Shion Lan was looking at the ceiling, unable to move his body properly, but he would soon be able to move and attend the trial.
"Love..."
Shion turned his head to see his beloved, Solan Neumann, standing beside the door.
"Solan, why are you standing there?"
"I'm just embarrassed. I let them capture you with those criminals."
"Don't worry. You did your best. You can't unleash your full power all the time. You will hurt yourself."
"Shion..."
She went beside him, floating in her spiritual form, which allowed her to give him a warm hug.
"Solan, there's a child."
Solan turned her head and found Enfel Kito pretending not to see anything.
Solan blushed because she hadn't noticed him at the entrance.
But she had come there to say something.
"Did you see? When you follow the red-haired girl, your steps will lead you nowhere."
"You mean Pearl?"
"Pearl Jewel! That girl is the root of your problems. You shouldn't stay with her later!"
Shion felt something strange beyond her jealousy.
"Solan, what happened?"
Solan said,
"Pearl is the reason you are here now!"
Shion said,
"Solan, I know. You won't talk about anyone if you are beside me. But now, you are the one bringing her up."
Solan became stressed, but she said,
"I see you are defending her! Shion, what is wrong with you?!"
"..."
Shion looked at her without saying a word, making Solan tremble a little.
"Solan."
"Ah? Yes!"
"Do you think I'm cheating on you with Pearl?"
"Shion, it's not like that—"
"Answer me!"
Solan felt afraid and said,
"No, you love me very much."
"So, why are you talking about someone you hate and ruining the atmosphere?!"
Solan realized that Shion wasn't like his mother.
"Solan, go back to the mansion, and we can have a talk later."
Solan said,
"Well..."
She was about to leave, but then they remembered.
"Right! We're all in the trial!"
Shion sighed.
"Now, why are you talking about Pearl like that?"
Solan couldn't find any good reason other than telling the truth.
"I want you to hate her."
"Why?"
Shion didn't expect Solan to be that jealous, but she said,
"I'll go to Bimal Academy, and I will be absent!"
Shion said,
"Did you forget? She said she would escape. There's no way to meet her after this battle."
"..."
Solan had been worried for nothing.
"Lord Lan, isn't Lady Neumann dead? How will she go there?"
Enfel asked a good question, but Shion said,
"Sol Hart will go there, and Solan is her guardian spirit."
Another lie. Solan Neumann was Sol Hart in disguise among the others, but Shion didn't need to explain it.
"Well! I see. I don't have to worry!"
At that moment, the doors opened. The girls entered the room, but they saw Solan.
"The Crown Princess."
Solan said that with anger.
'I forgot about this little princess! She also loves Shion!'
Jina Joul saw the rage erupting from Solan through her golden eyes.
"Lady Neumann, I think you have to attend the trial."
"I know. I came here for this reason."
Solan sat beside Shion, waiting for the trial.
Ji Jura said,
"Lord Lan, I didn't expect to see you here."
Shion asked,
"In the infirmary or the royal palace?"
"The royal palace. Everyone knows that you're in a relationship with the infirmary. After every battle, you should go there."
Laughter came from Sonia Shine and Sona Torano.
Shion said,
"Being in the infirmary wasn't my plan. I was supposed to face one noble, but it turned into a large battle. So, I had to give it everything I had."
Marine Sano asked,
"Why didn't you ask Glass? He would like to help."
Shion said,
"He was lying in bed, and I couldn't visit him. I felt embarrassed."
"What about the Magic Tower? My mistress could help you."
"You can ask us too. We can help you."
Both Rona Flair and Violet Night said that, but Shion answered,
"As I said before, I was supposed to face one person, so I couldn't ask for such a huge amount of help."
Solan said,
"You don't need anything from them. Just wait a little, and I will help you."
Solan said that while looking at Jina, who didn't say anything.
"..."
No one talked until the guards appeared.
"Lord Lan, Young Lord Kito, and Lady Neumann. Come with us."
Solan said,
"Shion is still weak—"
"No problem."
Shion stood on his feet. He wasn't in very good condition, but he was at least able to walk.
Enfel followed him, and the three of them went to the hall.
---
It wasn't the Great Hall where the trial of the Ranus Family had occurred. It was the royal hall where the king spent most of his time.
Shion entered and saw King Jord Joul and the heads of the Six Great Families. The girls went to stand beside their fathers.
Shion noticed the Noble Alliance and someone unexpected to everyone except Shion and Pearl.
Avar Jewel.
Kin Light was with his father, giving no care to anything else. They seemed to be ready.
The chamberlain spoke,
"This case is about terrifying people, threatening others, establishing an unknown organization, fighting without permission, and using a cursed artifact."
The Sword of the Sins appeared, sealed and chained, in the hall.
The king spoke,
"Conflicts between nobles are understandable, but a large battle without any consideration for the consequences is prohibited! Now..."
The king looked at Shion.
"Lord Lan, why did you attack these nobles?"
If it had been the Great Hall, there would have been whispers and gasps of astonishment, but everyone here knew about what had happened and had already been surprised. Now, they were waiting for an explanation.
"Threatening my mother to marry Rev Stroman—"
"Because of marriage, he wanted to kill me with the cursed sword, Your Majesty!"
Stroman fell to his knees, complaining, but Jord Joul said coldly,
"Who permitted you to talk?"
"What?!"
No one gave him a glance. That was the difference between the Great Hall and the royal hall when it came to cases. There wouldn't be an audience, just the king and the heads of the Six Great Families.
