Chapter 41: Judgement I
Redrick sat on the jury seat with a gloomy face, his eyes fixed on the long table in front of him. He felt the covert glances of many people falling on him. Duke of Lusanne, already in a foul mood, clicked his tongue loudly. He noticed that the commoners sitting on either side of him shrank back even further, their bodies cowering away from him.
…His mood worsened.
Redrick pulled his face and glared fiercely at the side-front, where only a thin curtain had been drawn. The figure behind the curtain sat calmly, and it seemed that he was a holding a book.
Redrick let out a harsh breath through his nose and looked around again. When his gaze passed over the chattering Judge, he rolled his eyes, making no effort to hide his annoyance.
In fact, he couldn’t understand why he was here – among this group of lowly paupers.
All members of the twelve-person special jury were randomly selected by the Pope. The Governor Palace keeps the household registrations of all residents of Florence, and the Pope only needed to randomly call out a few numbers to select the corresponding people from the corresponding boxes. These household registries included the poor from the lower city and the nobles from the upper city. This is probably the closest they have ever been to each other in their lives.
Those who were selected were not allowed to refuse to attend unless they were ill. This was their duty as citizens of Florence. If they refused, they would immediately be stripped of their status as a Florentine citizen and expelled from the Holy City.
Compared to such a cost, just sitting in court for half a day wasn’t a big deal.
—That’s what Redrick had originally thought, until he came to court and saw what kind of people were on the jury with him.