Chapter 96: 095 Waffling

The courtroom became as quiet as a graveyard at this newcomer's arrival. Her hair, a chestnut brown folded many times against the back of her head, billowed out behind her as she walked down to the podium. She wore light blue clothing today, the material of a somewhat rougher texture with a blindfold that matched. However as far as Diana could tell, her shoes were the exact same wooden clogs she had been wearing before.

Those who had seen her before would naturally know who she was, and those inundated with descriptions of her owing to their place of work or the people in their accompaniment would not take long to discern her identity either. Even those who only knew her on reputation alone would be able to come to the correct conclusion should they take note of her demeanor and deference shown to her by others.

"As you have demonstrated yourself unable to handle the situation at hand, I will be overseeing this case for the remainder of its duration." She halted at the edge of the podium, keeping her back to the warring parties. "I encourage you to stay and watch how such a trial should be managed. Before that, I would suggest submitting a notice for repair of the tiling near the entrance. It would appear that in my frustration I may have gone a bit overboard."

"As you wish." The young justice bowed his head and began to write something up, his hand moving faster than his usual pace. The Arboreal Maiden had a reputation for being level headed, the fact she mentioned that she was frustrated made him believe he was in deep trouble.

"Thank you. Now, shall we return to the problem at hand?"

"And just who the hell do you think you are!?" One of the men in Kelly's pit seemed to suddenly grow a pair of balls. "This trial was going on just fine! This fine sir had done absolutely nothing wrong, and yet here you claim that he is failing at his duties!"

"Yeah!" A chorus of agreements followed this man's interjection, instilling confidence in Lord Kelly himself.

"Hmmph! I question just how neutral you are! From our viewpoint it seems like you are heavily favoring those numbskulls that assaulted me!" Lord Kelly pointed to his bruised and slightly swollen face. "With injuries like these, it should be obvious just who the victim is here!"

The Arboreal Maiden remained stone-faced, not showing a hint of a response to their jeering. "I suggest you remain silent until I have granted you permission to speak, just in case you say something you end up regretting."

"I have said nothing I don't mean! What even gives you the right to intervene anyways? I was under the impression that the Sanctum didn't meddle in these matters!"

"As this justice's superior, I have been granted the right to take on any case I see as being improperly handled by decree of the Great Csillacra. If you feel that to be unsatisfactory, you may take it up with any of the enforcers positioned around the room," a multitude of masked men armed with batons and covered in thick leather clothing stood up at her mention of them, "not that it will change the situation you find yourself in. This is not your domain, and it follows that you have no authority here. I would recommend that you behave yourselves lest I make a decision you do not like."

"Decision? That is a blatant violation of your neutrality!"

"Our neutrality extends only so far as mediating our interactions and stance towards parties external to the Sanctum. We reserve the right, as we always have, to cease interaction, expel, and take other punitive actions against those within our bounds that demonstrate a blatant disregard for our rules and processes and endanger the security and livelihood of our residents. Do not believe for a second that you are more versed in what we can and cannot do." She didn't even have to look at him to brunt his bravado.

"Could we please just move on already? If nothing he says matters anyways, why dwell on it?" Diana pushed to finish this circus as son as possible.

"I will move at the pace I set. Rushed judgements do not adhere to our code of conduct."

"AHA! You do not treat her the same way as me! Proof of your bias I say! PROOF!"

The Arboreal Maiden sighed. "You know it's been a while since I interacted with a person like you. You are treated the same way as you treat others and claim it to be oppressive. You have been defiant and interjective at every turn, whereas they have been nothing but compliant. Do not confuse my willingness to correct misconceptions, misjudgments, and miscommunications as bias. This case would not proceed if neither of you spoke, however the rate at which fallacies and ignorance fall out of your mouth require that I take a more firm stance against you so that progress is not hindered. I would suggest you hold your tongue unless you have a valid point against your prosecutor."

Kelly growled a bit before falling silent, coming to the understanding that his ploy simply would not work against this newcomer.

"I thank you for your silence. Now, shall we once again resume deliberations?"

- - - - -

The Arboreal Maiden came into this mess fully prepared to manipulate and arbitrate Diana and her party out of whatever bad situation they had found themselves in. At this level there would be no one to question her ruling and it would give her a chance to correct Diana's behavior should she be a bad apple. She was just as important to the plan as Donovan after all.

Fortunately, it would appear that Diana was in the right here. As a resident of the Sanctum, Rize was protected by law. Ostensibly he was actually in a better position legally than Lord Kelly owing to that status as opposed to Kelly's guest/visitor status. Moreover, kidnapping was a heinous crime in the Sanctum.

Even the fact that it was attempted and not actually carried through still meant it carried harsh penalties for him, effectively just shy of death as far as the Sanctum was concerned.

