Lies Mixed in the Truth (2)
‘He knew about it!’
If he were an idiot with nothing but air in his head, he wouldn’t be aware of what was happening around him. However, due to his cautiousness, he had indeed noticed this.
His timing was also not bad. He probably thought he was one step ahead of me.
Seeing his arrogant expression made the urge to laugh noticeably harder to resist. However, I knew I should stop acting so awkwardly.
‘I should look surprised.
It was good to bring about a sense of realism to the situation. However, it wasn’t easy to contort my expression the way I wanted it to.
‘Should I take an acting class?’
I could probably find a suitable tutor within Lindel.
Even as I held back my laughter, Ito Souta was preparing himself to deal another blow. He looked around the audience, aware that everyone’s attention was on him.
With his relaxed demeanor, it would be hard for everyone to think of him as a sinner. Meanwhile, one of his delegates could be seen pulling out a familiar, tiny potion. Without a doubt, this was the product I had made.
“This potion is currently circulating.”
“Please refrain from making a statement that has nothing to do with the trial!”
It had been good of me to tell Lee Jihye beforehand.
She stood up while hitting the desk with a bang. Anyone would think that she did so in panic.
“I have objections! Supreme Judge, that person is talking about something that has nothing to do with this trial!”
“No, Supreme Judge. The story I’m going to tell you from now on is, undoubtedly, a key issue that will play a major role in this trial, and it is a subject that should not be left out. Honorable Supreme judge, please allow me to speak.”
The Supreme Judge shook his head slightly at Ito Souta’s remarks, but the Yamato Guild Leader seemed to have one of the other judges on his side.
As he whispered to the Supreme Judge, he eventually nodded.
“I will allow you to speak.”
“Thank you.”
‘Good. Good
“As I said, this potion is currently in circulation. It hasn’t been long since it started selling, but it was already being sold on the black market for a long time. The price is about 20 gold per person; you can say that it is cheap, and you can also say it is expensive.”
“So what’s the problem, defendant?”
“The problem lies in the effectiveness of this potion. Honorable Supreme Judge, just as it was named a fantasy potion, it was designed to allow humans to see the fantasy they want to see. It’s a kind of hallucinogen. It’s not just that. It’s also deadly addictive.”
“I have objections, Supreme Judge.”
“I’ll listen to his explanation a little more.”
Ah, Jihye’s timing was impeccable, and not to mention – her acting skills were amazing.
After analyzing her expression and finding nothing wrong, Ito Souta continued to speak.
“Yes. You are right. This potion is addictive. Like… Just like drugs.”
‘Bingo
‘Well done, my child!’
At this point, I wanted to cheer for him.
The question now was how he was going to link this potion to me. If he linked it forcefully, it would look like he’d gone down the wrong path. However, looking at his determined expression, it looked like he had something more to say. I continued to watch him.
“Our Yamato Guild has been paying attention since this potion was being sold on the black market, and a tremendous effort has been put into finding out the source of this potion. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a drug, and I was curious about who was trying to make the Free City sick.”
“The first traces were found on October 1st of the Lindel terrorist incident. The plaintiff pointed out and misunderstood us as the culprit of the case, but as a result of our guild’s investigation, it was Kake, a small guild in Celia, the Free City that attacked Lee Kiyoung.”
‘Huh, he does have a way with words.’
“You mean you have related evidence? Defendant?”
“Yes. I do, Supreme Judge.”
When I saw the Supreme Court carefully reading the document he prepared, it indeed looked very well fabricated.
It would probably have been difficult to gather information about the small guild Kake in a short period, so it was highly likely that the existing guild was used as a victim.
“Small Guild Kake is a criminal guild that makes profits by distributing illegal items and unauthorized items such as drugs. It’s spread out in the city, so you can think of it as a nuisance group even in the Free City of Celia. At first, it was a simple guess. Even with our guild’s intelligence, we couldn’t figure out why the Kake guild attacked Blue Lee Kiyoung, but we could find a very small hint.”
“What is that, Defendant?”
“It was evident that the Lindel terrorist incident was not just a terrorist incident, but a territorial dispute between drug groups.
‘Whoa…
“Is this true, Defendant?”
“Yes. The person I mentioned, who distributes the fantasy potion in Japan, is the person who turned the power struggle between drug gangs into the Lindel terrorist incident. And the owner of the new guild Sora is Lee Kiyoung, sitting by the plaintiff’s table.”
‘Perfect
Ah, this had gone the way I wanted it to.
So now, I was the owner of a new guild called Sora. I was also the one distributing fantasy potions in Japan.
What was not true was the fact that the Lindel terrorist incident is a power struggle between drug organizations. Everyone was looking at me as Ito Souta mixed the lies within the truth.
The question was whether or not they would take the fabricated material as evidence, but I knew it was likely from how good its quality was.
