The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]

Chapter 214 – Sunset over Kirinyaa

The words “court is about to begin” echoed through Kirinyaa’s grand court as Kassandora looked up at the judges, she took stood behind the little location that was supposed to be her stand. She maintained her stoic expression as she looked over at the various people and the grand court. A triumphant building, all the walls painted with white and gold, without any windows but grand chandeliers to illuminate it instead. They hung on long chains, but they weren’t anywhere closer to the floor of marble tiles. The ceiling itself was high enough to stack Kassandora ten times on herself and still have room for an eleventh.

“On trial is Goddess Kassandora, of War.” The lead judge said. “To be charged with: endangerment of life, needless cruelty…” The judge took a deep breath as he blinked at the piece of paper. “Seventy five thousand, seven hundred and two charges of arson. Three hundred and twelve charges of willing destruction of heritage. Six hundred and fifty seven charges of corruption. Five charges of money laundering.” As the judge read it aloud, his voice grew low. Kassandora knew that feeling of pure awe very well, she too would struggle to say something like that seriously. “Seven thousand, three hundred and twenty eight charges of manslaughter…” And another. “Five thousand, four hundred and forty three charges of murder in the first degree.” He took a deep breath and finally finished. “And one charge of treason in the highest degree.”

Kassandora said nothing. They were throwing everything and anything at her in the hopes. She would have simply gone with the single treason charge, this was already a bad look for Mwai’s prosecution. Turning her into a money launderer was little more than a joke. The judge spoke again, on that row of seven, each one in a white and gold cloak. A remnant tradition carried over from the White Pantheon. “Do you claim guilt for any of the charges? Your are entitled to converse with your lawyers if you wish.”

Kassandora turned back as her eyes swept across the room. Mateusz’s team sat in front of her. Twelve men, soldiers she had picked out herself. Helenna had said there would be no point for her to be here, not when Kassandora had this quality of man with her, and then sneakily hinted if she could get a whole platoon to work for her in permanence.

Behind them were the cameras. Kirinyaa’s KTV in the very centre, the Allian Everything in Epa, Doschia’s The World Today. Journalists from the UNN, from Guguo, from all Arika. The prosecution was on the other side of the aisle, more cameras behind them. Only four souls, two men, two women, all looking as if they were out of their element. Kassandora had not a shred of sympathy for them, they should have prepared for a show the moment they saw her name on the papers.

Kassandora pushed her microphone away, it was only mortals after all. She took a step from the stand, spread her arms out, made sure to throw her crimson hair back as she did it, and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I declare I am not guilty of all the falsities that besmirch my name.”

Mateusz leaned back, arms crossed as one of the four lawyers Mwai had enlisted stood in the stand. Kassandora stood opposite him, grim-faced. They were in questioning, it had taken two hours to get through the initial proceedings, and those were merely making Kassandora of the penalties. Then everyone took a shot Mateusz and his team. Unqualified, new, why did Kassandora even trust them? She had answered simply, who better to represent her than her own men? And then she had added that if they were so incompetent, then the case should be easy victory for them. That had left Mwai’s four lawyers in a sour mood.

The man at the stand sounded as if he didn’t know whether to press the Divine on the other side of the room hard, or whether he should. “What sort of succession is implemented in the military in order to prevent it from lying at the hands of one person forever?” Mateusz made a quick movement, a slight lean to the left, his neck turning right. It would look bad if they were caught on camera communicating with each other, but such small movements could be easily overlooked. And they were all trained in hand signs already, so learning new movements was no difficulty for any of them.

“Objection on the basis of relevance.” Theodore said from behind. “How does that relate to any of the charges at hand?” The seven judges looked at Theodore and then at themselves. They shared slow calculating gaze between each other, the centre one banged his gavel.

“Objection sustained. Goddess Kassandora, you do not have to answer this question. We will not take it into account of your case if you remain silent.” Kassandora smiled and shook her head.

“I can answer.” Kassandora said. “When the army was created, I was already drafting a bill on succession, but with the White Pantheon Invasion, I made the decision that such things could be left for the victory.” She kept her face straight, Mateusz struggled to think up of a more perfect answer than that. Who could argue against such perfect pragmatism? And the reminder of victory would only make his deflection onto Mwai even easier.

“Very well.” The judge responded as the prosecution lawyer looked to his team. Dour, downcast faces all. What did they expect? He took a breath and asked another question.

“In regards to succession, what sort of method you going to use?” Mateusz repeated the movement. Theodore repeated his statement. The judge repeated the question to Kassandora.

