Day 6: Trial of Rome

Back in the courtroom, many were surprised by the arrival of their lady, but they were also curious about her choice of entourage. They watched as they moved forth, and neared the man in question of today. "You may leave." Claudia ordered the two guards beside Rome.

"But, my lady-"

"That is an order, guard." Her aide, a lady knight, spoke up. One of the men, for a moment, had a contemptuous gaze before nodding to the other guard and left. "What is the meaning of this, Claudia?" Grave spoke. Claudia looked at her foster, then Brick spoke.

"I've heard it." he said. Grave looked at the man in blue.

"Heard, what?" Grave focused on their way of speaking.

"Father, that man over there, has undeniably broke the law, one of which he swore to uphold." the last part of that held no kindness in her voice.

"M-My lady?!" Pappenheim, even under all that bandages, was now breaking into cold sweat.

"We received contact from the incident, as well as witness testimonies from the tavern." The masked man stepped right in front of Rome.

"Wait a moment, who on earth are you Verodian?" one of the men who aided Lord Levantine asked.

"I'm their leader, Brick." he crossed his arms.

Soon, a new energy began to radiate in the court, from this enigmatic reveal. His brown cape fluttered a bit, for that moment, and an image was forming into their heads.

This masked stranger, the leader of the foreigners?

Some thought of him as imposing, yet he was just about the same size as them. Still, they swore that he looked larger than he actually looked.

Some were disgusted, thinking he was pretentious in wearing bright colors and a barbaric-looking mask.

Most were curious, as they've never got straight answers from the Verodians. All they knew was that they appeared one day in a beam of light far away, and were seemingly setting up shop in their city.

One thing for sure though, was that all eyes were on him.

"Hm, Lord Brick," their names, Grave thought, were they really chosen at birth?

"I assume that you are here for diplomatic ties within our nations?"

"Correct." Brick thought he should do something about this lord business later. But he had to get to the point of all of this. Clearing his throat and straightening his back he let out a clear voice enough to be heard around everywhere.

"Also, can you give us our informant back?" Truly, an outrageous demand for giving their spy back after a destruction of an establishment and an assault upon an important person.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" One of Bricks's own was screaming to himself internally, sorry for that, Asdol.

The courtroom's reaction was also expected. Grave was barely fazed, Claudia's husband, Claus, Brick saw, was giving him a wide eyed look. Pappenheim was breathing heavily, almost looking ready to have a heart attack and be done with it. The other courtiers on their seats above were whispering or just staring incredulously at this outrageously and unshameful man.

What got him to almost lose his shit though, was when he looked back to see Claudia, her eyes wide and her jaw hanging open, along with similar reactions for her guards. Rome was raising his eyebrow, while the rest of the Verodians were rolling their eyes or also holding back some giggles here and there.

Still though, he had to continue. He looked at Pappenheim again, then back at Rome. After staring for a few moments, Rome shrugged, "The papers were with the others.", it made the captain-general ponder for a moment before pulling out his radio.

The Safehouse, Under Ken

"We're back!" Yale's group finally arrived, it wasn't easy though, but thy somehow got there if they peered their eyes enough to see the name tags pop up in their vision.

"Took you long enough, join in the pit crew will you?" They were handed shovels.

"What's going on?"

"You know the civil war stuff, with underground railroads and shit?" the room was mostly filled with dark elves, outnumbering them five to one. Ranging from young to haggard, hopeful and bright to broken and…gone.

"Ah." Yale nodded and proceeded to join the others in digging. Some of the ex-slaves also joined.

"Mark!"

"Ugh!"

Yale looked to see Asha glomping Mark, his face pressed straight into the cored of her sizable bounty, it was a very obscene image.

"Ugh, jeez get off." Mark blushed a bit, which seemed to please the brunette's demeanour.

"Are you hurt anywhere? You can lay down on my bed!" Her eyes sparkled in promise.

"Um, look Asha, I have to help with the guys." It seemed to deflate Asha's giddiness a bit but not before smiling and pecking him on the cheek, he saw her making very suggestive eyes at him before leaving.

"…"

"Damn… she down bad for you bro-" Tiko tried to say, before being panned in the face by Mark, an embarrassed frown on his face.

