Chapter 527: The Witch Trials

"Looks like this is it." Bai Liu smiled and turned his head to show everyone a dense page of paper letters, "Our next course of action."

Mu Sicheng immediately swooped in: "Where is the next trial?"

"Trial Court 2." Bai Liu's fingertips trace down the timetable as he sees the details of the trial, his eyes turning dark, "The trial is against a hotel proprietress, aged 41, accused by her guest of sneaking into his room to bathe and deliberately tempting him into depravity."

"Fuck!" Mu Sicheng's fists hardened, "This is exactly like the Quan Baola trial!"

"No, it's not exactly the same." Bai Liu nodded his correspondence, "This is the forty-second time this lady boss has been tried, and she has not pleaded guilty in any of her previous trials."

"She had already been tortured, or identified, by water baptism, fire, and bone identification, but she bit the bullet and did not confess, and she survived the torture without dying, so the tribunal could not declare her a witch, and she was acquitted."

"This is the forty-third witch trial this guest has brought up against her, and this one calls for the use of fire to identify whether she is a witch or not."

Mu Sicheng was dumbfounded: "Forty, forty-three trials? What's wrong with this man? Why doesn't he go and die?!"

"Her body can no longer withstand this torture." Muke's tone was strained, "If we don't succeed in robbing the court, she'll be burned to death in the courtroom."

Trial Court 2.

The boss had been tied to a pillar in the shelter directly below the courtroom for three nights, a process known as sedation, during which she was not allowed to eat or drink any water, the purpose of which the Holy See said was to remove the impurities from her body - a more plausible explanation, of course, being to prevent her from having the strength to struggle in court. to struggle.

There has been no shortage of witches who have defected after killing the trial judge in a straightforward outburst in court before.

She gazed vacantly at the glazed painting directly above the shelter, showing an image of a god with a baby in his arms, smiling in loving compassion, just as they had heard every day - [God loves the world, the Holy See is great].

God will have mercy on every good person, and God will watch over every good person - except the witch.

Immediately after dawn, she would be dragged up to the court of judgement with a stand of firewood at her feet that was said to be lit only when the witches were burned - but she knew from her last experience of being set on fire that it seemed to burn without the witches.

"Number one pending trial of the witch." A man in the escort pushed through the gloomy shelter and he looked at her tied to a post in disgust, "Get ready for court."

She was tied to a post and resisted to the courtroom, her head hanging morosely, having lost the strength to even look up.

"Silence! Silence!" The bishop above, who was acting as judge, hammered his gavel twice with cold hardness, "The court is solemn, please keep silence!" The courtroom gradually fell silent.

"Raise your head and look the judge squarely in the eye." The bishop said coldly, "Defendant."

She couldn't really lift it up, but well, this seemed to be a common enough situation for them to give her a long stick under her chin and stiffly lift her chin up to look squarely at the Bishop.

The Bishop withdrew his eyes in satisfaction, "The trial begins."

She slowly rolled her eyes and looked around the courtroom of the trial.

The witch trials consisted of four parts, the first part being the plaintiff's presentation of the reasons why the other side was a witch, the second part being the defendant's own defence, and the third part being the proof that you were not a witch - a proof process that involves testing you with various holy objects to see if you can withstand them.

If she can withstand the sacred test without dying or confessing her sins, she is not a witch.

But these holy trials are no different from torture.

The fourth and final part is the delivery of the verdict by the jury.

The first is called the Pontifical Jury and consists of four priests of the Holy See, while the second is called the Popular Jury and is selected by the Holy See from among the general public to judge her, and usually consists of about twenty men, basically all men who are interested in joining the Holy See - supposedly to avoid witches. All the members of the jury selected by the Holy See were men.

The existence of this tribunal was set up by the Holy See as a sign of fairness, representing that the public could also interfere with the outcome of the witch trials.

Both types of jury members were given two cards, one for guilty and one for not guilty, to pronounce on the outcome of her trial - it could be said that her fate was decided by these men.

Even if she passed the third part of the sacred test, as long as the final result given by the Inquisitorial Panel was guilty, she was not completely innocent and she still carried witch suspicions and could be indefinitely prosecuted - as she is now.

