After that last question. There was the awkward moment where Rachel was kicked out again. It was quite embarrassing… for her. Anyways, the moment eventually passed.

“Does the defense have any further witnesses to call?” Nanny Shank asked loudly.

Grimset and Madigan whispered back and forth for a long time. Eventually he stood straight and declared, “No, Your Honor,”

She nodded. “It is time for closing arguments then. Prosecution,”

Fuck that came back fast. I stood slowly. Trying to buy just a bit more time.

Toad nudged me gently, “Focus on Tazia.”

I took a breath, “Soon, after I and the defense finish our closing arguments, twelve of you will be asked to serve as jurors. Now they are going to try and confuse the issue. We all need to remember why we are here today, Tazia Shiv. A young woman, who was murdered. We have shown evidence that she was murdered by Chet Adams, with the help of Waldo Seevers on the order of Travis Madigan. Tazia died from her skull being caved in. her tooth was found in Chet’s boot. Waldo claims to have seen Chet kill Tazia, and Chet admits Travis Madigan ordered him to do so. This is not a conspiracy. This was pointless violence. We all must ask ourselves, is it justice to allow those killed Tazia to walk away free. Thank you.”

That wasn’t as focused as I would like. Should I have told them to convict?

Willpower check… Successful

Emotional state remains in control

Note: Repeated rolls will increase the difficulty.

I felt my heart surge before calming. I needed to keep it together. I felt the nail on my pinky finger as the now familiar weight of scrutinizing skills pressed down on me.

Again the question rippled through the crowd, “Why isn’t he using skills?”

Nanny Shank brought the hammer down, “Quiet!” She waited for the whispering to cease, “Does The Defense have any closing statements?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Grimset stood. He cleared his throat, “Tazia’s death is a tragedy. The prosecution is correct, that is why we are here today. What the Prosecution neglected to mention in their discussion of justice is inorder to convict the jury must believe the evidence presented. All roads lead back to the Titan Spawn. We stand in a hall made by the Titan Spawn. My clients are the prisoners of the Titan Spawn. They were taken in the night on his order. They stand accused on the testimony he influences through Pacts and offers of clemency. Tazia was only at Mandir because of the instruction of the Titan Spawn. Soon twelve of you will be given the responsibility to decide the fate of three people. If found guilty they could be put to death. Ask yourself, is the work of the Titan Spawn truly enough. Today we have have a choice, and we must make the correct one. Thank you.”

Mental Resistance blocks the effects of Persuasion skill

I was immune to the systematic side of things. The crowd didn’t have such protections. Also a lot of people on either side of the aisle looked more than a little concerned by Grimsets words. I have to hand it to the little jerk. He certainly did his job. I legitimately don’t think I could have done as well as he did.

I understood that intellectually but in the moment I felt quite the strong urge to chuck him out a window. The bit about Tazia being here, and that the responsibility for her death could be laid at my feet… it fucking hurt.

The hell of it is I did feel responsible. Yes, Chet killed her. I understood that. I even knew this was Madigan’s doing. That said, I should have known something could have happened. I should have done more.

Tazia’s death was my fault.

There was still more muttering and talk from the crowd.

Nanny Shank spent almost five minutes restoring order. “I am not afraid to eject more people from this court!”

Silence fell. It was almost like the slight echo after a door slammed. You could feel the change of pressure in the room.

I could tell the old goblin was looking through menus.

Sunit came back into the court.

Allow Nanny Shank to mark Jurors? Yes/No

I hit yes.

“I am going to select twelve jurors, if you receive the prompt, step forward. Anyone who interferes with a juror’s path to the front of the court will be removed by the bailiffs,” Nanny Shank looked around. “My patience is officially worn out. Do not test me.”

Her eyes glazed for another brief moment. Six goblins stood and walked to the front of the court. No one hindered them. The six humans on the other hand… it was both a lot better and a lot worse than I thought. As far as I could tell the people selected were all folks who actually listened and never caused trouble. Gisele was one of the jurors. That was the good bit. The bad bit was that several other folks figured out that none of the hardliners in the crowd were picked.

“Hey, they stacked the jury!” someone yelled.

Sunit stepped in before Angelica could even move. When a man stepped in the way of one of the jurors, Sunit slammed his head into the wall. The sound had a crunch mixed in with the thunderous ‘boom!’ Sunit set out of the way of the juror, “We are not inside the domain of the Mandir. Act out at your own peril.”

There was a long pause as everyone looked at the man he had brutalized. He gasped for breath and sat up. I could tell he was hurt phenomenally badly, but he wasn’t dead.

That took us back to shouting and several more folks challenging the bailiffs’ conviction. Several somewhat disappointing lessons were learned in the following minutes. Philip was too smart to be baited into laying hands on a human agitator. The hateful jerk legitimately looked furious that he could provoke the goblin to cross the aisle. The crowd quickly learned Angelica was the nice one. She just pulled the remaining Jurors from the crowd and only cracked heads if attacked. Sunit on the other hand was bad cop. He hurt people. Maybe he knew just how hard he could hit them. Maybe he knew Brunhilda could fix any permanent damage. A small part of me, and a bunch of people in the crowd worried that Sunit was prepared to kill someone to maintain order.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

That certainly caused me worry about some sort of perpetual loop of trials. It also, thankfully, made most of the crowd calm the fuck down.

I kept one eye on the crowd and one of the jury and Nanny Shank.

“Now, your task is to consider the evidence you have seen, and decide if you believe it is enough to find the accused guilty. If the evidence is not sufficient you should find the accused innocent. Now while Chet, Waldo, and Travis were tried together, they will be judged and sentenced separately. So you could find one of the accused guilty and the other two innocent.” Nanny Shank Instructed. “Do you understand?”

