Hearing her denounce my claim that she was responsible for Gabriel"s death, I couldn"t help but be surprised. Out of all the things that she could negate, she picked the only one that I couldn"t prove directly but would"ve to rather point out at the impossible coincidences to judge her basing on this fact."So are you going to say that you do not bear responsibility for his death?"
Seeing how the princess"s lips suddenly curved upwards as if she managed to push me into a corner, I couldn"t help but wonder what kind of logical trap did she prepare for me with her question, yet no matter how much I strained my mind, I was unable to come up with an answer.
"His death? It"s funny how you are all so sure that he is dead in the first place! That makes me feel like you guys are the ones who killed him!"
Suddenly dropping a bomb like that, the princess most likely hoped to push me to the verge of being surprised, in an attempt to make others see that I wasn"t in complete control over the situation. While the attempt was respectable, considering the fact that instead of using my overwhelming strength I was trying to appear as a just person, there was no way that her words could influence my facial muscles.
With the situation she was in, it was obvious that she would try literally anything to save herself from her plight, so I was already mentally prepared for all sorts of tricks… Yet this didn"t apply to Helia, her people or literally anyone else!
"How dare you! I will kill you right here and…"
"Helia, stop!"
Just like the princess most likely wanted to make me upset in order to break the just front I was putting up, Helia"s actions could bear the same results if I didn"t stop her. Even though as soon as my words put an end to her initiative she looked at me like a puppy normally surrounded with love yet suddenly hit for no reason, I had to keep acting like the just jury I was.
After all, if Helia turned out to be the real cause of the problems in this place, no matter how painful it would be for me to punish her, she would suffer the same fate that I already pictured for the princess.
"What do you want to say by that? Is Gabriel alive? If so, where can we find him? And if you know he is dead, how can you prove it wasn"t you who killed him, nor did it happen because of your order?"
While I knew that putting the burden of proving one"s innocence was against the basic rules of law on earth, with no roman inheritance in this regard, I could still go with it, especially with how all the evidence still pointed at the princess.
"Where he is? I have honestly, no idea!"
At this very moment, I suddenly became serious. If she was trying to save herself by uttering bulls.h.i.+t, instead of admitting to ignorance about Gabriel"s whereabouts. While that alone was far from being enough to save her from her current sentence I had in my mind, at least it made me decide to do my very best to uncover what had happened to that trusty retainer of mine!
"If I were in your place, instead of leaving this question in the open, I would do my best to explain what the heck do you mean by that. Helia, you were the one to claim Gabriel is dead, mind explaining what brought you to such conclusion?"
Considering how the princess was set of making things hard for me, I could only move on and ask the head of the rebel forces to explain. After all, it was Helia who first told me that Gabriel was dead! Did I make a mistake when deciding who to initially trust? Was I siding with someone who betrayed me and just tried to push the blame on her opponent by banking off the fact I was more familiar with her rather than the princess?
It was still too early to come to such conclusion, yet from now on, I decided to look at this case from a more objective point of view, rather than a.s.suming that everything one side said was true, while everything that the other side claimed was an utter lie.
"On the day that he died, or at least when everyone thought and a.s.sumed that Gabriel died, the princess leads a procession to his home and left it with a richly decorated coffin. As soon as the coffin reached this exact spot where we all stand right now, she rounded up the workers and ordered them to turn it into a sacred tomb. If not Gabriel, then who else could be buried here?!"
The more I learned about the matter, the better I understood that in fact, I knew nothing. While Helia"s words explained how everyone a.s.sumed that Gabriel is dead, it also made me realise that it could be all just a misunderstanding!
While it pained me to admit it, people were creatures that liked to jump on conclusions!
"Gabriel"s tomb? Was he a saint or something? Outside of being a leader of all people, he was just a normal human like every single one of us! It was the Hero"s blood that was buried here with all the honours! Why do you think the entire sanctuary was built around it?!"
With the princess and Helia openly arguing about the historical facts, I couldn"t help but wish they had this exchange before everything became far more complicated. If what princess claimed was really a truth, then the whole basis of the conflict could be avoided by such a simple talk!
"But wait, even if we take your words for the truth, how come you became a leader of all the folks around in the first place? If Gabriel is still alive, how could you take his position?"
Instead of trying to uncover whether the previous claims were true or not, I decided that instead of digging deeper, it would be better to dig wider.
"a.s.sume his position? How can you act like a fair judge if everything you accuse me off is nothing else but a product of your own mind? I always called myself the head priestess, just like the tradition of our people dictates!"