Rasmus walked through the crowd and everyone was talking about his family name. They didn’t believe that there was still a member of the Blackheart family that still existed and became an instructor at the Gratlan Academy. Their eyes showed different reactions when they stared at him.

Rasmus entered the courthouse and so many people came to watch the trial. Attempting murder at the Gratlan Academy between instructors was something that had never happened before. That was why there were so many people who wanted to know the truth.

“Who’s going to represent me, Chancellor?” Rasmus asked.

“Me. I’m representing you and the dignity and integrity of the Gratlan Academy,” Lenin answered as she walked to the table. “There’s one thing I want you to do, and that’s not to do any kind of provocation,” she said as she sat down.

“I’ll try my best,” Rasmus responded and sat beside Lenin and fixed his suit.

“I need to remind you that the Sherm family is a well-known and respectful family because they produced famous scholars who have contributed a lot to Neva for centuries. With that being said, everyone here will support the Sherm family while they can,” Lenin pointed out and looked at the jury and the people who came to watch the trial.

“That doesn’t sound good knowing they have a prejudiced view toward the Blackheart family as well,” Rasmus responded.

“I know you’re sharp, Instructor Blackheart. I hope you can refrain from provoking anyone in this courthouse,” Lenin said. “Let me handle this, and it will be over before you know it.”

Rasmus nodded with understanding and decided to observe quietly.

The trial began with both parties having addressed the issue, and it was enough to say the barrister who represented Sherm was good at his job. His calm demeanor and how he admitted that what happened in the academy was Sherm’s fault made his motives unpredictable.

“Your honor, may I ask a few questions to Rasmus Blackheart?” The barrister asked the judge.

The judge nodded and ordered Rasmus to sit in the witness box.

“Your honor, before I ask him a few questions, there’s something I would like to address,” The barrister said as he looked at the jury and the spectators. “What Instructor Sherm did was wrong, and he admitted that he used magic to assault Rasmus Blackheart.”

Everyone gasped and began to murmur about what the barrister was talking about. The judge had to calm down the courtroom.

“But the real issue is that the attempt of murder wasn’t the truth. There are reasons as to why I’m confident with my statement,” The barrister pointed three fingers out.

“First, the investigation team stated that the magic that Instructor Sherm did wouldn’t be able to cause that much damage. It has been proven before Instructor Sherm became an instructor and was tested by Chancellor Lenin herself about his magic ability,” The barrister pointed out.

“Second, everyone knows that the Blackheart family is talented in magic. With that being said, he should be able to detect magic or Mana, and he should be able to protect himself, but he didn’t as if he did it on purpose,” The barrister looked at Rasmus.

“Third, we received news that Rasmus Blackheart was invited and recommended by Chancellor Lenin herself. Not only that, they didn’t test his skills and abilities, unlike the other staff in Gratlan Academy. With that being said, we can understand how talented and amazing his skills and abilities are,” The barrister pointed out as he looked at the jury and the spectators.

“Now my question to Rasmus is, are my statements all true?” The barrister stared into Rasmus’s eyes.

“Other than the first statement, they’re true,” Rasmus nodded calmly.

“This trial is for Instructor Sherm for attempting murder, but that’s not true at all. There are still mysteries behind this incident, and I believe that Rasmus Blackheart himself was the one who fabricated the incident,” The barrister stated with confidence.

Everyone gasped once again and began to assume and speculate while connecting the statements that the barrister made with the accusation that he stated.

“Do you have anything to say, Instructor Blackheart?” The judge stared at Rasmus with a blatant prejudice written on his expression.

In Rasmus’s previous life, he attended so many trials that he did more trials than spending his whole life on a vacation. He knew how everything worked in a trial, and he knew he was standing on a ledge while the judge, jury, and everyone in the courtroom were waiting for him to jump off.

In court, he could try to prove his innocence through his words, but in that kind of situation, that would be impossible. His words would be used against him knowing the barrister was a competent one.

“No, your honor,” Rasmus shook his head as he looked at Lenin.

His only way to prove his innocence wasn’t through his mouth but through Lenin’s mouth. Lenin was the Chancellor of the best academy in the world, and she was the descendant of the most powerful Great Sage. Because of it, her words weighed more than his, and that was his only way to win the trial.

“May I approach the victim, your honor?” Lenin asked.

“You may approach the victim,” The judge nodded.

Lenin stood in front of Rasmus who was standing in the witness box. They communicated through their eyes and then Lenin cleared her throat as she turned around to look at the juries and the spectators.

“Allow me to clear the fog that’s happening here in the courtroom,” Lenin said. “Before the incident happens…”

Lenin revealed what Sherm did during his class and what he had done to his students. She told them that he didn’t want to let Rasmus use the training ground by using the whole facility for himself for hours. That resulted in students’ exhaustion and made a few students collapse and faint.

She informed them that she gave Sherm a direct warning about his actions. She then told them the incident happened not long after that which led to Sherm planning to harm Rasmus.