"Like I said, your honor, I do not understand why I am being put on trial here! I was the one who was assaulted! Look at me! Look at the damage he did to my gorgeous face! Who could possibly think I was the aggressor here?"

"By my count, at least 63 people not including those in attendance. The enforcer to my side only just handed me these witness statements, you know? I personally do not like to favor the majority in cases such as these, however the preponderance of evidence they provide is more than enough to justify a case for self defense. By their account, even the woman who threw knives at you only did so to ward you off from her son." The Arboreal Maiden's back was still to the clashing parties, though her voice did not seem to suffer in the slightest. "While it is true that not every person bore witness to the scene, the fact that their accounts seem to match up very neatly with each other suggests that it is close to the truth if off the mark at all."

"That's. . . That's preposterous! Naturally those paupers would think poorly of my wealth and power! They must have conspired to craft a narrative that would place me as the perpetrator! Yes! That must be what happened! I demand justice against those, those, those jealous conspirators for the slander they have bet against my name!"

By this point, even Lord Kelly's posse were wishing they hadn't come.

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"It will take a much better lie than that to invalidate their testimonies." The Arboreal Maiden smiled a little, amused by his flailing. "If it would assuage your fears of slander, I would like to call forth the enforcer squad that was on patrol at that time. They are here correct?"

An enforcer by the door politely exited, the same one who retrieved Diana.

"Would you like to ask anything whilst we await the next set of witnesses?" She was very clearly addressing Diana, who had appeared to assume the position of representative for their group, though it was vague enough that it could have applied to anyone.

"While it is not of monumental importance, I do wonder where Lord Kelly's subordinate is. I believe his name was Bije?" 

"Is he being retained in one of the holding rooms?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Bring him forth as well. I plan to have all evidence set before the jury so they may make a decision." She almost added a cheeky 'not that it matters', but thought better of it. Tempting as it was, she didn't need to abuse her authority here, she was confident her presence was enough to move those conflicted to make the 'proper' decision. Even now, practically all of them were in the 'guilty' court, with only a few on the fence that very obviously wanted to watch more.

As if on queue, the door opened with three men in uniform descending the staircase to one of the speaking platforms.

"Perfect. Now, based on your assessment of the situation at the time of collecting testimonies, what are your opinions of the general level of wealth of those interviewed?"

"Wealth? My lady?"

"Ah, my apologies. Lord Kelly here has made the claim that the witnesses were ailing paupers that conspired to slander him out of jealousy. Did the people you interviewed seem like that sort of person?"

The men talked amongst themselves for a second or two before taking an official stance. The leader, the tallest one by a small margin, was the one to step forward. "We do not believe that these people were the type of beggar that lord Kelly claimed them to be. Much to the contrary, a great many of them appeared to be affluent in comparison to the average, one party of which appeared to adhere to a higher standard of class than Lord Kelly himself."

"So you believe Lord Kelly's statement to be a misrepresentation of the witnesses?"

"We believe that to be the case, yes."

"Based on the evidence provided, I will have to reject your claim of witness slander." Lord Kelly squeezed his fists into balls, unable to control the downward spiral he found himself in. "Onto the next question. In your opinion, who do you believe to be the perpetrator in this case?"

All three of them gestured in Lord Kelly's direction.

"Would the three of you please elaborate."

The first was once again the leader. "Aside from the compliance demonstrated by the party to our requests, there were also a set of indentations and trenches in he ground consistent to a person about the boy's size resisting being dragged away. In addition, the positioning of the carriages at the time of our arrival suggests that Lord Kelly was the first to arrive. I would also like to add that the injuries sustained by the wielder of the scimitar were consistent with a sword master fighting with a considerable amount of restraint in order to incapacitate an opponent in a way that would not affect their future. I would find it hard to imagine that someone acting maliciously would demonstrate that level of restraint."

The second spoke upon the leader's mark. "I do not have much more to add besides there being a concentration of what I believe was sweat drenching the area around the carriages entrance. I believe it likely that there was a struggle of sorts there."

The third spoke in turn. "I would like to add that the boy's wrists sported a number of small bruises consistent with a sturdy grip around his arm."

"I see, thank you for your time." She nodded, an indication for the three of them to take a seat along the side of the room should they be needed later. As they shuffled along, a few more people in the jury moved towards Diana's side.

"T-t-t-t-t-that's totally not the case! Surely they are conspiring against me!"

"I will not entertain such a silly idea any longer. There seems to be a unanimous consensus over the general sequence of events, so we will move to our final witness. Of course we will have to wait for him to arrive. How long is that expected to last?"

"Fifteen minutes or so, My Lady."

"I see. Hmmm, how about a short break for water? We shall reconvene in twenty minutes."

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