be he had gotten so blinded by the idea and so shaken by the events of that night he ended up doing something incredibly stupid?
“Now you realize?” Sauras held back a chortle but was having trouble with keeping himself from smiling. His teacher screwed up not once, but twice in a very short period of time. Although in both cases his own reputation would suffer a bit too… it was more than worth to pay this price to put a leash on that sly old man’s neck.
Laien smiled with satisfaction, seeing how Fohan’s argument failed to do much to change everyone’s mind. He came to realize that neither side truly had any reliable evidence in this trial, so all the damage in reputation that would be done would entirely depend on how the trial itself went. In other words, it was one big game of words of pretenses! The side which would convince more of those important people who were gathered here would be the victorious one, the other camp would be defeated and forced to lick its wounds. It didn’t matter if the three Grand Viscars had been bough-off by Fohan or Sauras, the verdict on its own would be entirely superficial and wouldn’t mean much.