TGS - Chapter 82
Chapter 82: For Whom They Died
“I object.”
Alyuin said, stepping forward.
The crowd instinctively parted, clearing a path for her. The Princess walked through, her gaze fixed forward, her bound hair, black as ebony, swaying with her movements.
Behind her, Lena and Motis flanked a man in the robes of a scribe. The man's shoulders were hunched, and he trembled like a leaf, his eyes darting about.
On the platform, the expressions of the city lord and the others changed the instant they saw the scribe.
Romuer: “Alyuin, what are you…”
The Princess: “This is the questioning phase, cousin.”
The questioning phase was a mandatory procedure in Solancian public trials. Anyone present could raise an objection at this time.
If supported by sufficient evidence, their objection might be acknowledged by the presiding official. But without evidence, the objector would be found guilty of deliberately disrupting the trial and face appropriate punishment.
The Crown Prince was well aware of this rule, but he didn't understand why Alyuin would question the verdict.
He quickly recalled the relevant laws and the case files he had studied, comparing them, and still believed the verdict was very reasonable.
Romuer was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't notice the two advisors beside him whose faces had suddenly turned deathly pale, nor did he notice the unconcealable panic among the Disimeng nobles at that moment.
“Then, present your objection as per the regulations.” The Crown Prince nodded to Alyuin. After a moment's thought, he added, “But first, please swear an oath to the Goddess of Law that everything you are about to say is substantiated.”
Alyuin said in a calm voice, “I swear in the name of the Goddess Lotus that the words I speak in this trial come from my heart and are based on fact.”
Romuer: “…”
Wasn't she supposed to swear to the Goddess of Law?
However, this procedural requirement was not strict. Occasionally, exceptionally devout monotheists who were unwilling to recite the names of other gods would swear only to the deity they believed in, and this was permitted.
Alyuin looked at the city lord.
Fenlieni, the Lord of Disimeng City, was the quickest among the nobles present to compose himself. The lord's expression was calm, but an unconscious glance at the scribe betrayed his guilt.
“Fenlieni, I ask you.”
“The disaster relief supplies you embezzled this time, is the total value really only one thousand gold coins?”
Gold coins were the highest unit in Solancia's monetary system. A common artisan, toiling all year, could earn just a single gold coin.
A thousand coins was a huge sum. Embezzlement reaching this amount met the legal threshold for mandatory removal from office.
The city lord's eyes flickered. Instead of answering, he retorted, “Your Highness, what is the meaning of this question? I made a mistake in a moment of confusion, but I have now repented. There's no need for you to keep pressing the issue, going so far as to question the figures already verified by His Highness the Crown Prince, is there?”
So, he refuses to confess even with the witness right in front of him.
The Princess turned her head. “Lena.”
Lena released the scribe, took out a thin booklet, and handed it to her with both hands.
Alyuin placed the booklet right under the city lord's nose.
“Flip,” she said, lifting her chin.
The city lord stood stiffly for a moment, then reached out and flipped open the pages. His pupils trembled violently.
The items and figures recorded on the paper, line after line, were like sharp nails driven into his heart, causing it to sink heavily.
Not a single one was missing…
Alyuin: “You said you embezzled a total of four thousand five hundred gold coins' worth of supplies, but the actual deficit is far greater than that number.”
“Where did those mysteriously vanished supplies go?”
The City Lord: “…There are always some unrecorded expenses. The people below are ignorant and will secretly take a little for themselves. It adds up, so naturally the hole gets bigger.”
The more he spoke, the more fluent he became, as if he had convinced even himself.
However, he wasn't entirely wrong. With the higher-ups setting an example, exploitation occurred at every level. The nobles took the lion's share, and those below who handled the supplies would mostly embezzle some petty profits, or even feast lavishly.
“Right, and also! Some disaster victims were unwilling to stay in Disimeng and began to flee with their families. When they left, I also ordered people to give them enough rations to take with them. That's another expense!”
“Our caravan came from the direction of the capital,” the Princess said suddenly.
“Ah?”
Alyuin said slowly and deliberately, “Meaning, I saw many fleeing victims along the way, and not a single one of them carried enough food.”
The reason many of the victims chose to flee was likely inseparable from the situation in Disimeng.
Otherwise, who wouldn't want to stay in a safer camp? Who would be willing to leave their homes and embark on a journey of exile with an uncertain future?
At this moment, the common people below the simple platform also grew restless.
They might have never seen many gold coins in their lives and had no accurate understanding of their true value. However, after listening for so long, anyone could tell that there was a problem with the trial.
Originally, in their minds, for a great noble like the city lord to be removed from his post and sent back to the royal city was already an incredible event.
But if the city lord left, the other nobles were still here.
Today they had witnessed the nobles being made a laughingstock. After His Highness the Crown Prince left, if those nobles decided to take their anger out on them, who could they turn to for justice?
