Chapter 7 Terrorist Attack - Guilty until Proven Innocent

Unfortunately, all hope for Crono having a tranquil dinner at Castle Guardia was squashed the moment we entered the castle.

I heard someone call out my name.

'Princess Nadia!'

I turned around to see the Chancellor emerge from the shadows against the walls. He was a short man with a rather long white beard. He was dressed like a peacock, with elaborate and heavy, draping robes that hid his body almost entirely.

'Are you all right? Where have you been?!'

The Chancellor was a good man, I thought, even if he was a bit vain. At least he seemed genuinely concerned about me, if a bit too concerned.

'I heard you were abducted! We had soldiers searching for you!' the Chancellor went on.

Crono tried out his Ninja stealth skills. He failed to get away unnoticed. The Chancellor saw him at last. For a moment, it looked like he had seen a ghost but then his face cleared and was replaced with red hot anger. 'Scoundrel!' he cried. 'You're the one, huh? Kidnapping Princess Nadia!'

'No!' I said, 'Crono's...'

There were many things I could have said. Crono never knew who I was. Crono saved my life. Crono would never kidnap me. Unfortunately, the Chancellor, who was now too flustered to listen to anyone, cut me off. He shook an accusing fist at Crono's direction. 'Admit it!' he roared. 'You confused her and tried to take over the throne! Terrorist!!' he spat.

Crono was much too shocked to do any more than just stare at the Chancellor, me, the guards that pinned his arms to his side, throw a confused and vague glance at the faraway ceiling and go, 'What?'

'S, stop it!' I yelled. The guards looked at me hesitantly and loosened their grip on the struggling Crono. But only slightly.

'Stop this at once!!' I surprised even myself with the ferocity in my voice. The guards let go at once, looking very ill at ease.

The Chancellor was furious. 'What are you doing!' he shouted belligerently.

'But Princess Nadia said to...'

The Chancellor was basically hopping in excitement and frustration. 'Idiots!' he stormed. 'Detain him!!'

Crono looked at the multitude of guards swarming around him. 'Mom's not gonna be happy,' he said.

'Crono!!' How could he joke around at a time like this?

I don't remember what happened next very clearly, but I recall seeing the guards truss Crono up like chicken and march him out of the room towards the corridor to the right whilst I was held back by the Chancellor, who had a cold look on his face as he regarded the scene. I remember thinking that I had never seen such an expression cross the Chancellor's face, but it was very similar to the look that the two girls, earlier at the Square, had looked at Crono with. I remember thinking, there's something more to Crono than meets the eye. Some secret that everyone knew save for I.

And then, I was at the Court of Supreme Justice, watching the scene unfold below me. The Court was a place I rarely went, for few occurrences demanding a national trial ever happened. During any events, father and I would have to be present amongst the crowd. Normally, I wouldn't be paying much attention to the trial for such things bored the pants off me, but this particular trial was much different. I watched the crowd and jury assemble and felt the tension inside myself rise, and all I could do at the moment was watch the scenery and hope. Hope that something awful was not going to happen to Crono.

The Court of Supreme Justice was a circular room. The decorations of the room were superb, with glass-paned windows stained to form intricate art. Around the edges was where the audience sat to see their share of the action. In the middle of the room the main things would be going on. It was where the judge sat and the jury too, as well as the prosecutor. However, in the middle of the room, where all eyes would be situated upon, was the defendant's seat.

I tried to imagine myself in Crono's shoes, walking slowly towards that seat. Looking around to see that everyone was regarding you coldly and without sympathy. It would be too much for me. But would it be for Crono? He had nerves, but this sort of pressure would be too much even for him. I looked around; he was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he was in some kind of torture chamber. Maybe the Chancellor was making him suffer, even before the trial began.

The Chancellor, why on earth would he do this? I thought. Sure, he may have some reason to think that Crono could have abducted me, but the more I thought about it, the more preposterous it seemed. After all, if Crono had really kidnapped me, he wouldn't have taken me back to the castle. He would have dragged me to some hideout and asked for ransom. There must be more to the Chancellor's motives for this, I thought. There was something else to the story, but what...?

The judge banged his desk to regain order. Silence fell at once. The moment he was satisfied, the judge nodded at a man seated beside him. The man stood up slowly, and declared, 'I'm the lawyer, Pierre.'

Like a stereotypical lawyer, he didn't look very trustworthy.

