Hearing the princess pose this claim acted like a switch in my mind. Even if for a good while already I was quite reluctant to blame all the bad things and decisions that turned this place to its current state on her, only at this moment did I really started considering other options. While the fact that she exploited the people that were forced in her servitude remained, I couldn"t tell at this moment whether she did it for the sake of her own power, luxury or maybe something I didn"t even bother to think about!
"Stop holding us all back and just tell what you know about Gabriel"s whereabouts. Even if you managed to put a doubt in my mind about your own guilt, it won"t change the fact that unless you prove at least part of your words, you will still be charged guilty of all the things this tribunal is accusing you off!"
Even if at this point I already started forming some initial guesses about what happened to Gabriel, unless the princess would finally start speaking about concrete stuff rather than throwing ambiguous questions and remarks, I would still be limited to my own imagination alone.
Starting at the one fact that was certain, being the fact that her rise to power coincided perfectly with the disappearance of Gabriel, I could tell that the moment she met with him for the last time to retrieve the supposed droplet of my own blood was also the moment when my loyal servant was seen for the last time. But what might have come to his mind for him to just disappear like that without leaving any orders for the people that were bound to turn confused without leaders.h.i.+p?
"If you are asking about Gabriel, he claimed to go on a journey to complete a map of this entire world. From what I heard from him, seeing how this world expanded with every person entering it from the outside, yet no matter how many kids were born, its boundaries remained the same, he a.s.sumed that it has to have finite borders. With how important that task was for him since he claimed that on this complete map the entire further development of this place would be based, it"s no wonder he decided to embark on this journey by himself!"
For the first time since this trial started, there was some real stuff that I could either verify or confirm with others. Yet while the princess properly elaborated on Gabriel"s case, there was still the question I asked myself before.
"Let"s for a second a.s.sume that you told the truth. In that scenario, how come only you were aware of his plans, nor did anyone receive any information or orders from Gabriel directly? If he knew that he won"t be able to rule this land during his journey, why didn"t he designate someone to rule in his stead while he will be away?"
Just as I asked this question, I realized what kind of mistake I made. Not a logical one, but as a judge. Asking the princess what Gabriel had in mind while going on his journey? Since when anyone was supposed to know what was going on inside someone else head? The princess wasn"t his wife, most likely not even a friend considering the temper she showed me even before I got to have my first talk with her.
"He was chosen by you, oh mighty Hero, so he thought that lying this responsibility down on someone else shoulders would be akin to treason. While this is my guess only at this point, he decided to use the fact that I hold the highest t.i.tle in our entire clan being the chosen princess of the people, hoping that with no one else to govern the people in his absence, I would step up and do what I was supposed to do. It was based on this guess that I a.s.sumed the power as soon as Gabriel left, focusing on a project far more important than some stupid stuff like proper houses for everyone!"
At this point, I had more or less a full picture. While there still was quite a lot of doubt about whether Garbiel left some kind of orders or heirs to his power, with how swift the s.h.i.+fting of power was, the princess"s story seemed rather feasible!
"What do you mean by this important project? A sanctuary? A place where you killed off anyone who dared to go against your rule? How is that more important than taking care of everyone?"
In the end, it would most likely come to the difference in the paradigms in one"s mindset. For me, being the lord of someone meant taking responsibility for them in exchange for their servitude. But what if those people had a different understanding of the power? What if for them, a good lord, was someone who raped their daughters the moment of their coming of age, giving them a chance to bear strong heirs?
As brutal as this example is, considering everything I learned about the local tribes, starting from the Overlord and his fake family, through the tribal girls on the heavenly island all the way to the sect cultivators in the heavenly city, I couldn"t be surprised if this random set of words of mine actually turned out to be right on the spot!
"Do I really need to repeat myself? I"m not their leaders! I"m their princess and the highest priestess of the ancestors! With how indiscriminate you were with inviting everyone to this world, there were bound to be some bad seeds who managed to sneak inside, so the only way to guarantee the stability and peace for everyone, something required for the prosperity to grow in the first place, was to unite them all under one banner, YOUR BANNER!"
"It"s quite funny how you utter those mighty and moral words about peace while having your hands stained with the blood of my messenger, princess!"