On the fifth day of enrollment, Lyon stood on the graduation ceremony stage.
The morning sun was warm, and the auditorium was nearly empty.
The university president stood on the podium in a doctoral gown, smiling warmly as he moved the tassel on Lyon's graduation cap.
Then he gripped Lyon's hand tightly and said, "Congratulations on graduating, Lyon. Don't forget to visit your alma mater often. I'm sure the twenty million in scholarship funds you donated yesterday will help many outstanding students like yourself!"
Lyon smiled and replied, "Thank you, Sir. I'll be back next year to donate a new building."
The row of professors seated to the side immediately burst into enthusiastic applause.
They had just been intellectually humbled by Lyon that very morning, and by evening, each of them had received substantial research funding.
As a result, all of Lyon's required courses were marked as completed overnight, every credit accounted for, and the express train to graduation had sounded its horn and sped off.
Now, this round of applause was given with absolute sincerity.
Some even had the urge to rush up, cling to Lyon's leg, and applaud while hugging him.
At that moment, a melodious symphony began to play, and the weight of history swept across the one-meter-high stage with the flow of music.
Below the stage in the auditorium...
On the few hundred seats covered in burgundy velvet, only a few family members sat in the front row.
Tony, Pepper, and Sherry each had a different expression.
Pepper clapped along helplessly with the professors on stage, both amused and exasperated in her heart.
She had sent Lyon to university so he could experience youth—taste the bittersweetness of friendship and love.
But this brat had agreed with a smiling "sure, sure," only to pull a fast one behind her back.
Yes, he had technically enrolled, he had completed all the required courses, and even expedited his thesis, which just happened to be published in a top academic journal this very morning.
It sounded like a pretty perfect college experience.
But the entire process had taken not four years, not even four months—just a few days.
Had Lyon experienced college life? Technically, yes.
Except his college dorm had been strapped to a rocket.
From the moment he enrolled, it ignited, and in just a few days he rocketed through the entire journey at Mach 31.
Tony, meanwhile, clapped while shaking his head.
He thought to himself, This kid doesn't even know what he missed.
So many fair arms, so many dazzling legs, so many fluttering skirts in college…
What a dream those days and nights could have been.
This kid... still too green.
Tony sighed, thinking Lyon hadn't inherited even a sliver of his own charm.
Sherry, on the other hand, was thrilled—her applause was just as thunderous as the professors' on stage.
She simply felt that her big brother Lyon was becoming more and more amazing.
On stage.
Lyon first took a commemorative photo with the principal, both holding his diploma.
Then he hugged each professor in turn.
They had only known each other for a single day.
Yet every professor acted like their prized pupil of five years was finally leaving school.
They pursed their lips, blinked hard, and nodded nonstop like people trying to hold back tears at a farewell.
Lyon cooperated with the dramatic bunch for the group photo. Only after promising further research funding did he, still in his graduation gown, leave with his family group.
Normally, people would feel a bit sentimental at this point, and their families would ask about future plans.
But Lyon and his group, of course, weren't weighed down by such complicated emotions.
Just five days had passed—Lyon hadn't even fully explored the Columbia campus yet, let alone felt any sort of parting sentiment.
Pepper, however, still had questions. "So, you've finished your courses, handed off the company to Natasha—what are you planning to do next?"
"You can't seriously be thinking of just staying home doing nothing every day, right?"
She believed young people should stay active, stay busy.
Lyon shrugged. "I still have to protect Earth. How could I be doing nothing?"
"Protect the Earth? From who—Tony? Or from yourself?" Pepper gave him a sharp look.
Based on what she knew, anything that required Lyon to intervene always seemed to come from something the two brothers had stirred up themselves.
So this so-called 'protecting the Earth'… wasn't it just cleaning up their own messes?
"Ow.. You make it sound like Tony and I are just troublemakers," Lyon protested.
"We're just protecting the world in our own way," Tony chimed in.
But then Lyon suddenly turned. "Let's be honest—Tony's the only one causing trouble."
Pepper froze for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh. "You know, that actually sounds about right."
"Hey! Lyon, I thought we were on the same side!" Tony's face darkened.
"Is that so?" Lyon pointed ahead.
"Look—you've stirred up more trouble again. And this time, just like always, I'm the one who has to clean it up... Though it seems like it hasn't been fully settled yet."
In front of the group, two figures stepped out from the pavilion near the school gate.
It was Wanda and Pietro.
They seemed to have been waiting there for a long time.
The moment they spotted Lyon and the others, they stepped out of the shadow and walked toward them.
The morning sun was high in the sky, casting very short shadows—like two short daggers tucked beneath their feet.
Tony sensed the tension immediately.
He narrowed his eyes, taking a closer look.
It was a young man and woman, both dressed in similar short-sleeved shirts and jeans.
One wore a light blue cool-toned top, the other a deep red warm-toned one.
Their expressions were grim, eyes fixed intently on their group—or more accurately, on him alone.
From their mirrored posture to their gaze devoid of excess emotion—Tony suddenly saw in them the same look he and Lyon once had, when they'd set out to confront Hydra for revenge.
But these two young people still seemed too young.
So young, in fact, that their immaturity was written all over their faces—like students who'd just stepped out into society for the first time.
At first glance, they looked like the kind of people easy to fool.
"Who are they?" Tony asked Lyon quietly.
"A pair of siblings from Sokovia. Their parents were killed by a missile labeled 'Stark' when they were ten. Later, they joined Hydra, and then…" Lyon gave a brief explanation.
Tony fell silent after hearing it.
Even though the weapons sold to that country had been trafficked privately by Obadiah...
As the person who designed and built them, he still couldn't absolve himself from the tragedies those weapons had caused.
At least, that's what Tony believed.
He pulled his hand out of his pocket and came to a stop, his expression unusually calm, ready to face the approaching brother and sister.
Maybe what was coming would be a hard punch to the face, or maybe a sharp blade.
But Tony felt it was necessary to have a talk with these two.
Lyon and the others stopped as well, standing beside Tony.
Soon, the two of them drew closer, and the siblings' appearances became clear.
The sister had striking bone structure, her skin pale as snow—so bright under the sun it dazzled the eyes, like a bloom of ice, or the gleam of a blade.
The brother was tall and lean, the kind who should've radiated the youthful arrogance and vitality of someone his age—but now, with his emotions repressed, he resembled a smoldering volcano.
Their eyes never left Tony.
And within those gazes simmered a bitterness that couldn't easily be soothed.
It wasn't quite the rage of vengeance for a blood feud.
It was more like the kind of hate born from imagining—over and over again—punching Tony's smug face into the ground.
The kind of hate that, over time, became a habit.
Just a few meters away from Tony, they stopped.
Under Lyon and the others' watchful gaze—The sister reached into the side pocket of her jeans and pulled out—Tony thought it might be a knife, or perhaps a handgun.
But it was neither.
It was a black, gold-trimmed ultra-premium credit card from Flagstar Bank.
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