Chương 316: Pointing and Controlling

The journey from the church to the arbitration venue turned into a personal parade for Roland.

The atmosphere was extremely enthusiastic, with people raising their right hands in cheers and never lowering them.

Fortunately, it all ended quickly.

The group walked through the transplanted, lush flowerbeds, escaping the overly enthusiastic crowd, and entered the center of the venue.

With the massive metal door closing completely, the arbitration proceedings officially began.

Roland stood on the entrance passage, slightly raising her head to survey the newly constructed conference hall in front of her.

The entire hall is shaped like a huge circle, with seats surrounding the center like a ring. To facilitate the observation of the center by the nobles at the back, the seats at the back are slightly raised.

Overall, it's almost identical to the design concept of conference rooms on Earth.

The difference lies in the fact that the other world possesses amplification magic and projection magic, which have no restrictions on the facing angle, so the venue was directly constructed in a circular shape.

The small round platform at the very center was the place prepared for Roland.

Roland was led by the council's attendants and overseers to the small platform in the center, directly in front of her were the seats of the Grand Councilors.

At this moment, three of the five Grand Councilors of the Empire had arrived and were all seated in the main seats.

On the left is a middle-aged woman, dressed in an expensive gray silk aristocratic dress, with a constant smile on her face.

On the right was an old mage with white hair and a white beard that almost dragged on the podium. He wore a gray-white mage's hat and looked like a mysterious and powerful old man.

The middle senator, Jess, is the youngest and also the presiding officer for this arbitration.

Before Councilor Jess could speak, Roland, who had specially studied aristocratic etiquette, took the lead in bowing to the nobles seated all around.

"Lauran Kane of the Kane family greets distinguished gentlemen and ladies."

Her impeccable etiquette and traditional attire earned her considerable favor among the elderly nobles attending the event.

Although everyone knew perfectly well that the outcome of the meeting was already decided, the atmosphere in the room still eased considerably.

"Cough cough."

After Roland finished the aristocratic etiquette, Councilor Jess, seated at the table, cleared his throat and got to the main topic of the day.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today is the first arbitration conference held in the capital this year concerning a nobleman."

"There are two items on the arbitration agenda for this meeting."

"First, there was the 7 a. m. opening of the clubhouse in Haisen Port, and the series of noblemen falling to their deaths."

Jesten paused, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Bizan, who was seated to the side, before speaking loudly and continuing.

"In this incident, Bishop Bizan of the Church of Vulcan accused Roland of assisting in the concealment of the real culprit who murdered the nobleman, namely the beast girl employee who opened at seven o'clock, and provided the corresponding list."

"Bishop Biezan, you formally submitted a search request to the council three days ago, didn't you?"

"Yes, Your Excellency Speaker."

Bizan nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on Roland.

In his eyes, Roland's behavior was becoming increasingly suspicious.

But no matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't figure out why Roland was so calm and showed no signs of panic.

Speaker Jess ignored Bezan's actions. After receiving a reply, he reached out and grabbed the gavel on the table, striking it to silence the sound that could be heard throughout the entire hall.

Boom boom boom!

"Now, let's begin the first proposal of the arbitration conference."

"Bishop Bizan has requested a search of the properties and residences of Roland Kane, daughter of an Imperial Viscount, on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of an Imperial nobleman."

"Please vote!"

A dense array of red placards lit up in the hall, symbolizing that the vast majority of nobles had chosen to veto the resolution.

This was an outcome that everyone had anticipated.

In the empire, nobles of all ages and ranks silently abide by an unspoken rule, a compromise bought with blood.

That is, unless absolute evidence is available and the harm is enormous, the private property of nobles is sacred and inviolable, not even by emperors.

After all, everyone here is an extraordinary noble family; who doesn't have a few little secrets?

Such as family inheritance, raising evil gods, blood sacrifice magic, human alchemy, life research, conspiracies and tricks, secret plots... there are too many to count.

These things have nowhere to hide under magical means.

Therefore, nobles with a little capital would spare no expense to cover their core residences with defensive barriers to prevent outsiders from entering.

If someone could just arbitrarily label someone and search their mansions and properties at will, all the nobles would go crazy.

If this continues, either the prestige of the noble council will collapse.

Either start a third civil war, with the nobles ruling their own territories and returning to the era of lords, and forget about sitting down to talk.

What kind of bad deeds must be done to be defined as causing great harm?

That would only be crimes that can be considered anti-world acts, such as colluding with the Abyss and massacring people.

Regarding the matter of Roland hiding beast girls, it's obvious to anyone with eyes that Bizan is trying to shift the blame, so naturally, Bizan's search request would not be approved.

As for the claim of murdering nobles...

Haha, just listen to it and forget about it. Anyone who takes it seriously is probably a fool.

If it weren't for the fact that more votes were given, this proposal would never have even appeared at the arbitration conference.

Speaker Jess looked around, then looked up at the magical projection above, which displayed three numbers.

0/15/285 0 votes in favor, 15 abstentions, and 285 votes against.

"Yes, very good."

Jess nodded and struck the hammer again.

"Now, let's begin the second item on the agenda for the arbitration conference."

"Bishop Bizan accused Roland Kann of deceiving the Imperial Council and concealing his orc bloodline, identified Roland as a traitor to the Church of Vulcan, and requested his repatriation to the South."

"After investigation and research by the council, it has been found that Roland is indeed suspected of concealing her bloodline, and she has now shown signs of being of a different race."

Jeston paused, then struck the gavel, raising the volume of his voice.

"We hereby request a bloodline test for Roland Kane. This matter concerns noble dignity; please vote on it!"

Upon hearing this, the hall fell silent for a moment, as if the air itself had solidified into plaster.

Some representatives of the lower and middle nobility suddenly realized what was going on.

They were wondering why the first item on the agenda was a noble search warrant that was destined to fail; it turned out that this was what was waiting for them.

If Roland discovers Roland's true identity as a fox, her noble status will be stripped away.

At that time, Roland would be at most a wealthy merchant in the empire, and Bizan could search however he wanted with a search warrant.

Ideally, you should search for things like "greenhouse technology," "Krusty Krab recipe," "spicy snack secrets," or "heating system design drawings"...

Oh dear, the Church of Vulcan will be responsible for withstanding the pressure from the Church of Light, while the nobles will follow behind and rake in the spoils.

Minute Maid!

Amidst a mix of greed and curiosity, the atmosphere in the venue grew lively. Blue signs were raised high, and everyone looked at Roland with barely suppressed excitement.

Discussions about Roland's race and breed have become a popular topic in the capital recently.

And now the answer to the mystery will be revealed.