Chapter 209: Chapter 199 – The Divine Trial

"In a short while, you will head out to be judged for your actions. You face multiple violations that must be addressed."

Already this wasn't looking good.

"First, there is the issue of your reincarnation."

(Ah, she doesn't punctuate her points with her fingers.)

I couldn't help but have that stupid thought as I listened to Featiah.

"While your reincarnation was approved, it had not passed through the proper procedure. In addition, as you initiated your reincarnation yourself, you stand accused of unauthorized usage of divine property. Especially for a loose soul, this is a significant violation."

I nodded slightly. This was frustrating, but I did understand that naivety was no excuse for breaking a law. I really had no defence here.

"Second, is theft of vital divine property. Specifically the administration rights for the world Terheim."

I nodded again. This was just an extension of the first point, but I understood how it counted as a second charge.

"Third, is defying an order from a god."

"Wait, I don't remember...!"

Suddenly, feathers filled my vision and I jerked back a bit in my seat. The feathers slowly retracted as I stared at the wing. I didn't even notice her opening her wing.

(She's strong. Maybe far stronger than me.)

The very act made me understand that I had no way to judge how strong anyone here was. Trying to get through things peacefully was definitely the preferred way.

"Whether you remember or not, doesn't not matter. Though to be exact, this charge is extremely flimsy with the evidence supporting it as it is. The order to die is hardly something worthy of being upheld by a divine court. If I were to judge, it would likely be thrown out almost immediately."

I sighed in relief. At least I wasn't going to be charged something I didn't even remember doing.

That said, I was worried about the other two charges. I really had done them both, and the fact that I was going to court over it meant that they probably had more than enough evidence to confirm it.

"On the other hand, you are also the witness to second, simultaneous trial."

"Wait, two trials at once?"

That sounded absurd. It would only complicate matters and make it more difficult for things to come to a decent resolution.

"That is correct. These cases are both closely intertwined, thus it was decided to have both be handled simultaneously. After all, they have to do with Koth and Ulketh."

"Ummm, who are they, exactly?"

"You have seen Ulketh. He is the stupidly massive man you should have encountered twice on the world Terheim, according to our records. He is also the one in charge of maintaining order within the reincarnation control facility U235."

"Ah, that guy."

I had no idea what that huge guy's name was. But aside from name, I hadn't even seen a second god before.

"Koth on the other hand, was the one in charge of the entire U235 facility."

"I...see?"

(So that Koth guy is Ulketh's boss, in other words?)

Frankly speaking, I had little idea how any of this connected. I couldn't reliably use any of my previous knowledge in this place. For all I knew, the structure of everything was so different that not a single bit of what I knew applied.

In the first place, two trials at the same time? Of which they might've been working against each other? It didn't make sense to me at all.

"By the way, the two of them have been charged with eighty four charges, included attempted murder of a god."

"Seriously? They tried something that bad?"

But Featiah looked at me square on. Such large and piercing eyes was a little intimidating, even though her expression had hardly changed this entire time. Or maybe it was precisely because it hadn't changed?

"You are the one they tried to murder, do not forget."

"Huh? But...I..."

"Regardless of the method your apotheosis had come about, it had worked, and legally speaking, the moment the process was started, you were already in our legal protection. And while his attempt couldn't possibly kill an actual god, the intent is all that needs to be proven, and we have ample evidence of that."

"Ah, well, in that case..."

It was nice that I was now legally being protected now. In other words, I likely had little to worry about for the time being aside from the trial itself, presuming that I wasn't completely wrong about everything.

"There is also the fact that this is the first trial that actually requires the attention of a supreme rank judge in over seventeen million years."

"That's...amazing."

Especially the scale. It was a time frame I couldn't even imagine. It had devolved into just words.

"That aside, I can't believe you chose to use an automated forced transcendence for your apotheosis."

"Umm, is there something wrong with that?"

Frankly speaking, I wasn't even sure what the command would do. I was just desperate to survive, and it looked like not only was I right, but it worked.

"A multitude of things. There is a reason why such a method hadn't been used in twelve million years. I can't even believe that someone had approved such a system to be installed in one of Terheim's control facilities."

"Umm, is there any particular things that I should be worried about, considering that I had just used that system?"

I couldn't help but get a bad feeling over all of this.

"Of course. The forced transcendence system you used is a simple, and quite stupid, program designed to automate the apotheosis process. It is extremely crude and does a poor job at apotheosis if any factor doesn't line up perfectly with its expectations."

