The crowd fell into absolute silence.
Rain whispered against the tall windows.
Blue flames flickered across pale faces.
Aurex Valdren's body lay motionless in the center of the chamber while every eye remained fixed on the evidence in the guard's hands.
No one breathed.
No one moved.
Then a rough voice broke the silence.
"So what?"
Heads turned sharply.
A scarred commander stepped forward, his expression hard and skeptical.
"How do those three things prove anything?"
The murmur of the crowd returned, uncertain and restless.
Veer Rajput stepped out from the delegates and took the glowing blue stone from the guard. The light reflected across his face as he raised it carefully.
"This," Veer said quietly, "is a Paroba Stone."
Junyu and Salim exchanged a glance.
"What does that mean?" someone asked from the back.
Veer's expression darkened.
"If a person carries the bloodline of the Upper Land, this stone reacts violently when they come close to it."
The blue glow pulsed once in his hand.
"It can weaken them."
Another pulse.
"And in some cases, it can temporarily suppress their powers."
A heavy silence settled over the chamber.
Veer looked toward Aurex's body.
"The presence of this stone strongly suggests that Aurex Valdren belonged to the Upper Land."
Shock rippled through the nobles.
"And if his powers were suppressed," Veer continued, "a poison that might not kill an ordinary ruler could kill him."
The chamber erupted.
"Upper Land?"
"What is that place?"
"Is it even real?"
Veer slowly lifted his eyes.
"A place where gods are said to live."
The words struck the hall like thunder.
Several delegates took an involuntary step back from Aurex's corpse.
A woman covered her mouth.
A guard crossed himself.
Even the blue flames seemed dimmer.
Junyu stared at Veer, trying to understand what he had just heard.
Aurex was from the Upper Land?
Then another voice rose from the crowd.
"And the purple vial?"
The masked host took the vial from the guard and held it beneath the lantern light. The liquid swirled darkly inside.
"It is poison," he said coldly.
A faint smile touched the edge of his mask.
"Would you like to drink it?"
No one answered.
The host handed the vial back and turned toward the final piece of evidence.
"The note."
The guard unfolded the chit.
Junyu's heart lurched.
The beach note.
He remembered the girl's perfume, her smile, the strange smell on the paper.
Salim leaned forward anxiously.
The masked man began to read.
"Killing Aurex will be done. Meet me in the opposite corridor for the vial."
Junyu's face went white.
Salim shouted at the same time.
"HEY! That is not what it said!"
"Let us read it!"
The crowd parted slightly as the note was passed toward them.
Junyu snatched it with trembling hands.
His eyes scanned the words.
His breath stopped.
The message was exactly the same.
Not a single letter differed.
Salim stared at the paper in disbelief.
"That's impossible…"
Junyu looked again and again, searching desperately for the original words.
Meet us on the beach… bring your handsome friend.
Gone.
Replaced.
The masked host stepped close enough that only Junyu could hear him.
His whisper was colder than the storm outside.
"The paper smelled strange because it carried disappearing ink… and appearing ink."
Junyu's pupils widened.
The world seemed to tilt beneath him.
The girls.
The note.
The smell.
The vial.
Everything had been prepared long before he entered Aurex's room.
He had been led here from the beginning.
The crowd watched him in complete silence.
No one spoke.
No one defended him.
The nobles who had argued with him earlier now looked at him as if he were a stranger.
Veer's grip tightened around the Paroba Stone.
Salim took a step toward Junyu, but guards instantly lowered their spears.
The masked host straightened and spoke for the entire hall to hear.
"Lacod Junyu."
The blue flames crackled.
"You are under arrest for the murder of Aurex Valdren."
Metal rang through the chamber as chains were drawn.
Guards advanced from every side.
Junyu did not resist.
He could only stare at the altered note in his hand.
Then—
From somewhere deep within the crowd, hidden among the frightened nobles, a single person began to clap slowly.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Junyu lifted his head sharply.
The crowd shifted.
A hooded figure turned away before his face could be seen.
And in that instant, Junyu understood one terrifying truth:
The person who framed him was still inside the room.