Vivian rose to his feet with the same steady calm he had carried since the beginning.
"Number 9862," he said, "refers to Professor Garhard Retrakes."
"He is a Swordmaster of the empire… and a professor in the swordsmanship department."
The name landed like a hammer.
Every official who hadn't heard it before stiffened in shock.
A few who had known… looked even worse, as if their secrets had just been dragged into the sunlight.
For a moment, the hall froze.
No one dared breathe too loudly.
Then the whispers started.
"Wait—Garhard? Isn't he related to your family?" an official muttered to the man beside him.
The man jolted in his seat like someone had poked him with a hot iron.
"Don't say that here," he hissed. "Not now."
But whispers have a habit of spreading.
Another official leaned in from the side.
"Why not? You used to brag about it all the time. Didn't you hold a feast when your sister married him?"
The man's face turned red in an instant.
