Chapter 553: Presentation (1)

"Riley, you can't lie here."

"Lying?

…I'm not capable of that, Aerith."

"Y—"

"The witness is not allowed to talk to the criminal!"

Aerith's slightly frustrated groan traveled through the air. No one heard it, however. Not even a single themarian, a species that was capable of hearing an ant from a mile away if they want to, was able to hear her frustration.

All of their eyes, ears, and every fiber of their attention were on the orb that the bailiff was holding—most of them waiting for it to light up in red.

A second.

A minute.

A themarian could stand in silence for hours, and yet not even notice it. The audience, however, did not need to wait for that long as the bailiff shook his head—gesturing to the jury, as well as to the audience that Riley was not lying by raising the orb in the air.

Seeing this left Aerith's mouth slightly open; the disbelief, escaping from her lips. This disbelief, however, turned into slight annoyance as she noticed Riley smiling at her quite… condescendingly. At least, that is what it looked like to her.

Aerith already knew that Riley was not susceptible and immune to any mind-reading telepathy; she was too. But the themarian's lie detector device was perhaps one of the most advanced in the entire Known Universe—it scans your brain, your heart, your face, the slightest changes in temperature, your voice, and even the individual follicles and pores on your body.

In short, it was a literal full body scan—similar to Katherine's empath capabilities, only more sophisticated and accurate.

Could it be… that Riley thinks that he is her lover?

"..." Aerith could really only widen her eyes at the thought. Riley Ross was incapable of love—he can show affection and care as he does with his sister… but love?

And her? Riley loves her? That…

"...That is so weird."---were the words that escaped Aerith's lips as she once again stared at Riley's back.

"Everyone, silence!" The bailiff once again raised his voice, preventing the whispers of the audience to become wails of gossip.

"Where… did you meet her?" Another jury raised his hand to ask Riley a question. This time, Riley looked at the jury—noticing how similar all of them looked alike. Considering they were all Princess Tifa's children, then he shouldn't really be surprised. What he was a little curious about, however, was that Claudyne was not there.

Based on what Riley knows so far about themarians, their women could only give birth every 1000 years or so. There were already 10 of them sitting near the throne, and adding Claudyne to that, then Princess Tifa would have already lived, at the very least, 11,000 years—minimum.

Xra was somewhere at 8,000. Riley still doesn't know how old Diana is, but she should be in Xra's range or higher. For some reason, Riley was not really that perturbed about their ages; after all, back on Earth, they have Bulwark who is potentially as old as her fellow super, Xra.

However, Princess Tifa is probably a lot older than Xra—a lot. Riley vaguely remembers Aerith mentioning that she was less than a thousand years old, and considering the bailiff mentioning that Aerith left Theran during the 5,455th year of his father's reign, then it is also possible that the time between the births of Princess Tifa's children is also not consistently a thousand years apart, they could also significantly be higher.

Princess Tifa is probably more than 20,000 years old—maybe even a hundred thousand. So why…

…Why didn't any of them seem bored?

"Riley Ross! Answer the question!" The bailiff snapped his fingers as Riley seemed to have gotten lost in his own world, "Lord Kal asks you where you met the criminal, Aerith!"

"..." Riley blinked a couple of times, before turning his eyes at the one who asked him a question,

"I met Aerith 300 years ago on my—on the planet I was born on."

"The… planet you were born on?" Kal squinted his eyes as he once again scrutinized Riley with his eyes, "You weren't born on Theran?"

"I am Half Themarian, I was born on a planet from the Unknown, Earth," Riley returned Kal's gaze as he too, seemed to look at Kal from head to only his waist, since he was seated. Even seated, however, it was obvious that Kal was the tallest and most muscular out of all of his male siblings. His hair, a little curly from the front, making his chiseled and sharp jaw even more profound.

"Half? Then are you an evaniel—"

"How exactly did you and cousin meet?"

But alas, before the muscular and charismatic Kal could add to his inquiries, a short woman stood up—or at least she might have; it was hard to tell since her shoulders were still almost the same height as her siblings.

