Reborn as the General's Useless Daughter-Chapter 325: The Tri-Academy Exchange Arc (Part-17)

Up on the high platform, Cindral, Hector, and even Gerrad exchanged strange looks.

Gerrad had initially suspected that Thunderclap Academy was deliberately stirring trouble, but now it was clear that this had nothing to do with academies at all. It was simply an emotional entanglement among juniors. As elders, they truly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

At this moment, Reesa could no longer hold back. She stepped forward and shouted loudly, her voice ringing clearly across the arena.

"Cecily Blackstar, Zora has been married for a long time already! Who’s stealing whose man here? If anything, you’re the one trying to snatch someone else’s husband like a shameless woman!"

Her words were sharp and merciless, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Tiffany’s expression changed instantly. He wanted to stop her, but it was already too late. Reesa’s words had flown out without restraint, and there was no taking them back.

Cecily Blackstar had already cast decorum aside. Reesa’s remark only poured oil onto the fire, turning the situation into a naked rivalry over love.

The crowd erupted into whispers. Faces turned toward one another in disbelief. So the rumors were true?

Among the students of Thunderclap Academy, many looked as though their beliefs had been shaken. In their hearts, Cecily Blackstar had always been an untouchable goddess.

Now they were being told that she was chasing after another woman’s man?

Zora was already married, yet Cecily Blackstar still insisted on pursuing him. This was something they found hard to accept.

Cecily Blackstar’s face darkened, her expression turning ugly to the extreme. At this moment, she finally believed every word her third brother had said.

Her Harold... was actually married to Zora?

She had admired him for so long, yet there had never even been a hint of reciprocation. And now she learned that he already belonged to someone else. The humiliation and resentment twisted together in her chest, burning fiercely.

Her eyes gradually reddened, blazing with stubborn determination.

"So what if you’re married?" she snapped instead. "Zora, no matter what your relationship with him is, he is destined to be my man!"

Her chin lifted proudly, arrogance written plainly across her face. In her eyes, a commoner like Zora was never qualified to compete with a royal princess.

Zora’s expression remained calm, her gaze clear and steady. She didn’t know what kind of misunderstanding lay between Cecily Blackstar and Prince Kael, but she was certain of one thing. This was nothing more than Cecily Blackstar’s wishful thinking.

Just then, a ripple stirred near the edge of the martial arena.

A tall figure in black stepped into view, his presence instantly drawing countless gazes. His posture was straight, his bearing extraordinary, and his handsome features were impossible to ignore.

"It’s Harold!"

Marcus and the others lit up at once, smiles spreading across their faces. They were genuinely fond of this friend they had met in the Leon Empire.

Harold smiled faintly as he approached them, his expression composed, as though completely unaware that his appearance had just dropped a stone into an already turbulent lake.

Reesa’s eyes lit up the moment she saw him. She waved enthusiastically and called out, "Mr. Harold! What brings you here?"

Harold smiled faintly, his tone relaxed and natural. "I heard that today is the academy exchange, so I came to cheer you on. Unfortunately, I was delayed at the restaurant for a bit and arrived late."

His words instantly lifted the spirits of the Imperial Academy group. Smiles spread across their faces one after another.

No one had expected that Harold, who had drawn so much attention in the imperial city, would come here not to support Thunderclap Academy, but to encourage them instead.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Raphael exchanged a glance.

As men, they didn’t need anyone to spell it out. Harold’s intentions were already clear.

If he didn’t hold special feelings for Zora, there was no reason for him to stand on their side, especially when doing so meant openly offending Ragnor Blackstar and Dravenor Blackstar.

In the end, everything Harold had done traced back to one person.

And because of that, Harold had naturally become their friend as well.

Whispers rippled through the crowd almost instantly.

"The Harold from Leafway Restaurant is here. He’s definitely here to support Zora!"

"So Zora is a student of Imperial Academy? When did she become Harold’s wife? This is getting interesting."

"The Third Princess is outstanding too, but Harold doesn’t seem the least bit moved."

"Honestly, the Third Princess is too arrogant. Zora seems much more suitable as a wife."

The spectators’ gossip grew bolder by the second, eyes glittering with curiosity as they eagerly dissected the tangled relationships before them.

Alaric Von Seraph and the others felt their expressions stiffen slightly. Listening to these discussions, a strange realization crept in.

Had they... misunderstood something?

