​Hana went completely silent for a second, her mind rapidly recalibrating the data. Beside her, Ren was already beginning to rant, his black-striped tail thrashing as he shouted about how other local villages had lodged the exact same complaints for months.

But Hana wasn’t listening to the leopard. She was looking at the High Sovereign.

​Lord Kaelen doesn’t know, she realized, her internal ledger shifting. It’s not an act. His knowledge is completely blank on this matter. The old fox is clean.

​If the High Sovereign of the Crimson Line was entirely ignorant of an underground trafficking ring operating forty meters beneath his own throne, then the culprit had to be someone with high-level access who could warp the perimeter with high tier illusions to hide the secret.

​Right on cue, a sharp rustle of crimson silk broke the silence. Celene rushed to Lord Kaelen’s side, her eleven bright red tails flaring out in a frantic, dramatic wave.

The moment she saw Ren standing near Hana’s party, her face twisted into a mask of pure, screeching panic.

​"Your Imperial Excellency!" Celene shrieked venomously, her claws sliding out as she pointed directly at Hana. "Do you see it now?! The human has plotted with the outlanders from the start! She brought these savage felines here to wreak havoc on our sacred grounds and steal our ancestral secrets! Guards, execute them—"

​"Shut up!" Hana snapped. "Can’t you see we’re talking?"

​The command was so sudden, so cold, and so absolutely dripping with an unyielding, dominant authority that Celene’s voice caught violently in her throat. For a brief moment, a wave of genuine, primal fear washed over the High Matriarch.

She actually paused, her chest heaving as her wide green eyes stared at Hana in utter shock. What just happened? Did a hairless, pregnant female just shut her up in her own courtyard?

"No one asked you to butt in, hag," Raiden hissed at her. "Just stay quiet in a corner."

​Hana didn’t give Celene a second to recover. She folded her arms across her breasts, her tight dress shifting as she looked past Celene and locked her dark eyes dead onto Lord Kaelen.

​"It seems a particular high-ranking fox is kidnapping females from different tribes and actively sullying the name of your prided clan, Lord Kaelen," Hana said, her voice echoing with a terrifyingly flat, clinical chill. "Because I know exactly what my data is showing me. And I am fully prepared to bet my life on the fact that there are fourteen live kidnapped females sitting in your underground vault right now."

​A dead silence fell over the courtyard. Caspian let out a low, tectonic rumble, his scales tightening as he prepared to back her wager with his fire, while Raiden’s smirk returned, a dark, vicious gleam in his eyes as he looked at his aunt.

​Hana’s lips curved into a sharp, superior smirk as she challenged the old fox on the throne. "So, Sovereign... why don’t we go find out together?"

Celene’s eleven red tails flaked out in a ragged, chaotic wave as she lunged forward, desperately trying to interject.

"This is absurd! Your Imperial Excellency, you cannot seriously listen to this madwoman! We cannot let filthy outlanders and a hairless ridge-dweller trample into our sacred vault! It is against ancestral law!"

​She was practically throwing up a wall of frantic excuses, desperate to keep the subterranean gates sealed. Hana, however, saw right through her panic.

​"Celene," Hana called out flatly, crossing her arms over her chest as she stepped forward. "What is your relationship with the kidnapped?"

​It was a cold, rapid-fire trick question, delivered with such clinical detachment that the frantic Matriarch didn’t process the trap until her foot was already in it.

​"Are you a sadist who likes to rest her claws on kidnapped and suffering females, because you can’t afford to do so to your own tribe’s women?" Hana poked seamlessly.

​"Preposterous!" Celene shrieked, her haughty defense instantly slipping. "Why would I ever touch those filthy things?!"

​A collective gasp rippled across the courtyard. The snow leopard archers shifted their bows, and even the robed fox guards blinked in stunned realization.

​Hana’s lips curved into a sharp, superior smirk. "So you do know about the kidnapped females. And you’ve seen them, am I right?"

​Celene went entirely rigid. Her green eyes bulged as the trap snapped shut on her neck.

"No! I... No, this..." She stammered, her mind completely scrambling as her heart raced violently beneath her silks.

How did she give herself away so easily? This was wrong!

"I only meant I would never touch a female or any other beastmen that do not belong to my clan!" she barked, trying desperately to pick her pride back up from the dirt. "I have no knowledge of any kidnapped females!"

​Hana completely ignored her desperate backpedaling, turning her dark eyes directly toward Lord Kaelen.

​"There are a lot of questionable factors here, if you ask me, Lord Kaelen," Hana said, her voice cutting through Celene’s hyperventilation. "Someone clearly doesn’t want us to uncover the truth. And someone is still actively sullying your tribe’s prided name. If we do not find the females alive right now, your tribe will forever be known across the ridges as a black market den where women disappear. Getting rid of the evidence or blocking this process is a bad move for your reputation."

​She paused, letting the cold math of the situation sink into the High Sovereign’s calculations.

​"But if we find those fourteen females right now and let them point out exactly who dragged them into this valley, then punishment can be given to whom punishment is due," Hana continued seamlessly. "All the hate and all the accusations will be pointed directly at the true culprit, and your clan’s dignity remains intact. What do you say? Time is precious."

​Ren stood completely mesmerized from the side. He watched Hana with wide, unblinking icy blue eyes. She spoke so fluently, with such absolute confidence and structural logic.

She didn’t need to scream or bare her fangs to dominate a room; her words alone were enough to make a High Sovereign hesitate and a Matriarch choke. This female is amazing, he thought, his chest tightening with a profound, sudden warmth. He really, really liked her.

​From the side, Kulu’s sharp gaze flicked away from the fox guards and landed dead onto the white-haired leopard.

Kulu’s eyes narrowed into lethal slits. He had recognized that exact look—he had felt that same overwhelming wave of internal admiration toward Hana’s genius multiple times himself.

Seeing that unmistakable, captivated gaze on Ren’s face, Kulu’s steeled feathers rustled with a dangerous, metallic click.

​This white beastman was actively cultivating feelings for his mate, right in the middle of a war zone and he did not like it.

​Lord Kaelen remained silent for one more heavy second, his white fur lowering as his eleven red-tipped tails smoothed out into a strict, cold line. He looked at Celene’s trembling, pale face, then back down at Hana’s unyielding deadpan expression.

​"The Crimson Line does not hide behind thieves," Lord Kaelen announced, his deep baritone dripping with an executioner’s finality. He stood up from his throne, glaring directly at the vault doors. "We will go down. If there is blood on my stone, the culprit will pay the blood debt before the sun reaches its peak."

Celene panicked. "But your Excellency—"

"If you obstruct one more time, Matriarch, you will be deemed a suspect." Lord Kaelen exclaimed and she choked back a gasp. "Now, stand aside."