Captain Vance's face darkened instantly at my words, veins bulging along his thick neck.
"Insolent brat!" Captain Vance bellowed, his voice laced with the thunderous roar of his Martial Master core. He drew his spirit-forged saber halfway from its scabbard, the blade gleaming with a menacing, fiery orange qi that caused the morning air to ripple with blistering heat. "You dare threaten an officer of the Imperial Garrison on academy grounds?!"
"Threaten?" I scoffed softly, ascending another marble step without a shred of hesitation. "I am merely stating a legal reality, Captain Vance. You wear the uniform of the City Garrison, yet you stand here acting as a personal thug for your nephew. The Board of Trustees has seven permanent seats—and the Roy estate holds the veto over student disciplinary actions involving board members."
From behind Captain Vance, the heavy wooden doors of the auditorium swung fully open once more.
Vice Principal Rosette stepped out onto the landing, clad in a sleek, obsidian teaching robe with gold embroidery along the sleeves. Her heterochromatic eyes—one icy blue, the other crimson—scanned the gathered crowd with sharp authority before settling heavily upon me.
"That is enough, Captain Vance," Rosette announced, her voice carrying across the entire plaza with the crisp resonance of an elemental expert. "Amar Roy is still a student of this institution and an heir to a founding trustee seat. His trial will be conducted under the proper bylaws of the Golden Star Disciplinary Tribunal—not as a public brawl on the front steps."
She turned her gaze toward Lina, her eyes narrowing as she observed the faint, radiant vigor humming beneath the girl's skin.
"Miss Lina," Rosette said, her tone dipping into a smooth, calculated sweetness that felt entirely rehearsed. "You have been placed under unnecessary duress over the last twenty-four hours. Please come to my side. The Academy Council will guarantee your absolute safety and ensure no external party uses financial leverage to control your future."
Lina stood beside me, her body frozen.
Deep within her mind, the ethereal female voice chimed once more, cold and detached:
"Hmph. A mere half-step Grandmaster relying on crude elemental fire, daring to scheme against my Dragon Palace successor. Little girl, ignore that venomous woman. The boy beside you possesses a bizarre, invisible death-aura far more dangerous than anything in this courtyard. Stay close to him for now."
Lina swallowed hard, her heart pounding frantically against her ribs as she processed the immortal's warning. Instead of moving toward Rosette, Lina took half a step closer to my side, her fingers tightening around the sleeve of my jacket.
Rosette's smile stiffened, a flash of irritation breaking through her polished mask before she quickly smoothed it over.
"Very well," Rosette said curtly. "Amar Roy, Miss Lina, Captain Vance—enter the Grand Tribunal Hall immediately. The session is now in order."
The Grand Tribunal Hall was an imposing, semicircular chamber built from obsidian stone and reinforced with spirit-dampening arrays embedded in the walls. High above the floor sat the elevated bench of the five presiding adjudicators, flanked by banners bearing the seven crests of the Star Empire.
Arthur sat smugly at the prosecutor's table alongside two family legal retainers, his eyes burning with triumphant malice as I walked down the central aisle and took my seat at the defense podium. Lina was escorted to a designated witness bench just three paces behind me.
"Let the tribunal commence," the Chief Adjudicator declared, slamming a heavy jade gavel onto the stone dais. "Case number 409: Charges against Amar Roy for illegal possession of Class-A military ordnance, unauthorized deployment of lethal weaponry in civilian zones, and coercion of student Lina."
Arthur immediately stood up, slamming his open palms onto the wooden table.
"Honorable Adjudicators!" Arthur projected his voice with dramatic indignation. "Yesterday morning, dozens of students witnessed Amar Roy physically drag Lina from campus. When concerned citizens and officers approached his mansion to verify her safety, his estate deployed military-grade kinetic cannons and threatened mass slaughter! He treats the laws of the Star Empire like dirt simply because he inherited a fortune!"
The gallery of noble students and academy elders murmured in agreement, their hostile glares pinning me to the podium.
"Mr. Roy," the Chief Adjudicator spoke coldly. "How do you respond to the charge of deploying banned Class-A military arms against imperial citizens?"
I stood up straight, brushing a speck of invisible dust from the cuff of my uniform jacket.
"I plead entirely not guilty," I said smoothly.
"Lies!" Captain Vance barked from the gallery. "We have the video logs of the heavy muzzles deployed at your gates!"
