Chapter 2098: Pentagram, Mob Judgment

Soon, Xia Duo and Kelanni were no longer walking along the streets, but had squeezed into the crowded tide of Elves; however, the Spell Kelanni used to make other Elves avoid them remained in effect.

This created a gap of about half a step around the two of them, and wherever they walked, the gap moved with them, with not a single Elf noticing this anomaly throughout the entire time.

And when Kelanni led Xia Duo down from the second-level Xuan Kong Budao and merged into the even more surging tide, Xia Duo was already certain that their destination for this trip was undoubtedly the People's Square ahead.

When he arrived, Xia Duo had passed through the center of the People's Square and still had a deep impression of that huge circular plaza; the plaza was roughly a regular circle, with an inscribed pentagram inside, distinguished from the surroundings by ground of a different color.

When he saw this at the time, he was almost startled, thinking that some clansman had arrived here a step early to act as a scout! Only then did he realize that the pentagram likely represented "Equality of the Five Races, Prosperity of the Five Races"!

Once they reached the square, Xia Duo noticed that the Elf tide, which had seemed crowded and chaotic, had naturally divided into five sections according to the hint of the pentagram in the center of the square, leaving the middle empty.

Of course, this was not divided by race, as one could no longer find Wing Elves, Sea Elves, or Suri Elves; Xia Duo guessed it might be divided by community, street, or political ideology.

The area where he and Kelanni finally stopped was located at the junction of two sections on the south side of the square; in the section next to him, he saw quite a few Easterners, and even a few Dwarves buried in the crowd of Elves.

As for the section he was in, there was almost no one of another race—except for him.

Although he had been to many Elf cities—both on the Main Plane and in the Projection Plane—this was the first time Xia Duo had seen so many Elves packed together with his own eyes; a rough estimate suggested there were no fewer than one hundred thousand.

Moreover, Elves were still pouring in from outside; Xia Duo was not sure if Elves from other places had rushed over temporarily, but even if so, mobilizing over one hundred thousand Elves to gather here in such a short time was enough to demonstrate the mobilization and organizational capabilities of Cormanthor.

If not, then the estimate of Cormanthor's total population would likely need to be re-evaluated; this city alone was enough to exceed the entire Daxia Territory, not to mention the others.

With such potential, how could Xia Duo not feel pressured? (Elf fertility is not weaker than that of humans, but due to tradition, habits, and other factors, they generally only have their first child about a hundred years after marriage; afterwards, unless the previous child dies prematurely, they rarely give birth again, and even if they do, it is at intervals of at least a century. The Drow, however, are forced to have one every 25 years to cope with the harsh living environment of the Underdark, though in reality, one per year is not necessarily impossible~)

……

About half an hour later, the flow of Elves into the square had become sparse, and just as Xia Duo was about to lose patience, there was finally a trace of an anomaly in the center of the square.

Five mysterious Elves wearing masks and draped in ancient, wide Mage Robes appeared in front of the five sections; having been here for half an hour, Xia Duo was, of course, no longer as ignorant as he had been at the start.

From the conversations of the surrounding Elves, he gradually reconstructed the full picture of this so-called "People's Judgment."

It is said that this "People's Judgment Ritual" has been passed down from ancient times, but Xia Duo felt it was more likely created only after the founding of Cormanthor.

Xia Duo had never seen the Elf society of the ancient era, and relevant historical records were scarce, but he had been to Maiyelita in a Projection Plane; that was during the early Crown War, at least ten thousand years away from today on the Main Plane.

The judicial system implemented by Maiyelita at that time was not a People's Judgment, but an Adjudicator system, where a group of Elves would swear (Ritual Spell) to be loyal to the law for their entire lives, then become Adjudicators, possessing the power to investigate, judge, and execute on their own.

Although Adjudicators might cause many miscarriages of justice in their lifetimes, and many Adjudicators chose to commit suicide because they could not endure the inner torment, it is undeniable that the professional competence of Adjudicators in legal matters far exceeded that of most ordinary Elves.

The People's Judgment appears fair and appears to represent public opinion, but in reality, it is nothing more than a judgment based on emotional favorability; both emotions and public opinion can be Controlled.

In other words, such a judgment could easily allow a demon who has won the public's favor to escape punishment, or cause an innocent person disliked by the public to be wronged and die.

This kind of "People's Judgment" places extremely high demands on the personal qualities of the participants, requiring not only rationality but also professional judgment; otherwise, it is nothing more than a mass carnival where selfish desires run rampant.

Looking at the performance of these Elves in the square, Xia Duo did not think they possessed high personal qualities; they might have rationality, but professionalism was not guaranteed.

And if they were to learn that the subjects to be judged today very likely included a high-level Mage, it would be hard to say whether they would continue to remain rational.

At the very least, it would not be the rationality based on legal principles that Xia Duo envisioned.

So he couldn't be bothered to think too much; perhaps, just as Kelanni had said earlier, this was a play—a grand play controlled by the Crown King, involving the public, to legally eliminate his opponents!

But is such a drama worth watching for an existence like Kelanni?

Xia Duo did not understand, but since he had come, he could only continue to watch.

……

Soon, those five masked, unknown Mages began to provide Guidance for the ritual, and twenty-seven Elves, restrained and unable to move, were teleported to the empty space reserved in the center of the square.

At the same time, a Projection appeared almost simultaneously above the square, seemingly to greet the Elves in the back who could not see.

The next moment, not just Xia Duo, but almost the entire square erupted in a hurricane of all the Elves gasping in unison, which was enough to show the special status of the twenty-seven Elves in the center.

As for why Xia Duo was surprised, it was actually very simple—

The clothes of those twenty-seven restrained Elves almost all had one or more ornaments resembling a Sun Corona, which was all too familiar to Xia Duo.

That was the symbol of the Sun Wing Family; in 【Projection Plane: Cormanthor Birth】, Xia Duo had incarnated as the heir of the Sun Wing Family—Lier Akalama—and eventually passed the Divine Sword trial to become the first-generation Crown King of the nascent Cormanthor.

In that Projection Plane, he had stayed for a full four years; he might not have seen other things every day, but the Sun Corona Emblem representing the family was hard to miss.

The Sun Wing Family has a long heritage; it exists not only in the Projection Plane but also on the Main Plane. Although Xia Duo had not deliberately paid attention to it in the past, how could he have no reaction upon seeing the Sun Corona Emblem now!

According to his understanding, the Sun Wing Family on the Main Plane is already a proper Upper Family in Cormanthor, far stronger than the dilapidated family he was in during the Projection Plane!

At the same time, the Sun Wing Family is also one of the firmest supporters of Crown King Yiliser, at least that has been the case for the past thousand years.

But unfortunately, even for a thousand-year supporter, when it came time to abandon them, they were still abandoned decisively!