What she found very confusing was that it was quite simple to get a verdict of not guilty from the jury, which is what the Holy See has been promoting - only if one of all the jury members in the room raised the [not guilty] sign for you, then you are not guilty.

But she had been through forty-three trials, and not once had she seen the red sign representing [innocence], and every time she had endured the holy trial, and endured the severe pain, and turned back with joy and hope, expecting to see even one red sign.

All she saw when she turned around were dense, held up, cold, black [guilty] signs.

But what exactly is she guilty of?

"Plaintiff, state the defendant's crime of witchcraft." The bishop inquired icily.

The one who stood at the plaintiff's table, her former guest, accused her righteously: "She slipped into my room to bathe! She had demonic ram's horns on her head! I saw it all!"

"That's my room." No matter how many times she'd heard it, she couldn't help but want to argue weakly, "You're the one who's in the wrong room."

The man glared at her with an almost malevolent, mortified look, "That's what you seduced, too! You deliberately left the door open to shower while I was passing by! Don't you dare say you didn't do it on purpose!"

The whole court was in an uproar.

Several priests nodded rather approvingly, "Only a witch would bathe with the door open in order to lure men and kill them."

"I just forgot to close the outermost door." She said in a faint voice, "My bathroom door was closed."

The Bishop frowned, "But you do look suspicious, so why did you leave the outermost door open?"

With her last ounce of strength, she shouted out through her tears, "And I have proved myself, I have withstood the forty-two tests of the holy things! I am not a witch!"

"I am not guilty!"

There was a moment of silence in the room.

The bishop reluctantly turned his head to the plaintiff: "That is indeed also true, do you have any other evidence?"

The man who was the plaintiff's face tore up with a very grimace as he looked with a very sinister gaze at the lady boss strapped to the courtroom, his hands balled into fists and clenched.

Why is it that this woman just won't admit her guilt, just won't submit - she's obviously forty-one, an old woman, and not worth much money, wouldn't it have been over if he'd just screwed her in the bathroom? And to shout and scream and make people think he'd done something to disgrace him!

And when you're tried, too, fuck, you don't even plead guilty! How can she not plead guilty! Every time she pleads not guilty is a slap in the face and a trampling on his dignity!

He must screw this woman! Otherwise how can he meet people in the future?

The man took a deep breath as he put on an expression of horror and then said, very shakily, "I, I wasn't going to say this because I don't know if I was wrong about this, Your Grace, you know that we can't judge anyone who isn't a witch lightly."

"But I did see her that night, saw more than one witch in her bathroom! There was another witch next to her talking and laughing with her, and they were talking about attacking the Order!"

"It's likely that she's contacting and housing witches privately!"

"What?!" The bishop's face changed, "There's actually something like that, why didn't you say so earlier!"

The plaintiff bowed his head in shame: "Because I don't want to accuse people at random."

"You are a good and merciful boy." The bishop sighed tersely, "But this is too big a matter, you should have told us at the first trial, then we would have just condemned her as a witch."

She struggled hard, her eyes filling with tears, "I'm not a witch!!!"

"I didn't do those things!"

The bishop ignored her hiss and indifferently banged down his gavel, "And now, the jury passes sentence."

An almost shudder ran down her spine, then she turned slowly, slowly, the tears in her eyes finally falling.

The black [Guilty] sign is like a tombstone, neatly erected behind her, and the [Guilty] on it is her epitaph.

"Well, the sentence is now pronounced." The bishop's gavel was about to fall again, "You have-"

Hidden in the shadows, You Zhen's face was a cold mix of murderous intent, her gun already raised - but not yet.

The men of the Order had surrounded the entire courtroom so tightly that there was not a single woman from the judges to the escort, and it would be extremely difficult for them to blend in - and she was the only one of their party to do so at the moment - and firing now would only spook them and make it easy for them to jump the gun and simply kill the witch on trial.

At a time like this, even with her overwhelming disgust and hatred of men, You Zhen pondered the possibility of getting everyone to blend into the Inquisition together as men, which would make the rescue much easier - but the chances were too low, these people in the Order had too many ways of targeting witches, and she was able to blend in this time because many of the Order had been drawn out The security lines in the eastern part of the Chancery were loosely guarded.

