How was this possible!
Zuo Zhuo's heart was filled with disbelief and the fury of betrayal. His post at Sword Flower University wasn't solely because he was a Two Wings fist-and-claw sorcerer; his clan had pulled quite a few strings on his behalf as well. His mother was a Gryphon Meteorologist in the Gryphon Company and held the noble rank of Armor Baron; even across the entirety of Jialesi, his clan was a name to be reckoned with.
Yet for a clan without a Sanctuary Sorcerer to anchor it, prosperity and decline were separated by only a single generation. Once his mother passed away, they would be knocked right back to where they started. Not to mention, although Guard Nobles like them could wield considerable authority, building lasting wealth was difficult. Thus, Guard Nobles often had to attach themselves to flourishing Court Nobles, forming intricate, entrenched interest groups. Zuo Zhuo's clan, for instance, answered to an earl's clan that commanded a Sanctuary Sorcerer.
Even though Zuo Zhuo had accepted the earl's command to serve as a pawn on this occasion, his standing meant he could have refused if there were genuine danger involved. The only reason he had dared to come seize Servi's estate was that the earl had insisted with absolute certainty that the Red-Haired Sword Princess was dead!
This was no mere speculative deduction. After finding it impossible to contact the Sword Princess, multiple nobles had pooled their resources to commission a Sanctuary prophet, confirming beyond doubt that Sonia was no longer in the Distant Sky Realm!
Gone from the Distant Sky Realm and unreachable—what other explanation could there be besides death?
Better still, while Sonia harbored momentous secrets, she owned no real estate whatsoever, and her sole living relative was her mother far away in the countryside—an ignorant village woman!
If she had owned property, there was no way they could have circumvented the law to conduct an unauthorized entry and search; only the Police Department would have held the authority to process Sonia's effects. If she had possessed a legally recognized sorcerer partner, even the Police Department wouldn't have been allowed to withhold her belongings, but would have been required to hand them over to her partner for distribution.
Take the four Sanctuaries who had fallen in the Starry Country: their estates were hardly worth any less than Sonia's, yet no one dared scheme against their inheritances. For one, they had sorcerers among their kin; for another, their assets were locked away within their private estates. Anyone attempting to lay a finger on them couldn't possibly bypass the law.
School dormitories, however, were an entirely different matter. The university and the students shared administrative jurisdiction over dorm rooms, and the institution had every right to conduct health inspections and confiscate contraband. This created an enormous legal vacuum. Even though Zuo Zhuo and his cohorts had received the Blessing of the Stars, they could openly and legitimately haul away Sonia's effects without running afoul of a single statute!
It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That was why they had scrambled over in such a rush to secure Sonia's belongings before the definitive news of her demise was even released. Even if the Sword Princess's country mother came to Jialesi in the future demanding her daughter's things, they could use the pretext of "confiscated contraband" to hold back the vast majority of the estate, tossing only a few worthless scraps back to the ignorant village woman.
All of this, of course, was premised on Sonia Servi actually being dead!
Yes, Sonia owned no property, had no powerful relatives to lean on, and held no prestigious title. Once she died, her flame was snuffed out, and people would care only about the secrets she had hidden.
Yet so long as she remained alive, she was a Sanctuary Sorcerer, a humanoid tactical weapon—a living powerhouse who didn't have to show deference to anyone beneath a Legend!
"Faced with a home invasion and robbery, what I'm doing ought to count as justifiable self-defense, right?"
Sonia clamped down on their throats, hoisting both of them into the air. She appeared to have put on makeup before arriving; with a radiant smile, she spoke in warm, cordial tones: "Don't worry, I still have to live here, so I won't make things too unsightly. Besides, it seems to be my turn for dorm cleaning duty today... so breaking just two hundred and eight bones will do. There won't be any blood."
"Y-you can't!" screamed the female deputy director, her head bleeding from the impact. "I am Telia Norbert! I'm—"
"Telia!" Zuo Zhuo roared. "What do you think you're saying?!"
Telia faltered. Seeing the mocking curl at the edge of Sonia's lips, venomous malice welled up in her eyes. Taking a sharp breath, she snapped, "I am a deputy director of the Administration Office! You cannot assault university staff!"
"Too cowardly to cross the people backing you, yet bold enough to cross me?" Sonia maintained her bright, refreshing smile, though a murky gloom tainted her ruby eyes. "Because crossing them would hurt your prospects? But did you ever consider..."
Her grip suddenly tightened, clamping down on their throats like a vise!
"I could crush you to death right now," the village girl said unhurriedly, her gaze boring straight into them.
Coming from a female university student under twenty years old living in an ivory tower, most people wouldn't attach much weight to such words. The reason Zuo Zhuo and Telia had dared to take this assignment in the first place was that, deep down, they believed there wouldn't be any real consequences. Had it been Trozan, they would have backed down long ago. But Sonia was a student who had risen to fame at a young age, had never set foot in broader society, and had never even killed anyone; even caught in her grasp, they hadn't felt much true dread.
Yet at this moment, their hearts plummeted into an icy abyss, and their minds went completely blank.
Even though the pretty girl before them appeared pure and sweet, as if spun from sugar and affection, they felt as though a ferocious beast was staring them down, ready to tear out their throats in the very next heartbeat!
"Sonia!"
Lois called out just then. Only then did Sonia slowly loosen her grip, allowing the two a desperate gasp of air to stave off suffocation.
"We're just nobodies!" Zuo Zhuo blurted out in haste. "Even if we stepped forward to testify, it wouldn't do any good—there isn't any concrete evidence! What's more, we really haven't broken any regulations this time! We only received word of your suspected death, Miss Servi, so we came ahead of time to organize your estate—the Administration Office possesses that exact mandate!"
Telia was utterly petrified by now, not daring to utter a sound.
"And would you have returned my effects to my mother?" Sonia asked placidly.
Zuo Zhuo could only offer an evasive answer: "They would have been returned after inspection!"
"And what about this news of my death? Who told you I was dead?"
"An anonymous tip containing erroneous information, impossible to trace," Zuo Zhuo replied. "When we return, we will conduct a profound self-criticism regarding our misjudgment and launch a strict investigation into our information channels!"
Sonia smiled. "So you did nothing wrong whatsoever, and merely ransacked my dorm room over a simple misunderstanding?"
"Haven't we already apologized, then?!" Telia seemed to draw courage from Zuo Zhuo's words. Her hands clawed into Sonia's arms, desperate to sink her nails in, as though trying to unleash some miracle against her. Yet she couldn't even breach Sonia's Sanctuary. "Why haven't you let us go yet?! We've explained everything! If you have a grievance, go file a complaint! Right now, you are committing intentional assault! Restricting our personal freedom! That is against the law, do you hear me?!"
"We were in the wrong," Zuo Zhuo conceded with exquisite manners, though his words concealed sharp thorns. "We will offer an apology and compensation for our error. If Miss Servi remains dissatisfied, you are free to submit an appeal to the university."
Sonia's eyes cooled slightly. She knew the pair spoke the truth. At the end of the day, what they had done fell far short of a capital offense. On top of that, they had long since memorized every university policy and legal statute; even in the worst-case scenario, they could hide behind the law as a shield.
She was all too familiar with this tactic. When she was small, she and her mother had often encountered such soft resistance. People like this never technically broke any rules, yet they could thoroughly disgust you. Any complaint would vanish into an endless processing loop, and in the end, you still had to fall back on her mother's suffocating yet pragmatic rule of survival—endure.
Of course, Sonia was someone of standing now. Sword Flower University would certainly give her a swift and satisfactory resolution; at the very least, she would never have to lay eyes on these two on campus again.
Yet how was that any different from the past?
*I am clearly so strong now—why do they still dare to strut around in front of me? Why do they still dare... to disrespect me?!*
"Nia!"
Adele sniffled and whimpered, lodging her complaint: "They hit me!"
Sonia glanced back at them. Adele was sitting on the floor with her pajamas filthy, one side of her face swollen red. Ingrid leaned against the wardrobe, drenched in cold sweat, her arms hanging limply as blood dripped from the webs of her thumbs. Only Lois was relatively unharmed, though she shook her head gently at Sonia, her eyes filled with worry.
Seeing this, however, the Paw-Stretching Swordmaster made up her mind instead. Dragging the two behind her, she stepped out into the hallway. By now, several floors of corridors were packed with students returning from class, alongside the black-clad lackeys the pair had brought with them.
She glanced at the nervous men in black. "You lot—jump."
The men froze.
"This is the third floor. Jumping won't kill you—at most, you'll need a few days of medical treatment," Sonia said chillingly. "You can run, or you can refuse to jump. I'm giving you ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven..."
For the first few seconds, everyone hesitated. But when she reached five, Sonia unfolded her Sanctuary, swallowing everyone present within its domain. By three, her sorcery spirits began to manifest; the Killing Intent sorcery spirit flaunted its borrowed might without restraint, and an abyssal, hellish crimson bloodlust bore down upon everyone's shoulders like a physical weight...
Finally, someone broke and became the first to leap. Then, like dumplings tumbling into boiling broth, the others threw themselves over the railing one after another, slamming onto the concrete below with resounding cracks. Almost every single one broke their legs.
Not a soul in the entire dormitory dared breathe a word; dead silence reigned as the onlookers watched the spectacle unfold. When Sonia concluded her countdown, she glanced down at the two people in her grip.
"We'll jump too!" Zuo Zhuo blurted out immediately.
