Then the air changed.

Three figures descended from above, landing between Arlott and the paladins with a quiet that somehow felt louder than anything that had happened in the last ten minutes.

High Cleric Aldus Vane himself.

And flanking him, two cloaked individuals whose auras arrived before they did, pressing outward into the surrounding space like two walls being pushed together. S rank. Both of them. Arlott felt it the moment they landed and his eyes narrowed slightly.

That was new information.

Vane’s presence alone would have been significant. The man was S rank himself, the highest authority the church could field, and he didn’t show up to things personally unless he’d already decided how they were going to end.

The two flanking him completed the picture.

Their combined auras pushed outward and met Arlott’s own, and for the first time in several minutes the crushing weight that had dropped everyone in the courtyard began to lift, the three of them together creating enough counter pressure to dispel it.

The remaining paladins on the ground drew breath.

Vane straightened his robes unhurriedly and looked at Arlott with an expression that had found its confidence again now that the numbers had changed.

"Arlott," he said, pleasant and neutral in the way that people are pleasant when they hold the cards. "As you can see, your son has blatantly humiliated a member of the royal family in front of the entire continent. Whatever his abilities may be, the offense stands." He folded his hands. "He must be taken into custody."

Arlott looked at him for a moment.

"Do you know whose son you’re trying to take into custody," he said. Not a question. Just words being laid down one at a time. "He is my son. A descendant of the Hero. The same bloodline that has been protecting this continent since before either of us were born."

Vane’s expression didn’t shift.

"That means very little," he replied, "if that same son is guilty of treason."

The word landed in the courtyard and nobody in earshot moved.

Treason.

Arlott’s aura detonated.

It wasn’t the measured, deliberate release from before. This was the unfiltered thing, the actual weight of an S rank who had spent decades surviving situations that killed everyone around him, pouring out without restraint. The ground cracked in a ring around his feet. The remaining paladins who’d just recovered went straight back down. Even the two S rank figures flanking Vane took an involuntary step backward, robes snapping in the pressure wave. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Vane himself didn’t step back.

But his neutral expression had developed a crack in it.

Arlott looked at him through the pressure he was exerting without blinking.

"Treason," he repeated, voice dangerously quiet. "Choose your next words carefully, Vane."

...

Leon was falling.

One second he was up there, barely holding altitude, azure light flickering like a dying candle. The next he was dropping, dead weight, completely out.

Arlott moved.

He was fast, genuinely fast, S rank fast, the kind of speed that made normal people look like they were standing still.

One of the cloaked figures was faster.

It shot toward Leon from the other side of the courtyard, arm already reaching, and for a half second it looked like that was that, the church was going to get what it came for.

Then someone else appeared.

Nobody saw where she came from. One moment the space between the falling boy and the reaching figure was empty. The next it wasn’t.

She caught Leon with both arms, landed clean, and straightened up with him tucked against her like he weighed nothing, which to her, he probably didn’t.

Everyone turned.

White dress. Silver hair. Fox ears sitting alert at the top of her head.

Two tails.

And an expression on her face that made the temperature drop three degrees just looking at it.

"A beastfolk?" Vane said, genuinely puzzled, squinting at her like he was trying to place something that wasn’t filing correctly in his head.

Arlott said nothing for a moment.

He just looked at her.

Yuki.

Something was different about her.

The same Yuki who spent her mornings stealing food off Leon’s plate. Who called herself his assistant but couldn’t be trusted to complete a single task without getting distracted by something edible.

She was furious

Arlott understood it. All things considered he was pretty furious himself right now.

But still.

Four S ranks in this courtyard including him. What exactly was her anger going to do about that?

"It seems you know this beastfolk." Vane’s voice had found its confidence again, which happened to coincide exactly with the moment his two S rank escorts had finished stabilizing the situation. Funny how that worked. "Kindly tell her to hand the boy over."

He let that sit for exactly one second.

"Or I’ll have to take him by force."

The sneer was subtle. The kind a man wears when he thinks he’s already won.

But still. Had he ?