Thankfully, it looked like the trial was finally coming to an end; during the 15-minute break, I was able to mentally exchange a few words with Be on how the preparations were coming along. It seemed to be doing well so that comforted me a bit. Still, not only was I mentally exhausted from overworking my brain more than usual, but my legs were also starting to give up on me. Either from standing for too long, or the nervousness at what’s to come.

I was pretty damn looking forward to getting out of here once and for all.

The break soon ended and the trial resumed, with the attorneys disputing my case while the judge and her assistants carrying on the conversation. I wasn’t all too engaged until it came to taking care of another issue…

“Lord Raphael, we’d like to question you on another incident that took place while you were attempting to murder Lord Idris.”

‘Here we go again.’ “I never attempted that—“

“—There have been reports from many people who attested to your other crime,” they interrupted before I could even begin. “They say that you forged documents using Lord Idris’ name, attempting to frame him for thievery. We also have accounts of you using bribery with those also involved in the crime…”

Things were definitely not going well. Despite fighting back in the first half, I could not come up with anything to defend myself against the allegations of ‘me’ being a crook. They were all true, so the only thing I could’ve done in the situation was lie and plead non-guilty over and over again, just like the eyeballs said.

It got worse when mentions of a rebellion began to emerge; Raphael’s father in the centre of it all. Him being absent during the trial only made it worse for me, as I had to defend him despite not having ever met the man in my entire life.

At long last, we seemed to reach the end of the trial. The eyeballs would soon take care of things after the decision and I’d be out of here for good.

The sound of the gavel hitting the desk echoed throughout the courtroom, silencing the discussions amongst the crowd. I sucked in a deep breath, anticipating the judge’s decision; were the eyeballs going to cause an explosion now or after?

“The jury has made their decision regarding the case of Lord Raphael Cicolleros,” one of the assistants spoke out, looking at the judge and waiting for her to continue.

The curly-haired judge looked at me without a hint of an emotion in her eyes. “Raphael Cicolleros, this is your last chance to plead guilty, granting you the possibility of a lighter sentence.”

I stood firm. “I’m not guilty.” There was a tense silence that ensued.

“Very well,” the supreme judge in charge of my fate in that moment exchanged a look with her assistant before turning her attention back to me.

“Raphael Cicolleros, due to the lack of evidence convicting you of the following crimes of attempted murder and forgery of legal documents, we will not be taking the decision to sentence you to execution.”

Exclaims immediately erupted within the audience after the surprising declaration. Meanwhile, I didn’t even have the words to say anything.

“Silence!” Her voice boomed with enough strength to rival the gavel in her hand. I subconsciously gripped the sides of the standing desk as she stared at me, eyes wide in anticipation.

“However, many questions remain unsolved. Thus, you will be placed under house arrest until further notice,” she continued, “a second trial will be in order in a few months to address the claims against you for money embezzlement and conspiracies surrounding a revolt against the royal family.”

She finally turned to face the crowd. “Jury is now dismissed.”

I remained frozen, not having expected the oddly tame punishment, if it could even be called that.

What were the eyeballs thinking of right now?

I didn’t even have time to ponder over the unexpected turn of events when roars amongst the crowd blew up, many clearly displeased with the judgement while others, mainly the nobles, cheered in glee. A pair of guards took me away in a hurry, pushing me out of the courtroom. I only had time to glance at the judge behind me to find a small smile on her face.

‘What’s going on?’ My confusion was incomparable to everyone else. I couldn’t figure out what to do now that things had changed and I would be going out... free?

I was somewhat free, wasn’t I?

However, the difficult questions remained as I thought over what my next course of action should be.

‘Human, calm down.’ I heard Be whisper in my ear and I almost jumped at the sudden voice; I had been too immersed inside my own head that I forgot that the eyeballs were probably following me.

I stayed silent, listening to the eyeball’s whispers while they were still invisible.

‘You’re probably confused right now over what’s going on.’ They let out a small snort. ‘Although we weren’t expecting the sudden change of events, this isn’t so bad either.’

They paused, and then continued with amusement. ‘Aren’t you glad you’re not getting executed?’

I wanted to roll my eyes at the comment but I resisted the urge to do so with the guards still around me. Leave it to the eyeball to be uplifting in their own weird way.

I thought about the situation a little more; house arrest? I didn’t really like the idea of getting locked up in some place again for who knows how long but… at least it wasn’t a dungeon this time.

‘Wow, my standards sure did drop by a lot.’

I knew for sure that the yellow-winged eyeball was grinning at my situation. ‘You’re a lucky one. You’re released with no consequences and now you get to go back to a nice bed and have a proper meal aside from custard.’

“What’s wrong with custard?” I hissed without a second thought, accidentally attracting the attention of one of the guards.

Before I knew it, he was walking beside me. “Hey kid, you should be celebrating right now! What’s with the gloomy expression?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ah… just thinking of how I’ll deal with the father,” I muttered with a grim smile. I did use it as an excuse to answer the guard’s question, but I was seriously wondering how I’ll have to interact with that man at some point. The fact that he didn’t bother to show up to the trial already said a lot about his character, despite Raphael not being the best son.

… Looks like my birthday wasn’t the only thing I had in common with Raphael.

I almost forgot that I was talking to the guard when I heard him suddenly chuckle beside me. “Haha, good luck. Let’s hope that not another punishment awaits you back home.”

