Chopyk had a wide grin on his face. All they had to do now was to wait to come from the break and make the decision on their favor.
The bell rang, indicating end of lunchtime. Those who had cases pending came back to the room, waiting for the judge. But the judge did not come. Everyone was concerned on why the delay has happening.
“Are you sure he agreed?” Chopyk bit his nails, “Is he sending guards here to arrest us? Oh, no!”
“Shut up. He could have got me arrested right there.”
A different judge came inside the room, holding the file of cases to be resolved. He adjusted height of the chair on judge’s table and sat there.
“Where is the old judge?” one devil asked when he was flipping pages.
“Someone killed him.” New judge said.
Roderick felt his heartbeat stop. Every devil in the hall was in dismay, but Roderick and Chopyk were scared.
“Isolda.” New judge said, “Previous judge has marked this mirror’s statement as weakest.”
“Weakest?” Isolda roared, “Chopyk’s spy threatened to break him if he didn’t speak against me.”
“Shut up, bitch.” Chopyk couldn’t stand her voice.
“You called me B word?” she bellowed.
“Yes, because you are.” Cicily screamed from corner of the room.
“When did she come here?” Roderick asked Chopyk – who also had the same question in his mind.
“I give you five minutes to argue. If you go a second beyond specified time, then you all will go to prison.” Judge’s voice was loudest. He then took out a huge cotton ball from the drawer. He ripped it into two pieces and stuffed it inside his ears.
Other devils were not bothered by the noise they made, but Roderick was near to becoming deaf. He could understand trouble of villagers.
Looking at his state, judge gave him some cotton bits. Roderick was surprised by the cotton’s effectiveness. Their argument was inaudible because of it.
Time ran out, and they stopped arguing.
“Anything against Chopyk?” Judge said.
“I have a love letter written by Chopyk, I can recognize his handwriting.” Isolda gave some letters to the judge.
“And here are her replies.” She gave him another bunch of scrolls.
“You had these letters?” Roderick whispered in Chopyk’s ear.
“I forgot to throw them.” Chopyk answered.
“How can you forget to throw them away? At least you have told me you had these in your house.”
“Did you give me time to remember?”
“Aaargh.” Roderick clenched his fists.
“You are in trouble, Chopyk.” Judge said from his desk, “This is your writing and it proves you were having an affair with Cicily. And you haven’t presented any fact which proves an extra marital relationship between Isolda and Bartholomew. But I still give you time of two hours to gather anything which may help you. Meanwhile, I will finish another case.”
“You have any plan?” Chopyk asked Roderick.
“Bribe this judge as well.”
“I don’t have much money left.”
“Doesn’t matter. You take some risk. Go to his room when he is resting and bribe him.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“If I go there second time, I may bring some suspicion.”
“Ah. Alright.” Chopyk frowned.
