Trial

10 people had been thrown towards Edin, he was sure that only about 3 of them were suspicious individuals whereas the others were probably outcasts or just...unique. There was also the likelihood that some of the people in the crowd were hoping to use him as a proxy to resolve their grudges by firing false accusations not that it mattered to him. Only one person would die, and that would be the apostle candidate. The Knight had already cleared about 6 of the accused through visual assessment, as the reason they were accused in the first place was due to physical deformities or characteristics like in the case of Grace the prostitute, where a disease had caused severe rashes to appear upon her face. This very same disease would cause her death in a few years if left untreated. He could already imagine the lustful looks in some of his men's eyes, they could easily buy the necessary medicine needed to treat the disease afflicting the girl, and whoever did it the fastest would win the girl's heart.

Lightly shaking his head, Edin shifted his attention upon the four that he couldn't clear: Alexei, the man who disappeared once a week, Julian, an old man who supposedly had a collection of human-like skulls, Gregor, a young boy who had been seen cleaning blood from his clothes by the river and finally, Faye, the black-haired girl who the village chief had accused.

Out of the corner of his eye, the large man glanced at the face of the purple-cloaked mage, as she voraciously glared at the hazel-eyed beauty, wondering the reason behind her accusation. He had half a mind to start his interrogation with the girl, his interest without a doubt piqued, but instead turned towards a stout man with a large bald spot in the middle of his head, Julian. 

"Old man, how do you plan to prove your innocence", the Knight asked as he focused both his eyes and mana sense upon the man's kneeling figure, every micro-expression, every twitch, every bead of sweat, Edin could see all of it. It would be these observations teamed with the man's defence that would determine the fate of Julian. 

"S-sir Knight...those skulls belong to goblins..I-I used to be a hunter in my youth"

Despite his trembling frame, when Julain spoke there was a hint of confidence threaded within his tone, suggesting to Edin that he could most likely trust what the old fellow had said. But Edin's cautious trait refused to trust his senses as he turned towards the crowd announcing his decision, "Well, there's only one way to find out, one of you take Palmer to this fellow's home", before pointing towards a knight to his left. Palmer nodded towards the captain before going to a teenage boy who had volunteered to be his guide.

"Now we wait", Edin signalled towards one of his men, who disappeared into the knight group, before returning with a small stool. The stool was placed beside the captain's large frame, before the captain seated himself upon it, leaving the villagers wondering how this small stool could withstand the weight of such a large man. Paying no heed to the villager's intrigue, Edin focused his mana sense on a pair of figures making their way to the west of the village, moving past various stone-walled houses before stopping in front of a decrepit wooden hut. It was a surprise that the hut hadn't fallen apart, it appeared despite its terrible appearance, it was quite a sturdy home.

With Julian's home being identified, Edin didn't hesitate to send his mana sense inside the home, quickly finding the skulls that the old man claimed were goblin skulls. A quick inspection of the skulls revealed that the accused was in fact telling the truth, but Edin didn't reveal the old man's fate, instead opting to wait for Palmer to return. It wasn't hard to work out that the villagers had no idea about the abilities a person received upon reaching the Knight stage, including mana sense. If the villagers didn't know, then it was highly likely that the apostle candidate was also unaware, so why reveal his cards, especially something as game-changing as mana sense? The faster he killed the candidate the better, the last thing he wanted was the candidate to be selected mid-fight. Apostles tended to start at the same level as 8-node Knights, also known as High Knights, which was one level higher than Edin's current level.

Although the gap between the minor stages wasn't as large as the major stages, there was a gap nonetheless, Edin could only hope if the situation came to it that his experience was enough to bridge the gap. As he recollected all the information regarding apostle candidates he possessed, his expression turned grim as he recalled the steps towards apostlehood, more importantly, the first step: Awakening. The one thing the Knight didn't want to deal with was an unawakened candidate, the reason behind this was quite simple, at this stage the candidate was no more than an innocent child, unaware of what fate had in store for them.

His gaze hovered over the young girl and boy at the end of the row of accused as this thought plagued his mind. Edin had killed many across his 44 years of existence, yet not a single one of these was an innocent child, was it really okay to kill someone just because they were destined to be evil? Was there no way to prevent that ill fate? These questions always tormented Edin whenever he heard about an unawakened candidate being executed, he could never understand his comrades celebrating the death of a child, a child who had done no wrong except be unfortunate enough to be selected by fate to fall to the clutches of darkness.

Edin snapped out of his thoughts as Palmer returned, confirming that Julian was telling the truth, eliciting tears of joy from the old man who was relieved that he had been proven innocent. Signalling to the overjoyed man to return to the crowd, the Knight moved along to the next accused, ready to hear what they had to say to defend themselves.

Time passed, and the Knight now stood in front of the black-haired girl called Faye, she was kneeling on the ground, her head hanging in hopelessness. She was the only person left. The crowd of villagers glared at her with intense hostility as if there was no doubt that she was the demon, they had given these exact looks to the other accused, quickly changing their tune once they had been proven innocent. 

The man who disappeared every week, Alexei, had been in fact visiting his deceased wife and son's graves, they had died deep in the forest due to poison, and Alexei had buried them in the exact spot where they had passed away. So every week, he trekked into the forest to pay his respects. 

Gregor, the teenage boy who was seen cleaning bloodied clothes, had caught Edin's interest. It turns out the blood that soaked the boy's clothes was goblin blood, he had been venturing into the forest to hunt goblins hoping to grow as strong as possible. Possessing such drive at his young age showed potential, if he was raised right he could one day be like the Knight Seedlings that stood before him. Edin planned to extend an invitation to the Warforge Knights to the boy after he had dealt with the apostle issue.

Studying the girl who kneeled before him, the large man asked a single question to the old mage who stood next.

"Mage, I hope you explain the reason behind your accusation"