“Lee Kiyoung-ssi, who is still sitting by the plaintiff’s table and frowning, formed a new guild in collaboration with Yuno Kasugano of the Yozora Guild, whom he had previously known. The guild’s name is Sora. Kasugano Yuno was brought in to distribute the potion sold only in the black market, and their plan was a great hit.”
‘Correct.
“We have created a system that allows a drug called a fantasy potion to be deceived as a medical potion to go through distribution procedures and distribute it legally.”
‘It’s not a drug, but, yes, that’s correct.
“In less than a few days, they succeeded in making a net profit of tens of thousands of gold.”
It wasn’t just tens of thousands of gold.
Already, a huge amount of money had been rolling in my way. Anyway, it was quite surprising.
In just a short time, I never imagined that he would come so close to the truth like this – and create fabricated evidence with his limited movement!
He was certainly competent.
As I slightly frowned, I could see Ito Souta carrying on with renewed vigor.
“I think you may be aware that the Juliana’s case that happened the other day was also investigated separately by the Holy Knights and our guild. Another interesting fact came out as a result of the investigation. Hiroyuki Kazuma, whose throat was pierced by Juliana’s cursing sword, actually tried to kill Lee Kiyoung. It is certainly true that Juliana, who really sensed the threat to the owner, attacked Hiroyuki Kazuma.”
“Defendant. If so, are you saying that you admit to the crimes of the Juliana case?”
“Yes. It is my fault for not properly managing the guild members. Hiroyuki Kazuma, who was a regular member of the Yamato Guild, had two identities, but first of all, since he was indeed in our guild, I should be punished.”
“That means…”
“Yes. Hiroyuki Kazuma, who died, was also a member of the Kake Guild. When the assassination at Lindel ended as an attempt, he tried to assassinate even within the royal city. Perhaps it was an unavoidable choice for the Kake Guild. It’s because they knew that the drugs they were selling wouldn’t sell if fantasy potions were on the market, just like the case with drug disputes.”
“At any cost, they would’ve wanted to get rid of Lee Kiyoung-ssi, who is running the Sora Guild.”
That was such a great script. At this rate, Souta could be called a playwright.
Leading the two assassination cases into the fight of the drug cartel… Anyone could see that things were about to get fun.
“Do you have any evidence that Lee Kiyoung-ssi is making and distributing fantasy potions?”
“Of course, Honorable Supreme Judge. Fantasy potion is actually a variant of the mental healing potion that played an important role when the Blue Guild attacked the Cursed Shrine. If you take a closer look at the Cursed Shrine’s attack log sold by the Blue Guild, you will realize that much of it is similar to the fantasy potion.”
“Keep talking, defendant.”
“If you look at Blue’s strategy log, the dungeon called the Cursed Shrine is described as a dungeon where you will gradually experience and see hallucinations after a certain period. As a means to suppress hallucinations that have a negative effect on us, Lee Kiyoung decided that the means is to see a new type of hallucinations. It is the mental healing potion that was born of this kind of theory. The only thing that can be said to be different from the fantasy potion on the market is whether they are addictive or not.”
“I have objections. Supreme Judge! The defendant is turning to a different story after the most important case; the attempted assassination has been carefully ruled out. The main proposition of the trial is not the fantasy potion, but an attempted assassination at a social gathering.”
“No, Supreme Judge. Obviously, all of this is related. The attempted assassination at a social gathering, I swear to Benigore’s Goddess, was not something I committed. It was difficult to draw an accurate conclusion about why such an abnormality occurred in Lee Kiyoung’s body, but I think this is also related to the Kake Guild. If you think about the connection between this fantasy potion and Lee Kiyoung, it’s not weird to be aimed for your life when and where you are. Knowing that fact, Yamato Guild and I were framed because he knew that I was digging about the fantasy potion. I think you should also consider the probability that the attempted assassination case was his doing.”
Good, good.
“I know that this trial is not a trial for the fantasy potion, Supreme Judge. However, it is undeniable that this potion is involved in all of this. Also, if you think about the dangers of this potion, I think you should hear about what the truth is from Kiyoung Lee sitting by the plaintiff’s table.”
Ito Souta was perfect.
At this point, the man himself was nodding in satisfaction as the audience around us became agitated.
Of course, this was natural. He had successfully manipulated them into thinking that I was the bad guy. It wasn’t a full fabrication.
More than half of it was true. I didn’t know how he dug this so well, but | wanted to applaud the guy for coming to his inevitable conclusion.
Now, it was my turn.
As I looked at Ito Souta, smirking, I knew he thought he had won. Of course, this was the moment I dropped the act.
I drew my eyebrows in a grimace, and let my lips droop to its fullest extent.
‘Puff.
And then I looked at him, smiled, and nodded as a thank you. The more my expression changed, the more confused he looked.
The moment I opened my mouth to calmly respond, Ito Souta’s expression had crumpled.
“It’s correct to say that I am the distributor, dear Supreme Justice Court.”