Nolan exhaled slowly watching this.
He didn't smile. Not outwardly, at least. But inside, there was a sense of subtle, quiet triumph.
He doesn't care about a single thing about this place now.
The mission is completed.
That's all that matters.
He could disappear at any time. Escape. Walk away from the farce. From the crowd. From the judgment, the politics, the spectacle. From the shame he'd worn like a second skin for months. Bwahaha!
He was free.
But… he didn't move.
Because he knew the moment he tried, they'd know.
The Chief Mana Knight from the Black Vale Territory was still here. He could send him probably.
A shiver of mana, a small twitch in that dragon-etched helmet. The higher-ups of the Academy, the invisible eyes watching from the obsidian towers above, would feel it too.
They'd feel the ripples. His disappearance would not be quiet. It would not go unnoticed. If he tried now, it would no longer be escape—it would be a declaration.
So he stayed.
For now.