"That's...pretty scary. But it looks like everything worked as intended."

I couldn't feel anything wrong with my body. The best I could tell was it worked exactly as intended.

"Perhaps. Although I was originally under the impression that your kind found nudity to run counter to modesty? I had prepared clothes for you, but as you hadn't asked for any such things, so I presumed I may have erred."

"Wha...?!"

I looked down at myself, suddenly terrified that I had been going around naked like one of those weird dreams I've heard of. But I managed to calm down. I was properly wearing my shawl and robes. While it was still embarrassing to wear it that way, I had already resigned to the fact that I wouldn't be able to get away with my more modest attire. People just kept expecting me to dress up like on the statues so much lately.

"I'm not naked! I'm wearing my clothes like always!"

But counter to what I was expecting, Featiah simply sighed before locking her eyes on mine.

"You are not wearing clothes. From my perspective you are, shall we say, in your birthday suit?"

The owl lady chuckled as she covered her mouth. It was probably the greatest expression of emotion I had seen from her so far, but as impressed as I was about it, I didn't like it at all.

"What are you talking about? I'm wearing clothes right now! How doesn't this...!"

I grabbed a part of my shawl and tugged at it, only to freeze.

(What the...?!)

Surprise and fear enveloped me as I came to a terrifying realization. I could feel my fingers on my shawl, like it was a part of my body. Tugging it here and there, as well as my robes, I could feel everything. They really were just another part of my body.

All of the sudden, my cheeks started to grow warm as I was growing more and more self-conscious.

(I really am naked...)

The urge to cover myself up was growing, yet what would I cover? How would I regain my modesty? If the very clothes I wore was actually just an extension of my skin, how did anything work?!

"Do not worry. You are far from the first god to eschew clothing, nor will you be the last."

"That doesn't help at all! And besides, what about this?!" I pointed at my scythe. Even now I couldn't let go of it. "How can I go around carrying a weapon all the time?!"

But the owl lady simply tilted her head to the side in curiosity. Though whether seeing that neck bend 90° was cute or disturbing, I was left at a crossroads.

"How can't you? I see no problems with that."

"But...it's a weapon!"

"No more a weapon than my own talons. Again, how is that a problem?"

Featiah raised one of her legs from her perch and showed me those long and sharp talons.

If I thought of things from that perspective, considering that my scythe may now be made of the same material rather than orihalcum and adamantium, it was certainly possible that it really wasn't seen as a problem. Nothing more than my own fangs or claws, though my scythe was quite a bit larger than either.

"Fine, I get it. But can something be done about it? It's huge and I can't even use my right hand because of it."

"Oh, I see. It wasn't a part of your original body, is it?"

"Umm, of course?"

Though when I stopped to think about it, this god's words actually made sense. She was from a world that I knew nothing about. It was entirely possible that the common sense of her world, of all the worlds she had seen and visited, were nothing like the two worlds I had lived on.

She wouldn't be able to presume anything about what I thought was normal, not even the strange sight of a clearly artificial object being stuck onto a person's body. It was theoretically possible that there really was a world where people were born that way. Or maybe it was something people simply did for one reason or another later on in life. Even on Earth, I had heard of strange things people did to their bodies. From men tearing their nipples off, to people who wear entire kilograms of collective body piercing. It wouldn't be impossible for a world to exist where people permanently bound their hand to their weapon.

It was entirely possible that Featiah had simply thought she had just found a world where such a thing happened, that I was just an example of such a culture.

"Anyways, is it possible?"

"It is. While it isn't too common, body modification is practised in the divine realm, though the more extensive the changes you want, the longer it will take and will end up delaying any plans you have."

"Like, how long?"

"Depending on the changes, maybe a few millennia? Though that is a more extreme example, at the very least a few years."

"..."

I could only give up. As bad as it was to have to carry my scythe and for my clothes to effectively be a part of my body, I couldn't afford to delay going back to my family so long. Though I had other thing to worry about first.

"By the way, how come such a thing happened anyways? Isn't it weird for my clothes and weapon to suddenly become a part of my body like this?"

"That is certainly unusual. One moment please."

Featiah pulled out a crystal ball and started looking something up.

"Hmm...I see. Your body was damaged at the time of your apotheosis, so the transcendence program searched for a backup rather than attempt a repair, and it found one."

"What kind of backup?"

The owl lady quickly manipulated the holographic screen and showed me. It was a statue of myself, on top of a fountain in some dungeon. That embarrassing thing.

