Chapter 156: A Gift (2) |
I believe in Sebestian's strength.
No, anyone in the Empire would believe in Sebestian.
He is the head of House Ebenholtz and, at the same time, the Emperor's sword.
If Dieter Schmidt had single-handedly propped up the Empire's collapsing finances, then Sebestian had single-handedly held together the Empire's crumbling front lines.
However, Sebestian had clear limitations.
Because he himself stood at the pinnacle, he never looked after those around him. He underestimated threats from beyond the Empire's borders, and he existed solely as a sword devoted to one single person.
In other words, Sebestian had, at some point, abandoned politics entirely. He closed the eyes that might have watched over the Empire's interior, and he lowered the hands that might have reached into distant places.
It was clear he should not have done so─but perhaps, like me, he felt nauseated by politics.
"He has reportedly arrived at the Relic Passage with a trusted adjutant."
"I hope he likes the gift."
Sebestian would easily defeat Zentra's leader and snap the necks of their subordinates without trouble.
It was a shame I couldn't have it for myself, but the Arcane to be found there would surely please the Emperor as well.
"Still, there's been a lot going on in the Empire lately."
I had received a rather interesting piece of news.
[A Trial on Habeas Corpus Relief]
Oswin Mason. A professor at Zestfall Mage Tower and a nobleman of distinguished lineage, he had formally filed a Habeas Corpus Petition with the Imperial court to save a student who had been unjustly taken away by the Imperial Guard.
"......"
Before my regression, this had been known as the "Zestfall Reaction". An incident where countless professors, students, and young people of Zestfall were arrested en masse for teaching about the Citizenship Law, or seized without cause, then tortured, executed, and imprisoned.
The initial progression itself was similar, but I didn't know the details.
Because of media suppression, I didn't have many memories related to it.
To be honest, I hadn't cared, either.
In any case.
Those Imperial Guard bastards would take all of Oswin's actions as an attack on their organization.
How they would respond going forward was something even I would have to watch and see for myself.
...
That afternoon, I visited the courtroom of the Imperial Central Court. Wearing a hat and plainclothes, I sat in the very back row of the gallery.
"We will now open the hearing on the Habeas Corpus Petition regarding the detainee Oliver Müller."
The judge entered first and took his seat, then struck his gavel to declare the hearing in session.
Though it was a hearing on relief for a thought crime, the party in question, Oliver, was not present in the courtroom.
Most likely because the Imperial Guard had refused his attendance on the pretext of "national security".
"Your Honor."
Attorney Oswin rose from his seat, suppressing his anger.
"My client was suddenly branded an anti-state criminal one day and was unlawfully taken into custody. Yet at neither the site the Imperial Guard raided nor my client's residence was any material evidence found to prove seditious ideology."
He also pulled an official document from a thick case file and submitted it as evidence.
"This is my client's Genealogy Certificate. It proves that he is a pure-blooded citizen of this Empire whose roots in this land trace back to his grandparents' generation, meaning he is an Aran without a single drop of foreign blood."
The Genealogy Certificate. At this point in time, with the Imperial Citizenship Law having been introduced, it was the most powerful, and also the most dangerously potent, piece of evidence.
"Therefore, this is clearly a case of wrongful enforcement, and the Imperial Guard's tolerance of it constitutes an abuse of the organization's power!"
Seated on the opposite side were members of the Imperial Guard. Even in the face of Oswin's impassioned argument, they sneered with brazen confidence.
The judge skimmed through the Genealogy Certificate Oswin had submitted with an indifferent expression, then asked the Imperial Guard's side.
"What are your thoughts on the petitioner's claims?"
An Imperial Guard member named Hans rose from his seat with a lazy drawl and scoffed.
"It is most incomprehensible, Your Honor. There is a strong possibility that the Genealogy Certificate itself has been forged, and even if the blood were pure, should that rotten head of his be brimming with seditious ideas aimed at overthrowing the Empire, then that man is already an enemy of the Empire more dangerous than any foreign bloodline."
Oswin sprang to his feet at the sophistry.
"That's absurd! Are you saying you can prove what's inside someone's head?!"
Oswin Mason. He was, by all accounts, a good man. As a nobleman of a distinguished family, he was sticking his neck out for something he had no obligation to do.
"This Empire belongs to the Aran! How can a nation that exists to protect and safeguard the Aran trample upon an innocent Aran youth and make him bleed?!"
His booming voice rang through the courtroom. But it was a resonance that would not reach the judge.
"Furthermore, on that night, apart from my client, there are dozens, hundreds of innocent citizens the Imperial Guard seized without proper procedure!"
"Hundreds, my ass! You don't know what you're talking about!"
One of the Imperial Guard members leapt to his feet and jabbed a finger at him.
"Then disclose it transparently!"
Oswin glared at the guardsman and fired back without an inch of retreat.
"Who you took, how you took them, where you took them, and on what charges! And what objective evidence you have to substantiate those accusations, lay it all bare...!"
* * *
The first session of the first trial ended without any real outcome. The judge deferred the hearing to the next date without reaching a clear conclusion, and Oswin gathered in a meeting room with other lawyers who had come up from Zestfall.
"...The number of university students unjustly arrested that we've identified so far exceeds forty."
Oswin said, roughly yanking his necktie loose.
"In the end, the Genealogy Certificates will be what matters. The documents?"
"We've secured verified ones for thirty. The remaining ten... shall we try fabricating convincing ones?"
"Absolutely not."
Oswin shook his head firmly. In times like these, forging a Genealogy Certificate was a capital offense that meant gambling with your life. Those who had recently been caught producing shoddy forgeries had, without exception, been put to death.
"...Every document we submit must be genuine. Not not merely close to genuine — actually genuine."
The most likely force behind the "Imperial Citizenship Law", and a calamity in its purest form.
In case it might catch Maximilian's eye.
"What's the media situation?"
"Terrible across the board."
A lawyer tossed the day's newspapers onto the table. Far from exposing the Imperial Guard's atrocities, only articles influenced by their reach were splashed across the front pages.
[ Underground Rebel Group Hiding in Zestfall, Swept Up in Dragnet! ]
[ Night-School Students Who Sought to Shake the Empire's Foundations with Seditious Ideology, All Under Custodial Investigation ]
"...Son of a bitch."
Oswin buried his face in both hands. The law had been bought off, the press was muzzled, and their opponent was the Imperial Guard.
"Even so, they have no other evidence. If the Genealogy Certificates hold, our odds are good enough."
Regardless, he could not abandon his innocent students to the darkness.
..........
Slam!
Lieutenant Colonel Lorenz struck the interrogation room table and set his face into a heavy scowl. On his desk sat a document requesting supplementary physical evidence.
"Those sons of bitches, having the nerve to pull this shit over an imperial order..."
His wide, glaring eyes bore into his adjutants.
"So, the Genealogy Certificate that old man shoved at the court?"
"...It appears to be authentic. We examined it thoroughly."
"And how the hell would you know for sure, you stupid bastard!"
Lorenz screamed and hurled the case file at the adjutant's face.
"If we back down over some scrap of paper here, what do you think happens to our organization's authority and standing?!"
The Special Imperial Guard Unit. Organized for the execution of this imperial mandate, they absolutely had to produce visible results.
"Buy someone off, whatever it takes. Find an expert who'll testify that the Genealogy Certificate is a fake."
The corner of Lorenz's mouth twitched.
"A forgery analysis expert. Just find some guy who's held a public post and put him on the stand."
"...Yes, sir. Understood."
Pin the impure sentiments the Zestfall vermin harbored toward the Imperial Citizenship Law on them, and on top of that, saddle them with the capital crime of Genealogy Certificate forgery.
"This is our chance to make a real example. Remember. We have 'that man' behind us."
Kentz Bertem. The second son of the Bertem Family was the one backing this case.
There was no reason to be afraid. None whatsoever.
.......
Several days later, the second hearing was held at the Imperial Central Court.
The first witness called by the Imperial Guard's side, a forgery expert, cleared his throat with a visibly nervous expression.
"...Yes. Based on my analysis."
He pointed to the Genealogy Certificate submitted by Attorney Oswin Mason and stated firmly.
"I believe it to be a forged document, fabricated with great skill."
"What nonsense! Which part of it is fabricated?!"
Oswin leapt from his seat and shouted.
"Hey! Order in the court! Order!"
An Imperial Guard member on the opposite side slammed the desk and barked.
Oswin urgently appealed to the presiding judge.
"Your Honor, analysis is a subjective domain where opinions may differ between experts. Therefore-"
"The objection is overruled. This court finds the expert witness to possess sufficient authority and qualifications for the appraisal."
The judge avoided Oswin's eyes as he overruled him. Oswin did not give up.
"Then please allow our side to call another witness who can verify the authenticity of this document!"
At Oswin's request, the judge glanced at the Imperial Guard's side for their reaction. Their expressions were relaxed.
They were confident they could buy off whoever Oswin brought in with money and power, and if that failed, they could simply borrow the authority of the crown to block the witness from being called at all.
After all, in times like these, there was no way anyone existed who would risk their own life to give honest testimony.
"What an amusing old fool..."
Lorenz watched the trial and chuckled with a smirk.
