The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 579: The Trial Begins
Chapter 579: The Trial Begins
Dominic ignored the strange undead, and moved to lead everyone into the house so that they could hold the trial of Prince Kaizon in the basement.
The basement room should be secure enough for the Kings to feel comfortable, and it was out of sight so that nobody would be able to sneak up on them if there was a traitor in their midst.
“Oh, this brings back memories.” The King of Axbridge noted as he followed Dominic and the Cygnia Royals down the stairs.
“Right? I haven’t been here in years. It looks just like I remember it, even if he’s got all the decorations put away.” The Necromancer King agreed.
Dominic smiled at the eerily young undead. “I can decorate properly if you wish. I had just intended to set up seating for a trial.”
Advisor Trionne poked her King in the side, and he stuck out his tongue at her, then his body slowly shifted into that of a wizened Lich Lord.
“Yes, pomp and circumstance are required. We should all take this moment seriously.” He announced, his voice carrying the distinctive echo of the undead that came from their relationship with the Underworld, or the God of Death.
Dominic went with the suggestion, ignoring the fact that all the other Kings had known that wasn’t his real appearance, and had simply played along with the Necromancer King’s whimsy.
But more importantly, Dominic couldn’t see through that illusion at all. Assuming it was an illusion, and not a shapeshifting ability. There wasn’t even a hint that it wasn’t his real form until he shifted.
Dominic quickly set up what he assumed should be a proper courtroom, but with a bit of Royal flair.
They didn’t have the audience to fill seating behind the proceedings, or the side boxes that overlooked the room, but he gave each of the attending Royals seats at the large curved table he found in the room’s storage cube.
Then he put up tables for the prosecution and defence, a witness stand, in case they wanted one, and the good red carpet.
With the walls covered in drapery, it really did look like a proper Royal Throne room or courtroom. That should be enough for the circumstances, but he realized the moment that he finished that this arrangement wasn’t quite right.
They didn’t need a prosecutor’s desk, as everyone in the judge’s panel had evidence against Kaizon.
Again, everyone chose to play along, and the King of Dagos took the prosecutor’s seat, leaving Dominic, Amie and the Royal Guards from the various nations to fill the audience seats.
He was wrong, they did have enough spectators to fill the room.
The King of Cygnia rapped his gauntleted knuckles on the table, and Dominic noticed that everyone had used clothing orbs to change into armour.
“This tribunal of regional powers is now in order. As host, I will arbitrate. King Gustav, please state the charges.”
The King of Dagos rose to his feet, his face solemn. “I do hereby charge Kaizon, exiled former Prince of Dagos with the following crimes. Attempted Regicide, Treason, leading a Rebellion, Sedition, assisting a foreign invasion of Dagos while still a Prince of the Nation, invading a foreign land without Royal assent, and impersonating the Monarch.”
That was quite the list, and there wasn’t a single charge on the list that wasn’t punishable by death.
Kaizon turned to glare at Dominic. He hadn’t intended to be here for this spectacle, and he still couldn’t understand how he had survived.
The former King had never informed him that the badge of office given to all Princes, even illegitimate ones, was a powerful magical item that would save your life in an emergency. It was not common knowledge, but the other Monarchs were already aware, as they had mostly all gone to the same source for them.
The Necromancer King.
“Accused, how do you plead to these charges?”
Kaizon stared blankly at the King of Cygnia for a moment, and then rose to his feet.
“Everything that I did, I did for Dagos. The Dragon King’s bloodline is a plague upon the world, and the curse that he inflicted upon our nation starved millions and harmed our great nation for a decade.
Allowing a weak King to make peace with the murderous survivors of the Wavemates Nobility will only cause untold suffering.”
Then he sat back on his chair, already looking defeated, but resolute.
If this was what the Kings demanded of him after losing the civil war, then this was the price that he would pay.
“King Gustav, would you like to present evidence to support your claims?” The Cygnian King asked.
The King of Dagos rose slowly to his feet. “Indeed. I have kept close documentations of every attack on the civilians of Dagos, every confession by captured rebel Nobles, and a summary of every military report related to the monster summoning attacks inflicted on my people.”
He took out a stack of folders, and one of his guards moved to distribute them to the other Kings.
Indeed, there were documents, reports, death tolls. All damning evidence of the ambition of one man, and the parties willing to back him for the throne.
That was the part that the other Kings were more interested in. They all had some intelligence about who had been supporting him, where they were hiding and what sort of resources they could still muster.
But none of it was a solid confirmation, it was all speculation.
The Rebels had hidden their power well enough that even the location of the actual Prince Kaizon wasn’t known until he showed up in Wistover after all his clones were dead.
However, now that he had, they were able to trace reports of refugee movements in the areas where he had been, and make an educated guess.
From what Alexis had managed to determine, it was most likely that he had been in Kinewen the whole time, leading the rebellion from one of the last places that they would look for him.
But Kinewen had countless magic users. Even if the Necromancers that had been helping him in the later stages were found and killed in Shersdonia, there were other mages helping him, and at least one extremely powerful one.
Mages who hadn’t been identified or located yet, other than the ones killed in battle.
