"----!"
At that moment, everyone present felt a chill and could not help but shudder inwardly.
The source of that chill was Luo Zhen, who had fallen silent, the expression on his face completely vanishing.
"Master Luo Zhen!"
"Luo Zhen!"
"Luo Zhen!"
Irori, Yaya, and Koko cried out. They seemed about to approach, but Luo Zhen stopped them by raising a hand.
Luo Zhen simply released the sacred spear and stared expressionlessly at Astrid.
However, his reaction instead caused a glimmer of hope to ignite in Astrid's heart.
Because...
"You've been searching for it all along, haven't you? The truth behind the destruction of the Akaba Clan!"
Astrid hurriedly spoke up.
"I know the truth behind the destruction of the Akaba Clan. Just don't kill me!"
The implication was that Astrid intended to use this information as a condition to negotiate with Luo Zhen.
But Astrid had guessed one thing wrong.
"It's true that I've been searching for the truth behind the destruction of the Akaba Clan." Luo Zhen said calmly, "But how do you know I still don't know what the truth is?"
"That..." Astrid froze at first, then muttered, "Could it be that you still think Akaba Tenzenn was the one who destroyed the Akaba Clan?"
Of course not.
Luo Zhen had long known that Akaba Tenzenn could not have been the true culprit behind the destruction of the family.
"Although that man intended to take all the blame upon himself, he never stopped to consider that I'm no longer an ignorant little brat who knows nothing."
Luo Zhen's tone was utterly indifferent.
"Back then, amid the ruins of the Akaba Family, he told me that he had destroyed the family in order to use 'Crimson Wing Blood' to create a mechanism above the Forbidden Doll—in other words,