At dawn, the suspect was brought to trial, or at least what appeared to be one. The judges were the king himself, the archbishop, and the head of the royal guard. Expecting objectivity from them was foolish.
In the courtroom, all members of Aileen's guild were present, along with a few notable figures: Alfred with his comrades; a young man from the trade guild, Henry Winner, who was friendly with Vina; and a slightly graying middle-aged man trembling over some papers – according to Vina, he was the chief treasurer. Captain Victoria Stering of the guards, the Rector, and a few other dignitaries were also in attendance. The trial was held within a narrow circle of insiders, although the hall could have accommodated a couple of hundred more people.
To defend Aileen, Vina and Katrina stepped forward, while the chief inquisitor Wilhelm Van Grave acted as the prosecutor.
"Aileen Draglein, you stand accused of plotting against the royal person, espionage in favor of the Dragon Empire, and engaging in subversive activities in Verania," the head of the guards read the charges, his voice making it clear that, in his opinion, all Imperials were enemies from birth. "What do you have to say in response?"
"This is absurd! I would never stoop to such folly as organizing plots. While I can't vouch for all my compatriots, I never received any official orders to prepare such diversions. And espionage is even more preposterous. I came here as an ambassador and knew nothing of your laws and traditions. If studying your history is forbidden, will you start killing foreigners at the border? Subversive activities? I don't recall ever being involved in anything like that, but I do remember helping the guild fight extremely dangerous monsters that could have wiped out half of your army."
"Your battles with dangerous monsters also raise doubts," the prosecutor interjected. "Your actions in the eastern lands of Kamiyari led to the loss of a heavily fortified area. The current local guard consists of no more than two hundred people, and they are unlikely to offer serious resistance to external enemies."
"Ah, so now you've decided to accuse me of that too? The slaughter in the eastern lands was instigated by a local baron, and we were there to defend the residents. If you paid more attention to the people's opinion, perhaps you would have kept that outpost intact," Aileen looked reproachfully at the king. "I thought you would judge me, not my guild, in which, by the way, my involvement was quite conditional."
"Is that so? Then how do you explain that you fought a battle with an ancient god in the eastern islands on a ship bearing the symbols of the Empire? Wasn't it meant to influence the local population's favorable perception of your country?"
"Ha! That was my ship, which I built myself, and naturally, I had no intention of launching it under someone else's flag. Is that so hard to comprehend?"
"We also have information that you earned a considerable sum of money from guild contracts and the venture you arranged with your treasurer during the tournament, the results of which are also questionable," the inquisitor continued, delivering his accusations in the same disdainful tone.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, are you also blaming me for your conceited son turning out to be such a weakling?" Wilhelm winced slightly at the engineer's mockery but quickly composed himself. "And if you think I somehow influenced the outcome of the final battle, that's an even more ridiculous assumption. By that time, I hardly knew them, but judging by the attitude of the other guild members, they too had doubts about who would emerge victorious."
"All of this is inconsequential. I would like to know how you spent the money, as I understand you have already squandered most of the reward."
"And you are keeping tabs on my expenses now?"
"And what did you expect?" the commander of the royal guard intervened in the argument. "Your country practically declared war on us and sent us a suspicious negotiator. Did you think we would leave you unattended?"
"Oh, for goodness sake, what paranoids... Well, suit yourself. Yes, I spent most of that money on rare materials, not easily found in my homeland, but which I could use for building a ship."
"So, you purchased them for military purposes?"
"Considering that the ship is almost devoid of weaponry and its main combat strength comes from YOUR own countrymen with magical abilities, I doubt you can accuse me of that," Aileen slowly grew irritated by every attempt to provoke her.
"But you clearly bought more materials than necessary for your ship."
"Well, perhaps I spent more on it than needed, but I also bought some rare metals just to study their properties. For instance, I found a way to remove the 'glowing' effect of mithril under moonlight, though, in doing so, it loses many of its other useful properties."
