Chapter 816: Things Getting More Annoying
Chapter 816: Things Getting More Annoying
For one breath, Lucian could not even form a thought clearly. Everything inside him went still and then rushed at once, colliding too quickly to become anything useful. His fingers tightened around the folder until the edges bent. His mouth parted slightly before he forced it shut. The coldness in Liam’s voice made it worse, because there was no drama in it, no cruelty for the sake of performance. He stated the secret plainly, almost clinically, as though describing a weather report.’How?’ Lucian thought.
That was the first real shape that formed.
’How does he know that?’
His mind immediately began searching for explanations. Edith. Someone from home. A record. A loose conversation. A noble student who had recognized the Kellor name and spoken too freely. Chris. No, not Chris. Chris was many things, but he was not stupid enough to throw away leverage like that. Unless someone around Chris had heard something. Unless Liam had dug into him. Unless this was what Tactical Espionage students did in their spare time, tearing open private lives like sealed letters.
’No,’ Lucian told himself. ’No, he could be guessing.’
The thought came quickly because he needed it to.
A lucky guess. A cruel assumption based on his position beside Chris. Plenty of lesser nobles attached themselves to higher-ranking students for protection and advantage. Debt was common enough among smaller houses trying to appear more stable than they were. If Liam had guessed close enough and Lucian reacted, then the truth would become his own fault.
’If I stay calm, he will not know if it is true,’ Lucian thought. ’If I show nothing, he will doubt it.’
But even as he formed the thought, it weakened.
Because Liam’s words had been too accurate.
Barely mid-class noble. Generation-ending debt. Aid. Disgraceful family. Those were not broad guesses. They were not the kind of insults thrown randomly to see what wounded. They had shape. They had roots. The worst part was his mother. Liam had not mentioned her yet, but the whole truth lived close enough that Lucian could feel it approaching. His family’s debt was not just political embarrassment. It was illness, unpaid obligations, failed trade agreements, desperate loans, and a household held together by pride that had become thinner every year.
Lucian’s breathing remained steady only because he forced it to.
Inside, panic began opening its claws.
Liam watched it happen.
He saw the delayed blink, the tightened grip, the faint shift in Lucian’s throat as he swallowed. Lucian was better at composing himself than many students would have been, but not good enough. Not against someone already expecting the reaction.