I was going to asked why the fuck would she read books about classical warfare, but I just waited for her to continue, and she did after taking a deep breath:
"If she wanted influence and weaken the Destiny’s side, Olga could have planted a spy among the dungeon assault team. Paid them to backstab someone weak... Like me, then she swoops in, restrains them, calls it an accident, blames a hypnotist and have the backstabber get off on a light sentence. So she’d look like a hero, that would be close to what the Zhao do to Li Mu before Qin finally took over after years of struggling back and forth..."
I paused for a second, trying to take all of that in.
"Well..." I shrugged, a crooked smile tugging at my lips, "...Maybe she’s not that smart. She does look like a hunk of meat who says ’bastard’ every third word."
As I said that, I looked back at Olga, short and choppy fierce red hair with dented armor and visible muscles that probably could armwrest a bear. She did seems like a... bimbo? Probably not the best adjective, but was one.
My comment earned me the faintest glare from Hailie, but before she could say anything, I felt eyes on us, so I glanced around.
Four players from the next table were staring.
"Keep it down, please" one of them muttered.
I stuck my tongue out at them like a child, they rolled their eyes and turned back to their discussion.
Then, there was nothing left of us as we crossed our arms on the table, staring at the blank piece of paper with mana glowing.
Silence stretched between me and Hailie for a few seconds, ten seconds, twelve, fifteen... Hailie’s gaze slid away, toward the judge, the jury.
"Um... Personally- Me myself, please don’t take offense to this, Cory, but if it were up to me," she said finally, "I’d write Nothing on that, but I am not a member so... You should do what your heart believe, because I think trying to force you into writing something you don’t believe in is very rude and condescending of me."
Her voice was firmer than before, but her eyes were sad. Hailie folded her hands in her lap as her staff was rested against table, and looked away.
I stared at the slip, the faint glow catching the light. My chest felt tight, like I was holding my breath too long.
One more time, let add all the facts and reorganize the events.
There were 9 people going into a dungeon assault, 7 of whom were ex-Destiny (Erik, Isaac, and whoever else I didn’t catch or care about the names of), 1 of whom was ex-Omnitetris (Olga), 1 of whom was an outsider (Hailie).
Upon entering the dungeon and walking a few steps, they encountered an NPC, a seemingly average villager who asked for an escort back to his town. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel✦fire.net
I checked the map, and sure enough, there were 2 towns in walking distance, one around an hour walk, the other further at 3 hours. But then Olga and Hailie said they didn’t receive any popup notification, while the seven ex-Destiny was confused and contradicted each other, before finally settling in as "Yes", they did receive notification.
Then, Olga claimed she saw the supposed NPC charge up mana, when she said stop, he didn’t, so she cut him down, then the rest of the party tried to kill her, and she killed them in self defense instead.
BUT, the others claim there was no mana thing, and they didn’t attack her, she went and attack them first.
The outsider, or Hailie, couldn’t provide a solid testimony that support eitherside, but she claim that she in fact heard Olga saying "Hey, stop that" to presumably the NPC. And she claimed that one of the seven ex-Destiny charged at her with killing intent.
But only the two of us know that Hailie was invulnerable to damage so that could very well be possible, he just stopped attacking after he realized she couldn’t die and stopped, trying to spin the story that he didn’t attack her at all, which worked because she was a coward who closed her eyes and ears.
Now, there were two incriminating evidences against the seven... The stuttering before deciding to unanimously saying yes to the quest thing, and Hailie’s testimony... But since we couldn’t outright claim that Hailie is invulnerable, the guild couldn’t take that into consideration.
So there’s only one incriminating evidence against them... But that could be chalk up as when testifying and talking over each other, they just stutter over the words and say without thinking. Only after being asked to give individual testimonies were they able to say "Yes" coherently, public frenzy histeria was a real thing.
So ultimately, there was literally no solid and trustworthy evidence against both sides, we would have to rely on eyewitnesses testimonies.
While evidences against Olga... Not really any, but the weight of 7 dead members was not to brushed off.
Then I sighed lowered my pen.
"Strip leadership rank." I wrote, borrowing a pencil that was being passed around every table.
I let the ink dry, staring at it.
My reasoning was simple: money meant nothing, not when she’d just been paid handsomely after that raid, and I absolutely hate that billionaires can pay fines to get out of crime, anyways.
Kicking her out of the guild, temporary or permanent, would only brew resentment, and if she was the violent maniac some claimed, she’d hunt everyone in the jury for it. While if we strip her of her rank, she could start over and prove herself, but not as second-in-command. She’ll have to rebuild trust.
That felt like balance.
Then Mei’s voice cut across the hall, bright and theatrical.
"When you’re ready, darlings, come on up and drop your paper in the box right here!" She slapped the side of a wooden chest she’d dragged into the middle, her witch hat bobbing dangerously as she grinned at the crowd. "Step right up, no shoving!"
The tension broke into movement. One by one, slips began to pass hands and feet, carried toward that ridiculous hat and her bright, waiting smile.
And mine lay heavy in my palm, ready to join them.
But... I let out a huge, loud, begrudgingly groan of annoyance.
"Hey, if I already written down my verdict, and I wanted to change the it, can I just scribble out the previous one?"
Mei blinked at me a few times, before spinning her head back to Pearl, awaiting his answer.