The Trial: Journey's End
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 41: The Reason to Live
...Minotaur Kingdom Border...
"What... the hell. That's a... a lot of wagons." Mu'Lysa said to her partner on the border wall. She raised her meaty fist and pointed out what she saw in the distance.
Mu'Kyla raised her hand parallel to her brow to shade her eyes from the sun, and looked into the distance. "I don't see any, just a dot."
Mu'Lysa rolled her eyes, "Ugh, you're worthless on the watch, Mu'Kyla. I swear you'd not even notice a beastman till he was right up your ass." She laughed at her partner, huffing repeatedly as she put her hands on her sides.
Mu'Kyla glared at her. "No I'm not, you're just gifted with double sight, they only put me up here with you so you don't take naps all day and actually 'use' your eyes. And so they have 'someone' here who can actually count higher than seven. Now quit with the jokes and tell me what you see. Do I need to raise the alarm?"
Mu'Lysa looked in silence, her eyes very intent for a few moments before she said, "No, those are trade wagons, and... a LOT of them, A lot a lot. And..." Her jaw fell open... "No waaaay..."
"What? What no way, you dense cow?!" Mu'Kyla exclaimed in alarm at the change in Mu'Lysa's expression.
"I counted to seven, seven times and three more times after that, so however many that is, but... but the horses, they're being pulled by undead horses!" Mu'Lysa shouted in fear. "And they're moving... so fast, even you will be able to see them in a few minutes you blind heifer! Go put on a cowbell and shake it for them like the last noble to pass through these gates if you want, but go raise the alarm and get a squad out here. There are 'humans' on those wagons!"
The guards on the walls were redoubled with the sound of the Kiril's horns being blown, minotaur hooves ran up the fifty foot wall that controlled the pass between the Beastman Kingdom of Rargnan and the Minotaur Kingdom, nervous looks were abound as the horn had not gone off for years... but there on the western border, strength enough to stand firm and hold weapons at the ready, still existed. Shoulder to shoulder they stood ready to meet the threat, and the nervousness of a potential threat gave way to confusion when the farseer girl announced what her long sight had shown her.
Even the bravest can be frightened by sudden terrors, and this unknown did little to alleviate their concerns, until the sound began to reach them as more and more of the wagons began to come into view. "Are they... singing?" Mu'Kyla asked as her ear twitched over to catch the sound a little better.
"I think so." Mu'Lysa replied, her eyes focused in, "Yes, I mean they're armed, but lightly, this definitely isn't a war party, can you tell what they're saying?"
"Not exactly... but it doesn't sound like a war song, they sound, honestly, remember that festival a few years ago?" Mu'Kyla asked as she held her hand up to her ear to catch a little more.
"The one where you got drunk, put the bell around your neck, bent over in front of the captain and told him to 'make it ring, daddy', and the rest of the guys kept chanting 'more cowbell' for thirty minutes straight? How could I forget?" Mu'Lysa laughed long and hard as Mu'Kyla stamped her hoof.
"I meant the 'music' you fucking prude. They sound like they're singing festive music, sure there are undead horses, but they're being used as work animals. I think we should send out a delegate." Mu'Kyla replied with annoyance at her idiot war sister.
"Fine, fine, I'll do it." Mu'Lysa replied, and jogged down the steps, her hooves clip-clopping rapidly as she descended down the tower steps until she'd come to the large double sized gates, opened it, and exited.
She wasn't long in waiting, drawn by undead horses, within a few minutes she found herself holding an ax at the ready while a human delegate with a cherub face and a cheerful demeanor in fine black and green clothing waved to her. "'Lo there, miss!" He said happily.
"Ah, yes, hello, what's your business here?" She asked as she stared a little anxiously at the undead horses that stood like statues in front of her. They were bones and scraps of flesh, not even eyes in their heads, they didn't have an air of malice about them, but nor did they have any air of 'anything' about them, creating an eerie effect, like being stared at by a painting whose eyes followed her wherever she went.
"Trading. We're from the Sorcerous Empire, commissioned as a mission of goodwill by Vice Commander Skana and the head of the merchant's guild in the west, Guildmaster Tinamoc. I have a letter, and it's been stamped by the minotaur representative in the west, authorizing passage through the border, and on to the capital and the surrounding cities." He explained cheerily as he reached slowly into his shirt and drew out a sealed letter. He handed it down to her, and she took it in her hand, the letter all but disappeared in her large fingers, but she broke the seal dexterously and unfolded the triple folded paper and read over it.
"Not farther east?" She asked as she looked up at him, still holding the letter in both hands for reading.