"And what did those video logs show, Captain Vance?" I countered, my eyes locking onto his with an icy, mocking glare. "They showed an unsanctioned mob of armed individuals smashing through the emergency perimeter gates of a private estate without a court-issued warrant or an imperial search directive."
I raised my right hand, tapping a small holographic projection crystal on my podium. A glowing azure screen flared to life in the center of the hall, displaying the official imperial legal codex in bold, golden text.
"According to Imperial Territorial Law, Section 3, Subsection B: Any registered high-tier private estate facing unauthorized, forcible breach by armed entities is legally granted full lethal defense authorization, including the temporary unsealing of state-licensed defense reserves."
I turned my head toward the bench of adjudicators.
"My estate manufactures those weapons under direct Class-4 manufacturing licenses granted by the Ministry of War. We used standard automated defense protocols against a hostile breach. The only individuals guilty of a crime yesterday... were your nephew and his armed hooligans who damaged my property."
The adjudicators leaned toward each other, whispering in hurried, hushed tones as they reviewed the legal clauses displayed in front of them. Arthur's face flushed a deep, violent crimson, his hands trembling with rage.
"And what about Lina?!" Arthur yelled desperately, breaking protocol. "You forced her! You made her enter your car!"
"Is that so?" I turned slightly, looking back at Lina. "Miss Lina, you are under imperial witness oath. Tell the adjudicators: did I kidnap you, or did you accompany me of your own free will to conduct your spirit awakening?"
Every eye in the Grand Tribunal Hall snapped toward Lina.
Lina took a deep, shuddering breath. She glanced at Arthur, whose eyes were practically begging her to ruin me, and then at Rosette, who was watching her with a sharp, expectant glare. Finally, her eyes met mine.
She remembered the fifty thousand star coins sent to the orphanage that morning. She remembered me kneeling before her with tears in my eyes. She remembered the warmth of my arms catching her as the golden dragons roared in her soul.
"I went with Amar entirely of my own free will," Lina spoke, her voice clear, resolute, and echoing through the chamber. "He provided me with awakening resources that the academy refused to grant me. He never harmed me, and I was never held against my wishes."
BANG!
Arthur's legal retainer grabbed Arthur's shoulder, forcing him back into his chair as the young man looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel.
"The witness testimony is conclusive," the Chief Adjudicator announced after a brief pause, striking his gavel once more. "The charge of student coercion is hereby dismissed. Regarding the estate defense incident, Mr. Roy acted within the boundaries of territorial defense law. However, due to the public disturbance created, the Roy estate is fined fifty thousand star coins to the city administrative pool."
"Fifty thousand star coins is acceptable," I said smoothly, giving a shallow, mocking bow.
As the tribunal began to adjourn and the crowd prepared to clear the hall, Arthur pushed past his retainers, storming toward my podium with his fists clenched, his aura flaring erratically.
"You think you won, Amar?!" Arthur hissed under his breath, leaning close enough for only me and Lina to hear. "You think some legal loopholes make you untouchable? In three weeks, the Annual Academy Ranking Tournament begins. In the arena, there are no estate gates, no lawyers, and no trust fund to hide behind. I will tear you limb from limb in front of the entire empire!"
I didn't step back. Instead, I leaned in slightly, a cold, almost imperceptible smirk touching my lips.
"I look forward to it, Arthur," I murmured.
As I spoke, I subtly willed a single microscopic command to the surface of my skin.
From the tip of my index finger, an invisible droplet of sweat containing fifty active Bacteriophage Clones detached into the air, carried by the ambient convective draft generated by Arthur's heated martial aura.
The microscopic viral clones drifted across the six-inch gap, slipping silently past Arthur's coarse nasal hairs and embedding themselves deep within the mucosal lining of his respiratory tract.
[Microscopic Deployment Successful.]
[Target Infected: Arthur Vance (Martial Practitioner Stage).]
[Fifty Phage Clones anchored to target's respiratory epithelium. Silent parasitic monitoring initiated.]
The blue status text flickered quietly across my peripheral vision before vanishing.
Arthur had no idea that while he was making grand threats about the tournament in three weeks, fifty microscopic clones of my soul were already making themselves at home inside his lungs, ready to multiply and devour his martial meridians whenever I gave the word.
"Let's go, Lina," I said softly, turning my back on the furious young master and offering my arm to the girl who held my past and my future.