False Testimony (1/2)

A week or so later, Haalfrin and the crown prince's entourage finally arrive at the capital. Haalfrin himself has never been here, and it's certainly larger than he thought it was going to be; other than that, it looks just like any other city… except for the palace quarter, which still appears looming and majestic even on the hilly roads outside the city.

They go through the streets, and all the pedestrians part ways for the prince's caravan; the commoners are especially respectful since the prince came back victorious from war.

Haalfrin is brought to a large open-air courtroom that's lined with pillars, along with rings of stone chairs in all directions, facing towards the center. At the lowest point in the center is Prince Tallus dressed more drably than usual

Maybe it's because he's a prince, but Tallus is spared the humiliation of having to appear in chains.

Haalfrin is left sitting down on a bench just outside the courtroom, where he can barely hear the voices inside.

Lining the benches beside him is a good portion of the very soldiers he had trained back in the army… A few of the men on benches are even some of the captured northern Alsa-ree clansmen – evident by their cultural clothing, tattoos… and the chains around their wrists and ankles.

Once Haalfrin sits down, a few of his men point to him and say, "He's that. mage. Didn't I say that he became adorable after getting another Gate open?"

One of the gruff soldiers leans over and sees a "9-year-old" sitting down next to them with a short sword on his waist, battle scars lining all his visible skin, a grim face that's seen the world, and eyes that have a story to tell…

Seeing Haalfrin's new childlike body, a lot of the men burst out laughing. Haalfrin goes red in the face, and he crosses his arms. "How'd you know it was me?"

"Dude," one of the younger soldiers replies, "Some of us found you after your duel with the enemy general; we saw your body glow, and your age shrink. I mean, doesn't that happen to every mage?"

Haalfrin sighs wearily. "Ugh…," he waves dismissively at them, "You better not start with the short people jokes on me. When I get back to my full height, I'll whup your butt."

For some reason, Haalfrin is in a good enough mood to chat casually with these strangers.

"When you get back to your full height," one of the soldiers notes, "you'll have to whup our dried bones." They'll all have died of old age by then, so...

"…" Haalfrin tries glaring at them, but without using Aura, it doesn't work on them.

Evidently, seeing a "child" scold them and treat THEM like children sends the men into further hysterical laughter.

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After an hour or two of banter, some of the soldiers around Haalfrin are called into the courtroom a few at a time – presumably to bear witness before the court.

Towards the end, Haalfrin himself is called in with a few men. Haalfrin, now being shorter than everyone, is almost completely hidden from the crowd as his men are standing on all sides around him.

Haalfrin perks up when he hears the judge say loudly, "We called you here to tell us your version of events that happened during the battle at the Gahl ridge. What were you all doing in the battle, and where was Prince Tallus?"

Then comes a long, repetitive testimony of soldier after soldier talking about the battle; they recite out they were being pressured on all sides by the enemy cavalry. Prince Tallus was yelling at everyone to retreat.

One of the soldiers admits with embarrassment before the court, "Yeah… none of us soldiers were thinking straight. We all thought we were going to die, and Prince Tallus was telling us to retreat, but we had no idea where we were supposed to retreat to…"

Another notable witness is one of the prisoners of war from the Alsa'ree Clans. The man is a scrawny fellow with a long black beard and block-like tattoos around his bare chest.

The clansman starts speaking in his native tongue, and one of the translators to the side repeats after him in the Brancotte tongue (a common tongue language for a lot of countries, including Alasta).

"That warrior of death," the translator repeats after the captured soldier, "is a powerful, fearless man. I saw the man leap straight through fire with no concern for his life in order to defeat our mages. He caught a blade with his own unprotected hand and nearly lost it because he wanted to keep his sword arm free to kill his opponent. He also spared the rest of us who surrendered. He also fought our general honorably in a duel…."

The translator lets the prisoner continue, before he speaks up again, "Battling is for victory; dueling is for honor."

