Chapter 501: Confrontation

: At midday, dark clouds covered Kankerdar, and strong sea breeze blew across the harbor. Turbulent waves beat against the shore, and the sea was rolling. The ships moored at the pier were swaying up and down. Under the gloomy sky, the vitality of the entire Kankerdar decreased a lot for a moment.

Facing the blowing sea breeze, a team of horse-drawn carriages were moving along the wide road towards the harbor, and soon arrived at the dock.

The convoy stopped at the dock, and then the doors of the carriages opened one after another. Many guards in city guard uniforms got out. The leading captain, Hajeta, walked quickly to the largest carriage after getting out of the carriage. After opening the door himself, Robert, who was dressed in formal clothes, got out of the carriage with a cane and supported by a maid. He looked like he had not recovered from a serious illness.

Not far from Robert's carriage, the door of another luxuriously decorated carriage was opened. Prince Baruch, Maad, who was wearing a turban, a big beard, and a luxurious traditional northern Ukrainian robe, got off the carriage. After tidying up his clothes, he looked forward. What appeared in front of Maad was the side of a huge black ship. This was the prison ship of the Inquisition of the Church, the Torch.

After taking a look at the huge black ship in front of him, which had a displacement of nearly 20,000 tons, was more than ten meters long, and seemed to emit a faint smell of burnt odor, Maad couldn't help but feel a sense of depression in his heart. Then he turned around and walked to Robert's side. At this time, a group of priests wearing the robes of the Judges Bureau came down from the boarding ladder of the black ship in front. They came to the front of Robert and Maad, and the priest in the lead saluted the two.

"Thank you for your hard work. Please come aboard. Mr. Clifton is waiting for you on board."

"Oh, okay, please lead the way." Facing the priest who came to pick them up, Robert smiled and responded softly. Then, after leaving most of the guards behind, he took Hajeta, Maad and a few followers and followed several priests to the Torch and stepped onto the boarding ladder.

After arriving on the Torch, Robert and the others followed the welcoming priests all the way down to the cabin. After walking for a long time on the narrow and depressing corridor full of rust and other meanings, they entered a spacious hall. At this time, the bald judge Clifton was sitting on a high platform in the middle of the hall. Several priests wearing black and red robes and veils covered their faces stood beside him. On both sides of the hall were two rows of side seats. In one of the seats, Vanya, dressed in a red nun's dress, was sitting there, looking around with a nervous look on her face.

"Haha... I didn't expect Sister Vanya to arrive before us. There's nothing we can do. It's inconvenient for her to move since she's injured." Robert smiled and said as he looked at Vanya sitting in the hall. Clifton, who was sitting on the main seat, glanced at Robert and the others and spoke.

"Mr. Robert, Prince Maad, thank you for coming. Please sit over there." Clifton looked at the seats on the other side of the hall opposite Vanya. Seeing this, Robert and others walked over and sat down.

Seeing that both parties had taken their seats, Clifton cleared his throat briefly and then began to speak.

"You are all here today because Sister Vanya has provided a key piece of evidence for the investigation of Prince Mazar's assassination. This evidence involves the Kankedar government led by Mr. Robert and the Baruch royal family represented by Prince Maad. So we invited you here today to confirm this evidence."

"Oh? Important evidence? Sister Vanya, what evidence did you find? What do you want to prove with this evidence?" After listening to Clifton's words, Robert paused slightly and said with interest. While speaking, he looked at Vanya opposite. After hearing Robert's words, Vanya took a deep breath and answered.

"I want to prove that I... and the guards who protected me, and my fellow envoys who went to Addis with me through life and death, have nothing to do with heresy, and nothing to do with the death of Prince Mazar. We are innocent..."

"You want to prove that all the members of your delegation are innocent? Ha... Sister Vanya, this may be difficult. You know, one of the guards in your delegation attempted assassination but failed, and you held him down personally. If you plead with them now, aren't you afraid that you will be affected?" Robert smiled softly as he listened to Vanya's words, and Vanya quickly stepped in to respond.

"Since we are all innocent, why are we afraid of being implicated? As the leader of the mission, I have an obligation to help others get rid of suspicion, and the evidence I brought can do this."

"So, Sister Vanya, what exactly is your evidence?"

"It's this..." The person who spoke on behalf of Vanya was Clifton who was sitting on the main seat. After he waved his hand, several priests walked into the hall carrying a board. The board was covered with a piece of cloth, and there was something under the cloth. From the outline, it was a person lying down.

