Chapter 613: A Voice Chosen

Princess Didi walked between the partitioned interrogation tents, her silver-trimmed cloak sweeping gracefully behind her heels past guards and waiting petitioners.

Didi stopped beside the nearest interrogation tent and let a shaken petitioner finish speaking before she asked the guards to open the flap.

Her six royal Shards spun slowly in a quiet crystalline orbit around her shoulders, radiating crisp, steady authority.

Behind her, two provincial guards escorted an elderly scribe in ink-stained robes, sitting him upon an unadorned bench.

Didi spent the last two hours questioning the surviving registry clerks separately, meticulously comparing their testimonies.

Most of the junior scribes were terrified civilians who signed work requisitions under threat of summary execution.

However, the elderly record keeper named Varon held an elected mandate from the town council, managing the grain records for thirty years.

"Master Varon, you took an oath to this province under my father’s seal," the princess noted, inspecting his worn record.

"Did you willingly splice the choir’s possession commands into the river irrigation schedule?"

"Never, Your Highness!" the old clerk answered firmly, meeting her gaze with weary but unbroken dignity.

"I took an oath to protect the valley farmers from drought, and I refused to let their corruption taint the municipal water gates."

"I hid the true civic records inside the third register drawer, maintaining the irrigation lines under our original civic agreement."

"Even when their overseers threatened my family with exile, I kept the true irrigation numbers hidden in my coat."

Varon unfolded his election warrant and pointed to the council signatures pressed beneath the seal.

"If I strike this oath from the record, do the farmers lose their right to choose their keeper?" she asked.

"They could elect me again," he answered. "The Choir would call this record void and seize the valves before anyone voted."

"Then I won’t erase what you freely promised. Your council chose you, not them. I’ll cut the order they hid beneath it."

Didi ordered the guards to preserve each account until Vella compared the documents with the conduit.

A sudden blast of concussive force shattered the courtyard gates, scattering splintered timbers across the flagstones.

A towering figure clad in gilded imperial plate armor strode through the dust, wielding a serrated halberd that hummed with choir resonance.

"Princess Didi of the royal line!" the enforcer roared, his crimson cape billowing behind his spiked pauldrons.

"Your royal ancestors pledged allegiance to the sacred harmony that governs all mortal flesh!"

"Hand over that recalcitrant clerk so he may be properly integrated into the eternal choir... or face the wrath of the crown!"

The enforcer lunged toward the elderly scribe, extending a gauntleted hand wreathed in tendrils of dark, grasping mana.

"Step away from that desk!" Didi commanded, stepping directly between the towering enforcer and the terrified clerk.

"I am a princess of this kingdom, and my royal bloodline protects the innocent rather than enslaving them!"

She unsheathed her slender dueling rapier in a single fluid motion, channeling her six Shards into an explosion of radiant winter power.

Crowned Frost erupted across the courtyard, freezing the encroaching dark tendrils into brittle crystalline icicles that shattered on the flags.

The sudden drop in temperature locked the enforcer’s feet to the stones, stalling his forward momentum mid-stride.

"Insolent child—!" the enforcer bellowed, swinging his massive halberd in a horizontal cleave aimed at her neck.

"You dare turn your blade against the true harmony of the realm?"

Didi did not retreat, executing a dazzling parry that deflected the heavy blade harmlessly over her right shoulder.

"Your so-called harmony is nothing more than cowardly subjugation!" she retorted, her eyes flashing with fury.

She stepped inside his reach, driving the crystalline tip of her rapier straight through his armored elbow joint.

The precise strike severed his tendon, causing his halberd to clatter uselessly against the stone pavement.

The enforcer roared in pain, attempting to draw a secondary dagger with his left gauntlet.

"Drop your weapons—!" she warned, pivoting on her heel with aristocratic grace.

Before he could draw the secondary blade, she brought her pommel down into his cheekbone with concussive force.

The enforcer crashed onto his back, completely incapacitated as frost crystals bound his arms and torso to the flagstones.

