Chapter 233: 233. Prove Me Wrong – 2

William looked at Colonel Draven’s figure, who was sitting on his chair and looking at a letter in front of him.

The room carried a suffocating stillness, broken only by the faint rustling of parchment as Draven’s fingers occasionally adjusted their grip on the letter.

Sunlight filtered through the tall windows behind him, casting long, slanted shadows across the wooden floor.

A few minutes had passed in silence while William sat in front of Draven and looked at him with a neutral expression. The ticking of a distant wall clock sounded loudly, contrasting with the silent atmosphere.

Draven looked between the letter and William’s face; his sharp eyes were trying to connect the words written before him with the boy sitting calmly across the desk.

After a few rounds of introspection, Draven finally spoke. “Recently some allegations against you have been raised.” Draven spoke with a steady voice, “Allegations of you being a demon spy.”

He said while searching for even a speck of hesitation in William’s eyes. His gaze sharpened as he intended to pick apart the smallest flicker of deceit or fear.

All he saw was a sub-zero expression unreactive to the statement, as if the words had no power over William at all.

“Are you not scared?” Draven asked, leaning forward slightly.

William looked at Draven with an unwavering gaze. “There is no reason to be scared for me, Sir Draven. I am sure as long as everyone sticks to facts, I will be able to prove that the person throwing such allegations was wrong with quite ease.”

His voice carried self-confidence and a firm belief in his own position. There was no rush in his tone, nor was he being overly defensive.

Draven looked at William’s confidence. To be honest, he was quite taken aback when he had received a letter from Professor Morgan, his old friend at the academy, warning him about William Kaiser being a demon.

He found it hard to believe, but then again, as the colonel of the celestial army, he ought to confirm with his own eyes. Duty stood above personal trust, no matter how long-standing the friendship.

Now that he had summoned William in front of him, he could not find any hesitation or fear in his eyes, yet Draven had no solid proof of William’s innocence. That was what troubled him the most, the absence of both guilt and evidence.

In his heart he wanted William to be guilty; after all, he had never seen a genius like William ever in his life.

The weight of responsibility pressed down on him, reminding him that a single wrong judgment could ruin a life or allow a hidden threat to pass unchecked. He had to keep his personal biases aside in such a matter.

“This is a really sensitive matter, William; if word gets out, then it will really impact your reputation, even if later you are proved to be not guilty.”

His voice softened slightly, no longer just that of a colonel but of someone aware of the consequences of such an accusation.

“That is why I would like you to prove this letter wrong.” Draven looked at William, his gaze firm. “I would like you to prove me wrong right now so I can file a case and then close it for good with proof enough to not rattle you again about such things. You will get immunity from similar allegations in the future since you would have proved yourself once,” Draven said.

William, meanwhile, was smiling from inside, though none of it reached his face.

Edward and Arwen had walked right into his trap. Their impatience and hostility had led them exactly where he wanted. With a nod, William raised his hand slowly.

He conjured a flicker of light elemental particles in his hands.

The air around his palm shimmered faintly before a soft glow emerged; it was pure, radiant, and gentle.

The light danced like tiny stars gathered into his grasp.

Draven looked at William with a shocked expression and stood up from his seat. His chair scraped harshly against the floor, breaking the stillness.

He walked forward closer to confirm he was seeing things right.

It was the light element; William Kaiser was wielding the light element.

On his official records, William was reported to be a dual affinity user of ice and darkness, making him rare even among geniuses across the continent. That alone had already placed him in an elite category of dual elemental users.

Now he was seeing another element being handled by the same student.

Were the heavens not fair enough anymore? Were they favoring William??

Draven’s heartbeat fastened, thudding loudly in his chest as disbelief and astonishment clashed within him. His trained composure wavered for a brief moment. He could not understand what he should do now.

“William, you have kept the ability to use the light element a secret from everyone, right??” he asked William, his voice slightly strained.

“No, sir, I was admitted to the academy through special recommendations; my affinities and talents were never officially recorded,” William spoke.

Draven sweated, a thin layer of moisture forming on his forehead. So that meant that what he had seen was just the data collected by observation rather than proper data recorded by artifacts. The realization made things both clearer and more complicated at the same time.

Colonel Draven spoke, his tone regaining some of its firmness. “William, even though your proof is solid enough to never let someone suspect you for a lifetime, I still believe that you should keep your Light element a secret; consider it advice from this old man.”

A triple elemental user was rarely seen across ages; if the world knew about this, then Draven could not even imagine the amount of shit William might have to go through.

He wanted William to not get affected by such titles so soon in life, as they affected one more negatively than in a positive manner.

Being a rare genius meant better resources, protection, and a future. While being an anomalous, never-before-seen genius was just a curse in his opinion. These people became the center of attention, and that also included attention from the enemies.

The way he spoke to William, he could tell that there was sincerity in his words now.

Draven then sighed, “Forget about filing a case for immunity; I will just find another way. I don’t want to push you to a heavenly oath now that you have proved me wrong.”

Light was one of the few elements that the demon race was unable to wield; it was said to have purification properties and be a bane for demons. The very presence of such energy symbolized purity and alignment to natural order.

The demonic energy weakened in contact with light energy, and thus there was no demon in existence ever born able to wield the light element.

It was an element fundamentally incompatible with demons.

The same was the case with other light-derived elements, like the crystal element wielded by Principal Andrea and the super rare life element wielded by the Sylvaris empire’s ancestor. These were powers associated with creation, purity, and balance.

Such elements could never be wielded by the demons since they were too corrupted and impure for them.

William nodded, accepting the reasoning without resistance. “I am fine with that, sir, but I would like to file a court-martial against the person who accuses me of being a demon,” he said.

There was a subtle sharpness beneath his calm tone now, a quiet intent that hinted he had no intention of letting the matter pass so easily.

Draven looked at him and shook his head, his expression turning firm once more. “That might not be possible, since the sender did not ask me to specifically file a case against you but just intended to warn me; then that means he is not officially advocating to file a case against you,” Draven said with a hard expression.

“You can just relax, and in the future if someone files such a case, I will personally assist you to court-martial them,” Draven said with a firm promise sealed in his words.

William sighed, a controlled release of breath, as if letting go of something trivial. “Alright, sir, as you say,” he spoke.

Draven nodded and excused William. As the door closed behind him, the colonel leaned back and sighed in relief; the weight on his shoulders lifted.

He thanked himself for not revealing Morgan’s name; otherwise, he would have been in unnecessary trouble if William had chosen to file a case. The consequences of such a revelation now seemed far more dangerous in hindsight.

He took out a blank page and started writing a reply to Morgan about William’s innocence. Naturally he could not reveal that William had shown ability to wield light elements since that was better kept a secret. Drawen just termed it his personal investigation, which concluded with proving William was not a demon.

Meanwhile, William came out of his office with a smirk on his face. He knew that both Arwen and Edward weren’t going to give up so soon.

He knew that the more these two would try to mess with him, the more severely things would bite them back, much harder than before.

He was looking forward to the mess both of them were going to get themselves into.

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