Chương 136: Chapter 131. Truthsayer trial

Rayne froze the moment he heard the man's name. Someone seated at the table let out a faint sharp breath, likely surprised by how casually the prince had introduced himself to him, but Rayne barely noticed it. His eyes remained fixed on the young man standing near the wall. Even the anger he had been holding toward the crimson soldiers slowly faded from his mind. Only confusion remained. What was a prince doing here? Questions immediately started forming in his head one after another.

Has the crown already decided his fate? Was Prince Caelan here to deliver the news? No, that didn't make sense. If execution had already been decided, there would have been no need for a truthsayer trial at all. They could have simply dragged him to a noose and ended it there which meant this had to be something else. Maybe Prince Caelan noticed the confusion written across his face because the smile on his lips widened slightly.

"Did I scare you with my presence?" the prince asked lightly.

"I was told you grew up on a farm and had little experience with nobility outside your immediate family, much less royalty. Hathras let your family sleep in his halls peacefully." The words had barely left his mouth when one of the seated men suddenly rose from his chair.

"Your Highness," the older man hissed sharply, clear disapproval in his tone.

"You cannot give prayers to traitors of the kingdom. Your father would not want that." Rayne's attention shifted toward him immediately. The man was old, likely in his late fifties, with thinning grey hair and sharp features that made him look permanently annoyed. He wore dark embroided robes trimmed with silver, and despite his age, there was still a heavy presence around him. Prince Caelan, however, didn't seem bothered at all. Instead, he calmly turned toward the man.

"Duke Hellar," he said evenly, "on the day of the execution of the Fraysers, my father himself prayed for the late Duke William Frayser after his head was cut off." The prince's expression remained calm as he continued.

"I believe I am within my rights here." Duke Hellar's jaw tightened, but he didn't argue further. Prince Caelan simply turned back toward Rayne as if nothing had happened.

"And you didn't answer my question." For a few seconds, Rayne genuinely forgot what question the prince had even asked. His mind was still trying to process the situation in front of him. But then, he answered carefully.

"I'm merely surprised by your presence here, Your Highness," he said.

"I wasn't told someone of such status would be at my trial."

"His Highness is not part of the trial," Duke Hellar said sharply.

"He arrived barely five minutes before you did, traitor." Prince Caelan nodded casually.

"That I did," he admitted.

"I simply wanted to see the man I've heard so much about." His eyes lingered on Rayne with open curiosity.

"Tell me," the prince continued, "did you truly fight and kill a troll warlord and a necromancer?" Rayne hesitated on what to say. He doubted the prince didn't already know what he had done and what he hadn't, and he had probably asked the question to hear if from his own mouth. Hence, he replied truthfully.

"We did face both, but Casper and Captain Edran were the ones who killed the warlord." He paused briefly before continuing.

"And yes, I helped kill two necromancers. Though the master necromancer was dealt with by Commander Evans and the others." The moment he finished speaking, Prince Caelan suddenly stepped closer, and Rayne stiffened instinctively. After the way he had been treated since arriving in Valers, sudden movements no longer felt harmless to him. But the prince simply stopped in front of him and lightly patted his shoulder.

"Then what I heard was true," Caelan said with visible interest.

"You don't often hear of men accomplishing things like that these days. You must be very courageous." Rayne shook his head.

"I don't think I'm courageous, Your Highness," he answered honestly.

"If I hadn't done those things, I would have died. It was fear more than courage that pushed me forward." For some reason, the answer seemed to please the prince even more. Caelan's smile widened slightly, and he gave a small nod.

"I like people who are honest," he said. Then he turned back toward the table, particularly toward Duke Hellar.

"My apologies for taking your time," he said casually.

"I'll take my leave now." Before anyone could properly respond, Prince Caelan simply walked toward the door. The room remained silent as he opened it, though just before stepping out, he glanced back at Rayne one last time, then he left. The door closed softly behind him, leaving Rayne standing there with absolutely no idea what had just happened. For a few moments, nobody spoke. Then Duke Hellar let out a deliberate cough, pulling Rayne's attention back toward the table.

"Why don't you sit down?" he said flatly. Rayne silently moved toward the chair placed at the center of the room. The sound of his boots against the stone floor felt unusually loud in the silence as he sat down carefully, the cuffs around his wrists clinking faintly in the process. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Only then did he properly look at the three people seated before him.

Duke Hellar sat on the far side of the table, his sharp eyes fixed on Rayne with open dislike. The man calling him a traitor earlier already told him what he thought of him, and he doubted it would change during the course of the trial. Beside him sat a younger man who looked to be somewhere in his thirties. He wore cleaner and less decorated robes than the duke, though he still looked every bit a noble. His face was calmer, almost unreadable, but what caught Rayne's attention the most was the red hair and beard.

For some reason, it reminded him of Fredrick. The resemblance wasn't strong, but it was there Rayne vaguely recalled Nate once mentioning that red hair like that often meant Rosarian blood somewhere in the family line. Still, unlike Duke Hellar, the man only observed him quietly. But neither of them surprised Rayne as much as the person seated across from them. Captain Verella sat there, watching him in silence. There was not even the slightest hint of emotion on her face.

