By Zephyria Not ‘Have a good trip’ but ‘I’ll see you inside’. The tension was lessened. Leonardo tilted his head with a smile.
It seems that you can attend the trial even if you don’t have voting rights. Thanks to that, his steps toward the outside of the waiting room were not heavy.
Creak, bang—
Leaving behind the heavy door that closed with a loud noise, Leonardo walked forward surrounded by seven escorts. He did glare at the members once for pulling his arm as if urging him along the way, but he still walked calmly and leisurely.
The long corridor in front of him was eerily dark and quiet. The fact that there were no windows on the walls was quite different from the scenery he had seen so far.
‘Magic Power….’
Unfamiliar Magic Powers began to be felt in the stagnant air. But the number and presence of them were not ordinary.
The Magic Powers, concentrated and intertwined in one place, swept eerily over his shoulders and the back of his neck. He didn’t know what the situation was inside, but the energies were so sharp that his skin tingled. Moreover, the portraits lined up on both sides of the corridor shone with their eyes and stared intently at his profile.
Feeling as if he was being watched, Leonardo scanned left and right with cold eyes. It wouldn’t be strange if the eyes he had already passed were staring at the back of his head.
Tap—
At that time, two unfamiliar figures walked out of the darkness in front. The member at the front stopped walking with the sound of military boots.
The others and Leonardo also stopped in their tracks. As he looked around to see what was going on, he saw that they were holding something in their hands.
‘An eye patch?’
Frowning at the bad feeling, one of them approached the escort and whispered something in his ear. The listener made a subtle expression and suddenly turned around to briefly explain the situation.
“This passage cannot be disclosed to outsiders. We apologize for the inconvenience, but you must wear an eye patch and earplugs when moving.”
“What?”
Leonardo retorted as if he was dumbfounded.
“Hey, if you know it’s going to be uncomfortable, don’t make me do it. What kind of nonsense is that?”
“The courtroom is a sacred place, and it is strictly controlled so that the intrusion of third forces or outlaws cannot affect the verdict. Therefore—”
“I wasn’t told about this in advance.”
“…We apologize for that, but even if you are a subject of deliberation, outsiders cannot directly see the passage leading to the courtroom. We will safely escort you to the courtroom, so please cooperate with the internal regulations.”
The member calmly explained the internal regulations, as if he had expected this reaction. Leonardo coldly sneered. How could he obediently respond to that nonsense when he didn’t know where these guys were taking him?
As he stood tall, trying to resist, the burly men holding his arms on both sides began to reveal their true colors and pulled Leonardo’s body forward.
But Leonardo only took one step, and after that, he didn’t move at all. Rather, he twisted his shoulders and made the burly men clinging to his arms stagger greatly.
“Don’t rush me. We’re not done talking yet.”
“…….”
“And try pulling my arm one more time. Then your arm will be gone.”
Leonardo turned to look at the member attached to his left and calmly warned him. The threat seemed to work quite well, and the member’s grip loosened for a moment.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Leonardo glared at him as he bowed his head and looked at the front again and asked.
“If you cover my eyes and ears, I’m as good as defenseless. How can I be sure that you won’t harm me?”
The leader of the members stared at his face and formally replied, “There will be nothing to worry about.” Leonardo scoffed and pointed at him with his chin.
“Then do this. In exchange for following your instructions, release one of the handcuffs. Put the other one on your wrist. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
In fact, everyone in this place knew that it wasn’t fair. Even if Leonardo Blaine only threw a fireball with one hand, most of the people here would be threatened.
The members looked back at their leader with troubled faces. The man, whose eyes were focused on him, was silent with an unpleasant expression, then took out a portable clock from his pocket.
The group of ten, with two more added, moved through the maze-like passage at a slightly hurried pace. Leonardo’s scheduled entry time was almost approaching. Leonardo, feeling the flow of air with the end of his freed hand, gave up drawing a map in his head around the 7th curve and after passing 9 doors.
The path to the Council’s underground prison wasn’t this bad. It was a perverted structure that made you feel how serious the atmosphere of the trial was.
I was used to having my senses blocked after repeated training in the Dark Silver days, but once I gave up trying to figure out the direction and was dragged along, all I could see was darkness and chaos.
