Elevyne calmly scanned the scene, already piecing together what had happened.
She didn't show much on her face just a quiet stillness but her eyes locked onto a boy in the middle of the street. His looks and precence very Unique. But for now, she let it be.
She was in control. No need to rush.
Her expression darkened slightly as she turned to the limbless body of a child on the ground. No words. Just a look. Then her gaze shifted to a man with a mustache.
"You did that to a child?" she asked, voice low.
She already knew the answer. She'd read the lingering mana signatures on the child's body and only one person here matched them. Him.
"Ahhh that i...i" he almost stammered but trying to keep cool "Lady Elevyne, please, don't misunderstand!" A bead of sweat burst from the man's forehead, carving a desperate trail down his temple as he snapped into a hasty bow. His mind raced at a blistering speed, scrambling for any excuse that might save him. If he failed now, if he slipped even once he knew the six-star mage standing before him could erase him from existence like a bad memory.
"It's not what it looks like! That kid...he... he actually cast dark magic!" he stammered, the words tumbling out in a frantic rush. "He attacked me first! I had no other choice it was for my safety, and for everyone else's!"
Still bowing, he spoke the half-truth like a gambler bluffing his final hand, betting it all on the slim chance she'd believe him.
Evelyne's cold sapphire eyes never even flickered.
"Is that so?" she said calmly, almost amused by the pathetic show. Her gaze drifted lazily down to the gleaming emblem pinned on his chest a badge marking him as a Three-Star Mage.
She shook her head once, slowly.
"A Three-Star Mage," she said, voice cutting like a blade of ice, "bullying defenseless children."
Her lips curled in subtle disgust.
"Just how low has the Arcane Order fallen," she continued, "to award someone like you the dignity of a three-star rank?"
Her words weren't loud. They didn't have to be.
The shame cut deeper than any scream could.
Evelyne already knew the truth she didn't need his cheap lies. The mana particles in the air told a clearer story than any tongue could ever. She could trace every cast spell and the sequence of attacks down to the second.
The man had struck first. The boy did use dark magic but it was after being attacked Many Time. Maybe desperate or scared used that cursed magic.
Mana never lied. And Evelyne trusted mana more than she trusted words or eyes.
"I don't need your explanations," she said coolly, tapping the ground once again with her staff. A resonant hum vibrated through the cobbled streets.
"From this moment on," she declared, "your title as a Three-Star Mage is stripped. You are hereby placed under arrest for committing heinous acts against a civilian minor."
She lifted her staff, and invisible shackles began wrapping around the man's arms tightly bonding him.
"The Arcane Officers will arrive shortly," she added, her voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. "You will be transported to the Central Court of the Arcane Order, where you will be judged under the law you so disgracefully violated."
Evelyne could have ended him right there.
Crushed him into dust.
But she wouldn't.
Not because she lacked power but because she had something rarer: principle.
The law existed for a reason and if she betrayed it now, even for justice, she would become no better than the criminals she sought to punish.
She would uphold it. Even if the world burned around her.
The man with the mustache clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, his mouth opening as if to argue.
But he didn't.
No one did.
The entire marketplace stood frozen.
A heavy silence hung in the air, broken only by the faint crackle of magical restraints tightening around the accused. No one dared to speak against Evelyne's judgment. No one cared enough to try.
Not even him.
Because deep down, he knew it wouldn't matter. Evelyne was too strong. Speaking up would only make it worse. If he angered her.. he didn't even want to imagine what might happen.
Still, his frustration showed. He clenched his jaw, eyes shifting toward the silver-haired brat standing in the street. If it weren't for him... he thought bitterly. If it weren't for that damn eye, I wouldn't have gotten greedy... wouldn't be in this mess.
Max stood silently in the center of the street, silver hair flowing to his shoulders, unnaturally pristine. His expression was distant calm in a way that felt almost noble. Evelyne herself had arched an eyebrow the moment she laid eyes on him. He looked as if he were carved from obsidian like a sharp and cold blade.
