Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 172

"Appropriately and justly?" Victor crossed his arms.

"They always are for the men of the royal family, of course," Larissa smiled innocently. "It's tradition that whoever finds them distributes them to the men of the family, isn't it? Like the ones father keeps in the castle and hasn't distributed yet."

Julius and Victor exchanged looks. It was a difficult argument to refute.

Their little sister had masterfully turned their own family's rules against them.

"Even so," Victor tried another angle, his fingers drumming an agitated rhythm against his arm as he searched for leverage, "considering the situation..."

"Oh, they'll be perfectly safe with me," Larissa interrupted, her voice carrying the perfect blend of childish enthusiasm and royal authority. She straightened in her chair, every inch the princess despite her youth.

"After all, who better to guard something so important than a princess? And when father returns and decides which brothers are worthy of the ones he had saved for so long..."

"Fine but... The ring whereabouts are more important," Julius changed topics. The loss of such a powerful artifact couldn't be dismissed so easily. "Where is it?"

"As I said before, it disappeared," Larissa maintained her smile, though a mischievous glint sparkled in her eyes. "Poof. Right in front of us." She wiggled her fingers in an exaggerated magical gesture. _{freёwebnoѵel.com}

"Larissa..."

"It's the truth," she insisted, her mineral fairy glowing softly beneath her skin like validating her words. "You can ask anyone who was there. One moment it was there and the next... poof." She made the gesture again, clearly enjoying their discomfort.

"Larissa," Victor's voice carried the weight of exasperation built up through years of dealing with his clever sister, "this is serious... If a beast stored it inside someone's body, you need to tell us..."

"I know," she nodded with exaggerated solemnity, though amusement danced in her eyes.

"That's why I'm being so precise with the details. No beast 'stored' it, nobody 'hid' it… Besides, your voice is rising, and you promised not to scold me if I only told the truth." Right on cue, tears began welling in her eyes, a performance worthy of the royal theater.

Victor looked away, caught between embarrassment at falling for her act and admiration for her skill. He began pacing the room, his boots clicking against the polished floor.

"The potions..." he muttered, searching for any angle of attack. "Fine, they're yours according to our King's rules, so you can keep them. But the ring..."

"No longer exists," Larissa shrugged with perfect nonchalance. "So there's nothing to look for." She was telling the truth.

Julius finally stood, recognizing defeat in this particular battle.

"The potions," he conceded, "can stay with you as Victor said. But this conversation about the ring isn't over, and you haven't escaped punishment yet."

♢♢♢♢

In another room, far from the royal drama, the spy posing as a hostage answered similar questions with his own brand of careful truth-telling.

The interrogation room masqueraded as a comfortable study, with plush chairs and warm lighting designed to put students at ease. But the spy noted every detail that betrayed its true purpose… the slight angle of the chair that gave the interrogator psychological advantage, the carefully positioned lights that would make facial tells more visible, the barely perceptible hum of detection beasts in the walls.

Unlike the room where the princess held court with her family, this space carried no pretense of deference.

The consequences here could be far more severe.

As other students awakened, they were systematically separated and questioned.

The spy knew this performance would determine not just survival, but the success of years of careful planning that had been made just so they could keep getting information as a normal student.

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"Did you see who attacked you?" asked the guard, his tone carefully calibrated to convey sympathy.

"Yes," the spy touched his partially healed face, allowing genuine pain to color their expression. The bruises Harold had left were a gift, real injuries made deception so much easier. "But everything happened so fast. Harold hit me when I tried to stop him..."

"Stop him?"

"Yes, I..." he coughed, the wetness in the sound perfectly calculated. "When I saw he had hostages, I prevented him from killing them. I tried..." Another cough interrupted the words. "I tried to do the right thing."

The guard made a note in his book, the scratching of his pen unnaturally loud in the quiet room. "And the ring? The potions?"

"I don't know," the spy let vulnerability seep into the words, years of training making it easy to tremble at just the right moment. "I was outside the ruins when... when everything happened."

Every word was true, but danger still lurked. The school's thorough investigation had revealed hollows throughout the academy, hidden spaces concealed by various coverings. Grass and moss, minerals, spider webs, even beast shells... A network of hideaways that raised too many questions.

The interrogator studied the student before him trying to catch the smallest tell, the slightest hesitation.

"The covering in the tunnel," he began without preamble, placing several samples on the table between them, "is similar to others we've found in the last few hours around the academy."