Enza was so surprised that she just laughed.
She couldn't tell if what happened just now was a hallucination or reality.
If it were a hallucination, why would she hallucinate that?
If it were real, how could the walls be splattered with blue guts for only a second before becoming clean again? What machine could do that?
What kind of human had blue blood?
Doesn't that make them a reptile?
Although she didn't fully believe it, Enza decided she must have been within range of the psychological attack from the gargoyle, and climbed down the ladder faster than ever. She quickly reached the bottom.
The gas from the grenade she had thrown was thick at the bottom of the tunnel. Enza held her breath and walked forward. There didn't appear to be anyone or anything there.
She knocked on the wall with her hand.
The metal is very thin. It's like a ventilation shaft, only larger. It doesn't seem like it was designed to be walked on, yet there was a ladder…
There was a door up ahead, and another door to her right.
Enza raised her eyebrows when she looked at the door on the right. It was made of plastic and looked like it came from a children's play structure. The door straight ahead was solid wood.
That plastic door makes me uncomfortable. Straight ahead should be the direction of the courtroom, that's where I should go, right?
She reached out for the handle of the wooden door and opened it as quietly as possible. There was a set of stairs leading up.
Crouching at the bottom of the stairs, she took out a match and held it against the wall, ready to strike it. She shouted up the stairs, "If you attack me, I'll blow this whole place up. I have a bomb set under the building!"
There was a moment of silence, then Enza heard a few people talking in low voices. Shortly after, someone cleared their throat and spoke.
"Uh, that won't be necessary. We give you our word that we won't harm you physically."
With what she had just seen in the shaft, Enza wasn't entirely sure about that. However, she proceeded up the stairs, a match held in her right hand.
At the top of the stairs was a normal-looking courtroom, other than the fact that it was painted entirely black. The judge's stand was the only thing in the room with any color, being bright orange. There were four people on the stand: two women and two men.
In the place where the defendant sits, there was a very old man. He was hunched over with his hands pressed together, and his eyes closed. No defense lawyer sat next to him.
Enza's eyes narrowed.
Up on the judge's stand, a man with frizzy brown hair pulled out a sheet of paper and squinted at Enza over his stained glasses. He was wearing an ill-fitting orange suit with a crooked tie, all made from faux velvet. He didn't look that much like a judge.
"Enza Fenamore, am I correct in this being your name?"
Enza nodded.
"You are to read this document before anything proceeds."
He folded the sheet into a paper airplane and threw it at Enza.
What is the deal with the paper airplanes today?
Enza unfolded the document and scanned it. The writing was very small, like the author was trying to cram as much into this sheet as possible.
"Dear Enza,
Looks like you found a way inside. The fact that you are reading this means you didn't go through the front entrance, which is good. Now, you might be wondering how much danger you're in… To be honest, it's variable. It totally depends on how well you do. If you do well, there won't be any danger to you at all. If you don't… you're gonna die! You're gonna die in lots of pain! Well, that's one of the things that can happen, at least. Doesn't the sound of that excite you? Aren't you ready to face life and death? It might seem counterintuitive for education, but the benefit of a near-death experience is worth the risk. I trust you'll be able to understand.
"Anyway, because of a certain Instrument, there's no need for a legal system on Alavieska. That means you don't have any firsthand experience in this kind of setting. But if you remember what I've taught you, most legal systems on Earth operate on the assumption that the defendant is innocent. It's the prosecution's job to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—the defense doesn't even have to do anything by default.
"This court is different, to say the least. In fact, this court, when it was in operation on Earth, operated completely outside the bounds of any national or international law. Isn't that ironic? For you, it's going to make your job harder. See that old guy? You're going to be his defense lawyer, and the time limit for the trial is one hour."
Enza was aghast. An hour? Isn't that way too fast? Without the help of an Instrument like the 8-Ball we have in Alavieska, the fate of an accused person falls to humans. When you include going over the evidence, deciding on a verdict should take quite some time.
She returned her focus to the letter.
"You see those four people up there? They're the prosecution, the jury, and the judges. You remember reading about these jobs, don't you? Although the number can vary depending on the type of case, there are normally twelve jurors, and they have a special decision-making power separate from the judge. The prosecution is also a separate group under normal circumstances. In this court, the jury, prosecution, and judge have all been lumped into one small group. The defense is allowed to bring as many people as they want to challenge the four. In your case, you only have yourself. The four up there are also allowed to bring in one relevant expert during the proceedings.
