Melchior stopped in his tracks abruptly as he saw the large door in front of him. It was adorned with engravings of a tall mountain and the beasts that lived on it. A conspicuous engraving of some sort of snake/dragon took up a large portion of the state.
If he was correct about this being Blackmount, then it was very likely that the snake beast depicted there was Damjan.
Which, quite simply, meant that the town was aware of its existence. That would be quite the interesting find, but he had much more pressing matters at hand to care about.
A loud voice emerged from behind the door, startling him a little.
"Remember your place while speaking to the council, Zale."
His eyes narrowed a little. His father was in there.
"Should I still enter?" he asked Circe.
Tap! Tap!
Her feet connected with the floor twice as she slipped into thought. They both stood, waiting for any more noise to come out of the courtroom, but it seemed like there was nothing else.
That outburst was unnatural to a large extent.
Circe nodded, "Enter carefully. Head bowed. Walk straight until you reach the centre of the room, then kneel to the ground."
"Is that all I'm missing?"
"Don't look the Town head in the eyes till he asks you to," she looked solemn, "Make the mistake of doing that and pay the price in return."
Melchior took note of all of that, especially curious about why it was so important to follow those rules. But he wasn't about to pay some price just because he was curious.
"Understood."
Then without another word, he pushed the door open and walked in, head down. As soon as he entered, he felt a large pressure overcome his entire body.
It was like the eyes of a thousand beasts concentrated on him all at the same time. It was far more than anything he'd sensed from the Flame Hound and was even comparable to Damjan's aura.
A few murmurs emerged from the sides.
"Is that him… the traitor?"
"Hey, the verdict hasn't been reached yet."
As he walked, he managed to glean some information from them and suffice it to say, a lot of his assumptions were correct. They also didn't seem ready to hear him out any time, so he was already at a heavy disadvantage here.
Step.
"What verdict do we need to know? It's simple. Everyone knows the Zatanians specialize in this kind of technology."
Step.
"He was a talented kid. What a pity,"
Step.
"That's what jealousy gets you,"
Step.
Eventually, he reached the centre; a small circle surrounded by the elevated chairs around him.
As he reached there, the murmurs grew louder. Almost unbearable. Then….
"SILENCE!"
The yell reverberated across the entire courtroom. It was like a lion's roar. Low, but full of energy and power. All the commenters shut up as soon as they heard the yell. Not even one chatter remaining.
Melchior vaguely recognized the voice to be the town head.
'He's more powerful than I would have expected.'
It was very vague, but there were slight spirit energy fluctuations emerging from the head. If he hadn't acquired use of the energy, he doubted that he would have sensed it.
"Kneel, boy."
He obeyed.
"You may raise your head now," the head spoke again.
Melchior slowly lifted his head to get a better sense of how the room was.
And the first thing he met were the chilling purple eyes held by the old man in front of him. The man sat on a taller seat than the others, hand atop the long circular table that stretched across the entire room to accommodate everyone that sat.
'What are those eyes? It looks nothing like I remember…'
The longer he stared at them, the more lost he felt. Like he was falling. It was only after a split second did he realise what had just happened.
'No wonder Circe said there would be consequences if I didn't do as I was told. If it were anyone else, they might have lost their minds right on the spot.'
But he wasn't everyone else. He had seen things the like of which no one in this room could ever imagine.
At that, he quickly looked away to assess everyone else in the courtroom. Every relevant adult in Blackmount was here. They made up the town council and were also his adjudicators.
Melchior's eyes settled on two figures in particular.
Zale and… Elias.
The fat bastard had a very poorly concealed smirk on his face. He kept looking between Melchior and Zale, who appeared more angry than usual.
"Focus while you're in front of the council, child." A warm old lady said, advising him.
Melchior nodded, then focused on the grey-haired old man once more. The head's purple eyes still shone as brightly as before, as if intending to bore out every secret he held in his heart.
"Melchior E'al Zale," the old man started, "You have been accused of treason against the town of Blackmount and the Centuros Kingdom. As well as participation in practices found forbidden by the Alliance of Nations. How do you plead?"
The boy grimaced as the false accusations fell from the man's mouth. They were so outrageous that he had no idea where to even start defending himself.
'I need to calm down. I can't say anything that'll give them more of a reason to target me…'
Then a voice spoke, "Your silence shall be taken as an admission of guilt, maggot."
Elias again. He stared at the large man and all the built-up anger of two people combined at once. He was sick of it at this point.
"Not guilty," he said slowly.
Silence.
Elias raised an eyebrow. "Not guilty? Are you perhaps hoping for some miracle? All the evidence here points towards you being a traito-"
"Are you deaf, you stupid pig? I said… Not guilty."
Another silence, then total outrage.
'Oops.'
****
Author's Note: I try not to do them here, but power stone goals active now:
20 power stones = 1 bonus chapter!