"So, you were studying our weapons to come up with possible countermeasures!" the inquisitor persisted, but his relentless interrogation irked not the accused, but her defender, who had been generating small electric sparks for quite some time.
"You are incorrigible," Aileen sighed heavily, clasping her hands before her face. "Have you ever heard of scientific interest, research, and discoveries? Have you ever cared about anything other than your conviction of your own superiority? Now I understand why you lag so far behind other countries. Even in Leran and Nordrune, people invent new devices. Some have port cranes and sanitation systems, while others have siege weapons."
"Oh, speaking of that! We know that in addition to money, you also took one siege weapon as payment from the great jarl, a rather rare item in our lands."
"So what? Yes, I took it and installed it on my ship. True, it was completely destroyed after that battle, but I have no trouble restoring that ballista."
"Ah! So you admit that you seek out our countries' military technologies?"
"You call those technologies? The Empire has much more reliable and powerful weapons. What you call technologies, I simply took for lack of better options!"
"Oh, do you really have something more serious to boast about?" Wilhelm sneered.
"Of course we do, and if you don't stop provoking us, you'll soon have the chance to personally witness the creations of our weapon craftsmen!" Aileen uttered this threat through gritted teeth, which promptly sparked murmurs of disapproval in the courtroom.
Katrina was ready to explode, but her neighbor held her back.
"I apologize, but could the esteemed prosecutor refrain from provoking my protegee into aggression? All his statements are mere conjectures and speculations, and if you have something to say, it's better to stick to the matter at hand!" the neighbor interjected.
"Yes, yes, I was just about to do that," the self-satisfied inquisitor reclined on his chair.
"Such a parasite," Katrina gritted her teeth angrily, making sure no one else heard her.
"He deliberately provokes Aileen to stir up tension and present the Empire as the world's main enemy. The problem is, the Imperials themselves don't mind being seen that way."
"But what should we do then?"
"We'll push forward with the facts and hope that Krito and Hilda will bring more substantial evidence."
"Ahem, then let's proceed in order. Do you deny your involvement in the assassination attempts?"
"Of course."
"But you mentioned that someone from the Empire might have organized it."
"It's not impossible. We don't have a unified policy, and some factions might have done it, although I don't see much sense in it."
"Why not? Chaos in governing the country would give you an advantage."
"Or it could have backfired. In any case, there are more reliable ways to undermine the rule of your countries, which we would resort to if we were to attack."
"The attackers didn't carry any distinguishing marks and carefully concealed their origin. Could they be from the Empire?"
"That's logical in such assassination attempts. And why did you assume they were my fellow countrymen? It's not practical to bring so many people here when you already have enough mercenaries willing to sell their souls for a few extra coins. Besides, they didn't act too professionally; our agents wouldn't have made such mistakes."
"So, you seriously considered sending assassins against us?"
"The idea was suggested, but quickly dismissed due to its low effectiveness."
"Our information indicates that the attackers had some technical devices unknown in our country, namely explosive balls and mechanized bows. Where could they have gotten them?"
"I can answer that," Vina interrupted the inquisitor. "Large crossbows, as you yourself recently acknowledged, exist among the Nords, although they don't have handheld versions. But in Leran, similar devices have been circulating on the black market for quite some time. These explosive balls, or bombs, as you call them in the Empire, have become quite popular among hired killers, especially after an engineer from the Empire, present here, used them to defeat a rather powerful mage in a public battle."
"That's true. Although it's contraband, Camilla told me how often smugglers visit the Empire precisely for that."
"And one more thing," Vina placed a small steel box with one open side on the table, revealing Aileen's weapon, which she attached to her gloves. "This is what the most modern crossbows look like, whereas the ones the assassins used are much older models."
"So, you're suggesting that Imperial assassins would have been better equipped?" Wilhelm skeptically eyed the miniature device.
"Why not?" Vina handed Aileen the crossbow, and she effortlessly put it on her hand. Slightly squeezing her fingers, she released an arrow that pierced the crossbow left by the mercenaries.