And Kassandora declared she would answer again. “The method would already be public if it passed my standards. I have multiple theories running.” Mwai’s lawyer had his follow up ready for her, he started speaking as soon as Kassandora finished.

“And whatever this hypothetical method is, it will minimize the chances of corruption and the military usurpation?” Mateusz repeated the movement, but he moved his arm at the same time. This was good, he did not care what sort of image the public got of him, the whole goal was to make Kassandora look as benevolent as possible.

“Objection on the basis of relevance.” Theodore said and stood up. “How does that question relate to any of the charges at hand? And I would advise your honour to not allow the Goddess answer else this line of questioning can be extended for days, she will earnestly respond to everything.”

Once again the judges took a pause. This time a few leaned close together and spoke in hushed voices. Mateusz could not hear them, but he could tell from the burn in Kassandora’s eyes that she was happy with the result. It took a whole of whispering for the centre judge to bang his gavel again. “Objection sustained. In regards to this line of questioning, the court agrees. Goddess Kassandora, do not answer this question.”

“I understand.” Kassandora replied.

Mateusz looked at the team of prosecutors, if this was the quality of their questions, then this wouldn’t be a battle. It would be a slaughter.

“I would like to present to the court the most damning piece of evidence that has been found.” It was one of the female lawyers this time. A pretty lady, Mateusz did not need to look at Pawel to know what the man was going to say. In a black suit that was so dark it was almost colourless, she was the epitome of professionalism. A cold, bureaucratic, detached professionalism. The sort that Helenna had said they wanted to avoid entirely. An image came up on the screen, the judges looked down as their own monitors flashed with the evidence.

Mateusz recognised it immediately. It was the original unedited version of Operation Sandfire. The first plan, which had wanted troops to torch the city before Kassandora had thought of filling the sewers with the Reclamation’s Wars excess napalm shells. But all the names had been blanked out, the dates too. Important locations. “Do you know what this is?”

Kassandora looked at the screen and sighed. “I do.”

The woman smiled and pressed on. “This details the destruction of Melukal, does it not?”

Kassandora made a sorry face, her tone low. “Yes.” Mateusz looked on in awe. If he was not aware of Sandfire, he would honestly believe the Goddess was hurting right now. Her voice sounded as if she was genuinely in pain.

“And you were aware of this?”

“I was.”

“And this was in your camp?”

“It was.” Kassandora said with a heavy sigh.

“Could this plan destroy Melukal?”

“It could.” Kassandora said.

“Was…” The Lawyer said, this was a good line of attack. Mateusz had to give the woman that. It was all direct questions, there was nothing open ended about it, no ways for Kassandora to spin her way out of this with questions like that. He felt the crowd of people behind go silent as they re-read the words that weren’t censored several times over. “This plan, did you consider it?”

“I did read it, so I did consider it.” Kassandora said.

“End of questioning.” The woman said and sat back down. Mateusz looked over to Pawel, now was his time to shine. He got a thumbs up in return.

Kassandora watched Pawel take the stand. A talented man with skill in combat and, more importantly, a good head. Plenty of experience in the Twin Hearts, plenty of experience in Sokolowski’s front too. The only thing she could find to complain about was a crass sense of humour, but if tried to root humour out of her army, it would quickly be her alone. He stood there to lead the responses, without any papers, and spread his arms out in the suit. He was talking to her and the cameras both. She looked at those lawyers, they had begun this session questioning the competency of her men. If her men weren’t competent, they wouldn’t have survived for so long. “Goddess Kassandora, of War.” He said it the same way he would be talking to a platoon of soldiers. Every camera would catch him, a single word would not be missed. “Is it true that this document came into your possession?”

“It is.” Kassandora replied. She had only worried at the start, because her men had initially taken the stand. Now though, she allowed herself to be guided. There was no reason to try and intervene, Helenna had been right, they knew what they were doing.

“Did you write this document?”

“I did not.” Kassandora said. She could see the battle-lines in front of her start to crumble as Pawel led a flanking assault from the side. This would be a victory alright.

“Do you know who did?”

“I do not.” Kassandora replied. She knew the basic questions, they knew how she would answer. They had been revised well, Helenna knew exactly what to say in a court of politics like this. Pawel made a knowing smile as he continued.

“So how did you come into possession of this document?” Kassandora smiled and took a deep breath.

“To not bore you, I will a short explanation of my planning. Generals and other high ranking officers are able to submit battle plans to me. I consider all ideas, no matter how outlandish they are but some, like this one, are handled through an anonymous plan box.” That was all a lie, there was no such thing. But it would make perfect sense for there to be something like this. “Things people don’t want their names attached to.”

