“Everyone!” The king put his hand into the air. “My son Minzfel is… uh, feeling a little ill and will be taking a break.” The audience made the sort of ‘aww’ sound you’d expect to hear during a show filmed in front of a live audience.

I made the sound too. Not because I felt bad, but because I was disappointed. Disappointed I wouldn’t be able to see the little twerp’s life fall apart. Yeah, I was a terrible person. I wasn’t arguing.

The king put his hand back down. “Now let the trial resume!”

“This is just like one of our concerts!” Goldie stood at the stand, looking around at the crowd with sparkles in her eyes. “So, like, what am I supposed to talk about again?”

Oh, I don’t know, maybe that whole sleeping with your manager thing that literally stopped the trial?

“Sir Allard, let’s move this along,” Lyili said. “I already know your plan and I plan to strike it down.”

Yeah, we’d see about that.

I took a deep breath, turning to Goldie. “Could you please elaborate on your relationship with Volk?”

“I mean, I can like, talk about it if you want,” Goldie said, straightening out her black sundress. “Where should I start?”

“Okay… what kind of relationship did the two of you have, exactly?”

“Besides him being my manager, we were also, like, lovers,” Goldie said. “He was seeing all the girls. I’m pretty sure we all knew it.”

“And you were okay with that?”

“I was.” Goldie pointed over at Cyana sitting at the front of the audience. “And Cyana was too.”

“Ms. Cyana, is this true?” the king asked.

Cyana crossed her arms and legs, sitting there for a moment before finally answering. “Yes. It’s true.”

“I don’t really know how Violetta or Ms. Rayne felt though,” Goldie continued. “I never spoke with them about it.”

“I didn’t do anything like that with Mr. Volk!” Violetta yelled from the comfort of her guillotine.

“It’s totally okay, Violetta,” Goldie said. “You don’t have to pretend anymore and stuff.”

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“Hmm…” The king turned in his throne toward me. “This is a serious crime, isn’t it Mr. Allard?”

Wait, was he talking to me? “Uhh… what is?”

“These two are admitting to violating Ms. Rayne’s marriage,” the king said. “I would say Mr. Volk should be punished as well but… well, he’s dead.”

Demons concerned about the sanctity of marriage? Not exactly what I was expecting. “Uhh… I’m not saying I agree with it or anything, but cheating and having affairs with married people isn’t illegal in my world.”

“Vile. Your world must be filled to the brim with sexual deviants.” Lyili glared at me. “That explains your… insatiable lust for me.” It was hard to tell from where I was but… was she breathing hard?

“Look, if you think it should be different in your law system then fine,” I sighed. “Can we worry about that later? I think this whole ‘murder’ thing is a little more important.”

“Understood. Brad, please write that down for another time…” The king scanned the crowd. “W-Where’s Brad?”

“He’s getting an ice cream bar,” Yaika said.

“Oh, yes, of course…” The king cleared his throat. “Another… important duty I entrusted to him. Yes.”

Apparently, sounding like an idiot was favorable to admitting that you had no real control over your guards. Hopefully Brad wouldn’t be in too much trouble.

“Now Goldie,” I said. “Could you please tell the court why you started your relationship with Volk?”

“Why?” Goldie placed her finger on her lips. “He was, just like, cute I guess?”

“Objection!” I yelled. “He’s… not that good looking!”

“Really?” Lyili asked, totally straight faced. “Is this really a point you would like to argue about, Sir Allard?”

“Uh, no… That, uh, wasn’t what I meant to say.”

Lyili placed her elbows on her table, leaned forward, and rested her face in her hands. She waited a minute before continuing, looking at me with a smile on her porcelain face. “Then what was it that you meant to say?”

Lyili and her stupid confidence, and her pretty smile, and her attractive body. Oh god, now I was starting to think like she claimed I was.

I snapped myself out of it. “I meant to say that I find it highly unlikely all these girls had an affair with their manager just because they thought he was ‘cute’.”

“Then why, pray tell, do you think they did?” Lyili asked, still looking at me with her stupid lovely eyes.

“Well, either he pressured them into doing it… Or they did it to try and get him to raise their status in the group.”

“Hey, I’m just saying why I liked him,” Goldie spoke up. “I can’t, like, speak for the other girls.”

“Very well, Sir Allard. Perhaps the members of Succy Girls slept with Sir Volk for the reasons you’ve stated,” Lyili said. “But what of it?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m saying… What difference does that make?”

Fuck. I didn’t even know where I was going with this. Why did Lyili have to be so good at thinking?

“I’m… uh, saying that it establishes that…” Yeah. I was making this up as I went. “That… Volk was a manipulative… guy.”

“Interesting.” Lyili’s smile grew. “And?”

“And that’s why…” Alright, it was now or never. “It would make perfect sense for his wife to want to kill him!”

The audience gasped. Fuck yeah!

Someone started clapping. It took me a moment to realize it was Lyili. Uh-oh. Slow claps from your enemy were never a good sign.

“You sure took your time bringing up your point,” Lyili said. “Let’s see it. Call Madam Rayne to the stand.”

“Fine, I call Rayne back to the stand to testify!”

I didn’t like the sound of her tone, but I couldn’t back down. Still, the look on her stupid face told me she was still confident that she would win. Her… stupid beautiful face.