85.
Ren could be seen with a stoic look as he listened to the crimes being charged against him, but in his mind, he was laughing at how absurd it was.
- Baron Ren Artega is accused of committing multiple murders against the Marquises' guards, he is also accused of physically and mentally harming the Marquis Pink, vandalizing private property, exploiting a building owned by Marquis Flin, starving the victims of slavery, stealing personal information from the 3 marquesses present, kidnapping elf victims before they are rescued, destroying private property and staining it with blood as if it were a ritual, entering...
Ren got bored hearing about a bunch of crimes he didn't even do.
what the hell was that about ren intervening in the rescue of the elf princess when she was going to be bought by a nobleman!?, supposedly the guy was an infiltrator who was going to rescue the elf princess.
Ren had grown tired of this charade, he was thinking how it would fare in the neighboring kingdom until he heard.
- don't worry my king.
"hmm?
- I'll make sure he gets out free until it's the last thing I do.
"hm... ok Kevin, I hope it's possible despite having so many crimes that it seems like the king doesn't bother to remember anymore by the look on his face.
- although we must admit something.
" what thing?
- Yes, it is true that from the mouths of the nobles only nonsense and stupidity come out.
"Right?, I just need to be blamed for stealing oxygen from the place.
- he is accused of stealing mana from the air of the area...
"no what no?
while ren and his clone laughed at the nonsense they said about him.
the others had expressions of discontent, or at least Kumiko, not because it would be difficult to get Ren out of the jam, but because it took a long time, to listen to the accusations, even Kumiko knew that they were only trying to sink Ren with whatever.
after endless accusations that ren didn't bother to remember, it was time for the witnesses.
On the side of the Marquises, they brought in random civilians who claimed to see Ren doing what the accusations do.
They brought at least 100 witnesses.
Ren only secretly ate popcorn, although the others didn't think it was a secret.
the marquesses had piggy grins on their mouths imagining ren's fall.
Ren, on the other hand, I leave everything to Kevin.
Kevin with the knowledge of 2 recognized lawyers, in addition to the security cameras of the Kitamura family, was secretly given by Shiro, given by the same duchess who looked at Ren with a very small smile on her face.
the marquesses had made it look like the one who kidnapped the slaves to exploit them, they knew that their duchess had a soft spot for them, but they didn't think that this morning Kelly had gotten a video of how the slaves are currently on an island, using the resources that Kiyoshi managed to have sent to the Duchess.
regarding the city cameras, with the permission of the duchess, it wasn't that hard to get evidence, Kevin sighed mentally, he had hidden the fact that he received support from the Kitamura house and they helped him, I don't need to hack anything, as ren thinks, ren believed that Kevin did it alone.
they used security cameras showing scenes that proved ren's innocence, Kiyoshi had stayed up late to do it capturing just the right scenes from the security cameras.
the Scarlett house, or well.
Rose Scarlett spoke up for Ren, showing that it was her guild that killed the soldiers in the mine.
Completely surprising Ren, she doesn't remember asking Rose for anything.
In the end, she sighed, it seems that she owed Rose a favor.
- Do you have a problem with that Mark Pink?
facing rose's gaze, the marquess began to sweat, ren secretly commented to Kevin that he looked like a pig ready to be roasted, I don't expect them to listen until rose said.
- I must admit that your opinion that Marquis Pink looks like a pig seems correct to me, ren.
Ren made sure to keep his mouth shut on this.
the marquesses who previously thought that it would be an easy matter to sink the new noble thinking that he would not have good support.
they freaked out when 3 ducats supported the so-called nobody.
the Scarlett house, the Holland House, and the Kitamura house.
Ren was giving him a big headache because of the favors that he will surely have to pay, the others saw Ren's headache, and the 3 dukes including the duchess, laughed mentally, they did it because they wanted to, they were not As manipulative as Ren believed.
The other 2 houses were speechless, but the Head of House Squirre kept glaring at Ren.
they had to do 2 days of trial to clean up ren's many accusations.
when ren thought that this annoyance is over and he would finally get out of this place and take off his overalls, it turns out that an unexpected accusation came.
- Ren Artega is accused of being an accomplice in the murder of Bernard Squirre.
With those words, everyone reacted to Ren.
"But I don't know anything?
- lie!
heard from the seat of the dukes.
-You were with my son in that dungeon, when Holland's bastard took him to his, how do you expect him to believe you didn't do anything?
Duke Squirre stared with bloodshot eyes at Ren.
many shuddered at the look of that man, although he was not an S and he was only an A, his leadership and political ability were strong, which he did over time to become one of the 6 grand dukes.
