Participating in the trial was just a small episode.
Eric just hadn't expected his reputation to take off so quickly in Caen City.
It was the first murder trial Caen City had seen in months, so it had drawn a great deal of attention.
Life was bitter, the future was bleak, and a bit of novelty was the only pleasure to be had.
Many people who had only joined partway through caught bits and pieces of secondhand information. Others hadn't been there at all, but they all joined the clamor, claiming to have witnessed everything and even participated in the debate. They began to hold court in the taverns, regaling everyone with tales of that day's spectacle.
A Cultivator from England versus a venerable Abbot—what a juicy headline.
Thanks to Eric's line of reasoning: "If someone dies in a tavern, the owner should be the one to explain!"
Quite a few bored people started mimicking him, making special trips to taverns just to cheekily repeat the line.