No hostility there, but there was no warmth either. She sat straight in her chair, her hands resting calmly on the table while her sharp eyes remained fixed on him. Rayne couldn't help but wonder why she was here. Now that he thought about it properly, he hadn't really seen her after the warbands had continued their march from Bricksall.

Her own unit had been moving well ahead of theirs for most of the march, so it was entirely possible that she had separated at some point and taken the direct road toward Valers instead. Still, that didn't explain her presence in this room. Was she allowed to sit in the trial because she had been present during the Pascar Plains campaign? Or was she here for another reason entirely?

Maybe she was the reason Captain Edran had seemed so certain that the punishment against him wouldn't be too severe, even if things went badly. Rayne sincerely hoped it was that. As he continued watching her, the door behind him opened once again, pulling his attention away from the table. Two people stepped inside—A man and a woman, both dressed in simple silver robes without the decorations or expensive embroidery the nobles wore.

The older man had a neatly trimmed grey beard and calm eyes that immediately swept across the room before settling on the table ahead. Beside him walked a younger woman with dark hair tied into a ponytail. The moment they entered, both bowed respectfully toward the seated figures.

"My apologies for the delay, my lords," the older man said calmly. Duke Hellar gave a short nod in return.

"It is acceptable, Truthsayer Jakab," he replied.

"Why don't you and your apprentice take your places? We have already wasted enough time to begin this trial." The older man nodded once before moving toward the side of the table. His apprentice followed after him silently. Truthsayer Jakab carried himself with a calm stillness that reminded Rayne a little of Bran, though colder somehow. His face remained completely impassive as he looked at him, giving away absolutely nothing. His apprentice was different.

The young woman—Lana, if Rayne recalled correctly—looked far more curious. There was a noticeable interest in her eyes as she glanced toward him, almost as if she had expected someone very different. Still, Rayne barely spared her more than a glance before Duke Hellar spoke again, turning slightly toward the younger noble seated beside him.

"Why don't you begin, Gredrick?" Duke Hellar said evenly.

"After all, it was your brother who died at the hands of this traitor." A confirmation settled quietly in Rayne's mind the moment he heard the words. So the resemblance hadn't been a coincidence after all. The man truly was related to Fredrick, and his brother on top of that. Rayne instinctively searched for hatred, anger or anything similar on the man's face as he looked at him, but strangely enough, there was nothing.

"I will start by giving you an opportunity," Gredrick said in a measured voice.

"Do you, Rayne Frayser, admit that you killed my brother out of malice in your heart against him and confess to your crimes? If you do, we will be less harsh in your punishment."

"No," Rayne said firmly.

"I didn't kill him out of malice in my heart." He paused briefly after that, carefully choosing his next words before continuing.

"I did kill him, but it was in self defense. If I hadn't, he would have killed me." The moment he finished speaking, Rayne noticed Duke Hellar glance toward Truthsayer Jakab from the corner of his eye, clearly waiting for some sort of reaction. But none came. The old truthsayer remained perfectly still. That seemed to irritate the duke slightly. He looked back toward Rayne, his expression hardening further.

"In self defense?" Duke Hellar repeated, disbelief and venom mixing in his voice.

"You killed a noble with a bright future in self defense? Do you even realise what you are saying considering your stature? Not only in the army, but in the kingdom itself?" Rayne resisted the urge to frown at the words.

"I know my stature very well. I'm merely a forsaken. But when Fredrick tried to kill me in the dungeon, I didn't think about who he was. I only saw a man holding a sword and looking at me with hatred." Rayne kept his gaze steady as he added, "So I followed what the army taught me."

"And what did the army teach you?" Captain Verella asked calmly, speaking for the first time. Rayne turned his head slightly toward her.

"To kill anyone trying to kill me," he answered without hesitation.

"You know that very well yourself, Captain Verella. In the army, if one man attacks another, the defender has every right to protect himself in any way necessary, even if that means killing the attacker." Duke Hellar immediately opened his mouth, likely ready to interrupt, but Rayne spoke before he could.

"And we were inside a dungeon," he continued firmly.

"Undead surrounded us, our survival wasn't even guaranteed, and yet a fellow soldier still decided to pursue his personal vendetta against me. I had no choice but to kill him if I wanted to protect myself." When the last words left his mouth, silence spread through the room. For nearly a full minute, nobody spoke. Duke Hellar looked visibly frustrated now, but neither Truthsayer Jakab nor his apprentice Lana reacted at all. Which meant every word Rayne had spoken was truth.

For just a second, he thought he caught the faintest trace of a smile on Captain Verella's face before it disappeared completely again. Using army law to justify Fredrick's death had been a strategy Casper helped him prepare beforehand, and so far, it seemed to be working, but he still didn't relax. Because unlike Duke Hellar, Gredrick hadn't reacted much at all. The man remained just as calm as before, and strangely enough, that calmness strained Rayne far more than anger would have.

Eventually, Gredrick broke the silence himself. He gave a small nod before speaking evenly.

"Why don't we return to the dungeon later?" he suggested.

"For now, I would like to ask you some more personal questions." Rayne's body tensed slightly.

"Why don't we begin with your abilities, Rayne? We have come to know that you are a spellsword." For the briefest moment, his composure cracked as the trial finally reached the questions he had feared and prepared for the most.

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