"A heretic? What do you mean by that, Your Holiness?"
Greg's heart began pounding as he wondered whether his identity had been exposed.
Meanwhile, Nightmare had already erupted inside his mind, shouting, "Get ready to fight! Get ready to fight!"
Veronica slowly opened the eyes she had kept closed all this time.
They were as beautiful as stars-clear and bright, as though they held endless light.
But when Greg met those eyes, he felt an invisible pressure bearing down on him.
"Playing dumb won't help."
Veronica's voice remained gentle, but her tone carried an unquestionable certainty:
"Because I am now quite certain that you are no ordinary student."
Greg forced himself to calm down, keeping a confused, innocent expression on his face:
"Your Holiness, I truly don't understand what you're saying. I'm just a second-year student from Glory Kael Magic Academy. I took part in the Preliminary Debate, submitted an answer paper, and then you summoned me here. If you believe there's something wrong with my answers, please tell me what it is."
Veronica watched him silently for a moment, then slowly spoke:
"There is nothing wrong with your answers... in fact, they are exceptionally good, beyond what should be possible. But that very excellence exposed you."
She rose and walked slowly to the window, turning her back to Greg as she continued:
"The proposal you presented during the Preliminary Debate to reduce losses in magic power transmission involved several pieces of ancient, secret knowledge that have long since been lost."
"In today's Surface World, only the upper ranks of the Church of Light are permitted access to that knowledge. An ordinary second-year magic academy student could not possibly have encountered it."
She turned around, her gaze settling on Greg again, her starry eyes as calm as a predator sizing