The clansman stops for a second as his voice chokes up and tears start streaming down his face, "I've never seen a warrior like that. He fought like an animal who cared more about winning than about living. If my general fell to a brave man like that, then my general can rest in peace, as his death wasn't a humiliation."

The prisoner scrunches up his face in rage, then turns to Prince Tallus, who is only a few feet in front of him. The war prisoner coughs as if to clear his throat, then he spits a big, green snot ball on the prince in front of him.

The war prisoner shrieks out in anger, "This coward dares try to diminish my generals' death!? A coward who ran away thinks he can take credit away from the actual victors! My general was killed by a warrior, not a sniveling weakling! Go to hell! Die! SSAAAAADAAAAA!"

"Sada" is likely something incredibly profane that the translator is refusing to translate.

The guards clasp the Alsa'ree man on either side of his arms, and they drag him out of the courtroom. The prisoner seems to have lost his mind.

Watching this, Haalfrin gulps a little… This just makes what he's about to do pretty awkward…

The judge looks over to Haalfrin and motions for him to come up front. The soldiers around him part ways. Once everyone sees Haalfrin, some of them turn and whisper to each other – clearly surprised to hear about a war hero, only to look at a rather adorable boy.

Seeing this, the judge coughs and says, "Haalfrin here got his second Gate open after the battle. He's a little short for now." Hearing this, the nobles watching the trial (the ones who didn't already know) calm down and relax in their chairs.

Honestly, it would've been ridiculous if Haalfrin had defeated Kaalhyme in the body of a child… since children have weaker bodies, and weaker bodies mean weaker physical magic. Frankly, even though Haalfrin became a 2nd Gate mage, his magic has been severely nerfed, now that he's in the body of a kid.

Momentarily, Haalfrin steps up on a podium and hears the judge say, "Just repeat after everyone else. Was Prince Tallus up on the cliff with you?"

"No."

"Did anyone order you to go up to fight the General?"

"…Sort of?" Seeing the confused face on the judge's face, Haalfrin coughs and explains, "When the men were starting to panic, Prince Tallus wanted to pull the men back. As everyone knows, the younger prince isn't in a very good position in court…"

This draws some complicated expressions from the noble audience; hearing a commoner openly talk about a royal's standing would be punishable in other circumstances. Seeing their irritation, they are hushed by a fierce look from the judge.

Haalfrin continues, "So since Prince Tallus knew he needed some battle achievements, he told me in the battle that he wanted to sneak up around the ridge and assassinate General Kaalhyme…"

This brings out some… let's say "exciting" reactions from the crowd.

The crown prince drops his wine cup. Tallus turns and stares with his mouth hanging open. A few ladies gasp and fan themselves. One old duke actually slaps his own forehead and sighs. A few nobles in the crowd let out pent-up breaths, while some even snicker at Kanus.

Haalfrin only takes a brief glance at them before continuing his tale, "However, both me and Tallus knew that none of the men would listen to the prince. If I have to be blunt, none of us really respect his leadership, because we never see him around camp. The men trust me since I'm a mage, so I figured things would work out better if I took charge."

"So," Haalfrin prattles on, "I actually agreed that we should take out the enemy general. However, I felt that the prince would be a burden if he was the one giving orders since nothing would get done, so I knocked him out, took his far speak medallion, and led the charge up the cliff. The men behind me fought bravely despite being poorly trained and outnumbered."

Haalfrin then looks down and smiles, "I knew none of the men wanted to be there on the battlefield, so when we got to the top, I saw Kaalhyme pull his men back to his tent, leaving us alone for a moment. I gave them all the opportunity to leave if they wanted to, since nobody was going to stop them at that point. They all stayed behind. After that, I fought some mages. It was pretty tough. I then killed the general… He was pretty strong. I would've lost if he hadn't thought I was dead already."

The judge lets Haalfrin finish his story, all the while calculating to see if there are any discrepancies between Haalfrin's version of events with everyone else. Indeed, everyone saw Haalfrin deck the Prince, and everyone saw the prince try to get his men to pull back.

Other than that? If Haalfrin really exchanged words with the prince privately, nobody would know except the two of them.