Chapter 178: Chapter 142: A Victory Without Suspense_2
"Damn it! I’m the oldest! Don’t you know how to respect your elders?" Another researcher said.
"My position is the highest! I should be sitting next to Little Zi!" The third researcher said.
"Long Yi! Long Yi! Do you remember me! I was your magic tutor! The one who lost to you! I also promised to teach you how to make scrolls!"
Four researchers, all no longer young, however, kept arguing over sitting next to a cute little girl. Little Zi couldn’t help but cover her face: "Ah, I must be too adorable."
The Chief Justice, seeing that the royal magic researchers were arguing like children, felt they had lost all face for the Empire. However, he knew that the researchers were only interested in studying magic, they didn’t care about how others saw them. It was their existence that guaranteed the prosperity of the empire, and it would be hard to blame them for anything.
"Guard! Give them a separate witness area!"
The Chief Justice ordered. Therefore, the four of them were immediately separated into an area far from Little Zi.
"It’s your fault!"
"It’s all your fault!"
"Just wait!"
"Humph! You just wait!"
Little Zi slowly stood up, floated out of the witness stand, and came slowly to the defendant’s stand, staring at Joseph’s face with a slight smile. Joseph, feeling a chill coming from the front, had an uncontrollable urge to shiver.
"Please bring a woman who is absolutely trustworthy and reliable, and I will show everyone how you managed to have the lady follow your every command." Little Zi said.
"Damn it! This is impossible! Who knows what kind of trick you are up to!" The defendant adamantly disagreed.
"Don’t worry, I’ll only teach our researchers, and let them do the demonstration. You don’t trust me, but surely you trust the royal magic researchers? They’ve already taken an oath." Little Zi said.
"I don’t have a woman here, and who knows what tricks you will use to deceive the researchers!" The fat lawyer still disagreed but it was obviously a weak denial as his forehead was dripping with sweat.
"Joseph, are you going to hang in there? Your magic has sixteen combinations, but only one can control the girl. Aphrodisiac spells are at the third and sixth positions. Do I need to continue?"
Little Zi shifted his gaze back to Joseph.
"I...plead guilty." Joseph finally collapsed.
In front of the master of mind magic, all pretenses are futile!
Cheers erupted from the joint plaintiffs. They thought it would be a tough battle, but didn’t expect Joseph to plead guilty so readily!
Of course, a little intimidation spell was automatically ignored by the four magic researchers.
Because the defendant pleaded guilty, the next step would be sentencing. The plaintiff and the defendant will go through a series of bargaining, but that was not something Long Yi, as a witness, needed to worry about.
Leaving the court, Ai Lin finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ah——it’s finally over. While watching Your Honor inside, I was almost out of breath." Ai Lin took a few deep breaths before speaking.
"Hey, it ended so easily, I thought he would struggle desperately and there’d be a spectacle to watch." Long Yi felt disgruntled.
"It’s my fault. If I had known this earlier, I would have eased up a bit." Little Zi was also sincerely reflecting on her side.
"No, he’s just too weak. A scumbag is always a scumbag. If he can’t even take responsibility as a scumbag, what hope does he have?" Long Yi chuckled.
"Let’s go, we can still make it for lunch!" Ai Lin apparently didn’t want to talk about the subject anymore, the oppressive atmosphere there had made her uncomfortable and even mentioning it upset her.
In the afternoon, the court delivered the verdict. The Hagrid family paid a large amount of money to each party of the joint plaintiffs and reached a private agreement, sparing Joseph from the death penalty. However, Joseph faced a long sentence of ten years. The court ordered Joseph to relinquish all his powers, stripped him of his Dragon Knights’ status, and Mount Dragon returned immediately to Dragon Island in the Outer Sea.
The punishment didn’t matter much, but the deprivation of the Dragon Knight qualification was a serious matter. Once a Dragon Knight officially serves, they are inherently of noble status. This was different from the nobility status which can be obtained by donating money. The noble status meant that one at least had a ticket to the power structure in the Empire.
Although the Hagrid family was powerful and had been granted honorary nobility by the Emperor for their contributions to the country, this non-inheritable status without any benefits was meaningless. The Hagrid family had always hoped that Joseph could become a real Dragon Knight. By then, the family would naturally use all means to pave the way for him and help him gain military merits. With the connections of the Hagrid family, it couldn’t be said that it would let him rise rapidly, but it at least offered limitless possibilities.
But now, everything has ended.
For this sentence, some informed people think that the key could very likely be the Emperor’s intent to suppress the Hagrid family. Although the Emperor didn’t say it directly, he has occasionally hinted that the nation’s supply being controlled by a few people is inappropriate and should allow more people to participate. However, the Hagrid family, as the supplier, has always been good and without any errors, so even the Emperor couldn’t unilaterally replace them.
