WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 434: Heaven-Defying Trial - 4

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Those who commit crimes shall be punished. It was a simple proposition, so obvious it seemed beyond doubt. People often regarded it as a noble rite carried out according to the natural order.

At its core, though, a crime was an act. Punishment was an evaluation of that act. To say something should never have happened was already contradicted by the fact that it had.

The same applied to vampires. The two had to be clearly distinguished.

What could not happen, and what one wished had not happened.

"Let me ask again. What was the defendant's motive?"

The Ain answered at once.

"Revenge for Lily, who was her mother. As she herself said."

"Revenge? Interesting. Do you remember what you wished for when you were human, Harpy?"

I naturally called her by a name no one had told me.

It should have been impossible, but Harpiness simply assumed I had heard it somewhere. Naturally. Who would ever think I had learned her name through mind-reading?

Harpy answered.

"That has nothing to do with this matter."

"Of course it doesn't. Who cares about what happened before someone became a vampire? What use are the events before death to someone who died once, then was revived through spilled blood?"

I shrugged and continued.

"You said Lir attacked Luscinia to continue her revenge, holding on to a grudge from her days among the living. But aren't you making far too much of a Yeiling?"

"Lir is not a Yeiling. She was classified as one because she received Lily's blood, but Duke Luscinia shared blood with her as well, so if we are judging by that..."

"Exactly! It was Duke Luscinia's will that created such a thoroughly muddled lineage in the first place!"

She had probably brought that up to refute me, but I had been waiting for those words.

An argument was not a fight between me and my opponent. A real argument made the opponent fight themselves. You seized on a loose thread, waited for them to misspeak, then dragged out that mistaken statement and set it against them. One could fight an enemy, but not oneself.

"Luscinia made Lir attack him and defy her blood master. Well, I don't know whether it aligned with Lir's own will or whether she was forced into it... Either way, it was something that could not have happened unless the Elder intended it. Am I wrong?"

"...There is a possibility that Lir escaped the blood bond by some means."

"What means?"

"Means? That is for Lir herself to prove."

"No. You said it yourself earlier. Simply presenting a possibility isn't enough."

Having caught her slip, I pressed her without mercy.

"Until now, vampires have maintained a strict hierarchy under the blood bond, haven't they? Lir's case is the exception, and my claim explains that exception in the most rational, logical way. Yet you insist there must be some way to escape the bond, while failing to explain what it is."

Even in response to my mocking words, Harpy still had something to say.

"She uses strange powers. When it comes to keeping someone alive, she is even more capable than Duke Luscinia. It would not be strange if she possessed powers we do not know about."

"There is a power no one knows about. She committed the crime using that power. That is the devil's proof. What do you think, Your Honor?"

There would be no end to it if the other side simply kept insisting, but this was a courtroom. Tyr, the judge, was very favorably disposed toward me. She would have listened even if I were being unreasonable, so she would never disregard a sound, logical argument.

Tyr nodded.

"The defense's claim is valid. It seems impossible for her to attempt to defy heaven without Luscinia's tacit or active permission. There is also sufficient circumstantial evidence that Luscinia intended it."

The other vampires felt the same way. Vampires were not perfectly rational, but cold blood did not let sympathy cloud their judgment. They did not care about the feelings of an Ain who was not even an Elder.

With the situation turning against her, Harpy desperately cried out.

"Even thralls do not move solely according to their blood master's will! When a blood master vanishes or falls asleep, as mine did, thralls can act freely! Therefore, Lir is not free from responsibility!"

"Then she would be even less able to kill him unless her blood master permitted it."

"Her blood master would not have ordered her to take the true blood!"

Oh. It was an improvised response, but she had found a good angle. She had shifted the issue from motive to outcome.

"As the favored consort said, it is possible that Duke Luscinia intended it. Of course, it is also possible that he did not. We cannot know."

We? Well, I knew.

"Yet regardless of his intent, an Elder's true blood is something only the Progenitor may handle. Taking that true blood after the Elder's annihilation was unquestionably an act of rebellion! Take that blood from her!"