It took many years and effort cultivating his son since childhood, he had the hope that his grandson would come out an elemental block, after all, he was just an elemental duo of air and earth and his wife of water.
when his first daughter was born, he only had the talent of air.
which made the couple very sad, but when Bernard was born, they believed that the goddess gave them grace.
They had been trying to pressure the parents of the Scarlett house to engage him with Rose.
a single woman in her 20s at the time and powerful, knowing that the Scarlett lineage was sure that her heir would be a fire user, but unfortunately, they only managed to compromise him with her little sister.
To bad luck, Bernard discovered that the older sister could not be his fiancée and the precocious and horny boy began to hate Akane because at that time he was 10 years old and that throughout his growth stage Akane used ribbons and was in clothes that made her look like a sack of potatoes, in addition to those oversized glasses, aroused hatred in Bernard.
but the duke didn't care, he believed that with his talent it was easy to have more women, they just wanted Akane because of her bloodline.
but the duke did not expect that the brat would get out of the engagement, that she would beat up Bernard, and to top it off that the headmistress herself would come to her mansion and demand that she hand over everything she took from the Scarletts.
and all of that happened because of the manaless brat in front of him.
the duke hated that brat with all his heart, especially since his son was listed as missing, and the worst thing is that he couldn't retaliate.
For every minute he looked at Ren, he felt like he was wasting a year of life seeing the brat stand trial as a complete criminal.
until all the rubbish said by those disgusting marquesses ended, he was only able to file his complaint.
he wanted to know where his son is, then if the information is useful, he would be merciful.
if ren gives information that helped him find clues about his son, then he will make it look like ren had an accident.
if in case the answer is negative or useless, he will make sure to torture him and make his life hell.
or that was his plan before the trial, he did not think that the other 2 houses would get involved, he was aware that the brat had a somewhat favorable relationship with the Scarlett house and the Holland house, but he believed that those 2 would give up since for having kidnapped the slaves, the filth of the world, he thought that the house of Holland and Scarlett would surrender with his support.
or that was his idea, he didn't think that even the Kitamura house that is usually neutral in everything comes into the mix, but even so, he had to know the whereabouts of his son yes or yes.
Ren seeing the man almost about to pounce on him, turned to Kevin.
"Hey, do we have the recording?
- yes sir.
Kevin asked the court for his big screen, and they showed a security camera video on it.
it was Bernard running to Zaff's side.
When the duke saw his son his eyes almost popped out, but the video only showed one camera, it lasted a few seconds and then turned off.
there was no tracking
- the other? where is the other one!?
"There was no follow-up.
Ren said as if he was the most normal thing in the world.
Ren thought that since Duke Squirre was an older man, he would have a bigger fuse to burn, plus it really wasn't his fault that there was no follow-up, it was lucky that the camera was recording because of all the interference that was in the area for the mana expelled from the dungeon.
but ren was wrong, his fuse is as short as his son's.
he showed himself when the duke yelled.
- damn bastard!
the duke yelled as he pulled out a spear-shaped artifact and with all his strength threw it at ren.
it was so sudden that no one imagined that the duke would do that.
in the path of the spear, a super-reinforced ice shield appeared.
a shield of super hot fire behind.
everyone protecting ren.
which would normally stop the attack, but something no one expected was that the spear would become transparent in a bunch of air.
step through the ice shield.
pass through the shield of fire.
and on the way, more shields were made in the air of ice and fire that uselessly blocked the passage.
Rose and Eira began to worry, the worst thing is that they couldn't move in the presence of the emperor, one would be branded as a rebellion and the other as a declaration of war.
The 2 women waited for Ren to dodge, but Ren didn't move.
Eira with an anxious look made a large ice shield with multiple layers of thickness as the last move, she was about to go with her shield if that didn't block, but a hand prevented her from going, it was the little ren, which rose also noticed.
Ren who was chained was a bit surprised.
it was a unique air spear, but ren knew it, it was a single-use weapon, using air molecules with advanced physics it could pass through tangible objects to its target, it could only be blocked with a good air shield.
Naomi was not present to meet the spear with her own most powerful air magic.
but it wasn't necessary.
before the spear gets to touch ren.
out of nowhere, he stopped milliseconds from her forehead.
and it sounded like a pair of tornadoes colliding, making a thunderous sound and kicking up air throughout the courthouse.
The air lance could not penetrate whatever was in front of Ren, finally, the lance could not win and returned to its original state to finally break due to exceeding its limit.
