Chapter 98: Imperial Princess
"My, myy~," came a voice smooth, authoritative, and effortlessly calm.
The voice floated through the air just as the spinning water spears were about to strike Razeal's body. In a blink, they halted mid-flight. Dozens of watery projectiles that had screamed forward with lethal speed now hovered as though frozen in time, caught between motion and stillness.
Razeal, who had been fully braced for impact, relaxed his grip on his sword. He calmly slid the blade back into his system space, already knowing the battle was over. That voice he recognized it. Of course he did.
And well he also recognised what just happened.
And just as expected, the suspended water began to unravel. The spinning spears lost their velocity, their sharp edges dissolving. Drop by drop, the liquid deconstructed itself, floating through the air like a reversed rainfall.
The entire class watched, captivated, as the droplets drifted across the room and converged around a single person standing near the front.
Celestia.
The Imperial Princess.
She stood silently, her expression unreadable, eyes narrowed. The condensed water spiraled around her like a halo of liquid light, responding to her presence as if it were an extension of her will.
Maria, who had launched the initial attack, blinked in confusion. Her anger, moments ago a roaring fire, faltered as her connection with the water was completely severed.
She'd expected interference. Maybe a nullification spell from Professor Thalia. Maybe just High tier mana dismantling. But this…
This was different.
her command over water wasn't overpowered neither dispelled or resisted.
It was as if it simply… just stopped responding to her?.
That shouldn't have been possible. Not without her even getting chance of realisation or fight back? Because no one controls water better than the Grave bloodline. That was fact a fact carved into the history of the Empire itself.
Her breath caught in her throat as realization hit.
It wasn't Professor Thalia. It was her. She suddenly thought of that family.
Maria turned, heart thudding, expecting to see a teacher's glare.
She turned her head back hesitantly and then as she expected.
It was her.
Celestia stood there, effortlessly manipulating what was once hers. The heir to the Grave family, elite bloodline of the water element, was watching her family's symbol obey another.
Maria's hands trembled just slightly as watching her water being controlled still she forced her hands behind her back. No one else might've noticed, but inside, her blood was boiling.
That vile bloodline of Imperials.
The words echoed in her head like poison she wasn't allowed to spit out.
She wanted to scream. To tear something apart. To do something. But she did nothing.
Because she couldn't. It was buried beneath protocol. She took a shallow breath, pressed her lips together, and gave a curt bow.
"Y-Your Imperial Highness," she said, voice strained but respectful.
Her fists clenched at more tighter. She could feel it eyes on her, whispers blooming like weeds in fertile soil. The water floating around Celestia stung worse than a slap even now. Nullifying an attack was one thing. But to seize control of it, to bend it…
That was an insult.
Afterall the Grave family's supremacy in water magic had been their pride. Their identity. Yet here. The shamelessness of imperials. It disgusts her or maybe even all noble families of empire.
Still, she didn't show it. Her face remained composed serene even. She took a deep breath, exhaled softly, and forced her pride down like swallowing glass. Her head remained slightly bowed, every fiber of her noble training holding her upright under the pressure. Seething inside but composed on the outside.
"…May I ask why Your Imperial Highness has chosen to stop me?" Maria asked, voice respectful and restrained. Her words were perfectly measured, but those who listened closely could hear the strain beneath them a tightness at the edge of control.
Celestia didn't move.
"You were being unresonably noisy, Miss Maria Faltin Grave,"
A ripple passed through the classroom.
Celestia's gaze was indifferent, almost bored as though she were addressing a servant who had forgotten her place. "I assume the Grave family has taught you how to conduct yourself in the presence of Imperial blood?"
Silence.
A silence deeper than before.
It wasn't the sharp slap that stunned the room. It wasn't the spinning spears or the oncoming duel.
It was this.
A direct reprimand.
The rest of the class sat frozen in their seats. Some held their breath. Others just stared, stunned, as the political weight of what had just happened began to register.
Is the Imperial Princess protecting him?
Why?
It made no sense.
Why would a direct royal a member of the most powerful family in the Empire interfere on behalf of a declared dead criminal, especially against the heiress of a Pillar House?
Maria was a noble. Not just any noble an heiress of one of the Empire's ten Pillar Houses. These Houses were the very foundation of imperial authority. Only the Duke Houses and imperials stood above them in status.
Imperial blood was supposed to protect their own. Overlook minor disputes. Uphold hierarchy.
And yet, Celestia had not only interfered she had humiliated a Grave heir in public.
Thalia watched the scene from her platform. She hadn't interfered. Not because she couldn't, Well actually yeah she couldn't. but still… she'd wanted to see what would happen. And she narrowed her eyes slightly, as if recalibrating her understanding of the situation.
