Yuki quickly gave his goodbyes to them and rushed babsp; He arrived at the main room where they all stayed. All of their rooms ected into it. So everyohered up waiting for him. When he arrived, they gave him the full details of what happened. A messenger delivered the notice to them.

  However, even with the full narding the trial, which actually didn’t really provide much more iail, Yuki didn’t uand why it was happening. “I thought we had time to prepare for this! Do they even have time?”

  No one else knew better about Atntis politid the inner ws thahenes. He took in all of the looks as they made it clear they expected answers from him. “I suspect that answer heavily lies in their failed assassination attempt on Yuki.”

  “Why the hell should that matter?” barked Seiji, still not over the fact that he slept through the attempt. Though he also didn’t agree with Yuki’s more calm decision to let it all slide. Even if Seiji didn’t want to kill them, he felt they deserved some payback for their attempt.

  “It’s less to do with the severity of the crimes and more about the timing.”

  Yumi looked as fused as everyone else, but she asked first. “Timing?”

  “Yes, the Rite of Succession is in three days. That’s when we pick a new King. Despite Yuki’s insisten not wishing to be King, I suspect that the cil still fears he may ge his mind. So they want to resolve everything before that date. The assassination attempt had likely been their first pn to not worry about you being King, but with that ruihey’re taking a neroach.”

  Yori still had a problem with the sario. “Be that as it may, right now we’re all safe due to your influenbsp; Fumiko and Haruo, naturally, aren't under your prote. But everial won’t ge that Yuki’s protected and still a threat to their power.”

  “You’re correct,” agreed Demosthenes. “Which is why I believe they have other schemes in mind. It’s likely their pn is to silence everyohat’s a threat.”

  “Won’t that mean you’re at risk as well?”

  “Privately yes, the cil doubts my loyalty to them as my loyalty belongs to the King. However, publicly I’ve made no movements to cast any doubt on me. So for the time, I’m safe and I’m cautious enough in my dealings with them that they value me more alive than dead.”

  “Well aren’t you hot stuff,” Yuki said in a snarky tone. “That still doesn’t ge what we’re going to do about the trial.” He looked around at everyone. They could all debate the cil’s motives and pns all day, but it didn’t ge that their friends were all going to trial very soon. They o do something about them. “I’m not leaving them to die or rot here in Atntis, because a bunch of old men have a problem with someohat’s already dead.”

  Chapter 280 – One-sided Argument

  Despite the enthusiasm of Yuki’s little speech, the truth was they really didn’t have a lot of time to make any pns. The closeness of the trial made it rather difficult. Plus all of the pns that were put forth were shot down. And all Demosthenes provided to the meeting was to watch the oute of the trial.

  Which set the stage for the event. The trial came upon them faster than they expected. Yuki and his friends were allowed to join, but only under very strict watbsp; Most of the Titans they entered in their battle in the Capital were present. Despite victories against some, they knew anything that would start a fight would only cause more troubles than solve. They weren’t easy oppos.

  Yuki looked around at the ground that had formed around them. They had them seated far in the back out of sight. Demostheuck like glue to him. Saki’s new best friend in the world, Rheia, stuck very close to her. If he didn’t know better, he retty sure there was love in her eyes. He didn’t uand it very well.

  In the apanyi o Saki was Chiharu with the man introduced as Nereus. Nereus seemed to have some attat to Chiharu, but it was very hard to read. It certainly was nothing s or obvious as Rheia with Saki, but he still sensed something between them. Chiharu naturally pyed the whole thing off as if she didn’t care. ‘She’s like the perfect Tsundere…’ Yuki grinned a little at the thought.

  Then surprising him, Yumi had someone as well. A very mature looking man, but with the same sort of duty bound eyes that Demosthenes had. Though he saw something different behind them as a reason. He knew about Ourias from Yumi, but nothing more. His face told him there was a long story. Not oo get into unfortunately, he knew.

  Yori was apanied by Teris, who seemed the perfect mad stist from the presentation of his appearand what he was told about him. Yuki uood the differeweey and fi, but it didn’t ge the fact that it felt like things blurred betweewo more often than they should.

  However, he didn’t have much time remaining before things started. “So who’s defending them?” he asked lowly to Demosthenes. He khat they would never let any of them defend them, but someone had to do it. It was a trial after all.

  “No one.”

  “What?!” Yuki tried to stand up, but Demosthenes kept him from interrupting the hall any more than he did with his raised voibsp; Even though Yuki uood the importananners, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What the hell do you mean no one is defending them?”

  “The judicial system here doesn’t work in the same way that it does in the rest of the world.”

  “Then how does it?” He ground his teeth together at the thought of this just being a plete farce.

  “The cil venes with the accused and questions them directly. Based on their ahey make their judgment.”

  “You ’t be serious! That’s a plete joke! They’re going to just do whatever they want!”

  “The King has the final vote, but obviously that’s not possible in this situation.”

  “…those bastards… So this is their pn…” Yuki leaned forward tightly gripping the wood railing that seed them to the back of the rge chamber. He didn’t have much time to stew in his pints as Fumiko, Haruo and Eudokia marched in under escort. “Hey what’s keeping her from unleashing her power and just killing them all?” Giveuation, Yuki questioned if he would actually try to stop her. He really started to wonder which of them was worse.

  “We have specifically crafted devices that seal their power. Eudokia, no matter how powerful, 't do anything right now.”

