Chapter 80 Absurd Jokes We've received professional training, we generally don't...

Lilith stood frozen, unable to believe her ears. A suffocating silence followed, then the loudest commotion since the trial began. Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed past the window, illuminating everyone's faces like ghosts crawling from graves. A deafening roar of thunder followed, exploding in Lilith's mind.

How could he know this? What should she do now? Lilith felt overwhelmed by immense fear and helplessness, like a drifting duckweed on a vast ocean. She didn't know what to do; she could do nothing but watch helplessly as Lorenzo revealed her most important, most precious secret to everyone.

Something had to be done…something absolutely had to be done…she had to find a way to refute him, even if everything he said was true. She couldn't just sit idly by, for her own sake, and for Heinrich's…she wouldn't let him get away with it, absolutely not. But she needed to wait for an opportunity, find an excuse, unlock a key to turning the tide…just like when Heinrich had come to her rescue back then…

“Mr. Condalini,” the prosecutor, despite being Lorenzo’s cousin, was also completely unaware of this explanation and was just as astonished as everyone else in the courtroom, “could you please explain how you arrived at this conclusion?”

“This is a fact I only recently discovered.” Lorenzo glanced contemptuously at Lilith, who was pale with fright in the dock, and continued his statement:

"When Heinrich Schmidl arrived in Venice, he was robbed by bandits and became a slave. The bandits were ordered by Liliana to kill him, but they failed. As a result, Heinrich was enslaved again and again, and was eventually bought by Liliana by chance. Later, they developed feelings for each other while working together, and Liliana was willing to let him go back to inherit the title."

"Words are meaningless. Do you have any evidence?" Lilith's lawyer, recovering from the shock of her testimony before her, quickly pressed for proof. Lilith hadn't told him anything so private, and he couldn't even confirm whether it was slander or fact, so he could only blindly refute it.

“Of course I have evidence.” Lorenzo smirked, as if the defense attorney’s question had hit the nail on the head. “I obtained a letter from Wilhelm Schmidl to that Heinrich.”

He slowly took out a letter from the inside pocket of his robe and handed it to a staff member to be delivered to the judge.

“You can compare this letter with other letters William wrote while working at the Knarro Bank. The paper, handwriting, and ink are identical; there’s absolutely no possibility of forgery,” Lorenzo explained with a light laugh. “At the beginning and end of this letter, William refers to the recipient as ‘my brother.’ Heinrich is the eldest son of the Schmidl family. Who else would William call his brother?”

"Summon William to appear in court again," the judge ordered.

William had overheard everything while waiting in the corridor and was so terrified he nearly fainted, but he forced himself to walk back into the courtroom. He had no idea where Lorenzo had gotten his handwritten letter—had Tata secretly stolen it before? To keep Heinrich's true identity a secret, he had never deliberately revealed anything in his correspondence; only a few times had he gotten into the habit of not correcting his typos, never imagining that it would be used against him.

He looked at Lilith, bewildered, trying to get some instructions, but found that she was still standing there blankly, like a doll that had broken its strings, not even blinking.

“William, did you write this?” the judge asked him.

"This...it really was written by me." William answered honestly instinctively after reading the letter, then suddenly regretted it and realized he had said the wrong thing, but there was no way to take it back.

"So, that's tantamount to you admitting that these two Heinrichs are actually the same person." The prosecutor quickly pressed his advantage.

“No! I didn’t admit it. How could they be the same person? Actually, the reason I wrote it that way is because…” For some reason, William suddenly had a flash of inspiration and stared straight at Lorenzo, “It’s because I just really like calling people ‘brother,’ um… I also call you ‘Brother Lorenzo’ in private…”

A burst of laughter erupted in the courtroom. But the silence quickly returned under the judge's gavel, leaving only Lilith clutching her stomach, laughing uncontrollably.

This is an opportunity, and she must seize it to turn the tide.

The judge called for silence several times before Lilith finally raised her head, feigning a laugh. Her unusual reaction startled William, who began to worry that Lilith might have lost her mind.

"Sorry... hahahahaha... it was just too funny, I couldn't help it."

“William’s words are utterly ridiculous. The courts of the Republic are sacred and supreme, how could you—” The prosecutor pointed angrily at William, about to launch into a tirade, but was interrupted by Lilith.

“No, no, no, Mr. Prosecutor, you’ve got it wrong.” Lilith was still giggling. “I found Lorenzo’s words funny, hahahahahahahaha, they were just too funny.”

"What's so funny?" The prosecutor frowned, wondering if she had gone mad.

"My esteemed prosecutor, judge, and forty other members of the committee, according to Lorenzo, my husband, the high and mighty heir to the Holy Roman Empire, has been a slave to me, a fallen noblewoman, for half a year. He not only obeys my every word but also follows my orders to kill and set fires, just like a dog that can be ordered around at will."

"Gentlemen here, except for Lorenzo, I presume you are all married with children. Ask yourself, if your wife asked you to be her dog for six months, would you agree?"

This time, even the judge couldn't help but laugh out loud. Indeed, Lorenzo's conjecture was utterly absurd and illogical. It was only natural for a husband to be the head of the household; how could anyone willingly condescend to be a dog to his wife?

After the laughter subsided, Lilith immediately stood up with her head held high and continued to add to the story.