Reesa and Tiffany exchanged looks as well, both of them startled by the same thought.

The man Cecily Blackstar was fixated on...

Could it really be Harold?

If that was the case, then this entire conflict was far more chaotic than they had imagined.

Harold, however, seemed completely unaffected by the surrounding noise.

A gentle smile rested on his lips as his gaze settled naturally on Zora. His eyes carried calm confidence and quiet appreciation, as though he already knew she would shine brilliantly in today’s exchange.

From the moment Harold appeared, Cecily Blackstar had also noticed him.

Not only that, she had clearly seen how his attention never once lingered on her. From beginning to end, his eyes had been drawn solely to Zora.

He looked at Zora as though no one else existed.

Since the opening of Leafway restaurant in the imperial city, Cecily Blackstar had encountered Harold many times. Rarely had she ever seen him smile. She had always believed he simply wasn’t the type to show warmth.

Now she finally understood.

It wasn’t that Harold didn’t smile. He simply never smiled at her.

At once, a violent storm of jealousy and fury surged through Cecily Blackstar’s heart. Her fingers curled tightly at her sides, nails biting into her palms.

She wanted Zora dead, more than ever now.

If she couldn’t have him, then no one else would.

Zora sensed the sharp, unrestrained killing intent washing over her. She glanced at Cecily Blackstar briefly, her expression calm, her gaze steady.

There was no fear or panic at all.

After all, she had faced far more terrifying killing intent in her past life than this. Compared to those experiences, Cecily Blackstar’s hostility was crude and shallow.

What truly surprised her was not the intensity of Cecily Blackstar’s hatred, but the fact that she was willing to show such murderous intent here, in broad daylight, during an academy exchange.

Killing was explicitly forbidden in these matches.

Yet Cecily Blackstar clearly didn’t care.

Rules, dignity, consequences—none of them mattered in the face of her obsession.

A trace of cold disgust flickered in Zora’s eyes.

Zora was not someone who instinctively recoiled from killing intent.

What she despised was a person like Cecily Blackstar, someone who pursued her own desires without the slightest regard for the lives of others.

To Cecily Blackstar, it seemed that being born into the royal family automatically placed her above everyone else, granting her the right to trample over whomever she pleased.

That arrogance disgusted her far more than naked hostility ever could.

But just then, something clicked in Ceclily Blackstar’s head, and her lips immediately curled into a cold smile. "Zora, before we start, let me give you a way out. As long as you take the initiative to admit defeat and promise to stay away from Harold, I’ll spare you from death. How about it?"

Zora paused for the briefest moment.

Harold?

Her mind flickered back to the events at Leafway restaurant, to the strange looks and whispered conversations, to Dravenor Blackstar’s probing words and Cecily Blackstar’s barely concealed hostility.

In that instant, the fog lifted. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

From beginning to end, the person Cecily Blackstar had been talking about was Harold, not Kael.

A trace of amusement immediately stirred in Zora’s heart. So that was it.

It was a misunderstanding, start to finish.

Her gaze shifted slightly, sweeping over Harold below the stage, then returning calmly to Cecily Blackstar. The princess still stood with her chin raised high, as though she were offering a great favor, convinced that Zora should be grateful for this so-called mercy.

That alone told Zora everything she needed to know.

Any thought of clarifying the misunderstanding vanished at once. Since Cecily Blackstar wanted to believe this version of reality, then so be it. Explaining anything to someone like her would only be a waste of breath.

"You’re truly overthinking it," Zora said coolly.

Her voice was calm, distant, and utterly dismissive.

Cecily Blackstar’s expression darkened instantly in further misunderstanding. Being spoken to in such a manner was an unforgivable insult in her eyes.

"Since you insist on courting death," Cecily Blackstar said icily, "I’ll grant your wish."

To her, people who didn’t know when to yield always ended the same way.

Zora’s expression remained tranquil and spoke flatly without bothering with any pleasantries or intending to clear the misunderstanding, "You are the one who challenged to the battle when you were supposed to fight Reesa, then you are the one who gave empty death threats, and now, you want to give an out. Spare me nonsense. If you want to fight, then fight. If you are regretting the choice, then get lost."

Seeing Zora take the initiative to provoke her, Cecily Blackstar let out a cold laugh as she thought. ’You probably were thinking that I can’t do anything because people were seeing and Harold was here... You will know soon enough...’