"That could have been Duke Luscinia's will too, couldn't it?"

"I will return your earlier words to you exactly."

Simply presenting a possibility changed nothing. I knew. I had not planned to let this end so trivially either.

"You're right. No matter what happened, the defendant possesses the true blood now, and that alone is a crime."

"That is correct!"

"...Then!"

I spun around and looked up at Tyr. She seemed to find this fairly entertaining and watched me with a faint smile.

As the vampires thought, deciding right and wrong did not hold much meaning in this trial. Facts and logic were only tools for persuading the Progenitor. Every decision was made by the Progenitor, and no one could defy it.

Because of the blood bond.

"So we are no longer trying an Elder's murder case. The board has changed. This trial was not about identifying and punishing the culprit who killed an Elder. It has become a judgment over where the Progenitor's true blood should go and who should handle it."

And I was the Progenitor's favored consort. If it came down to pillow talk, I would win every time.

Harpy's face twisted as she realized her defeat. It was not a lie that thralls without a blood master found freedom. Look at her. Did she not look free?

"Your Honor, I believe the issue in this trial has changed. It began as a place to find the culprit who killed Elder Luscinia, but now we are discussing how to deal with his death."

"And?"

"If the issue has changed, preparations suited to it are necessary. I propose that we recess here."

It was a bit much, but the longer I delayed things, the more advantageous it became for me. I pushed further, but Tyr asked in puzzlement.

"A day? Is such a short recess enough?"

"...I don't know whether that truly counts as short, but it seems necessary."

"Hmm. If that is what you wish."

I was the favored consort, and Tyr was openly on my side. Tyr nodded, rose from her seat, and declared.

"We did not gather here to soothe Luscinia's resentment. We gathered to determine what happened to him and prepare a response."

Vampires were sensitive to the deaths of their peers simply because such deaths were rare. The other vampires also partly agreed with the Progenitor's words.

"Still, having heard everything, Hughes's words have merit. Luscinia clearly attempted to defy heaven, or conducted an experiment equivalent to it, even at the cost of his own life. If Luscinia acted with some intention, asking him would be the surest course... But one who has been annihilated cannot answer."

The dead did not speak. That was why the living guessed what the dead might have said and tried to soothe their resentment.

Vampires, though, were people who had died once already. They had no interest in such warmhearted stories.

"Then the discussion must change. We must decide whether Lir Nightingale is qualified and what to do with the true blood. We will recess briefly, then discuss it again."

It was a declaration cold enough to chill the heart, but that was what vampires were. Honoring and mourning the dead was for ordinary humans.

Yes, just like Harpiness, who could not contain her emotions now.

The feathers that had flared up during the trial drooped as though soaked in water. Three or four times smaller than when I had first seen her, Harpiness clenched her pointed fingers and spoke.

"...O Progenitor. Are you abandoning us?"

"I have never abandoned you."

"Lir Nightingale is a Yeiling. She inherited Duke Luscinia's blood, mixed blood with him, and her bloodline was twisted. We Ain cannot serve a Yeiling who inherited Duke Luscinia's blood as an Elder."

It went beyond simply saying that they did not want to.

If a Yeiling became an Elder, especially if Lir, whose rank had been twisted by that muddled lineage, came to govern their true blood... Then, just as in Lir's case, the vampires would also be thrown out of the bond.

There was a reason Luscinia's Ain wanted Lir dead. If Lir took that true blood, the Ain who would become Lir's blood masters and thralls would become alien beings in this Duchy. Like Lir Nightingale, who had been forcibly cast out of the bond by an Elder's will, an entire bloodline would escape the bond.

Watching the frightened Ain, I made one guess.

Perhaps Elder Luscinia had... planned even this scene.

"That is not for you to decide either. We will discuss it in this hall tomorrow. I will hear from all involved parties before making a decision."

Tyr's ruling did not permit anyone to object. Harpiness lowered her head in vast despair.

"...I shall obey."

It seemed there was nothing more to say. Today was over. Representing everyone, I shouted.

"Then, this court is recessed!"

Thud. With that heavy sound, the trial came to a halt.

Footnotes:

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