NOVEL NEXT Chapter 318: Punishment
I start listing the various crimes that Duke Auberon has committed over the past few years, and a large part of it is also covering up the crimes of his own son. He knew his son was a piece of shit, but never did anything, just covered up his mistakes when he could, taking advantage of his position as a duke.
And if there's one thing I hate, it's parents who cover up their kids' mistakes. I'd give my kids a huge beating if they did something I judged wrong, so they'd learn what not to do.
Spoiled kids turn into problem kids over time, and I know the obvious difference between protecting your kid and covering up for your kid, and it's clear now that I start citing everything and even showing the papers, the game has turned.
Duke Auberon can't defend himself and his nervousness is obvious. If he had just kept quiet, none of this would have happened, but he had to come try to get revenge.
He had already shown up at Veritus' mansion and I let it slide, but now that he attacked me so brazenly in public, there's no reason for me not to retaliate.
"As you can all see, he has an extensive list of crimes that also include certain murders, connections to the black market, and covering up various crimes of his son who was involved in many illegal things."
"For the members of the royal family, I believe I can judge him as I see fit, correct?" I ask with a smile, and everyone just approves, Evangeline approves with a big smile.
Eric approves with disdain that his plan failed, and the king just gives a positive nod without wanting to get involved in this.
"W-Wait, I..." Auberon tries to speak, but I shut his mouth with the shadows tying him up. I may have hidden a large part of my power, but I still have it with me.
I just seem to have gotten weaker, but the truth is that shrinking didn't reduce my power at all, I just tried my best to compress and hide my power and aura.
The dress also adjusted to my new small size, I love how my dresses do that, it's very convenient. This size adjustment helps in many things.
"Auberon, I hereby declare that you are being stripped of your title as duke and reduced to a slave, considering the gravity of your crimes and your new position."
"You will receive private execution at the Grand Duchy's mansion, where you will be executed in private by my family, and your lands, territories, and any material possessions you have will be shared among the affected parties."
"This means that 45% of everything that belongs to the Auberon name now belongs to the Grand Duchy, and 55% of everything now belongs to the royal family since you interfered with the party they were hosting." I hand over the larger portion to the royal family as a false proof of loyalty to the kingdom.
And I see that this seems to animate the king, who is no longer cowardly ignoring everything.
"With this, I declare this trial closed and sentence Auberon to death." I teleport him through the shadows to Veritus' mansion, I have a more entertaining fate in store for him.
And obviously, that fate is to become Shogo's pet, father and son side by side. Doesn't that seem like a great punishment? I'm going to love to see Auberon's reaction when he sees that his son is now a lustful slut and that this is also his destiny.
"Hey, what are you doing!! Let me go, Evangeline!" I say when Evangeline suddenly lifts me off the ground in a tight hug, and the tension in the air completely dissipates.
"You're so cute!!! Why didn't you show this lovely appearance before?" She says, holding me while Celeste and other interested people approach.
'Damn...' My terrifying aura has been reduced by being almost completely hidden, so now I seem more like a cute and authoritative little girl.
"You know I'm still the Grand Duchess, right?" I say with an annoyed smile.
"A mini Grand Duchess," Celeste 'corrects' me with a little smirk, puffing out her chest arrogantly as if she now surpasses me in many things.
'...' The Pandora Yandere is playing with my face, this crazy Lolicon doesn't want to grow me back yet, so I'll be forced to continue the party at this diminutive size.
'Why did this damn one have to represent the body?' My control over the body is not the best, so I don't know how to forcibly grow my size, but shrinking was necessary to prove my innocence.
Obviously there were other options, but the situation was bad and urgent, so I didn't even have time to think exactly what to do, so I just did what seemed to work at the moment.
"At least get me a glass of wine," I murmur as Evangeline walks, holding me tightly in her arms.
"No, you're a child, you can't drink wine," Evangeline says.
'This is so humiliating...' Even for the system, I'm already an adult, I've reached this stage and won't grow any bigger than that, so being treated like a child is really unpleasant.
'I must never show this form to Delphina.' I can't even imagine what Delphina would like to do to me. I usually talk and joke about the fact that she is small, but in this form I am even smaller than her.
Imagine her trying to have sex with me? At this current size, Delphina's penises are literally 1/3 the size of me, it's literally obviously impossible, so I really have to protect my intimate parts from this monstrous size.
"Why the hell would you want to hug me just because I got small?" I ask irritably as she takes me to a chair and sits down, placing me on her lap.
"Pandora, imagine the person you love shrinking, becoming cute and childlike, what would you do?" Evangeline asks as Celeste takes a glass of juice and brings it to me.
"Well..." I imagine a tiny Zephyra, she would be super cute, it would be like a cuteness attack, running up to me with her wings and little tail while hugging my leg and saying she loves me even though she shrunk.
"...Tsk." Evangeline has a frustratingly valid point. How I wish I could grow up again right now to end this nonsense.
'Well...thinking positively, I can use this childlike form anytime I want, as long as the Pandora Yandere shrinks the body...so, I could even play with my children in a more intuitive way by shrinking in size.' It's not a bad idea, I could even use it in speeches for the demons who like cuteness.
Although this playing with the kids can only be done in private to preserve my image. Just imagine how humiliating it would be for my kingdom to know that I turn into a child to play childish games with my kids.
"Here, Pandora, a little cup of juice," Celeste hands me a cup of juice as if I were a child.
"..." I take the cup and throw the liquid all over her.
"I'm still the Grand Duchess, I'm still stronger and have more authority than you," I say coldly. Celeste just smiles and pinches my cheek.
"Well, grow up first before saying that, mini Grand Duchess Pandora," she says mockingly as she leaves with a victorious smile to go somewhere to clean her dress.
"Oh, your cheeks are so soft," Evangeline says, also pinching my cheek.
'...I think I'll spend a few years without going back to my consciousness.' When I think about that, my body starts growing again on Evangeline's lap, returning to its original size as I release my power.
I knew a small threat would make that damned Lolicon give me back my real size.
"...O-Oh...h-hahaha," Evangeline laughs nervously as I look coldly into her eyes as if judging her soul. I get up from her lap and go to a table to grab a glass of wine, while she doesn't follow me.
"I want to see who's going to stop me from drinking," I murmur, taking the glass and downing it all in one go, not like I can get drunk anyway.
'Great, now in addition to the rumor of me being a dragon-human hybrid, the rumor of me dying will also have the rumor that I'm actually a child.' My life in the nobility is surrounded by strange rumors.
I just want this party to end so I can go make Auberon pay dearly for his mistake of challenging me.
Now that I'm back in my adult form, no one dares to approach me, my oppressive aura and barely contained mana spread.
'I'm back exactly to the previous form.' It's literally the adult form without any change, and the 100cm form also hasn't changed since the first time.
In other words, the different forms my body can take are limited to resembling the forms that already exist in my consciousness.
Basically, the 100cm form is based on Tiny Pandora, the adult form is based on Pandora Yandere, and the adolescent form is more or less based on Monster Pandora.
'So the form I had when I was born is based on my own self in the sea of consciousness.' This is interesting to know, it means I can literally have 4 different appearances, and if another consciousness emerges, maybe I can get a fifth appearance.
Although I strongly wish that no one else would show up, 4 of us is already more than enough, more than that would already be terrible, it's already bad enough with just the Pandora Yandere dominating everything as if she owns the place.
I just keep drinking, even though I can't get drunk, until the party ends. I protected my image and gained some points with the royal family, so I think I came out ahead, and this will teach the nobles that they can't just challenge me.