Chapter 81: The Curtain Falls
“These unusual movents of goods, personnel, and funds, align so perfectly with the characteristics of Frostvine, a banned substance that requires an extrely cold environnt to cultivate and must be transported through covert channels!” Ryan’s voice suddenly rose, like the final judgnt’s horn. “You didn’t just sell low-quality Ice Crystal Flowers; you’ve been using your family’s territory as a cover, weaving a smuggling black chain from the Orc Kingdom to the heart of the Empire, and it just so happens that the Northern Star Guild stumbled upon the filth behind it.”
He turned towards the completely stunned and petrified Minister Edgar and the academy’s high-ranking officials, took a deep breath, and, with all his might, clearly and firmly made his final request:
“Honorable Chief Judge, esteed professors! Based on the facts and logic presented, I, Ryan Velt, hereby officially request—”
“First, to reject all false accusations made by Committee mber Garcia and Committee mber Wood against and the Velt family!”
“Second, based on the suspicion of smuggling banned goods from the Empire, endangering the academy’s safety, and potentially involving the even more serious cri of ‘treason and collusion with the enemy,’ I request the academy to imdiately detain Andre Garcia and Wood Green and thoroughly investigate the Garcia and Green families, and any potential smuggling networks operating in the Northern Territories!”
“What they have sold is not a re inferior product, but a blade from an enemy nation! What they are attempting to conceal is not an accident, but a treacherous path that could shake the Empire’s northern defenses!”
Ryan’s words fell like the final blow, striking the tightly stretched heartstrings of Andre and Wood.
The overwhelming fear, the despair of being cornered, and the instinct to sever ties upon hearing the charge of treason instantly shattered Wood Green’s final defense of reason.
“No! It’s impossible! Our land would never sell sothing like that!” Wood jumped up, his face as white as paper, flailing his arms, his voice so sharp it was on the verge of breaking. “We just... we just swapped your goods! We would never sell sothing like that! How could our two families... How could we even touch sothing like Frostvine...”
His words rushed out like a flood that suddenly broke through a dam but ca to a sudden halt at the most crucial mont.
Because he saw the deathly silence around him, saw the looks of disbelief, shock, and then realization on everyone’s faces—including Andre’s beside him.
Andre Garcia slowly turned his head, looking at Wood.
The expression on his swollen face froze, changing from fear and anger to astonishnt, absurdity, and... eventually, the ashen realization that disaster was imminent.
He opened his mouth, seemingly trying to say sothing to salvage the situation, but only gasping sounds escaped.
Wood also froze. It felt as if the blood had drained from his body in an instant, and a cold chill shot up his spine.
He stared blankly at his own hand, which he had instinctively waved, hearing his own words echoing through the empty, silent hall, each word searing into his soul like a red-hot branding iron.
“We just swapped your goods.”
“It’s impossible to sell that kind of thing.”
It’s over.
These two thoughts pierced through his final awareness like an icy iron spike.
Suddenly, everything went black. Wood’s legs gave way, and before he could even scream, he collapsed backward with a heavy thud, completely unconscious.
At that mont, Ryan’s face, which had remained calm throughout, finally showed an undisguised smile.
“Yes, that’s right.” Ryan’s voice rang clearly in the silence. He turned to the high platform and to the stunned audience, “As Committee mber Wood... so passionately clarified just now, perhaps they really didn’t sell Frostvine after all—because such a banned substance from the enemy nation could never appear as a normal commodity in the market, let alone be included in legitimate territorial transaction records. It seems these two young masters don’t know—or care about—the affairs of their own family…”
He paused, reaching into his pocket to pull out a small, intricately designed tal disk—a makeshift sound recorder he had quickly assembled using the simplest magical tool components.
He gently pressed a rune button.
The disk glowed faintly, and Wood’s sharp and agitated voice was clearly played again, echoing even more clearly and piercingly than before:
【“We just swapped your goods! We would never sell sothing like that! How could our two families... How could we even touch sothing like Frostvine...”】
The sound finished playing.
“Boom!”
A dull sound.
It was Andre Garcia.
The mont he heard the recording, all the blood rushed to his head before instantly retreating. He turned around abruptly, staring at the unconscious Wood on the ground, and the last flicker of hope in his eyes extinguished.
A mixture of intense anger, the rage of being betrayed by his foolish companion, and the terror of an irreparable outco surged up, a tallic, sweet taste of rust rising in his throat.
He didn’t even have ti to curse before his vision went black. A mouthful of blood sprayed out, and his body swayed before collapsing straight to the floor like a felled log, unconscious.
“Crash—!!!”
After a brief mont of silence, the hall erupted in an earth-shattering uproar!
The truth had been revealed in such a dramatically absurd way—spoken directly by the culprits themselves!
