The Trio Odyssey

Part I: Soul to Soul

Chapter 20: The Princess of Insanity VI

His Majesty, Jaw, yells out suddenly.

“Clairvoyancer, your attempt to diagnose Her Highness’s soul was giving her the cost of crushing her soul!”

The Clairvoyancer makes a brief eye contact with His Majesty, Jaw. And then, he subtly bows his neck, telling his witness out.

“Sorry, Sir. I am unaware of the existence of the Merged Death Covenant this whole time.”

One of the juries reads the facts that they have extracted from the provided evidence.

“The Clairvoyancer is also an Occultist from the Spiritual Faction.”

“So, it made total sense that even such a simple Occult Ability is harmful for her.”

A man from the line of the prosecutor stands up, looking downcast toward the cage and questioning the men in armors.

“Was Her Highness still alive?”

One of the men inspects the Princess that is chained inside the cage; Her Highness is still alive and well, breathing and moving.

While the prosecutor observes the downside, the armored men inform each other, looking back up and nodding to confirm that the Princess is still alive.

The prosecutor reconfirms the live retrial of the Court of the Federation. 

“Gladly, Her Highness is still alive. Despite, perchance of knowing Her impending death.”

The inquisitor from the Court of the Federation states loudly. 

“That Soul Diagnosis was risky! Or not, Her Highness would have long been dead!” 

The juries whisper in each others’ ears, releasing their frustrations of almost losing the Princess completely.

“Even worse, we would have lost the most valuable blood in our line of succession.”

“Yes, that was relieving.”

Later, the inquisitor shouts.

“But still, we have yet to identify who Maia really is!”

The Princess is falling sicker and sicker from sitting within the chains. And yet, in return, the sharp glare of His Majesty, Hotavar, is what she receives.

Maia quietly reflects her thinking.

‘Tsk—, I just hate that look on his face!’

While His Majesty, Hotavar, looks down, he asks Maia directly.

“State your origin and your reason for coming to the Federation, infiltrator.”

Maia bounces back in grave worry, carefully selecting her words with sweats falling below her chin. 

‘Oh no—, what should I say?’

No one ever speaks within the silence. 

Until His Majesty, Hotavar, calls for witnesses again.

“Is there any more evidence regarding the infiltrator?”

No one answers afterward.

While His Majesty, Hotavar, almost jumps on another verdict, the Princess speaks in hesitance.

“I—… I—… I-I came from a place called ‘Earth’.”

The Court of Yotalis Palace is filled with another clamor, as no one ever sees that confession coming.

The prosecutors are left in riddles, doubting and doubting again.

“‘Earth’, what place is that?”

“Never heard of that place.”

The juries also share their insights.

“Is the planet so vast that we have overlooked this place called Earth?”

Professor Tacha raises her hand, requesting to the Court of the Federation.

“Your Majesty, if you please, let me lead the search for Earth.”

His Majesty, Hotavar, nods as he says:

“Granted.”

The Professor takes over the plinth, summons her Chimeric and the holographic panels again.

The displaying information on the panels mostly consist of the archives from the Annals Library.

While the rest of the information is an actual compilation of long conducted research collected from many Occult Universities, studying the global history of Nulhym.

Via the most advanced search engines available, the Professor types in the word ‘Earth’ across all archives and researches.

Screens after screens, no matter how hard the Professor gives her attempts, not even a single record from the Annals and the research has the word ‘Earth’ ever recorded.

It takes minutes of discussion in the courtroom to reach the end of this search, with people staring at the unfound results.

The unanticipation takes the Professor to a frustration she never had before, whispering behind her words.

‘What—… what is going on?! Neither the past nor the contemporary has ‘Earth’ in it!’

She blinks long enough and gulps, harnessing something from the bottom of her heart.

‘Perhaps… I should just say this…’

The Professor looks back up to the panels, swiping off the display and showing the conclusion of her evidence with her Chimeric’s gone.

“Sir, by the Annals and the research, ‘Earth’ is nonexistent.”

After much thought, the clamor in the Court of Yotalis Palace converges to a consensus.

“Then, that means…”

“The Princess is insane!”

“Her Highness seemed to be delusional.”

“Could it be that Maia is a lost, crazed Occultist from the Spiritual Faction?”

All alone, Maia murmurs.

‘Insane, you say?!’

The Princess sets her head aloft and clenches her teeth, moving around in the shackles and leaving rustling, metal noises.

Then, after a few seconds, the Princess ponders by their words, sighing as the armored men scrutinize her strictly.

‘’Maybe… Maybe I am—... I am indeed insane.’

“Tsk—!”

‘This is an exoplanet anyway… Not Earth, but Nulhym…’

‘This is an alien planet with humans too. So, there's no way they will know about Earth, let alone remember about it.’

The juries stated their known facts so far. 

