Chapter 10 – Law and Justice

The Reimagining of the Bow Hero

Author's Note: Well, hope you liked how I wrote the trial! For those of you who said Satoshi should have fully defended Naofumi, note that if he did so the Church and Crown would be extremely upset, and he also does not know if Naofumi did it, just that it's very unlikely. With that said, let the chapter commence!

I said what I wanted to say, as diplomatically as I could, hopefully not pissing off either Naofumi or the king too much. I liked Naofumi, but I also didn't know if the accusations were true. Since I believe in innocent until proven guilty, I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Motoyasu and Ren stood there silently, hatefully glaring in Naofumi' s direction.

The king seemed quite displeased at my comments, but he wasn't furious. After all, I didn't specifically disagree with him.

Myne wasn't happy with what I said, but she didn't seem to care that much.

Motoyasu stepped up and Myne hid behind his back. He began viciously reprimanding Naofumi.

"Although what Satoshi said did make sense, I believe in what Myne said. You truly are trash. You come to this world and treat your only companion this way! Even though you may be lower level, I find it easy to believe you could drug her and rape her. Truly the scummiest of scum."

"I also agree with Motoyasu." Ren spoke lifelessly. "It's hard to sympathize with you, considering it wouldn't be that hard to drug someone, even while not knowing where the pharmacy was. You probably just bought it from some peddler while Myne was shopping for her own stuff."

I stayed quiet. I already said what I wanted to say.

"Fine." Naofumi sighed. "Since all of you are so hellbent on punishing me, except Satoshi, what is my punishment? Not like anything I could do would change that."

"At the moment, you four are our only defense against the waves of Calamity, so therefore you will not be punished. However, your heinous crimes will be known to the people of Melromarc, and they would undoubtedly refuse to cooperate with you."

To me, that seemed like a fair punishment, although I doubt Naofumi would be able to survive without help. Even still, I feel like the conviction came too fast, and Naofumi never really had a chance to defend himself. But hey! Medieval law isn't fair. If Naofumi was innocent, like I think he probably is, this truly would be a tough pill to swallow.

"Thank you very much!" Naofumi spoke.

I could tell he was at least slightly happy he wasn't going to be executed, but there was clear anger in his expression. I'm not sure how he would deal with his designation as a rapist by the public though.

"We will summon you all in another month, when the waves strike. Shield Hero, you may be a criminal, but you will still be complied to defend the country. Understood?"

"Got it."

While the king rambled on, I caught something in the corner of my eye.

Myne stuck her tongue out and silently mocked Naofumi, confident that nobody could see her. That was evidently false, as Naofumi glared back at her in pure hatred. There was pretty much no doubt in my mind at this point, this trial was a sham. I couldn't do anything though, the king had supreme authority and a few words wouldn't change his mind.

As the trial reached its end, I walked out of the castle through the gate after Ren and Motoyasu left. My party followed closely behind.

Before I could exit though, an exhausted Naofumi tapped my shoulder.

"Hey, thanks for helping me back there. I don't know what I would do if no one at least tried to believe me back there."

"Hey," I sympathetically responded. "As a lawyer, that was the least I could do. Sorry that I couldn't defend you, even though you're my best friend in this world. I just don't know what really went on there."

"No problem. You did the best you could have done."

"Anyways, I think that it would be for the better if we don't travel together from now on. It hinders our experience gain, and the people would spread rumors damaging the both of us. Plus, the crown now hates your guts, and I don't know what they'd do if they caught you with another hero, you get me?"

"Yeah." Naofumi said sadly.

"Well, at least you have your money, right? You could find and recruit some new companions that haven't heard of this, right?"

"Well, about that, it would seem that Myne has stolen all my money. After Myne falsely accused me of rape and joined his side, she probably took the coin bag out of my drawer and pocketed it. That lying scoundrel."

"Anyways," I concluded. "I wish you the best of luck, Naofumi. We can still remain friends from now on if you want, but we have to watch what we do. I can give you 100 silver to make your journey easier, and to compensate you for your lost money. I'd advise you to check out the Adventurer's Guild for quests that offer rewards upon completion."

"Thanks so much, Satoshi! You're a lifesaver."

"It's nothing, really. See you around."

Upon those words, we went our separate ways. I walked towards the dungeons that the innkeeper informed me about, while Naofumi began wandering through the town.

As I was about to leave city limits, I saw a peddler that was chanting something interesting.

"Filolials, filolials! Covers ground fast, and they will last! Purebred, racing filolial eggs, available for only a limited time!"

"Hey," I asked him. "What's a filolial?"

"You mean you don't know? It's a bird-like creature that can draw carriages. It's so fast that it can travel across the country in four days, and these purebred top-notch filolials can go even faster!"

"How much is it going to cost me?"

"Oh, you're the legendary bow hero? I can see from that bow on your left arm. Here, since you're protecting the country, I'll give you a discount. Just 150 silver, for this top-of-the-line filolial. You can't find a better one than this anywhere. In a few days, the egg will hatch, and it takes only a few more for it to be rideable!"

"I'll take it."

I dropped the silver into the peddler's hands and looked through his assortment of eggs. They were all neatly placed inside what appeared to be incubators. I picked the egg that was the smoothest, with the prettiest shape. It had a strange, runic pattern painted on it, but the other ones had it too, so it probably was standard with high-end eggs.

With an incubator in my arms, and my party members by my side, the true adventure was finally kicking off. One could only wonder what Naofumi would be up to.

Chapter 11 out soon!

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