Viktor's sudden appearance shocked everyone present, the deep red cloak he wore giving off an even stronger sense of danger.
"Your Majesty, Viktor Clavenna has arrived," the eunuch reminded Emperor Aubrey from the side.
Around them, the mages exchanged looks and began whispering among themselves.
"Viktor Clavenna? The head of the Clavenna family?"
"Wasn't it said that Viktor tried to trigger the volcano and died inside it?"
"He's actually alive, and even came back?"
One of the mages suddenly pointed at Viktor and shouted, "Viktor! You criminal! How dare you still come to the palace to face His Majesty!"
Viktor's tone turned cold at those words. "A criminal? What crime have I committed?"
He turned toward the source of the voice. His cold gaze was like an ice spear stabbing straight through the mage's heart, making him feel as if he had fallen into a freezing abyss.
But almost instantly, that freezing fear was replaced by an intense burning hatred that spread throughout his body.
It was as if, for a moment, he had fallen straight into the depths of Mount Vesuvius itself.
The suffocating heat made it hard for him to even breathe...
'Was that magic?'
'Someone could actually wield magical pressure this terrifyingly?'
Suddenly, Viktor withdrew his gaze and looked back toward the king.
"Ha... ha..."
The mage clutched his own throat, gasping for breath, greedily gulping down the cool air.
That was revenge, Viktor's revenge.
His mind was in chaos, drenched in sweat.
But even so, someone had to stand up and question Viktor.
"You... you nearly caused a volcanic eruption, you criminal!"
"Even if you didn't die, you're guilty of fleeing from punishment! How dare you return!"
"Heh."
Viktor sneered in disdain, not even glancing at him again.
"I came here under the emperor's order. And you, keep asking why I dare return?"
"Are you saying... you hold more power than His Majesty?"
The mage immediately shut his mouth. Some words were meant to provoke, but this question, he didn't dare answer.
Still, he'd achieved what he wanted.
Others would take up the argument for him.
The surrounding mages quickly joined in, their tone full of hostility.
"Your Majesty, the Clavenna family truly acts without reason!"
"He doesn't even admit his crimes and now slanders both us and Your Majesty!"
"We beg Your Majesty to pass judgment on him!"
Emperor Aubrey raised a hand, and the eunuch beside him called out loudly, "Silence!"
The hall instantly fell quiet.
But the mages still stared at Viktor with eyes full of hatred, as if they wanted to skin him alive and drain his blood.
It couldn't be helped, he was Viktor Clavenna.
He'd always been someone people loved to hate.
Among the crowd, the Second Prince shook his head.
'It was a pity Viktor hadn't been driven to despair yet.'
'Still... he hadn't died in the volcano after all.'
The prince remembered the mages' earlier reports, how a terrifying surge of energy had burst from the crater, suppressing the eruption instantly.
If Viktor really had been inside the volcano then, trying to trigger an eruption...
Under that energy, survival should have been impossible.
"Tch. What a pity."
The emperor beckoned toward Viktor, and the eunuch shouted again, "Viktor Clavenna! Step forward for judgment!"
Viktor approached, standing closest to the emperor, awaiting questioning.
The emperor opened his eyes and fixed them on Viktor. "Did you cause Mount Vesuvius to erupt?"
At that question, everyone stretched their necks forward, eager to hear Viktor's answer.
Or perhaps, what they were waiting for... was Viktor's excuse.
Gwen, too, was curious, but more than that, she hoped Viktor would speak the truth.
That he'd tell everyone the eruption wasn't his fault.
Standing beside the emperor wasn't just a matter of duty for her as the captain of the Royal Knights.
She had the Heart of Justice, an innate gift that let her sense truth from lies.
So when the emperor questioned Viktor, her eyes remained fixed on him.
The Heart of Justice had already activated.
"The volcanic disturbance was indeed caused by me."
A collective gasp filled the hall.
Viktor admitted it, calmly and without hesitation.
Everyone sucked in a sharp breath. Gwen's heart dropped.
She didn't want to believe it was true, but her gift told her otherwise.
"Viktor isn't lying," she said aloud.
Her words confirmed it, and instantly ignited the emotions of everyone present.
Like a volcano exploding after long dormancy, the hall erupted into chaos.
"You bastard! Do you know what you've done!?"
"You almost killed everyone, you murderer!"
"A volcanic eruption! Do you even realize the scale of your crime!?"
Gwen's heart felt heavy and painful.
The one most unable to accept this truth... was her.
If such a disaster had really happened, then she herself would have been the greatest sinner, because she hadn't stopped him.
But then...
"The one who stopped the volcano from erupting... was also me."
Gwen's head shot up, her eyes wide in shock.
"Viktor... isn't lying," she said again.
The duke, still kneeling motionless on the floor, suddenly lifted his head.
Viktor's words, which had first stirred everyone's anger, now instantly silenced them.
With Gwen's confirmation, it was as though an ancient glacier had fallen upon the hall, freezing every sound and emotion.
All the mages remembered that moment clearly.
When the volcano was about to erupt, that blinding white light had shot into the sky, suppressing the mountain in an instant.
That was no human magic.
