A silence fell in the court. Colonel Hulk frowned and looked to the side. Something like this had never happened before.
“It’s very clear here that the mission has not been cleared.”
“That’s because I was arrested the moment I returned to the encampment. There was no time for me to trade in proof of mission completion.”
Silence fell once again.
‘There’s something off here.’
Sylas was just as calm and collected as usual, but he didn’t allow that to stop his mind from racing. He was still having a hard time believing that the City Lord was too stupid to even check such a thing.
What Sylas didn’t know was that Plinli was incredibly limited in the actions he could take. The City Lord couldn’t even check the Nexus of Earth to understand Sylas’ position; he could only deduce things by observing from afar.
When Licirius gave him the information, he immediately acted on it. Even waiting the days out had been solely because they could only passively allow things to play out. They hadn’t sent any groups to clear the missions that Sylas had already cleared. Instead, they had to wait until these teams naturally stumbled onto these already completed missions and then began to file complaints.
Only then was the case against Sylas able to be brought forward with more robustness.
Things like questioning his teammates were completely out of the purview of the City Lord. Plinli couldn’t even easily walk out of his abode.
The system wasn’t so easy to screw over. It could be said that many of those like Azrael, Licirius, and Plinli were mostly taking advantage of the ignorance of the people of Earth.
Of course, there were still many things that they could do against those that had this knowledge… but the question was if they were willing to pay the price to do so.
In Plinli’s views, Sylas was likely unaware that a City Lord was plotting and scheming against him in the first place. He had no reason to tie Licirius to their city. After all, Licirius looked no different from a human in his disguise, and unless Sylas could boast knowing the face of every single human on Earth, it would be too much of a leap in logic to assume that Licirius was tied to the System City.
The one loophole in this was that Licirius’ last name was Guiz, named after the city. But the problem was that Guiz City was mostly referred to as a System City, and even when Sylas became a noble and learned of the city’s true name, the odds that his mind would be nimble enough to backtrack and connect something he had only seen in passing were impossible for most.
This didn’t even account for the fact that Licirius’ protections should be too high for even the most elite of humans to see his name displayed by the system.
When things were laid out in this way, it was clear that Plinli was trying to scheme against Sylas with blinders on, and the longer the trial went on for, the more Sylas recognized this as well.
This was what the people of Earth had been losing to this entire time…?
Wasn’t that too pathetic?
…
“It’s clear that Captain Sylas Grimblade has been falsely accused.”
Captain Bas—who had been arguing that even if Sylas cleared the hobgoblin village, he was still liable for taking on the other missions—was stifled by this decision.
It was simply too circumstantial. If Sylas insisted that he only stumbled onto those missions by accident while scouting the region, who was to say that he hadn’t?
Plus, the role of the military was to clear these threats out not just for the sake of rewards but out of a sense of duty. The fact that Sylas made a pledge to donate the Hero Points to the affected teams sealed the fact that the former Captain wouldn’t be able to get his way today.
However, before the gavel fell, Sylas spoke again.
“A moment, please.”
Colonel Hulk’s action froze. He laid the gavel down and looked toward Sylas with a half-guilty, half-meaningful expression. It looked like he was quite fond of Sylas now. All things considered, he was a young Captain who had done great merit and could easily rise through the ranks in the future.
As expected, most of the System City’s population was real and true to Earth. All things considered, in the future, when the System Cities were fully integrated, these people would be Earthlings as well. Their makeup was entirely built with the Genes of Earth in mind. So how could they not want to watch the people of Earth flourish?
“If you have anything to say, feel free.” Colonel Hulk nodded in encouragement.
“Thank you, Colonel. I only feel that if I keep this matter hidden, it might leave troubles for the city in the future.
“This matter is very odd to me. I only left the city for four days, well within the normal time frame for such complicated missions. All things considered, even if I had taken up to a month, it wouldn’t be an issue of time. From my understanding, the Hobgoblin Village 182 mission has been available for even more than a month, and it’s only gotten more difficult over time.”
After Sylas said this much, even the Colonel began to frown. Indeed, this was odd. How could Sylas be accused of such a thing when it had been such a short time since he accepted the mission?
“I believe the panel and everyone present is sharp enough to see the problem here. I feel that I was targeted.”
Murmurs began to spread through the courtroom, but many of them were affirmatives. When things were laid out like this, it was only too obvious that this must be the case.
Captain Bas felt a cold sweat mat his back, thinking that Sylas was about to come for revenge. But what Sylas said next was even more baffling.
“According to the laws of Guiz City, a court martial can only be directed and convened by a General, and it must be approved by the City Lord. Either it must be reported by the General and assented to by the City Lord, or the City Lord must pass down an order to the General.
“May I please know which of these cases triggered my court martial, as it will inform my next words?”
