Bishop Fabian dropped his gavel, and the dull sound of crashing echoed through the hall, signaling the official beginning of the Inquisition.

According to the proper process, the interrogator should first announce the charges and ask the defendant whether he or she pleaded guilty. If the suspect pleads guilty, the trial will go to the church's probationary stage, and if he does not admit guilt, the trial will go to the main trial, and if the suspect is finally found guilty, he will be severely punished as a recalcitrant person.

This is a bit like the slogan that was often seen in prisons in previous lives: 'Confession is lenient, resistance is strict'.

Father Paul was the first to walk up to Todd, and the two looked at each other, and the former asked, "Father, should I call you Brother Todd, or Brother Todd?"

This question may not seem strange at first, but on closer inspection, it is difficult to answer.

If Todd recognized the title of the Catholic, he would be biased towards the side of the Church and would inevitably lose the support of the monastery, and if he recognized the title of monk, he would be biased towards the side of the Abbey, which would alienate the priests and knights who had helped him.

Before the trial began, Paul used this dilemma to force Todd to take sides between the "ecclesiastical" and the "ascetic."

The person concerned did not hurry, and read aloud a story from the sacred text.

"When the good and forgiving saint was shepherding sheep, he met a wicked wolf who asked him for a sick and young lamb. This is what the saint says, "Go away, the Lord never forsakes a child who is obedient and pious."

When he said this, the monks and church personnel present immediately understood what he meant.

Both the monks of the monastery and the people of the Church are servants of the Father, and any act of renunciation and harm is a blasphemy against the Holy Will.

As a result, the first leg of the encounter.

Father Paul was bored with himself, and was secretly humiliated by Todd with the word wolf.

Deliberately skipping the questioning, Paul went straight to the trial stage and loudly stated the first count.

"Misrepresenting the number of holy relics and embezzling church property."

Paul claims that someone reported to the church that Todd had brought back twenty-eight boxes of crystal relics from the north, but had only given seventeen boxes to the church. And to the outside world to hype that he is willing to hand over all the crystals to the church, this is a deliberate deception, is a fame and reputation!

As soon as these words came out, those in the audience who were in the know were first stunned, then angry, and the knights and priests, who had been members of the visiting delegation, immediately loudly refuted this absurd statement.

Because it's a shameless thing to say.

Take 10,000 steps back and say that the crystal was brought back by Todd from the north, and whether he was willing to give it to the church was his business, even if he didn't give a box, he couldn't be blamed;

Queen Mary listened intently to the argument in the hall and gradually understood what was going on.

She thought to herself that anyone who wasn't particularly stupid would understand that this was a charge imposed on the monk, but Todd couldn't argue with it. Because he made the fatal mistake of not piggybacking on or informing any of the church personnel to oversee the ship when it went out to sea and docked, this act fell to the brim. The Inquisition could well say that Todd had the opportunity to hide the crystal relics and commit a great disrespect to the Holy Spirit by being unsupervised.

The queen tilted her head sideways, and held her cheeks with her hands, looking distressed. If you were to encounter such an accusation yourself, how would you defend yourself? Find the crew members or onlookers who went to sea and ask them to testify?...... No, their testimony may not be credible enough.

Come to think of it, this crime is completely a dead knot, you know that it is a false proposition, but there is no evidence to refute it.

"Todd, do you have anything to say?" said Father Paul, a smug look on his face, a crime he had settled after repeated discussions with the bishop, and if it was confirmed, it would justify sending the monk to the heresy interrogation chamber and extorting a confession by torture, so that he could tell the exact point where the crystal was found, and solve Bishop Fabian's immediate troubles.

The defendant suddenly became the object of everyone's attention.

How would he defend himself?

This question became the unanimous thought of everyone present.

After thinking for a few seconds, Todd moved.

He first tapped the floor under him with his knuckles, and then looked at the wide pulpit in front of him, and to everyone's surprise, he suddenly asked a strange question: "Is the wooden box that was sent here before to put the crystals still kept?"

The assistant deacon of the cathedral, hearing this, immediately stood up and said, "All of them are there, and they are now stored in the warehouse. ”

"Good, please get it all here. Watching the church staff get up and get the boxes, Todd walked up to the pulpit and started from the side at the end, measuring the distance with his steps.

Annoyed, Paul threw the indictment on the table and shouted, "Todd! I'm asking you if you plead guilty! Don't try to delay time with such tricks as tricks!"

The defendant ignored him, but went out into the middle of the audience, found the knights and priests with whom he was acquainted, and asked eleven of them to come to his aid.

Then, after some questioning, he found a knight who had dealt with the North Island pirates in front of everyone, and asked the following questions.

Todd first asked, "Excuse me, do you know the type of ship that the North Island pirates commonly use?"

The knight nodded and replied, "Yes, there are generally two types of ships. Battleships (langskips) and cargo ships (kn?rr). When raiding south, use the former. ”

"The approximate dimensions and draft of the battleship, can you name the numbers?"

"No problem, the regular dimensions are 17.4 meters (57 feet) long, 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) wide at the widest point, and the draft varies depending on the weight of the boat, generally ranging from 45 to 65 centimeters. ”

"In terms of crew assignment, what is the approximate situation?"

"There are 16 oars on each side, and the maximum load of the whole ship is 48 people. If you just want to get the boat moving, you need at least 12 people. ”

"Thank you very much for your answers. Todd picked up a piece of hemp rope he had just found and handed it to the knight: "One last thing to trouble you, please use this rope on the ground of the pulpit to make a general appearance of a warship." ”

The knight thought for a moment, and laid out an oval shape on the ground with twine.

Queen Mary's pale blue eyes, quietly flowing and moist like waves, already understood what the monk wanted to do, but she thought she couldn't think of it anyway.

"It's so interesting......"

The maid did not hear the mistress's whisper clearly, and hurriedly asked, "Your Majesty, what did you say?"

"No, nothing. ”

Soon, the church staff brought in seventeen empty wooden boxes that had been used to store the crystals. Todd also motioned to the eleven priests and knights around him to sit in an elliptical surrounded by hemp rope.

When everyone was seated, the monk said to the church staff, "All right, please put all the wooden boxes into the oval." You can choose any way you want to place it, but please pay attention to two things: first, please do not put the edge of the wooden box over the rope, and second, please do not stack the wooden box more than 45 cm high. ”

These wooden boxes, either horizontally, vertically, or sideways, avoided the twelve people who were seated, and it took a great deal of effort to finally embed them within the range of the hemp rope. There were still some gaps, but they were space for supplies, tents, and weapons.

Almost everyone present saw a fact.

A pirate warship, even with the minimum number of crew members - twelve oarsmen, is already the limit for carrying seventeen wooden crates of this size, considering the safety of navigation and the placement of cargo. The so-called return of 28 boxes of crystals is complete nonsense and falsehood.

The so-called crime of "lying about the number of holy relics and embezzling church property" is a joke.

The faces of Father Paul and Bishop Fabian changed from white to red and from red to black. The former saw the angry gaze cast by the latter, and a spirit, and hurriedly shouted, "Now I declare Todd's second heretical charge." ”

"Disobey the Heavenly Father's admonition and practice the golden evil art privately."

Amid the exclamations of the crowd, Queen Mary chuckled as Todd slowly rose from the ground, covering her lips with a folding fan.

The climax of this drama has finally kicked off......