*CLANK*

"AAGH-"

"*static* Yello? Safehouse? I got a request." everyone turned to look at the third door in the room.

"Yes?" they heard someone on the other side say.

"How well can you recite to an audience?"

"Uh…"

"Also the Rome's evidence paper, I need it asap."

Mark raised his eyebrows and quickly rummaged through his inventory to procure the papers, Rome gave it to him before escaping the dungeon. He ran towards the mouth of the tunnel, with Asha following his tail.

The Grand Hall of Ken, Ken

"All right ladies and gents, allow me to introduce the radio." he requested a table to be moved here, with approval of Claudia, they gave him a rather large one and very ornate.

"Geez." he thought.

"As you may have heard, this piece of tech allows me and my boys to talk to anyone and anywhere in the world as long as they too also have one. They act like magic mirrors? They exist, right? No?"

"Yes, they are ancient relics, we buy them from adventuring guilds in the old Aurelian domains." Grave said.

"Huh, ain't that from the sequel? Interesting."

"Wh-What is the point of all this?!" Pappenheim was screeching.

"The point, Lord Pappenheim, is the evidence. You didn't find anything on Rome, did you? After beating him up to a pulp." he said the last part with heat. He knew why he did it, after the kidnapping incident with the warehouse worker, he told Rome to be careful where he placed it, or else when he dies, the item would drop into the hands of their enemies. It was good fortune that he sent Mark to deliver it to the safehouse.

"This radio right here, is connected to a super secret special place." He said with mocking glee. Pappenheim gritted his teeth, and the pain in his foot grew stronger and was inflaming, it started to bleed again.

"Say yello, safehouse."

"Yellow." the static responded.

More discussions, more implications, more misunderstandings were being exchanged as the game of politics and intrigue rocked upon the impact of a new player, a new breed born in this world.

"So what's it gonna be, turn yourself in, at least die knowing you made a mistake. Or we can do this the hard way, the heart-wrenching way, the painful way we can go about this." he said putting the pressure on his fist in his hand. Claudia, egged on by this foreboding sense of justice, straightened her back and held her sword at her hip, her body language giving away that she too won't be delicate in handling him.

At that moment, when he saw that Grave was indifferent to his plight, the nobility whispering words of god knows what, his retainers and servants at a loss on what they should do, and the liege lady herself not taking his side. A profound sense of defeat bared upon his sinful and ugly heart.

Instead of answering the question and in one moment of spite of it all, he instead ran.

Ran pathetically he did, not a second later he tripped, his own wounded foot, certainly going to infect his system, as the bullet spread its toxins throughout his body. Letting out shrieks and grunts as he tried to fight back the pain.

He never heard the radio read his letter, he never heard his retainers trying to calm him down.

The game was over.

Under The Northern Wall, Verod

Below the base of its mighty walls, a gathering has been ordered to be assembled. In the center of it all was a Great War era tank.

There were five of these 'Big Girls' in Verod, The first two, Big Betty and Big Betsy went with Brick's diplomatic mission. Big Brenda and Big Belle were staying as the home guard.

After the attack on Verod, the bigwigs of the city decided that it was a good idea to at least have neutral relations with Garan and its surroundings, if not, at least have knowledge of their strength and perhaps as a side-mission, find out what's in the ruins west of the dark fortress.

"Big Bailey's ready!" roared the engineer.

Bailey in terms of manufacturing date, was of the youngest of the sisters, and less damaged upon the ages. She was expected to hold a small strike group, gifts, and diplomats along this endeavour. Her engines roared to life, and her smoke stacks fuming with power.

She was rearing to go north…

Dining Hall, Grand Hall of Ken

After that ordeal, Pappenheim was sentenced to rot for eighty years, in addition to his trafficking ring, were the unsavory connections he had to the bandits in the woods, an additional toll to travel. Other charges include manslaughter keeping of slaves, rape, all that jazz…

Rome was pardoned, and also awarded for his efforts on finding this out, and was given the former lord's estate as well as its staff, also being given honorary citizenship, a very snazzy affair. It looked like the Rosa Nostra had found itself a pretty swag HQ, though they might have to change the… basement a little bit.

Now though, the visitors were given a proper welcome, with food and entertainment for all.