Shion continued,
"My mother refused, but he used something called the Noble Rules to pressure my mother and visit her late at night, so she couldn't refuse him as a guest. His fellows were usually in the mansion as well. He even threatened her, saying he would tarnish my reputation and make me lose my position as a noble."
"Lord Stroman, what is your defense?"
Rev stood up and said,
"Your Majesty! You can't believe him! He has the royal permission! She could use it to punish me!"
King Jord said,
"I gave the royal permission to Lord Lan, not his mother. She knew that she couldn't use it. What about you?"
"I-I didn't know—"
"You're saying a new noblewoman knew the rules that you have had to learn since childhood?"
The king asked coldly.
"I just forgot!"
Rev tried to compose himself, but he had fallen into a trap.
"So you forgot about the royal permission, which made you think that she was able to use it against you?"
Rev felt that there was a trap, but it was too late.
"You dared to defy my authority, according to your own explanation."
"What?!!"
Rev had two ways to escape: either admit to threatening her or deny the authority of the royal permission. It was easy to choose.
"I was lying, Your Majesty! I threatened her!"
"..."
No one talked, but Avar thought,
'I was too stupid to join them, but at least I have my own way to escape.'
The king asked,
"Why did you threaten Lady Lan to marry you?"
Rev said,
"I saw Lord Lan's potential, and I wanted him to marry my daughter, but he refused—!"
The rage of the Pure Spirit appeared in the hall, saying,
"Marry your daughter?! Did you forget about me?!"
"Solan..."
Shion tried to calm her, but Nell Stroman said,
"You are a ghost. I don't know why Lord Lan loves you. I should be his fiancée."
Solan felt angry, and even Jina felt humiliated.
She loved Shion too, but to be placed in the same position as her?!
Jina said,
"A lowly girl like you, who forced my royal guardian to become engaged to you, wants to marry a noble lord? You are a hopeless case."
Solan wanted to encourage the princess, but she remembered that Jina also loved Shion, so she nodded in silence.
"How dare you—?!!"
Rev covered his daughter's mouth before she could cause another crime.
The king said,
"Nell Stroman, one week in the cell without food."
The guards dragged her away while she screamed loudly, and even Shion covered his ears.
"Back to the topic. You are saying that you were looking forward to an alliance because of Lord Lan. Why didn't you wait for him to come?"
"Because I heard he had even been refused entry into the Jura Family before, so I was afraid!"
All the gazes fell on Ano Jura and his daughter Ji, who was angry, but Ano didn't care and asked,
"Strange. Everyone knows I was in his mansion, but no one knew what happened."
Ano looked at Rev, making his pressure bear down on him.
"How did you know about that?"
Rev said,
"It must have been his maid! Lord Lan and his mother wouldn't make such a mistake, so—"
"So you are saying the royal maid sold that information?"
The king asked, making Rev's face pale.
"A royal maid?!"
Rev didn't expect that, but Finn Shine spoke,
"To obtain such information, you must have the power to do so. How did you know about it?"
Rev said,
"We are getting off the topic!"
Shion interrupted,
"That's the main topic! You wanted me as a member of your illegal organization!"
Shion turned the trial toward the illegal organization after gaining the first point.
Rev wanted to object, but the king looked at Shion.
"May you speak?"
"Of course."
Shion said,
"When I came back home, I found two men from the organization threatening me to join them, but that same night, Avar Jewel offered me a place in the organization."
All eyes fell on Avar, who said,
"I didn't know it was an organization."
"WHAT?!"
All the nobles of the Noble Alliance looked at him in disbelief, especially Rev.
Shion realized that Avar wanted to escape, but he remembered Pearl, so he tried to continue. However, Solan said,
"That's strange. I have a lot of evidence here."
But she bowed to the king.
"May I open my Spirit World?"
"Sure."
Avar thought Solan would summon some spirits, so he wasn't afraid, but Solan brought out documents she had stored there.
"Here it is!"
The chamberlain took the documents, and Avar saw his symbol on them.
"These were the stolen documents from my palace!"
Avar whispered, as he hadn't thought Pearl would use them in that way. He thought she would blackmail him or give them to his opponents. He never imagined that she would give them to Shion, who would show them to the king.
The chamberlain said,
"Strange. These documents contradict your evidence. Did you forge the earlier ones?"
Avar lost the battle before it even began.
The king said,
"Now, the Jewel Guild is cooperating with the organization called the Noble Alliance. What is this organization?"
Rev and the other nobles said,
"It was just a small society among us! No goals or anything! We were even sponsoring the nobles in the academic tournament!"
Ficon Light said,
"Your Majesty, the organization is real, and I wanted to quit, but I was forced to stay."
"You—!!"
"Silence!"
The king looked at the father and son of the Light Family.
"What happened there?"
"At first, it was a meeting to discuss what to do after the fall of the third-rank noble houses. But the discussion led us to Shion and the royal permission. They wanted to manipulate the votes by supporting whatever benefited them, as Shion was in the same position as the princes. So they would use him as a shield against anyone."
Jina was surprised. Shion was in the same position as her, but she hadn't realized that.
The king asked,
"Why didn't you say anything? At least leave them?"
Kin Light showed some documents, and the symbol of the Ocean's Core Guild appeared on them.
Kin said,
"These are the evidence of them threatening us to do whatever they wanted. I even hated their daughter!"
The chamberlain confirmed them, proving that the Light Family were victims.