Nero did not know any man as jovial and lighthearted as his own father. Living in this cursed world, where at any time death may come for anyone, most people eventually turned cold and callous.
Lives were easily lost, which is why they were worthless, and at the same time the most valuable. Everyone tried to save as many lives as possible, yet accepted the truth that it just wasn't possible to save everyone. As such, as people aged, they usually shut themselves off and became more rigid.
His father was not like that at all. The man took nothing seriously, ever, and made it his life's mission to tease every single person he came across. For some incomprehensible reason, most people didn't seem to mind it either, and in fact, enjoyed his company.
His own mother was the greatest example. Nero's dad used to wake up early when he didn't need to, just to boast about how he could sleep longer if he wanted to, and rub it in his mother's face. He had no inferiority complex or anything about the fact that she made more money than him. No matter what she did, he found the perfect way to tease her about it.
Yet, despite the angry front she put up, she was enamoured with him.
The gist of it was, his father was quite popular, and always had been, so it was not exactly surprising that he had a girlfriend before he met Nero's mother. Within Kolar, where everyone lived fast and often died young, it was quite common for couples to form in high school, and get married right after.
Higher education was not necessary for most professions, so most could get vocational training and still end up with a decent job. After all, basic food and decent housing was all provided by the state, so everyone could live a decently comfortable life.
Nero's thoughts were going off on a tangent, mostly because he wanted to avoid thinking about his current predicament. He was now face to face with June, his fathers ex-girlfriend and a woman his mother strongly detested.
That would not have mattered much to Nero at all, except that she was apparently his legal counsel, yet she seemed even more… eccentric than his own father.
Her excited and animated energy was a stark contrast to the mood in the courtroom, and each and every one of her actions attracted the kind of attention Nero didn't want. Much more importantly, it made him doubt her skills as legal counsel, though the rational part of his brain knew that she wouldn't be here if it weren't a part of her job.
"Yes… hello, I… I have heard of you," Nero managed to say with much difficulty. But the awkwardness lasted only a brief moment. Regardless of her relationship or personal peculiarities, he needed her help to understand his situation.
"Ms. June," Nero began, but was immediately interrupted by the woman who pretended to be upset with him.
"Call me Aunt June. Your father and I are still on very good terms."
Nero resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and simply adapted.
"Aunt June, what can you tell me about my situation? These… these accusations are far more than I was aware of. When I was arrested, the only charge at the time was suspected of fratricide."
June gave Nero a mischievous, knowing grin, as if to indicate that she knew exactly what Nero had been up to.
"You're the only one who has been having it easy for the past few days. It is unprecedented in the history of Kolar for the trial of a mere Neophyte to gain so much national attention. But much more alarming than that is the fact that the details of the proceedings were made public across all of Aetherpeak!
Military court proceedings are usually confidential with the details not being revealed to the public due to the secretive nature of the things that need to be discussed. No one knows how or why this happened. To top it all off, some of the judges personal details were also made public, revealing that some of them were not as… unbiased as they should have been.
"The original judge in your case has been arrested with a pending investigation into his previous cases and his affiliations. Due to the sudden high profile nature of your case, as well as the history of external interference, a panel of judges took over to ensure an unbiased verdict. I'm sure now you can understand why everyone is in such a bad mood.
No matter what their original crime was, the way in which the previous judge was exposed may have left a… bitter taste in the other judges mouths."
Nero raised an eyebrow, and took another look at everyone in the room. He suddenly understood why everyone was glaring at him. Even though Nero himself did nothing, it was his trial that caused an unprecedented information leak.
It also explained why there were so many guards in the room. They were here to ensure no one who didn't have authority snuck in or collected information somehow to leak to the outside.
"Will this affect my judgement?" Nero asked.
"Not at all. They're grumpy, but they'll do their job well, especially now that so many people are paying attention to it. Now, about your accusations. You're right in saying that originally there was just one charge against you. But once you were in custody, as if out of thin air, a bunch of new charges were brought up against you.
There was also a lot of evidence linking you to those crimes, from your presence at the AAB when the terrorists attacked, to you being directly named as a high level conspirator by captured enemy agents. I'll be honest with you, it didn't look good."
Nero scrunched his brow. Circumstantial evidence was irrelevant, but directly being named by captives was not good. He didn't even know who these 'enemy agents' were. Did that mean Clear Path members, infiltrators from enemy states, common criminals? It could be anything.
"What do you mean 'didn't look good'? Did something change?" Nero asked.
June looked at Nero for a moment and then chuckled.
"Do you know why your father called me and asked me to take over your case?" she asked, her voice taking on a rare tone of seriousness.