*****The remaining calm people in the midst of this storm were none other than Xavier and Grace.Right now, the couple stood unmoving, appearing like statues, their expression not changing even a bit.Xavier still wore his familiar, maddeningly casual smile, acting as if the world and its noise couldn’t reach him. Grace, by contrast, wore the look of cold detachment, her face sculpted into aloof indifference.But her eyes betrayed her.Anyone who looked deep enough would catch the flicker of anxiousness and restlessness swimming under that frosted surface right now.She also knew the legends of the Myron family and their meteoric rise to the upper ranks without leaning on the first-rank houses.To meet them in person could mean doors opening for her and her company that she had only dreamed of. The thought alone quickened her pulse.But after everything that had happened tonight… the mockery, the insults, and the scorn, Grace no longer dared

*****Once again, disgust surged in Lyria’s chest, but she hurriedly pushed it down, forcing her face into perfect neutrality. The time for aloofness was over... she couldn’t risk letting them, or worse, Xavier, catch even the faintest trace of the arrogance and coldness she had carried in with her.When she finally spoke, her voice was smooth and warm, carrying the effortless elegance of someone raised in the art of diplomacy.“Congratulations, Uncle Augustus,” she said lightly, her gaze shifting politely to Lucius, “and to you as well, Brother Lucius. Grandfather wanted to attend this banquet personally, but an urgent matter came up, so he sent me in his place to extend our congratulations on your breakthroughs.”The moment the words left her lips, a heavy, pin-drop, and suffocating silence slammed into the hall like a physical force, causing everyone to freeze in place.For a moment that felt like an eternity, the entire hall seemed to forget how to breathe. Then…All hearts

*****Thinking this, Sarah’s eyes narrowed, a predator, vicious gleam suddenly flickering to life within themWithout hesitation, she thrust a trembling finger toward Xavier“This bastard,” she spat with hatred, pure venom dripping from every syllable, “is an ex-convict!”“I dated him once,” she continued, practically shaking with the force of her rage, “stupid enough to think he was just some harmless nobody. I didn’t know…” her lip curled into a sneer “…that he was a dangerous criminal. The kind of man who could kill without blinking!”Gasps echoed through the crowd like startled birds.But Sarah wasn’t done.“He just crawled out of prison not long ago,” she snapped, her words sharpened by spite. “And not just any prison… he was just released from the worst hellhole in the country. The kind of place you are not sent unless you’ve committed a crime so vile it makes the devil flinch.”The hall instantly erupted with whispers, everyone stupefied by Sarah’s report. She hadn’t re

*****Still inside the hall, the entire crowd had frozen right now, as if someone had just dropped a live grenade in their midst.'Humiliate the master?'The words continued echoing through their heads, looping endlessly as everyone struggled to make sense of them.Finally, after what felt like an eternity had passed, every pair of eyes became fixated on Lyria, their faces frozen with shock and confusion, their jaws hanging loose like unhinged doors.The dazed, bewildered disbelief she had worn only moments ago had vanished without a trace… and now, Lyria’s eyes, which seemed to burn with fury, were locked on Lucius with the kind of ferocity that made it seem as if he had just spat on her ancestors’ graves.It had all happened so fast and so suddenly that it broke their ability to process.For a long, dizzy second, their brains simply refused to catch up, as though stuck in some endless loading screen. Then, as if on cue, everyone blinked rapidly,

*****Right now, every face was pale, all lips trembling, and every eye glazed with disbelief. It was as though their very souls had been torn out of their bodies, and what remains now was nothing but empty shells.Time seemed to warp, dragging on for what felt like forever, as everyone struggled in vain to understand what they were seeing and what they had just heard.Then, finally, amidst their never-stopping stupor, a voice broke the suffocating stillness.“Don’t worry.”It came lazily and casually from Xavier, who hadn’t spoken a word since stepping into the hall, and yet, now, his voice carried with effortless authority.The sound directly jolted through the hall like a bolt of electricity, and instantly, some people actually flinched, and others blinked rapidly, the sound itself clearly snapping them from a trance.But what he said… and more importantly, how he said it, only made the tension even worse.He didn’t speak to Lyria like he w