Claire walked slowly onto the podium in the center of the conference room and stood shoulder to shoulder with Miriel.
Tonight she still wore the black overcoat with its blood-red lining, like a crow folding its wings.
Claire stared fixedly at Miriel.
Her eyes burned with bone-deep hatred.
Candlelight flickered in her red pupils, yet it looked as if blazing flames were roaring within them.
A wave of fierce anger surged from those irises.
Miriel’s heart tightened.
Even though she knew Liz had accepted the persuasion, at this moment she had no certainty about what was in Claire’s mind.
“Claire, Enforcer of the Cerberus Bureau. You performed outstandingly in the Kent incident. I greatly admire your courage and wisdom. I hope you can describe what happened in Kent that day. You only need to recount what you personally witnessed. None of the people here have been to Kent. They need some intuitive testimony to understand the situation.”
Dragon King His looked at Claire. His dragon eyes gleamed with golden light.
“Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty.” Claire bowed slightly, yet her gaze never left Miriel.
“But I must point out that the truth of the Kent containment zone is far from what the report states. I personally witnessed the Dragon Guard and the county police massacring innocent demonkin residents.Those so-called terrorists were nothing but old people and children!”
The moment these words were spoken, the conference room erupted in uproar.
“The demonkin of the containment zone?”
“I had almost forgotten about those damned burdens.”
“The containment zone system should have been abolished long ago!”
“Isn’t our topic steam armor?”
The parliamentarians whispered and murmured among themselves.
They had not expected such a twist.
Yet clearly, they were not moved by the massacre in the Kent containment zone.
Claire finally understood why the Kent containment zone had fallen under gang management.
She also understood why the Mutual Aid Society’s operations kept succeeding.
She raised her head and looked upward.
A faint smile appeared on her lips, carrying a trace of sarcasm.
She silently despised those supremely noble parliamentarians.
This girl actually dared to look down on the people who held the nation’s fate in their hands.
It was no different from despising the country itself.
Dragon King His was also shocked by Claire’s testimony.
He did not ring the bell to restore order for a long while.
Before Miriel could refute, a low voice came from the high seats, breaking the silence.
“Please forgive me for interrupting the witness, Your Majesty. Professor Miriel’s discovery is indeed shocking. But everyone knows that pure-blooded demons have long been extinct on the surface. Regardless of how the empire obtained Demon Spinal Fluid, how do you intend to turn your discovery into actual production?”
The Standing Parliamentarian who spoke wore military attire.
Lion-like beast ears grew from his messy golden hair.
Xulie Aslan—he was the Mane-Head of the Twin Moons Khanate and also the army marshal of the United Kingdom.
There was no doubt he was the highest-ranking military officer present.
“Indeed, we cannot yet produce steam armor. However, the public announcement of this discovery will place the Lucis Empire in a difficult position regarding public opinion…”
Miriel was stunned. She had been mentally preparing how to confront Claire and had not expected to be interrupted by this beastkin Mane-Head.
“As far as I know, the armor in Kent was smuggled into the country ten years ago. No one knows whether it was tampered with. Moreover, the empire has updated its armor models three times since then. If you use your discovery to wage a public opinion war, the empire has countless ways to turn the tables.”
Xulie spoke coldly.
Sibyl gave this ally a thumbs-up, then pressed the advantage.
“The Muni Institute has never disclosed its research progress to Parliament. You do not welcome any outsiders for visits or inspections—not even us Standing Parliamentarians. When facing His Majesty’s questions, you can only produce such ambiguous findings. Does this mean your research level is constantly regressing? Should this be attributed to a problem with Lady Sallyanna’s ability?”
“What a scientifically illiterate idea! I accept the Mane-Head’s question, but what right does this old bat have to criticize me? How much funding does the treasury allocate every year to buy blood to feed you people? While we stay in the workshops conducting experiments, you keep converting living dead without end and even waste tax money creating a separate agency just to catch those frenzied vampires!”
Sallyanna finally lost her patience.
She stood up and glared fiercely at Sibyl, her aura aggressive.
Sibyl had not expected this elf to fire a map-wide cannon that even spared Alexander, who was also a hawk.
Just as she was about to argue back, the bell rang throughout the conference room.