But let her watch this trial unfold and listen to the wails of the judged without moving ......

You Zhen gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as she clenched the gun in her hand.

"Snap - click."

With a crisp, sharp twist of the bone, the black one held up by one of the men on the floor with [Guilty] written on it was violently flipped over to the eye-catching red [Not guilty], the bishop's falling gavel gave a lurch, and You Zhen's eyes snapped open and he looked at the jury.

The witch on trial looked incredulously at the red sign that had appeared, and a little light slowly emerged in her eyes.

"This juror." The bishop narrowed his eyes as he searched for the man holding the not guilty sign in a sea of members dressed in black, "Why do you think she's not guilty?"

"Because the plaintiff is lying." It was an unhurried man's voice, which made the Bishop let his guard down, "The man I saw contacting the witch that night, it was him."

"He has been compelled by the witch and is a spy on the witch's side."

The whole room was in an uproar.

"How can that be?!"

The plaintiff also panicked, it was a big charge, and he retorted hoarsely, "You're lying!"

"I've never contacted a witch before!"

"Is that so?" The man asked calmly and rhetorically, "But you clearly said you saw two witches talking together, about attacking the Inquisition, and in that case you didn't think to come and report to the Inquisition, but instead you rushed into the bathroom uncontrollably, doesn't that already mean you were seduced, compelled and corrupted by the witches?"

There was a silence in the room.

Noticing that the bishop's gaze had changed, the plaintiff was utterly alarmed: "I was not tempted or bewitched! I resisted the temptation of the witch! And I judged her!"

"-but only to tell us at the forty-third trial that you saw another witch?" The man laughed softly, "It's hard for me not to believe that you fell in love with another witch."

The venue was filled with a cacophony of discussion and the whole atmosphere had become chaotic.

The man's face was covered in cold sweat as he looked to his left and right with a pale face, and after realizing that no one would be on his side, he defended himself, almost frightened and out of breath: "There is no other witch! I was wrong!"

"I just said I didn't always see it!"

"So it's you who's lying, is it?" The man questioned him in a calm tone.

The plaintiff gritted her teeth, "Not a lie, I admit I may have been mistaken! But this woman!"

He pointed fiercely at the lady boss tied to the post: "She's still guilty! She's still a witch! She is to be put to death!"

"What is the basis of the crime?" The other man inquired blandly, "The ram's horns you saw? You can't even be wrong about how many people are in the bathroom, a pair of ram's horns, are you sure you saw the right one?"

"Silence!" The Bishop angrily banged his gavel, "This juror, please be silent!"

"You do have some truth in what you say, but this plaintiff's testimony is not always empty." The Bishop nodded, "Then, as is customary, let us give this Witch of Judgement Number One a holy relic."

"Roast her with the holy fire, and if she does not scream in agony and die from the burning of the holy fire, then she is not a witch."

As the Bishop waved his hand, the firewood was quickly brought up, and the moment it was lit, a water arrow fell from the sky and struck the firewood, and the sacred fire was extinguished.

"An arrow that can extinguish the sacred fire?!" The bishop looked up in alarm as he looked at You Zhen who had suddenly appeared at the top, with a sinister gaze, "It's the witch!"

"Witchcraft - Rocket." You Zhen drew her bow full again and she aimed the blazing arrow at the plaintiff who was running around in fear and curled her icy mouth, "Your trial is over, how about we play a game of trial too?"

"The rules of the trial are - if you are not burned to scum by the fire of this arrow, then you are not scum."

The arrow was released and landed on the plaintiff's clothes, and he was violently set on fire, almost instantly being burnt to the bone, and he rolled miserably on the ground and was soon reduced to a pile of cinder-like ashes.

You Zhen jumped down from the highest point of the tribunal, his heel crushing over the pile of ashes, and sneered, "Looks like you're a real scumbag after all."

The witches kept pouring in through the window You Zhen had opened, and Leah's snake's tail pushed right through the door of the courtroom, where You Zhen, with one arm crossed, looked down at Bai Liu's group, holding up the not guilty sign, his eyes narrowing unkindly.

--What are these dogs doing following them?