“If the Princess is suicidal, then she might also had suffered from severe mental illness, rooting toward this idea of hurting herself.”

“Perhaps, there is an overlapping identity issue regarding Her Highness, resulting in her spitting out random words such as ‘Maia’ and ‘Earth’.”

His Majesty, Hotavar, rests his eyes shortly, and opens them back, setting them straight into the Princess’s eyes and letting out a direct question.

“Here is a test of sanity: which empire have you wished for its preservation and destroys the other;”

His gaze keeps the meaning of power behind it, and his words weigh the Princess’s decision. Just from those, the Princess’s body gets all shaky.

“the Cazdae Empire”

She shifts her eyes to her mother as her origin is the Cazdae Empire.

“or the Ivada Federation?”

Then, she takes her eyes to her father, because he’s from the Ivada Federation.

Both of her parents' expressions are nothing near to what she can describe as grief, but more like leaning toward severe loss of someone dear to them.

It’s no ordinary question for her to answer, as it’s the most weighing decision that will determine the fate of both the Cazdae Empire and the Ivada Federation.

‘Choose wrong, and many will get… sacrificed…’

She looks back down, sweating while she thinks the hardest and trembling in intense fear with both her heart and her hands shivering nonstop. 

Her eyes stay gaping as wide as ever, deciding one empire for glory and the other for devastation with images of her childhood memories keep flashing before her eyes.

‘Is it even fair?… Fair for a seven-year-old like me?’

As chaotic as it is and as messy as it is, in her head, the leaking, fracturing memories of her childhood come inevitably.

She doesn't exactly remember how things were back then, because she was a little younger when she was in the Cazdae Empire.

Seeing all of them crumble, crushes her heart even more. 

‘What did I even do to deserve all of this!? I merely existed as the Princess with two empires’ blood, and yet—!…’

Tears slowly gather on her eyelids with shaky irises and fingers, with shrinking pupils, and with hardened grip between her teeth.

‘And, yet…!’

She cannot make any choices in the end, giving off a violent shake of her head as a final response and a wail of silence.

The silence breaks as His Majesty, Hotavar, delivers a brief speech.

“The Princess of Mixed Blood, that inherits both the Royal blood of the Cazdae Empire and the Ivada Federation,”

“had been driven by insanity and tied to the Merged Death Covenant at such a young age.”

His Majesty delivers the verdict of the retrial to close things beforehand. 

“And so, should the responsibility over the growth of Her Highness be under a strict scrutiny from the Court of the Federation other than her parents,”

“during Her enrollment in both Occult School and Occult University.”

“Only after Her official graduation in any of the established Occult University around the globe,”

“and after the green light from the Court of the Federation to dispel the Merged Death Covenant casted upon Her is given,”

“must the Merged Death Covenant be dispelled by then.”

The Princess looks back at His Majesty, Hotavar, mumbling about his judgement.

‘Occult University?’

Then, she remembers her conversations with Professor Tacha, facing downward as she mutters again. 

‘So, Occult University… The level of the institution is higher than Occult School. Might be, when I turn 11… and graduate at 12…’

She grips her teeth as she murmurs. 

‘Ugh—! No—… I don’t feel like growing up anymore…’

His Majesty, Hotavar, stands up from his judge seat in a slight delay and announces:

“Release the Princess. Trial dismissed.”

The Princess is set out free from all of the shackles in a single multiple clanking noise deafening her ears.

As the footsteps of everyone from the courtroom depart, some of the whispers reach her ears.

“These trials are way more intense than any other trials!”

“Her Highness is now defected from the Occult Ability from two Factions at the same time too!”

The panels disappeared and everyone’s leaving. 

The Princess’s treatment is neutralized later on; the armored men no longer treat her like a criminal prisoner, but like the Princess she usually is. 

“The path to the exit is this way, if you please, Your Highness.”

She doesn’t rush to walk outside of the cage, but she’s silencing herself inside it. 

The armored men just stand there, waiting for her to move.

The Princess mutters while she’s all shaky.

‘What the hell—. So, this is Nulhym…’

And so, she falls onto her knees while the images of her sufferings keep replaying, flashing before her head. 

She holds her face with her palms, letting out her subtle crying voice.

She cries there silently for a minute, and she pulls her hands back, seeing the strange lines and hieroglyphs around the skins of her forearms, again.

And, she vomits her saliva again as she faces down.

Her mother comes rushing toward her, hugging her as she comes into contact.

The same scent of honey dew that smells soft to her nose, and the touch of silky cloth textures of her mother’s dress, again, signal her to sooth them.

“Honey—, we’re so sorry for everything that happened.”

And so, she can’t hold her tears back anymore that she starts wailing as the comfort she craves for, comes right before her.

Her father and Professor Tacha accompanied them from the side of the cage.

While her father looks completely devastated by his very own actions, and the Professor looks totally concerned.