Chapter 667 --667

Chapter 667: Chapter-667

Then, the doors slammed open once more.

Samuel, Grandpa Vanguard, and Grandma Vanguard rushed into the room. The elderly war heroes were huffing and puffing, their battle-scarred faces pale with unadulterated terror. Samuel was entirely stripped of his elegant, genius-scholar facade; his golden eyes were wide, frantic, and completely feral as he violently pushed past the imperial guards to get to his wife.

When the Vanguard family finally saw Heena, they froze in utter shock.

She was slumped against the base of the desk, surrounded by four trembling imperial physicians. The heavy dose of emergency painkillers and the dozen silver acupuncture needles meticulously embedded in her neck and temples had finally dulled the agonizing spike of pain into a heavy, suffocating throb.

Slowly, heavily, Heena forced her eyelids open.

She didn’t scream this time, but her hands began to tremble violently. She looked toward the sound of her family’s heavy footsteps, but all she saw were blurred, shapeless shadows moving in a sea of gray fog. She couldn’t see Samuel’s face. She couldn’t see the gold on her grandfather’s armor. Her vision was completely, terrifyingly shattered.

"I..." Heena whispered, her voice incredibly small, a stark, heartbreaking contrast to the arrogant warlord who had terrorized the capital just hours ago. "I can’t see clearly."

The heavy, suffocating silence of the Royal Study was suddenly shattered by a sound that made absolutely everyone in the room freeze.

Heena threw her head back and burst into bright, echoing laughter.

"Ahahaha! Oh, my god!" Heena giggled, slapping her hand against the mahogany desk. She waved away the stunned imperial physicians and flashed a brilliant, highly amused grin at her terrified family. "How was the joke? Was my acting convincing? I really thought I sold the whole ’dying warrior’ angle!"

The collective terror in the room instantly evaporated, immediately replaced by profound, exasperated fury.

"You?!" Grandpa Vanguard roared, the color rushing violently back into his weathered face.

Grandma Vanguard didn’t even hesitate. She marched right past the trembling physicians, reached down, and firmly pinched Heena’s ear while playfully pulling a strand of her hair.

"You absolute menace!" Grandma scolded, her voice shaking with a mix of overwhelming relief and pure anger. "You dare to joke with us like that?! Do you have any idea how fast my heart was beating?!"

"Ow, ow, ow! Yeah, yeah, you caught me, you caught me!" Heena laughed, raising her hands in surrender and tilting her head away from the pinch.

She kept her smile wide and completely carefree, but beneath the flawless, arrogant mask, a terrifying reality remained.

She still couldn’t see.

The gray fog hadn’t lifted. The world was still a chaotic, blurry smear. Desperate to maintain her invincible facade, Heena rapidly called out in her mind to her AI companion.

’System!’ Heena yelled internally. ’Where exactly is Grandmother standing?!’

"West," the System replied instantly, its digital voice tight with genuine concern, fully understanding what its host was doing. "She is positioned at the third edge of the desk. Three inches away from your right shoulder. Raise your right hand... now."

Heena didn’t hesitate. Trusting the AI’s coordinates completely, she shot her right arm out into the gray void. Her hand perfectly intercepted her grandmother’s waist.

Heena pulled the elderly woman down into a deep, incredibly tight embrace, burying her face into her grandmother’s warm robes.

"Ah, I missed you," Heena murmured affectionately, her voice slightly muffled.

Grandma Vanguard softened instantly, letting go of Heena’s hair and wrapping her arms around her chaotic granddaughter, completely fooled by the affectionate ambush. "You reckless child. Don’t ever scare us like that again."

The imperial physicians wiped the nervous sweat from their foreheads, grumbling about the Vanguard Madam’s twisted sense of humor. The Emperor, still standing in the corner, let out a massive, shuddering exhale, feeling foolish for actually believing the sociopathic warlord was in genuine danger.

But not everyone was fooled.

Samuel stood completely still, his golden eyes locked onto his wife. He didn’t yell. He didn’t scold her. His hyper-analytical brain was rapidly processing the scene in front of him, dissecting every micro-expression, every movement.

He noticed how tightly Heena was gripping her grandmother’s robes, as if anchoring herself to reality. He noticed the faint, lingering tremble in her fingertips.

And, most devastatingly of all, the genius scholar noticed that as Heena smiled and laughed with her family... she kept her eyes completely closed.

She wasn’t joking. She was hiding.

The Medical Assessment

Grandpa Vanguard glared down at the trembling imperial physicians, his battle-hardened aura flaring with protective fury. "What exactly is wrong with my granddaughter?"

The head physician nervously wiped sweat from his brow, his fingers hovering over Heena’s wrist as he frantically checked her pulse. "It... it appears the Madam is simply suffering from severe physical exhaustion, General. Headaches of this magnitude have many underlying causes, but given her pulse, it seems to be a combination of profound fatigue and general bodily weakness. She is also slightly underweight. We cannot determine a singular, life-threatening cause, but it is clear she mostly just needs deep, uninterrupted rest."

Grandpa Vanguard let out a gruff sigh, his tense shoulders finally dropping. He nodded slowly. "Fine. After she sleeps and rests, she will recover."

Standing in the corner, the Emperor aggressively massaged his own throbbing temples. The sheer emotional whiplash of the last twenty minutes had completely drained whatever was left of his royal patience. He had genuinely thought the most dangerous woman in the empire was dying on his floor, only to realize she was just playing a twisted prank.

"Now get out," the Emperor groaned, waving his hands dismissively at the entire Vanguard clan as if shooing away a flock of loud crows. "All of you, get lost. You are giving me a headache now. Take her and leave."

Grandpa Vanguard offered a stiff, highly unapologetic bow. "Thank you for your hospitality, Your Majesty."

The Shameless Request

Heena kept her eyes firmly closed, masking her shattered vision behind a playful, relaxed smile. She tilted her head slightly, projecting her voice into the blurry gray void of her destroyed sight.

"Samuel?" she called out innocently.

In her mind, she snapped at her AI. ’System! Where is he?’

"Directly to your left," the System guided instantly, dropping its usual nagging. "Turn your body slightly. He is exactly three meters away from your left hand."

Trusting the digital coordinates, Heena smoothly turned to her left. She raised both of her arms out into the empty air with absolute, unhesitating precision, reaching exactly where her husband was standing. She threw her head back and let out a dramatic, exaggerated whine.

"My legs are hurting," Heena complained loudly, completely ignoring the fact that she was still sitting in the Emperor’s Royal Study. "Carry me."

A collective, synchronized cringe rippled through the room. The imperial maids flushed bright red and quickly covered their faces with their silk sleeves, deeply embarrassed by the shameless public display of affection. Even the Head Eunuch looked away, coughing awkwardly at the Vanguard Madam’s absolute lack of aristocratic dignity.

Samuel, however, did not cringe.

His golden eyes tracked the exact trajectory of her outstretched hands. He saw the subtle tension in her fingers, the slight pallor of her skin, and the way she absolutely refused to open her eyes.