  “I see.” Yuki suddenly saw even more marg behind them. They were dressed like soldiers, as he reized their uniforms. There were two women both MPs and a man, who was just a standard soldier. However, the sight alerted Seiji, pulling Yuki’s attention. Saki fortunately was quicker to move than him and calmed him down.

  Sensing Yuki’s fusion and wanting to know what he missed, Demosthenes filled him in ohers. “That is former Captain Simonides, former ahene and former Sed Lieutenant Nerine. They’ve been viewed by the cil as aplices for providing aid to your friends during the fight.”

  Yuki ched his hands around the railing even tighter. He really wao snap it in half just to make him feel better, plus it would have made food effect to his emotions. “They’re really being thh about this.”

  “Yes, it might have beey years, but the rebellion isn’t easily fotten. They’ve tighteheir hold on order ever sinbsp; I’ve lost t of the lives they’ve sent to the execution grounds under simir pretenses.”

  “If you disagree or the former King did, why wasn’t anything done?”

  “That’s a more plicated answer. But as General I don’t have the political authority to oppose their rulings. I serve the King and them.”

  “And the King?”

  “He was uo do anything.”

  “These are supposed to be the people proteg this try. If they’re this evil and corrupt, then who’s left for this try?”

  “It’s hard to agree with what they do, but in their own minds they are just frightened men that want to keep the peace as much as everyone else.”

  “That doesn’t give them this sort ht to kill people unjustly.”

  “Unfortunately, the world is not just or fair.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it anymore because I uand that.” Yuki uood what Demosthenes said. He really did, but he hated it still. He hated that he uood such a reality. He wished it was different. He wanted a world like in his stories where the bad were caught and the good won out in the end. Not a gray world where evil was allowed to tinue unchecked and anyone good is just sughtered without remorse because they did the right thing. This was a terrible world he lived in.

  The world was corrupt.

  A pounding of a stone block sighe sileneeded for things to begin. If nothing else, the cil was certainly stu procedure. Even as an evil, corrupt bunch of bastard old men, they stuck hard and fast to their routine. They seemed to live by it. Tradition was their way of life. So it took them a full ten minutes before the trial proper even started.

  Even though Yuki had a clear idea of what sort of oute things were going to reach from the way Demosthenes expihem, the wait for the whole thing to start still left him on the edge of his seat. His nerves were already shot from the anticipation and worry. He didn’t know how everyone else would react or admittedly even himself.

  He could only wait.

  Starting the questioning finally with Eudokia, an elderly mao Dimitris began. “Eudokia, you are before the cil of Atntis for the charges of ing rebellion and attempting to usurp power. Did you knowingly bring fn batants through the barrier?”

  Eudokia stared unwavering at the men that pnned her execution. “I brought the true King to Atntis. That is all I did.”

  “This child, Yuki Hayashi, is a Japaizen, not an Atntean citizen. Blood tests have firmed that he is part Japanese.”

  Yuki turo look at Demosthenes. He sought an answer, but the stoic expression gave him none. The longer he stared the more he felt that he knew something about that. “I thought I was Atntean and you just left me in Japan for prote. If I’m half Japahen who is my mother?”

  “That’s a plicated matter, oer left for after this.”

  “Demosthenes!”

  “Could you trol your emotions in here if you learhe truth now?”

  He hated hht he always was. He kept being tossed more and more revetions. It was as if they had a two for one sale on truth revealing at the market. He didn’t know how much more he could take of it.

  The cilor tiheir questioning even as their versation carried on. They were still on Eudokia. “You orchestrated the atta the Capital Pad killed more than hundred guards. On top of that, your aplices standing before you caused the destru of two entire distrieighborhoods in their fighting. More than four thousand is are dead and twenty thousand injured. What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Behind him, he heard Saki gasp and mutter under her breath. ‘Damn…I really didn’t wao learn about that.’ None of them could do anything about it now. They had to live with what all of their fight, mistake or no, had caused to the try. Blind innoce didn’t survive for long.

  “Death is a fact of life. Everything I did was for the King and nothing you say or think will make me regret my as. No ge is not without its destru.” Eudokia's pathy for anything that happened actually stirred up murmurs in the crowd. They were all just officials or important families, but it still shocked them to hear her speak so coldly about the reality.

  Things moved quickly on to the accused. “Fumiko Terauchi, did you kill twenty-five Atntean soldiers in yagement with the South Gate forces?”

  Fumiko gritted her teeth. They stared at her expeg an answer. No answer was just as bad as the answer she had for them. “I-I…my power went out of trol.”

  “Ahe question. Did you kill twenty-five Atntean soldiers?”

  “As a result…of losing trol of my powers…yes…” Her admittance fueled the crowd into more of an uproar that the cil silenced quickly.

  Yuki ground his teeth so hard that it felt like they would start popping out. “They’re just asking leading questions. There’s no ce for them. Dammit…” He knew how it would py out. They focused solely on the incriminating parts rather than that Eudokia tricked them all.

  Eventually all of the questioning came to an end. They spoke to everyone involved, hearing only what they wanted. The picture ainted so grimly that the oute was telegraphed that anyone saw it ing, even Seiji. “We, the cil of Atntis, find the criminals Eudokia, Fumiko Terauchi, Haruo Yoneda, Simonides, Nerine and Atheo be guilty of crimes against Atntis. For their acts of rebellion and the deaths of tless is, all shall be publicly executed two days from now. This trial is adjourned.”