When Pierre sat down, the Chancellor stood up from his seat. 'I'm the Chancellor, the prosecutor!'

'Members of the court,' the judge said. 'We now bring forth the defendant, Crono, who is charged with abducting Princess Nadia.'

The crowd began to murmur as the doors swung open. I looked around, my heart in my mouth. There was Crono. He looked pale and sweaty, but otherwise fine. I breathed a sigh of relief and watched as he walked to his seat, biting his nails. He was obviously nervous, especially after seeing the crowd staring at him. He gulped, hovered over his seat for a moment then sat down.

Words cannot describe how savage and biased the trial was. I do not have the heart to pen every accusing word of the prosecutor and Pierre's flimsy defence case. Words cannot express the evident emotions on Crono's face, the panic and nervousness and the growing realization that he might lose the case even though he was innocent and face severe penalties as a result. Neither can words express my own feelings of dread and anxiety or the tension that loomed in the air as the jury began to decided Crono's fate. However, judging from every bit of decisive (yet false, or misinterpreted) evidence the Chancellor had put forth, Crono and I already had a gut feeling of what the verdict would be.

'Guilty.'

Each of the seven jurors said the same deeply inflicting word that caused Crono to flinch each time. My heart plummeted so steeply it felt like I had a heart attack, even though I had been prepared for the worst case scenario. I looked at Crono's face. Any other person would have been weeping in the circumstances, but not Crono. He sat stone-faced and bore every wound each juror gave on his ego.

The judge banged his hammer. 'Order in the court!' he roared. 'A verdict has been reached! We have a majority!'

He paused for a moment. 'The verdict is...guilty! The sentence? Solitary confinement, pending execution in 3 days!'

Crono furrowed his eyebrows and remained silent. His face was impassive but underneath the brave face there must have been turmoil. I couldn't believe the amount of courage Crono really possessed. To face pending doom without breaking into tears or crying in frustration, as what he would normally have done, Crono had been different. This part of Crono was one to be admired, truly. I gazed sadly at him. I was already starting to think that I had lost him forever.

'Take him away!' the Chancellor cried, flourishing with his stick. Two soldiers approached Crono each holding ropes to bind his wrists with. He looked at both of them as they drew closer to his side then suddenly jumped to the side nimbly and let them crash together. He laughed.

'I'm not going to give up so easily!' he declared. 'I promised myself I would be the greatest swordsman in Guardia and none of you are going to stop me!'

Strange how the mind works in the most unlikely situations.

I got up from my seat and pushed past the people that were seating in the seats beside me. Only one thing was going through my mind. Get to Crono. Back him up.

Crono turned to the nearest soldier and dealt him a swift uppercut with his fist. It looked like he had dislocated the soldier's jaw. Crono kicked him in the stomach for good measure, temporarily winding him, then grabbed the soldier's fallen sword. He drew it and a ghost of a smile, a smile that never reached his eyes, flickered across his face.

'Who wants some?' he said.

The soldiers looked at each other uneasily then remembered that they were three to one. So they approached him again.

I had gotten to the bottom of the stairs.

Crono held up the sword.

'I call this the Cyclone.'

I had just reached Crono's level when I saw him jump into the air at a height that would have disgraced professional jumpers, pointing the sword ahead. For a moment, I thought a bolt of electricity coursed through it but when I blinked, he had already started his onslaught. His movements were a blur, truly comparable to a dancing cyclone. The soldiers, caught up in the middle of it all, stood no chance. Crono's weapon flickered in no set pattern, but not willy-nilly either. I never knew Crono possessed such skill as a swordsman. When the Cyclone was over, I observed all the soldiers he had targeted were covered with bruises, but Crono had made sure that they had suffered no serious injuries.

Everyone in the crowd gasped. Doubtless they had never seen this sort of thing occur before in a trial. The judge himself looked affronted. Pierre looked impressed. I knew what everyone was thinking. How could Crono have grown this strong? I had no idea myself. I had thought he was all talk, but there was some water in the basin.

The next round was too hard even for Crono. About twenty soldiers challenged him and in their joint effort disarmed him and bound his wrists together. And then there, right in front of everyone, a soldier started beating him quite harshly with the flat of his sword. I felt nauseous at the spectacle of it but Crono never cried out once. For some strange reason I could feel his pain as if it were my own.

It occurred to me that I had to do something. That was another part of me. I cannot witness an injustice and not feel obliged to do something about it.

'Now just a darn minute...' I called out disapprovingly.