Her eyes also lingered on Razeal. Because she had noticed something.
Well, it wasn't just Maria who felt the sting of offense at that moment. The tension in the classroom had shifted, thickened. Almost every noble-blooded student in the room regardless of house, lineage, or rank wore some variation of distaste on their face. Subtle sneers, twitching brows, clenched jaws. Their gazes were not entirely fixed not on Maria or on Razeal only, but mostly on the gently floating water that circled around Celestia's body.
To them, it was vulgar, Disrespectful and a violation.
Which utterly made them disgusted.
This wasn't just about stopping a fight anymore or for whatever reason. This was something more something that scratched at the pride deeply embedded in every member of a high house.
Even the heirs of the Duke Houses Areon Dragonwevr and Sylva faerelith showed their displeasure. Areon sat rigid, arms crossed his crimson eyes narrowed as if measuring Celestia's actions with a blade's edge. Sylva, on the other hand, looked visibly disgusted. Her long green hair began to shimmer and rise, lightly floating as if caught in an invisible current. Her emerald eyes gleamed unnaturally, a sign of her unique mana reacting to her inner agitation.
And yet she said nothing.
None of them did.
The noble circle inside the classroom simmered with discomfort but silence reigned. No one dared to confront the Imperial Princess directly, No one never will.
They can be disgusted and feel disrespected but letting it out be crime.
Well not all eyes held disdain, though.
As one of such exception sat near the left front column of seats, head tilted back slightly her golden eyes locked on Razeal.
Selena.
She hadn't moved when Maria attacked. In fact, she had been just about to intervene herself, preparing a 7th ranked protection spell the moment she sensed Maria's killing intent.
But then… she stopped.
Something had caught her attention.
He reacted faster than I did?
She was able to preceive it as Razeal shifted his stance, his muscles flowing with control and precision far beyond what she remembered of him or ever magine him to be. And then came the sword. A straight-edged 2nd ranked blade, seemingly appearing from thin air. Her eyes sharpened.
No mana fluctuation. No summoning signature. No inventory glyphs.
The blade had manifested as if it had always been there like a phantom drawn from reality itself. Even more baffling was its disappearance. One moment it was in his hand, the next it was simply... gone.
Vanished.
I didn't miss that, she thought, her brows furrowing. I never miss mana signatures. Never.
Selena Luminus wasn't just any noble. She was of the Luminus bloodline the family of light and perception, famed for their unparalleled sensitivity to almost all kinds of energies. She had read more tomes than most professors, had access to both the Imperial and Holy Library Which she have studied almost two fifth of it all, excluding only the Forbidden Chambers.
And yet, she couldn't identify what she just witnessed.
Her golden eyes slowly traced Razeal's figure. She wasn't just curious anymore. Her mind was reeling with questions, and her heart…
Her heart trembling.
Her lips parted slightly, her breath shallow.
For a brief moment, everything else the classroom, the stares, the politics melted away which actually she wasn't even aware of or maybe just ignoring it. She could only see him. Her eyes began to mist over. A softness returned to her expression.
You've finally found it, she thought. A way to grow stronger.
Her gaze lowered for a second, then drifted back up, slowly tracing the outline of his form. His posture steady. Composed. And no fear she could see. Those aren't eyes of person who knows that he was born without everything one should.
His posture, felt stronger even his preception and reaction even preception.
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to center herself.
"I'm happy for you," she whispered in her heart, her throat tightening. "I really, really am. I just… wish I could've been there. Celebrated this moment with you. Watched you rise, the way you always dreamed of."
The thought ached like an old scar.
She brought one trembling hand to rest gently atop the other, fingers interlacing, pressing close to her chest. Her body didn't shake, but her hands betrayed her. They trembled from the flood of emotions now coursing through her veins like wildfire.
My Raze…
She bit her lower lip, forcing her eyes shut.
She wanted to run to him. Embrace him. Cry into his shoulder and just be there. Just celebrate him. Not just as a friend..... But as selena. The one who wanted to believed in him before anyone else.
Suddenly, the tide of emotions became too much. She inhaled sharply and began casting not out of strategy, but desperation. A soft whisper escaped her lips, and a golden hue gently bathed her form. It shimmered like sunlight through leaves, a warm but invisible barrier settling over her skin.
A self-calming spell. One used in sacred rituals to stabilize the heart.
As the golden light soaked in, her breath slowed. Shoulders relaxed. The trembling faded slightly.
"Sighhh…"
She exhaled long and slow, eyes opening once again.