"No, apparently the Minotaur Kingdom representative informed master Tinamoc that the east of your kingdom was far too dangerous for merchants to go without a large escort, we've brought only six soldiers per wagon, enough to handle common bandits but... from what I understand, Devor raiders come in the hundreds. So he wasn't willing to authorize more distant travel." The merchant's face wore a look she read as disappointment, a sense she shared herself, she huffed in acknowledgement.
"What do you carry?" She asked in a professional tone.
"Adamantite and Orichalcum ingots, some samples of runecrafted and magicine equipment, though little of the latter, they're only samples, enough to equip a personal guard for a wealthy noble. Also we're carrying more common trade goods, children's toys, beer preserving barrels... though not many of the latter unfortunately, they take up too much space. But, mostly smithing stuff, figure without the mines in your possession anymore, they'll sell for a good price." His eyes glinted when he smiled, and that was when she knew without doubt.
'He is 'definitely' a merchant, and he's not wrong... selling enough ingots of adamantite or orichalcum for even one set of full armor would make enough money for someone to live off of for half a year.' She thought to herself and then drew a stamp from her belt and affixed it to the letter after resting it in her palm. She handed it back to him, "Very well, if it has our representative's approval already, it's fine. No inspection necessary, just do me one small favor?" She asked gingerly.
"What's that?" He asked curiously as he slowly reached out, took the folded letter of approval, and returned it to his pocket.
"Don't gouge our smiths too hard on those ingots." She said with some regret, "Times are tough these days, and they were right not to let you farther east, even though you'd get some of the best deals there." She threw that tidbit of information out, and it had the desired effect as she saw his eyes twitch with the sense of opportunity at hand.
'Definitely a merchant.' She thought with satisfaction.
"Well, more's the pity, but that time will come soon enough, once our temples start staffing themselves with Black Justice escorts on site, we'll be able to hire enough that... well, let's just say the Devor would be wise to stay home that day." His grin became predatory and he threw back his head with a savage laugh, one echoed by those behind him who could hear their exchange.
"I hope you're right." Mu'Lysa said pleasantly and looked up, "It's clear, open up!"
"Thank's miss! I appreciate the information about the east, and I'll pass that on, maybe that will inspire our leaders to move the process up a bit." He waved to her as the gates groaned open, and the wagons moved forward, more slowly than before, as he tried to keep the soldiers above at ease, while their eyes bugged out of their heads at the impossible sight of undead drawn carts entering their nation.
...Menowa...
Albedo reappeared in the capital, without ever going to see Neia after having slaughtered those who had intended to do her harm. She had briefly considered a stop in Nazarick to change, but thought, 'No, this will throw Demiurge off his game... and I can't wait to see his face when he connects the dots.' She smirked as she appeared at the top of the stairs and walked down to her table, just in time for Cardinal Raymond to come forth for what he said would be the last of his memories of his time in the Slane Theocracy as a ruler, priest, and citizen.
It was another three hours before it began to wind down.
Raymond had dark circles under his eyes, a haggard look for all the world to see, he was worn out, tired, exhausted, all three at once and then some, he told them everything, he left out nothing. Finally, he said, "I... I think that's everything." In a voice that was barely above a whisper, "I... have said everything I know. I stood but a short time in the heights of power of the Slane Theocracy, being the youngest of their number. But as commander of all the Scriptures... it was my choice to send the Holocaust Scripture West, as well as the Black Scripture, which brought down Gustav Montagne, I sent the Windflower North, and the Gray to the Northern Holy Kingdom, to hunt down and kill Neia Baraja, Skana Baraja, and as many of her people as they could. I participated in numerous operations that killed many..."
He coughed, violently hard for a moment as his voice cracked, and took gratefully a cup of water from a nearby minotaur, he drank it down so quickly that some of it spilled down his cheeks as if even his lips could weep. "That killed many who did not deserve to die... they died because of what flesh they were born in, they died because... because my country called them evil for existing, said they were our enemies... and trained us all our lives to hunt and kill them all. It was the same for the elves, when the war began... it didn't take long to decide the whole race was fit for nothing but slavery and death. That was long before my time... but I went to school in my country, and I know what we were all taught for all our lives." Raymond struggled to keep his eyes up, but he managed, and it was said to be one of the quietest days in the history of humanity, or any other race that saw him speak.
"I can offer no defense for myself except to say that I knew no other world growing up but that one. I... I should have known better, but I didn't. I spent all my life thinking I was a good man, only to find myself, there in the middle of my life, to be an evil one, an accidental villain... and I spent the rest of the war, trying in vain to make it right. I saved who I could, how I could, and turned on my nation, abandoned my gods... the girl from before... she was one such, who hid within my house, who saved my life once. I killed my own people all the way through Kami Miyako, hunting down the worst of masters and mistresses so that I could cheaply buy up slaves, to save and hide as many as I could in the work camps, away from any harm."
