Chapter 287: The Defendant's Coercion Method (2)
Clack, clack.
The carriage swayed smoothly, a luxurious kind of rattling distinct from the rough shakes of a market cart. But no matter how upscale, without modern suspension systems, the rattling was inevitable. However, Lloyd thought little of it. The trial had ended smoothly, and the results had gone according to his plans.
“Thankfully, both the head of the Nobility Council and the other nobles had much to lose, making them susceptible to my threats,” Lloyd thought, smiling faintly as he reminisced about the court proceedings.
It was gratifying, indeed, how Duke Toscano, the stubborn head of the Nobility Council, had complied with his wishes, allowing him to sit comfortably on the plush leather seat of his carriage, heading back to his residence.
“Isn’t that right, Javier?”
Javier turned to him, detaching his gaze from the window to look intently at Lloyd.
“What exactly do you mean? And what exactly did you do during today’s trial?”
“Oh, deeds? What deeds are you referring to?”
“The trial today. It’s beyond strange. Duke Toscano—the head of the Nobility Council—was initially leading the charge to condemn you for the incident at the site.”
“Yes, he was.”
“So, why did he suddenly change his stance in court today and come to your defense? I can’t understand it.”
“You think I manipulated something behind the scenes?”
“Yes.”
“Huh, ‘manipulated’, you say. Now you’re being blunt.”
“The word ‘manipulate’ was yours.”
“Anyway, you think I schemed something, and that’s why the Nobility Council changed its stance, right?”
“Yes, exactly. Did you really do something?”
“Yes.”
Lloyd grinned, seeing no reason to deny or hide anything.
“I threatened them.”
“Threatened, you say?”
“Exactly that. Right after the Nobility Council submitted the charge sheet to put me on trial.”
“What kind of threat did you make? You hadn’t even left your residence.”
“I sent a letter. Through a courier, to Duke Bergamo.”
“A letter?”
“Yes.”
Lloyd nodded, recalling the past few days.
The incident involving the Heart of Winter running amok.
From the aftermath to the present, he hadn’t just been resting as others thought.
While pretending to laze around, he had done what needed to be done.
“I analyzed the accident site. Luckily, I had activated my surveying skill unconsciously right when I arrived, so all the data from the site was scanned.”
The refrigerant chamber that was swept up in the explosion.
The shattered control box.
The two royal mages and six guards lying around.
The configuration of scattered objects and debris.
The positions and postures of the fallen people.
All the information had been scanned and saved as data.
From his room, he had been able to pull out these details and analyze them thoroughly.
“I found crucial evidence. Duke Bergamo’s fifth son, the only royal mage found dead at the site, was the perpetrator behind this incident—I found decisive proof.”
“What was it?”
Haviel furrowed his brows.
Lloyd shrugged nonchalantly.
“The control box that housed the Heart of Winter. The outer surface of that shattered box had an entire human palm print skin stuck to it.”
“Palm print skin?”
“Yes.”
It was true.
The skin of a palm, ripped whole and adhered to the exterior of the control box—this was the definitive evidence that Duke Bergamo’s son was the culprit.
“You know what happens if you touch your tongue to cold metal in the dead of winter?”
“It sticks.”
“Right? And what if you try to pull it off forcibly?”
“It’s a disaster. The skin freezes to the metal and tears off.”
“That’s exactly it. The palm skin on the control box was just like that.”
“And you’re saying that was the skin from Duke Bergamo’s fifth son?”
“Yes.”
Lloyd nodded with certainty.
“I saw it when I arrived at the scene. The royal mage from Duke Bergamo’s household was bleeding profusely from his palm. The blood was frozen due to the extreme cold, but it was clearly a skin-tearing wound.”
In truth, it was a lie.
He hadn’t noticed such details when he first arrived—things were too chaotic to observe that closely.
But he knew it could be confidently asserted.
He had the data from his surveying skill to reflect on the site, to observe and analyze it through the scanned data.
“That means, just before the accident, the mage from Duke Bergamo’s household had touched the control box with his palm, and as the Heart of Winter began to run amok, the cold released caused his palm to stick to the box, and then? You know. The box couldn’t withstand it and exploded.”
“The explosion thrust his body back, and as he was forcibly separated from the control box, his palm skin was left behind.”
“Exactly.”
Lloyd smiled wryly; it was just as Haviel had surmised.
“The evidence was too decisive. There had been circumstantial evidence suggesting the duke’s son was the culprit, and testimonies from guards who thought he had stabbed a fellow mage, but there was no direct eyewitness account of the scene.”
“That would be the case. The stabbed mage might have staged the situation to frame his colleague.”
“Exactly. Since they are mages. Although unlikely, it’s not impossible that they could self-inflict a wound with a magically controlled dagger and then hand it to a colleague.”
“But, the evidence of the torn palm skin you mentioned would erase that slight possibility.”
“Absolutely. It was too definitive a piece of evidence.”
Haviel scowled.
“So, you sent a threatening letter to Duke Bergamo. If the Nobility Council didn’t change its stance, you would expose all the evidence of his fifth son’s crimes in court. Am I right?”
“Indeed. Why not?”
Lloyd smirked mischievously, confirming the suspicion.