The Chancellor looked surprised to see me. 'Princess!'

Suddenly I heard heavy footsteps. I turned around to see father. There never was a time when I was LESS happy to see him. 'That's enough, my dear!' he said crossly.

'But father...!' I sobbed. I looked at Crono. He shook his head at me. It's not your fault, he seemed to be saying.

Father looked outraged now. 'All I asked was for you to behave like a princess!' he said. 'Even royalty must obey rules. Leave the rest up to the Chancellor and forget about the events in town.'

I watched the multitude of soldiers leading Crono out the door. I fell to my knees. 'Crono!!'

I hated my father. I hated the Chancellor. I hated my royal heritage. I hated everyone.


I missed dinner for the second time in my life.

The first time was when mother died. Even though I had been too young to understand fully what was going on, I had still been too miserable to eat. Now, a second important person had been taken from my life and this time around it seemed even worse. How could it be? My mother was my mother, but I had only known Crono for less than a day. Perhaps it was because I was older and understood the implications of Crono's predicament. Yes, that was it. I sighed and sat on my bed.

Funny, my room does bear a resemblance to Queen Leene's quarters, I thought. But thinking of Leene made me cry. If only Crono, Lucca and I had stayed in the past. If only... darn, that wretched "If only" syndrome was returning to me again. I sighed again, more heavily this time and stared out the window. It was dark now and I could hear voices echoing through the castle as per usual at dinner. I stared at the crescent-shaped moon long and hard, looking at the familiar shape in the sky. It calmed me down a little.

Suddenly, a knock on the door. I opened it, hoping it wasn't some servant bringing me food I couldn't bear to eat.

It wasn't food but a familiar figure at the door.

'Prudence!'

Prudence looked me in the eye. 'Something happened at the fair,' she said. It wasn't a question.

I nodded. 'But it wasn't a bad thing.'

'What do you mean?'

I told Prudence a condensed version of my time at the Fair, carefully omitting the time-travelling part on the assumption that Prudence would think I was a gibbering moron forever afterwards. The story sounded really weird without the Telepod.

'Crono?!' Prudence looked slightly shocked. 'You met HIM at the Fair?'

'Why, what's wrong?'

Prudence looked a bit worried. 'You probably know Crono's the town idiot, yeah?'

'Yeah?' I said. 'So?'

'He's more than that,' Prudence continued. A dramatic pause. 'He's got a criminal record, Marle.'

'WHAT?!'

Prudence nodded. 'I'm sorry, Nadia.' She called me Nadia. That was only when she was genuinely sorry for something.

I looked at my feet. No wonder the Chancellor had thought Crono had abducted me. A criminal record? I had never thought of that of Crono. So then, did he actually deserve his punishment? If he was a vagabond, why did he show me around the fair? Was he planning to pickpocket someone there or something?

'Has he... murdered someone?' I asked hesitantly.

'He's not that evil,' Prudence assured me, 'but I can't believe out of all the people you could see at the fair, he was the one who showed you around. Are you in love with him or something?'

A question like that would usually prompt an indignant 'NO' from me. But these circumstances were different. I remembered vividly in my mind the scene when Crono and I had been alone in 600 AD together. I had a feeling that, had not I been removed from existence, I might have ended up kissing him or something. So, I did like him. But love him? After hearing about Crono's criminal record I wasn't so sure. How I wished he was in the room, then I could have asked him questions, but he was dead, wasn't he? Or good as dead.

'So you do like him?' said Prudence.

'Does Lucca?' I asked, deliberately avoiding the question.

Prudence shrugged. 'Probably. I mean, Lucca is Crono's one and only friend. I guess they're madly in love.'

Something in that statement sprang something in my brain. I didn't know you had any friends, Crono. I shivered a little. I promised myself I would be the greatest swordsman in Guardia. These voices sounded eerily close by. I could hear them as if they were spoken by a real person. He's got a criminal record, Marle. Marle. It was Marle who caused this whole mess. If I had just stayed as Nadia, none of this would have happened. It was a real Hyde and Jekyll occasion. Imagine the amount of vagabonds and pickpockets going to the Fair. Oh, father, if only I had listened to you.

'Nadia...' Prudence averted her eyes. 'You really do feel something for Crono, don't you?'

I could help it no longer. I buried myself in Prudence's arms and started sobbing as if my heart had broken. Which it had, naturally.