He ensured that his eyes caught those of minotaur leadership as he went on, hoping that at least he could repay the Sorcerer King in this way, 'Let it be remembered before the world, that His Majesty, put his wealth to the lives of nonhumans, that at least, will serve him well in the future.' He thought, before he went on. "In that, I had the support of the Sorcerer King, who donated gold to the efforts of myself and two of my comrades, Cardinal Berenice and Cardinal Ginedine, who saved as many as I did, and then died trying to kill Cardinal Dominic. I know I can never make up for what role I played in that. No words of mine can say... more than 'I'm sorry'... but even that... even that is not enough."
Finally Raymond could keep his head raised for only a little more, it all felt heavy, heavier than the burden of leadership, many times over, is the guilt of confessing wrong. "I won't ask this world's forgiveness. I don't deserve it, a few months as a good man, does not erase a lifetime as a villain." He swallowed hard and yanked his chained wrists up and snapped them taut, wanting to open his arms but being unable to do so, he looked up to where the magic casters were capturing every image and the demons overhead, every sound, all to be relayed to the cities of the empire, and he shouted, "I'm SORRY!" Before he went quiet as his unburdening began to fade to a whisper, and his face fell, "I'm... sorry. That's all."
So he stood, a broken man.
Albedo stood up and looked at him, and he raised his head slowly, "Tell me, Cardinal Raymond, the woman you begged for mercy, the woman you tried to have killed, the woman whose wife your scripture mutilated... do you believe her to be deserving of punishment?"
Raymond heard his heart beating in his breast, he recalled the Sorcerer King's words, 'All I want is for you to tell the truth, nothing but.'
He swallowed, 'With one word... I could kill her, just say yes... and this might convict her and kill her and I could avenge...' His thought vanished as he remembered the wrecked look in those demonic eyes, the way she talked about watching a soul be born and die in the midst of a nightmare, he thought of Nua, how she'd come to life, found her courage and strength, and begged him to either kill her, or his faith in the gods that called her an animal... he tried to imagine the light leaving her eyes, and at his core a burning rage rose up that he did not expect. 'If that caught fire in the rest of my soul... how far would I really go?' He wondered.
Finally, he answered, "That is a complicated answer... may I say more than a word?" Raymond asked the adjudicator.
"Answer as you think best." The behemoth beneath the hood replied.
"I... I don't think that a lot of what she did was right! Yes, a lot was wrong, very wrong... I don't think anyone should just walk away from that. But... at the same time... I don't believe she deserves to die. It was part of our national goal, remember, to break or kill her, it was what Remedios dreamt of nightly, we set monsters after her, to do terrible things to torment her whenever we couldn't strike her directly. I... I remember something that Ainz's other representative said in my presence years ago in the closing days of the war. She said, 'If we hate demons so much, we should stop making them.'"
He pursed his lips tight and clenched his fists around the edge of the stone podium at which he stood. "We helped make that monster, what she did, is at least partially our fault, we created horrors enough to drive decent people mad, even hearing it, some of those minotaurs in this very pavilion, have grown sick, many around the empire, no doubt had to leave just hearing it as well. But... she couldn't leave, and she saw it in person, up close... again... and again, and again... for year after year after year. I ask you to remember... she fought against the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth, and then had to fight the remnants over the years between that war and the end of the last one, and she was barely more than a child of fifteen summers. Now she is a woman in her twenties but... she has grown up knowing nothing but the war and violence that sought her out. Yes... she does deserve some punishment."
He stepped away from the podium and walked to the middle of the court, and sweeping it with one final gaze he said, "But if you want to hang her for what she did... then hang every king, every prince, every queen, every princess. Hang every general, hang every noble, hang every priest of the old gods. Hang every chieftain and every warrior who ever went over any border ever, hang every emperor and empress, hang every single one of them, because I tell you none of what created the Demon of the West, could be possible, or would have happened, if NOT for the world leaders of our age defining how we should regard one another! It is a wonder she was not worse than she was. Does that answer your question?" He asked Lady Albedo, before shuffling back to the podium.
"It does, thank you." She said, standing there in her marvelous armor, the picture of lethal and the picture of beauty with her helmet beside her. "But I have another. I'd like the court to know, 'why' you're doing this? Are you being offered a plea deal? Are you going to go free, be spared the death penalty? What?"
Raymond took another drink of water from the nearby minotaur, drank deeply, but slowly, then answered with conviction, "Because I knew the truth!" He exclaimed and threw the stone cup down hard enough for it to shatter, its pieces scattering wildly over the floor, skittering to a stop only when they struck steps or walls.
