Kangaroo Court Chaos, part 4.

"Bring in the character witnesses!" Sena declared, and Chris, Kyouya and Dust were brought in. Kazuma blinked, wondering what Alderp's game was. He was on decent terms with all three of these people... "Chris first," Sena droned. "Is it true that the defendant used the Steal skill to remove your underwear in public?"

"Um, well, yes, that is true," Chris said awkwardly. "But it was an accident on his part, and-"

"We got our answer, that will do!" Alderp snapped, not giving Chris the chance to give further context.

"...right, you may go," Sena stated hesitantly, against Chris's protests.

'So that's his game... Get the answers he wants, and not letting the witness clarify any extenuating context...' Kazuma mentally groused.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to call them back in later during your turn to question witnesses," Ria said. "...just to be sure though..." she floated over to Kyouya and whispered in his ear the moment he was called.

"Is it true that the defendant cheated in a duel against you, and also bet his party members? As well as almost steal your sword?" Sena asked.

"...in that order, no, only after I did it first, and not steal it, given he would have won it as part of the bet of the duel, before he was convinced to take my coin purse instead," Kyouya answered, no doubt coached by Ria, not that the court could do a damn thing about it, since they had no idea. He was also giving Alderp a clearly dirty look, not even trying to hide his disdain for the man. "He won it fair and square.

"...then why do people say Kazuma cheated in the duel?" Sena pressed after getting a glare from Alderp.

Ria whispered in Kyouya's ear again, and he responded, "We never established rules in the duel, so anything went, and considering that I had challenged a clearly inferior opponent on paper, my own conduct was more unfair than his. He was well within his rights to fight dirty, which he did," Kyouya responded, giving the context BEFORE the answer they wanted so they couldn't do the same thing as they did to Chris as intended.

Alderp gnashed his teeth as he realized what Kyouya had done. "No further questions!" he snapped.

They then called in Dust, and asked if he was friends with Kazuma, and when he said he was, they pointed out what a miscreant Dust often was, clearly implying Kazuma was the same without outright saying it.

"Is it true you're friends with this miscreant?" Sena asked Kazuma.

"...I'm not impressed with his conduct, but yes, we are on fairly friendly terms," Kazuma replied.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Dust protested. Ding! The bell went off, causing many to snigger as Dust huffed.

"That will do," Sena replied. "I do believe that this testimony is sufficient to establish what kind of character the defendant has..."

"Objection! The defense council has the right to ask the witnesses some questions too, do they not?" Kazuma asked remembering Ria's advice. "Were you trying to skip over that?"

"Gurk... No, of course not," Alderp lied impulsively. Ding! He jumped, having forgotten about the bell, and Kazuma sniggered at his idiocy. "Grrr, fine, bring the witnesses back in!"

"Just Chris will do, she's the only one you successfully cut off before she could give context," Kazuma noted, digging his pinkie in his ear.

With Chris back in, Darkness asked her for more details about the whole panty theft incident. "Well, I was teaching Kazuma the Steal skill, and challenged him to take something more valuable than the contents of his wallet. He used the skill, and ended up with my panties," Chris explained.

"And is it true that the Steal Skill is random, and thus, Kazuma had no control over what he grabbed?" Darkness asked.

"Yes, that is true," Chris replied.

"No further questions," Darkness stated.

"Regardless!" Alderp cut in as Chris was escorted back out. "We do still have evidence that the accused is in league with the Devil King!"

"And just what is your basis for that?" Megumin demanded, Kazuma noting that Alderp hadn't outright said he was in league with the Devil King, only that he had evidence, which would be true, even if it was only flimsy evidence. So he did know how to word things to fool the bell to some extent...

Sena cleared her throat, and pulled up the list of supposed evidence.