Everyone in the auditorium was well aware of Vanitas Astrea's reputation.
To put it nicely, he was a complicated ultimatum.
To put it harshly, he was a criminal operating under an immunity no one understood.
And to complicate matters even further, he was a man whose brilliance and achievements forced even the most traditional institutions to tolerate him. A man who broke rules, bent laws, and yet somehow remained indispensable.
The upper nobles despised him, the lower nobles disliked him, the common citizens feared him, and the devotees wished him dead. Yet none of it mattered.
Vanitas had long transcended their frustrations and was beyond their reach.
How?
Splatter——
Through absolute power.
Those who dared to oppose them would only end up writing their own epitaphs. Vanitas Astrea moved in that certainty, and everyone watching him knew it.
