Chapter 498 — Public Trial
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 5
After introducing, in accordance with Cecil law, the parties to the trial, the members of the tribunal, and the jurors, the judge looked toward the leader of the White Knights seated beside him—for since this trial concerned the Church, Wright had come to the tribunal in person as representative of the New Church. Taking the judge's cue, this tall "Great Patriarch," clad in White Knight armour, rose slowly to his feet.
A slight stir ran through the square at once—many had seen this White Knight during the "Battle of Dawn" two days before. His height of nearly two metres, his majestic White Knight armour, the holy light that radiated from his whole being—these vivid traits had left a deep impression on the Luan citizens.
Wright waved to the square, then turned his gaze to the priests at the centre of the platform. He noted the fear and tension in their eyes, but his own expression did not change in the slightest.
He laid his hand over his heart and swore solemnly: "I am Wright, Great Patriarch of the Holy Light New Church. I swear here in the name of the Holy Light that I shall guarantee the fairness and truth of this trial, that it accords with the sacred laws of Cecil, and that the people shall watch over all I say and do here."
Thus began the "public trial" destined to be written into the annals of history.
Many had assumed at first that this trial would be a "spectacle of punishment," an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth—that the Luan priests would soon be lashed to the pyres and burned clean, just as they had done to so many innocents. But in truth, the trial adhered strictly to Cecil law.
The Cecil judge and the other members of the tribunal laid out, clearly and precisely, the crimes of the Luan priests one by one—seizing the people's property, destroying innocent lives, deceiving the populace, profaning the Holy Light... Then, one after another, citizens familiar and unfamiliar were led onto the platform by Cecil soldiers to testify face to face against those priests and confirm the charges; the tribunal in turn produced on the spot the ledgers, archives, and correspondence of the clergy found in the great cathedral—above all the "heretic purge orders" from the Northern Church—to establish the truth of every crime...
The people watched the trial with a strange intensity. They had been impatient to see the Luan priests burned at once—a simple, straightforward thirst for vengeance—but as the trial entered the "testimony in open court" stage, they felt an emotion sharper and more powerful than mere revenge.
They wanted to see those Luan priests convicted, and once every crime was confirmed, nailed forever to the pillar of shame.
They wanted to hear the judge declare innocent those who had been burned at will, to hear that the friends and kin who had been flogged, had their hands and feet cut off, had been branded with the mark of sin, were innocent.
They wanted more than to vent their anger, more than revenge—they wanted justice.
And that was the hardest thing in this world for common folk to obtain.
A lame woman was helped onto the platform by soldiers. Her leg had been broken by Church knights, and she made the people look upon that deformed limb as she denounced the cruelty of those knights, who had done such a thing to her merely because she had accidentally trodden on a pastor's robe.
An old woman came onto the platform with her son. Her son could not speak—for the priests had ordered the young man's tongue cut out, on the charge of "recklessly discussing the sacred words of the Holy Light scriptures"...
This trial was bound to last the whole day.
At the edge of the square, upon the high wall of the cathedral district, Gaoyang and Amber watched the trial unfold together.
"What sentence will those priests get in the end?" Amber peered down curiously. "The charges and evidence all seem awfully complicated..."
Gaoyang answered at once: "All hanged. No pardons."