And now Viktor claimed he was the one who stopped it?
Even the volcano itself wouldn't dare believe that.
But Gwen... said he wasn't lying.
Emperor Aubrey looked at the crowd's stunned faces, then turned back to Viktor.
"Viktor, why did you do it?"
Viktor knew lying would be pointless, Gwen would see right through him.
So he decided to speak plainly, the truth of the volcano.
Honesty, after all, was the deadliest weapon.
"Your Majesty, beneath the volcano was sealed a terrifying monster called Guldon."
"If we didn't deal with it now, in a year and a half, it would break free and cause the volcano to erupt completely."
"At that time, the scale of destruction would devour the entire land."
The emperor narrowed his eyes. "So... you defeated that monster?"
Viktor placed a hand over his chest and bowed slightly.
"I did not fail Your Majesty's trust."
Even without Gwen confirming it, the claim itself drove the hall into chaos.
"Your Majesty! Don't believe his lies! He's just making this up to escape punishment!"
"Nonsense! There can't be a monster under the volcano! And even if there was, how could Viktor defeat it alone!?"
"The magic we saw that day, no human could possess that kind of power!"
"At least not a mere third-tier mage like Viktor!"
All around, the mages turned their accusations on Viktor again.
"In our opinion, he's lying!"
Only a few third-tier mages kept silent, among them Count Beck.
He glanced at a few of his close peers, who met his gaze in return.
They all thought of the same thing, the old madwoman from Sanchel Town.
"The legend of the Volcano God... is true."
The emperor turned toward Gwen. She nodded firmly, confirming Viktor hadn't lied.
The Second Prince suddenly stepped forward. "Captain Gwen, if I recall correctly, you're engaged to Viktor, aren't you?"
Gwen blinked, then nodded.
"Even when you went to investigate the volcano, you accompanied him," the prince said, smiling. "And Viktor was missing for seven or eight days afterward. Are you really telling us you don't know what he was doing?"
His smile was polite, but his words were sharp as knives.
Many of the mages immediately caught on.
Gwen glared back coldly. "Your Highness, are you questioning me?"
The prince smiled faintly. "Please understand, it's a reasonable suspicion."
The emperor spoke up. "Gwen's Heart of Justice has never been wrong."
But the prince bowed slightly and replied, "Your Majesty, with respect, her gift can indeed discern the truth in others' words... but who can discern the truth in hers?"
The moment he said that, the mages' eyes lit up.
"That's right! Gwen is Viktor's fiancée!"
"We almost got fooled by this cunning couple!"
"The prince is right! How can we trust Gwen's words now?"
The mages cheered inwardly. If not for the Second Prince's cleverness, they might have been completely outplayed by Viktor and Gwen.
'As expected, the prince was as sharp as ever.'
Gwen opened her mouth, wanting to explain, but under the barrage of accusations, she couldn't even form a full sentence. Her eyes turned red with frustration.
She could fight for her country, slay enemies on the battlefield, but arguing with this many silver-tongued mages? She was hopeless.
And then...
"So, Your Highness," Viktor's voice suddenly cut through the noise, "you're saying... my strength isn't enough?"
He didn't turn around, but none of the mages behind him could see his expression.
The Second Prince narrowed his eyes, smiling leisurely.
"Viktor, everyone here knows your talent."
"But to hide your own failure, you've invented this story about a 'monster.'"
"You're merely a third-tier mage. Isn't it foolish to boast so wildly?"
His words struck home.
No third-tier mage here believed Viktor had stopped that eruption alone.
They couldn't have done it, and their pride wouldn't allow a peer to be stronger than them.
So they refused to believe.
But just then...
Viktor vanished.
Everyone's eyes widened. They searched frantically for his figure, until a surge of flame rose into the air.
"Where... where did Viktor go!?"
Above the Second Prince's head, countless magic circles appeared and began spinning rapidly, so many that no one could even discern a single rune.
"What... what kind of formation is that?"
"The runes are so chaotic, no, too complex! I can't read a single pattern!"
"What's happening!?"
All the mages were shocked. They wanted to analyze or counter it, but the temperature in the hall suddenly skyrocketed.
The heat made it impossible to even focus their magic.
Then, a terrified shout broke the silence.
"Look... look! Is that... Viktor!?"
A mage pointed upward, trembling.
Viktor's form was now engulfed in flame, taking the shape of a massive fire golem that reached the ceiling, blazing like the sun itself, radiant, consuming, unstoppable.
The intense heat set the walls ablaze, cracks spreading through the marble floor.
His gaze, cold, piercing, locked onto the Second Prince, pressing down on him so heavily that the prince couldn't even breathe.
"You're saying I'm not strong enough?"
In an instant, flames ignited on the prince's clothes.
Smoke began to rise, but under such overwhelming heat, he couldn't even feel that he was burning.
Gwen leapt in front of the emperor, her enchanted armor flaring as she shielded him from the searing light.
"Then let's speak with strength."
Hum! Hum! Hum!
Countless magic circles vibrated in unison, their resonance drowning out every other sound in the hall, fusing into one vast hum.
And then, one terrified mage shouted hoarsely, "That's... that's a fourth-tier spell!"
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