The three days of Crono's solitary confinement seemed like three years. I felt like it was I who was spending time in prison for my sins all on my own and without anyone there beside me. Prudence tried to understand, but didn't really. Worse still, the Chancellor had ensured that I couldn't get anywhere near Crono's cell no matter how hard I tried. Also too, he prevented me from leaving the castle by keeping me under constant surveillance. I felt like punching his stupid pompous head in.

I wondered how Crono's mother was getting on. The last she had seen of him was… probably at the morning of the Millennial Fair's beginning. She and Lucca. They would be the only ones in this darned entire world who would miss him when he died. And yours truly of course.

Another thing I missed in my old lifestyle was crossbow practice. There was nothing like the cool breeze ruffling your hair as you take aim at each target to calm you down. And the satisfaction of hitting the bullseye or close to it was remarkable. I had been training for months before the fair and could consistently hit targets that were on the move. Prudence's training regime was better than the guard's.

In the respect of the crossbow, however, Prudence was far better than I. Her hands moved rapidly, striking as quickly and accurately as an assassin. It made me wonder how she had gotten so good. I asked her one time. She said that she had competed in competitions all around the world and showed me a couple of her medals. She hated revealing them for fear she would stand out in society and become an outcast. However, she did the crossbow because she enjoyed it and it pleased her to know that if she was ever attacked, she'd probably be more capable at fighting than her adversary. Her psychology was as diverse from Crono's as could be imagined. When I said that, she just smiled.

'But I suppose there's a bit of Crono in all of us,' she said philosophically. I wasn't sure what she meant by that.

I had noticed a couple of changes since I had returned to the castle. My appetite had diminished and even crepe wasn't appealing to me anymore. My relationship with father was even stiffer than usual and I felt increasing dislike of the Chancellor. I could see Prudence was doing everything she could to get me back to my old self. She seemed to understand that when a person was in grief, that was the best time for friends to be around. Without Prudence I don't think I could ever have made it through the three day period while my adventures were on hold.

On the third day, the adventures started again in earnest.

It was about midday when I heard the Chancellor speaking to the guards. He mentioned the time of Crono's execution. 6.00 pm. Six more hours for Crono to live. I was subdued that day, and Prudence knew instinctively what was up. During this time, I had another little adventure, which I shall tell you presently.

A man arrived at Guardia Castle. He was someone I didn't know, so I kept away from him, not feeling much the need to entertain guests. He was tall, exceedingly handsome, with dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes; dressed in a robe of very finely made silk. I estimated him to be around twenty. I wondered why he was hanging around the castle. It really didn't take long to find out.

'Lovely Princess Nadia!' he hailed me. 'I would like to let you know that my name is Prince James of Regiorra.'

'Hello, Prince James,' I answered, feeling slightly annoyed that his eyes were trying to lock themselves on mine.

'The tales I've heard about you, Princess Nadia,' Prince James continued, 'you're quite the feisty one. I admire courage in a woman, I really do.'

This man is an incorrigible flirt, I thought. However, I replied as politely as I could. 'So you've come from the desert kingdom just to see me?' I asked. 'It must be a waste of your time.'

Prince James shook his head earnestly. 'No, because you are more lovely than I thought you would be.' Then suddenly, you wouldn't believe this, but this man held my hand in his! I was thoroughly shaken at this. How dare he! 'You are so beautiful. I wish I could take you to Regiorra. It would suit you, my princess,' Prince James cooed into my ear. I wanted to say, pardon the French, 'Shut up, you asshole!' but instead, I just went very red. The rude words wouldn't come out.

'Wouldn't you agree that it would be much better there than here in Guardia where you are liable to kidnapped by cretins?' said Prince James. I stopped giggling at once.

'Don't insult Crono's memory!' I snapped.

'Ahh!' said Prince James knowingly. 'Your father said there'd be some kind of resistance.' Resistance? I thought, confused, but Prince James was still speaking. 'So you've developed a fancy for the convict. I should have known!'

'I haven't taken a fancy to anyone!' I cried. 'Especially not to you!'

I stomped off. I half-expected Prince James to come after me, but he didn't. He must have taken his leave quietly. Never mind, because at that moment, the clock struck six and Crono's execution was taking place in the dungeons.

Preview

I'm leaving this castle forever. Nobody understands how I feel! What's this? Another gate has opened? Come on, Lucca, where are you when I need you? Next time in the Long Weekend: A Dim-witted Escape Plan – Avoiding the Guillotine! Come on, just look at the next chapter now!