Silas blinked. "What?"
The room froze.
Reia sat up straighter. Vyn didn't move, but her gaze locked onto Garos. Evelyn looked genuinely confused.
But Lucian… Lucian stepped forward.
"No," he said.
Garos turned his head slightly. "Excuse me?"
Lucian walked slowly toward the center of the room, his arms now at his sides, voice even but sharp.
"We had a deal."
Garos didn't respond.
Lucian kept going. "You said—if we entered that gate, if we survived that bullshit SSS-ranked trap—you'd sign off our early graduation. That was the deal. We risked our lives. And we still cleared it. Even after things went sideways."
Garos stayed silent.
"You can't go back on that now."
Garos met his eyes. "The situation has changed."
Lucian's jaw tightened. "No. You changed it."
"I'm trying to protect you—"
