The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System-Chapter 95 - The Trial (3)

Whoa, this plaza is packed.

There are nobles and people from the Church, but the majority are commoners.

We arrive by carriage and are escorted by some knights to a stage made out of smooth and finely carved stone.

This stage is often used by the king to make public announcements. When not in use by the king, it’s lent to the citizens to use for musical and theatrical performances.

The Pontifex is also already there, with his entourage. He is at least waiting for the king to call him before setting foot on the stage.

At his side, the Duke with his smug face. Don’t go thinking that I forgot how you cowered the day I fled, chicken.

The first to rise to the stage is the king, who is loudly celebrated by the commoners present. He is followed by the queen, the crown prince, and then my mother.

Each of them is heralded by a young man with a loud and clear voice, and every time the crowd cheers in joy.

But no cheer was nearly half as loud as the one given when Lillian went up to the stage. It reminds me of an idol appearing on the stage.

And the cheer doesn’t stop. Suddenly, I notice that the crowd is repeating her name like a chant.

"Lillian! Lillian! Lillian! Lillian!"

Damn. Those people sure love her. Even with what I’ve heard, seeing it like this is a shock.

The Pontifex is red with anger. Oh, this is an expression I love to see on him.

Now I understand the goal with making the audience in this place. They want to add the popular pressure in favor of my mother.

And now I understand why the Pontifex was so adamant about being received by the king immediately, early in the morning. He wanted to avoid this.

After the commotion calms, the herald keeps calling the people to the stage. Neither I nor Lovelace is called to the stage. Instead, Duke Addlington and the Pontifex are.

Following procedure, only the two climb to the stage. Their entourage stays on the ground, as do Lovelace and I.

I guess we’ll be only spectators in this one.

King Halinard gestures for the crowd to calm down. His presence is very imposing and royal, despite his frail condition.

A deep silence falls over the plaza.

"Everyone! Some of you might have heard already, but yesterday Princess Lillian came back home after being missing for twelve years."

The crowd bursts into cheers again. It takes some time for grandpa to be able to make them silent again. He then gestures for her to come to the front.

Mother steps forward and speaks.

"I didn’t disappear because I wanted to. I was abducted and then enslaved. I spent twelve years being used and tortured inside an underground facility."

She lifts her blouse a bit, just enough for everyone to see the scars on her abdomen.

"These marks were made by one man alone, my captor and enslaver. That man is Duke Addlington."

"Kill him!!"

"Kill him!!!"

"Cut off his head!!!"

The crowd’s anger is overwhelming, and the knights are having trouble containing the populace, who are trying to get to the Duke.

Man, that play was dirty. There’s no way he can overturn this. Not even the Pontifex might be able to save him now.

The holy man is trying to speak, but his voice is being drowned by the cries of the public. The Duke is panicked, trying to hide behind him. How pathetic.

But please, everyone, don’t kill him yet. He doesn’t deserve to get away with it that easily. Death would be a release, not a real punishment, for someone like him.

Grandfather Halinard finally manages to contain a bit of the excitement of the people.

"Everyone, please. I know what you all are feeling. I called you all here so Duke Addlington can have a chance to speak for himself."

He gestures to the Duke, but he simply cowers behind the Pontifex again, who then starts talking.

"Dear brothers and sisters of faith! Don’t let the words of a heretic deceive you. There is no proof that Duke Addlington was..."

"Booo!!"

"Get out!!"

"If the Duke wants to speak, let HIM speak!!"

"COWARD!!!"

The Pontifex can’t even finish a sentence without the crowd erupting against him, and nobody even noted his argument about heresy.

"SILENCE!"

The Pontifex claps his hands, and a loud ’bang’ is heard, which manages to silence everyone in the plaza.

"Lillian is a heretic who doesn’t follow the tenets of the Church. Her words should not serve as a basis to condemn a nobleman. I will, indeed, excommunicate her here and now."

Mother is prepared for that. Now is the moment we rehearsed a couple of times today before coming to him.

Excommunication is a spell that takes some minutes to be finished, and that’s more than enough time for us.

Gundmund, who is at our side, goes up on the stage while the Pontifex is casting the spell and hands her the orb.

"Everyone, this is the Holy Orb of Deep Seeing, a sacred instrument that reveals the stats of a person within the system the goddess herself created."

She declares, holding the orb for everyone to see.

"If my words are ’heretic,’ surely the Pontifex can’t deny the words of the goddess’ system itself, can he?"

She then holds the orb with both hands on the white crystal. The orb then projects a screen with her stats for everyone to see.

And there it is, undeniably written, the Title.

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TITLE: Runaway Slave of Duke Addlington [CRIME]

Lillian Annes is a slave of Duke Addlington.

Source of enslavement: Capture

Status: Runaway

Time: Year 1,313 to present

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The crowd roars at the sight, the cries to kill the Duke louder and louder.

The Pontifex, seeing the stats screen, loses his concentration and interrupts the casting of the spell. He looks at it dumbfounded, with his jaw dropped.

He has no counterargument at this point. He lost.

The king quickly orders the knights to arrest the Duke and take him to the palace’s dungeon.

After the clamor finally subsides, the king declares.

"It stands with no doubt that Duke Addlington is guilty of high treason. He will be publicly executed tomorrow in this plaza. His family will be stripped of all the domains and possessions. I will hold the ducat until I decide who to name to govern it."

He gestures for the audience to finish, and we go back to the carriages that brought us, as the crowd keeps cheering for Lillian.

Mother is really loved by the people of this nation.

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