Chapter 35: CHAPTER 35: THE TRIAL

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IS IT RIGHT TO JUDGE A BOY FOR A CRIME HE DIDN’T EVEN COMMIT?

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Ed appeared on top of a weird circle that glowed, he looked around, and saw a beautiful futuristic city that can be seen from the transparent glass around the circle. the Hunters then came forward first, then they saw that Ed was not moving, and commanded the boy,

“Step out of the jumper please.” He said, and Ed compelled, he then walked forward, following the hunters,

“I will give this to the councilman, the rest of you will escort him to the court.” Said the man that has the letter.

Ed then was escorted through a long hallway, he was surrounded by hunters, with their menacing swords and guns, his hands were cuffed by power dampening handcuffs, and he was tired, really tired, he barely had enough energy to walk, let alone run. The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the hallway, other than that no sound.

He walked more for a couple of minutes, then Ed started to hear whispers from the end of the hallway, he could feel the different air temperature sipping from the end of the hall. Slowly but surely, the whispers turned into murmurs, and the temperature is much colder, and he arrived at a giant room, there was a podium in the middle of it, and strange chairs and desk in front of the podium, he can see the audience in the back of the podium, and bizarrely dressed old men and woman sitting on the chairs in front of the podium, there was a big door behind the crowd, it was opened, and Ed saw the same beautiful futuristic city in the outside of the door.

Ed then was dragged to the podium, still cuffed, he was ordered to stand on the podium, the people in the room were looking at him intently now, Ed can feel the gazes, the sympathetic ones, the greedy ones, the hateful ones, and he even felt some lustful ones.

The old man in the highest seat then spoke sternly to the others,

“Order in the court!” he commanded while slamming a hammer to the desk, which made the whole room silent.

The old man looked at Ed intently, he felt that one of the greedy gaze was coming from him.

“I hereby open the trial of the Aldrich family.” Said the man, “Secretary, please announce the charges.”

The man besides him nodded, “The charges are as followed: Illegal world travelling, Multiple accounts of assaulting a hunter, multiple accounts of killing a hunter, multiple accounts of unlicensed use of otherworldly power or magic on a world and disobeying the hunter to be brought to justice.” He announced with a robotic tone.

The crowd instantly burst in murmurs over the charges, their faces looking in disbelief, while the one who sat on the bizarre looking chairs looked at Ed with the same gazes as before, Ed however, just stood on the podium in silence, following Gilligan’s advice.

“Order!” the old man that Ed assumed was the judge of the trial. “Prosecutor, please provide the evidence of the crimes.”

“Right away Head council.” Said one of the slightly younger men below the ‘Head council’. The prosecutor then continued to windlessly cast some sort of a projection, and it shows a blonde haired and silver eyed individual mercilessly killing hunters with lightning spells and a gun in his hand.

“The individual on the projection is Darius Aldrich.” Said the prosecutor, “As you can see, the projection has enough proof that one of the members of the Aldrich family has committed multiple killings on the hunters.” Continued him with an accusing tone, which made Ed frown, he never saw his father, but the silver eyes is definitely enough proof that it’s him.

“As for the other charges, “said the slightly younger man than the rest. The projection then changed to a map of some kind, showing multiple dots, “The dots on the map marked space fluctuations that are big enough for us to suspect that someone has indeed jumped to another universe, and the space fluctuations are identical to the fluctuations that the Aldrich family’s artefact produced.”

A lot of the ‘Councilman’s’ eyes shined at the mention of the artefacts, Ed could feel the greed in the air, but he still just stood in silence, waiting for an opportunity to say the sentence.

The judge hummed, already a bit impatience, “Well there you have it, why do we even held a trial in the first place?” asked the judge jokingly, which some of the council chuckled at the joke, “I hereby judge the Aldrich family guilty of all charges, the members of the family will serve the sentence, and because this Aldrich boy right here is the only member that we found, he will bear all the punishments.” He spoke as if it’s the normal thing to say.

The judge then cleared his throat and spoke happily, “The punishment is as follows, The Aldrich family must hand over all their family artefacts and the library, and the members will either choose to be executed or exiled.”

The crowd instantly exploded with anger, Ed heard someone shout, ‘How can a boy like that be executed! This is simply too outrageous!’ and ‘Greedy councils! Condemning a boy’s life for their own agenda!’

Ed just chuckled in his mind. But then one of the councilmen shouted, “I OBJECT!” he yelled, the other councilman looked at him with contempt and annoyance, but he ignored it. Ed was now watching the scene with curiosity, “How can you judge a boy for a crime he didn’t even commit!? Do you even have any dignity left, Head councilman!?”

The crowd shouted in agreement, while the council grumbled in annoyance. But then the judge answered the man. “In other circumstances we will be lenient Councilman, but this, we simply can’t, you know how the Aldrich Family have troubled us, their anarchist ways ruined the order that we carefully built.”

“Order?!” the man who defended Ed chuckled dangerously, Ed saw the man, and he noticed that his eyes were silver, and his hair was blond, a similar characteristic of an Aldrich, he’s quite young as well, around his late twenties. “You mean your pathetic attempt to seize the Aldrich family property?! Don’t make me laugh.” He mocked the judge.

The judge grumbled in annoyance, “You know their artefacts are dangerous councilman Alan, it is simply too dangerous for them to hold on their own.” Said the judge sharply, “I forbid you to speak any longer, Councilman, otherwise we will force you to leave this trial immediately.”

