One-Shot Transmigration: Sorry I'm Here To Ruin Your Happy Ever After-Chapter 124: The Trial (4)

Radomir turned sharply to his special advisor, the man who had replaced Kaizar after he walked out without looking back.

"Are all the court officials here?" Radomir asked, voice cool, almost bored. "I want this trial done with quickly."

The advisor bowed deeply.

"Yes, Your Grace. Everyone of political standing has arrived. The front rows are filled. The hall is waiting only for your word."

Radomir hummed, uninterested in their eagerness.

The advisor continued softly, "A message arrived earlier. Her Highness Syris asks that the trial be conducted with fairness."

Radomir let out a quiet, humorless laugh.

"Fairness.." he muttered. "Of all things for her to worry about."

He moved his gaze over the crowded hall.

They weren’t here for justice; they were here for spectacle. The fall of a noble always drew an audience.

And buried beneath the political noise, his own turmoil simmered.

Radomir’s eyes fixed on the entrance of the hall, but his thoughts were nowhere near the gathered nobles.

Kaizar.

Even the name scraped something raw inside him.

Kaizar who had refused him without a second thought.

Kaizar who had chosen Meical instead.

Kaizar with that infuriating righteousness, Radomir could never decide whether he admired... or despised.

The hall buzzed with rumors about the deaths of Kaizar’s sister, uncle, and cousin, but Radomir barely cared.

Innocent or not, it changed nothing.

This trial was an opportunity.

A way to break him.

A way to finally take what had been denied to him for years.

The advisor glanced around nervously.

"The hall awaits your command, Your Grace."

Radomir exhaled slowly, as he stepped down from the short stairs and into the open doors of the council room.

The heavy doors of the great hall closed, sealing the court inside.

The herald struck his staff against the marble three times.

"His Majesty, King Radomir of Aldoria."

The room bowed as one. Radomir took his seat, expression unreadable, eyes sharp.

"Present the governing council."

His voice carried effortlessly.

One by one, the names were called.

"The Governor of the West, Lord Kyan Hale."

A man with silver-streaked hair stepped forward and bowed.

"The Governor of the North, Lady Tisha Marova."

Her cold eyes swept the room with an evaluative stillness.

"The Governor of the East, Lord Rhodri Ignatius."

Then—

"The Governor of the South... Lord Meical Vukasin."

Meical stepped forward, composed as ever, though his heart hammered in his ribs.

Radomir’s gaze lingered on him for half a second, assessing him but there was nothing more.

Next came the financial ministries, trade council, military representatives, all announced in strict order. Their titles echoed across the hall, each accompanied by formal bows and murmurs.

Then:

"The court officials presiding over this trial."

Five robed judges took their place at the long carved table near the dais, stern faces, quills ready, scrolls arranged with precise care.

"And finally, the accuser—Lady Seraphine of House Arven."

Seraphine stood, serene and deliberate, bowing with the grace of someone who had practiced the movement before a mirror.

She did not bow to Radomir.

She bowed to the room.

A gesture meant for show.

She took her seat again, fingers folded neatly over her lap.

The herald rolled the scroll tighter.

"And now, we call forth the one accused of these crimes: Kaizar Amagi,

charged with the deaths of his sister, his uncle, and his cousin."

A ripple went through the crowd.

Meical’s chin lifted by a fraction, his breath caught, waiting.

"Bring forth the accused!" the herald repeated.

All eyes turned to the great doors.

They did not open.

Nothing.

Not a footstep.

Not a whisper.

The nobles began to murmur at once.

Nobles leaned forward. Some shifted excitedly, others grimaced. Someone whispered, yet it was loud enough for everyone to hear.

"He fears judgment. After all, his sister, his uncle, his cousin...they all died under his roof!"

Another voice added sharply,

"And he vanished for a month. What innocence hides for so long?"

The head court official rose again, irritation creeping beneath the surface of his decorum.

"If Kaizar Amagi does not appear before the final bell of the hour, the court will proceed with judgment in absentia. This is the law."

The hall erupted louder this time, shock, approval, outrage, all colliding at once.

"He dares defy trial?"

"So he admits guilt!"

"How shameless!"

Radomir did not lift a hand to silence them immediately.

He let the noise build.

Let the panic spread.

Let the nobles taste the idea of a kingdom where Kaizar Amagi fell without a fight.

Only then did he speak.

"Enough."

The single word dropped like ice.

The chamber fell silent at once.

Radomir’s gaze swept the crowd, unreadable.

"The accused has been summoned.." he said quietly, "and the hour has begun."

His fingers tapped the armrest once, deliberate and slow.

"If he values his life.." Radomir added, "he will appear."

His tone was calm.

Too calm.

Meical’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. His hands curled beneath the folds of his coat. He had waited a month... and now he was being forced to wait again, in public, surrounded by whispers that accused his lover of murder.

The official struck the staff on the floor.

"The clock begins now.

If Kaizar Amagi does not enter this hall before the bell..."

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

Everyone knew the rest.

Judgment would fall without him.

And in Radomir’s court, that was as good as a death sentence.

A noblewoman in violet silk leaned toward her companion, voice pitched just loud enough for nearby ears.

"Look at him. He still thinks Kaizar will appear. Delusional."

Her companion snorted. "What else do you expect? He married a man. His sense has always been questionable."

A few nobles poorly hid their laughter.

Someone else chimed in from the next row, "Perhaps Kaizar ran because he finally saw what he had tied himself to."

"Or maybe.." another court official whispered with a mocking curl of his lip, "the governor’s... ah... arrangement made the poor boy desperate enough to kill his own family."

Meical did not move.

He did not react.

But his nails dug crescents into the fabric of his sleeves.

A treasury advisor clicked her tongue. "A spouse should stand with the accused. Yet even he appears abandoned."