With Pearl’s request, Mei voice started to echoed through the lantern-lit hideout, brushing against the low hum of seventy-something people breathing, waiting, murmuring, of course, someone that didn’t understand English aka the bartender girl was just there for the vibes.
"During the first trial," Mei continued, "We determined that nine players entered the dungeon, and their usernames include..."
After listing them off, Mei kept going.
"Olga’s version of events remains that Jared, who appeared to be an NPC, initiated an attack on the group by casting some form of red magic, and that the others turned on her after she retaliated."
"The dominant testimony, on the other hand, claimed that Olga was the aggressor, that she lost control and started cutting down everyone indiscriminately."
"Meanwhile, Hailie, who was there, testified that she saw ErikDop charge toward her. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, everyone else was dead."
Even though I’d heard this summary before, hearing it again made it worse, like reopening a sealed capsule box in front of everyone and inside were just knives.
Mei took a slow breath, scanning the crowd, then she looked toward Olga, Hailie, and the six ex-Destiny members sitting across the main table... With ErikDop not present.
"So~ Before we proceed!" she said, quite a higher pitch like she was excited for this trial, "I ask you all to confirm something."
"This person, this player that you are looking at." she motioned toward Jared sitting in the middle, "Is this the same person you saw in that dungeon?"
One by one, they answered, all eight of them.
"Alright," Pearl said, nodding slightly beside Mei with his hands behind his back, "That’s settled. Jared was there."
But before he could move on, someone from one of the tables stood up, pushing his chair away.
A juror, technically, though the word ’juror’ was being used very loosely, considering he was just another guild member.
"Question," he said, loud enough to cut through the murmurs.
"Please." Pearl gestured for him to speak.
"How exactly," the juror began, "did you capture him?"
Olga’s head turned toward me immediately, followed by Pearl’s... Signifying to everyone that I was the one that captured the guy. So naturally, all eyes landed on me.
After a second of stagefright, I simply I shrugged, casually leaning against the counter like I hadn’t just chased a man through the rain, tied him up, and dragged him across the map on a carriage, then let Pearl tortured him with my war scythe, I cleared my throat.
"I got a favor," I said simply. "That’s all."
"Favor?" The juror frowned. "From who?"
"Yo, what is it with you?" I stared back flatly. "Why’s the questions?"
A few people chuckled nervously, but the juror wasn’t amused.
"Well..." He crossed his arms. "We have to consider the possibility that this whole thing was arranged, what if this man was deliberately brought here to lie for someone? What if you were in on it?"
The murmurs started again, as annoying as a hundred bees buzzing in the same jar, and for some reason, even when they’re just whispering, it added up very quick in decibels. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.
"Oh, please. What would I even gain from that?" I said, louder this time with an insulted tone, "I wasn’t in that dungeon, I didn’t know either of the party close enough to be biased for them. Hell, think about it, I wasn’t even a member of New Destiny back then when shit hits the fan, neither was Hailie. I just happened to find out where this guy was hiding, brought him back, and now he’s here, that’s it."
"..." The juror sat back down with a nod, but we all know that he was not satisfied.
Someone else though, did stood up and raised their point.
"That doesn’t mean you didn’t grow a bias during the time between the first trial and now."
I exhaled through my nose and looked toward Pearl, silently asking for backup, he gave me a small nod and stepped forward.
"This conversation would go nowhere. If the people here worries about manipulation," Pearl pushed up his glasses, "then we have a simple solution. Let us vote, you either want to hear what this man has to say, or you’d rather close this second trial."
The room tensed right back up with loud noises again. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Raise your hand," Pearl said, "If you want to hear him out."
Hands went up, one after another, in waves.
I counted absently, five, ten, twenty, thirty... By the end of it, nearly everyone had their hand raised. And Mei herself counted it.
Sixty-nine votes in favor of hearing out the supposed perpetraitor, and four against... Which meant there was around 73 people in the room.
The difference was overwhelming.
"It is decided." Pearl nodded. "We’ll listen."
"Yah~ Wait!" But before anyone could speak, Mei raised her hand. Her tone was steady, almost too calm and casual, taking nothing seriously at all, "Then I propose something,"
"To ensure that no one interferes with the truth... How about we punish anyone who harms, intimidates, or kills Jared during this hearing be permanently banned from New Destiny."
"I guess that’s..." Pearl spoke
"AND!" Mei added, "Red List them."
The tavern was still fine initially, but upon hearing the world [Red List], they erupted in chaos.
Gasps, curses, disbelief, all at once.
"Isn’t that too much?!"
I turned to Hailie, who approached and was poking my arm as I sat on the stool of the bar, she leaned closer and whispered, "Um... Cory? What’s a ’Red List’?"
"Oh," I whispered back. "That’s basically the worldwide guilds blacklist, a big thing since the PC days... The representative of all the major guilds like New Destiny, Lion’s Parade, Bloodbather, all of them... Made a shared database. If you get on that list, you’re banned from joining any major guild, and fun fact, any guild found harboring a Red Listed individual will basically wage war against the rest."
"Woah..." Her eyes widened. "That’s... harsh."
"Yeah," I said, smirking a little. "That’s the point."
With that said, it took a second to calm people down as they were arguing among each other, some think this case is just ridiculous, and it should’ve ended on the last session, while others believe that a harsh punishment is justifiable for this context.
"What do you think if we call another vote on this?" Pearl asked the rest of the guild.
45 agreed with Mei’s suggestion.
Seventy this time, so three had left since the last vote started.
The chaos eventually died down again, people settled back into their seats, whispering behind hands, casting nervous glances toward Jared, toward Olga, toward Pearl, or even me, and if I caught them, I just waved to fuck with ’em.
I turned over to Jared, who just Jared sat there, head low, wrists bound, his hair sticking to his forehead from sweat. The firelight flickered across his face, carving deep shadows under his eyes.
Pearl stepped back, gesturing to the man.
"Then we’re agreed," he said softly. "The floor is yours."
It was time to face the music.