The God of Jesters
Chapter 527 - 8.09.4 The cloud is here.

Chapter 527: 8.09.4 The cloud is here.

As Dearma was enjoying the little chaos he had caused. The ground shook to a minuscule amount, which went unnoticed by many, as it can be considered the vibrations caused by a simple step. But for Dearma, a Legendary being nothing was hidden from his eyes or senses, with a simple unintrusive focus, he found something wonderful under the city.

"Mosquitos?" He wondered for a tad bit before smiling."Is this him?" Only he knew the work he had done for the Bloodcrows. When he is forced to fight the monster known as Wortham, Dearma learns another secret about this disgusting family.

’The chaos they warned of, is it their own blood?’

Those mosquitos, he remembers those things, but not in this specific form.

They were creations summoned through the blood of a particular branch of BloodCrows that Dearma had seen with his very own eyes.

He was already four hundred years old, among which he had lived the last two hundred as a slave to the Bloodcrow family. So it would be suffice to say, that he knew what he was talking about. ’A chance?’ Dearma wondered, thinking that this might be the opportunity he had been looking for all this while.

"Oh Deimos, I thank you for this opportunity," Dearma shouted as more and more mosquitoes filled the sewers, killing what life had remained in the sewers, including some workers who turned into blood flowers, which birthed even more mosquitoes.

Among them was Rosso’s body, hidden among the corpses and flowers, turning into a weird flower himself.

******

The Court of the Truthful Deceit was a special place.

For some odd reason, no powers had any effect here. Most Grandmasters turn mortals when they enter its vicinity, turning weak and harmless. While the Legendary beings, can fight off this odd aura to some extent, they also lose a level of their strength the moment they come into the Court’s influence.

With the only exceptions being the Church Knights, as well as priests.

Meaning that in this place, only the Church held power, whereas most of the Noble families barring the Guardian Beast families had turned harmless as mortals, including Pea as well as Heroth.

As for the reason?

There was a little story about it, which ended with words that said. "Only those with clear Karma could bypass the restriction, for they are the purest beings in existence." But what did that mean, few understood.

"The court is in session." The Grand priestess Lady Lies was the one overlooking the trial, sitting atop the judge position, a far cry from a neutral party that should generally hold the court.

But this was the Southern district, fairness never mattered in the land dictated by the Church of Truthful Deceit, for what they say will be truth.

And Heroth, looking at all of this could only sigh inside. If not for the worry about those madmen Radiant Knights, he wouldn’t have humored this farce. But as they say, when in Pulgasiri, do as Dwarfs do. So if Heroth had to live here, he had to let the trial go as it should.

"... That will be our report of the incident. If there are any lies here, the defense can point it out." It was a boring court session with a blame game going around. The only difference was the little scale that tilted left and right depending on the truth that was thrown both ways.

And as it just so happened, Heroth was losing the case.

He did harm a Church personnel and even was blamed for aiding a terrorist. No place can stand such blame easily, and unless he had proof of his innocence, things would get risky, and he would be forced to leave this city.

No one can do that.

’This girl though, she is pretty good at her job.’ Heroth did have this thought when looking at the Tall girl that reminded him of a distant past, but nothing more than that.

After he grew up, even his meetings with Malidi started to die down. It might be the age of both of them or the fact that most of the exploration that can be done on the Brihma Continent had already been done. And Malidi was looking for new horizons. Preparing for it at least.

’Just a year more and I will be free from him.’ He thought, before the start of the jury made up of nobles that the girl named Pea had paid a handsome sum to start their own stories and reasoning. But they didn’t come to a proper conclusion too easily, they played around with the words for a bit. Which took a whole hour.

But it made sense somewhat, the proofs on both ends were not enough to justify letting Heroth go so easily. They needed to make a case of their reasoning before showing they came to their own verdict.

"... it is all for these reasons that we find the defendant, guilty."

"..." Heroth looked at the man and those behind him, to the faces that didn’t move an inch or bother to show any emotions. Before he sighed and looked toward the girl who also stood silent for a bit, before showing a pained smile and saying. "We do respect the verdict of the Jury, but I would hope you can reconsider. My client is nothing more than a passerby victim that fell into a trap set up by the terrorist and irrevocably charged by Priest Halbrand who exceeded the authority during the matter..."

"All the priest did was force the truth out of the Defended, there was nothing more beside it." the prosecutor of the hearing, another Priest who also held a position in the government spoke with some mockery towards Pea.

"And besides, not only will your client be charged for his crime, but even you Miss Pea. The fact that you tried to bribe the jury hadn’t been overlooked by us."

"All of it is in the open, there is no bribe, but gifts. The choices they made in the court of Truth won’t affect the gifts I gave to them." As she spoke those words the Karama Tarazu didn’t move an inch, which showed that she was speaking the truth, and hence couldn’t be blamed.

But one’s truth doesn’t mean a thing to the reality of things. She did bribe these people, even if they ended up betraying her and the Bartender’s Guild.

Which when one thinks hard about, was understandable.

In the eyes of Nobles, their guild was just an information-providing organization, they held little strength in the city of Rudrain and when it came to influence, they might not match the strength of the Noble families when it came to Cynark as a whole.

So why bother being scared of them or holding their promises? All of it was dependent on words anyway.

Of course, this is what they thought, unaware that Pea was already smiling on the inside. As part of her plan had been a success. However, she did end up using this old man Heroth as a tool for this.

But it didn’t mean that she would let harm come to him. She will do part of her job and ensure a safe exit of Heroth out of this city. Because the case can be considered a flop already.

"If there is nothing else to show on defense, I the Grand Priestess will announce the verdict.’ She said, looking at the Scale.

"The Defendant is Guilty and charged with harm against a Church Personnel doing his due diligence. He will be put into detention for the next ten years under the Church Prisons and be forced to compensate the church with 700 Million Dirium, if he lacks the money, he can use the items in his shop as collateral."

As the verdict came, the face of Pea towards the Grand Priestess turned brighter, as if she saw something born over her head. While the face of Heroth tinged with frustration. "This is annoying," he spoke, finding the surrounding faces suddenly annoying, including the Grand priestess, Who he had thought would at least give him a reasonable punishment, even if he was deemed guilty due to his backing.

But no, for some odd reason, they chose to do this.

Loot him of his freedom.

Loot him of his items.

Loot him of his peace.

And, Loot him for his sanity.

"Do you know something Heroth.?"

"What is it Wraith?"

"Sometimes, I think you are scarier than that Radiant Knight that keeps stalking me."

"Haha, why do you think so? I am barely a Knight."

"Well... I believe you already know the answer to that."

There was a golden sheen in Heroth’s eyes at this moment, he was ready to say a few words of frustration, take it all out before something bad happened. Not knowing that this simple action of his had already been predicted by the church and many among the church were ready but with slight confusion.

’The restrictions are not working on him?’ Some hiding in the dark wondered, while the Grand Priestess, expecting such a reaction was also ready to act in case something bad happened.

But before Heroth could speak some words or the church could make a move, the city shook for a bit. And this time, it was noticeable enough that some of the members of the church were already rushing about, wondering what had happened.

They were on their way out of the Court when the colorful glass windows suddenly lost all their color as if a dark cloud had covered the sun.

Followed by a buzzing sound that shook the soul of people.

The disaster has come.