Mu Sicheng held his sign in both hands and came up next to Bai Liu who had raised his hands in surrender to show he was harmless: "Why didn't we just break out of the trial court?"

"It's so hard to watch these idiots blazing away!"

"Because our tactician gave us the task of assisting in robbing the court, not robbing the court ourselves, we should distinguish the difference between assisting and main attacking, and do things when it's our turn to do things." Bai Liu looked at You Zhen with unblinking eyes, "If we make random moves, we will only interrupt their deployment and attacking rhythm."

"The real protagonists of this copy are the witches."

Bai Liu gives You Zhen a friendly smile while explaining to Mu Sicheng, "Get your bearings, we're just supporting characters."

You Zhen showed his teeth threateningly to Bai Liu, grunted and turned to walk away.

Trial Court 3.

"Witch on trial number 17." The Bishop questioned icily, "You were accused by your father of stealing the family's belongings at will and secretly buying magical materials to practise witchcraft, correct?"

The young girl tied to the post shouted back through her tears, "I earned that money myself! I didn't steal it! I didn't buy any magic! It was just some food!"

"It was my father who tried to take my money!"

"Those were all demons disguised as food, and it appears the charges are true." The bishop slammed down his gavel carelessly, "The jury passes sentence."

In the midst of a pile of black [guilty] raised signs, a red [not guilty] sign was held up.

"I have an objection Your Grace the Bishop." Bai Liu questioned calmly, "If what the defendant bought was a magical object disguised as food, did the plaintiff eat it?"

"And having eaten what the defendant bought, was the plaintiff also contaminated?"

The bishop looked to the plaintiff, "Have you ever eaten?"

The plaintiff's eyes dodged, "No, no! Of course not!"

"I'm not so sure about that." Bai Liu spoke with a smile, but his words were cruel, "If your daughter is a witch, then she certainly has enough power to tempt you to eat a demon disguised as food."

"This is an emergency trial, so it's not more than eight hours since you charged her, and you shouldn't have finished digesting by now if you ate a magical object at your last meal. "

Bai Liu raised his eyes and smiled, "Why don't you cut open your belly and see if there's a demon inside or not?"

"If there were no demons, wouldn't you be able to clear yourself?"

"Are you crazy?" The plaintiff looked incredulously at Bai Liu on the jury, "You're asking me, a living person, to cut open my stomach?!"

As his words fell, an immense snake's tail caught in the curtain of the door, its sharp tail plunging directly into the plaintiff's stomach, his pupils shuddering and spreading rapidly as he fell to the ground spasming and spitting blood - from the pain.

For the snake's tail that had plunged into his abdomen hadn't stopped churning as it flipped through his intestines, wrapping around and cutting out the stomach pouch - with food dripping out of it.

-- those are the very same magical creatures that have just been accused.

"It does look like it's eaten." Leah said coldly, retrieving the snake's tail and giving it a slightly disgusted shake, "Disgusting stuff, and the smell of alcohol."

When she finished, she gave a slight sideways glance at Bai Liu, who had his hands up in the jury box and was backing away self-consciously, and her eyes lingered for just a moment before she turned and left.

Trial Court 4.

The bishop lowered his gavel: "The jury pronounces its verdict."

Bai Liu holds up a sign: "I feel innocent ......"

The moment Bai Liu finished her statement, You Zhen opened the doors of the courtroom with a cannon fire blast and she sneered, "Let me pronounce my sentence before you do."

Trial Court Seven.

The bishop ordered icily, "If she does not confess, then go up to the sacred fire to be identified."

"Your Grace." Bai Liu held up the not guilty sign and raised his eyes calmly, "I think there are holes in the plaintiff's charge just now ......"

After a seventeen-minute defence, Leah's serpent's tail contracted, curling up all the members of the Synod who had listened to Bai Liu's arguments to the point of drowsiness at once.

A rocket from You Zhen set everyone on fire, and in the midst of the howling, Leah looked icily around at everyone and said, "Did you enjoy your appraisal of the sacred fire?"

......

By the time the cleaning of the courtroom was nearing its end in Court No. 77, You Zhen finally turned her head, her face covered in various wounds - the new weapon invented by the Order had still done some damage to them, but this did not detract from the anger and energy in her eyes now, as she drew her gun and took a few quick strides. She drew her gun, took a few quick steps and quickly approached Bai Liu's group, who were not far behind them and had made no effort to cover their tracks.

