These two days passed quickly. By the time Lin Lu and the others had fully settled in, it was already the morning of the third day without them realizing it.
In the corridor, Eri smiled at the group who was ready to go. “But even if you weren’t ready, there’s no more time for you. Please follow me to the Adjudication Court.”
Eri made a small joke, which slightly eased the atmosphere.
“Have the guest seats all been prepared?”
Hoshino Hikari and Lin Qingqing were only accompanying as teammates of Lin Lu and Minazuki, but they were still unavoidably nervous.
“We’re ready. Senior Eri, please lead the way.”
“Senior Eri, no matter what the outcome of this adjudication is for me, I will accept it. I’ve already prepared myself mentally long ago.”
Minazuki had already built up her mental fortitude. After all, all the mess was caused by her, so there was no point in making excuses.
“You’re quite open-minded. In that case, follow me.”
Except for Shui Xi, whom Minazuki had arranged to stay in the room, everyone followed Eri into the elevator.
0, 9, 17… The floor numbers in the elevator kept jumping, finally stopping at the top floor.
“We’re here.”
Eri led everyone out of the elevator, through a long corridor, and into a large hall.
The moment the door was pushed open, Lin Lu was slightly surprised by the spaciousness inside.
The Adjudication Court was a tiered conference hall, rows of seats arranged from high to low like terraced fields.
Lin Lu and the others looked inside. The seats were already filled with magical girls wearing various outfits. “Huh… how can there be such a large space? It must be some kind of space magic, otherwise how could a building have this much space?”
Their gazes all fell on the group at the door.
“Hmm… they look more like magical girls than witches.”
Murmurs came from all directions.
“Silence!”
Heng Guang, sitting at the main seat of the adjudication bench in the front, tapped the wooden gavel in her hand.
The murmurs instantly stopped.
Eri walked over to Minazuki, turned sideways in a “please” gesture, and led Minazuki to the defendant’s seat. “The accused—Minazuki.”
Two magical girls who appeared to be enforcers handcuffed Minazuki with magic-suppressing handcuffs.
Lin Lu and the others were led by Eri to sit in the front row seats.
“Hey! You’re the witch, right? You don’t look… anything special!”
Just as Lin Lu and Eri sat down, someone poked her waist from the left.
“Huh?”
Lin Lu turned her head to look… but there was no one? ?
“Hey! You’re really rude!” The voice rang out again, with a hint of impatience. “Look down!”
Lin Lu then lowered her gaze downward.
A girl who looked no more than eleven or twelve was sitting next to her, her legs dangling and swinging, and at the moment she was hugging her arms and glaring angrily at Lin Lu.
So it wasn’t that there was no one… but the girl was so short that Lin Lu hadn’t noticed her at first.
Lin Lu thought she had seen wrong and blinked.
Could someone bring a child to a place like this?
“Ah… sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
Lin Lu apologized with an incredulous tone. “But… why is there a child here? Are you the child of one of the magical girls?”
The girl’s face instantly flushed bright red. She pointed at Lin Lu and trembled with anger. “You… you!!!”
Lin Lu scratched her head awkwardly, not knowing what she had said wrong to make this child so angry.
“Ha ha ha ha!” A familiar laugh came from Lin Lu’s left. “Xun Niao, this is Chiyoyuki’s first time meeting you, so it’s natural she doesn’t recognize you.”
Lin Lu looked toward the owner of the voice.
“Hong Huang?!”
“This little girl you’re talking about is one of the Seven Blades, Xun Niao.”
Hong Huang crossed her legs and nodded to Lin Lu with a smile.
Lin Lu looked at the girl beside her in surprise.
“Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean it…”
“Hmph! Just you wait!”
Xun Niao snorted, threw out a harsh threat, and turned her head away without looking at Lin Lu again, clearly very angry.
“Chiyoyuki, the two on Hong Huang’s left are also Seven Blades: Chen Yuwei and Ling.”
Eri smiled and pointed to the two on Hong Huang’s left to introduce to Lin Lu. “In this row, besides you, Hoshino Hikari, and Lin Qingqing, the rest are all Seven Blades, you know~”
Lin Lu followed the direction of Eri’s finger. One unfamiliar girl with a gentle smile was waving to greet her—that was Chen Yuwei, who had fought against Guixu Zhiying when supporting Beijiang. And another girl with black attire and long black hair, looking very cold.
Just as Lin Lu was about to greet them, Heng Guang on the judgment bench tapped the gavel.
“Alright, the court is in session. No more chitchat.”
Eri reminded Lin Lu.
On the judgment bench, Heng Guang’s voice was especially clear in the quiet hall. “Minazuki, this adjudication primarily examines your crimes in Beijiang. First: colluding with the cult Guixu Zhiying and Filth Demons; Second: attempting to use Beijiang’s citizens as materials to activate an unknown array; Third: as a magical girl, carrying out personal vigilante justice on civilians, killing multiple people. Do you plead guilty?”
“I plead guilty.”
Minazuki did not make any excuses and directly admitted to all the crimes.
So straightforward—in previous trials for magical girls who had committed mistakes, when had they not listened to the accused make excuses? Many magical girls in the conference hall clearly did not expect Minazuki to confess so readily.
“The accused has confessed, evidence is conclusive.”
Heng Guang tapped the gavel. “If any guest representative has an opinion, they may state it here.”
As soon as the words fell, a clear voice rang out from the front row. “I propose the death penalty.”
The entire hall fell silent for a moment. Everyone looked toward the direction of the voice.
“Death penalty? Isn’t that… too severe?”
“Yeah, there is no precedent for the death penalty in adjudications for magical girls. The worst-case punishment is just stripping them of their magical girl identity and magic.”
“Are you stupid? The crimes Minazuki committed are different from those?!”
“Wait… hold on! I object!”
Hoshino Hikari stood up from her seat. Everyone in the tiered hall turned to look at her.
“The people Minazuki killed were guilty! They bullied their classmates and drove Minazuki’s sister to death. From a legal perspective, they should have been sentenced to death. Although Minazuki did use personal means to retaliate, there are mitigating circumstances.”
Hoshino Hikari continued, “I’m not saying Minazuki is not at fault, but is the death penalty too severe? Moreover… Minazuki originally did not intend to sacrifice the entire Beijiang, and in the end, no actual major losses occurred.”
The tiered hall buzzed with discussion again.
Heng Guang tapped the gavel. “Regarding the adjudication result for Minazuki, I think… we should at least listen to the proposal of the one who saved Beijiang.”
Hong Huang spoke up at this moment.
The murmurs gradually subsided. Heng Guang also looked at Lin Lu in the front row.
“Chiyoyuki, what’s your opinion?”