Chapter 11: The Trial

[Fiore's castle, Evening]

Knock, knock, knock.

"Are you ready to go?" Mary asked as she stood outside Emily's room.

"Yeah." She answered as she quickly changed her bloodied clothes out to a new set of clothes given to her by Mary.

Once she was done, she swung open the door and greeted Mary. With her usual bright smile, she greeted back with a wave, before leading Emily to where she needed to be. She looked around the hallways that were decorated with portraits, sculptures and some other paintings. The walls are white with wooden panels coming up till a third of the walls, while the floor was lined with a red carpet. The hallways looked much majestic when it was in the day, than it was at night. The castle was like a labyrinth, both of them needed to make many turns and walk down many flights of stairs before finally reaching their destination.

Two large mahogany doors stood before them. Beside the doors, there was a gold plated sign that had the words: 'Execution Room' carved into the shiny metal.

"This is the execution room." Mary stated as she pushed open one of the door.

It looked so much like a courtroom, everything was made up of pristine wood. However, the only difference was that there was a huge stage at the center of the room and on it was was a guillotine.

Emily gulped from the sight of that beheading apparatus. There were already a few people sitting down at the sides of the room, but she could not make out their faces.

She could feel it.

Everyone was watching her every move.

Keeping her head low, she quickly followed Mary's shadow.

"Please take a seat, Princess." Mary guided her to a single seat closest to the stage. Emily hesitated for a moment before she unwillingly sat down. "I'll be taking a seat at the last row." Mary informed and before she knew it she disappeared.

Suddenly, two guards busted through the doors, followed by another two grabbing hold of each of Yukiko's biceps. Her wrists and neck were chained up tightly and those parts were already turning pinkish.

Emily took a sharp breath of air, when the five of them made their appearance, "Holy crap, can everyone just stop scaring me?!"

Just as she wanted to let out an irritated sigh, she paused and subconsciously grimaced when she saw the black and blue bruises on Yukiko's body. "...What did they do to her?"

Yukiko caught sight of Emily as they dragged her up the platform. "Wow, isn't this great? The Princess wants to see me get executed." She sarcastically cheered.

"Shut it, no one gave you the right to speak." One of the guards ordered sternly, shooting her a glare.

Another guard cleared his throat and announced loudly, "Yumemiya Yukiko has committed a serious crime, which is attempting to assassinate the Fiore 14th Princess, Emilia Von Fiorentina. She will thereby be executed for her offence." He then took a deep breath and continued, "If there are no objections, we will continue the execution as scheduled."

The room went silent.

"Since there are no obj--"

"...I object." Emily declared quietly while sheepishly raising her hand. Everyone in the room have their eyes fixated on her, even Yukiko. The guard then questioned, "My lady, what's the reason for your objection?"

"Well, she saved my life. I don't think she should be executed for that." Emily replied with folded arms, trying to fake her confidence.

"My apologises, that can't be used as a valid reason." The guard apologised, even though it was not his fault that rules were rules. "She needs to be punished for her crime."

"I don't think so, I think she should be free." She argued back, scrunching her eyebrows.

"We can't do th--"

"Save your energy, I didn't ask for your help, miss Princess. I would rather be killed than to be saved by a weakling like you. I attempted to kill and if you let me go now, I'll definitely kill you." Yukiko scorned with a forced smirk.

"How dare you speak to the Princess that way?" One of the other guards near Yukiko give her a kick to her back causing her to fall to the ground.

Emily could sense a hint of guilt in Yukiko's voice when she said that.

"Fine, I'll decide her punishment." Emily affirmed, this time with actual confidence. "It can be anything, right?"

The guard nodded, "Yes, anything."

She thought about an punishment for a while, but suddenly the perfect one for Yukiko came to her mind.

"Alright then." Emily announced, "I want Yukiko to be my friend."

The room went silent for the second time.

Everyone froze when they heard that.

"...What?" Yukiko was dumbfounded. "You know what? Kill me. Please." She deadpanned with a straight face and a blank stare to the executioner.

"A-are you sure you want that as a punishment, my lady?" The guard asked while trying to keep himself composed, but his stammering did suggest otherwise.

"Yeah, I'm sure. This is a pretty decent punishment. To her, it's worse than death." Emily could not help but to tug a grin at the side of her lips, "Besides, I could really use some friends here, don't you think?"

"Ah, yes, of course." The guard nodded, "I will thereby announced that Yumemiya Yukiko will be freed from execution. Instead, she will serve her punishment by... being friends with Fiore's 14th Princess, Emilia Von Fiorentina."

With that, the execution was over.

"Wow. She did it, didn't she?" Ethan stated from the last row. Lavi laughed, before finishing the popcorn that he brought into the room, "I've starting to take a liking to her, she's interesting."

Ethan gave a kick to the seat in front of him, where Lavi was sitting, "You know, you shouldn't be eating here."

"Mm-- I noooo." Lavi replied with his mouth full, making some of his words inaudible. Once he was done chewing, he looked up and continued, "Come on Ethan. I can't help it, I'm starving. Just let me off this time."

Ethan shook his head with disapproval, but eventually he did let him off.

"...She really kept her words." Anna spoke in her cold yet calm voice.

"Woah, even Anna had something to say about this." Lavi grinned, "Anyways, let's go. Dinner is ready and if you don't know it by now, I'm hungry."