Chapter 215: Chapter-215

Her small System companion—a geometric crystal shape that pulsed with blue light—floated silently beside her.

Heena stated clearly, “I’m here regarding a recent illegal System capture. I’m the one who caught it. Host designation: Black Lotus.”

The officer’s eyes shifted to her holographic screen, lines of code reflecting in her pupils, then back to Heena.

“Please state your full name for verification.”

“Heena sr… Just Heena is fine.”

The officer nodded and turned her gaze to Heena’s hovering lion. “System companion, please state your designation.”

“Host Number 427,” the System said, trying to puff out his tiny golden chest to look intimidating.

The officer’s eyes crinkled slightly—a genuine smile hidden behind the digital mask.

“It’s been quite a long time since you’ve been here, Number 427. Welcome back.”

Heena smiled slightly, leaning against the counter. “Well, this isn’t exactly a place normal people visit regularly. Usually, if you’re here, something has gone catastrophically wrong.”

“True.” The officer’s eyes showed clear amusement. “So, regarding the captured illegal System—do you want the investigation report? The bounty reward processing? Or interrogation access?”

These were three completely different services. Most Hosts just took the reward money and sprinted back to their worlds.

Heena paused for only a fraction of a second, then said clearly, “I want all three.”

The officer’s posture changed slightly. She sat up straighter, her eyes studying Heena more carefully, weighing the determination in the Host’s stance.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

The officer smiled—you could tell even behind the mask by the way her eyes crinkled and the digital fabric shifted. She gestured gracefully at Heena’s System. “System companion, please wait outside the privacy barrier.”

Before System 427 could even utter a protest, a translucent, shimmering box materialized around Heena and the officer. It was instantly soundproof, information-proof, and completely isolated from the rest of the bustling precinct.

The officer stood from her chair. Her demeanor shifted entirely—the friendly receptionist facade dropping away to reveal the hardened, serious operative beneath.

“So,” the officer said quietly, her voice echoing slightly in the confined space, “you want to know what happened to the illegal System. You want to know who backed it. But are you really sure you can handle what you’ll learn, Black Lotus?”

Heena met her eyes directly, her own gaze as cold as absolute zero. “Of course I can. Now, tell me. I have an empire to run and a husband to get back to.”

The officer studied her for another long moment, then nodded.

Twenty minutes later, the privacy barrier dissolved into mist.

The officer smiled warmly, returning to her receptionist persona, and handed Heena’s System a piece of candy—a luxurious, sushi-shaped confection that gleamed like a gemstone and probably cost more than a standard Host’s monthly salary.

“Here’s a treat for waiting so patiently,” she said kindly.

System 427 immediately popped it into his mouth. His golden eyes went wide as saucers as the flavors hit his tongue—a burst of pure, condensed spiritual energy that tasted like starlight.

So expensive, he thought happily, chewing vigorously. So worth it.

As they walked out of the police station and back toward the bridge, the System—still rolling the exquisite candy around in his mouth—suddenly froze mid-air.

He spun to face Heena.

“Wait! What did you ask? What did she tell you? The barrier blocked everything—I couldn’t hear a single word!”

Heena looked at him with profound amusement, raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Wow. You didn’t ask that question when you were busy stuffing your face with free candy.”

The System looked sheepish but defiant, hovering defensively. “Who wouldn’t eat such an expensive candy? These cost a whole world’s worth of work points! It’s an investment in my structural integrity!”

“Mmhmm,” Heena hummed, walking leisurely. “Did you happen to check the wrapper before eating it?”

The System’s eyes went wide. He frantically searched his mouth with a glowing paw, patting his own cheeks, then looked overwhelmingly guilty. But… not that guilty. The candy was simply too delicious to truly regret.

Heena grinned, a wicked, familiar smirk taking over her features. “How about this: I keep all the bounty prize money, and you keep your sushi candy. Deal?”

“NO!” the System yelped, realizing he’d just been played out of millions of points.

Heena took off running toward the extraction portal.

The System chased after her, a streak of golden light, both of them laughing as they crossed back over the celestial bridge.

Their time here was done. She had the answers she needed.

Time to return to the viper’s nest.

Back in the Imperial Palace – The Eternal Phoenix Empire

Twenty days.

Twenty excruciating, terrifying days since Empress Heena had collapsed in the middle of her study, coughing up dark blood before slipping into a coma that the royal physicians could neither explain nor cure.

Twenty days since Larus had locked down the imperial wing, personally tortured the truth out of the assassins who had slipped the undetectable poison into her tea, and hung their bodies from the palace walls as a warning.

Twenty days of absolute, unmitigated chaos.

Because of course—of course—the moment the Empress fell, every vulture in the empire emerged from the shadows.

The nobles had cried for exactly one day. They had put on a magnificent, theatrical show of grief and concern, wiping away non-existent tears with expensive silk handkerchiefs. Then, immediately, they had started circling the throne like starved predators sensing a fatal weakness.

And Larus was handling it entirely alone.

Today, an emergency court session had been demanded by the high council.

Larus stood beside the massive black-and-gold throne. He was not sitting on it, because doing so would have given the nobles the precise ammunition they were looking for to declare him a usurper. Instead, he stood tall, wearing formal imperial robes of deep, midnight navy blue heavily embroidered with gold thread.

His previously soft features had sharpened. His golden hair was pulled back properly, tight and severe. The sheer exhaustion showed in the purple bruising beneath his eyes, but his bearing was absolutely regal. He looked every inch a king holding the line.

The throne room was packed to the brim with nobles, ministers, and military officials, all of them watching him with varying degrees of hostility, opportunism, and cold calculation.

Lord Helmut—an older, deeply entrenched noble from a powerful merchant family—stepped forward, his voice echoing in the tense silence.

“Your Highness, forgive me,” Helmut began, his tone dripping with false deference, “but you are not originally from our empire. We understand you may not fully comprehend our ancient customs and traditions. But now that you’ve married into the imperial family, you must surely see that you should follow our established rules of succession and regency.”

Larus looked down at him with cold, immaculate courtesy.

“Lord Helmut,” Larus said, his voice carrying effortlessly across the vast hall, “you seem to have forgotten a crucial detail. I am Her Majesty’s legal, formally recognized husband, and her designated Emperor Consort. I am also, by direct imperial decree, co-regent of this empire during any period when Her Majesty is unable to fulfill her duties.”

His gaze swept the room, daring anyone to challenge the legal reality.

“The rules you reference? The customs you invoke? Remember that when you address me, you are addressing Her Majesty’s chosen partner. Whatever you say to me, you say to her. Disrespecting my authority is disrespecting the Crown itself.”

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