The judge then looked at Ed, his eyes still had greed in it, and Ed just eyed the man coldly.

“Young Aldrich, what do you have to say for yourself?” said the judge, Ed can see a small victorious smirk on his face.

Ed just looked the judge in the eyes, and spoke decisively, “I demand a trial by combat.”

The whole court went silent, not believing what the boy had said, the judge looked shocked, and tried to confirm what he heard, “Can you repeat that?” asked the judge.

“I demand a trial by combat.” Ed repeated, the room went silent again, but a few seconds later, the whole council except the one who defended Ed laughed hysterically.

“A young boy like you wants to do a trial by combat?!” asked a random laughing councilman. Another one threw insults at him, and another mocked him, but Ed just stood there in silence, he can’t use Occlumency right now, but he was so tired, he didn’t even need to use it to calm himself down.

“Order!” said the judge, he laughed a bit, but his expression changed quickly for some reason. The room instantly went silent, and the judge continued, “Are you sure about this young Aldrich?” asked the Judge sharply.

And Ed repeated the sentence once again, “I demand a trial by combat.”

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The judge sighed deeply. “Very well, I hereby granted the demand of the Aldrich family to do the trial by combat.”

“Permission to speak Head councilman?” said the previous guy who defended Ed.

The judge looked at him with annoyance and said, “Granted. Speak quickly”

The man nodded, “I request that the boy will be given time to prepare, five months at max, and he is still a young boy head councilman, we can’t lock him up in a cell, it clearly states it in the law, even if you manage to find a loophole that a minor can be exiled or executed, this can’t be avoided.”

The councilman suddenly murmured loudly, as did the crowd, Ed can hear one of the council suggested, “Why not head councilman? at least give the boy a chance…” and the others nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly, the crowd also nodded in support, it was probably the crowd who pressured them, they may have the excuse before, but they don’t know.

“Very well,” said the judge reluctantly, “The trial by combat will begin five months from now, and the Aldrich boy will be watched closely, as he is not an adult yet, therefore we can’t imprison him.”

The crowd cheered, Ed seemed to be supported by them, he didn’t know why, but it was a welcome one.

One of the Hunters then approached Ed, and he released his cuffs, freeing him. “The Trial is hereby dismissed and will continue in the trial of combat five months from now.” Announced the judge, the councilman started to disappear one by one, and the crowd scattered. Ed then was guided to the previous hallway by the hunters, he felt relieved that this ordeal was over temporarily, but he was still tired, he walked to the other end of the hallway where he arrived, but then the entourage was stopped by a councilman, the one who defended him in the trial.

“Hello young Aldrich.” Said the man, his silver eyes glowed the same as Ed. The man then looked at the Hunters and dismissed them. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Ah, um, hello.” Ed said awkwardly. “Who are you? Your eyes are similar to mine.”

The councilman chuckled, “My name is Alan Heindrich, as for the eyes, yes, I’m related to you.”

Ed tried to remember an Alan in the tree, he didn’t know as he didn’t remember, but when he saw that he had the letter that Gilligan gave to him, he nodded.

“So, you’re the councilman that promised something to the family?” asked Ed curiously.

Alan nodded, “Yes, I am, I promised that I will help the Aldrich family in times of need.”

Ed eyed the man suspiciously and questioned, “In exchange for what?”

Alan smiled at the question, “Truly an Aldrich, so many questions…” he commented, “I suppose I am as well, the answer is in exchange for the initiation young Edgart.”

Ed was surprised, “So you’ll take the name of Aldrich?”

Alan smiled, “Yes, I will. I hope we will get along, nephew.”

Ed eyed the man suspiciously again, but before he could say anything, Alan answered, “Don’t worry young Edgart, if you thought about how I will betray the family, you’re wrong…” said Alan, “Since I was a kid, my parents told me to find the Aldrich family, and claim the right to bear its name, but ever since the travel ban, I can’t…”

“But why didn’t you help my parents then?” interrogated Ed. 

“It isn’t that simple young Edgart.” Said Alan, “I can only use my power in the council and its territory, and I’m just one man as well, sure I defended your parents when we discussed the matter, but what they’ve done is quite unforgivable in their eyes.” Explained the man. “They ran from the hunters, killed a couple of them, with those crimes on their data, it’s enough to erase their entire family, the ones who knew the multiverse of course.”

“You on the other hand, was a young boy, you haven’t done anything at all,” the man paused for a second, “so you still have a chance, if you succeeded in the trial by combat, our family’s charges will be erased, and as long you don’t break the rule anymore, you can live in peace.”

Ed then thought for a while, “Then if the charges have been dropped, what about the search for my parents?” asked Ed.

The man chuckled, “I think that’s easy enough, you can search for them.”

Ed looked at Alan strangely, “But you said that they ban world travel?”

Alan nodded in confirmation, “I can give permission because of the special circumstance, but you will be watched heavily of course.”

Ed sighed, “Okay, are you coming with me towards home?”

Alan shook his head, “No, I will come after you succeed in the trial, we don’t want suspicion that I’m cooperating with you.”

“Are you that confident that I will succeed?” asked Ed curiously.

The man chuckled, “If you were told to do the trial by combat by the family and they trust you with it, then I’m sure you will succeed.”

Ed nodded tiredly, “Then we will meet again uncle.”

“See you in five months, young Edgart.” Said the man softly.

“Call me Ed.” said the boy while walking towards the jumper, the man nodded, and Ed stepped on the jumper, teleporting him to where he was before.

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