Claudia's husband found the brightly colored man a nice change of pace, though ironically wearing a mask, he found himself thankful for his blunt and direct way of speaking. No arrogance, nor any conceited attack on him, speaking to him as though they've known each other for a reasonable amount of time. But to their meeting here and now all lead to the crux of a tangent of questions that led to one.

"Who was Renault Pappenheim?"

From Rome's reports, he acted as the lord bailiff of the city, a subordinate to Grave, the lord justice. But when he asked the couple, Brick was a bit surprised that the relationship between the woman and her husband to the infamous lord was an old one. Acting as an annoying thorn to their sides at every step of the way. One sour point all pointing to Claudia's childhood, a surprising development for him. As the laws in place were protected around one particular character that Brick made sure to take note of.

Ophelia Griffeths, Claudia's dark elf maid in her childhood.

She once held prejudice against her, but overtime, came to respect and befriend the older woman. One of her other reasons for her rise as a great warrior, was in order to defend the honour of her friend from petty young knights and lords of Ken. By age sixteen though, she disappeared from the household. The only void filling her fighting spirit was the encouragement and training of her foster and to also defend the honour of Claus.

One sour point in all of this, was that Pappenheim was one of these young lords. She remembered especially clearly how he mistreated the dark elf in front of her face, with his lackeys. She wasted no time on drawing her practice sword and practically slicing and dashing the shit out of them.

Brick and Claus noticed Claudia's hands hardening into fist, both of them equally surprised by such behaviour. In Claus's case only seeing her that angry during that time on Celestine's many assassination attempts, and Brick having a feeling that the noble will definitely won't survive unscathed by the end of this.

"Well… case in point then."

It seemed like everything was going into a bright direction from canon.

"But then again, this is hentai world, where murphy is an absolute fucking monkey." he thought cynically.

"*sigh…* To think I was too trusting, how could I have not seen it." she looked downright salty.

"Claudia, it was not your fault, the war had to take priority, it is understandable that it was not in your focus." He held her hand gently.

In addition to this, the Rosa Nostra cooperated with some of Claudia's women-at-arms. Their experiences with them were… awkward to say the least. One guy almost got his tommy gun lobbed off by one girl when he 'accidentally' fell on top of her.

Still after all this, he was still fighting for this. Brick was quite sure that the guards should've taken him right now, but they didn't. They just stood side-by-side him, less guarding him for everyone else's sake but more like the opposite.

"Hm, lord bailiff huh…" as he pondered his eyes landed on Grave, feeling an emotion he couldn't quite describe. Just like Vault and his mercenaries, they felt… too normal, too passive… but he knew, he saw with his very own two eyes of what these men did. Perhaps he could call this something unreal, detached, from trying to merge moving images on a screen to a living breathing person.

"…"

Then a sinister thought hit him like a truck.

What if… this was all planned from the start, the moment they entered the city, they knew… and now were trying to drag this as long as possible. He may not have shown it outwardly, but deep inside he was now afraid.

He knew, he knew it in his heart. That sinking feeling, that he was now a playing piece in someone else's game.

"If… If that's how it is…" he found a new meaning, a new position he found himself in, a terrifying position if he couldn't get out fast enough.

"I'll leave no one alive…"

…

…

…

To this day, in that moment, those words horrified those that were listening closely and to himself.

AN:

11/24/21: After feeling like a huge bag of depression I got into writing again, and was massively stumped of the complicated mess of trying to write a medieval court case. I was thinking to myself, "What have I've got into?". Still though, one thing I learned was it was a brief and short affair, that usually ended with the accused being punished from all allegations. Had to rewrite the chapter on this day though, like… big chunks of it as it was kinda boring… I didn't like the way I wrote Brick's intrigue. So might as well stick it to him being bombastic and shamelessly honest about it to build a reputation. How will he use it? Well… accordingly, of course. Anyways, thanks for reading all this way and the support ya' guys gave. I'm about ready to write the Celestine meeting part next and I'm just as excited as you are. This chapter is dedicated for brighter days ahead, :).

11/29/21: I forgot Pappenheim's first name, because he was just not the most interesting character I wrote, changed it from Francis to Renault again.