This subtle difference in the number of people is biased in favor of the Mercury Needle - in some special cases, the defendant's behavioral motives are difficult for citizens of livable places to understand, and the Mercury Needle itself is difficult to explain.
In this regard, the coalition government did not raise any doubts.
The judge asked each man if he could be fair and impartial, and every juror answered firmly and in the affirmative—until the last one.
"Should...can?" the juror answered uncertainly.
"Should?" The judge frowned, "Please pay attention to your wording, this is not child's play."
"Sorry, please allow me to explain..." The young juror stood up. She stepped forward and held the fence at the edge of the jury box with both hands. "I am definitely not kidding, because except for the case eight years ago, I Never seen Jane Hestad at all..."
"However?"
"However...but now I feel..." She looked at the defendant's dock seriously, "I may have a question, I need to ask the defendant first-"
"Objection," Campbell calmly interrupted the juror. "The defendant is under no obligation to answer any of this woman's questions."
"But I'm not asking about anything related to the case."
"This is equally unreasonable," Campbell said again. "You should not ask questions that are not related to the case."
"Objection." The prosecutor looked at Campbell, "The juror obviously has doubts about the identity of the defendant. This is related to whether the juror himself can maintain a fair attitude towards the case - right?"
"Yes!" the juror replied immediately.
The prosecutor looked at the judge, "So, I think we can at least listen to the jurors' questions before deciding whether we need the defendant to answer them."
The judges discussed a few words with each other, and one of them looked at the jurors, "What do you want to ask?"
"I would like to ask, during the 'Battle of Riker Wasteland' in District 5, a young mercury needle was airdropped into the center of the city where a wave of chelates broke out, and he quickly helped us identify and annihilate the chelates in the city. Two aberrants.
"I only had a quick meeting with her and didn't even have time to say thank you to her..."
The jury looked at Hestad with some suspicion, "...I may say this without any basis, but I think you-you seem a bit...familiar?"
After a brief silence, there was a faint sound of discussion in the courtroom.
"Silence." The judge knocked the hammer, and she looked at Hesta, "Ms. Hesta, please answer this question."
Campbell said something in Hestad's ear, but Hestad didn't respond until the judge repeated the question and Hestad finally looked up and cleared her throat.
"Yes, I participated in the 'Battle of Riker Wasteland' in the spring of 4627. The name I used at that time was 'Rebekah'," Hesta said softly. She turned to look at the jury box, "I recognize it. You, Ms. Eade.”
Juror Ide held her breath for a moment. She took a breath and smiled with relief. The expression on her face changed rapidly, and soon turned to surprise and disbelief.
"But...but how could you...how could you have been involved in this situation-"
The judge coughed lightly: "Ms. Ide, you know the defendant, right?"
"Yes, I'm sorry," Ide looked at the trial seat, "I...I can't attend this case as a juror. The defendant saved my life in the Battle of Rikker Wasteland."
For a moment, the court became noisy again.
The judge knocked the hammer again to silence everyone.
"Thank you for your honesty, Ed, and please leave the jury box."
Ide bowed slightly to the trial seat, then saluted Hesta. She pushed open a half-height wooden door on the side of the jury box, walked down three flights of steps, and sat down directly in the auditorium at the back of the courtroom.
"Are there any other jurors who have similar questions?"
"Sorry, your honor," another person raised his hand, "I may also have a question to ask..."
…
During the continuous questioning, a series of meritorious deeds came to light - the Battle of Rikker Wasteland in the fifth district, the Battle of Yager Wasteland in the fourth district, the Battle of De Broglie in the twelfth district...
In each of the critical battles raised by the jurors, Hesta changed her name, but some people remembered her red hair, some remembered her face, and some remembered her voice... less than half After hours of interrogation, six of the seven people in the jury box had already been discharged, and one of the remaining two alternate jurors also voluntarily gave up his status as a juror.
Campbell was pleasantly surprised by this - what happened in front of him was obviously more convincing than when he passively read Hestad's battle record.
These jurors are specific people, and every story they experienced is flesh and blood. Because of this, they demonstrated an irrefutable fact:
The girl sitting in the dock at this moment is such an excellent, brave and rare warrior.
This kind of thing has never happened in the inner court. How could Campbell not be excited.
Hesta, who was in the center of the storm, remained calm. While she recalled the battles she had participated in based on the clues given by the jurors, she also secretly wondered whether there were such bizarre coincidences in the world - she was not every person. She would show up in every battle, and more often than not she would travel in disguise so that no one would see her red hair or her face.
Now, those mercury needles that she had hurriedly encountered in the battle suddenly appeared here, in her jury box.
If this is not a trick of fate, then it must be someone's plan.
...Besides Ava, who else could have such courage?
However, everything was as the judge said. For the sake of justice, these jurors would not allow themselves to use their personal experiences to influence the verdict-once they recognized her, they would not stay in the jury box again.
Is this a mistake made by the old man?
Hesta thought for a while and felt that it was not the case - maybe this was Ava's original plan.
While the judges were discussing among themselves, Hestad sat in the dock. She recalled in ecstasy the first time she met Ava. At that time, the old man was deeply dissatisfied with her long-standing practice of keeping her name anonymous, and warned her not to think that she could escape unscathed by hiding behind the scenes——
"Hesta, this is not a 'fake name', there is real power behind it."
"Power is a very good thing. To put it bluntly, it may be the best thing in the world."
"Don't resist it, don't despise it, and when you have the opportunity to grab it, don't give it up easily."
Looking at the surprised and touched faces of the judges on the trial bench, listening to Campbell's triumphant smile and sighing next to her, she recalled everything she had felt during the actual execution over the past few days... Suddenly, Hestad I have a deeper understanding of Ava’s words.
"Do you understand, Jane? From beginning to end, we must strive to be a righteous friend."
Hesta took a deep breath.
I think I get it a little bit, Ava.
