*****All three guards instantly jolted violently at the sudden sound of the door opening, cutting through the tension… an abrupt click that snapped their aggression like a whip.Their shoulders stiffened in the following second, their eyes constricting, and for a heartbeat, all three looked as if someone had just slapped discipline back into their skulls.They spun around in perfect unison, and… out stepped an elderly man in a pristine white robe whose expression was a chaotic storm of anxiety, delight, and unfiltered excitement.He looked less like a dignified statesman and more like a kid who had just seen his parents return from a year-long trip with gifts. If joy could trip over its own feet, this was it.And the moment the three guards saw this person… like this, they froze completely, as if someone had just hit pause on their souls.For a moment that felt like an eternity, they couldn’t think or react. Instead, their brains scrambled to accept what their eyes were seeing.

*****Still outside the Prime Minister’s office building.At this moment, the F-rank fighter looked like a man seconds away from committing a homicide.His expression had twisted into something predatory, his eyes cold and razor-sharp, and his aura radiated such hostile pressure that even though it wasn’t directed at the two guards, both men instinctively stiffened, cold sweat soaking through their uniforms as their spines tingled with the primal warning of danger.The captain couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed.He refused to believe Xavier’s audacity… to dare speak in such a manner to the Prime Minister of all people.“Thanks for personally coming to meet me.”Those were Xavier’s exact words, spoken casually, confidently, and directly to the Prime Minister as though the elderly man had strolled out just to greet him like some devoted concierge.It was insanity.Actually, the captain’s earlier silence hadn’t been because he had been calm, no… it was far from it.Lik

*****In the guards’ eyes, the scions of the ranked families were nothing but nuisances, spoiled children accustomed to wielding influence without consequence.And to their belief, Xavier, bold enough not only to claim he had called the Prime Minister himself, but to also dare speak so arrogantly to the Prime Minister, had just handed them a golden opportunity to make an example of him… to crush arrogance with cold, methodical justice, or so they believed.The thought of finally teaching a brash, untouchable youth a lesson sent a thrill through them.Their eyes gleamed, their lips curling into the kind of sinister, anticipatory smiles that belong only to those who truly enjoy the thrill of enforcement.The captain’s presence only heightened their excitement; no mistake could be tolerated in his watchful gaze, but with him as a silent observer, the two guards could act professionally and efficiently, and yet, with just enough malice to savor the moment.Without further hesitation

*****The elderly Prime Minister rushed toward Xavier like a panicked servant desperate to fix an unforgivable mistake.And seeing it, the three guards could only watch in utter disbelief as the number one citizen and the leader of their city shoved the two guards standing in his path aside with shocking force.The two instantly toppled backward, hitting the ground on their backsides with undignified thuds. But they were too stunned to even cry out.And just then…In a moment that froze the very air around them, the Prime Minister bent forward in a deep, trembling bow… nearly seventy-five degrees, a posture dripping with humility, remorse, and sheer terror.It was the posture of a servant begging forgiveness from the master who held his fate.“I…” his voice cracked, quivering like a frightened child. “Grandmaster…! Please punish me for this… this disgrace you have just suffered! I failed to teach them properly!”Silence fell.It wasn’t the ordinary kind of silence, no.It wa

*****The sight before the Blackwoods’ patriarch was something he could never… not in his greatest paranoia-induced nightmares, have ever predicted.Dang!And he wasn’t the only one left in that state.His first son and his granddaughter were frozen too, their minds punching the emergency stop button while their hearts attempted a full acrobatic routine inside their ribcages.But the cause of this overwhelming… no, cataclysmic shock wasn’t merely because the Prime Minister was bowing so low that his spine might consider early retirement.It wasn’t even because the Prime Minister was acting like a loyal subordinate to someone several decades younger than him… a detail that alone was strong enough to traumatize any witness.Yes, they were utterly floored by those reasons.But the real reason... the one that eclipsed every other emotion and vaporized their sanity... the one that left them beyond shock, beyond disbelief, and beyond language itself…It was because they knew the pe