"Oh god."

"It is considered obscene to swear to oneself, I should tell you."

Ignoring the other woman's words, I simply banged my forehead against the table.

(That damn thing! It's the source of so much of my suffering!)

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The only good thing I could think of, was that my body wasn't marble grey like all the statues, but instead I kept all my colours, as best as I could tell at least.

"So anyways, about that trial..."

I didn't really want to talk about my body any longer. It felt like everything about it was just plain embarrassing at this point.

"Yes, so, to avoid wasting the time of a supreme rank judge, it was decided that both trials are to be handled simultaneously."

"Wait, that's the real reason they want to get these trials done together?!"

Featiah nodded.

"I have heard that the supreme judges had gotten into some new activity. Golf, I believe it was called? It sounded like a game for children, if I may comment, but who am I to say what others use their leisure time on."

"Golf. The judge just wants to skip doing a second trial to play golf..."

(Or rather, are we actually talking about the same golf I was aware of?)

"Bear in mind, if you are concerned about the quality of your trial, the supreme judge in charge of your trial is only there to act as a moderator. Only if there is a stalemate in the proceedings, will they cast the deciding judgment."

"I see..."

If that was the case, then the ones I needed to worry about was the lower judges, or jury, or whatever body was responsible for passing judgment.

"But that aside, what do you think my chances are?"

"Hmm...well, if you want to speculate about that, then I suppose that is fine."

Featiah played around with the crystal for a little bit.

"First of all, your guilt is all but certain. Frankly speaking, the evidence against you is practically indisputable."

(Erk!)

"While there was traces of tampering, it was easy to restore the original data regarding your reincarnation."

(Tampering?!)

"Oh, do not worry. The accusation of tampering divine data is not directed your way, but rather to Koth. It is all but concrete that he was the one to perpetrate that, and is one of the fifty one charges laid against him."

"I see."

That was a relief. While a small part of me was feeling sorry for the guy for how many charges he was facing...

(No. He deserves all of it. Or else he wouldn't be charged for them in the first place. I've got no reason to feel sorry for the guy who's been trying to kill and employ inhumane torture against me.)

When I thought of things that way, the guilt quickly dissipated from my heart. While I wouldn't derive any pleasure from knowing that he could lose everything he cared about depending on how this trial went, I no longer felt bad about it at all.

I've been so lenient on everyone for so long, I had no reason to feel that way when he was intending something so horrific for me...no, that he had already done something so horrific to Letty. Rather, that in itself made me furious and hoped that he got slammed with the full extent of the law.

He should die.

Or rather, he should taste the despair of being buried for a thousand years!

"Now now, I understand you have your own grievances, but it is better to take things calmly, or your pray will notice you."

Featiah refilled my tea and pressed the cup towards me. Hearing her words, I tried to put my hands on my chest to calm my breathing, only to hit myself in the head with my scythe's shaft.

(Uuu...I'm going to have to get used to that.)

After rubbing my forehead for a moment, I took some sips of tea to calm myself down, only to notice something.

"I noticed that my heartbeat didn't rise when I got angry just now. Is that normal here?"

"It is. After all, how can you have a heartbeat when you don't have a heart?"

The vein over my eye twitched for a moment.

"Is that some roundabout way to say that we vampires are heartless beings?"

"Why would you make such a conclusion? What I mean is, we gods have no flesh of any kind, let alone hearts. Our bodies are composed of pure energy, a form that cannot be interacted with by mortal beings."

"Huh? Energy? Oh then..."

That actually explained things. That was why my clothes had become my body. If the bodies of gods were just one solid chunk of energy, it didn't matter what shape it took, no matter how little it made sense from an organic standpoint. The fundamental principal was just that different.

But then that made me wonder about something.

"You said that the energy our bodies are made from can't be interacted with by mortals, right?"

"I certainly did."

"Then, what about my world? I found records that stated gods went there to play?"

"The amusement world Terheim, correct. Even I spent a little bit of time there."

The owl lady half closed her eyes in reminiscence.

"But then, how...?"

"Simple. We created artificial bodies and placed a small part of us inside of it to move like mortals."

"Artificial mortal bodies huh?"

(That's...)

Surprisingly a lot like Goddess' Realm. Just on a completely different scale.

"Correct. However, I never was able to get into it. I just couldn't grasp how people could go around without wings or talons. The very idea baffled me to the point that I just quit within an hour."

"Ah, I guess it's not for everyone."

