Elias' face darkened. "Watch your mouth, filthy maggot,"
Melchior stood, dumbfounded that he himself made the mistake of spewing that out.
'Well fuck.'
The once silent courtroom turned into a madhouse in a little bit more than an instant.
"What a terrible boy,"
"Is this how Zale trained his child?"
"I say we just execute him now,"
The hateful comments resumed once again and even those who were neutral earlier couldn't help but grimace. Mel looked at Zale from the corner of his eyes and noticed that his father was as speechless as he was.
A crucial mistake on his part.
Bang! Bang!
Everything came to a halt as the town head slammed a small gavel against the table once more.
The murmurs were not as easily suppressed this time around but the old man continued, peering with those purple eyes of his.
"I hope you realise that your earlier transgression doesn't help your case in the slightest." he said.
"My apologies, sir." Melchior muttered, bowing his head.
"I will give you one more chance but only because Elias spoke out of line. Any more insults and you'll face severe consequences, even if you are innocent."
The boy nodded once more. "Understood. May I speak now?"
"You may."
'It's do or die. I can't afford a single mistake when choosing my words,'
Silence.
"I did gain the ability to use Spirit Energy a few days ago. However, it wasn't because of any Zatanian ploy or whatever you all may seem to believe."
"Then you deny the accusation?" a voice called out from the side.
It was very different from the Earthen way of justice because here on Elgross, or more specifically, the Centuros Kingdom, the jury could speak whenever they wanted.
Melchior nodded, "I do. Furthermore, I have evidence to prove that I didn't get the power from any so-called forbidden experimentation."
"Go ahead, then."
It took a while for him to decide on what to say, but he finally did.
"Are you all familiar with the Spirit dwelling in the lake some kilometres away from the town?"
Murmurs emerged as soon as he spoke of Damjan. It seems like his bet was right on mentioning the snake. Now all he had to do was play his cards right.
"You mean the Spirit Beast? What does it have to do with anything?" the town head spoke, his eyes sweeping across Melchior's face to detect any lies.
'Are they trying to trip me up?'
"No. The spirit. He referred to himself as a Spirit, not a spirit beast?"
"He?" Elias frowned, "The beast spoke to you, and it called itself a Spirit? Now that's a load of bullshit, or you truly belive that yourself. Do you think we're dumb enough to believe your poorly fabricated lies?"
"You can believe it or not, but I'm definitely not lying. And I'm sure you have ways to confirm that, so I won't bother myself with explaining" Mel shrugged.
The old town head narrowed his eyes in response before speaking.
"Continue."
And that was confirmation that he was on the right track. He put two and two together from the unfamiliar purple eyes and came to the conclusion that his eyes could tell truths from a lie.
There had to be a limit to that. So as long as he told partial truths, he would be able to get out of the situation in no time.
"I stumbled across that area the other day while escaping from two rabid beasts. He taught me the Spirit's way of using Spirit Energy."
Melchior nearly giggled as he spoke about the so-called rabid beasts. He wasn't quite ready to include Clyde and Andy into the situation yet.
He'd hold it over their heads for a while longer. Even though it would be useless at that point, their fear was going to be hilarious to watch.
"Hmmm,"
And even though it was technically misrepresenting the facts, he told no lies in his statements.
"Why do you think it would teach you over the thousands of normal humans like you we have out there? How come there aren't rumours of Spirits teaching Spiritless humans?" Another person jabbed.
"Damjan told me I was special. No other Spiritless human would be able to perform the fear I have,"
It felt a little cringe saying that, but that was essentially what had happened. His title of Divine Spirit King made him fundamentally different from other humans.
Melchior wasn't sure how big the difference was. It could be as far as biological, but it all boiled down to one thing.
'I'm no longer human.'
The fat man growled as he got up from his chair, then slammed a hand onto the table. "Hey, Reiner, don't tell me you believe this stupid maggo-"
Bang!
"Quiet, Elias." Reiner, the town head said, "The boy has yet to say a single lie."
That seemed to gag everyone thoroughly. Even Zale. One quick look at his father told him that he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Some peeps didn't let up quite yet though.
"However, that is not enough. That only clears one suspicion. What is his relation with the Zatanian troops recently spotted next to the mines?"
It was a very tricky question. Melchior was trying to give out as little information as he could concerning everything from that night. Sometimes less was more.
"Enemies. Is that enough?"
A bit of silence passed… then Reiner nodded slowly.
Yeah.
'Safe to say I won this,'
Reiner banged his gavel against the table, "Please leave the courtroom while we deliberate a bit further on this."
"Yes sir."
And without another word, he stood up and walked down the path that led to the door.
Winning felt great. So great that he couldn't help but throw snide looks towards the people making remarks at the beginning.
Finally, he left the room completely.
There, Circe stood in the same position as he left her.
"You… you're not getting executed." She murmured.
"How could you tell?"
"Most dead men don't smile so hard."
"Hah, that's fair."