The piercing sound instantly drowned out the quarrel between Sibyl and Sallyanna, like a lion’s roar on the wasteland overpowering the howling of wolves.
“Silence! The containment zone and the blood tax were systems designed by my mother. If anyone is dissatisfied with them, they may raise objections in court! Let us save time and hear the important testimony.”
Dragon King His’s gaze slowly swept across the entire room before finally settling on Claire.
“Claire Vandro, regarding your accusation, do you possess solid evidence to support it?” the Dragon King questioned.
“By the time I arrived at the containment zone, the massacre was nearly over. I personally watched innocent demonkin residents being devoured by dragon flames and gunned down. After that, the Kent county police sealed off the containment zone and burned everything to ashes. Unfortunately, I was unable to preserve any physical evidence. However, I can guarantee that everything I witnessed is true!”
Claire bowed slightly toward the highest seat and narrated with a blank expression.
“No evidence? Then how dare you slander the descendants of the dragon race?”
Another voice came from the high seats, carrying obvious anger.
Claire suddenly felt a chill.
It was as if an extremely cold gaze had shot down from above, making her heart skip a beat involuntarily.
She looked up and saw a burly figure standing. Golden dragon eyes flashed beneath a black iron mask.
A fiery red robe fluttered in the breeze.
Flame Wing Duke—his dragon name was Discator. Among the fire dragon lineage he was the ancient dragon second only to the Dragon King.
He currently served as Dragon King His’s regent, assisting in managing internal dragon affairs. He was also the recognized leader of the hawk faction.
“Dragon Guard Escreis is the cream of the new generation of fire dragons. For twenty years he has guarded the eastern coastal lands day after day and resolved dozens of cases for the local nobility. His loyalty is beyond doubt! Yet now a vampire’s baseless accusation attempts to easily shake his reputation.”
“This is an open provocation against the laws of the United Kingdom! Your Majesty, I implore you not to be deceived by such groundless slander. I propose a thorough investigation into this vampire’s identity to determine whether she harbors the crime of colluding with the enemy and betraying the country, so that the truth may be revealed!”
Every word spoken by the Flame Wing Duke was ice-cold to the bone.
“Baseless accusation? I sent people to investigate Kent. Although the containment zone had been reduced to scorched earth, our people found no traces of fighting whatsoever in that square piled with corpses. Could it be that these demonkin terrorists were lining up to be executed?”
Sibyl argued with reason. Her gaze was exceptionally sharp.
“I must point out that the Flame Wing Duke’s accusation is not without foundation. Twelve years ago, Herta of the Vandro family brought back a blonde, blue-eyed girl from the Southern Continent. That very year, the Münster tragedy occurred. This girl is now Commissioner Claire. I have always harbored doubts—whether she is of Lucis imperial blood. I submitted this report to Director Sibyl back then. Unfortunately, I imagine the Director was too busy to remember it.”
A voice without warmth sounded beside Sibyl. It was Alexander.
He did not even look at Sibyl. He merely bowed slightly toward the highest seat.
The conference room filled with the sound of sharp intakes of breath.
The Standing Parliamentarians looked at one another.
The secret of steam armor and the truth of the Kent incident had already been shocking enough.
They had not expected such explosive news on top of it all.
The hawks’ offensive was aggressive.
The situation was developing exactly as Sibyl had predicted.
Claire raised her head, only to find that Miriel had suddenly drawn close and was staring at her.
“You’re finished, little bat.”
Miriel’s voice was extremely low, audible only to the two of them.
Immediately after, she pulled a pen-shaped object from her sleeve and aimed it at Claire.
In an instant, the conference room—lit only by flickering candles—was illuminated by a sudden burst of strong light.
The object was a small magic wand embedded with a light-attribute crystal.
The intense yellow light suddenly flared, dyeing Claire’s black hair golden.
At the same time, a photo of Lucis’s Second Princess Flora was clearly projected onto the white screen on the podium.
Claire’s heart clenched violently.
She felt her heartbeat accelerate instantly.
She quickly raised her arm to cover her face, but that brief moment of stunned hesitation had already been enough for everyone in the hall to see her features clearly.
This vampire named Claire looked exactly like Princess Flora.
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