Chapter 89 - 23
Celeste had never seen Arthur look like this. The man who had faced down high-tier dragonkin, outmaneuvered continental cartels, and dismantled centuries of entrenched feudal nobility without a single hair falling out of place was standing before her desk, his chest rising and falling in sharp, controlled breaths, his dark eyes ablaze with an uncharacteristic, intense fervor.
For a terrifying second, Celeste forgot her academic title. Seeing her sovereign—the anchor of her entire existence—so visibly shaken sent a sharp pang of protective panic through her heart.
She didn’t immediately turn to the runic filing terminal. Instead, Celeste stepped out from behind her ivory desk, her dark blue archmage robes rustling softly as she closed the distance between them. She reached out, her slender, elegant hands trembling slightly as she gently took hold of his wrists, her touch warm and surprisingly firm.
"Arthur," Celeste whispered softly, her usual anxious demeanor melting into a deep, unwavering tenderness. She searched his face, her silver-framed spectacles catching the dim light of the office. "Look at me. Breathe. Whatever it is, you are the absolute sovereign of this world. Nothing moves in this realm without your leave. Speak to me."
Arthur closed his eyes for a single second, taking a long, measured inhale. The familiar, soothing mana-signature of his chief archmage anchored him back to reality. When he opened his eyes, the chaotic shock had crystallized into a cold, dangerous focus.
"I need every shred of data on Dr. Elena Vance," Arthur commanded, his voice dropping into that deep, irresistible register that sent a shiver straight down Celeste’s spine. "Cross-reference her records across every intelligence branch. Task Vespera’s Shadow Bureau, Valerie’s Military Reconnaissance, and Sylvia’s Medical Registry. I want her lineage, her magical resonance, her daily routines, and every scrap of paper she has ever signed."
Celeste blinked, a sudden wave of flustered confusion and intense, possessive jealousy washing over her cheeks. "D-Dr. Elena? The substitute medical lecturer?! Arthur... why her? Did she do something to you? Is she an assassin sent by the old provincial remnants?!"
Before he could answer, Arthur walked past her, bypassing the director’s chair entirely to sit directly in the executive master-terminal seat behind the main mahogany desk. He tapped his long fingers against the glass surface, activating the highest-tier administrative clearance in the continent—an interface only the silent monarch could open.
Within minutes, the director’s office became the war room of a continental empire.
The central Aegis-Link terminal chimed violently as encrypted transmissions began pouring in from all corners of the city. Lyra, Vespera, and Valerie’s faces materialized on floating, semi-transparent mana-screens around the desk, their expressions a chaotic mix of frantic concern, deep confusion, and burning envy.
"Arthur!" Lyra’s voice echoed through the comms, her violet eyes wide as she clutched her central bank seal. "Valerie just mobilized three elite shadow squads because of your emergency directive! What is happening?! Who is this Dr. Elena woman, and why are you authorizing top-tier intelligence budgets just to audit a medical instructor?!"
"Is she a new candidate, my lord?" Vespera purred over her private mirror link, though her crimson eyes narrowed with a sharp, dangerous jealousy that belied her playful tone. "My operatives are already picking up her trail. But I must admit, it hurts my heart to see you so worked up over a woman who wears a plain white physician’s coat instead of silk."
"Silence," Arthur ordered coldly, his eyes scanning the cascading streams of golden text appearing on the main terminal screen.
The executive screens instantly went quiet, though the women watched him with breathless, anxious intensity.
As Arthur navigated the deep-level state archives, the classified files of Dr. Elena Vance unfolded before his eyes. What he found only deepened the chilling mystery:
Origin: Twenty-seven years ago, Elena was found as an infant on the steps of a low-tier commoner orphanage in the cold, northern borderlands. She possessed no noble lineage, no family crest, and no inherited wealth.
Academic Anomaly: Without any formal instruction from imperial academies or divine churches, Elena had demonstrated an impossible, unheard-of mastery of human anatomy at the age of twelve.
Medical Innovations: The file contained private research notes she had submitted to the medical board four years ago. Arthur’s heart slammed against his ribs as he read her documented techniques—she had detailed modern sterile field procedures, arterial clamp methodologies, and primitive antibiotic cultivation using mold cultures. Things that belonged exclusively to twentieth-century Earth medicine.
Soul & Mana Signature: Her public mana-capacity was completely average, yet her diagnostic precision was rated at an absurd ninety-nine percent accuracy.
Arthur leaned back in the director’s leather chair, resting his chin on his steepled fingers, his mind racing through a thousand mathematical variables.
She possesses modern medical knowledge that shouldn’t exist in a primitive magic world, Arthur analyzed, his dark eyes glowing with a sharp, dangerous brilliance. Is she a reincarnated soul like me? Did my sister’s soul cross the void into this world at the exact same moment I died? Or is this a clever, hyper-advanced illusion designed by an unknown entity to target my personal memories?
He couldn’t rely on paper files. In a world where he had rewritten the legal and economic codes himself, paper could be forged, and records could be manipulated. He needed to verify her soul signature in person, up close, without the interference of academy proctors or executive guards.
"Cancel the shadow squad deployment," Arthur declared suddenly, closing the terminal files with a single, sharp swipe of his hand.
Lyra blinked through the screen in shock. "What?! Arthur, if she’s a threat—"
"She is not a threat I cannot handle personally," Arthur replied, standing up from the executive desk and adjusting the cuffs of his commoner uniform. He turned his gaze toward Celeste, who was still standing beside the desk, looking at him with a mix of awe and deep, lingering jealousy. "Celeste, erase the access logs for this session. To the rest of the faculty, I am still just a common freshman who left class early due to sudden illness."
"A-Arthur... wait!" Celeste pleaded, taking a step toward him, her face flushing bright red. "Are you going to investigate her alone? What if she... what if she seduces you with her medical tricks?!"
Arthur offered Celeste a low, captivating smirk that instantly made her knees go weak and her heart hammer against her ribs.
"Nobody seduces the sovereign, Celeste," Arthur said smoothly, pulling his mana-suppression ring back into alignment. "I am going to conduct a private, personal audit. Let’s see if this doctor remembers who used to steal her medical binders on Earth."
Without waiting for another word, Arthur stepped out of the director’s spire, leaving his flustered executives in a state of chaotic speculation, and melted into the shadows of the academy corridors, heading straight toward the faculty residential quarters.