"Lorenzo's words are truly too creative. I really held back for a long time, but the more I thought about it, the funnier it became, and I finally couldn't hold it in anymore. My dear Mr. Condalini, how could you have such a perverted and insane conjecture? Is it because you yourself have a fetish for being someone else's dog that you project your own feelings onto others?"

"The defendant's words are irrelevant to this trial!" The prosecutor panicked and angrily retorted, "Since you're refuting Lorenzo's testimony, what evidence do you have?"

"The Heinrich who once worked for me is dead, so I can't bring him here for you to compare one by one. However, almost everyone in Venice who has done business with me, including Mr. Condalini, has seen that Heinrich. To be fair, he was very handsome, indeed very handsome. And the guests who have visited my home should have seen the portrait of my husband hanging in the center of the staircase—though I hate to admit it, my husband, well… is rather plain-looking. Sigh… Mr. Condalini's eyesight must be a bit poor to associate these two people with the same person; he really should get a new pair of glasses."

"Is this true?" The judge turned his gaze to the forty jurors.

“Three months ago, my wife and I were invited to visit Mrs. Schmidl’s home,” a young committee member said. “Indeed, that Heinrich looks nothing like the man in the portrait.”

"In that case, I think there's no need for us to continue discussing this possibility." The judge made the final decision, rejecting the hypothesis.

“But what I said is absolutely true…!” This time, it was Lorenzo's turn to be at a loss. He had finally managed to dig out the truth and present it to everyone, but no one was willing to believe him. After all the trouble he had gone through, was he really going to just watch Lilith leave unharmed?

"The court will now adjourn for half an hour." The judge ignored Lorenzo's insistence. "The committee will make its final decision during this time and vote on whether Liliana is guilty."

Liliana was led away from the courtroom again, across the Bridge of Sighs, and into the waiting room. Through the glass window, she saw that the sky had cleared, and the fiery red sunset burned in the sky.

The outcome was decided; Lorenzo had lost. Not only that, but a trial even more uniquely his was about to unfold. The witnesses sent by Isolde would be put to good use. But… Lilith felt a strange sadness.

She was able to win because she understood those old men's thoughts better than Lorenzo, who was outside of traditional gender concepts—she correctly guessed that they were conservative and bound by convention, and simply could not imagine that there was someone like Heinrich who would willingly bow down to a woman.

She used their folly to save herself, leading them to treat "Lorenzo's Conjecture" as an absurd joke. But it wasn't a joke at all; it was the reality of her relationship with Heinrich.

Their relationship is unethical, unacceptable to the world, and unblessed, even if people still believe they are in a marital relationship... After her divorce from Heinrich, can they still get along as before?

Lilith suddenly felt a strange sense of understanding for Lorenzo. While this understanding wouldn't deter her resolve to send him to the gallows, she finally realized that his struggle with Lorenzo was a meaningless fight between two groups isolated from the mainstream by patriarchal society. Even if women and homosexuals fought to the death, they couldn't shake the authority of those old men who held the power of discourse.

But Lilith wasn't satisfied with the status quo. If she had enough power and money, who could dictate what kind of life she wanted to live?

She wanted to change all of this, to change these outdated practices, to abolish the custom that women and men must marry to be considered a couple; to change the stereotype that wives should be subservient to their husbands; to change the social division of labor where men work outside the home while women stay home to raise children; and perhaps even to change the concept of 'family' itself. Why must a family be maintained by blood ties or heterosexual relationships?

She never considered Massimo, Bruno, and their blood relatives as her family. Her true family consisted of Cecilia, Ivanka, Tata, and Heinrich. Although she later developed a romantic relationship with Heinrich, before that, she considered him an important friend and partner, not someone she had a sexual relationship with.

She wanted to change all of this, even though she knew it would be incredibly difficult...

Before that, she wanted to tell Heinrich all her thoughts. She believed he would support her. She wanted to help him achieve his goal—she didn't know if he had reached Frankfurt yet, if he had succeeded in avenging himself, how he was doing, if the scars on his face had healed, or if he could become as handsome as before… Even if he couldn't, she still wanted to be with him. Even if she was indeed a person who judged by appearances… But this time, she was willing to forgive Heinrich.

Suddenly, Lilith's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. She thought it was a guard taking her back to the courtroom to hear the judge announce the verdict, but when she opened the door, she found that it was her lawyer who had been allowed to have a final discussion with her.

“The outcome is basically certain,” the lawyer whispered in her ear. “As for the witness who can prove Lorenzo’s guilt, should we bring him to court now?”

“Of course we should. If not now, when?” Lilith squinted, leaned back in her chair, and gently smoothed a stray hair from her temple. “Let’s proceed as planned.”

"Yes, ma'am."

When Lilith returned to the courtroom, Lorenzo had already left. Perhaps unwilling to face the humiliating defeat after all his efforts had been in vain, he preferred to sit idly in the witness waiting room rather than go to court to hear the judge read out Lilith's acquittal.

Lilith sat calmly in the dock, smiling as she accepted her victory. Just as the judge was about to announce the end of the trial, someone brazenly burst into the courtroom through a side door.

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Author's Note: Five chapters this week! One chapter per day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, then one chapter on Wednesday. So, more updates tomorrow!

The courtroom drama will officially end in the next chapter. Lilith is about to travel somewhere—where is she going? It's so hard to guess! [shy]

Only ten chapters left until the end! Six more chapters will be released next week to complete the series! [Keep it up!]