Julian stared at her, the sheer, unadulterated absurdity of her logic temporarily stalling his rage. He let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh.
"Oh, really?" Julian asked, his voice dripping with dark sarcasm. "Then the word 'cheating' has some other meaning in your administrative dictionary?"
Elara paused. She ran a rapid linguistic analysis. "My definition is factually accurate to the events that occurred. I literally engaged in physical maintenance with them. So?"
Julian squeezed his eyes shut. He raised a hand and violently pinched the bridge of his nose, physically attempting to restrain himself from losing his mind. He was exerting real, agonizing control.
He opened his eyes, glaring at her with a mix of fury and sheer exhaustion. "So, do you even know what you did wrong?"
Elara shook her head, her expression a mask of perfect, unbothered slate. "No. I did not execute a miscalculation."
