To the Honorable Presiding Judge🐶
“No matter how ill-bred the children of commoners may be, this is crossing the line! To look up to the Magic Saintess!”
The gentleman’s… no, the older man’s shout rang loudly across the square.
The gazes of the people who had been watching the children and Arden with smiles all turned toward him.
The children, who had suddenly been scolded by a man they didn’t know, also widened their eyes and looked up at him.
I looked at him too.
A fedora of a classic design that never went out of style, and short-cropped gray hair.
A well-tailored bespoke suit and ivory eyeglass frames. Even an ebony cane adorned with animal-bone decorations.
Judging by his appearance alone, he looked every bit like a well-educated gentleman, but to suddenly start yelling at children he didn’t even know…
‘He looks like a drunken old sot.’
Or someone who had made lecturing others a habit.
As if he believed he had the right to do so.
The man shouted.
“To praise a criminal who disrupts social order and acts as she pleases as an apostle of justice is bad enough, but now you’re even imitating her?! Do you all intend to grow up into criminals like that too?!”
“……”
“You people should reflect on yourselves as well! If children behave so impudently, you ought to know to stop them!”
“……”
The people who had merely been passing by looked utterly dumbfounded at being scolded.
“Honestly, it’s a serious problem that there are so many uneducated people. Since the ignorant make up the majority of the population, they don’t even know right from wrong, and isn’t social order crumbling more and more by the day!”
Clicking his tongue, the man waved his cane behind him.
At that, a man who seemed to be his servant approached from the carriage waiting nearby and posted a sheet of paper on the square’s bulletin board.
“How lamentable it is that I must personally take the time to enlighten people on such basic concepts of good and evil!”
Having single-handedly scolded dozens of people in the square like a one-man army, the man pointed his cane at the paper that had just been posted.
“Tonight, at the salon in District 3, a mock trial concerning the Magic Saintess will be held! I will teach you all exactly how wrong the current state of affairs is, so come and learn!”
Especially you lot! Make sure you come!
After glaring fiercely at the children, the man turned around.
“Oh! Isn’t that Sir Arden!”
He had discovered Arden beside me.
“The sole normal person in this chaotic society!”
“……”
“I’ve been reading the articles about your exploits, Sir! Keep doing exactly as you are!”
After patting Arden on the shoulder in encouragement, the man got into his carriage and disappeared.
“……”
“……”
Everyone’s gazes turned to the Arden left behind.
Arden blinked and said,
“I don’t know him.”
“……”
“……”
“I really don’t.”
Even so, the staring gazes only dispersed after Arden took off the coat where the man’s hand had touched his shoulder and threw it into the trash can.
Having abruptly lost his outerwear, Arden stared blankly up at the sky.
I held out my milk tea.
“Drink this, at least.”
The dazed Arden obediently accepted the milk tea.
Perhaps he truly was out of it, because he placed his lips on the exact spot where mine had touched.
A child watching him said,
“Sir Arden is cheating on the Magic Saintess.”
“……”
“As expected of a villain.”
That evening.
Posters reading, “Mock Trial Concerning the Magic Saintess: All foolish persons who defend the Magic Saintess must attend!” were plastered all over the streets.
Looking at the poster hanging side by side with the Magic Saintess’s wanted notice, I tilted my head.
“That man must be rich. Just how many of these did he put up?”
“Unnie, are you going?”
“Hmm? If I go right after work, I think the timing will roughly work out.”
“I’m not going.”
“Why?”
Ellie, don’t you like the Magic Saintess?
At that, Ellie answered,
“Even if I go, they’ll just be cursing the Magic Saintess anyway, won’t they? There’s no need to go out of my way and ruin my mood. I’m going to close my eyes, cover my ears, and support the Magic Saintess.”
“That’s true.”
His Imperial Majesty, a self-made businessman, or friends whose opinions I respected.
If it were someone like that, then maybe.
But there was no need to take time out of my day to listen to the opinion of some random man.
‘Especially if that opinion is just insulting me.’
Having made my decision, I turned around.
Then, suddenly, I felt the familiar sensation of a moist nose against my ankle.
When I looked down, Dubu, dressed in padded clothes, was looking up at me and wagging his tail.
“Pant, pant, pant.”
“What?”
“Pant, pant, pant.”
“Ah, you want to go here?”
“Pant, pant, pant.”
“What a pain……”
“Pant, pant, pant!”
“Fine……”
I never had the right to choose from the beginning, did I?
“The Blue Wall Salon in District 3… Is this the place?”
“You’re here?”
After work.
At the mock trial venue I arrived at with Dubu tucked under my arm after he walked for exactly three minutes and then flopped down, insisting he couldn’t walk anymore (that’s why you got fat), Cassian was standing at the entrance and took Dubu from my arms.
“It’s cold. Why are you out here? You should’ve waited inside.”
“I was going to, but they said I couldn’t go in without a partner.”
“Huh?”
Why would you need a partner to watch a trial? When I asked back in disbelief, Cassian let his eyes go unfocused.
“They said this is a salon that maintains decorum, so entry is forbidden unless you are accompanied by a partner of the opposite sex.”
“Earlier this afternoon, he told everyone to come and watch, though?”
“You can observe without a partner. Standing out there.”
“In this weather?”
It’s really cold right now, you know?
Even Dubu, whose whole body is covered in fur, is wearing padded clothes!
“What kind of manners are those after inviting people?”
“Exactly.”
“Good grief.”
Shaking my head, I entered with Cassian.
As soon as I stepped inside, I saw a high chair installed against the wall.
As if modeled after a judge’s bench, there was even an emblem symbolizing the imperial court hanging behind it, and in front of the chair were two smaller chairs facing one another.
“Do you know what time the trial starts, Cassian?”
“Very soon.”
I nodded and tried to find a seat as far in the corner as possible.
But some sack blocked my path.
“…Arden?”
Arden, wearing a thick hood pulled over his head, was glaring at me.
“You came to watch the trial too?”
“Did you bring this man as your partner?”
As if he didn’t even want to say his name, he indicated Cassian with his chin. Cassian, receiving his gaze, smiled with his eyes.
“No. I met him out front. They said we couldn’t enter without partners, so we only came in together.”
“Hm.”
Only then did Arden’s expression soften.
Tilting my head, I asked,
“But why are you wearing a sack over your head?”
“…If that man finds out I’m here, he might try to talk to me like earlier.”
“Ah, so you’re hiding your identity?”
“Yes.”
“Good luck.”
As I offered him consolation,
Cassian asked,
“And you, Arden? What lady did you bring as your partner?”
“Huh?”
“That’s right, isn’t it? To enter here, you need a partner of the opposite sex. So where is the woman you brought, Arden?”
“……”
I hadn’t thought of that.
“……”
For a moment, I felt a prickling sensation in the left side of my chest, so I scratched at it.
Right. That’s true.
Naturally, Arden would have needed a partner of the opposite sex to enter here too.
But why is my skin suddenly itching out of nowhere?
……How strange.
“True. Arden, who did you come with?”
I smiled brightly to hide the itchiness as I asked. Dubu, in Cassian’s arms, also poked his head out.
“Woof woof.”
Abruptly receiving the gazes of two humans and one puppy, Arden hesitated.
“I…”
“Yeah, you?”
You! What!
Answer quickly!
“Why aren’t you answering?!”
Magic Saintess Seraphina