"It might seem absurd that the prosecution could also be the ones to decide on the verdict. Isn't that way too biased? Although it might seem hard to believe, they are actually under strict regulations. If you are able to present a compelling argument, they cannot lie or use their position to twist things. As for what enforces this rule… Ha, even I'm not sure of that.
"Anyway, that's all for now. Make sure you follow the instructions of the four up there closely, and you'll figure out more as you go along. This is designed for the average person to be able to use their mind to defend another, so as long as you pay attention, you won't need a law degree to have a chance. Now, drop this letter on the ground and take a seat across from the defendant.
-Azarias"
Enza dropped the letter and sat down next to the old man.
One of the people in the stand—a man with a severe demeanor and sharp eyebrows—banged his hand on the railing. "Evidence."
Out of the corner of her eye, Enza saw something fly through the air toward her. She raised her hands up to defend herself.
I thought I wouldn't be attacked at this point?!
A folder thumped down onto the table in front of her. A second later, something else flew through the air—a big plastic storage bin with a red lid.
Enza looked at the lid, which had 'evidence' scrawled in big letters with permanent marker.
The same man with the severe demeanor spoke again from the stand. "Enza Fenamore, are you ready for the verbal description of the case?"
Enza nodded in agreement.
The group of four shuffled their order. A woman came to the front with striking ginger hair. She wasn't intimidating in stature, but there was something off-putting about the way her face… Uncanny might be the right word.
"Enza Fenamore, your defendant will be referred to in this court as 'Dirt.' It is not permissible to refer to him by any other name besides that while within this building—not until you have proved his innocence, that is. Only then can he speak his name.
"Dirt stands accused of vandalizing a great artwork. To be precise, four statues in a wax museum. The total value of the works is 400 million euros. Our theory for what exactly happened will be laid out now.
"The crime occurred at three in the morning on a Wednesday night in October. Dirt was the substitute caretaker at the wax museum that night. It was his second night doing so, out of a planned three in total. The normal caretaker had been expected to return the morning after the crime was committed. During his shift, Dirt left the caretaker's office and defaced four of the statues in the collection. He then returned to the office, completed his shift, and left. He was apprehended by local law enforcement at 11 in the morning, four hours after the scheduled shift ended.
"On the days Dirt was substitute caretaker, the museum was closed. This also means he was not allowed to leave the building during that time. The museum is not locked with a key, and is instead locked from the inside with a deadbolt by the caretaker. Dirt's fingerprints were found all over the vandalized statues."
The woman's voice was getting a little strained as she talked about the defacing.
Enza blinked hard. She wasn't sure if she had imagined it, but… had a tear just rolled down that woman's cheek?
The ginger woman's next sentence came out even more strained.
"P-please look at the images of the defacing for yourself. I cannot bear to speak on this anymore… the verbal description has concluded…"
One of the men sitting next to her patted her on the back and whispered to her some kind of consolation, although Enza couldn't hear what it was.
Enza opened the manila folder in front of her. There were two large photographs inside.
The first was a close-up shot of a statue's face.
Or rather, its lack of a face…
The texture still contained some ridges and wavy lines. It looked like the wax had melted.
She looked at the second photo. It was of four statues lined up. There were three boys and one girl, and they all had the same damage to the face, making them unrecognizable. They reminded Enza of the statues in front of the courthouse, except they looked like children rather than young adults, and there was one more boy replacing a girl.
These statues were really worth 400 million? Why? If I'm remembering the economics of Earth correctly, that's an insane amount…
Enza's confused expression deepened as she noticed another detail in the photograph.
All of the statues were missing their feet. They were balanced on stumps.
She turned her attention to the box labeled 'physical evidence.'
She had expected there to be lots of evidence to go through, but after removing the lid, she was surprised to see only two items inside. She thought it was unnecessary to use such a large box to package so few items.
A navy blue uniform and a handheld torch were inside.
Enza glanced up at the stand again. A different man had taken the spot in the front. He had patchy blond hair that looked like moldy cotton balls.
"Permission to ask questions?"
The man nodded. "As many as you'd like. We are obliged to answer them to the best of our ability."
"How was it determined that the crime took place at three in the morning?"
"A candlemaker was called in to analyze the condition of the wax. He was able to say with confidence that the melting had happened about eight hours prior."
That's already a human weak link. The candlemaker…