She allowed the judge, jury, and spectators to understand the whole situation and not just half of the story. She erased the speculations from the spectators and juries with calm and dignified manners.

“As I have explained, Instructor Blackheart has no sign of provocation toward Count Sherm. Everything that happened was all because of Count Sherm’s ignorance and prejudice toward Count Blackheart,” Lenin said as she looked at Sherm with disappointment.

“Objection, your honor! Rasmus Blackheart provoked Instructor Sherm by insulting his brain as big as a peanut,” the barrister said.

“Using violence and harming Instructor Blackheart because of an insult? Is that how the respectable Sherm family reacts to an insult?” Lenin asked the barrister. “If words alone are enough to make him harm someone and almost kill them, I don’t believe he would be in the right no matter what,” she said calmly.

The barrister didn’t have anything to say because he didn’t want to cause more damage to Sherm. Rasmus was smirking and knew that it was the right choice to let Lenin handle the case.

“Allow me to clear the statements that were presented in court,” Lenin said as she looked at the jury.

“The first statement where Count Sherm’s magic wouldn’t be able to cause that much damage is false. In the latest research about magic by a famous and named scholar, it has been proven that we can’t control magic completely,” Lenin explained.

“Mana is the source of magic and the cause of its instability which is why we created a magic formation to cast a spell to prevent that from happening. In the latest research, it was stated that even with magic formations, our body played a big factor and it connected with our bodies and minds. Not only that, this whole island is the result of overwhelming Mana which made it float in the sky. This also adds a new factor as to why Instructor Sherm’s magic became unpredictable,” Lenin added.

“Objection! You honor! The research that Chancellor Lenin has spoken, there’s no proof of that,” the barrister said.

“That’s why I brought the scholar who did the research,” Lenin responded and looked at the spectators. “Marquis Sherm, if you may,” she looked at an old man blending in with the crowd.

Everyone looked at the old man and it shocked Sherm when he saw his father testify against him. He realized at that moment that he had been disowned by his father and by his family for the embarrassment he had caused and tarnished the Sherm family.

“I swear to my family name on the line that what Chancellor Lenin said is the truth. Unfortunately, the research is still ongoing and I’m unable to reveal everything due to public safety,” the old man said.

The barrister couldn’t fight against it and was unable to think of a way to change the situation.

“The second and third statements about Instructor Blackheart didn’t try to protect himself because of the agreement that we both made,” Lenin looked at Rasmus and then looked at the jury. “As you have heard Instructor Blackheart insulted Count Sherm. He has a habit of provoking people, and the reasonable answer to that is because it’s his defense mechanism.”

“He’s the only Blackheart left in this world. He has to bear the sins, consequences, and pain that his family did. As we all know, the Blackheart family tried to rebel against the Refenus Kingdom, and that led to the execution of all the Blackheart family members excluding him,” Lenin pointed out.

“For a fourteen-year-old boy who knew nothing about the world, abandoned and punished for ten years! If you found a wild beast and you tried to disturb it, what do you think it would do? It would retaliate and attack you,” Lenin continued as she crossed her arms.

“He provoked not only Instructor Sherm, but he also provoked the chairmen during his interview. It was his way to survive, and that was when we agreed to put him on trial and became an instructor of the academy for half a year, but with an exception which nobody knows about,” Lenin pointed her forefinger up. “If he caused any trouble more than three times, I would kick him out of the academy. That was why he didn’t try to protect himself to avoid any trouble,” she added.

“If Instructor Sherm hadn’t provoked him in the first place because of his prejudice and ego toward Instructor Blackheart, nothing would have happened. If Instructor Sherm didn’t come back to confront Instructor Blackheart, he wouldn’t be here on a trial,” Lenin said as she raised her voice a bit.

“He poked a wild beast and expected it to flee, but instead the beast ate his finger. You can’t blame the beast for eating his finger, you will blame him for poking a wild beast,” Lenin looked at the jury with a serious expression. “That’s all, your honor,” she moved her gaze toward the judge and then walked back to her seat.

Everyone went quiet and began to understand the whole story behind the incident. Seeing how everyone understood the situation, the barrister knew that there was no chance to turn the table.

The juries left the courtroom to evaluate all the information they got from both parties. Everyone was waiting impatiently for the juries to give their answers. But Rasmus already knew the result not because of what Lenin said only but also because of Sherm’s father who stood against his son.

Sherm might be from a famous and respectable family, but that didn’t mean he was famous and respectable. The juries, the judge, and the spectators respected the head of the family, not his children. Once the head of the family decided to disown his son, the jury and the judge could deal with the case without any pressure.

The juries came back and gave their answers to the judge on a piece of paper. The judge looked at the answer and then looked at Sherm with a cold expression.

“The juries have given their answer, and found the defendant guilty of attempting murder toward Instructor Rasmus Blackheart and will be sentenced to thirty years of imprisonment,” the judge announced.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep