WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 434

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Heaven-Defying Trial - 4

Those who commit crimes shall be punished. A simple enough proposition, and so self-evident that no one ever thinks to question it. People tend to treat it as some solemn sacrament unfolding naturally, as it should.

But at its core, a crime is an act. Punishment is a judgment of that act. The phrase "this should never have happened" is already negated by its own premise the moment it has happened.

Vampires were no different. The distinction had to be drawn clearly.

Between what cannot happen, and what one wishes had not happened.

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

The ain answered without hesitation.

"Revenge for Rillis, who was her mother. As she herself stated."

"Revenge. Interesting. Do you remember what you wished for as a human, Happi?"

I said the name naturally, as though I had always known it, even though no one had ever told it to me. By any reasonable logic it should have been impossible, but Happiness simply assumed I must have heard it somewhere. Of course she did. Who would ever guess that someone had read her name through mind reading?

Happi answered.

"That has nothing to do with this."

"Naturally. What does it matter what happened before she became a vampire? What use is a life before death to someone who died and was brought back by flowing blood?"

I shrugged and continued.

"You said that Lir carried a grudge from her living days and attacked Luscinia to carry out that revenge. But isn't that giving far too much credit to a mere Yeling?"

"Lir is not a Yeling. She was classified as one because she received Rillis's blood, but Elder Luscinia also shared his blood with her, so strictly speaking..."

"Well said! And even the creation of that rootless, tangled bloodline was Elder Luscinia's doing!"

She had said it trying to push back, but I had been waiting for exactly those words.

An argument is not a fight between yourself and your opponent. A true argument is making your opponent fight against themselves. You grab onto loose threads and wait for them to slip, then drag out that slip and pit it against them directly. A person can face their enemy, but they cannot face themselves.

"Luscinia had Lir attack him, had her go against her maker. Whether that aligned with Lir's own will or was done by force, I can't say. But either way, it's something that could only happen if the Elder himself allowed it. Wouldn't you agree?"

"...There is a possibility that Lir found some means to break free of the shackle on her own."

"By what method?"

"Method, you say? That is something Lir herself must account for."

"No. You said it yourself a moment ago. Raising a possibility alone isn't enough."

I had caught the slip, and I pressed hard.

"Until now, vampires have operated under a strict hierarchy bound by the blood shackle. Lir's case is the exception, and the most rational, logically consistent explanation for that exception is the argument I've made. Yet you claim some unknown method of breaking the shackle must exist, while failing to tell us what that method actually is."

Even in the face of the cutting reply, Happi still seemed to have something to say.

"She uses a strange power. When it comes to keeping life intact, she surpasses even Elder Luscinia. It would not be strange if she possessed a power no one knows of."

"A power no one knows of. She used that power to do this. That is an argument from the devil. Honored judge, what do you think?"

If the other side simply kept insisting, there was no countering it, but this was a courtroom. Tyr, as its judge, was very much on my side. She would hear out even a stretch of an argument, so she certainly wasn't going to dismiss something genuinely sound. Tyr gave a slow nod.

"The defense's argument is reasonable. Without Luscinia's implicit or active permission, it seems impossible that she could have attempted reverse heaven. There is also sufficient circumstantial evidence that Luscinia intended it."

The other vampires agreed. Vampires were not perfectly rational, but cold blood did not let sympathy cloud judgment. The feelings of an ain who was not even an Elder were simply not their concern.

Her position weakening, Happi cried out desperately.

"Even thralls do not move only by their maker's will! In cases like mine, where the maker has vanished or gone dormant, thralls can move freely! Therefore Lir is not free from responsibility!"

"Then all the more reason she could not have 'killed' him. Not without the maker's permission."

"The maker would never have commanded her to take the true blood!"

Oh. A quick pivot, but a sharp one. She had shifted the argument from motive to outcome.

"As the consort said, it may well have been what Elder Luscinia intended. There is also the possibility it wasn't. That we cannot know."

We? Well. I knew.

"But whether he intended it or not, the true blood of an Elder should be handled by the Progenitor alone. Taking it after an Elder's permanent death is undeniably treason! Take that blood back!"

