Chapter 600: Chapter-600
"The... the Imperial Guards!" the Prime Minister stammered, his voice lacking all of its previous thunderous authority. "Your Majesty, the Imperial Guards were called to my guest pavilion last night! My wife was brutally attacked by a man in black! The pavilion was completely destroyed!"
Heena let out a sharp, incredulous laugh that cut through his pathetic defense like a knife.
"A single man in black?" Heena mocked, tilting her head. "So, a lone burglar breaks into a guest room, your wife faints, and you immediately declare that the entire Vanguard army has committed high treason? Prime Minister, if that is the standard of your intelligence, I am deeply concerned for the future of this empire’s civil administration."
Several military generals in the back actually chuckled out loud.
"You have no bodies. You have no captured guards. You have absolutely nothing but your own paranoid delusions," Heena stated, her voice echoing with freezing, absolute authority.
She took a slow, deliberate step toward the center of the hall, ensuring every eye was firmly fixed on her.
"But I do not make empty claims," Heena declared. "When your secret, leather-clad lovers attacked me in the Cold Palace, they were fierce. But I am a Vanguard. Unarmed or not, I do not go down without a fight. Before I blew my whistle and my shadow guards chased them away into the night... I managed to tear something off the belt of the most muscular, aggressive one."
Hovering invisibly by the golden pillars, the System covered its digital mouth with both paws to muffle its hysterical laughter. "The most muscular one! Host, you are literally writing a scandalous romance novel in the middle of a treason trial!"
Heena reached into the hidden pocket of her robes.
With a dramatic flourish, she pulled out the heavy, beautifully carved jade token she had looted from the melted assassin leader the night before. She held it high in the air by its crimson silk tassel.
The Prime Minister’s eyes locked onto the jade token. His face instantly drained of all color, turning an ashen, sickly gray. He looked as if he had just seen a ghost.
"Your Majesty," Heena said, offering the token to the Head Eunuch, who rushed forward to take it. "Please examine this piece of ’romantic’ jewelry. I believe it is a private access token, given by the Prime Minister to his favorite concubine so he could bypass the palace gate guards."
The Head Eunuch carried the jade token up the steps and placed it directly into the Emperor’s outstretched hand.
The Emperor held the heavy, flawless green jade up to the morning light. He flipped it over, his thumb tracing the intricate, undeniable carvings etched into the back of the stone.
The Emperor’s face went completely blank. He slowly lowered the token, his sharp, dangerous gaze locking onto the kneeling Prime Minister.
"This," the Emperor said, his voice dropping into a deadly, terrifyingly quiet register, "is a high-clearance access token bearing the personal, private seal of the Prime Minister’s inner household."
The Great Hall erupted into a frenzy of shocked gasps and frantic whispering. It was undeniable, physical proof.
"No... no!" the Prime Minister choked out, his hands grasping at his own hair. "Your Majesty, it was stolen! She stole it from my men! They were not my lovers, they were—"
He violently clamped his mouth shut.
They were my assassins.
If he said the words, he was dead. If he admitted that the men carrying his personal jade token were assassins sent to murder the Vanguard Heiress inside the Emperor’s palace, the Emperor would order him dragged out into the courtyard and executed by a thousand cuts before noon.
He was completely, hopelessly trapped in Heena’s flawlessly woven web.
Heena looked down at the Prime Minister, her dark, predatory eyes entirely devoid of mercy. She had taken his flawless assassination plot, dissolved the bodies, looted the evidence, and used his own arrogance to publicly humiliate and destroy him.
"They were what, Prime Minister?" Heena asked softly, a dark, victorious smile finally curving her red lips. "Go on. Tell the court exactly what those men were doing in the dark with you."
Heena slowly turned away from the trembling, utterly defeated Prime Minister. She faced the Dragon Throne, bringing her hands together and bowing respectfully. Her posture shifted from the aggressive, mocking predator back to the dignified, loyal military commander.
"Your Majesty," Heena said, her voice carrying a calm, steady resonance that instantly soothed the chaotic energy of the Great Hall. "I truly have no desire to air the private affairs, household secrets, or romantic preferences of my fellow officials in this sacred court. I only brought this to light to prove a point: just because a man is fiercely suspicious and throws wild accusations does not mean he has the right to demand the search and seizure of a deeply loyal military household."
The Emperor nodded slowly, resting his chin on his hand. The amusement in his eyes was fading, replaced by the sharp, calculating gaze of a ruler analyzing a battlefield.
"Furthermore, Your Majesty, let us look at this purely from the perspective of military logistics," Heena continued, taking a step forward. "If the Vanguard Marquisate truly intended to commit high treason, or if we had a secret, unsanctioned army ready to strike... why in the world would I choose to mobilize them in the absolute back corners of the Imperial Palace?"
The civil and military officials alike began to murmur in agreement. It was a glaring, undeniable hole in the Prime Minister’s accusation.
Heena raised her chin, her dark eyes flashing with unyielding conviction.
"I was lured to the Cold Palace last night by a palace servant claiming I had an urgent, private summons," Heena revealed to the court, letting the weight of the trap hang in the air. "Why would I accept a fake summons, walk into the darkest, most isolated corner of the palace, and then casually summon my family’s shadow guards just to expose our ’treason’ to the entire Imperial Guard?"
She gestured toward the Prime Minister, her voice hardening with absolute Vanguard pride.
"If I genuinely wanted to assassinate the Prime Minister, I would not do it here. I would ambush his carriage on a dark, unguarded road. I would strike during the chaos of the Autumn Hunting Festival, or stage an accident at a private noble banquet. I am a Vanguard General, trained in the art of war."
Heena dropped squarely onto one knee, bowing her head in absolute reverence to the throne.
"Why would I choose the Imperial Palace? A fortress swarming with Your Majesty’s elite soldiers? A place filled with the Emperor’s own eyes and ears? Why would I choose the sacred home of our sovereign to commit such a sloppy, tactically disastrous crime?"
The logic was completely, fundamentally flawless.
The Vanguard family were apex predators of war. If they were going to overthrow the Emperor or assassinate a high-ranking official, it would be a swift, brutal, and flawlessly executed military campaign. It would absolutely not be a messy, confusing scuffle in the dark courtyards of the abandoned harem.
The Emperor leaned back against the golden dragons of his throne. The paranoia that the Prime Minister had tried so desperately to ignite was completely extinguished.
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