"What trial? You're just taking the law into your own hands!"
At this moment, Gorn was almost blurting out every argument he could think of. He had a strong premonition he couldn't ignore—that this woman before him could easily kill him.
Unexpectedly, his few spur-of-the-moment retorts actually made Tamesis stop in her tracks.
She nodded lightly, as if acknowledging the other's point.
"You are correct."
Tamesis seemed to think of something, looked up, and glanced back at the bronze statue of Themis behind her.
"Father Gorn, although your misdeeds are nauseating, you are, after all, a priest serving the divine."
"...You should know why Themis has a veil over her eyes. It is a measure she took to prevent herself from focusing on the appearance and status of the one being judged."
"She wanted her judgment based solely on facts, unaffected by other factors."
"And there is a saying in modern law: 'Procedure is the law's blindfold.' Maintaining procedural justice is also a measure to prevent judgments from being interfered with and distorted."
While explaining, her tone seemed to return to its original state, lacking the intensely oppressive ethereality from moments ago.
"But modern law itself is a system for maintaining rule and order. It is slow, full of loopholes, and easily twisted by power and money. We have all seen the fact: 'Procedure' has instead allowed you to escape judgment."
Here, Tamesis's tone turned cold once more.
"What I am doing is clearing away worm-like 'errors' such as yourself. Reclaiming the most basic justice from primordial law."
"Wait, wait!"
Seeing the lawyer lady approaching him again, Gorn felt his legs go weak. His already precarious walking state now rendered him unable to move even a step.
"I have compensated the families of those children in secret, and besides, I have been praying and confessing..."
Hearing this, Tamesis narrowed her eyes slightly, not concealing her disgust at all.
"I once thought some people could change when faced directly with death and pain, even finding redemption."
"But I later discovered that 'redemption' itself is merely a self-deceiving form of self-satisfaction. How can someone like you change? Only death is the only suitable judgment for you."
"Letting a thug survive in the world is the greatest injustice to the dead. If you truly wish to confess, why not go to hell first…"
As she spoke, she had already come close to Gorn. Silently and lightly, she raised her hand and placed it on his forehead.
The next moment, the portly priest's body began to twist violently. His screams and sobs were trapped in his throat as his entire body rapidly began to "dissolve."
Several tens of seconds later, Gorn had turned into a puddle of meaty mush. Blood and dissolved fat continuously leaked from his limp skin.
This was the "Biological Alchemy" formula [Dissolve and Reconstruct Bone and Blood].
At that time, Fran's research into biological alchemy wasn't as deep as it is now, so she only experimentally inscribed a simplified version on Tamesis.
After completing this, Tamesis took out a thick stack of paper documents from her personal briefcase. These included testimonies from past victims and files that should have been sealed away.
"By the way, here is the 'evidence' you wanted."
Tamesis's actions made Davis beside her open his eyes slightly wider. Though his face remained calm, the shock in his heart was already difficult to conceal.
She actually killed Father Gorn, and just by touch? How on earth… was that done?
Though Davis often wandered in the gray areas of the occult, having witnessed unspeakable mysterious things in the Wenlanta undersea ruins and earlier remote fishing villages, those things were mostly twisted, gloomy "monsters."
But Tamesis was a living, breathing human.
For a human body to try to touch those powers, the most likely outcome was becoming an obsessive madman, or perhaps like those cult leaders… Though wearing a human skin, their essence had completely fallen, no different from monsters.
Currently, Ms. Tamesis seemed mentally clear, but who knows… what price she had paid for this.
Fran wasn't surprised by this. Her amber eyes still maintained a somewhat sleepy, lazy state.
Though Fran had spent considerable time treating Gorn earlier, that didn't conflict with wanting him dead. And specifically bringing him to Tamesis's room was precisely to see how her "disciple" would handle him.
Tamesis gave him a clean and swift death, which satisfied Fran to some extent.