"When I was first thrown into prison after my surrender of Kami Miyako, I was low, I did give serious thought to hanging myself in there. But I chose to stay alive, I chose to stay alive because I was the last, I was the only one who knew everything!" His voice kept getting louder as he spoke, rising with passion and anger with every word, "Because somebody... SOMEBODY after centuries of our behavior, had to say THIS HAPPENED! Someone who would be believed, known, recognized! Someone who could say... YES the human fathers who got children from their use of elven concubines, often sold their own sons and daughters, or used them as tools of control over the mothers, because of their half elven blood! Someone had to say 'THIS HAPPENED' when talk of meeting over whether the elves should be eaten like animals or not, took place in our halls of power. It was the only time I ever saw Dominic make a truly moral decision. Someone had to say that yes, children were torn from the arms of their parents, that the tools of torment were real, that the breaker academies... that everything General Baraja saw that drove her MAD... were real! I couldn't let the truth die! It would be like another atrocity all over again! So I lived... I lived only for these days here in front of the world... and now I've said it all."
He forced his voice to calm down, and put his hands over his chest while his heartbeat slowed, "It is true, I was 'offered' a deal, a deal to tell the truth. A deal that promised me that I would live. But I rejected it completely. There IS NO deal. I refused it because there is no price you can put on this truth that wouldn't TAINT it... I am prepared to hang for how I lived. And if anyone in the empire doubts it..."
Raymond looked up at the Adjudicator, "I abjure all rights to a trial within the Sorcerous Kingdom or the Neutral Argland Council state. I plead guilty here and now in front of you. There are no redeeming circumstances that I have not spoken of, at least none that absolve me of my lifetime of sins! There are... friendly witnesses, perhaps, but none who I would put through that, and none who would add anything new to my testimony, or change that I am GUILTY! I ask for an immediate sentencing, and I reject any right to appeal it."
The adjudicator looked down at him, and though he was faceless beneath the hood intended to hide his identity, it was impossible not to notice how flustered he was, his gestures were hesitant as he raised up his gavel and held it aloft, unsure whether to strike it or not. When he spoke, his dismay was in his tone, "You are here as a witness, this isn't a trial for you..."
Raymond pointed to the armored Albedo sharply, with both hands as they were manacled close together, his eyes flashed with frustration and his voice was choked with weariness and anger as he exclaimed, "Make this my deal then, that I be sentenced now, no more of this! My deal is 'get it over with'. I've said all I need to, I've lived to do what I lived till today to do. I can pay for my crimes publicly and without regret, except that I have only one life to give to make up for all those I am responsible for ending!"
The adjudicator looked to his fellow judges, all masked as himself. Uncertainty engulfed them like a bad smell as they shifted uncomfortably. With no help for it, he looked to the prosecutors and the defender. "Do you have any objections, any of you?"
Albedo traded looks with Demiurge and Vanysa, mutual shaking of their heads gave answer enough.
"V-Very well." The Adjudicator said, and drew back his gavel, and he looked down at Cardinal Raymond Zarg Larrenson, "Then Raymond Zarg Larrenson, given the many crimes you have committed, the lives you've taken and your participation either active or passive within the Slane Theocracy during your time in the office of Cardinal, I accept your guilty plea without contention. While it is clear that you are remorseful for what you've done, and that you saved many lives, you were also right about one thing. A few months of decency does not make up for a lifetime of evil. I have no choice, but to sentence you to death. You will be hanged here, in a few hours, we will undertake a brief recess while a temporary gallows is constructed, and then it will be done. Your death will be quick, your final days, and your testimony today, merit that much mercy at least. Have you anything to say?"
Raymond's voice was weary, tired, "I've said all that I need to, but... if I could ask for one thing more... the woman who was here before, could I ask that she be found, I want to say goodbye to her. And, if it isn't too much trouble, my... 'handler' if you want to call her that. The Lady Solution, one of the maid demons of the Sorcerer King who protected my house in the last days of the war, I want to tell her thank you."
"I'll send a runner to that temple across the way, seems like she's with that. No promises however." The adjudicator said without optimism in his tone.
"I don't ask for any." Raymond answered in a deadpan voice as his body slumped forward as he relaxed.
"Who will be the next witness?" The adjudicator asked Demiurge as he set the gavel down.
"Adjudicator," Demiurge stood up and tugged lightly on the front of his suit, "we had planned on calling General Neia Baraja back to the stand, we had... some questions for her, but, it seems she's not here." He cast his eye to one side at the silent Albedo and the empty chair where Pandora's Actor normally sat. His early smug confidence in his victory, gone, and doubt hid behind a neutral face.
His confidence returned a bit, when a messenger entered, and handed a note to the adjudicator.
"It seems... that General Neia Baraja, formerly held at Kirakira prison, and more recently held in the Fortress of Last Home, has fled custody during a surprise attack by the Devor Empire's raiding parties. Her location is unknown to the authorities at this time, and if she is not returned, then we will have no choice but to find her guilty in absentia."
