Don’T Get Caught By Your Husband! [EN]: Chapter 115

#115. The Trial (1)

2024.06.05.

“The trial will now commence. Belladona Diete, step forward.”

The High Priest’s voice echoed through the silent courtroom, packed with spectators.

Belladona, hearing her name, rose from the long row of seats and walked toward the space prepared in front.

As she approached, the knights standing rigidly opened the low, waist-high gate.

Passing through the gate, she saw the priests sitting in a row, all turning to look at her simultaneously.

Belladona stood before the low table placed directly in front of them.

A short distance from the table where Belladona stood, the Emperor sat in a chair with a very high back.

The old Emperor looked at her with an inscrutable expression, his turbid gray eyes narrowed.

As she took her place, the High Priest spoke again.

“Is it true that you killed Pronanse Brielle, the Pope of Astagna?”

“It is true.”

Belladona answered.

At her answer, the people filling the courtroom sighed or gasped in surprise.

The audience seemed more surprised by her clear voice than by her admission of killing the Pope.

After the murmuring subsided, the High Priest asked, “Why did you do it?”

After a moment of contemplation, Belladona calmly replied, “It was to protect myself, my husband, and the people of the Empire.”

Each time she spoke, the murmuring of the spectators grew louder and then quieter again.

They seemed unable to reconcile the fact that the Saintess, who had lost her voice in exchange for divine power, could now speak.

‘It’s only natural…’ Belladona thought, wearing a listless expression as she stood before the table.

At that moment, someone stood up and shouted, “Saintess! How can you speak?”

“Silence! This is a trial,” the High Priest reprimanded loudly, but another person stood up and shouted from elsewhere.

“What happened to your divine power?”

“Can you no longer heal us?”

“Could it be that the Saintess has been abandoned by God?”

Questions poured in from all over the courtroom.

The High Priest looked back at the Emperor with a troubled face.

However, the Emperor, also curious about the answer, remained impassive, neither stopping the people nor giving orders to the High Priest.

“May I speak directly?” Belladona asked the High Priest in a quiet voice amidst the commotion. The High Priest reluctantly nodded.

She swallowed hard and began, “As you all know, I lost my voice in exchange for tremendous divine power when I was much younger.”

At Belladona’s words, a brief silence fell over the courtroom.

She looked around at the people focused on her and spoke in an even louder voice. “And now that my voice has returned for some unknown reason, I cannot use divine power.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the courtroom erupted in noise once more.

People began to murmur at the unbelievable news.

The Pope of Astagna had died suddenly, and now the Saintess could not use divine power. They were understandably confused and bewildered.

Belladona stood still, waiting for the commotion to subside, and then continued, “Until now, there has never been a case where a Saint’s physical defect has been reversed while simultaneously losing their divine power. Therefore, I do not know exactly what happened either.”

“Then you mean you cannot exert healing power now?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Belladona answered.

“Will the confessional also be closed?”

“I think it probably will be.”

The person who had questioned her, a nobleman, frowned, unable to hide his disappointment.

Watching the reactions of the spectators, Belladona felt a strange sense of relief.

The moment the heavy secret she had been hiding was revealed was not as scary or frightening as she had thought. She just felt relieved and at ease.

“Perhaps you had a perfectly fine voice from the beginning and deceived us?” a sharp voice called out.

Starting with that question, other voices joined in. “Did you use God to manipulate us?”

“Weren’t you and the Pope in cahoots?”

What……?

The atmosphere changed instantly.

Belladona, taken aback by the sudden hostility, raised her head.

The people who had been merely puzzled were now angry and shouting at her.

The High Priest tried to quiet them. “Please be quiet. The time for personal questions is over. We will resume the trial.”

Even though the High Priest spoke loudly, the atmosphere did not easily calm down.

Belladona bit her lower lip tightly.

She understood. Now that many of the Pope’s sins had been revealed, the people of the Empire might think that both the Pope they had believed in and his daughter, the Saintess, had deceived them.

As the courtroom showed no signs of quieting down, the High Priest forcibly continued the trial. “It is alleged that the Pope conducted human experiments on commoners. Is there any evidence for this?”

“It can be confirmed in the documents found in the Papal Palace.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a knight brought out a bundle of documents.

These were the documents found in the basement of the Papal Palace.

Belladona looked at the paper the knight was handing over with a nervous face.