At least she had broken free from the influence of the jigsaw philosophy to some degree, no longer pondering those strange punishments and instruments…
Now that Tamesis had initially acquired the mysterious knowledge of biological alchemy, if she had whimsical ideas in that direction and was sufficiently deranged, she could completely create things like "rebirth pools" or "snow Kirby."
Oh, no need to delve into those two terms if you're unfamiliar…
After concluding this judgment, Tamesis approached Fran and returned the medical bone hammer the other had lent her to serve as a gavel.
It was also at this moment that Fran casually inquired about the details.
"Tamesis, did you intentionally invite Gorn?"
[Read Thoughts] was merely a psychological trick; it couldn't read memories nor see a person's true inner thoughts at the time. At most, it could speculate on possible thoughts or whether someone was lying.
But the evidence and cases Tamesis presented were very complete, and when listing them one by one, she appeared exceptionally proficient, even knowing each one by heart.
It wasn't difficult to infer she had prepared well in advance for Gorn's trial. It was by no means a spur-of-the-moment decision.
"Yes."
Tamesis admitted quite frankly.
"Gorn had close ties with the bishop of the Gulinse diocese; normal judicial procedures could hardly handle him. But I happened to be serving as legal advisor for Hanover Manor, so I could use some means to have Count Ferdinand send him an invitation."
Facing Fran, she could drop all pretense or disguise, answering the other's questions to the best of her knowledge.
Because even if she remained silent, this "teacher" could find the answer herself.
"Teacher Fran, are you now going directly to treat Count Ferdinand's 'illness'?"
Seeing Fran seemingly no longer paying attention to this judgment, Tamesis then asked about her next steps. This also served as a probe into her true purpose.
"Though I will eventually go to see him, some conditions are still lacking at the moment."
Fran lightly raised her eyebrows, then raised a hand to rub her eyes.
She did feel a bit sleepy, but it wasn't even 3 a.m. yet. Was this the healthy biological clock of a child? So nostalgic…
"I need to know the 'verse' from Krul's room, as well as what happened in this manor in the past."
"As for the past events of Hanover Manor, I do know some."
As a lawyer and a judge wandering late at night, Tamesis was keen on collecting various secrets to understand the stories behind them.
Her acceptance of Hanover Manor's appointment actually held this intention as well.
"But most are scattered rumors circulating among servants, with many places mixed with severe exaggeration and error. And I haven't worked here for long, so my knowledge is limited…"
Following the steps of the others leaving the room, she narrated in detail the manor's past events.
…
As a noble holding the rank of Count, Ferdinand Hanover's early life was glorious and illustrious. He had earned merits and accumulated vast wealth.
Simultaneously, Ferdinand wasn't an extravagant person. Aside from maintaining necessary aristocratic dignity, he didn't have many expenses. Moreover, he and his wife were deeply in love, without the bad habits common among playboy dignitaries.
His life was calm and peaceful. Several years later, on a sunny afternoon, their daughter was born.
She was an obedient, lovely child, enjoying nearly impeccable doting from both parents. Ferdinand saw nothing wrong with a female heir; he was confident and high-spirited, believing his daughter would become an excellent Countess.
That was a decade-plus of warm, loving time. Their life seemed the ultimate point of "happiness" ordinary people could imagine.
Until the Countess died in that cruel plague sweeping through the winter…
—
After the group left Tamesis's room, the sludge-formed "Corruption" slowly manifested itself from the shadows.
It observed the outside world in only two ways: first, "following sound"; second… sensing "filth." The former was used to identify prey; the latter to distinguish those monsters of the same origin.
It should have followed the group's footsteps into the corridor, but now it was slowly pacing within the courtroom.
"Heh…"
Though Father Gorn was completely dead on a physiological level, his half-dissolved flesh still maintained some biological activity, occasionally making sounds of gas swelling and blood gushing.
Corruption followed these sounds to his corpse, its bloated body pressing down entirely, then greedily swallowed his remaining limbs into itself.