Still moist. Still sparkling. Her golden irises glistened now not just with emotion, but clarity. Also from something more.
Hope. Longing.
She sighed again softly, finally steadying her breath.
"Even if I don't understand it... Even if I don't know what you've done... I'm glad. Just let me be glad."
"I reallly wanted you to know that there is someone really really happy for you and not everyone hate you."
Her heart beating wild behind her ribs.
And yet she stayed in her seat. Still. Silent. Golden eyes flicking toward Razeal again and again, lost in thought, burning with happyness for him.
Back in the center of the room, Maria remained silent, her head slightly bowed. The once-boiling fury around her had been cooled by the sudden appearance of Celestia and the weight of authority she carried.
Still, Maria raised her head slightly, keeping her voice composed. "I apologize for my disgraceful actions," she said, her tone firm but civil. "However, I was simply standing up for myself, as is permitted by the rules of the Imperial Academy and the Empire. I have done nothing wrong. As for my conduct, I have offered my apology."
It was a calculated statement measured, respectful on the surface, but with a hint of defiance beneath. If Celestia had simply stopped her from attacking, she would've accepted it and stepped back. But the manner in which the princess had addressed her so publicly, so dismissively or even how she controled her attack felt like a personal and political insult to the Grave family name.
But Celestia didn't flinch.
"I understand," the princess replied evenly, cutting Maria off before she could say more. "However, this is a classroom. A direct attack during an active lecture, in the presence of a teaching professor, is strictly prohibited."
Maria blinked.
Celestia continued.
"First violation: Yes, within the Academy, you can challenge someone to a duel, sparring match, or even a fight without much reason whether for practice or personal dislike. But what you did was different. You made an accusation and launched an immediate attack. That is not allowed. Second: You accused a peer of misconduct without submitting proper evidence. Third: You interrupted an official lecture, causing disruption. Fourth: You employed a direct elemental offensive spell in a secured classroom environment strictly forbidden. Fifth: You executed said attack in the presence of an Imperial representative."
Her voice was calm, each word a hammer striking down without emotion.
"Sixth," she added, raising her finger slightly.
Then she kept going.
Seventh. Eighth. Ninth. Twentieth.
Each rule rolled off her tongue like she had memorized the entire Imperial Academy's lawbook and she had.
She kept going. Quiet. Cold. Efficient.
By the time she finished, she had named twenty-six different infractions.
"In total," she said flatly, "you have broken multiple Imperial laws, Academy regulations, and constitutional mandates of magical conduct within educational zones."
The room had gone from tense to deathly still.
No one dared speak.
Maria's face was unreadable. Her clenched fists trembled. Her jaw tightened. But she kept her composure, breathing through her nose slowly, fighting every impulse to snap.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She wasn't shaking with fear. It was something deeper. Something heavier. Rage, yes but also disbelief.
"As punishment will be presented," Celestia said, "you will be held accountable within the Central High Court tomorrow at 5 p.m. Your presence is mandatory."
A cold silence fell like ash across the classroom.
Everyone stared.
As also wave of hushed gasps spread across the room.
To be called to the Central High Court was no small matter. It meant official proceedings. Records. Legal consequences. A permanent mark on one's public profile.
Celestia's voice was as crisp as parchment. Her posture didn't waver.
Maria swallowed hard.
"I understand," she said, though her fists clenched tighter. Her voice had a slight tremble now, even as she tried to mask it. "But I acted to protect myself. And I believe no judgment can be passed until the guilty are punished first."
Gasps.
Was Maria trying to argue with the Imperial Princess?
Even Thalia's right eye twitched at the boldness.
But Celestia didn't falter.
But she didn't react. No frown. No smirk. Nothing.
Then she spoke calmly, coldly, without a trace of emotion.
"There is no need for a trial," she said softly. "I will personally pass judgment."
Silence.
Dead, suffocating silence.
"As a licensed High Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Imperialism, and as a standing representative of the Imperial Bloodline, I invoke my authority to enact judgment directly, without trial."
Maria paused, genuinely confused, raising her head slightly as if trying to understand what she was seeing.
Even Sylvia and Areon's eyes twitched. All around them, students sat with their mouths open. Off to the side, Thalia bit her tongue in disbelief.
Why is she going this far? they all wondered.
Everyone's attention shifted to Razeal. It was obvious now she was openly taking his side.
But just as their thoughts began to spiral
"Judge me? And Who the fuck gave you the right to judge me?" A cold voice cut through the air.
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Back from a packed schedule sorry I couldn't post last night. It got late, and I was wiped out.
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. The next chapter's on the way soon.
Appreciate you all for reading!
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