"That too could have been Elder Luscinia's intention, couldn't it?"

"I will return that line to you exactly as you gave it."

Meaning that raising a possibility alone changes nothing. I knew. I had never planned to slip past on something that thin.

"Fair enough. However it came about, the defendant currently holds the true blood, and that alone is a crime."

"Exactly!"

"...Then!"

I turned sharply and looked up at Tyr. She seemed to have found all of this fairly entertaining, because she was watching me with a quiet smile.

As the vampires themselves understood, the question of right and wrong in this trial carried little real weight. Facts and logic were only tools for persuading the Progenitor. All decisions were hers, and no one could defy them.

Because of the blood shackle.

"Then this is no longer a trial about the murder of an Elder. The board has shifted. This trial was never about holding the killer of an Elder accountable and punishing them. It has become a ruling about where the Progenitor's true blood should reside."

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

Happi's face crumpled the moment she realized she had lost. It was true that thralls without a maker found something like freedom. Look at her. See how free she looked.

"Honored judge, the central question of this trial appears to have shifted. From finding the one who killed Elder Luscinia, to discussing what is to be done with his death."

"And?"

"Now that the question has changed, appropriate preparation is needed. I propose we recess here."

It would drag things out, but the longer it stretched, the better my position, so I pushed further. Tyr tilted her head and countered, puzzled.

"One day? Is such a short time sufficient?"

"...Whether that counts as short, I honestly can't say, but that much seems necessary."

"Hmm. If that's the case, then."

At any rate, I was the concubine and Tyr was openly on my side. She nodded, rose from her seat, and declared:

"We convened this gathering not to settle Luscinia's grudge. We gathered to understand what happened to him and determine how to respond."

That vampires were sensitive to the death of a companion was simply because it was so rare. The other vampires agreed, in part, with the Progenitor's words.

"Still, hearing all of it, Hyu's words carry weight. It is clear that Luscinia was attempting reverse heaven, or conducting experiments close to it, even at the cost of his own life. If Luscinia acted with some intention in mind, the surest thing would be to ask him directly... but one who has permanently perished cannot answer."

The dead don't speak. And so the living try to guess what the dead would have said, and to settle whatever grudges the dead carried.

But vampires were those who had died once already. They had no interest in such warm-hearted sentiment.

"Then the discussion must change course. Whether Lir Nightingale has the right to it. How the true blood should be handled. We will recess briefly and then resume deliberations."

A declaration cold enough to chill the chest, but that was vampires for you. Mourning the dead was something ordinary humans did.

Yes. Unlike Happi, who was sitting there right now unable to compose herself.

The Feather who had leapt to her feet mid-trial now drooped like something soaked through. Happi, looking three or four times smaller than when I had first laid eyes on her, squeezed her sharp fingers tight and said:

"...Progenitor. Will you abandon us?"

"I have never abandoned you."

"Lir Nightingale is a Yeling. One who inherited Elder Luscinia's blood, mixed it, and warped it. We ain cannot serve a Yeling who inherited Elder Luscinia's blood as our Elder."

It was a statement that went beyond simply not wanting to. If a Yeling became an Elder, and Lir of all people, Lir whose bloodline rank had been twisted into something rootless, were to rule over their true blood, then just as in Lir's own case, the vampires themselves would be flung out of the shackle.

Luscinia's ain had not wished for Lir's death for nothing. If Lir took that true blood, the ain who would become her thralls would be something alien within this Duchy. Like Lir Nightingale herself, who had been forced free of the shackle by an Elder's own will, an entire bloodkin would break loose from the shackle at once.

Watching the ain tremble with unease, I formed a single conjecture.

Perhaps Elder Luscinia had mapped out even this scene.

"That, too, is not for you to decide. It is a matter to be discussed in this hall tomorrow. I will hear everyone involved and decide then."

Tyr's declaration left no room for argument. Happi bowed her head from somewhere deep inside a hollow despair and answered.

"...I will comply."

She seemed to have nothing left to say. Today was finished. I called out on behalf of everyone.

"Then, with that, we are in recess!"

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

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