Gorn's eyeballs were dissolved, most organs mushy, serving only as pure nourishment for the monster… But his nose along with the entire triangular nasal cavity still barely maintained its shape.
Corruption tore off his nose, then joyfully attached it to itself.
Almost the moment it completed this act, it gained a brand new sense.
"Smell."
Though without lungs or a windpipe, it could now use this freshly detached nose to identify surrounding scents. To seek that besides the stench of decay… the unique fragrance.
Count Ferdinand's daughter had carefully sewn silk jasmine flowers on her shoes. To make these two little flowers more lifelike, the Countess quite painstakingly sprayed perfume with a jasmine scent on them.
That scent haunted, entranced, utterly captivated Corruption.
This unimaginable fanaticism and excitement, even it itself didn't know where it came from…
Until now, it finally smelled again that familiar and soul-stirring scent.
And the scent was very fresh, as if the bearer had just left. But since the flower-bearer had walked everywhere before, the trail of the scent was almost everywhere, hard to track.
Nevertheless, Corruption had plundered a new observation method from Gorn.
If it now discovered someone face-to-face, they could no longer prevent an attack like Davis earlier by simply "not moving."
Search, continue searching…
Corruption's chaotic and vague thoughts slowly flowed. Its movements remained slow and clumsy. But after this feeding, the spark of thought seemed to begin sprouting.
Simultaneously erupting was an increasingly turbulent, intense malice.
I will find you, little princess. I will find you, Hanover's most dazzling treasure.
I will trample your head, tear your dress, consume your flesh and blood… let you never escape the cage, have you forever… as my own.
—
Now, all guest rooms of Hanover Manor had been explored once, but that short poem resembling The Haunted Palace still lacked Krul's part.
When Fran previously visited that kitchen, she had observed its decor and interior quite thoroughly, finding nothing with written records. Either the short poem was hidden somewhere like a cabinet, or… it was on Krul himself.
This conjecture was not unfounded; it was based on facts.
After all, the poem in Davis's room appeared in the form of bloodstains after Professor Dusan's ghostly nightmare dissipated.
But finding Krul's current location now would require some effort.
After all, both his legs were severely injured, and Fran had led him around the depths of the manor. No one knew exactly where he was now…
But the dollhouse in Fran's room could serve as a "surveillance" monitor observing the entire manor, able to precisely locate everyone's position…
Therefore, finding Krul wasn't difficult, just required an extra trip.
"Near the priest's room? It seems Mr. Krul's pace isn't very fast. After chasing for so long, he's only made this much progress."
Returning to her bedroom and seeing Krul's ceramic figurine lingering in the priest's room in the manor model, Fran slightly pursed her lips and sighed.
Hearing this, Davis's expression beside her turned subtle.
Before the two entered that kitchen, Krul still had one good leg. His current state was thanks to Fran, and this doctor seemed completely unaware of being the instigator…
Tamesis also observed this not-so-small dollhouse and quickly understood its general operating principle.
"This model can reflect the manor's state in real time? Hmm… indeed has great strategic significance."
"But why is Krul's ceramic figurine so broken?"
She carefully examined Krul's ceramic figurine, finding it now covered in crisscrossing sharp weapon slash wounds. Both legs were only white bones with bits of muscle hanging, and one arm was directly severed from the elbow.
"Was it… this 'knight'?"
One could see a tall, burly ancient knight ceramic figurine placed in the corridor outside the room. It held a long-handled halberd, seemingly patrolling the area.
"Yes."
Fran nodded lightly, affirming Tamesis's thought.
Davis, of course, also noticed this knight ceramic figurine, and he had seen it in the manor model earlier than Tamesis.
At the time, he was very puzzled. Even a fully armored human should be hard-pressed to contend with that terrifying Corruption monster. But after seeing the lawyer lady kill Father Gorn merely by "touch"… everything seemed less hard to accept.
Noticing Davis's expression, Fran then instructed him.
+++
T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL