Chapter 522: Chapter-522
He had spent his entire life being told that his handwriting was too messy, his words were too crude, and his poetry lacked royal grace.
But this terrifying woman—the same woman who had twisted his wrist and body-slammed him with dark magic—was looking at him like he was a military genius.
"You... you actually like it?" the prince asked, his voice entirely devoid of its usual tyrannical arrogance. He just sounded like a confused, exhausted kid.
"I don’t just like it, Your Highness. I am keeping it," Heena said, neatly folding the paper and tucking it into her leather cloak. "It shows that you are finally beginning to think outside the rigid, useless boxes the civil scholars trapped you in. In a real war, the enemy will not always attack you with poetry and grace. Sometimes, they will hit you like a brass carriage."
She stood up, towering over the desk.
"Lesson over," Heena declared, tapping the desk one last time with her riding crop.
The prince didn’t scream. He didn’t order her out. He just sat there, utterly subdued and psychologically scrambled.
’
Heena turned and walked toward the heavy wooden doors. The terrified eunuch practically flattened himself against the wall to let her pass.
Just before she stepped out into the courtyard, she paused and glanced back over her shoulder.
"I will be back tomorrow at the exact same time, Your Highness," Heena smiled brightly. "And please, prepare yourself mentally. Tomorrow’s poetry topic will be: ’The Hydrodynamics of a Drowning Chicken’. Have a lovely afternoon!"
She didn’t wait for his response. She simply stepped out into the palace corridors, letting the heavy doors shut behind her.
Inside the pavilion, the notorious, tyrant Ninth Prince slowly lowered his head until his forehead hit the mahogany desk with a dull ’thud’.
"A drowning chicken..." he whimpered softly into the wood, his tyrannical spirit completely and utterly broken.
Outside, Heena walked through the imperial palace with a confident, predatory swagger. Her morning was a complete success. She had caused a massive political distraction, secured her grandmother’s safe departure, won a free horse, technically gotten Samuel to pay for it all, and completely broken the will of the royal brat.
All in a day’s work for the Vanguard Madam.
As Heena casually strolled down the long, sweeping corridors of the Imperial Palace, the digital nonsense in her ear completely refused to stop.
The System, hovering right beside her shoulder in its permanent physical form—a glowing blue, holographic miniature lion—was absolutely losing its mind.
’’[What the heck was that?!]’’ the System shrieked, its tiny lion paws flailing wildly in the air as it tried to keep up with her long strides. ’’[You are actively destroying that child’s future! Do you know that? Oh God, oh God, if the Emperor looks at that exam paper and finds fault with you, what are you going to do? How could you just mentally destroy the imperial heir’s future like that?!]’’
Heena sighed, bringing a gloved finger up to her ear and rubbing it aggressively.
"Are you crazy? Stop shouting," Heena muttered under her breath, glaring sideways at the floating blue furball. "My ears are going to blister from your high-frequency screeching."
The System’s tiny lion jaw dropped.
’’[You are worried about your ears blistering?!]’’ the System gasped, utterly appalled. ’’[What about the prince? What about the Emperor’s wrath? What is going to happen when they decide to execute you for treasonous poetry?!]’’
Heena paused for a moment, glancing around to ensure the corridor was completely empty of guards and servants.
"Well, first of all," Heena reasoned calmly, "I am already severely sick. My body is a walking graveyard. I wouldn’t survive long enough to face a proper execution anyway. And as for this so-called Ninth Prince?"
She scoffed, a dark, cynical amusement dancing in her eyes.
"He is a completely unfavored prince with a terrible temper in a palace filled with vipers," Heena pointed out ruthlessly. "Do you honestly think a kid like that can survive for long? I will give you a rock-solid guarantee right now: if that brat somehow manages to survive until his fourteenth birthday, I will shave my head and become a nun."
The System paused its frantic flying. It hovered in place, tilting its glowing, mane-covered head as its processors calculated the timeline.
’’[Wait...]’’ the System countered, its digital voice dripping with deadpan logic. ’’[Given your current physical deterioration rate, you are scheduled to die long before he even turns fourteen.]’’
Heena didn’t miss a single beat.
"Okay, fine," she shrugged nonchalantly. "Then have my corpse shaved bald. Put a nun’s habit on my coffin."
The System just stared at her. If a digital hologram could look deeply exhausted, this tiny lion was doing it. It puffed out its little chest, trying to project an aura of supreme, artificial intelligence.
’’[Do you honestly think I am the same idiot fool I was when you first arrived?]’’ the System demanded, narrowing its glowing blue eyes. ’’[I can see right through your twisted logic now!]’’
Heena stopped walking. She slowly turned her head, looking the System up and down.
She stared at this absolute idiot of an AI. Ever since it had managed to manifest a physical avatar, it had chosen the form of a small, pocket-sized lion. It had adamantly refused to change its form ever since, purely because its databanks told it that a lion was the ultimate, terrifying symbol of apex power. It completely ignored the fact that, at the size of a teacup pomeranian, it didn’t look terrifying at all; it just looked ridiculous.
’’This damn mini-lion,’’ Heena thought, stifling a laugh. ’’He struts around in that body thinking he is the king of the jungle, and he dares to talk to me about not being a fool?’’
Heena folded her arms across her chest and looked down at the tiny, floating predator.
"Well," Heena said calmly, her voice laced with absolute, patronizing sweetness. "Aren’t you exactly the same?"
The System’s digital fur instantly bristled, turning a furious shade of bright red.
’’[Of course I am not!]’’ the miniature lion roared in anger, its high-pitched voice echoing faintly in her mind. ’’[I know exactly what you mean by that tone, Host! Stop judging my majestic form!]’’
Heena simply chuckled, raising her hand to flick the glowing blue hologram directly on its tiny, majestic forehead.
"Sure, sure," Heena teased, watching the little lion tumble backward in the air from the phantom impact. "You are a terrifying, highly advanced predator. Now, tuck your tail in, Your Majesty, before one of the palace maids spots you and tries to adopt you as a lapdog."
[I am not a lapdog!] the System shrieked indignantly, scrambling to right itself in the air. [I am the apex intelligence of the multiverse! I am—]
Before the System could finish its grand speech, Heena smoothly rounded the final corner of the grand corridor, stepping out into the vast, open-air plaza that led to the main palace gates.
Realizing they were back in a highly populated area, the System immediately clamped its digital mouth shut. With a final, furious huff that produced a tiny puff of blue holographic smoke, the mini-lion dissolved into pixels, retreating back into the safety of her mind.
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