"What the hell do you want?!" You Zhen angrily disliked Bai Liu's head with his gun, "You've been following us for almost the whole way!"

Bai Liu raised his hands in a very familiar way, and with a glance at Leah, who was more calm and silent, he asked tentatively, "I thought that you acquiesced to our following?"

--And it is.

Bai Liu, who were responsible for infiltrating the tribunal by posing as jurors, delaying the trial and distracting the bishop, worked with them to open the doors of each tribunal, which gave them time for a more mature deployment and made what should have been a particularly difficult task of cleansing the tribunal much quicker and easier, while also reducing many witch casualties - both to the witches on trial and to themselves. -Both the witches on trial and themselves.

This is why Leah acquiesced to Bai Liu's following.

Leah was a little more even-keeled: "What do you want to do?"

Bai Liu was sincere: "We want to submit to the Witch District."

"What?!" You Zhen's voice instantly rose as she looked at Bai Liu with eyes that went from tentative to hostile and a cold tone, "You want to enter the witch district?"

"The witch quarter will never take in men, get lost."

With that, You Zhen dragged Leah away - she was now really angry.

"You can use us as an aid." Bai Liu spoke in a calm tone, "- like today."

"This place, the Inquisition, is naturally repulsive to you, but we can be your instruments, helping you enter and assisting you in your attacks, which will reduce your casualties."

"- You're preparing for a big battle, aren't you? With tools like us, your attack will go a lot smoother."

Leah's back stopped, she turned her head and at the same time held You Zhen's shoulders as she continued to walk forward and looked straight at Bai Liu and asked, "Why are you helping us?"

"There's no way they're going to help us!" You Zhen finally turned her head in anger, "Come on, Leah! They're in the witch zone for a reason!"

"Like saying something about respect and liking, but ending up using and swindling the witches in the witch quarter!"

--something that is not without precedent in the Witch District.

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, "We definitely wouldn't."

"My desires are mainly directed at my boyfriend and money."

You Zhen was about to laugh at Bai Liu's lie, but when she met Bai Liu's eyes, she narrowed her eyes for a moment and stopped short of cursing.

"We can tell when a man is lying." Leah says to You Zhen, "He's not lying."

You Zhen's mood eased, but her expression was still icy as she pointed at Tang Erda and sneered, "What about him? He looks like a straight guy, he can't have a boyfriend too, can he?"

Tang Erda: "......"

Bai Liu's tone was subtle: "It's true he doesn't have a boyfriend."

You Zhen was about to mock when Bai Liu sighed and said, "It took all his strength just to love one man."

Tang Erda: "......"

You Zhen: "......"

"What about him?" You Zhen pointed at Muke.

Bai Liu rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "He has a heart condition and can't think about that."

Muke: "......"

You Zhen took a deep breath as she pointed to Mu Sicheng: "What about him! He's always a heterosexual man, isn't he?"

Bai Liu's eyes scraped over Mu Sicheng's body before he gave a regretful tsk - Mu Sicheng was indeed straight, which was a bit of a problem.

Mu Sicheng's scalp tingled at Bai Liu's look, and then he saw Bai Liu's eyelids twitch as if some good idea had occurred to him and said in a dawning tone, "He does like the opposite sex, but he shouldn't be considered a man with us; we rarely treat him like one."

Mu Sicheng: "????"

You Zhen: "????"

"What is he if he's not a man?" You Zhen asked incredulously, pointing at Mu Sicheng.

Bai Liu smiles: "Transport and monkeys, whatever you like."

You Zhen started to get dizzy as she pointed at Bai Liu's group and circled around, "What kind of a strange group of men are you, anyway?"

Bai Liu laughed softly and shrugged, "Maybe we're just a group of normal men who want to follow the witch's tactics?"

You Zhen's eyes sweep over Mu Sicheng, who is furiously chasing Bai Liu with his monkey claws.

A gay man, a half-gay man who has failed at being gay, an asexual heart patient, a transport and a monkey - you guys don't have anything to do with normal anyhow, do you?!