I could only smile wryly at her answer. Though then again, I was a little glad she couldn't bring herself to play, even if it was for such a reason. I didn't like the idea of killing mortals just for entertainment.

Maybe I was being a bit of a hypocrite since I had no issues with killing monsters, but they had no intelligence in the first place, and especially not a soul when you counted the ones in dungeons. And I was trying to kill them quickly in the first place. No playing around with their lives, no torturing them, but as quick and clean kills as possible, generally speaking.

Sure, there were exceptions, and sometimes I had trouble finishing them off quickly and cleanly, but that was different on so many level from what that god did.

"Anyways, going back to the trial..."

"If you like. But there isn't that much to say. You will be found guilty on both charges, there is virtually no doubt about that."

"Wait, seriously? There's no way to contest it?"

"You are on trial. That is already contesting the charge. Though in the end, for your side of it, this is more a trial to determine your sentence, not your guilt."

"So it's basically a kangaroo court?"

"How rude. A kangaroo court defies evidence. In this trial, the evidence is simply too concrete to contest, unless if you yourself have any ideas as to where we could find contrary evidence."

"Umm, well..."

There was no way I could. I knew for myself that I was guilty on both charges. Any evidence to the contrary would either be vaguely circumstantial, or entirely fake. I wasn't stupid enough to try anything shady with a court I had almost no knowledge how it worked. All it would do was give them more ammunition against me.

People often said that doing anything was better than doing nothing, but that was exactly how you made a bad situation even worse. Turning something tolerable into something lethal.

That was why it was said that it was best to take things calmly, to not succumb to panic. Confusion was the enemy.

"Since the verdict is pretty much decided, what about the punishment? Anything I can do about it?"

"Be honest and answer any questions truthfully. As long as the judges decide you are sincere in receiving an honest judgment., they will be lenient. After all, while the charges are from when you were mortal, to us you are nothing but a newly hatched chick. It is far too damaging to one's psyche if the punishment was too great on a minor."

Chick...minor...

As depressing as it was being called that, frankly speaking it was the truth. Once again, I was facing people who were so much older than myself, even with all my lives combined, that I really was just a child to them.

"So to take your long term growth as a god into consideration, I doubt the punishment will be too significant. Perhaps some forced administration duty on some world under another god's guidance."

"...Another god's, is it? That means I'll be sent to that god's world then?"

"Of course. Whatever world or worlds that god governs, you will help. We can't just hand off such a responsibility to some newly hatched chick, can we?"

"No, I guess not."

I understood her reasoning. I understood it, but even still, it was frustrating.

"What about my family?"

"...Of course, there was that factor as well. All I can say is, as your representative, I will do what I can to get you what concessions I can on that front. However, I cannot promise anything concrete."

"Got it."

All I could do, was trust in Featiah.

 

In the end, the trial had been a bit of a farce.

While the place itself was quite amazing, the trial itself had been pretty plain. Just a bunch of explanations, presentations, and finally a series of verdicts.

Starting off, the other two gods were given their verdicts first.

Simply put, they were getting their godhood revoked was was going to be placed in confinement until their enlightenment level fell to one percent before being reincarnated as a mortal. Likely some sort of bug, according to what I heard.

Apparently what they did to Letty was quite bad, and so they would go through a similar process, though from what I heard, the version they were going to go through was considered much more humane. The method Letty went through was considered outright torture and was banned, though it seems it gave results much faster. For these gods it looked like would spend a few thousand years in confinement while they waited to get their enlightenment levels depleted.

As for me, in the end those two main crimes I had committed were sustained, while the third was rejected. That meant that I had a punishment waiting for me, though due to my peculiar circumstances, there was a degree of leniency involved, especially due to my dependants.

But in exchange, my punishment would be long. Ten thousand years long.

Featiah said I should be happy it was so short, but it was hard to agree. I couldn't even imagine how long that was. Ten thousand years. Just how much could happen in that amount of time?

In the end though, all I could do was sigh and take responsibility. I had committed crimes, and naivety was no defence.

In fact, there were quite a few things I needed to take responsibility for, so I would take my time to do so.

Though, there was the issue of my body. While getting it fixed properly would take far too long, I was allowed to return to the divine realm to get regular treatments. As long as I could get this scythe removed and control over my right hand back, I was happy. My wings and clothes-like skin could be dealt with later on.

In fact, there was quite a lot of things I was happy for, and for all that happiness, I would firmly handle my responsibilities.

For the whole of those ten thousand years, and whatever lay beyond them.

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