"So you're dead set on siding with the Chrysos Heirs?" Kenis backed away slowly, narrowing her trembling eyes.
"Think carefully. The Elder Council has never wronged you."
"Doesn't this count?" Yan Huan glanced at the empty box on the table. "Where's my bead? Oh, look—it's gone!"
"You came in here talking about things I could understand just to distract me so Anaxa could get close, didn't you?"
"You admitted yourself that Anaxa was working with you."
"Now that he's run off, what's wrong with me giving you a beating?"
Faced with that airtight chain of reasoning, Kenis was momentarily speechless.
He wasn't wrong. Anaxa had escaped, but what about her?
"You can't hurt me."
Kenis spoke in a low voice:
"Tensions between the Chrysos Heirs and ordinary people are at their worst right now. If you dare hurt an elder, who knows what the rest of the people will think?"
"How many ordinary people resent Aglaea's cold, brutal rule?"
"If they learn that the Chrysos Heirs can beat up an elder—a representative of ordinary people—with impunity, the consequences will be unthinkable."
"The Citizen Assembly will put an end to the Journey of the Spark!"
"Seriously? You're pretty good at bluffing." Yan Huan didn't believe her.
As he saw it, the Elder Council only existed because Aglaea gave ordinary people a say.
Otherwise, those elders were no different from anyone else. Surviving a slap from a Chrysos Heir would be an achievement.
"She's telling the truth, Lord Yan Huan."
Castorice stepped forward and explained:
"Even the Chrysos Heirs must abide by the Citizen Assembly's vote."
"If the citizens vote for it, even the Journey of the Spark can be abolished."
"?"
"Are they out of their minds?"
Yan Huan put away his sword and stared at Kenis in disbelief.
The Chrysos