A man with glasses and perfectly parted black hair stood at the stand. He gave off the air of an academic, but he was pretty ripped. Like a stereotypical nerd and stereotypical jock had a kid.

Well, I guess kids didn’t just inherit stuff like that from their parents. So it was more like a stereotypical nerd and stereotypical jock had a kid, and then that kid studied really hard in school and took an interest in fitness. That didn’t quite have the same ring to it though.

As I was pondering this extremely important distinction, Violetta tapped me on my shoulder. “Ryley… shouldn’t we, um, start asking some questions?” Oh yeah. Trial.

I cleared my throat, trying to make it seem like I had been in deep thought about something less stupid. “Uhh… Please state your name and your relationship with the victim.”

The man lifted his hand to adjust his glasses. “My name is Sidkik,” he said, his voice neither too high nor too deep. “I’m… I was one of Prowteg’s teammates. And also his friend.”

“How long have the two of you been friends?” I asked.

“Ever since we were in high school,” he said. “So… I’d say it’s been almost fifteen years.”

Finally, someone that spoke to the point without trying to make it obvious they didn’t want to be here. Probably a rarity, even in a real court. “Have you noticed anything strange about Prowteg in the last few days?”

Sidkik stood silently for a moment before answering. “Yes. For the last month… Prowteg hasn’t been himself.” Seriously? And he was telling me right now? No ‘oh I forgot he actually hit his foot’ after I was already on the brink of losing? Best witness ever.

“What do you mean by that?” I tried to hold back my excitement. It was time to play it cool.

“This is great!” Violetta yelled. Everyone in the room stopped, focusing on her. “I… didn’t mean to say that out loud. Sorry, everyone.” Playing it cool.

“Y-You don’t have to a-a-apologize!” Minzfel, who was being surprisingly well behaved, said. “This is great! You’re doing great! A-Awesome!” Cool.

Violetta smiled, waving toward the throne. “Thanks, Prince!”

The king sent a thumbs up in my direction for some reason. Seriously, why the fuck did he keep doing that?

I waited until the awkward moment had passed. “Anyway… Can you, uh, please explain what was different about Prowteg?” Every time I thought I was getting into the rhythm of this, someone had to fuck it up by being weird.

Sidkik lifted his hand to adjust his glasses again. Did they not fit him right or something? “Ever since I met Prowteg, he’s always loved bocce ball.”

I shouldn’t have found that funny. Having a hobby is good. Really though… bocce?

“He always gave it his all in every game,” Sidkik continued. “It was like he was most alive when he was on the field.” Ouch. Ironic.

“So you’re saying that changed?”

“It did.” Sidkik’s response caused much more of an uproar than I had expected. Especially with Violetta. She was practically sobbing.

“Can you be more specific?”

“He just stopped putting his all into it,” Sidkik said, his shoulders dropping a little. “He started getting sloppy. Two of the games we’ve lost in the World Series were because of errors he made.”

“I mean… doesn’t that just mean he’s losing his touch or something?” I asked.

“Ryley!” Violetta slapped me on the arm. “Don’t be rude!” As far as I was concerned, slapping people on the arm was rude. So take that.

“Sorry, I’m not saying it right.” Sidkik smiled weakly. “It wasn’t the mistakes that made me think he’d changed. It was his attitude afterward. The old Prowteg would be upset, and then work hard so he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

This past month… he just didn’t seem to care anymore.”

“How sad…” the king said.

Sad? Yeah, sure. Was something like that really that strange though? I wasn’t a sports expert or anything, but I assumed it was pretty common for pro players to lose their passion.

“Coach Coach!” Violetta leaned on our special table, yelling out into the crowd. “Did you notice a change in Prowteg too?” Whoa, when did she get all serious?

A feathered figure sat near the front of the audience. “I… I noticed it too,” he said. “I tried to hide my eyes from it, but… I guess he did seem less motivated.”

“Alright, we can come back to that later,” I said. I wasn’t even sure how useful that information was. “Can you tell us what you were doing at the stadium last night after practice ended at 7:00? I understand that you didn’t leave until just before 9.”

“I stayed late to practice.” Sidkik crossed his toned arms. “I… lost track of time, I suppose.”

“Did you see Prowteg at all while you were there?”

Sidkik didn’t hesitate to answer. “I saw him practicing in the field at around 7:30. McGee was practicing there too.”

“Did you join them?”

Sidkik looked down at the table in front of him. “No… It just… didn’t feel right. I went to the weight room instead.”

Violetta slammed her hands down. Holy shit. “It didn’t feel right to practice with your teammate? With your friend?” Jeez, was she this intense just because she liked bocce ball?

Sidkik’s eyes remained firmly directed away from us. “Well… to be honest… Prowteg and I haven’t been talking much for the past few weeks…”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“We…” For the first time, Sidkik seemed like he was hesitating. “We just stopped talking.”

“Sir Sidkik, I will stop you right there.” Lyili had been silent, but now she was speaking like this was the moment she had been waiting for. “This is the moment I have been waiting for.” Yeah, my tonal reading skills were on point.

I sighed. “Care to share your ‘moment’ with us?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d like to share all kinds of ‘moments’ with me, you filthy man!”

“Yeah, I would,” I said without thinking. Whatever. She was going to think I was coming onto her no matter what I said.

Lyili blushed. “W-What?”

“Umm, Ms. Lyili?” the king spoke up. “Did you have something to say, or…”

Lyili tried to recompose herself, but she was still as bright as a tomato. “Y-Yes, your majesty. I would like to accuse another demon of participating in Prowteg’s murder.” The crowd started to murmur.

Wait, what?

“You see, I became aware of some interesting information pertaining to Sir Prowteg’s personal life during my investigation,” she said. “It wasn’t long ago that some of the Janitor players began making visits to a certain orphanage…” Oh god. Lyili slammed her fists down on her table so hard that I swear I heard something snap. “The very orphanage that our escapee, Madam Suza, works at! Why else would she have disappeared from this very court room?” Come on. She couldn’t think of even one other reason?

Predictably, the crowd needed to talk about this as loud as they could.

Deja vu. Even if they hadn’t realized it, they had already accused Suza of the murder. I looked over at the blue haired thief. Even from far away, I could see that her face was covered in sweat.

I slammed my hands down on my table. It hurt like fuck, but it created the desired effect of shutting everyone up. “What’s your point?” I asked. “How does this have anything to do with my question to Sidkik?”

Lyili gave me a confident smile. “It’s simple, Sir Allard. She is the reason they became distant,” she said. “I believe Madam Suza and Sir Prowteg started to see each other… romantically. Soon, he no longer needed the company of his friend.”

“Uhh… And where are you getting that, exactly?”

“No… it’s true,” Sidkik said. Uh-oh. “The Janitors going to that orphanage was supposed to be a onetime thing…” He fixed his glasses. “But he… he and I started going there regularly.”

I had a bad feeling about this.

Sidkik bit down on his lip. “It wouldn’t surprise me… if that woman killed him!”

Yeah. Definitely bad.