Yui's patience was a thin string stretched to its limit. Every word, every glance Randel directed at the mysterious Guardian made that string vibrate with an ominous hum. And when Randel, cutting the finest piece from his own juicy steak, placed it on Amanda's plate with the words, "Try this—it's our finest meat. You need to regain your strength," the string snapped.
The crystalline ring of a goblet shattering against the floor sounded like a gunshot. Yui shot to her feet, shoving her chair back with a deafening screech. All conversation ceased instantly.
"Enough!" Her voice, usually sweet and melodic, was shrill and laced with hysteria. She stood trembling with rage, her beautiful face twisted into a grimace of anger and humiliation. "Enough of this... this farce!"
"Yui!" Tywin said sternly, but it was already too late.
"No, Father!" She whirled toward him, her eyes glittering with furious tears. "I can't take this anymore! She... this... this *golden statue*!" She spat the words with such contempt that Amanda's heart clenched. "She sits here, hiding her face, saying nothing, acting like we're all beneath her! And he—" her trembling finger pointed at Randel "—he looks at her like she's a goddess! He's forgotten all decency! Our engagement!"
Randel rose slowly. His face had become a mask of cold fury.
"Yui, calm yourself at once and apologize to our guest. You're behaving like a spoiled child."
"Spoiled child? Me?" She laughed bitterly. "And what is she? Mature? She can't even show her face! Who is she, Randel? Where did she come from? Why do you trust her more than me—your fiancée?!"
"Lady Yui," Roxana's voice rang out, sweet as poison yet edged with steel. "You forget yourself. You are insulting a guest of House Eichenwald. And, more importantly, you are insulting my brother and his judgment."
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"His judgment?" Yui snorted, her hysteria reaching its peak. "His 'judgment' is some faceless adventuress who's undoubtedly hunting his title and fortune! She's a charlatan! A true lady wouldn't hide!"
Shocked silence blanketed the hall. To say such things about the Guardian—about one whose power many had witnessed (or believed they had)—was an unprecedented insult.
Amanda sat frozen. Her heart pounded wildly. *This is it. The end of the act. Everything's about to collapse.*
But before anyone could speak, something happened.
Randel didn't shout. He didn't justify himself. He took one step toward Yui. Just one. But his posture, his gaze, his entire aura shifted. He was no longer the enamored youth or the gallant host. He was the heir of Eichenwald. The terror of enemies on the battlefield.
"You have crossed the line, Yui," his voice was quiet, yet it cut like a blade. "You have insulted not only my guest. You have insulted the one who saved my life. You have insulted the honor of my house by allowing yourself to behave this way beneath its roof." He looked at her with such icy contempt that she physically recoiled. "Our engagement... was an arrangement. An arrangement you have just trampled with your unworthy conduct."
Yui went pale as death.
"R-Randel... I..."
"From this moment," he interrupted, his words ringing through the hall like an official decree, "the engagement between myself and Lady Yui de Lynne is hereby dissolved. On the grounds of disrespect toward House Eichenwald and insult toward its most exalted ally."
Gasps echoed through the hall. Tywin closed his eyes, his expression not anger but weary acceptance of the inevitable. Roxana covered her mouth with her hand, but her eyes gleamed with triumph.
Yui stood speechless. Tears finally spilled from her eyes, but they were tears not of hurt—of the realization of her own catastrophe. She had just lost everything.
And then all eyes turned once more to Amanda. To the Guardian. What would she say? What would she do?
Amanda slowly raised her head. Her red eyes behind the mask met Yui's tear-filled gaze. There was no gloating in them, no anger. Only cold, indifferent calm. She said nothing. She simply looked. And in that silence was a verdict more terrible than any words.
Then, just as slowly, she shifted her gaze to Randel and gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. Once.
It was over. The end of one era and the beginning of something entirely new. And at the center of this storm she had unleashed sat Amanda—former student Yamada Light—understanding there was no way back. She hadn't merely inserted herself into this world's history.
She had just radically rewritten it.