"No, that's not it."
"She's a liar!"
"I didn't mean any of that!"
"Where is Su Shijun? I'm looking for Su Shijun!"
Zheng Qing felt as though he had been stripped naked and thrown into the snow, shivering in the bitter wind. He roared and tried to explain himself, but the guests' whispers below the stage, like the buzzing of a swarm of bees, drowned out his voice.
"Allow me, on behalf of the alliance's ordinary wizards, to ask you a few simple questions." Ms. Pulitzer squeezed Zheng Qing's shoulder hard, like an iron pincer, making him suck in a sharp breath.
At the same time, the witch drew a wooden pagoda from her pearl-studded handbag. A small silver bell hung from it.
"Truth Pagoda!"
"It can tell whether a wizard is speaking the truth! No one can lie before it!"
"Ms. Pulitzer is as rigorous as ever."
The whispers among the guests below suddenly grew louder. Zheng Qing could clearly hear their discussions. The pagoda concealed half of the silver bell, but it could not block the malicious, critical gazes from below.
"First!"
Ms. Pulitzer raised her voice slightly, suppressing the guests' murmurs. At the same time, she squeezed Zheng Qing's shoulder and asked kindly:
"I would like to ask you how you mastered such powerful magic... If I remember correctly, you are merely a lowerclassman who has only been enrolled for one year. How could you kill an experienced Archwizard?"
"No, I didn't do it... That cat did."
Zheng Qing muttered, but his gaze unconsciously flicked toward the small wooden pagoda in midair. The silver bell atop it shook violently, jingling and clanging as if it were about to shake someone's stomach to pieces.
"Lies!"
"Liar!"
"Faking things in broad daylight!"
Amid the chorus of condemnation, one voice