CHAPTER 73: EXPLANATION

’This farce of a trial...’

Zephyr showed a pleasant smile.

"Of course, I don’t accept it. Because none of what he said makes sense, it is all just baseless accusations."

Zephyr turned to Zolt and Corvinus, his voice steady.

"Take, for instance, his claim that I was negligent and failed to detect the necromancer’s presence. Here, negligence assumes that I have the capacity to sense the necromancer. He, without any reason, is assuming that a beginner mage like me, who is barely of a 1-star rating, can find an intermediate mage who is trying to hide."

Zephyr glanced at the gallery of mages.

"Is that even possible?" He asked.

Most of them shook their heads unknowingly. The absurdity of it was obvious to anyone who trained as a mage.

’This is fun.’

Zephyr raised an eyebrow, challenging his accuser.

Cedric ground his teeth, standing there like a fool who had walked into his own trap.

But Zephyr was not done yet.

He turned towards Masters once again and began to speak.

"The second accusation is even more ludicrous. Only someone truly stupid would accuse me of that."

The word stupid made Cedric’s forehead twitch.

"He claimed that I allowed the villagers to be captured. How exactly did I do that? Did the villain submit a request form asking for permission before capturing the villagers?" Zephyr scoffed.

"Last time I checked, Villains do not ask for consent before they commit evil."

A ripple of amusement passed throughout the area. Unknowingly, the mages nodded.

Corvinus’ smile widened; Like Zephyr, he was clearly enjoying the show.

Seeing the tilt in public opinion, Cedric swiftly stepped forward, his voice increasing in pitch.

"I disagree." He said loudly. "As a stormkeeper, he was supposed to keep the villagers safe. But he failed to do so and even left the village like a coward. Therefore, my point is valid." Cedric argued back.

Cedric cherry-picked the timeline after the lighthouse was demolished to paint Zephyr’s retreat as cowardly while ignoring and deliberately hiding the fact that villagers were coming to kill him due to them being manipulated.

"He is a coward who ran away when the people needed him the most. He let them be captured and killed. It is a fact."

"If he had stayed with them, he could have prevented at least a few of them from being captured."

"So, I can definitely say that he failed his duty. He needs to be punished." Cedric spoke while pleadingly looking at Zolt.

Corvinus tapped the ground with his staff, silencing the murmur that had begun to spread.

"Do you have something to add?" He asked, looking at Zephyr.

"Of course."

For the next few minutes, Zephyr calmly dismantled the narrative, explaining to them in detail what had transpired previously. He did it while hiding all details about himself, always portraying himself as a desperate mage who was trying his best to help the people.

While doing so, he also spoke about how he destroyed the lighthouse to send a signal to the storm tower.

Cedric happily latched onto it, trying to use it as a weapon to take down Zephyr. After all, destroying Tower property, one as important as the lighthouse, was a big crime.

However, the poor guy failed to realise it was bait.

"I destroyed the lighthouse out of pure necessity. The fog blocked all paths to the outside, and the entire village was isolated with no way to communicate with the outside world. In my desperation, knowing that godspawn was about to emerge, I had to destroy the lighthouse to send a signal."

Everyone went silent. Like that, the fourth point in Cedric’s accusation crumbled.

The truth was that Zephy didn’t know the godspawn would emerge at that time. He twisted the facts by not going into the details.

At the same time, Zephyr mentioned that he didn’t fail to inform the storm tower. He destroyed the lighthouse to send the message to the tower. And their arrival was indeed proof that it worked.

Compared to the threat of godspawn taking root in the west, the destruction of the lighthouse was a low price to pay. If Zephyr hadn’t used extreme measures, the entire west coast would have become the godspawn’s domain.

Even if Cedric wanted to blame Zephyr, he couldn’t when these points were mentioned.

With flames of fury spitting from his eyes, Cedric stood there frozen. Nothing went according to what he expected.

Zephyr ignored him, delivering the final blow with a shrug.

"As for the last point regarding my lack of cooperation...Well, considering the shoddy investigation he conducted, I suppose we can’t take anything he says seriously."

Zephyr smiled.

To Cedric, it felt like a blade sliding across his neck.

"I don’t believe it," Cedric said, shaking his head. "I can’t believe it."

The young mage was unwilling to accept defeat.

Zephyr looked at him in pity.

After all, not everyone was smart. Some were limited in their ability to think and act.

This Cedric person was one such man.

Perhaps, because of his identity, none of the people who stood with him corrected his mistake. Or the other possibility is that all his friends were just as stupid as he was.

’Uh! That might be why he confidently accused me of these things.’

Zephyr nodded understandingly.

"Do you have anything else to add, Cedric?" Corvinus asked, slamming his staff on the ground once again.

Cedric gasped for air. But no words came out of his mouth.

Corvinus smiled and turned to Zolt.

"It seems like your tower can’t handle it alone. Why did you have to waste time with this farce? Let me directly ask him what we were curious about."

"..."

Zolt stayed silent for a moment and nodded in agreement.

Corvinus turned to face Zephyr.

"Zephyr, there are a lot of blank spaces in your story. You need to tell us how you saved the villagers from the hand of a necromancer, what you spoke with him and any and all information you have on them. The Storm Tower wanted to play silly games and extract information from you. But I don’t want to do that. So, please answer my questions."

"Where should I start?" Zephyr tilted his head.

"Start by clarifying how you killed the undeads. I heard from the villagers that you did it effortlessly."

"I wouldn’t say it was effortless." Zephyr shook his head and continued to explain the tricks he used.