A hand over Luke's face, and another over Zhiang's, Kane arrived first.
"They don't know their role, Jane."
Jane, who had been at the back of the room with Kane, appeared behind him.
'How did she get there so fast?'—Luke thought.
Luke and Zhiang stopped their run, and stepped back at that same instant.
"Let's teach them, Kane."
The twins moved in, and Luke and Zhiang prepared to evade immediately. Kane attacked Zhiang, throwing a kick at his head, Zhiang lowered slightly, dodging the kick, and used the movement as leverage for a hook to Kane's ribs.
Even if it wouldn't cause damage, the best way to avoid being hit was to strike first. Luke, on the other hand, chose a different strategy, Jane advanced covering her blade with her body, Luke understood, and stepped back, creating distance.
Jane, seeing she failed to hide her intent to attack, began chasing Luke, and Luke kept his distance, resulting in a "cat and mouse" situation. Luke ran until he realized he was about to reach the end of the hall, and would need a very sharp turn, but his momentum was already too great, and the same applied to Jane.
Luke increased his pace even more, stepping on the wall, turning his ankle and his body completely to the right, and pushing himself with all the strength his body had, Luke left the wall where the door was and moved toward the side wall.
As soon as he placed his feet on the wall,
[ Innate Ability: Multi-surface Movement ]
Luke didn't fall from the wall, he continued running on it just like he did on the ground, Jane, who hadn't anticipated that variable, Jane didn't stop, she hit the wall, and continued chasing him.
'What is-.. forget it, later.'
Jane, seeing that Luke was now running along the walls, searched for another way to reach him.
"It really is a cockroach..."
Luke ran, trying to reach the throne, but chains from multiple directions began chasing him, Luke kept dodging them, with them almost hitting him, by mere centimeters.
Zhiang was constantly exchanging blows with Kane.
Too fast.
Almost invisible.
But Zhiang was still keeping up.
Kane threatened to draw his blade from its sheath, and Zhiang reacted immediately, kicking his wrist away, and following with a higher strike to his face.
Kane, for a brief moment, felt dominated, and gradually began to let his anger take over, losing the timing of his strikes, counters, and defenses. Kane began to simply take hits, nothing hurt him, but it irritated him more and more.
"You... you..."
Jane, who was still trying to hit Luke with the chains, noticed her brother's difficulty, and immediately turned her back on Luke, and ran toward Kane and Zhiang's fight.
Luke took advantage of the distraction, and moved toward the jewels.
Jane was getting closer to Kane.
"Control yourself, Kane!"
"I can't, Jane..."—Kane pushed Zhiang, he didn't understand how such a basic move caught him off guard. Kane began to bend forward, and cry uncontrollably.
"He won't let me hit him, he won't, Jane!"
Luke was getting closer and closer to the jewels, just a few seconds and he would be there.
Jane moved closer to Kane.
"Oh no! Don't... don't cry... if you do... I..."—Jane began crying as well, just like her brother, and Luke finally reached the throne, he grabbed the nearest jewel, a bracelet, at that moment, the twins spoke together again.
"A...a...act-"
"Act 2!"
Luke, while hearing the twins' announcement, crushed the bracelet in his hands, and at that instant, while they shouted their new act, Kane's arm exploded.
"M...MY...ARM, JANE! IT... HURTS"
Silence, for a moment.
Luke stood still, he didn't understand why.
The system message appeared again, but at that moment, something changed, Luke realized he couldn't move no matter how much strength he used.
[ Act 2: The Princess's Pride ]
[ Updating scenario ]
Again.
Luke was no longer in the throne room, nor in the palace from before, now he was in a courtroom, and in the judge's seat, one of the twins was sitting, and on the table in front of him, were the two blades and a single jewel, a pendant.
"You hurt us... but we know our role, we do it right, and in this act, you will follow it as well, if you want to live."
Luke and Zhiang were below him, in the place where the accused stands, Luke took a step forward.
"Look here-"
"SILENCE!"
Luke couldn't finish his sentence, he felt a greater force, forcing him to stay quiet.
"Luke, it's not like before..."
"What do you mean?"
"We'll find out."
The twin sitting in the judge's position stood up, he was wearing a typical judge's outfit, along with the wig, but on his forehead, there was no name.
"You are accused of harming the royal pride, damaging one of the prince's precious jewels, the sentence for this crime is death."
Luke and Zhiang understood what they had to do, that was a formal accusation scenario.
"Your Honor, with all due respect to your authority, but how can I defend myself without a lawyer?"—Zhiang pointed out.
The judge widened his eyes, grabbed the gavel on his table, and began striking the table frantically.
"I WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG AGAIN!"
Luke and Zhiang were startled, but in moments, his expression returned to normal.
"You are correct, let a defender be provided for the accused."
From the entrance door, a man in a suit appeared, with slicked hair, pale skin, dark circles under his eyes, tall, and with a very thin appearance.
He stopped beside the two.
"Hello... I am the defender of your... case, I will do my... best."
"But do you know what is going on?"—Luke asked.
"Of course... I saw... the fight."
Both found the statement strange, but accepted the Judge's goodwill.
"Now... returning to the case! Accused, how do you plead to the accusation?"
The lawyer spoke first.
"My clients plead and are innocent, Your Honor."
The sudden firmness in his voice was unsettling.
"Oh... There is evidence, counselor!"
The judge proceeded to throw the bracelet Luke crushed onto the floor.
"Here it is! The undeniable proof that these two are traitors to the kingdom, and that they dishonored the royal noble blood!"
The judge paused.
"Sentence.
Death."