The pure white marble floor.
I was thrown onto it, bound tightly with rope like a tied bundle of fish.
“Ugh…!”
After rolling on the floor a couple of times, I barely managed to regain my balance.
Kneeling, I cautiously lifted my head.
Seated on the high and distant judgment seat were the key figures of the Kingdom of Lyor.
Their eyes, fixed on me, were filled with hatred, contempt, disgust, and a trace of curiosity.
“There’s no need to deliberate further! Let’s execute him immediately!”
“Now, now, let’s calm down. He’s still an Imperial knight. If he provides valuable information, we could consider reducing his sentence, don’t you think?”
“Hmm? Can we even call him a knight? I’ve never heard of a one-armed knight in the Empire. Even if he is a knight, I doubt he’d have been entrusted with any classified information.”
Although the rope was tightly secured to prevent any resistance, there was slack on the left side of my body.
It couldn’t be helped.
The space that the rope was meant to fill was empty because one of my arms was missing.
As they pointed out, I was a one-armed knight without a left arm.
“There’s also the possibility he won’t talk.”
“In that case, we’ll torture him until he does. Although, I’m not sure how long he can endure such harsh torture with that body.”
“If he dies during torture or loses his mind, so be it. It’s not our concern.”
“Agreed!”
The current situation I faced was a trial to determine my fate.
The judges wanted me to suffer, and the jurors busied themselves hurling insults at me.
The reason I was being treated so harshly was singular—because I was a knight of the Empire.
Even if I hadn’t committed any crime, being affiliated with the Empire alone was enough to be deemed guilty in their eyes.
It was bitterly disheartening that no one here was willing to defend me.
“What does Lady Letia Heter think?”
Amid the atmosphere filled with animosity, there was one person who regarded me differently.
A silver-haired woman stood at the center of the judges.
Her clear blue eyes betrayed no emotion.
“Lady Letia, please make a wise judgment.”
“My thoughts align with yours, the guiding light of our kingdom.”
The woman, who had been silently gazing at me, was the Empire’s greatest adversary.
Appearing like a comet in turbulent times, she had crushed the Empire’s momentum and delivered countless victories to the Kingdom.
A nightmare that instilled despair in even the finest knights on the battlefield with her overwhelming prowess.
Though the judges spoke endlessly, the authority for the final verdict rested solely with Letia Heter.
In this situation, her decision was paramount, and her tightly closed lips finally parted.
From the gap, a simple word emerged:
“Imprisonment.”
“A wise decision. We’ll prepare for immediate torture…!”
“Without torture.”
The courtroom, previously filled with noise, was silenced by the unexpected ruling.
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