The Author's Extra: My SSS Skill Turns Souls into Anything!

The royal advisor stood. He did not hurry. He had the easy, comfortable manner of someone who already knew how this would end.

"Magistrate." A short bow. "Let us accept everything the defense presented as true, purely for argument’s sake." He moved one step forward. "Let us say the Crown Prince did ally with vampires. Let us say he attacked the academy and endangered lives." He spread his hands. "Even if every word of that is accurate, one question remains."

He looked at Alden.

"Who gave a lowborn student the right to execute a member of the royal bloodline?"

The room went very still.

"The Crown Prince could have been restrained. Subdued. Brought back alive for the sovereign authorities to deal with." He pointed directly at Alden. "Instead, Alden chose to take the law into his own hands and kill him."

He turned back to the bench. "I am not claiming the Crown Prince was innocent. I am stating that both sides committed wrongdoing. The Crown Prince may have violated the realm’s laws, but Alden committed the ultimate crime against the crown by spilling royal blood." He paused. "Therefore, execution is the only answer."

Leon gripped the edge of the desk.

Roselle stood up.

Her staff knocked lightly against the floor as she rose. "That is completely backwards!" Her voice shook with it. "You are not seeking justice! You just want him dead regardless of what actually happened!"

BANG.

"Miss Evercrest!" The Magistrate’s voice cracked through the hall. "You will not disrupt these proceedings while another party holds the floor!"

Roselle’s fists were trembling. "But—"

"Allow the prosecution to conclude." The Magistrate raised one hand, firm.

The royal advisor smiled softly. "Nothing further, Your Honor. The law speaks for itself." He sat.

The Magistrate nodded. "Who speaks next for the defense?"

Nicholas took a breath.

He stood.

"Magistrate." He did not rush into it. He stood at his full height and let the room settle before he spoke. "I was there. I personally witnessed the battle between Alden and Crown Prince Augustus."

The murmuring faded.

"I can tell this court that his power was on an entirely different level from ours." His voice carried without him trying to project it. "We could not defeat him. We could not subdue him. No matter what we threw at him, he kept coming back."

He glanced briefly toward the empty space where Seris should have been.

"He was empowered by progenitor blood. His strength and mana output were far beyond anything we could restrain or suppress." He looked back at the bench. "He attacked me. He attacked Seris. He attacked Roselle and Leon with full lethal intent. We tried to stop him. He would not listen."

Nicholas lowered his gaze for a moment.

"When Alden arrived, I do not believe for one second that the Crown Prince was going to suddenly stop. Based on everything I witnessed that day, he would have kept killing until there was no one left to kill."

He looked at Alden. Directly at him.

"Alden was not given a choice. He was forced into a life or death fight against someone who refused to stop." He turned back to the bench. "This court cannot call that murder. Alden was not trying to assassinate the Crown Prince."

His voice steadied.

"He was trying to survive. And he was trying to save our lives." A short pause. "If he had not arrived when he did, I do not think any of us would be standing in this hall today."

He bowed. "That is my firsthand testimony."

The Magistrate wrote. Set his quill down. Looked at the hall.

"Your testimony has been noted."

Nicholas let out a small breath.

Then the Magistrate continued.

"However."

Nicholas’s head came up.

"The circumstances of a battle do not override the law." The Magistrate’s voice had gone flat and cold. "Regardless of whether the deceased was acting unlawfully, Crown Prince Augustus Solaris was the crowned heir of this realm. The taking of royal blood is not a crime that can be brushed aside as ordinary self-defense." He looked at Alden without any expression behind it. "The law does not permit a common student to act as executioner over the royal family."

The defense table froze.

"Your testimony explains why Alden killed him." The Magistrate folded his hands. "It does not absolve him of the capital offense."

Roselle’s face went white. Leon stared at the bench with his mouth slightly open. Darius’s expression turned into something dark and contained, the look of a man doing calculations he does not like the result of.

Nicholas slowly lowered his head.

’I promised him.’

Across the hall, Alistair’s expression moved into something that was not quite a smile. Not yet. But close.

Leon stepped out from behind the desk. "But Magistrate, if you are evaluating self-defense, you have to consider—"

BANG. BANG.

"I have heard sufficient testimony from both sides!" The gavel came down hard. "That is enough." The Magistrate looked out across the silent, waiting room. "I will now deliver the final judgment."

Roselle covered her mouth with both hands.

’Is this really how it ends? After everything he did.’

Leon squeezed his eyes shut. A tear went down his cheek without him deciding to let it.

Nicholas looked at Alden. Standing there in the center of the hall. Carrying it alone, the same way he had carried everything.

’I swore to him.

And I couldn’t do anything.’

Darius sat with his jaw set and his eyes burning. ’You played this perfectly, Alistair. Power and political leverage. They still decide everything.’

The Magistrate raised the gavel high.

The back doors of the Judgment Hall flew open.

BANG.

Not the gavel. The iron-reinforced doors hitting the stone walls on both sides, the boom rolling through the chamber and silencing every sound in it.

Every head in the room turned.

Theodore stood in the threshold. Isabella stood beside him. Both of them wore their white and crimson uniforms exactly as always, but their faces were different. The casual composure was gone. Both of them looked like people who had run part of the way here.

The Magistrate’s brow went down hard. "Sir Theodore! Lady Isabella! Are you aware that a supreme royal hearing is currently in session?!"

Isabella stepped through the doorway and offered a fast bow toward the bench. "We deeply apologize for breaking protocol, Your Honor." She straightened immediately. "The situation has changed. We cannot wait outside."

The room tensed from wall to wall.

Theodore stepped forward beside her, his hand resting on the hilt at his waist. "A matter has arisen that directly threatens the survival of the entire realm."

Alistair was on his feet. "What is the meaning of this interruption?"

Isabella looked straight at the king. Her voice carried to every corner of the hall clearly.

"There is going to be a war."

The noble rows broke into frantic whispers.

Alistair’s face changed. "A war?"

Theodore’s voice rose so the whole chamber could hear it. "It concerns the vampires, Your Majesty." He let a beat of silence pass.

"They have reached their decision."

He looked around the hall. At the nobles, the ministers, the magistrate, the academy students, the king.

"The Vampire Council has officially declared war on humanity."

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