Chapter 143: The Man They Feared

The Emperor’s words were cut short as the atmosphere in the chamber suddenly changed.

It began with a subtle pressure that swept through the room, so faint at first that several of the clan heads merely glanced around in confusion when they felt it. Then the air grew heavy, and an almost imperceptible vibration travelled through the walls and beneath their feet.

The chamber seemed to fade into an unnatural stillness, as though the world outside had suddenly ceased to exist.

Emperor Alexander straightened. He had experienced this sensation before, and he knew exactly what it meant. His expression tightened as he turned his attention towards the entrance.

Cassian’s expression hardened, while Evander and Augustus instinctively turned towards the doorway. Cyrus fell silent, his earlier confidence vanishing as he felt the pressure building around them. Even Sabrina’s attention shifted from the Emperor to the space beyond the entrance.

Something was approaching. Or rather, someone was coming.

The pressure intensified, and for one strange moment, it felt as though the entire chamber were holding its breath.

Then a figure appeared near the entrance.

A man with striking red hair stood there, his hands casually clasped behind his back as he surveyed the room. His hair, once long enough to make him unmistakable from a distance, had been cut into a neat, short buzz cut. The change gave him a younger, sharper appearance, making him look like a man in his late thirties rather than someone whose age and history might have suggested otherwise.

His features were handsome in a way that seemed almost unfair, with a face that could have belonged to a professional model. Yet there was something in his eyes that made it difficult to admire his appearance for long.

They held the sort of amusement that suggested he had walked into a room full of people who had just been caught doing something they knew they shouldn’t.

He looked from one clan head to another before his gaze settled on the Emperor. "Well, well, well." His lips curved into a faint smile. "I certainly wasn’t expecting to find all the heads of the great clans gathered in one place. How convenient."

Nobody answered immediately.

The man tilted his head, looking almost entertained by their silence.

"Actually, I was only coming to see you, Alex."

He pointed directly at the Emperor.

The smile disappeared from his face.

"Now, tell me something." His voice remained deceptively calm, but the pressure in the chamber seemed to deepen with every word.

"What have you all been doing with my precious daughter?"

Silence descended upon the grand hall.

Not a single person could muster up the courage to answer. The five heads of the great clans, men and women accustomed to commanding others and making decisions that affected entire empire, suddenly found themselves struggling to choose their words. Even Emperor Alexander, who sat at the head of the gathering, seemed unusually cautious.

It wasn’t that they had nothing to say. In fact, several explanations had already formed in their minds. The problem was deciding which one they could offer without provoking the man standing before them.

Lucius was unpredictable. He could smile while discussing something as ordinary as the weather and, in the very next moment, turn an entire room into a scene of carnage. His casual manner was no indication of his intentions, and anyone who mistook his amusement for harmlessness usually regretted it.

Nobody wanted to be the first to test his patience.

Lucius glanced around the room, taking in their stiff postures and carefully restrained expressions. His lips curled faintly.

"What? Cat got your tongues?"

Nobody reacted.

He clicked his tongue.

"I could have sworn I told you all to stay away from my family. Was I not clear enough the last time we spoke? Did I mumble, perhaps? Or have you all suddenly developed a collective hearing problem?"

He took a leisurely step into the chamber, his hands slipping into his pockets as though he were discussing an insignificant inconvenience.

"Because imagine my surprise when I return home and discover that my precious Starlight has somehow ended up at Asterion Academy."

His expression darkened. "A school full of werewolves. The very species I’ve spent years trying to keep her away from, and the very people I explicitly warned you not to involve her with."

He paused, allowing his gaze to travel across their faces. "So, explain something to me. How did this happen? How did my daughter end up in the middle of your little games when I specifically told you to leave her alone?"

His smile returned, but there was nothing reassuring about it. "Go on. I’m listening."

Sabrina was the first to gather enough courage to speak. "Master Lucius, in this particular situation, I don’t believe you can hold us entirely responsible," she began carefully. "Your daughter submitted her name for the Lunar Lottery. The selection was made through the lottery itself, and she was chosen as one of the winners. None of us personally selected her name."

She paused, watching his expression.

"The lottery is unpredictable. We cannot control every name that comes out of the selection process."

The Emperor immediately snapped his fingers in agreement.

"Exactly! That’s precisely what happened. It wasn’t our fault that your daughter was selected. She was the one who entered the lottery, and her name was drawn. We had no reason to expect this particular outcome."

The other clan heads quickly nodded along.

"Yes, that’s right," Cyrus added.

"We didn’t arrange for her to be selected," Cassian insisted.

"Her name was drawn like everyone else’s," Augustus said, clearly hoping the explanation would settle the matter.

Lucius stared at them. Then he scoffed.

For several seconds, he said nothing. He merely looked at the assembled heads of the great clans and the Emperor as though they had collectively insulted his intelligence.

"Are you all actually serious right now?"

His voice was quiet, but several people immediately stiffened.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that nonsense?"

He tilted his head towards Emperor Alexander.

"Alex, my dear fellow, have you finally lost whatever little sense you had left? Or do you genuinely believe I’m stupid enough to swallow such an obvious lie?"

The Emperor’s mouth twitched, but he wisely kept quiet.

Lucius let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "Don’t insult me by pretending you don’t know how your precious Lunar Lottery works. Everyone knows it’s rigged. The names of the people who will win are decided long before the public even hears the results. You select your preferred candidates, arrange everything behind closed doors, and then broadcast the whole performance to the world as though some divine power personally reached into a drum and chose the winners."

His eyes narrowed.

"So, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that, out of all the people you could have selected, my daughter just happened to be one of the names drawn by pure chance?"

He spread his hands.

"What a remarkable coincidence. Truly. I should congratulate whoever is responsible for arranging such a spectacular piece of theatre."

"Master Lucius—" the Emperor began.

"Wait. I’m not finished."

The Emperor immediately closed his mouth.

Lucius turned his attention back to the group.

"If the lottery is rigged, as we all know it is, then does that mean you deliberately chose my daughter? Did you people actually sit around a table, look at her name, and decide that she would make a wonderful addition to your little school full of werewolves?"

"No!" Emperor Alexander shook his head quickly. "No, no, that’s not what happened."

He leaned forward, his expression unusually earnest. "Look, I won’t pretend the lottery is entirely honest. You’re right about that. We do select certain candidates beforehand, and their names are included in the process to ensure the outcome we want. However, this particular situation was different."

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "Different?"

"Yes. My youngest son, Nikolai, was responsible for drawing the name that resulted in your daughter’s selection. He had misplaced one of the lists he was supposed to use, so he had to pick a name directly from the lottery drum instead."

Alexander swallowed before continuing "And unfortunately, the name he drew was Starlight’s."

He spread his hands helplessly.

"Believe me, Master Lucius, we never intended for this to happen. We didn’t even know she had entered the lottery. If we had known beforehand, we would have made arrangements to prevent her name from being included. This wasn’t something we planned or deliberately arranged against you."

Lucius knew that the Emperor’s explanation was not entirely a lie. His wife, Clara, had already told him what had happened, including Aiden’s involvement in repeatedly submitting his sister’s name. But he had no intention of sharing that information with the people before him.

Instead, he regarded Alexander for a long moment, his expression unreadable.

Then he gave a small shrug. "Fine. Let’s assume, for the sake of this conversation, that everything you’ve told me is true. Let’s assume this was an unfortunate mistake, that nobody deliberately selected my daughter, and that the entire situation was simply an accident."

He took another step forward.

"What I want to know is why you didn’t remove her from the lottery the moment you discovered who she was."