“If all that evidence was exposed, and even the decisive evidence was revealed, what would happen? The royal investigation bureau would likely conduct a focused re-investigation based on the exposed evidence. And the result? The direct responsibility for the accident would fall on Duke Bergamo’s household. Me? I wouldn’t be completely blameless, being the site supervisor. But the level of punishment for the actual instigator and me would be very different.”
“That makes sense. You’ve become a hero to the citizens.”
Haviel’s mouth twisted into a bitter smile.
Indeed, Lloyd had recently become a hero to the capital’s residents.
The reason was simple.
Heir to the earldom.
A meritorious figure of the Magentano royal family.
Despite such high status, he had risked his life to save civilian workers, and this heartwarming news spread like wildfire through the workers and their families and friends throughout the capital.
“With the public already favorably inclined towards you, plus the truth that you weren’t the direct cause of the accident. A lenient punishment was inevitable.”
“Yes. Plus, with the status and privileges of being a royal hero. Probably just a scolding from Her Majesty, like a verbal warning. Meanwhile, the duke’s household? There would have been uproar.”
“That would have been the case if you had exposed that decisive evidence in court.”
At last, Haviel understood.
And thought to himself.
This counterfeit Lloyd.
As always, he felt that Lloyd was truly cunning, despicable, and petty.
And therefore, incredibly impressive.
“Right. If the evidence had been exposed, the duke’s household, being the direct cause of the loss of the royal relic, couldn’t have avoided severe punishment. A crime worse than rebellion? In the worst case, the entire ducal family might have faced ruin.”
And not just them.
The punishment’s blade might have swept through all the families tied by blood to the duke.
Such a severe punishment was entirely plausible.
“And Duke Bergamo is related by marriage to Duke Toscano, the head of the Nobility Council. The duke is his father-in-law.”
Thus, by blood, Duke Toscano was the grandfather of the true perpetrator of this crisis.
Not only that.
Most of the central nobility influencing the Nobility Council were deeply intertwined by blood, regional, and academic ties.
If the duke’s household had received near-annihilation as punishment?
Most of the nobles connected to the Nobility Council intertwined with the duke would have suffered, large or small.
“The more I think about it, the more bitterly I laugh.”
“So the head of the Nobility Council changed his stance. Almost risking his life to protect you.”
“Well, something like that.”
A bitter smile also appeared on Lloyd’s lips.
The carefully designed threat had worked.
If he got scratched, the other side would lose their head.
The central nobility had much to lose.
They weren’t free from the net of academic, blood, and regional connections.
Adding a hint of potential gain if they complied with his demands, he had whispered sweet promises of bribes into their ears.
Thanks to that, they had succumbed to the threats and bribes.
The trial had proceeded as he intended.
The queen had also responded to the flow.
Already inclined to side with him but lacking a pretext, when the head of the Nobility Council unexpectedly advocated for him?
She joyously added her own emphatic agreement to his defense.
If the head of the Nobility Council said, “Lloyd of the Frontera earldom is a true patriot!”
The queen would respond, “Indeed, his words are just,” providing her support.
And if he said, “To punish Lloyd for this incident would be a greater loss than the loss of the sacred relic!”
The queen would add, “His opinion is indeed wise,” enhancing the beat.
And he himself?
All he had to do was to generously coat it with, “I shall follow Her Majesty’s wise decree.”
Thus, the queen’s verdict was pronounced.
The loss of the royal relic was indeed a grievous loss.
But there was no significant fault on his part.
The loss of the Heart of Winter was due to a magical instability—an act of God beyond human control.
To blame the kingdom’s hero, Lloyd, for such an event would be unduly harsh.
Therefore, only a nominal fine would be imposed on Lloyd Frontera for his slight negligence in site management.
Thus, the judgment was decreed with a final bang.
“Thanks to that, I received a slap on the wrist. Now that this ordeal is over, it’s time to get back to work.”
Yes.
There was no rest for the weary.
Lloyd lamented his fate (?) as he immediately headed to the site.
“These iron-fisted, narrative-setting authors really deserve a good shaking.”
To think he had to live in such a narrative.
With a newfound sense of resignation, he directed the site.
The extraction of Tauranga from the foundation beneath the royal palace continued.
It was nearly complete at the time of the accident.
From below, upwards.
Continuing the vertical excavation.
He was approaching the isolated foundation pillar beneath the royal palace where the Tauranga was embedded.
The remaining work didn’t take long.
After five days of persistent vertical digging, he reached the target area.
“Found it!”
The isolated foundation pillar was revealed at last.
Embedded in the middle was the Tauranga.
A rectangular rock approximately five meters wide and six meters tall.
From then on, they carefully extracted the Tauranga.
With Poddong’s help.
He also called Javier.
They extracted one piece, replacing it with another rock and finishing with cement bonding.
This process was repeated twelve times.
And at the moment they safely extracted the twelfth piece of Tauranga.
Ding-dong.
[You have acquired all twelve pieces of Tauranga, a key material for completing the Jewel of Truth.]
[You have successfully excavated the first key material of the Jewel of Aotearoa, destroyed along with the mythic era.]
[This is a historically significant archaeological achievement.]
[As a bonus for such a rare achievement, a large amount of RP is awarded.]
[You have earned 2,000 RP.]
[Current RP held: 4,655]
‘What?’
He hadn’t expected the achievement notification or the large amount of RP.
A monumental moment had arrived when he had secured enough RP to use the Time Freeze skill.