For this reason, when the Crown Prince had announced the verdict earlier, the commoners had unanimously remained silent, not daring to look like they were enjoying the spectacle.
But now…
Did it sound like a punishment more severe than just removal from office?
In the crowd, a young man who had studied a little law whispered, “Wouldn't that be beheading?”
His father, also a survivor of the earthquake, immediately covered his mouth. Seeing that no one around had noticed, he breathed a sigh of relief.
More and more people began to discuss in low voices. Even if the voices were quiet, the combined effect was impressive.
The buzzing of conversation from below the platform reached the city lord's ears, but he was speechless.
The other nobles looked at each other in dismay. One of them, gritting his teeth, stared at the trembling scribe as if he had found a way to save himself, and drew his sword to strike.
“Help!!” the scribe shrieked like a rooster being strangled.
Metal rang out as blades clashed. It was Motis who had blocked the surprise attack.
“Trying to kill the witness before anything's even happened? Isn't that what you call a confession without being pressed?” the captain of the Royal Guard stated bluntly.
Alyuin's lips curved into a smile.
She took back the booklet and tossed it, along with the terrified scribe, to Romuer.
“The witness and the evidence. Take a good look, presiding official.”
From the moment Alyuin began her questioning, the Crown Prince had not said another word.
From confusion to disbelief, and finally to understanding, Romuer barely managed to control his expression as he lowered his head to look at the booklet.
After a long moment, he raised his head and looked at the advisor who was avoiding his gaze.
“Gelai, you were in charge of this matter. Tell me, what is going on?”
The advisor acted decisively, dropping to one knee.
“It was our negligence. We failed to uncover the truth.”
“Was it merely negligence?”
“…” The advisor did not answer.
Romuer turned his head, suddenly feeling weary.
Such a huge oversight could not possibly be an accident; it could only be a deliberate cover-up.
Before Alyuin had exposed it, he had never imagined that his own advisors would cover for Fenlieni, leaving him the only one in the dark.
Romuer looked at the Princess again.
Alyuin stood with her arms crossed, perfectly composed.
“Don't be hasty. There's more. Now it's time for the witness to speak.”
For a moment, everyone's gaze focused on the scribe.
Questioning, grave, resentful, threatening.
The scribe sucked in a cold breath, trembling too much to speak, when he met the Princess's gaze.
It was a calm gaze, yet it held a silent intimidation.
The scribe stopped trembling.
He began to rapidly recount what the city's nobles had ordered him and several colleagues to do, including helping to falsify accounts, obscure the death toll, and so on.
In his nervousness, he even dredged up old matters from before the earthquake. While those deeds were not as shocking as the ones during the natural disaster, they were still thoroughly vile.
The city lord vehemently denied it, “Utter fabrications! Nonsense!”
The scribe cried out, “I swear to the Goddess of Law! Everything I'm saying here is the truth. If I've told a single lie, may I fall into the Yilu River and drown.”
Lotus, listening in her spiritual form: “…”
That won't be necessary.
Alyuin's gaze shifted subtly, and she said coolly, “You'd better pray it's all the truth. The Yilu River doesn't accept trash.”
The scribe looked miserable, as if he were about to cry.
But no matter how pitiful he appeared, it couldn't change the fact that he was one of the accomplices. He had taken a small share of the embezzled supplies, and he was solely responsible for altering the death toll.
Testifying publicly might reduce his punishment somewhat, but it wouldn't make his fate any better than that of his colleagues who were also involved.
Romuer asked, “Where are the supplies you've hoarded?”
The city lord, craning his neck stubbornly, said, “Your Highness, we didn't embezzle that much. What we don't have, we don't have. You ask me where it is, do you expect me to conjure it out of thin air?”
But the scribe whispered, “It's all in the lord's manor.”
The city lord shot him a look, his eyes as if laced with poison.
At this point, the questioning phase could have ended.
But the city lord was unwilling to accept his fate. He knew himself that the amount of embezzled property was enough to warrant execution.
And once sentenced to death in a public trial, even if the execution was delayed until he was escorted back to Akhet, his elder brother would be unable to save him.
Because Horst would not allow it.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince…” the city lord said hoarsely.
He kept mouthing his elder brother's name, a desperate madness in his eyes.
The ministers all knew that the Crown Prince was merciful.
And that was really just a nice way of saying he was soft-hearted.
In fact, Romuer truly did not know how to pronounce the final verdict.
Although he had always told himself that the law was just, he had never expected the situation to be severe enough to meet the conditions for the death penalty.
To personally announce the death sentence of his teacher's only brother…
Romuer hesitated.
In the few seconds of his hesitation, Alyuin had already turned to the commoners below the platform.
These people were all waiting for the verdict.
The Princess pointed at the city lord, then toward the camp in the distance.
She said only one short sentence.
“Most of the people who froze and starved to death in the camp were thrown in the slums, and to this day, they have not been buried.”
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