"This is..." Looking at the object being carried into the hall, Robert spoke with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. At this time, Clifton on the side spoke bluntly.

"This is the body of Prince Mazar, brought by Sister Vanya."

"Oh...it's the body of Prince Mazar. I was wondering where the body of His Royal Highness the Prince, which was placed in the mansion the day before yesterday, was stolen. It turns out that Sister Vanya took it away..." Robert answered with a hint of surprise in his eyes after hearing Clifton's explanation, while Maad on the other side slammed the armrest of the chair and spoke loudly in an angry tone.

"Stealing the body of His Royal Highness the Prince is simply outrageous! Sister Vanya, this is such a despicable and shameless thing that you holy clergy should not do! If you don't give us Baruch an explanation today, I'm afraid you won't be able to argue with me!"

Maad angrily accused Vanya. His words directly frightened Vanya. Just when Vanya wanted to say something else, a shadow slowly emerged on the seat next to her.

"Stealing the remains of a royal family member... This is indeed against the master's teachings, and it is not what we, the master's servants, should do. But if such an action can uncover some of the hidden secrets and clear the grievances of innocent people, then I believe the master can forgive such an act."

Along with a soft female voice, the translucent virtual nun Evie slowly appeared beside Vanya. Maad was startled when he saw Evie appear, and didn't know how to respond for a moment. On the other side, Robert continued to speak with a smile.

"Ah...it turns out to be Sister Evi. I've heard that for the safety of Sister Vanya, Her Excellency Saint Amanda sent you here. I'm sorry, because I was injured during the assassination, I haven't had the opportunity to pay you a proper visit."

"It's not too late for you to visit now. Let's get back to the point. We brought Mazar's body out because we found this important clue. If there is no clue, we will naturally compensate Baruch and others. You don't have to be so anxious."

Sitting next to Vanya, Evie slowly spoke to Maad. Maad paused when Evie looked at him like that, and then continued to speak.

"Then... Miss Evi, you said that there is a clue on the prince. What exactly does this mean..."

"There are toxins in the blood of Mazar's body, enough to cause death. However, Mr. Robert's city guards claimed that Mazar died from an assassin's gunshot. Generally speaking, gunshots will not leave a large amount of toxins on the body. Could it be that the assassin's bullets were specially made and can contain poison? If so, why didn't the poison factor appear in the death report submitted by the guards?"

Facing the people in front of him, Evie spoke frankly. Hearing Evie's words, Maad looked around with a guilty conscience, Clifton remained silent, and Robert responded with a smile.

"There was poison on the body of the Mazar Prince... Sister Evi, what you mean is... His Royal Highness the Prince did not die from a gunshot, but from poisoning?" Robert said this to Evi. Seeing that Evi remained silent and did not respond, as if she agreed with the other party's words, Robert continued to speak.

"After Prince Mazar was assassinated, we have been responsible for his treatment. If someone wanted to poison him, they could only do it at that time. This means that Sister Evi further meant that I instructed the killing of Prince Mazar? You...you don't want to use the toxins detected on Prince Mazar's body to accuse us..."

With a meaningful expression, Robert spoke to Evie and Vanya, as if he was trying to induce them to accuse him of poison. However, Evie did not respond directly to Robert's words, but spoke in another way.

"If the toxin on Prince Mazar's body was not injected during the subsequent treatment, then how did it come from?"

Listening to Evie's words, Robert's expression became serious. He stared at the two nuns in front of him and then asked.

"Haha, although I don't know why the nun suddenly has such great malice towards me. But don't forget, the body of His Highness Mazar lying here has not only been touched by us, but also by you nuns. So is there a possibility... that the toxins in His Highness's body came from you nuns?"

"Oh... this is a really bold guess. I wonder what basis Mr. Robert has for such a guess?" Listening to Robert's words, Evie asked back with curiosity, and Robert responded without hesitation after hearing this question.

"Hehe... I am just making a simple guess. The basis for my guess needs to be further verified on the remains of the Mazar prince. I think this kind of verification should be left to professionals. Don't you agree, Judge Clifton?"

Robert turned his gaze to Clifton, who was sitting in the main seat and had remained silent until now. After feeling Robert's gaze, Clifton slowly spoke.

"The blood test on Mazar's body has already started before we started talking here, and the results are almost out now..."