After barely moving my legs for about 10 minutes, relying on the weight of the two on either side, they suddenly stopped and I felt two touches on the back of my left hand.
“Is this it?”
Leonardo straightened his hunched back even though he couldn’t hear a reply. Even though he looked like this, he wanted to show them that he was entering with dignity. Strong energies were clamoring nearby, so he must have come to the right place.
But a very slight tremor was felt under his feet.
‘…What is this?’
It couldn’t be him trembling, so it must be a vibration spreading from the ground. He was inwardly worried that he had been dragged to some strange place where torture machines were running.
Whoosh—
He definitely couldn’t hear it, but a strong wind that felt like a hallucination shook his hair. At the same time, a hot heat, different from anything he had felt so far, spread over his face and entire body.
Leonardo sensed that the last door to the courtroom had opened. He puffed out his chest, raised his chin, and took a deep breath.
The shoulders of the two people on either side rose slightly, and they slowly led Leonardo in a straight line.
‘Am I in?’
The texture of the floor had changed, and the solid feeling was gone, replaced by a hollow sound under his feet, as if he were stepping on a wooden platform. In that state, another two touches brushed against the back of his hand, and Leonardo, who was counting his twentieth step, stopped in his tracks.
Suddenly, his body tilted and he stiffly resisted, but his knees buckled and he awkwardly sat down on a chair he didn’t even know existed.
The chair was surprisingly soft and comfortable, and covered in soft cloth. He leaned back against the backrest and sat deeply, and after his wrists were pulled a few times, all the signs of people disappeared.
“……”
Leonardo sat still in that state for about 30 seconds. His vision was still pitch black, and he couldn’t hear anything but his own breathing and the rustling of his clothes.
‘Why aren’t they taking off the blindfold?’
He was puzzled, but he didn’t want to look flustered, so he stiffened his neck. He held his breath and focused his senses to assess the situation, and that’s when it happened. The vibration that had been stimulating his feet from earlier gradually intensified.
The atmosphere was strange. His heart began to beat faster and his breathing became irregular.
He knew that everyone in the silent hall was looking at him, but somehow he felt his shoulders shrinking instead of feeling confident.
Just as an unknown sense of unease washed over him, the blindfold was removed before he could even prepare himself.
“……!”
Wham, light flooded in and his vision suddenly brightened. Leonardo scrunched up his face in extreme glare and tightly closed his eyes. Even so, everything was red beyond his closed eyelids. The earmuffs that had been cutting off sound with magic were also removed by someone else’s hand.
A ringing sound echoed due to the sudden difference in pressure. Following that, a tremendous decibel of noise mercilessly pierced his eardrums.
Waaaaaaah—
Bang, bang, bang, bang—!
“――!”
“――!”
“Everyone, be quiet―!”
Sudden information that was difficult for his mind to handle poured into all his sensory organs. The excited shouts that filled the hall, the echoes of the crowd that were definitely not cheers, sent shivers down his spine.
The urgent cracking sound of the judge’s staff, unable to calm them down, echoed throughout the vast courtroom. The sound made Leonardo, who couldn’t properly lift his head due to the glare, suddenly open his eyes wide.
He burst out the breath he had been holding in and stared ahead, and a swarm of people like ants rose from their seats and surged like a threatening wave.
“If you continue to disrupt the proceedings, you will be removed!＂
Despite the judge’s stern warning, whose voice was amplified, the heat did not subside easily. Furthermore, he caught a glimpse of the man who had been his lawyer the day before, protesting near the judge’s seat with his face red.
Goosebumps rose on his skin, and his hair stood on end. Leonardo, who was looking up at the audience from the center of the semi-circular hall, sighed between his trembling lips.
“…Ah.”
Instinctively, he sensed that something was going wrong. The pressure constricting his heart made his arms twitch unconsciously.
Clang—
But he didn’t know when they had been put on, but the handcuffs on his wrists were connected to the chair, leaving only enough slack and then fixed in place. Only then did Leonardo realize why they had covered his eyes and ears and brought him here. If he had known the situation was this bad, he wouldn’t have come willingly.
With a pale face, he recognized his situation and looked around precariously to the left, right, and front with unfocused eyes.
Soon, undisguised fear was faintly reflected in his eyes.
His tense instinct said.
‘Agrizendro is gone.’