Realms of Magic: Demon Invasion

111. The Aglatis Law

"Go! I'll handle her!" Madam Fron barks as she brandishes her glaive. Lita and I promptly evacuate ourselves. 

"Lita, did you feel her aura just now?" I ask cautiously. Princess Seira, meanwhile, has fallen asleep. 

"Yeah, it's powerful. Probably slightly weaker than Madam Fron, but much more than enough to overwhelm us both," Lita answers. "But more than that, it feels unnatural. Even feeling it makes me uneasy."

"Hey!" A somewhat odd person for the instance-Lady Jessica-intercepts us. "I heard about Princess Seira. Did you confront Lilith?"

"Uhh, yeah, just did. Madam Fron is fighting her now." Damn, it feels really weird talking to Lady Jessica casually like this.

"Fronica is? Well, I suppose I'm worrying too much," Lady Jessica laughs somewhat awkwardly. "Regardless, I've sent Lady Hua to engage Lilith. The two of them should be able to overwhelm Lilith easily."

"You seem well-acquainted with this Lilith."

"She's one of the Seraphim," Lady Jessica answers. "But my explanation will have to wait. Make sure Princess Seira's safe."

And she vanishes. "We've fought them for so long," I remark. "It feels strange."

We hastily retreat through an airship to Batavia. 

... well, stupid Lita and I, we don't really consider that Princess Seira might not be in, uh, her best condition.

"Why the fuck did you not bring her to a hospital immediately?" Nala shouts at us, exasperated, in the hospital as the doctors and healers rush the princess to the emergency wards. "Not everyone has the same level of durability as you two."

"Do not worry," Darryl emerges, again out of seemingly nowhere. "I'll conduct the checks and operations myself."

A few somewhat panicky hours later (breaking news: Imperial Guards allowed the princess to fucking die!), Darryl emerges from the operation room. "How did it go?"

"Well, I definitely don't envy her position, but she'll survive," Darryl says. He throws me a rare smirk. "I'm not the King of Lutzia for nothing."

"I'm glad."

"Wouldn't want my bride to get in trouble."

"Gee, you charmer." I can feel my cheeks heating up.

King Arthur himself blitzes into the conversation. "But-my daughter-how much did she suffer?"

"Well, she definitely suffered a lot of physical and sexual harm. Aside from that, she has a good number of parasites inside her gut. I've cleaned most of them, but some we will have to use magic to destroy. A number of her organs are deteriorating. We'll need a replacement heart and liver, at least. And her cervix will have to be removed."

"I-I'm sorry, I-"

King Arthur breaks off crying, and he goes away, escorted by the Eighth Imperial Guard Division. "But she's going to be fine, right?" I ask for confirmation.

"Well, that depends on the definition of 'fine'. In general, she'll survive, but her life will change. Forever. Probably irrevocably."

"You seem remarkably detached about this," I say. "Is something on your mind, Darryl?"

"Ah, right. I grow weary every day," Darryl answers. "This Lilith ... whoever she is, and whatever the Seraphim are, I'm afraid they'll be no small threat."

Madam Fron returns with some severe wounds. Apparently she and Lady Hua managed to rout Lilith, but was unable to prevent her escape (retold not-so-dramatically to me by Madam Fron herself, complete with expletives). Princess Seira recovers quickly, which allows King Arthur to talk with her.

"So, what's going to happen to her?" I ask Madam Fron, who is now half-pouting on a wheelchair.

"Theoretically? She'll be on trial with professional judges who uphold the fucking law," Madam Fron says. "Practically, we control the outcome."

"'We'?" Lita asks.

"The Order. Or what's left of it, after the loss of so many of us."

King Arthur leaves, emitting a signal to Madam Fron. "Let's go," Madam Fron whispers to me. 

"Where to?"

"The Imperial Palace."

"See you, Lita."

"Yeah."

The remnants of the Order that are not dispersed across Irvine gather in the Imperial Palace: King Arthur, Madam Fron, Madam Felicia, Archduke Windwood, Archduke Luxor, Sir Cadogan, Remi, and I. 

"What do we do with Princess Seira?" King Arthur opens the discussion.

"If we allow things to flow, she will indubitably executed," Madam Felicia says. "And, judging from the extent of her crimes, it's probably for the best."

"And we'll gain much favour from both the nobles and the common folk," Madam Fron nonchalantly adds.

"No!" King Arthur roars. "I will not send my daughter to the firing squad!"

"But Your Majesty, if we send her to the prison, I fear it'd be worse, considering how hated she is," Archduke Windwood offers his rebuttal gently.

"Surely there must be a solution to this quagmire."

"If you must insist ... there is the Aglatis Law," Archduke Luxor says. He does dabble in law, and is surprisingly a pretty competent lawyer in his younger days.

The what now?

I glance at Remi, who appears to understand about as much as I do: exactly zero. "Impossible. Surely that archaic law has been taken down already," Madam Fron says. "It's been, what, 600 years since slavery was abolished."

"Except as a punishment, remember?" Madam Felicia says. "Purposely added there so that we could justify prison labour."

"Uh, so, what is this Aglatis Law?" I ask.

"If a person commits serious crime against an entity, that person may be enslaved to the aforementioned entity," Archduke Luxor says. "That's the general gist of it."

"Do we have strong historical evidence of it?" King Arthur says.

"We do."

"If so, I think that is our best option," King Arthur decides. "The problem is who her 'owner' will be."

"We can look at this from several angles," Archduke Luxor explains. "One, she has commited treason against the crown, hence Your Majesty as the representation of the crown itself is the most appropriate choice."

"That will definitely not go down well with literally anyone," Madam Fron remarks.

"Two, she has commited large scale murder against several war heroes. In this case, the most justified choice would be one of their descendants." Eyes are immediately directed at me. 

"Third, she has betrayed Irvine itself. From this point of view, a revered public figure may prove to be the best pick."

"Well," King Arthur says. "There's only one true candidate, isn't there?"