“What criteria should we judge by? Beyond a shadow of a doubt?” a gruff man asked.

“Your standards are yours to decide,” Nanny Shank said.

“Are we allowed to talk to each other?” Gisele asked.

“Yes, so long as you are respectful.” Nanny Shank explained.

“And we are just supposed to discuss this in front of everyone?” A middle aged woman asked.

“Do you feel that the crowd is going to influence your decision?” The old goblin asked.

“I guess not,” The woman admitted.

What happened next was a bit surprising… to me at least.

The gruff man said, “I have my mind made up. Does anyone else need time?”

Almost everyone else basically just shrugged, “I’m good.” A goblin said.

Gisele looked disturbed, “Shouldn’t we talk through this?”

“Do you need help making up your mind?” The gruff guy all but demanded.

Gisele stepped back, “No.”

“Is there anything I could say to change your mind?” He pressed.

“I guess not,” Gisele admitted.

“Then let’s wrap this up,” The gruff guy insisted.

Nanny Shank pounded her hammer again, “Shut up!” Once silence fell she continued, “ How does the Jury find Chet Adam for the murder of Tazia Shiv?”

Nine Guilty votes.

Nanny Shank continued. “And how does the Jury find Waldo Seevers for the murder of Tazia Shiv.”

All six goblins voted to find him guilty. Five of the humans voted innocent. Everyone was staring at Gisele. She kept turning to gaze at Waldo. Finally she said, “I sorry Waldo, but guilty.”

Waldo more or less collapsed. He had started sobbing. Chet had taken his conviction… well not exactly in stride, but he wasn’t surprised. He watched Waldo cry with a complex expression on his face. Waldo had sold him out, but Chet did like seeing Waldo suffer. I doubted they were still friends, but Chet didn’t seem to hate Waldo.

The crowd almost started up again, but quickly quieted. The sudden swell of noise faded before Nanny Shank could lift her hammer. She sighed and continued, “How does the jury find Travis Madigan for the murder of Tazia Shiv.

This time everyone looked at Gisele.

“Guilty,” the young woman said quietly.

The word barely cleared Giseles lips when the others all said, “Guilty.'' There wasn’t an instant’s hesitation.

Shit.

I am not going to lie. Grimset kicked my ass up and down this court. I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking that something less than on the level was happening during this case.Then, that just happened. I can believe people would convict Chet. He basically admitted to the killing when he claimed Madigan ordered him to kill a goblin. Waldo getting convicted was a lot more surprising. I doubt if it wasn’t for Gisele being there the night of the murder, he would have been acquitted.

Madigan shouldn’t have been found guilty. Well, I mean he should be convicted, but not on the merits of this case. Maybe, one person from the Mandir held a grudge and voted to convict, someone like Gisele honestly believed he did it.

This jury just found Madigan more consistently guilty than Chet, the actual murder. There is simply only one way that could happen. This trial was rigged.

God dammit.

I know I didn’t rig this.

As the crowd started shouting, realization hit me. Between the dungeons constantly breaking, ever worsening weather, and the threat of the demon tower Lola was hurting for people in place. She needed it to be filled with both devout and competent people. Based on context clues, Madigan didn’t have both of those qualities. Lola needed him gone, but she also needed someone else to take him out.

I had made a mistake. I focused too much on Narrator meddling, and neglected considering the machinations of other players. The more I thought about it the more convinced I was this had been Lola’s plan all along.

I didn’t see the appeal, but dozens of people were outraged at what had just happened. Things weren’t quite spiraling out of control but sure as hell were not progressing smoothly. Nanny Shank was ordering people out of the court. That wasn’t going to be a valid long term strategy anymore. I could tell half of the folks being removed from the court were just heading out to get weapons.

If they came back, it was going to be a huge fight.

It was in that moment of barely contained chaos that Madigan made his move. It wasn’t a bad move either. He stood and yelled, “Now!” not exactly subtle or creative but effective. Twenty of the people in the crowd stood and drew weapons. Two of them fired handguns into the crowd of goblins. The rest simply charged. They pushed the crowd, and basically caused a stampede down the amphitheater seats.

Madigan used the uproar to make his move. He surged forward, and used the crowd as a screen as he dove toward the window.

I didn’t even think to stop him. I pulled Toad out of the way of the crush of bodies, and placed myself between the armed men and the jury. I pulled my constructed barriers out of my inventory. That put the jury, Toad, and Chet and Waldo out of line of sight. Likely due to my greater prevalence, I took three shots to the chest. The bullets slammed into me like hammer blows. Sure the damage never cracked four but the pain was unreal. I would have dodge them, but I wasn’t certain the barriers I built were bullet proof.

Madigan met my eye for the briefest instant as he sailed through the air. He closed his eyes before contacting the window.

Donk!

He slammed into the unyielding surface of the Glassteel. To his credit the glassteel did crack. thousands of spider webs exploded across the clear material. It held though. The look of triumph vanished from Madigan’s face. He had just enough time to look confused as he bounced off the not glass, before Angelica tackled him.

You have activated Voice of the Titan

“Stop!” I ordered. I was done with this constant violence. I was going to try force.

Mass Intimidation check… Critically Successful!

This is why I hadn’t used skills for social rolls. I didn’t totally understand them. Plus they were based on the roll of dice. The critical failure with Rachel had caused an actual fight. This critical success was also a train wreck but a different kind.

The crowd surged again, this time away from me. More than a few people got trampled. After the initial panic everyone went still and gazed at me. Everyone. Even Brunhilda watched me, wide eyed. Her face was pale. Her hands were shaking.

It was like I had cast a spell.

This wasn’t going to last, “No more fighting. Sit down, shut up, and watch what is about to happen.”

… That sounded tyrannical.