Chapter 18—The Eye of Truth.
Chapter 18—The Eye of Truth.
The heavy footsteps of the elite guards echoed through the vaulted medical wing like distant thunder. Within thirty minutes of the spatial breach, the Academy had been placed under complete martial lockdown.
Heavy enchanted iron grates slammed down over every exit, and the perimeter barrier glowed blinding, iridescent gold.
Inside the shattered infirmary, Kaelen lay back on his wooden cot, keeping his breathing intentionally shallow.
Beneath his skin, the dark violet channels of his newly acquired Void Echo pulsed faintly before settling into a dormant state.
SWOOSH
The heavy wooden doors swung open.
Tsubaki walked in, returning directly from the senior instructor’s Briefings Hall, where head instructor Vance had summoned him for initial questioning.
His face was a mask of cold noble indifference, though a thin bead of sweat trickled down his temple.
Walking right beside him was a tall woman draped in the pitch-black robes of the Imperial Inquisition, Lady Vaspera.
Her face was partially hidden behind a silver porcelain mask, and in her right hand, she carried a floating, crystalline orb that burned with an eerie azure flame: The Eye of the Truth, a high-grade imperial relic designed to register the slightest tremor in a person’s soul when speaking.
"We have heard your account in the Briefing Hall, Lord Iwanome," Lady Vaspera’s metallic voice echoed as Vance followed them into the room.
" Now, we shall cross-examine your statement with the commoner and witness the assault."
Lady Vaspera’s hidden gaze swept across the cracked stone floor, coming to a stop directly at the edge of Kaelen’s cot.
"A level 4 spatial barrier was dismantled in this room, Vance," she noted coldly.
"And yet, a talentless commoner with an unformed mana core survived the blast completely unscathed."
She raised the crystal orb. The azure flame flickered, expanding until it cast a sharp, revealing light over Kaelen’s pale face.
[WARNING: Imperial Truth Scanning Protocol Detected. ]
[ Relic Authority Identified: Grade 3 Detection Matrix.]
[ SYSTEM INTERACTION: Deploying Passive Countermeasure—Void Camouflage.]
Kaelen felt an icy thread of energy wrap around his heart. The system was not blocking the scan; it was actively distorting the resonance of the crystal orb, converting every potential spike of nervousness into a false signal of pure, terrified innocence.
"State your name and rank, commoner,"
Lady Vaspera commanded.
"Kaelen class 3-C, my Lady," Kaelen stammered, force-feeding a tremor into his jaw while keeping his eyes wide with manufactured fear.
"Lord Iwanome stated in the Briefing Hall that he shielded you from Senior Elite Rylan’s spatial blades before your ancestral core was shattered. Is his account accurate?"
"Yes, my lady!" Kaelen whimpered, clutching his blood-stained bandage tightly.
"I... I was pinned to the floor. The spatial pressure was crushing my chest.
If Lord Tsubaki hadn’t drawn his blade and stepped between us, I would be dead."
The floating orb hummed softly, its azure flame remaining completely still and clear, a perfect confirmation of truth.
Lady Vaspera shifted her gaze back to Tsubaki. Tsubaki’s jaw tightened for a fraction of a second.
He looked down at Kaelen, meeting the pitch-black void hidden deep behind Kaelen’s feigned terror.
Tsubaki swallowed hard, recalling the absolute threat Kaelen held over his lineage.
"As I told you during the debriefing, Lady Vaspera, "Tsubaki spoke, his voice firm and laced with arrogant pride.
" The commoner was dead weight. The assassin struck my ancestral pendant directly during our clash, causing the core to implode before he fled."
The crystal orb flared with a gentle blue light once more. No deception registered.
Lady Vaspera lowered the artifact. "An unfortunate loss for House Iwanome, but the testimonies in the Briefing Hall and here align perfectly. The capital will hunt down Rylan."
However, before the inquisitor could turn away, the temperature in the room plummeted violently.
CRACK
The heavy stone window behind Kaelen’s cot exploded inward. A vortex of unstable, violet-black spatial mana tore through the air.
Out from the distortion leaped a figure, torso covered in dark, blood-soaked rags, eyes burning with madness. Rylan had not fled the campus.
Driven by the poison of his ruined mana matrix and the absolute fear of failing his imperial masters, he had returned for a suicide strike aimed straight at Tsubaki’s throat!
"If I am to be erased, I will take you both with me," Rylan shrieked.
Vance drew his broadsword with a roar, but the spatial compression around Rylan’s body was too dense, repelling the instructors for a vital fraction of a second.
Tsubaki froze, caught off guard.
Not on my watch, kaelen though coldy.
Without lifting his body or breaking his persona, Kaelen flicked his right wrist beneath the thin blanket.
[ SKILL ACTIVATED: Void Echo (Targeted Pulse).]
[Raw Energy Consumption: -30 Points.]
A microscopic needle of dark energy shot from Kaelen’s fingertips, completely invisible to the naked eye. It struck the exact center of Rylan’s bleeding chest wound, the precise point where Tsubaki had cut him earlier.
BZZZT
The spatial mana stabilizing Rylan’s strike turned inside out. The compressed void collapsed in on itself, sucking Rylan’s own blade backward into his chest.
THWACK
Rylan gasped, his eyes bulging as his own poisoned dagger buried itself deep into his heart. He slammed face down onto the floor right at Tsubaki’s feet, twitched once, and lay completely still.
Silence falls over the room.
"His spatial matrix backfired," Vance breathed, shaking his head.
"The destabilization from his earlier wound in the fight must have collapsed his magic mid-thrust."
"A pathetic end for a traitor," Lady Vaspera said coldly, turning away.
"Clear the body. The investigation is concluded."
As the guards hauled Rylan’s corpse away, Tsubaki slowly lowered his gaze. He looked at Rylan, then looked at Kaelen, who was once again curled on his cot, shivering like a helpless victim.
Tsubaki knew the truth. Kaelen had killed a Rank 2 Senior Elite from a bed with a single invisible flick of his wrist while completely fooling an imperial Inquisitor and confirming the lie told in the Briefing Hall.
[QUEST UPDATE: The noble puppet (Phase 1 complete).]
[Target’s Loyalty/Fear Index: Increased to 88%.]
[Reward Unlocked: +200 Rad Energy, Title : Shadow Masters.]
The heavy oak doors clicked shut as the last of the guards hauled Rylan’s corpse into the hallway. The suffocating presence of the inquisitor slowly dissipated, leaving the ruined medical wing in a heavy, fragile silence.
Kaelen didn’t move immediately. He remained still, listening to the fading footsteps until he was certain the hallway was clear. Then, without a sound, he pushed himself up from the cot.
The shivering, fragile commoner vanished instantly. Kaelen sat on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees, his pitch-black eyes fixing Tsubaki with an icy, calculating gaze.
Tsubaki staggered back a half-step, his hand reflexively hovering over the pommel of his sword. His knuckles were white.
"You ... you killed him with a single pulse,"
Tsubaki whispered, his chest heaving.
"Right in front of an imperial Inquisitor. If her Eye of Truth had caught even a fraction of your mana resonance."
"It didn’t, "Kaelen cut him off, voice flat and devoid of emotion.
"Because I control what that relic sees. Now, stop trembling and stand up straight, Lord Iwanome. The acting portion of our evening is over."
Tsubaki swallowed hard, forcing his shoulders back. The proud noble heir was completely unsettled, realizing that the young man sitting on the cot was far more terrifying than any assassin the capital could send.
"Tell me what happened during your debriefing in the Senior Hall, "Kaelen commanded, leaning forward.
"Vance didn’t just ask about the attack. What is the Academy hiding?"
Tsubaki hesitated for a second, then lowered his head in defeat.
"House Iwanome isn’t the only target. Vance received an encrypted word from the capital during the lockdown. Rylan wasn’t operating as a rogue student. He was part of an underground syndicate known as the Obsidian Rose."
Kaelen’s eyes narrowed slightly. The Obsidian Rose. A fraction of high-tier mercenary mages backed by corrupt noble houses to destabilize the Academy’s inner faction balance.
"They believe my ancestral core was the main objective, Tsubakicontinued , his voice tight.
"They think Rylan failed because the core was overloaded. The High Council is sending a full battalion of Enforcers to guard the campus tomorrow."
"Great," Kaelen said, a faint, dark smirk touching his lips.
"Let them flood the campus with Enforcers. The more chaos and paranoia there is among the staff, the easier it will be for us to move in the shadows."
CLING!
[ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ]
[ Relic Assimilation: 100% Complete. ]
[ New Ability Unlocked: Spatial Bloodline Distortion (Passive). ]
[ Effect: Host can now sense and bypass House Iwanome’s blood-bound security barriers.]
Kaelen felt a surge of cold, refined energy align with his man’s circuits. By devouring the ancestral core, he hadn’t just gained raw power; he had gained the literal key to Tsubaki’s entire house foundation.
Before Tsubaki could speak again, the door burst open. Lyra rushed in, her wind-infused daggers drawn, her eyes wide with panic as he scanned the wreckage.
"Kaelen heard the secondary explosion; are you alright?" She rushed to his side, her hands glowing with faint green healing mana as she checked his flank. She froze, blinking in disbelief.
"Wait....your wound. Is it already closing?"
Kaelen immediately slumped his shoulders, letting a soft, weary smile touch his lips as he looked up at her.
"Lord Tsubaki’s mana shield protected me from the worst of the secondary blast, Lyra," Kaelen lied smoothly, his voice dripping back into its soft, harmless tone.
"I’m just exhausted."
Lyra looked at Kaelen, then turned her gaze toward Tsubaki, who stood stiffly nearby. She narrowed her eyes slightly, sensing an invisible, heavy dynamic between the two, but she slowly nodded, relaxing her stance.
"We need to get you to the main medical quarters, Lyra said softly, helping him stand.
"The whole campus is furious."
"Lead the way," Kaelen replied softly.
As he walked past Tsubaki, Kaelen’s shoulder lightly brushed against the noble prodigy’s armor. He didn’t say a word, but the message was clear.
Tsubaki was no longer just an ally. He was a tethered puppet on Kaelen’s board, and the game was only just beginning...