“Thanks,” was my dry reply. ‘I hope he’s not at home at all, please make this one absent as well.’

We walked in silence again. There was no point in socializing with the guards any further.

Eventually we reached a private room and I was let inside. “We’ll come take you later,” one of the guards said before leaving the room and closing the door behind them. I was back to staying in a strange room alone.

Almost immediately the eyeballs appeared in front of me. This time, I only rolled my eyes. I just knew they enjoyed surprising me like that.

“Missed us?” Be grinned as Ai rolled their eye at them.

“Tsk, how frustrating,” they started in an annoyed tone. “After all that work to get you out of here, you get released easily…”

“Sorry, I should’ve just told them to execute me instead,” I replied sarcastically.

The yellow-winged eyeball let out a snicker as they looked at their boss who was clearly unamused by my reaction. “Did escaping death make you bold?”

I grinned nervously. “Maybe.” Ai wasn’t wrong, finishing the trial was like lifting a heavy weight off my shoulder and I couldn’t seem to care about what other crazy thing happened next.

“Well, let’s talk serious now,” Be interrupted our little banter, looking at me. I could sense they had something important to say. “That judge, she…” they looked at Ai, exchanging a look.

‘Ah, the judge that looks like my English teacher.’ I was still thinking about her behaviour from back in there, but I couldn’t seem to gauge out her character. Still, I refrained from saying that little detail out loud, since I didn’t know if it would help anyway.

“What is it? What about her?” I got even more curious when Be stopped talking.

“We can’t tell you this since it’s confidential but there was something else that we noticed,” Be said. “She purposefully set you free, Raphael.”

I stayed silent, waiting for the eyeball to elaborate. Ai looked to be deep in thought before they turned to face me abruptly.

“She’s like you. A weird entity,” Ai said. Be whipped their head to them.

“Huh?! I thought you said we shouldn’t tell him that!”

“I had a feeling he’d learn about it soon.”

“Then you should’ve let me tell him, you annoying assho…“ Be stopped, passing a glance at me before looking back at their partner. “Ugh, you always steal my glory.”

Ai surprisingly let out a small smirk. “It’s not that serious, Be.”

“Yes, it is—!“

“Guys! What the hell do you mean she’s like me?” It only took me a bit to realize what Ai meant but it was necessary to hear the full answer from the eyeball.

The two eyeballs looked at each other again and Be opened their mouth to respond but was yet interrupted again, this time from a knock. The person behind the door entered right after and the eyeballs immediately turned invisible.

I cursed under my breath. What terrible timing!

The guard from earlier scratched their head as soon as they walked in. “I could swear I heard something here…”

“I was talking to myself,” I bluntly replied, too tired to come up with a better lie. If people start assuming I’m crazy, so be it.

Fortunately, the guard looked like they believed me so they nodded, stepping away from the door. “Come with me.”

I followed them out, surprised when it was just one guard instead of the many that were accompanying me earlier. “Hey sir, am I getting released?”

“Not yet,” they curtly replied before letting out a sigh when they noticed my uneasy expression. “Do not worry, it’s just basic protocols, you’ll be let out soon. Besides, someone wants to talk to you.”

‘To me?’ I wondered as we walked down the hallway and to a much nicer area of the building; the red carpet and gold décor that coated the walls almost made me feel like a celebrity… out of jail.

Now that I think about it, it was weird how the dungeons and courtroom were in the same building. Was the place really that big?

“Uh, question… how come that enormous courtroom was able to fit in this place?” I asked, now a bit curious about the world’s architecture. However, the guard’s response was not the one I was expecting.

“What are you talking about? You’re not in the dungeons tower right now, we’re in a courthouse.”

“Huh?” My eyes widened slightly in surprise.  “Wait, what do you mean?”

“We’re here.” The guard ignored my question and pushed me along. I opened my mouth to pester them for more information but they shushed me as soon as we stopped in front of a door.

They knocked on the door. “Chief Judge? The convict—Ah, I mean, Lord Raphael is here.” I immediately pushed aside the confusion and eagerly anticipated the conversation that would follow after meeting her.

A soft ‘come in’ could be heard before I was ushered inside. The guard didn’t even follow after me—they immediately closed the door behind me and left to stand outside.

“Uh…” I was unsure of what to say so I stood awkwardly in the centre of the room, my eyes scanning the room until they landed on the judge who had her back facing me from behind the desk. I was hoping to see her face more clearly this time so I waited for her to turn around, but she really did seem to take her time with that…

As if on cue, the woman slowly turned around, and now that I could finally see her properly, I knew there was no doubt about it. Whether golden or not, they spoke the same thing.

It was her, Mrs. Juniper.

She smiled at me. “How was your journey, Cindy?”

***

A/N: First off, Happy New Year!! My new year's resolution started with me trying to upload a chapter before 12 AM but clearly that didn't happened so we're already off to a rough start-- BUT HEY, a chapter is a chapter lol. Also, apologies for disappearing off the face of earth, it will probably happen again. I want to blame this on exams but I'm gonna be honest, it's really just the procrastination.

On the bright side, I think I have a better idea of the characters now :) I'm almost done editing a few things and the plot will start to progress further because mc is no longer in the dungeons, yippee! This is a suggestion, so you don't need to listen, but I think it'd probably be best to wait until this book has enough chapters before reading, I'm kinda worried that I'll take way too long to upload these chapters...You guys are in for a long ride lol.