The Emperor's Palace

After Cecilia closed the door behind her, Raphael was left standing alone in the hallways of the Sword School.

The conversation he had just experienced felt surreal. Out of all the people he had met in the Five Schools, Cecilia was by far the most intriguing. Not only was she breathtakingly beautiful, but she also carried an aura of strength and coldness that made her all the more desirable.

Raphael had always been drawn to difficult women—the kind who built walls so high that most men wouldn't dare attempt to climb them. But he thrived on that challenge, and the thought of what Cecilia might be like once conquered filled him with excitement.

Still, her request lingered in his mind.

To kill a student. She was asking him to take a man's life.

The weight of it pressed against his thoughts. The Queen had claimed that Christopher Reynolds was an evil man. If that was truly the case, perhaps his death was justified. Perhaps he deserved to die.