All the accusations, justifications, and reasoning seed weak and powerless in the face of this breakdown.
The core of the matter was truly that Andre and Wood had swapped the goods in an attempt to fra Ryan!
As for what the goods had been swapped with, and whether they involved even more dangerous contraband, that beca a secondary issue—at least on the level of the academy incident, the truth was already clear!
On the high platform, Minister Edgar let out a long breath, rubbing his swollen temples as he looked down at the lone figure. A complicated and unreadable look flashed in his eyes before finally turning into a resigned shake of his head.
Professor Horne, however, stared at Ryan, his eyes behind his glasses flickering with both realization and a hint of exasperation.
He rembered when Ryan had co to him yesterday, asking for help in terms of theoretical possibilities and providing an academic perspective...
So that’s what it was!
This sly brat! He wasn’t asking to prove anything for him; all he needed was for , as an authoritative professor, to propose that sufficiently dangerous and terrifying possibility—the smuggling of contraband Frostvine from the enemy nation!
He had used this much bigger and far more devastating hypothetical charge, one that could completely destroy the other family, as leverage to force the already guilty Andre and Wood to make mistakes under imnse pressure, to subconsciously admit the relatively smaller but still decisive cri.
This wasn’t about proving his own innocence. This was about creating an avalanche on his opponent’s psychological defenses, and he had unknowingly beco the most crucial stone in this psychological attack!
This kid… Professor Horne sighed inwardly, watching Ryan calmly put away the recording device, and had to admit that his grasp of human weaknesses and his boldness in using unconventional thods was far beyond what his age would suggest.
Though he had exploited the information asymtry and his opponent’s fear, the construction of the logical chain, the timing, and the use of the nacing concept of Frostvine were absolutely brilliant.
Most importantly... he had won.
However, just when everyone thought this dramatic public trial would end with Ryan’s stunning reversal and Andre and Wood’s self-exposure...
The side door of the hall was quietly pushed open again.
A tall figure, silhouetted against the light outside the door, walked steadily into the hall.
It was Ilis, Princess Cecilia’s attendant.
Only then did everyone realize that this judgnt, which had almost been conducted without the presence of the princess’s shadow guard, had in fact been missing this entire ti.
At this mont, she seed to carry a trace of dust on her, her expression still calm, but there was a sharpness and severity in her violet eyes that was more intense than usual.
She walked straight to the center of the hall, ignoring the unconscious Andre and Wood on the ground, and not sparing a glance at Ryan. Instead, she faced the high platform, raising a silver dallion, engraved with a complex royal crest that exuded an undeniable air of authority.
“By the orders of Princess Cecilia Ishtar, and the Royal Knight Order’s ergency investigation decree,” Ilis’s voice was cold and clear, like ice water striking stone, instantly silencing all the chatter. “Through independent verification, we have now preliminarily confird that the Garcia and Green families are under significant suspicion of long-term smuggling of contraband with the Northern Orc Empire through secret channels. Relevant evidence, financial records, and so witness testimonies have been intercepted.”
She paused briefly, her gaze sweeping over the two unconscious bodies on the ground, as if they were nothing more than irrelevant trash:
“Now, according to the Empire’s legal code, ergency arrests are to be made on the main mbers of the implicated families, and their relevant territories and assets will be sealed for further investigation. This case is now fully under the jurisdiction of the royal family.”
Her words landed like a second thunderclap, exploding in the hall, which had only just begun to settle!
Not just that—there’s a reversal?!
And it was an official conclusion more specific and substantial than Ryan’s accusations!
Andre and Wood’s families... were they really involved in smuggling?!
Andre, who had been unconscious, seed to catch Ilis’s words on the edge of his fading consciousness. His body spasd violently, but he couldn’t respond.
Wood, just waking up, heard the last sentence and, unable to even fully open his eyes, let out a desperate choking sound from his throat before his eyes rolled back, and he fell into an even deeper unconsciousness than before.
The dust seed to settle, but a greater fog was still rising.
Ryan stood quietly, listening to Ilis’s proclamation, his face showing little surprise.
He had already guessed that the princess’s visit today was not just to supervise a student dispute.
Andre and Wood, perhaps from the start, were the fish she had wanted to hook, and he had rely, either unknowingly or purposely, been the one to stir the waters and cause the fish to panic.
Princess Cecilia had been sitting quietly throughout, but now she slowly stood up.
As she walked past Ryan, her steps seed to pause for just a second, her ice-blue eyes glancing at his calm side profile.
She fluttered her butterfly-like eyelashes, without speaking, but there seed to be an invisible thread in the air, trembling lightly.
Then, surrounded by the royal knights, she left as elegantly and silently as she had co, leaving behind a hall still filled with the ss, unconscious failures, shocked onlookers, and...
Ryan Velt, standing alone in place.
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