Pangu had only just become Director of Creditor Affairs——
when Wanquan's summons arrived.
The judge wasn't the Creditor's man, and he hadn't opened court to get anyone off.
But the Supreme True God had long since reserved a box on his own report for "the judge."
This judge had once sent back a file in which the Supreme True God demanded direct punishment, requiring him to supply evidence and procedure. The Supreme True God had never forgotten.
This time, too, the judge didn't wait for his wishes.
——
The Court of True Gods
Wanquan stood in the defendant's box.
Judge: "Fraud. Do you have anything to say?"
Wanquan: "I didn't trick him into handing over the evidence. I appointed him, so he had to hand it over."
Judge: "You altered his will, so he took your demand as his own duty."
Wanquan: "That's called fraud?"
Judge: "The *Code of True Gods* has no separate crime of brainwashing. But Article 137 clearly states: whoever, without lawful authorization, uses false perception or forcibly alters another's will to make them hand over property, data, or rights shall be punished for fraud."
He pointed to the file.
"You had the authority to stop illegal transfers inside the world, but you had no compulsory evidence warrant issued by the Court of True Gods. Your appointment took every secret report involving a True God from outside the world."
"The evidence being real doesn't mean the means of obtaining it is exempt from this article."
Wanquan took a deep breath: "I did it to protect the world."
The judge was silent for three seconds.
Then he opened the ruling report Wanquan's brother had submitted.
"Your brother's report is very clear: the funds were still inside the world, Qianhui froze that batch of transfers, and Shanjue then ruled that the whole chain of transfers was void from the outset."
"Those reserves returned to their original account before interest day."
Wanquan said: "Because we stopped it."
"Stopping it isn't a crime in itself," the judge said. "The Creditor's liability is being tried separately. What this case judges is your act of forcibly obtaining secret reports. That can't be counted as lawful just on the strength of the words 'protecting the world.'"
"Before, he never acted, and my application was sent back. When he finally did act, I had half a second. If I'd waited for a warrant then, would he have left the records for us?"
The judge paused.
"So you're claiming emergency evidence collection and asking for exemption."
"Yes."
"But you were able to stop the transfers. When the immediate harm can be stopped, forcibly obtaining the secret reports of a True God from outside the world doesn't fall within the legal scope of emergency evidence collection."
Wanquan looked at him.
"So we stop it this time, and wait for the next? Keep waiting until the one time we don't stop it?"
The judge put the report back.
"I know why you did it. But this article doesn't list preventing future offenses as grounds for exemption."
He could have stopped there.
But he looked at Wanquan and said one more thing.
"As for your belief that the world would certainly be worse in the Creditor's hands——on that, I see it differently."
"I've tried more than forty causal-debt cases."
"More than forty Creator Gods owed him divine power. Not one of those worlds completely stopped running."
"I even went to one of them."
The judge turned the file to another page.
"Before the takeover, people in the city were beaten to death over food every day."
"In the third year of the takeover, compute supply stabilized, the granaries were full, the hospitals reopened, and no one on the streets was fighting over bread."
Wanquan didn't move.
The judge looked at him.
"I know how many tactics he used before he got the world."
"Contracts, interest, pressure, driving people to where they had no way out."
"I'm not defending those tactics."
He tapped the file with a finger.
"But once a world really ended up in his hands, he didn't squeeze the people in it to death just because he'd already won."
"He kept buying compute, kept the hospitals open, kept handing out food, kept order running."
"Looking only at after the takeover, it was no different from life under any other Creator God."
"Some were even more stable."
——
He looked up.
"You set a trap to obtain secret reports in order to bring the Creditor to court. What I'm judging is the means you used for that step."
——
"I don't approve of his means. But if a takeover lets more people live, I think that outcome is worth it."
"What if people go hungry precisely because he blocked their way first?" Wanquan asked.
The judge didn't answer right away.
"Letting people live first is still worth it. But that doesn't cancel out his earlier crimes."
"Nor can it be used to prove that you shouldn't have stopped him."
The whole court went silent.
He looked at Wanquan.
"Let me ask you."
"A man has no food tonight. What does he need first——freedom, or food?"
"Food," Wanquan said. "That's why we made sure supply was enough first. We didn't ask him to trade his freedom for it."
The judge asked again:
"What you protect is a world that will always hurt."
"Who are the good people?"
"Who are the bad?"
Wanquan didn't speak.
——
Verdict
The judge drew his gaze back and read the verdict.
"Governance after a takeover is not grounds for conviction in this case."
"The defendant obtained evidence to protect the world, and not for personal gain, so the statutory minimum sentence under this article applies. The charge of fraud is upheld. One thousand years' imprisonment, effective immediately."
The gavel came down.
Wanquan walked into the cell and sat down.
——
Three days later
The cell door opened.
The Supreme True God stood in the doorway.
"Pangu says his son's been locked up. Get up."
Wanquan looked up.
The Supreme True God handed a review order to the jailer.
It read: Acting in office to preserve a world; evidence collection ratified retroactively; original verdict overturned.
He glanced toward the court: "That judge will soon be ours to deal with. Let's go."
Wanquan walked out of the cell.
Pangu was standing outside.
Father and son looked at each other.
No one spoke.
Wanquan walked over and stood beside his father.
The Supreme True God: "I told you I'd cover for you."
Pangu nodded: "I know."
——
The Judge's Fate
The judge was ordered detained on suspicion of abusing judicial power and obstructing creditor relief. The order was signed by the Supreme True God, and cited the very verdict that had just been overturned.
He was led away, past the cell Wanquan had been in.
Empty.
He stood in the doorway, muttering: "I was only following the law...letting people have food, is that wrong too..."
The jailer prodded him: "Get in."
In the distance, the Supreme True God and Pangu were drinking tea.
He glanced at his report.
The box marked "judge" was lightly crossed out.
Done.
There was one more box on the report.
It had the Creditor's name in it.
He looked at it for a long time, and didn't cross it out.
——
No one could get into the place where the Creditor was held.
Only one person could walk in.
The 20th Supreme True God stood outside the cell door.
The Creditor looked up.
"My lord."
"Do you still remember me?"
"I am your loyal child. One of the Three Great Hounds. Murky Oil, Who Forces Surrender."
The Supreme True God didn't answer.
"Could it be...I'm no longer useful?"
"You're very useful."
"You've always been very useful."
"But Pangu is more useful than you now."
"I think very highly of him."
"That's all."
——
He meant it.
Only useful things are worth taking.
——
The Supreme True God turned away.
"Father..."
He didn't look back.
——
The judge, locked up.
The Creditor, locked up.
Wanquan, unharmed.
The Supreme True God, one more achievement on his record.
Only the judge might have been innocent.
But he was locked in the same prison as the Creditor.