Pawel smiled, nodded and extended an arm out to the document. “And what value does this provide?”

Mwai’s lawyers immediately took the opportunity. “Objection, this question is not relevant to the case at hand.”

“Sustained. Move on Pawel.” The man smiled, Kassandora knew he would be the first one to be kicked out.

“So all plans have to be considered, no matter how outlandish they are?”

And it happened again. “Objection, irrelevant!”

“Sustained, next question.”

“Because it is impossible to think through everything oneself, so even anonymous ideas like this could be used to say, realise Melukal’s exposed position and order an evacuation pre-emptively?”

“Objection! Irrelevant to the charges and pure speculation!”

“Sustained. Pawel, this is your first warning verbal warning.” Pawel only smiled. He turned to the cameras. Kassandora remained there, still. This was the point, it wasn’t to win some legal battle. It was to win over the audience at home. The judges could sustain every objection that was presented, but they couldn’t make people forget the words they just heard.

Pawel did not even look at the judges to acknowledge them. “Would you say that this document helped prepare you for the siege of Melukal?”

“I did not take it into account.” Kassandora said.

“Why did you not take it into account?” Pawel asked. He really was enjoying this. Kassandora took a deep breath and stuck to plan.

“I had other plans to consider.”

“So what do you make of such a document, one of many, being used in a courtroom as evidence? Is it not farcical?”

“Objection! Leading question!”

“Sustained. Pawel, this is your second warning. You will be removed if you break regulations again.” The man smiled, he did not turn to the judge, he took a step off the podium and looked directly at the cameras.

“I simply have nothing to ask about a military plan, because it is our job as soldiers to consider every and any scenario possible. Our enemy does it, in order to win anything more serious than a game of dice, it is vital to consider such things.” He took a step forwards as the seven judges looked at him in stunned shock. Kassandora supposed they had never been so blatantly disrespected. “This is not even the worst of them, I personally submitted something far more insidious. That too was not used.”

The head judge started banging his gavel. “This is irrelevant to the case at hand! If you wish to make a statement, you have to wait for the end of questioning.” Pawel turned to the judge.

“Your honour. The courtroom is your realm, but the war is ours. If you do not respect us, we will not return the respect in turn.” The judge blinked. Kassandora kept her mouth shut, she wanted to burst out in laughter as Pawel continued. “Frankly, the only opinion I have on Goddess Kassandora needing to defend herself for winning the war is that this is a farce in its entirety.” And Pawel spat on the ground.

Kassandora blinked. That wasn’t part of the plan. She contained her urge to smile. That was it, goodbye Pawel. You served well in this battle.

One man down. Eleven left.

“What is there to say about this evidence? We have no sources, we have no claimants. Any information that could be used to identify any of the authors of these documents has been redacted. Goddess Kassandora has denied knowledge of half of them already!” Mateusz watched Theodore hold up the piece of paper. This was still three men had been removed from court for breach of jurisdiction, but it was getting obvious who the judge would side with now. The arguments they were making weren’t clean, they weren’t professional, they weren’t by the book.

But there was no such thing as a battle that was clean, a battle that was professional or a battle that went by the book. Theodore turned and showed the empty paper to everyone in the room. “Can I write whatever I want on this and submit it too? Or is only Mwai Ruku allowed to do that?”

The judge banged his gavel. And they took another casualty.

Kassandora made a flat expression as the judge spoke to her. “Giving the nature of this case, if you would like to make one final statement, we will allow it.”

Kassandora took a deep breath. “I have only one thing to say. I have served Kirinyaa. I will serve Kirinyaa until either Arda claims one of us. I have nothing else to say, I will accept whatever judgement you cast upon me, as long as this country exists or I walk the world, I will respect it.”

It was on the nose, but she knew she had won.

“This court finds Goddess Kassandora, of War...” The judge took a pause and a heavy breath. Kassandora stood there and kept her face still. It was obvious. It had to be. She didn’t know why she was worrying. “Not guilty.”

And the room erupted into tears and cheers.

Kassandora stepped outside the court-room. The Sun had set. The stars had come out. The crowd cheered for her, but she barely noticed them.

Her eyes were entirely flying on the flags gently blowing in the breeze. Gone was the green-red-blue tricolour. It had been replaced by the red-white-black. A flag from an ancient age, one that had not been flown since Rhomaion fell.

A flag of Empire.