"You cannot do this!" Telia shrieked hysterically. "I belong to the main branch of Clan Norbert! Viscount Norbert is my uncle!"
"Norbert?" Something stirred in Sonia's memory. "What are Celia and Alto to you?"
"Celia is my niece, and Alto is my cousin!" Telia cried out as if seizing a lifeline. "Yes, you even acted in Alto's shadow play! You can't harm me!"
Sonia nodded quietly, unfurled her void wings, and took off into the sky with the two in tow.
As they soared higher and higher, until nearly the entire expanse of Sword Flower University lay spread below them, Zuo Zhuo and Telia felt an encroaching dread. In trembling voices, they asked, "You... you want to throw us down?!"
"How could I?" Sonia replied. "You're Two Wings sorcerers; both of you can fly. What good would dropping you do?"
"I'm going down with you."
With that, her hands locked onto the backs of their heads, and she plummeted toward the earth like an artillery shell!
Three hundred meters!
Two hundred meters!
One hundred meters!
The landscape in their vision expanded with terrifying speed. Even when they deployed their wings, they couldn't muster enough lift to counter the violent descent! Telia flailed and scratched with shrill screams, while Zuo Zhuo tried to twist around and fight back. But Sonia was invoking the Three Wings swordsmanship miracle 'Surge Rush'—how could Two Wings sorcerers hope to match it?
The students watching from the dormitory corridors had already begun to shriek, until a deafening boom rang out as Sonia brought them crashing into the ground, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust!
"Aaaagh—!"
Zuo Zhuo stared wide-eyed at the grit and gravel before his nose. His face was a mere two inches from the ground; had Sonia not halted their kinetic momentum at the final instant, both of them would have been reduced to puddles of gore.
"Uwah..."
Telia broke down in tears on the spot, a foul, suspicious wetness soaking through her trousers. Zuo Zhuo was in the same state, though his fabric proved somewhat more absorbent.
Yet it was far from over. Sonia hoisted them up once more and took to the air. Just as they braced themselves for another plunge, they realized she was flying toward the university's main entrance.
It was mid-afternoon, and the area outside Sword Flower University's gates was a bustling commercial district packed with pedestrian traffic. The surrounding crowds and students looked on in stunned disbelief as the Red-Haired Sword Princess, famous across Jialesi, strung the two up against the entrance pillars.
Not stopping there, Sonia summoned her Heart Sword, sketching several sword cords to bind the pair securely in place with a miracle.
Originally, she had possessed few crowd-control miracles. Conveniently, the Heart Sword and Sword Mark sorcery spirits handed down from the Watcher had filled that gap in her repertoire; she hadn't expected them to prove handy so soon.
Bound in front of the university entrance, destined to be ogled by tens of thousands of passersby—some of whom were already pulling out recording gadgets to capture the scene—Zuo Zhuo's face turned deathly pale. Telia murmured incoherently, "You can't do this... I'm of Clan Norbert... don't you know Celia and Alto?"
"Yes, I know them, and whenever we interacted, I gave them the respect they were due," Sonia said indifferently. "Now, we'll see if they will respect me."
"I can't be bothered to ask who's pulling your strings. This miracle should last about twelve hours. I'll just wait and see if anyone dares to untie you early."
At that moment, the dean of students rushed over from inside the campus, trailing a crowd of staff. Looking at the two tied to the pillars, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said to Sonia, "No matter what occurred, could you please release them first? This damages the university's reputation."
"Do you know what occurred, then?" Sonia asked calmly.
"I will look into it and investigate." The dean exhaled a heavy sigh. "Could we just—"
"If you still wish to intervene after your investigation, please compile the relevant materials, draft a formal written request, and mail it to Professor Trozan's office. I will provide a response within five business days. If the university wishes to impose a fine or demand a self-criticism, I can accept that as well," Sonia said. "Of course, you're free to dispel the binding miracle yourselves. However..."
She stepped beside the dean of students, looked straight ahead, and added, "Whoever cuts them down is rejecting my friendship."
"The friendship... of a village girl who reached Sanctuary in six months, who is a future Legend, and who is young enough to spend decades exacting vengeance on every single enemy and their descendants."
With that, the Red-Haired Sword Princess strode away, every bit as arrogant and tyrannical as an underworld syndicate.
The dean of students and the faculty members exchanged helpless glances. In the end, the dean could only mutter, "Notify the headmaster. Let the headmaster make the call."
Someone asked, "Didn't the headmaster say he was injured on the Ruby Mountain and needed peace and quiet to recuperate?"
The dean shot him a look reserved for idiots. "That's precisely why we're letting the headmaster make the call! Otherwise, do you want to go over there and cut them down?"
"I can't dispel a Sanctuary miracle," the man replied, shaking his head frantically.
Chapter 692