"I oppose— You're just a—"
Eula had barely finished speaking when someone shot to his feet to pledge loyalty.
Ever since cutting his little deal with Schubert, this was the first time he got to exercise his "power."
He didn't know it would also be the last.
Shing!
Ssssk—
Blood sprayed across the floor. The man who'd been pontificating a heartbeat ago now lay headless.
Eula hadn't spared him the slightest mercy.
The hall froze—not from Anemo or Cryo, but terror. Even Schubert jolted so hard he nearly wet himself.
He hadn't expected Eula to strike so cleanly. A few years ago she'd been a girl he could push around with a few oily words. How had she become this—so decisive, so ruthless?
"Anyone else?" Eula flicked the blood from Song of Broken Pines as if she'd brushed away dust and swept the room with a flat stare.
No one dared breathe, much less speak. Turtles, all of them, shrinking into their shells before life and death.
Eula felt… disappointed. So this was all they were—cowards, strong only in pretense. If she'd known, she wouldn't have bothered having the recon squad surround the estate. A waste of time.
Her scorn must have stung; an elder finally staggered up, voice trembling.
"Eula, stop dreaming. House Lawrence today is not the one that guarded Mondstadt a thousand years ago. We are the descendants of sinners."
"Even if you kill us all, Mondstadt won't be pleased. They'll still treat you as an outsider—as a sinner."
"Your home will always be House Lawrence. Don't be obsti—"
Eula spread her hands, bored. "You done?"
"No, I—"
Shing!
He'd been interrupted—furious, even, that anyone would dare cut him off in "his" hall. Since becoming an elder, no one had talked down to him. He marked the slight, planning to dress Eula down after the meeting.
He'd forgotten that a man who'd done the same not ten seconds earlier now lay in two pieces. Memory failed him a second time—and so did his neck.
"Why is it so hard for some of you to understand plain words?" Eula asked, expression unchanged. "I was very clear: oppose me and you die. Anyone else?"
She didn't say it to the room this time.
She asked it of Schubert—because she was already standing in front of him, Song of Broken Pines resting along his throat. Blood from its edge spattered his lavish robes.
Schubert, a stickler for spotless etiquette, didn't even twitch. One breath wrong and he'd decorate the floor like the last man.
"Eula, don't be hasty!" he babbled. "You want the clan head's seat? I'll abdicate—give it to you. Heh… how about that?"
The obsequious grin erased his former bluster so completely that the other elders turned a sickly shade. If even Schubert wouldn't stand up to her, what chance did the rest of them have?
"Is that so?" Eula's voice was flat. "It seems you do have some self-awareness, Uncle Schubert."
"But funny—I don't feel any sincerity."
She seated herself on the clan head's chair, set Song of Broken Pines upright before her, and rested both hands on the pommel, surveying the chamber. It was a posture she'd learned from Rowan—he liked to plant the Sword of Victory before him, hands upon the hilt, whether sitting or standing. With that gaze that looked down on the world—it was… striking.
"How could we lack sincerity?" Schubert said quickly, hands folded, smile servile. "From today, you are the new clan head of House Lawrence. Do you have orders for us, Clan Head Eula?"
Eula didn't buy a shred of it. She didn't just refuse—she answered with power. Cryo burst from her in a surging tide.
"Ice Surge, Raging Tide!!!"
The flood of frost swallowed the council hall—walls, floor, ceiling, everything inside and out. In a blink, the entire structure and everyone within became sculpted ice.
"Apologies. I don't trust any of you," Eula said, voice echoing through the frozen hush. "What could change people like you?"
"The answer is: nothing. Since you cannot change, the only path left is death."
"In the new Mondstadt, there is no place for relics of the old age."
She ignored the ice statues, took up her greatsword, and walked out.
Snap.
She flicked a finger. The building behind her dissolved with a roar into glittering frost dust and vanished. A hall that covered three hundred square meters—gone.
Eula didn't look back. She headed for the central square.
Outside, the recon squad had been watching for the sign. The council hall's sudden collapse into ice told them all they needed to know.
Without a word, they charged into the estate.
"Captain! Recon squad reporting in!"
They still called her "Captain," not "Vice Grand Master"—they were her own.
Eula rested both hands on her sword and gave a satisfied nod. Then to the deputy at the fore:
"Bring every member of House Lawrence out."
"I have announcements to make."
"Yes, ma'am!"
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For 20+ Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!] [[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]