"Why in the name of the Stone are you wearing eye wraps? No, better yet, where did you even get them?" Sonya asked Lone as soon she could see him.

He smiled happily. "I made 'em and I'm wearing them for a skill."

She eyed him up and down and scowled deeply. "You didn't tear your trousers nor your bedsheets. This has something to do with how you messed with the chairs in the questioning chamber, doesn't it?"

"Perhaps, though I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'messed with'," Lone replied.

"Right... Well, you might not be feeling like such a smartarse when you learn that your trial is set to take place today. Some people in pretty high positions paid a lot of gold to get everything set up as soon as possible," Sonya explained. "Like, we're talking white-gold levels of wealth here."

That didn't mean much to him considering he had once forced a nation's coffers to be drained of 10 ruby-gold coins.

Still, Lone frowned given the implications. "Any names?"

"Why?" Sonya asked back instantly.

Lone shrugged. "So I know who I've pissed off and maybe why. Also so I can keep track. People in high places disagreeing with me doesn't usually end well. For them, not me."

"The king of Milindo, huh? The former king now, I suppose. I hear the former princess now queen is the only one who survived the Seven Deadly Sins. I wonder if she'll be a decent ruler?" Sonya sighed. "That whole situation could very possibly hurt you in this case. Even if we aren't exactly friends with the humans on a political scale, regicide or claimed regicide is never looked upon kindly. Anyway, no point not telling you since they'll have a representative at the trial."

She took off her glasses and began cleaning them as she said, "Remember the name Ewan McStuderson?"

Lone raised an eyebrow though it was hard to tell given he was wearing eye wraps. "The leader of the Black Iron Company, right? Hamish told me a lot about him. A good man on all accounts, is what I've heard."

"Yeah, well, his aunt - who is his last living relative - went into a rage when she learned of his death. This aunt, Sheelda McStuderson, supposedly doted on Ewan a lot. She also happens to be a high chancellor of the greater council. You may be nuts, but surely you can see the issue there," Sonya explained.

Lone chuckled in response. "I may seem nuts to someone who doesn't know me, but I do have the Insanity Resistance skill, thank you very much."

Sonya gave him a look that implied his words had only proven hers, not put them into doubt.

He got out of his meditative position and stretched while he stood up. "Well, can't say I'm happy about this Sheelda person's machinations. I assume she's lobbying pretty heavily for my execution?"

Sonya furrowed her brows. "You're way too calm about all of this for a supposed sane person. Yes, she is. She doesn't want you killed before having all of your skills stripped though."

"Lovely," Lone said as he cracked his neck. "Nothing can be done about that from in here, so when does the trial begin, exactly?"

"In 2 hours," Sonya answered with a lot of distaste in her tone.

'Not a fan of corruption and strings being pulled, huh? How'd you get to be an arbiter then? The law was built to be bent,' Lone commented internally.

"Well then, sounds like you have two hours to brief me on everything I need to know before I get told no matter how solid my arguments that my fate is sealed," Lone said with a smile.

"I don't like this whole situation, but your faith in how our trials work bothers me even more. It will be fair. By the Stone, if I have to, I'll make it fair," Sonya declared resolutely.

Lone chuckled. "You're one of the good ones."

----------------------------------------

As it turned out, Sonya had done far more than Lone could have ever anticipated. She truly was capable and he wondered if she had a skill or two that helped her work efficiently.

As she had told him, in the span of a few short days she had compiled a complete report on all of his recent activities, his interests, his schedules, everything of importance.

She'd done the same for Wilbur, Soph, Breena, and even Kyuubi. These reports spanned even beyond their arrival at Krieg Moor, dating all the way back to when Lone and Soph had docked at Milindo's port city, Ros.

Breena's report also had a lot of information in it regarding Daisuke given that she had spent many years as a slave.

On top of that, Sonya had also gathered four character witnesses who were willing to vouch for him in the trial should it be required.

Apparently, the fact that the Steamforging Checker which Lone had 'appropriated' could not be located was incredibly helpful for Lone's case as well.

Sonya even claimed that she could twist it to his favour but didn't elaborate on how she would do that, exactly.

Lone didn't really care all that much since he was willing to teleport out of this place if needed. However, it was nice to see someone fighting in his corner so fervently.

He was the criminal here, after all. Sure, someone was trying to use his charges of illegally learning Steamforging to execute him, but he hadn't exactly been brought in under false claims unlike in Milindo.

It felt good to have someone fighting in your corner when you were used to doing so alone.

On the way to the trial hall, Lone decided to contact Sophie.

'Almost at the hearing now. Are you ready for if shit hits the fan?' Lone asked while he tried to keep his facial expressions to a minimum.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

He freaked out Sonya enough as it was already. No need to put her even more on edge at such a critical moment.

'When, not if, and yes. We and Breena are already here. We are a part of the trial too since we are, and I quote; 'associates of the accused',' Sophie snorted disdainfully. 'Although, we have been told it is unlikely we will be called upon to give a testimony.'

'Heh, associates? Well, see you shortly then, Miss Associate Number One,' Lone replied.

He got the feeling that Sophie nodded before she cut off her end of the telepathic communication.

After that, Lone and Sonya walked in silence since they were being escorted by several guards to the courtroom.

It wouldn't exactly be wise to talk about anything sensitive in their presence, after all.

'I'm glad Krieg Moor is too poor to afford those truth enchantments for their courtroom as well. Sonya did say it's against the law for them to be anywhere but a questioning chamber, though I somehow doubt many people in super high-up positions really care about that,' Lone thought as a guard grabbed him by the arm and roughly escorted him into the room where his fate was supposedly going to be decided.

