The Circuit Court
Translator: Cinder Translations
...
"My child!"
Seeing his grandson still hesitating, the old man's tone took on a hint of urgency.
"Do you not see that Paul Grayman has already fallen? His body has been tainted and invaded by an evil force of unknown origin. His once noble soul, which belonged to the aristocracy, is no longer pure. Our lord has become the embodiment of a devil in this world; he... will inevitably bring disaster upon us. Hasn't he already caused disaster? Isn't our family's situation the best proof?"
The old man spoke with indignation:
"If it were merely the invasion of wealth, that would be one thing. There are many lords in the world who exploit their subjects. What can we do? We can only hope that his descendants are not as greedy as their forebears. But... but Paul Grayman has insulted us on a personal level."
The young man shook his head in disbelief. "No, the Earl Grayman is very easygoing in daily life. How could he insult others without reason?"
"Oh, my child!" The old man shifted to a tone of heartfelt earnestness. "For those truly insidious individuals, they disdain to insult you openly like a brute. What they prefer is to stab you in the back with a sharp dagger in secret. They feign respect, cultivate goodwill, and even flatter you on the surface, while secretly showing their fangs like poisonous snakes, slandering your reputation and ruining your esteem, making your name become utterly repugnant among the people."
The young man murmured, "Has our lord done such things?"
"Done such things?" The old man chuckled slightly, saying sarcastically, "He does it every day!"
"My child, do you know about the circuit court?"
"I do."
The old man leaned heavily on his cane. "The existence of this so-called circuit court is a humiliation to us. As long as it exists, we will suffer this humiliation."
"How can this be?"
"You know that our family has been the rulers of this village since ancient times. Whenever villagers have disputes, they would come to us for judgment. This has been the result of the prestige accumulated by our family over generations. People believe in our authority, trust in our fairness, and accept our order. Thus, our family inherently possesses the right to adjudicate in this place. We have the power to punish wrongdoers and even to execute criminals."
"However, ever since Paul Grayman established the circuit court, the natural powers we once had have been gradually stripped away. Every single law he has promulgated seems to target us. Those who should surely die can now only be judged and sentenced by the lord's judges, and with the monthly inspections, many clearly decided cases have been overturned. How many villains and rascals have been released by the circuit court, allowing these scoundrels to continue disturbing our peaceful lives?"
"Moreover, this is a severe blow to our family's prestige. Our words no longer carry weight in the village. The ignorant peasants no longer regard our words as truth; instead, they bow to the greater authority in Alden Town."
"Is there any greater humiliation than this? Cough, cough, cough."
At this point, the old man became agitated and coughed violently.
"Do you know?"
He stepped forward and grabbed his stunned grandson with such force that the young man doubted whether his grandfather had become younger.
"Just a month ago, this family's patriarch, the oldest person in this village, your grandfather—me—was severely humiliated by the circuit court."
The young man quickly steadied his agitated grandfather to prevent him from falling and asked in surprise, "What exactly happened?"
"A month ago, I gathered all the villagers in the open space at the village entrance to publicly punish three debtors."
The young man asked, "Did they owe our family money?" But he immediately felt it was a redundant question; his family was likely the only one capable of lending money in this village.
"Yes." His grandfather answered matter-of-factly.
"Debts must be repaid; that's a natural principle. Yet these three villains planned to abscond without repayment. What kind of good fortune is that in the world?"
The young man couldn't help but ask, "Where were they trying to escape to?"
The old man spat on the ground, "Bah! They were trying to run to the city to work—just a bunch of lowlifes! Ah, this is another great sin of Paul Grayman's: using some factory to attract a bunch of peasants to run to the city. If this continues, who will farm the fields? Won't the countryside become barren? Hmph!"
The old man returned to the subject of the humiliation he had suffered. "I had my servants tie up those three rascals, first administering flogging, and then announced that they would stay and work off their debts at home—this has been the practice for debtors who refuse to repay and try to run away since ancient times. But the families of those three rascals actually went to the circuit court and stopped my punishment. Is there any justice in this? Is there any justice in this?"
The old man loudly questioned the air in front of him, as if Paul Grayman were standing there.
"Why? The circuit court can't be so unreasonable." The young man asked.
The old man replied angrily, "The circuit court claimed that the interest we set exceeded the limits established by the lord, and thus amounted to usury."
"Go to hell with that usury! Child, go ask the nearby villages if there are other lenders with lower interest than our family's. We offered such low interest out of mercy and compassion, yet we were accused of wrongdoing by the lord!"
"Do you know how the people of the circuit court operate? At first, I invoked the sacred traditions and stopped their unreasonable antics. The first time, only three of them came, and after I scolded them with words they could not refute, they retreated. But in the afternoon, they came back with a full 60 people, most of whom were so-called police officers, all fully armed with gleaming swords. Our family, which has always been peaceful and calm, had never seen such a scene. They barged into our estate under the lord's banner and forcibly took away those three debtors. Goodness, this was done right in broad daylight, in front of over 600 villagers!"
At this point, the old man covered his face with his dry hands.
"My... my old face has been utterly humiliated! This is a slap in my face; this is a slap in the face of our entire family!"
"The prestige my family has established in the village for hundreds of years has been lost in a single day... sigh!"
The old man sighed in pain.
And the young man fell into a long silence.
"Go and talk to your father again, child."
TL: Damn, this irrelevant side character got two chapters worth of monologue!
(End of the Chapter)
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Translated 4 Series, 1.65K+ Chapters and 2.01M+ Words.