Ren was calm looking at the duke's dumbfounded face.
no one in the room understood what had happened.
Ren knew.
he turned to where he was kiriko and saw how naked Excalibur was showing his divine brilliance to the spectators who began to kneel before him.
"Thank you little one.
Ren said before feeling the breeze in his palm.
only Duke Squirre could see it.
A large mass of air formed around Ren as if protecting him, surprising him by the large amount of pressurized air that formed around him, and then formed into a small shape in Ren's palm.
Not even Naomi would be able to make a barrier so thick it wasn't even visible.
it was a conjoined monstrous mana holding ren.
Amerie seeing the defense ability, couldn't help asking Sylph who was invisible but on his shoulder.
"What is that Sylph?
- it's a pod, it was my body that was in it, I used it as a pod for Excalibur but ren was able to make that mana have a conscience and look like a child, I'm curious how he did it, fufu, I knew that child is interesting.
The others were more stupefied, they only saw Ren caressing nothing in the air.
"You must come back.
invisible air blew for the last time before going to kiriko and covering his sword which confused people since it seemed that he disappeared.
Duke Squirre was taken from the room, but Ren knew there was something in him, so he waited to send a clone.
Kiyoshi was already making calculations in his mind to shut down the Squirre House businesses in his territory.
He thought his charges were over, but not yet.
only 1 more left.
church.
A priest of some rank arrived, he was the same priest who received them in the church in the capital.
- I come here in the name of the church to blame this heretic and deliver the filth of humanity to the church.
' And what's wrong with this one?
It was what Ren thought.
The priest began a strange and long morality talk about the beasts that were demihumans and should be enslaved.
Ren took it as nonsense since I don't expect that there aren't people so idiotic that they fall, but that nonsense achieved his mission, which is to obtain mass public opinion.
kiriko was thinking of stepping in to testify for ren, his hero of light title could work.
but Kumiko stopped him.
Ren had told him before, that if Kiriko gets involved, Kiriko's favorable public image will end up on the same level or worse than Ren's.
if that happens, it will be difficult to get support in the next missions of the goddess.
Kiriko after hearing the explanation, he wanted to refute it.
but he saw the bloodshot look on Kumiko as he looked at the priest who was following his talk.
The public that attended the trial shouted to hang Ren, bring in the slaves and kill them for rebelling against their masters.
Ren just looked around, realizing that many of these common people wished for the death of those poor innocent slaves.
he remembered the photo they took of the island, they looked so peaceful in that place.
Ren stared at the ceiling with a calm and somewhat vacant gaze.
But Kevin who was on the side and Kiyoshi who could see him from above, who know Ren and know that Ren rarely makes facial expressions outside of his comfort zone, started to get anxious at the sight of Ren.
'Should I help awaken the demon god and dominate or kill these people, or screw up the peace treaty and have them go to war against these humans, I guess the demon realm according to Eira's account of her country could function to send to slaves.
' I still don't know if they will be reliable with the elves, but this country is rotten, there is no salvation.
An air of depression could be seen in ren, Kiyoshi immediately warned his guards to shut up these people who kept shouting.
Kiyoshi could guess ren's vague thoughts, and he could assure with his life that they were not good in the least, ren's look was that of someone who gave up on everyone, but the trial isn't even over so it couldn't be that, it must be the voice of the people, Kiyoshi does not want to witness what happens if ren ends up hating something, ren was someone unpredictable who used to make decisions instantly and do things alone and every time ren did something unconsciously it ended in an issue world, he does not want to imagine what would happen if ren decided to do it consciously.
After calming down the humans, Ren calmed down a bit much to Kiyoshi and Kevin's relief.
But the priest supposedly giving Ren a saving grace gave him 2 options.
he could only end up with 2 possible options.
Ren will have to reveal the whereabouts of all the slaves.
either
he will be stripped of his title and will end up locked up until the end of his useful life in the church.
the tension in the room was growing.
everyone looked at ren, his decision will determine his future.
not even the 3 dukes who supported could mess with the church.
ren who was looking directly at the priest.
the priest was disgusted.
- down dirty heretic.
the priest an artifact that fell directly into ren's chest.
"ugh!!!
- order!
- Excuse me majesty, but this is the will of the goddess, I am allowed to be crueler.
Ren was lying on the ground holding his chest.
His friends went to his side, yelling at the priest to remove him.
but when everyone thought that ren would die from the pain.
ren just thought.
' I guess it's the end of the empire for me.
out of nowhere, a light appeared on the ceiling showing the figure of Gabriel...