Little did they know Lone had full control of his current situation. The second things went pear-shaped, which, as Sophie so astutely noted, was almost a guarantee, they would simply teleport out.

Hopefully, he could implicate just himself and exonerate Wilbur before that though. Lone also wanted to get a good read on the Taker to avoid such people in the future. There was also the matter of trying to grind his social skills.

"So much to do, so little time," Lone mumbled, earning him a dirty look from the dwarf who was practically dragging him to his seat in the courtroom.

His eye wraps and multicoloured 9 tails earned him quite a few looks of interest though he could hardly tell since his vision was obscured.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 4.

Trying his best to keep himself from grinning at the level up, Lone took his seat with Sonya placing herself next to him.

"Lad, why in the name of the Stone are ye covering yer eyes with some cloth? They didn't blind ye, did they?" Wilbur asked.

Lone turned only to find that the old dwarven master steamforger, Wilbur, was on his other side. That made some sense since they were both being charged here.

He shook his head. "Nah, they've been good to me. I'm training a skill is all."

Lone felt like he could vaguely see a scowl form on the man's wrinkled expression through the eye wraps but he wasn't sure.

"Okay. Well, ah just want to tell ye, whatever happens today, let me take the fall for it. Ah'm nearly dead anyway. Ye, on the other hand, are young an' have yer whole life ahead of ye. Well, so long as ye can rank up an' outrun yer awakenings," Wilbur said.

"Don't worry, I'm going to be fine," Lone answered with a smile. 'Wilbur clearly doesn't know anything about Sheelda McStuderson's plans to get me executed, huh? He'd probably be pretty angry if he did.'

Lone drew his attention away from his blacksmithing master and instead tried his best to get a feel for the courtroom and its inhabitants.

A difficult task with his eyes covered, but that was sort of the point.

The room was large as far as he could tell. It could fit between 50 to 100 spectators and each one of those seats was occupied. Near the front of the room where he, Wilbur, and Sonya were, he could see some familiar faces.

Sophie was in a place that was likely a witness stand along with Breena, the owner of the Rusty Sprocket, a few other dwarves Lone could kind of recognise but couldn't quite place with his eye wraps on, and quite a few more he was confident he'd never met before.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 5.

Opposite this collection of people were who Lone assumed to be the prosecutors and their witnesses. He didn't recognise a single one of them.

That was a good thing. He was a bit worried Hamish might go turncoat, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. Either the man wasn't present or Lone had missed him in the defendant's witness stand.

Finally, there was the judge's seat. All Lone could tell was that the person in that position wasn't wearing a splendid grey wig. A disappointment, really.

Then again, the courtroom was already pretty different from the local one in Arlith where he'd grown up. Even there the judge didn't have one of those stupid wigs on.

'Such a crying shame,' Lone thought in jest as he spent the next 20 minutes simply trying his best to look at people's faces.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 6.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Beginner level 7.

A low chime knocked Lone out of his intense focus, bringing his attention back to the courtroom. Specifically, onto the judge who had used a steamforged device to create said chime.

"As the Stone bears witness, the trial of both Master Steamforger Wilbur Steamson and Adventurer Lone Immortus shall henceforth commence," the judge said loudly and clearly.

He then looked down at both Lone and his teacher before adding, "Master Steamforger Wilbur Steamson, you are accused of teaching a non-dwarf the secret and sacred art of steamforging. To start things off, how do you plead?"

The old dwarf stole a glance at Lone which he was thankful for. It allowed him to discreetly mouth the words 'Not-guilty. I've got this. You'll fuckin' regret it if you say otherwise.'

Hopefully, Wilbur was skilled in lipreading. It wasn't like Lone didn't have a plan for if the old man foolishly pled guilty, but it would certainly be easier if he did otherwise.

Wilbur shook his head and answered the judge truthfully, "Guilty, as witnessed by the Stone."

'The hard way it is then. Stupid old git,' Lone winced as the judge's attention shifted to him.

"Adventurer Lone Immortus, you are accused of illegally learning our secret and sacred art of steamforging despite not being of dwarven heritage. Additionally, you are being accused of the theft of a Steamforging Checker. How do you plead?" the man asked with a certain coldness in his tone.

"Guilty to learning steamforging, innocent to stealing the device you mentioned," Lone answered as he tried his best to infuse his voice with his Charm and Charisma stats.

He had no idea how to apply stats, but there was no harm in trying to learn since he was in a stressful situation, now was there?

After all, he had recently felt confident that his theory of stress equals higher results in regards to skills and enlightenment was true. If that was the case for them, why not for learning how to apply stats as well?

Grimsley and Gilbert had certainly been vague on the matter, after all. If he had to test and try things on his own, test and try things on his own he would.

"You don't wish to beg of the Primals to witness your words as we do to the Stone?" the judge asked with a raised eyebrow.

Well, either a raised eyebrow or he suddenly became constipated. It was a bit of a toss-up given Lone's current visual impediment.

"With all due respect, Your Honour - it is Your Honour, right? Sorry if not. Regardless, with all due respect, I owe nothing to the Primals. I'd sooner fight them than beg anything of them. They can go fuck themselves for all I care. I don't need their blessing for a trial which the outcome I already know," Lone answered in a neutral tone.

A few gasps and words of condemnation could be heard coming from the spectator seats, but nothing too loud or disruptive.

The judge frowned. "I see. Well then, let us begin this extremely expensive and very important affair. First we shall deal with the matter of Master Steamforger Wilbur Steamson. Primary Accuser, please come to the stand and make your case known to the courtroom."