The work was easier than expected, and that made it all the more entertaining. The sight of the old nobleman floundering was a most pleasant thing to watch.
"The petitioner's request to call a witness is granted. This hearing is adjourned."
Bang. Bang.
The presiding judge struck his gavel.
.......
Oswin and the Zestfall lawyers tried to recruit countless experts. But most refused them to their faces, and those who had agreed later withdrew, or had their witness status rejected before it even got that far.
Time grew short, and the request for a trial postponement was, of course, denied.
In the end, even on the day of the third hearing, no witness had been found.
──Crunch. Crunch.
Snowflakes heavy as stones settled over the Imperial Central Court.
"......"
Oswin, who had appeared with a heart full of despair, stood alone in the parking lot, staring up at the massive courthouse building.
Just then, a top-of-the-line vehicle glided up beside him and came to a stop.
Oswin turned to look.
Whirr─.
The rear window slid down, revealing the impassive face of a woman.
"You look like you're in trouble."
It was his former student. Sonnet Kandel.
"...Sonnet?"
"Shall I offer you a piece of advice, Professor?"
Oswin approached her and nodded.
Right now, he needed any words, any help he could get.
"From what I can see, Professor, you seem to be trapped by your own preconceptions."
"Me, trapped by preconceptions?"
"Yes. You, the professor who always warned us against preconceptions more than anyone."
She raised an eyebrow and added.
"There is one person you're failing to see clearly. And isn't that, too, ultimately because of ideology?"
Oswin stared into Sonnet's eyes. His face showed utter incomprehension.
A strange, enigmatic curve formed at her lips.
"So, Professor. If you shed your preconceptions and look back on this situation with nothing but the coldest, clearest eyes."
She suddenly gestured with her gaze toward somewhere.
"You'll see the most fitting, most precise person for this situation."
Leaving behind those cryptic, riddle-like words, the car carrying her receded into the falling snow.
The moment Oswin stood there in a daze, looking toward the spot where Sonnet had directed her gaze.
"...?"
His eyes caught a man entering the Central Court.
A man in a coat and hat, with an attendant at his side carefully holding an umbrella over him. He seemed to be trying to conceal himself, yet his bearing and authority seeped through as naturally as snowflakes settling.
The one Sonnet had called "the most precise person".
Oswin murmured quietly.
"...A forgery analysis expert."
The very person who had meticulously identified even the most minute forgeries in Genealogy Certificates, passed judgment on them, and sent dozens of people to the scaffold.
"If you shed your preconceptions and look back on this situation with nothing but the coldest, clearest eyes, you'll see the most fitting, most precise person for this situation."
The one Sonnet's advice pointed to─
was here.
........
The third hearing. The most critical issue in this session was whether the Genealogy Certificate was forged.
The Imperial Guard, looking to press their momentum, had brought in three more experts. All of them pointed to suspicious areas in the Certificate and repeated the word "forgery" like parrots.
"...Counsel?"
Once the examination of the Imperial Guard's witnesses had concluded, the presiding judge cleared his throat and looked down at Oswin.
"You did not submit a single witness application before the hearing date."
Oswin kept his lips pressed firmly shut, staring into empty air. On the opposite side, the Imperial Guard members snickered, certain of their victory.
"Counsel. Are you forfeiting your argument?"
The judge asked again.
Gulp. He swallowed hard. Even in a body this old, the tension was real.
That was how close this was to... a gamble bordering on suicide.
Oswin shook his head.
"...No. I did not submit a separate witness application, however."
He took a deep breath and slowly rose from his seat.
"Pursuant to the In-Court Witness provision, I wish to call a new witness who is present in this courtroom to serve as an expert appraiser."
"...Here?"
The presiding judge's brow furrowed slightly.
"Yes."
Oswin nodded, his expression resolute.
"The witness I wish to call is seated right here in the gallery."
Oswin scrawled a name with his fountain pen on a blank witness application form and handed it to the court clerk. The presiding judge received the document, checked it, and his expression faltered for an instant.
Such was the weight of that name.
It held a pure, undiluted power that could make even a judge tremble.
"...Is this name correct?"
"Yes."
"And this person is here, in this courtroom, right now?"
The presiding judge's voice trembled faintly. Every pair of eyes in the courtroom turned to Oswin.
"Yes. That is correct."
Oswin exhaled a breath that felt as though it had been pressed against his very heart, and the very last row of the gallery.
"I wish to call..."
Beneath the brim of a hat pulled low, he met a pair of golden eyes, cold and still.
"The Sentinel knight seated over there."
The one whose authority no soul in all the Empire would dare trifle with, before whom even the Imperial Guard could do nothing but tuck their tails.
"I wish to call Sir Maximilian Ebenholtz as an expert appraiser."
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