This is a blatant power grab, and the Imperial Hall exploded in that instant.
The people in the Military Affairs Department, having misjudged his recovery by seventy to eighty percent, all straightened their backs, like they had been reignited.
The old nobility's gazes sank, as any expansion of military authority would first tread on them.
The civil servants were tense, that alertness of "the system being forcibly bypassed" was instantly heightened.
Rheinhardt lifted his eyes, his movement unhurried, but it was as though his gaze was slicing through the air.
His glance didn't truly meet Kaelin's, but in that moment, the calm sharpness far surpassed anger.
He did not speak but gently closed the dossier in his hand, as if he had figured something out, and though not a big action, it tightened the backs of all the civil servants.
On the other side, Lampard remained motionless, his posture steady, as if he had been waiting for this moment all along.