"Your harmony has no authority in this province!" the princess declared coldly, resting her rapier tip against his throat.

"And you will answer for every citizen you threatened!"

The guards secured the fallen enforcer with runic suppression chains while Didi seized his warrant, then dragged him to the cells.

Didi sheathed her blade with an elegant flick of her wrist, turning back toward Master Varon who watched the display with deep, reverent admiration.

"Are you unharmed, Master Varon?" she asked gently, offering the shaken old clerk a clean handkerchief.

"I am whole, Your Highness... thanks to your swift intervention," he replied with a trembling, grateful bow.

"Now, show me where their counterfeit commands separate from your true civic records," she requested, leaning over the table.

The old scribe pulled a brass key from his collar, unlocking the false bottom of the municipal registry chest.

He produced two parchment rolls, laying them side by side under the torchlight to display the overlapping ink traces.

"Look right here at the seventh harmonic marker," Varon explained, pointing to a subtle divergence in the calligraphy.

"This upper line carries the civic irrigation frequencies that control the sluice gates."

"This lower line is the parasitic possession feed that Keldan spliced into the conduit to infect the populace."

"The two signals travel across the same copper wires, but their frequencies diverge at the junction valve."

The princess laid the enforcer’s warrant beside the town register, aligning their stamps beneath the same lantern.

The seal appeared on both, but only the hostile order carried a needle mark beside the seventh harmonic.

"They copied our seal," Didi said. "They didn’t copy the council’s vote."

"The junction takes its orders from that lower mark," Varon explained. "Close the false rider and my sluice schedule keeps running."

"Show her the valve drawing too," Didi told him, moving the forged warrant aside. "She needs the physical point, not only our signatures."

He opened the maintenance leaf beside the register, giving Vella a route to test without guesswork.

Vella drifted down from the roof terrace in her shimmering spirit form, her eyes scanning the two distinct channels.

"This is the exact separation I needed," the spirit maiden smiled, touching the parchment with a glowing translucent finger.

"With this divergence clearly mapped, I can surgically sever their possession cores without disturbing a single municipal irrigation line!"

"How long will the procedure take?" Didi inquired, turning to the spirit with sharp clinical interest.

"If Hajin anchors our contract, I can sever each infected channel in less than ninety seconds," the spirit calculated calmly.

Hajin stepped into the courtyard, his dual swords sheathed as he looked from the saved clerk to the radiant princess.

"Incredible tactical leadership, Didi," the young summoner praised warmly, offering a genuine smile.

"You proved that royalty is about protecting citizen agency, not enforcing ancient tyranny."

Earth viewers followed Didi’s confiscated warrant to the table, demanding that the forged rider remain visible during the hearing.

[ Seoul_Tactician: "Princess Didi using Crowned Frost with absolute mastery! She is so incredibly badass!" ]

[ StarlightScholar: "Defending the old clerk and protecting civic autonomy, she truly represents the finest royal nobility!" ]

[ IronVanguard: "Vella has the surgical map now. Can she sever the collar without hurting the people bound to it?" ]

Didi folded the warrant behind the town record, turning toward Hajin with a proud, triumphant smirk on her lips.

"Of course I handled it," she remarked with haughty satisfaction, tossing her long hair over her shoulder.

"A princess never lets a rogue enforcer push her people around!"

Loccy stepped forward from the courtyard archway, extending a freshly wrapped honey pastry toward the royal maiden.

"Royal combat duty burns through plenty of mana, Your Highness... take a bite before you collapse!"

Didi glanced around with mock hesitation before taking the pastry, nibbling the glazed crust with delicate, dignified bites.

"Tessa really outdid herself with the cinnamon glaze," the princess admitted softly, her haughty demeanor melting into a smile.

"Tomorrow morning, Vella tests the severance protocol on a consenting patient channel," Hajin announced, looking over the mapped diagrams.

"We have the surgical divergence, we have the timing wheel, and now we prepare to sever their entire network."

The companions gathered around the lantern table to finalize their assignments, while peaceful evening mist settled across the valley.