The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

20. The Trial

The next day, as planned, the three of them were required to appear before King and Queen to explain everything in front of all the people, regarding their true identity. Because in the precarious situation, all foreigners should be suspected. 

Troya, Liam and Mayang walked together down the corridor. The three of them were already wearing their origin clothes. Troya recovered so quick, so that she was able to walk on her own without any help. 

They were invited into a hall that was as large as three basketball courts. This room was a temporary replacement room for the royal throne, because at this time the entire centre of government was no longer in the royal palace, but was taking refuge in one of the castles belonging to a noble who was kind enough to receive all the royal apparatus, so the centre of government was now focused in this castle. 

All the people, who were still safe, fled and lived around the castle. Circa five kilometres from the castle received protection magic like a dome made of light that was not visible to the n***d eye. 

The hall was still as beautiful as the palace's, only smaller. At the end of the room, there were two chairs occupied by a large man with a beard on his face. His eyes are light blue, his hair was blonde. His weight seemed to have dropped dramatically from the time before this happened, so that the King looked like someone who had a serious illness. But apart from that, there was still an aura of majesty and dignity on his face. His eyes were watching the three teenagers intently. 

Meanwhile, the Queen was slender, had a very beautiful face at her age, and had brown hair. Just like everyone else in this kingdom, the Queen had a worried face thus a smile could barely decorate her beautiful face. No one else had been able to smile since the incident a year ago.

Next to the thrones of the King and Queen, there was another chair occupied by the King's advisers. Meanwhile, the nobleman who lent this castle sat next to the King. 

The three of them walked through the hundreds of people, who were curious to know the proceedings and saw the three foreigners themselves, with uncertain feelings. Their faces all looked very unfriendly. Their smiles and laughter had been taken away by the fear and horror they had suffered this year. Unfriendly foreign faces. 

Then Troya saw the face of Sir Kay, and the bear Misha, standing not far from the King's throne, as one of the honored guests. Sir Kay nodded at Troya encouragingly. Troya smiled faintly. There was at least one person who believed in them. The knight did not promise anything, but he gave a guarantee that he would defend them as hard as possible. 

Whispers could be heard filling the entire hall as they walked into the room. Investigating and suspicious eyes fell on the three of them. Very uncomfortable. Even though they didn't commit any crime, it felt like an accused who had just been caught thieving chickens. And when they finally arrived right in front of the throne, they stopped walking and knelt down as a form of respect. 

They remained in that position until the King and Queen ordered them to rise. The palace guards opened the important meeting with sounding trumpets. The entire hall suddenly fell silent, no one else dared to make a sound. 

Troya's mind was filled with prejudices, after what she had heard yesterday from the Prince's mouth.

“Usually they were always friendly to foreign guests, or at least to guests who came with me. But with this terrible incident, I also can't blame them for being suspicious like that. Almost every day they are struck by fear at the attacks of the bat monster, Valborga's minions. 

The king was an open minded man, but indeed easily influenced by his adviser who always stood at his right hand, Mr. Tonement, who was round, short, with a small head and grey mustache. Don't be fooled by his always smiling face, he's a little cunning. I even suspected that he was actually an insider from Valborga. During this year, once the dome was torn open, that the remain city could be attacked from outside. Fortunately, at that time there were still three fairy godmothers protecting this village." 

Troya realised when the knight told them the story, he saw the three of them with a strange glow. Sir Kay was silent for a few moments as if he was thinking about something. But then, he continued his story again. 

"On the other hand, the Queen is an intelligent and independent person. And it seems, all the flexibility and prowess possessed by Princess Ovidia Rose passed down from her. Her opinion was also very well heard by the King. But the thing is, the Queen rarely expresses her opinion. She is very quiet and very difficult to approach. She will be hard to approach if you don't know her weaknesses. But fortunately, I know her weakness. It's her daughter."

Of course the three of them immediately exclaimed disappointed. What was it called if the weakness bassed on her daughter while her own daughter was not there? Princess Ovidia Rose was fast asleep and it was impossible to make her coming to testify that the three of them were not dangerous. 

Was the knight trying to play with them by giving hope when there was really no hope at all? 

Troya's mind kept repeating the knight's story, trying to find clues, not listening when a palace guard gave a speech to open the trial, followed by Mr. Tonement spoke quite long, but it was an unpleasant conversation. Mr. Tonement only spoke about "Kingdom in emergency", the danger of spies, scouts, monster assassins, Valborga and Princess Ovidia Rose. After that, he invited the three of them to talk and explain about their identities and current conditions, what was their purpose for coming to ther kingdom, and so on. 

 Liam represented the three of them to explain everything. But it seemed that Liam was not a good negotiator, or an accomplished storyteller, because they all seemed to have suspicious to him, even though what Liam had to say was not wrong either. 

"At first, I invited my two best friends to come to the house because I had something to show them," Liam continued after introducing their names briefly, "then there was a light enveloping the three of us. We all fell unconscious and when we woke up, we were at the house by the cliff. So really, we also have absolutely no idea what really happened to us. In fact, we really hope that we don't come to this world and face all the horrors of the past few days, being chased by bat monsters, that's the last thing we want to see. One of our friends was even seriously injured. You are all witnesses. So, we ask your Majesty to spare our lives and set us free." That's the contents of the explanation that came from Liam's mouth.

Let's imagine, if we were in a state of threat, a stranger comes and tells us that 'normal' story, what would be on our minds? Were we going to believe it? Of course it would be very difficult to believe. 

The advisor was seen whispering something in the King's ear, while the Queen did not even seem to care, she seemed more interested in examining her nails which seemed to have just been cleaned and given a new dye. 

The atmosphere was tense at this time, they were waiting for the result of the King's decision based on the conclusion that Mr. Tonement to the King's ears. 

After a while, finally the King rose from the throne and walked to the end of the stage. Staring at his three foreign guests with probing eyes. “On behalf of the Paralia people, I am King Kristopher, I cannot allow something uncertain to be the cause of the destruction of this kingdom. Therefore, the three of you will be detained until this danger ends.” 

The atmosphere in the hall was suddenly boisterous with the voices of the people who attended this meeting. The three of them immediately stared in shock at the decision, Liam intended to get up and deny all the decisions. But Troya prevented it. She pulled Liam back to his knees. Then after the King sat back on his throne. The atmosphere was quiet again. Some of the guards intended to tie them up to be put in cages.

Troya raised her hands up. "Excuse me, your Majesty, may I say something one last time before entering the cage?" []