‘Please…….’

The conclusive evidence that the Pope had injected drugs and damaged the bodies of innocent people in the name of creating a Saint had already disappeared or been burned by the Pope.

The evidence the knight presented was only circumstantial.

But there was a lot of circumstantial and situational evidence. So please…….

The High Priest organized the paper he received from the knight and took it to the Emperor.

The Emperor, receiving the documents, examined them carefully.

“This is a detailed report on the types and volumes of drugs injected into commoners by the Pope, as well as the timing of administration and the resulting outcomes.”

“Is there any proof that the Pope wrote this himself?” The Emperor asked, looking up from the documents.

“We can compare the handwriting with the documents he wrote during his lifetime,” the High Priest replied.

At the High Priest’s answer, the Emperor frowned. “Is there a possibility that the document itself was fabricated?”

“We cannot rule it out.”

At the Emperor’s reaction, Belladona inhaled sharply. An uneasy feeling was growing.

The Emperor, handing the documents back to the High Priest with an indifferent face, said, “From now on, the Pope’s human experimentation and the Saintess Belladona’s patricide [killing of one’s father] will be treated as separate cases. The Saintess’s crime will be punished according to the Imperial Law.”

“Your Majesty, but the reason for the murder is deeply related to the Pope’s actions, and there is a high possibility that it was self-defense.”

“There must be solid evidence that the Pope’s actions are true. Unless evidence is presented, I will punish her as is.”

Ah…….

Belladona clenched her fists tightly and lowered her head.

To consider the Pope’s human experimentation and the murder case separately meant that Belladona would be severely punished for the murder, regardless of the Pope’s actions.

“Let the High Priest deliver the final verdict,” the Emperor ordered.

At the Emperor’s words, Belladona turned her head and looked at the High Priest.

Patricide, especially the murder of the Pope, was by no means a light crime.

‘Maybe I’ll be imprisoned for life, or even executed.’ Thinking so, her head began to ache more than ever.

After a moment of contemplation, the High Priest approached the priests sitting behind him and spoke to them in a low voice.

It seemed that he could not make a decision alone, as the matter was a serious one.

After what felt like a long few minutes, the High Priest returned and began, “Belladona Diete has murdered her father, Pope Pronanse Brielle.

Although the action was to protect her family and the people of the Empire, harming the father who had raised her is something that should not have happened morally.”

“…….”

“Therefore, the Elinus Empire will permanently exile Belladona Diete from the Elinus Empire…….”

“Wait a minute!” At that moment, the courtroom door burst open, and someone shouted loudly.

Belladona raised her lowered head.

Hazel, who had rushed into the courtroom, approached the knights guarding the door and said something.

The knights who heard what he was saying turned around and approached the High Priest.

The High Priest listened to the knights’ words.

“What are you doing now?” the Emperor asked, who had been resting his chin on his arm.

The High Priest, having heard all the knights’ words, announced, “The Saintess’s side says they have new and solid evidence to prove the Pope’s sins.”

“New and solid evidence……,” the Emperor raised his eyebrows as if intrigued and asked, “Where is it now?”

“It will be here soon.”

As soon as the High Priest finished speaking, several people walked in through the open courtroom door.

The spectators, recognizing them, began to murmur again.

The people entering the courtroom were all visibly impaired.

One had completely lost an arm, another had a white cloth tied around both eyes and was groping the floor with a long stick, another had an unknown bandage on his face, and yet another had lost both legs and was being carried on Graham’s back…….

At the incomprehensible sight, the murmuring of the people grew louder.

“What is this now? Since when has the sacred courtroom become a marketplace?” The Emperor frowned and spat out, dissatisfied.

At his question, Belladona straightened her back and said, “Your Majesty, these people are the evidence.”

“Explain what you mean so I can understand.”

“These people are the ones who miraculously survived the Pope’s cruel human experiments. The Pope hid them in the small town of Lavlserona and secretly managed them, harboring the vain hope that divine power might be manifested.”

At Belladona’s explanation, the Emperor slowly scanned the appearance of those who had entered the courtroom.

The sight of each of them bearing a painful injury naturally brought up feelings of unease and embarrassment.

Belladona continued, “Due to the Pope’s drugs, these people have lost precious parts of their bodies. These people, who have seen it with their own eyes and personally experienced the pain, are the evidence that can directly prove the Pope’s evil deeds.”