"Though, of course, there are issues with its complexity," the engineer removed the device from her hand and pressed it slightly, shifting the cover. "Without the necessary technical skills, it's impossible to reload it, so simple mercenaries will find it difficult to operate such a crossbow. But shooting from those models doesn't require much intelligence. Although I've heard that some skilled craftsmen are already making crossbows even in Leran."
"But you don't deny that they could have been brought to the assassins from the Empire."
"Quite possible, but officially, we don't trade with your states. Or are you going to judge me for smuggling?"
"Oh, no, not at all. Just thinking out loud. Now, back to the issue of payment," the inquisitor placed a heavy pouch of coins on the table, inside were Imperial gold coins carefully selected from all the coins found on the assassins. "Some of the criminals were found with money, including Imperial coins."
"That's nonsense! Why would we expose ourselves like that?"
"Who knows, after all, gold is gold. You say you don't engage in official trade with our countries?"
"Yes, we don't, but that doesn't mean no one on your continent still has coins from the time when trade existed."
"But that was so long ago, and you say that now trade only happens through smuggling. So how do the shadow traders pay when they end up in the Empire?"
"Hah, most often, it's directly with gold and precious gems."
"So, even they don't have direct currency exchange? How is that possible?"
"Excuse me," Vina interjected again. "You do present your argument quite eloquently, but it's a well-known fact that Imperial coins are kept in large quantities by many collectors in Verania and Leran, and they even appear in state treasuries."
"That may be true, but most have long been melted down, and those that remain are so rare that gathering such a quantity requires a lot of effort," the inquisitor jingled the pouch demonstratively.
"Yes, that's true. It would be challenging to gather them in our countries, but I've studied them a bit and discovered some interesting facts."
The girl took the pouch from the inquisitor and randomly pulled out one coin, then shook it a little and carefully selected another, finally taking out one more coin from her pocket.
"Not all coins are the same here. This one is for comparison, one of those used by that stranger from the Empire for the Tournament."
"Can you confirm this?"
"Yes, Henry," Vina turned to her colleague from the trading guild. "My guild helped organize that... event. And as payment, we received some of these coins. I took this one from our guild's reserves."
"So, I conducted some research, and these coins are significantly different. But I am a biased party, so it's better to ask an independent expert," the trader said with a smug smile and approached the elderly official sitting next to Henry. "Lord Chief Treasurer, could you please assess them?"
"Me?" though he held an important position, the treasurer had always been a rather timid person. "Well, if you insist."
The treasurer hesitantly examined the coins in his hand, assessed their weight, studied their wear, and finally tapped the edge on the table. "Hmm, they differ. This coin has a more resonant and heavier metal. Most likely, the second coin is counterfeit, with less gold content or possibly none at all," the treasurer returned the coins to the defender.
"And how would you assess this coin?" Vina handed over a control coin from Henry's reserves.
"Hmm," performing the same actions, the old merchant placed the coin next to a cheaper one with doubt, but still said, "It's the same as this one... If these are common coins in the empire, then they are unlikely to be counterfeit, but such a significant difference shouldn't exist."
"And how would you explain this?"
"I don't even know... Deliberate depreciation of the coins, but it would take the state many years, and old coins are usually withdrawn to increase the overall quantity."
"Could it be that these coins are not from the Empire if they were supposed to be replaced with new ones?"
"Um..." the treasurer became nervous, hoping for help from the king, but he couldn't assist, "I don't know, we haven't done business with them for a long time, so we can't keep track of their economy."
"But I still doubt that the Empire would use two types of coins that differ so significantly."
"I think you are mistaking your fantasies for reality," the inquisitor frowned skeptically, "you can't explain this phenomenon, but you are making assumptions. Can you say anything concrete?"
"To this question, I think I'll be the one to answer," the door to the hall swung wide open, and inside walked a "man" with long chestnut hair and a row of horns framing his eyebrows and temples. The man wore richly adorned black clothes embroidered with gold. "So you decided to judge my envoy, and yet you could have summoned me?"
"The Emperor?!?!"