"As all of you are already aware of, Aerith left Theran to catch the most wanted themarian in all of the Known Universe—a woman filled with secrets and so, so many lies."

"..." Aerith could not help but raise an eyebrow. She might just be imagining it, but was she hearing some sort of… frustration in Riley's voice?

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"That doesn't have anything to do with the question!" The bailiff once again raised his voice as he heard Riley's words. He was going to say something else but found himself suddenly coughing vehemently.

"Oh, it does have some relevance to the question, bailiff," Riley breathed out as he looked at the short woman, "Aerith found a trace of Caitlain'Ur's energy on Earth, that is the very reason she went there—and I had the pleasure of meeting her when she… fought with my mother."

"...Mother?"

"You know her as Caitlain'Ur."

"!!!"

The short woman quickly took in a deep breath as soon as Riley's words reached her ears. It wasn't only her—every person in the room let out a short but very deep gasp.

"That…that is not how Aerith described her silly adventure," the short woman pointed at Aerith; almost stuttering her words.

"That is because Aerith lost a part of her memories when she was almost sent to Eternal Death during their first battle on Earth," Riley then let out a small and very deep sigh as he looked at Aerith,

"And that is when I cared for her," the tone of Riley's voice became meek as he closed his eyes, "I made sure she was warm, I bathed her, I talked to her even though I knew it was possible that she couldn't even hear me… and little did I know that she actually could."

"..."

"And so, when she woke up… when I saw her eyes, I immediately fell in love with her," Riley then took in a deep breath as he opened his eyes and looked at the throne for some reason,

"And perhaps as I cared for her, she also started caring for the inhabitants of Earth. They became her people, and she became theirs. It is true what they say, a true star shines wherever it is," Riley then whispered as he looked Aerith straight in the eyes,

"She led people who don't understand their strength, who only know war and violence… to peace. And we fell in love."

"..." Bullshit—is what Aerith wanted to say right now. But seeing everyone's shocked faces… most of them were believing it—something Aerith couldn't believe. His story didn't even make sense and was so random.

Should… she just let this charade continue?

"...Pft," Aerith couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as numerous thoughts crossed her mind. Stop the charade? This whole trial was a show in the first place—and she keeps forgetting who Riley is.

If this is a show, then Riley Ross will always be the center of it. Darkday, Riley Ross, Paragon—whichever persona Riley wears…

…he never fails to present.

Her chuckle, however, seemed to have triggered something from some of the jury.

"You collude with the very enemy you are sworn to kill!?" The one that seemed to be the youngest on the jury stood up and also pointed at Aerith, "Shame on you!"

"Execute the half-breed too! Kill him!"

"Caitlain's son!? Cait…Caitlain'Ur is here!?"

"Half-breed!"

"Traitor!"

"Wait, shouldn't… shouldn't we hide!? The Caitlain'Ur is back!"

And once again, the entire throne hall was filled with all sorts of voices. Most were disdain and disgust; while others, those that belonged to the older themarians, were that of fear.

The bailiff would have probably shut them all down by now—but he still couldn't talk for some reason. But it would seem that he didn't need to; as after a few more seconds, Princess Tifa's eldest son, Lucien, opened his mouth.

And with just a single raise of his hand, the entire hall became as quiet as the hour before dawn. Even Lucien's siblings that were raging and pointing fingers immediately sat down; the rage in their eyes, however, could still be heard burning across the hall.

"You claim to be Princess Aerith's lover…" Lucien crossed his legs and rested his chin on his fist; his slightly long hair, brushing and sliding from his broad shoulders as he leaned back,

"...Does that mean you are Lord Gary's father?"

"..." Riley blinked a couple of times as he looked at Lucien, before starting to search for Gary amongst the masses. But try as he might, it would seem Gary didn't attend Aerith's 2nd trial,

"No," Riley shook his head several times, "She fell in love with another—a human, and that is Gary's father…

…who I killed in my blind rage."

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