Novel Full Chapter 169: My Student did not compromise the mission, he saved it.
Chapter 169: My Student did not compromise the mission, he saved it.
"If you were discussing MY student."
A voice was heard.
"Don’t you think informing me was the obvious first step?"
Vivienne was here.
And the instant their eyes fell on her—
The entire Council of Directorates froze.
These were no ordinary people. They were the highest authority of the Enclave. Directors who controlled hunters, cover-ups, relics, treaties, research, records, internal investigations, training, Old Family authority, and regional command.
They were people who negotiated with vampire courts, buried demonic incidents, sealed cursed artifacts, and ordered entire operations with a single signature.
And yet, when Vivienne Everhart walked into the chamber, that too, in the manner she had, none of them moved first.
Even Garrick Vale, the Warden Seat, who had faced monsters large enough to tear hundreds of buildings apart in seconds, became still.
Vivienne’s gaze moved across the room, observing every single person sitting inside. And as her gaze moved past them, one by one, people adjusted themselves, not wanting there to be any flaw she could pick.
Then, an aide near the wall returned to his senses. He quickly stepped forward, grabbed a chair, then hesitated, unsure where to place a chair in a chamber with ten fixed seats.
Vivienne looked at him.
The aide immediately moved faster.
Another aide joined him. Together, they brought a chair and placed it near the table. Vivienne walked forward and sat down. Other Directorates silently adjusted their chairs according to Vivienne’s.
"So?"
Then Vivienne crossed one leg over the other, leaned back slightly, and looked at the highest authority of the Enclave as if they were a group of students who had failed a simple lesson.
"What’s all this about?"
She asked and for a good few seconds, no one answered. Every Seat stared at the others, hoping someone would say something to make the pressure go away, until finally—
Cassian Rook, the Inquest Seat, leaned forward.
"Lucian Cross has displayed several abnormalities that require formal review."
"Abnormalities?"
Vivienne looked at him. That made Cassian pause for a moment, then, he spoke in a more careful tone.
"He formed a demonic contract with Evelyn Starling despite being a human. He also manifested a form that resembled a Demon’s True Form."
Vivienne stared at him in silence and very quickly, Cassian changed his words.
"Or something similar to one."
"Better."
Vivienne nodded in a cold, dismissive tone.
Cassian’s eyes showed a cruel glint, but that lasted a very short moment. He did not want Vivienne to see it.
"Because of these events, Inquest recommends restriction until we can confirm whether he remains... human-aligned."
He spoke carefully.
Vivienne looked at him for a moment, then her eyes shifted onto Helena.
"And you?"
The Crucible Seat’s body flinched at Vivienne’s gaze.
Now, by no means was Helena a timid woman. She oversaw the sector that broke hunters into shape, she had watched recruits crawl through blood and did not react to it.
However...
As Vivienne, the woman who had trained her for three years, looked at her—
Her body flinched on its own, remembering everything that had happened to it back then.
"The Crucible does not recommend restriction at this stage. Lucian Cross requires training, evaluation, and controlled development.
Under your supervision, naturally."
Cassian rolled his eyes at how quickly the woman changed her sentence.
That was when Selene, the Research Seat, spoke up as well.
"Research requests access to medical data. Blood analysis, regeneration records, energy mapping, and non-invasive scans."
Again, her tone and choice of words were very careful as well.
It was honestly funny how quickly every person here changed their words, but as Vivienne stared at the Research Seat—
"No."
She spoke directly and Selene—
"As expected."
She simply nodded, accepting the no.
The next one to speak was Ophelia Saint, the Reliquary Seat.
"The Reliquary recommends safeguards. Countermeasures in case he loses control again—"
However, before she could even complete her words, Vivienne snorted.
"If he loses control, you think your little toys will stop him?"
Ophelia remained calm.
"They may slow him."
"Long enough for what?"
"For response teams to act."
"Response teams like the ones that failed tonight?"
And the moment those words were spoken, the chamber became silent.
Garrick Vale’s scarred face tightened, but he did not argue.
He... could not argue.
Vivienne’s gaze moved across the table, then—
"So, if I understood correctly, my student saved the mission from failing, saved the protected subject, prevented Vaelrith’s agent from escaping with her, broke through a suppression formation prepared specifically against him, and now all of you are discussing how to punish him for it?"
"That is not what this is."
Cassian tried to speak up but—
"It sounds exactly like what this is."
Vivienne didn’t let him.
That was when Marcelline Voss raised her head.
"With respect, Lady Vivienne, the concern is not only what he did. It is how he did it. His method risked exposure."
"Exposure?"
Vivienne turned toward her and snorted.
"Do not speak as if the others only failed because they were worried about exposure."
She looked at Alaric and—
"They failed because they were weak."
She spoke in a cold tone.
"They were outnumbered."
Garrick tried to take the hunters’ side but—
"So was my student."
Vivienne countered directly.
She once again looked at every Seat present here and—
"The enemy prepared against my student. They specifically built their plan around removing him from the field, and the moment their plan succeeded, the moment my student was compromised, Ashcroft Team’s defences collapsed."
Vivienne spoke and not a single person here denied it.
Alaric too, only lowered his head and clenched his fists. Cadrien didn’t have a good look on his face either.
Vivienne didn’t stop there.
"Everything happened because besides my student, everyone else in the team was insufficient. They couldn’t hold on. If it were just them, the protected subject would have been taken away.
So my student, who, mind you, the enemy had prepared against, moved despite being compromised. He pushed past his limits and did something no one on his team could.
He saved the protected subject.
He did not compromise the mission, he saved it.
And he did it all singlehandedly."