He didn't move barely blinked time by time. It was as if he wasn't fully conscious. And yet even in that dazed state his lone visible red eye flicked to the crowd. It narrowed ever so slightly as he watched everyone bow in deference to Evelyne. Somehow, even his unconscious mind registered it as an insult.
He said nothing.
Neither did Evelyne. Not at first.
"Lady Evelyne," a mustached man began, his voice strained with bitterness as he glared at Max. "That boy… he shouldn't be standing. He was dead. I suspect a connection to the Netherworld–"
His voice faltered the moment Evelyne turned her head.
Her gaze alone was enough to silence him. The magical restraints around him pulled tighter.
"Careful Mage," she said, her tone low. "The Netherworld is not a name to speak lightly."
Still, despite her threat, something in her expression had shifted. She looked again at the boy.
At first, she'd dismissed him a bystander, odd-looking but irrelevant. Now she was curious. His face was… strange. Unusually symmetrical and Sharp features almost perfect. And that chest her eyes weren't wandering, no but the way his shirt had a perfectly burned circular hole in the middle, exposing unmarked skin beneath? That caught her attention.
There was energy there. Residual mana. The kind you'd see after a Mid level attack spell landed. But that didn't add up. If a three star spell had hit him dead center, there should be a hole in his chest not just his shirt.
No injuries or blood just a burnt shirt.
That was weird.
"Madam You can see it, Right?" the mustached man said quickly, desperate to be believed. "That hole Lady Evelyne, I hit him. A full force three star spell. It went through his chest! There was a hole right through, I swear just moments ago, he was—" he didn't even care about revealing everything anyways he was in trouble already why not take one more with you.
"SILENCE."
The word was soft, barely louder than a whisper.
It came from Max.
His crimson eye glimmered ominously beneath his silver bangs, the single word laced with unnatural authority.
Though his voice had been low calm, almost serene it carried an eerie power, spoken with perfect precision, like a refined British accent. And the moment the sound left his lips, the world around him seemed to obey.
Mouths shut.
All across the street, conversations died instantly. Even those who had been whispering lowly fell silent, as if their voices had been stolen even man with mustach a genuine three star mage froze in mid-sentence, his lips unable to finish the words. His entire body tensed, as though his ability to speak had been forcefully stripped from him.
Evelyne frowned, her instincts alerting her before her thoughts caught up. Even her body reacted her jaw twitching as if trying to close on its own. But unlike the others, the overwhelming mana within her surged in resistance. Her mouth remained open, though just barely.
She wasn't some weakling.
A proper six-star mage if someone dropped an entire city on her head, she might emerge without a scratch. And yet, this?
This made her hesitate.
Her brows knit tightly. What kind of power was that? Her gaze swept the street utterly silent, every person struck dumb and then it locked onto the boy with silver hair.
Silver haired boy
Her eyes narrowed, filled with curiosity and disbelief. "How did you do that?" she asked, her voice carrying a mix of caution and awe.
He didn't respond. Didn't even look at her.
His crimson eye wandered the crowd, still bowed in deference to Evelyne. His expression didn't change, but a faint flicker passed through him annoyance? Contempt?
As if watching loyalty given to the wrong person.
He inhaled once, lightly.
His lips parted once more.
"KNEEL."
Crunch.
Bodies hit the ground like dominos.
Every person standing collapsed knees slamming into the hard pavement, skulls bowing involuntarily toward Max. Some cried out silently, blood seeping from torn skin, yet not a single scream escaped.
His command was absolute.
Even Evelyne wavered. Her grip tightened around her staff, the world spinning slightly as her body leaned forward, dangerously close to buckling. Her pupils shrank in shock.
"Impossible… just how…?"
Without hesitation, she raised her staff and muttered, "Purify."
A radiant blue light flared from the crystal at its tip. The invisible force pressing on her faded instantly, its grip shattered by the spell.
Was that illusion magic? Mind control?
No. Impossible. Her mind was fortified with layer upon layer of resistance spells. No magic of the mind should have worked on her.
Then could it be..
He touched my will…?
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