As if dealing with a video recording, Panteku was able to physically pause the clip than fast forward Homeless Gregor's life by two days.
"Here's another clip that continues this story", it presented.
"From September Sixteen of the same year"
"Do you recognize the people in this image?", Panteku asked, leaving the clip on pause.
"I do", he confirmed, "that's myself, Martin and my English teacher, Julia…Madam Julia I believe"
The still image, or thumbnail rather, had two learners on it Gregor and the Martin he was speaking of in the earlier clip. The two, frozen in time, are standing across their teacher's desk.
When played, the clip began with Gregor side eyeing Martin, while his subject of interest is completely focused on the teacher.
"Mam", Martin is first to speak, "I feel like you've given me too few marks on my essay", he whined, "I put so much effort into it, yet my grade is so low"
"I understand the complaint", teacher said, "and effort is always appreciated, I've told you that"
"But?"
"But. You didn't do what the questions asked of you. You digressed from topic and did something completely different"
"Which is not what I was looking for, I could have penalised you more for that, but I think we can agree I was lenient with you"
"Martin, that's the fairest grade you could have gotten"
"There's no room for creativity in English classes", Martin grunted out of frustration, "or any classes for that matter, and that's mostly because of teachers", he had explicitly expressed.
"There isn't one way of doing things, if teachers knew that, my time in school would be a lot better", he told her before storming out of Cretone's point of focus.
"Are you also here to tell me how to do my job, Gregor?", Madam Julia asked after an awkward moment of silence.
"No", he replied, "not at all, I'm just surprised at his choice of words – that was rude. Sorry about that, I'll return to my seat now"
Without hesitation he relayed the events to his classmate, "see I told you he is a hypocrite"
"I always knew he wasn't as nice as he makes himself to be. I could never say that to my elders"
"People like him are the worst"
And stop. That was all the prosecutor desired.
"Now I take it you perfectly remember your opinion on hypocrites?"
"I do", mumbled Homeless Gregor.
"You had no real reason to be at the teacher's desk that day"
"The only reason why you were there, was to get some dirt on your fellow classmate, taking advantage of his moment of frustration to add some weight to your allegations of him"
"Suspicions which quite frankly were created by your dislike of the popular kid in class"
"But your petty gossiping is of no interest to me right now, or at any point", it stated. "There is something greater I'm trying to prove"
"My dear friend, do you think it's possible to lie to a mind reader?"
"No. I do not think so", the Homeless man replied.
"Very well, I rephrase – can you ever tell a mind reader the truth?"
Not knowing where this was going, or how it'll help his case, he swallowed before answering, "Yes, you can", he claimed.
"And in what way can a non-mind reader be truthful to a mind reader?"
There was deafening silence in the room, as the mortal's confusion grew. With Panteku unambiguously staring at him, he had no courage to look towards his lawyer for some form of guidance either.
Ansi did seem to want to object, but changed its mind and leveraged the moment to scribble a few things in a tiny notebook.
"Objection, your honour", the advocate said when done, "Panteku seems to be beating around the bush, unnecessarily confusing my client"
"Agreed", handler said, "Panteku we all know how you do things, but he is not going to know the answer to all of your questions, so just get to the point"
"God is omnipotent and omniscience", Panteku said, "in fanatic terms both a mind reader and a time traveller"
"And we have evidence that he has prayed nine hundred and twenty nine times, and I'm certain in most of those prayers the mortal was asking the mighty one, an omnipotent being, I emphasise, for forgiveness and promising to do better in regards to the aspect of sins"
"At what point did he stop asking for forgiveness?", the prosecutor inquired, "After the first prayer? The second? Fifth? Or did he sing the same song in every prayer he uttered?"
"To ask for forgiveness is to recognize the sins you've committed", the prosecutor argued.
"It is an admission of guilt, commendable on his part"
"But…imagine, members of the court"
"Imagine, for just a moment you are an omniscient being, and prayer is the primary means for a conversation between a mortal and yourself"
"In one prayer you have a being pleading forgiveness for bad mouthing someone behind their back"
"But remember you exist in eternity so you are a time traveller"
"Thus then you do know that two or three days from now, that same person, Homeless Gregor that is, will commit the same sin, and run back to you asking for forgiveness yet again"
"You are already aware that this will be a recurring act"
"And as a mind reader words are coming out of their mouths, that does not correlate to the thoughts they have in their heads. The intentions of their minds"
"As a time traveller, you see their choices change before your very eyes, as they claim to be something they never attain to"
"I always put it this way", it said, "each time you speak to God, He only receives a lie and an empty promise"
"Thus then each time he prayed, before the eye of a time traveller, all that he did was pretend to change"
"Pretence is hypocrisy", the devil's advocate argued.
"Hypocrisy is pretence"
"And as we watched that was something, he himself acknowledged. To paraphrase the mortal's own words 'hypocrites are the worst'"
"How many times did he walk away as a hypocrite? My uneducated guess would be nine twenty nine times, he built himself nine twenty nine counts of hypocrisy before God"
"For he could not change after asking forgiveness on sins he was aware of"
"Thus again, only pretend to change, but actually never change... a hypocrite"
The Prosecutor concluded.
"Food for thought, members of the court"
"That's all for my opening argument"
"So in summary", Ansi said after Panteku's retreat, "Anyone that prays and doesn't become perfect immediately afterwards is a hypocritical being"
"And by implication, one who does not pray has technically never made any promises to a time traveller, nor lied to a mind reader, because prayer is the most common medium of communication with an omnipotent being, thus someone who has never prayed will technically never appear as a hypocrite", Ansi spoke while blankly staring at the ground and playing with its' foot.
"I'm not sure if you started the way you did to rile things up, or you are still playing around, either way that's one flawed argument you just produced", it stated.
"Very flawed"
And the trial was underway.
"Now I believe everyone here is clever enough to have seen the holes in the chain of reasoning just presented to us"
"The hypocrisy argument fails to account for the fact that my client was and is a mortal"
"Being a mortal comes with its own set of traits, obviously different from that of a God"
"One such quality is the ability to occupy only one timeline"
"The present"
"And since we have already come to this, I have to say out loud that means the inability to simultaneously occupy the future"
"If the mortal had the ability to know his own future while living in the present, then asking for forgiveness and making promises before God, would make hypocrisy a valid argument"
"And even than the argument can only be valid, if said future is reversible by him through his own will"
"And not an irreversible fate", the Advocate argued. Now it too was getting into gear.