Origin Medical Hall had become a household name throughout the Imperial City.
Who had not heard of the miraculous physician known as the Divine Physician? Who had not heard people praise the young Physician who had cured the Crown Princess when even the Imperial Hospital's physicians had been helpless?
Yet tonight, that same legendary physician was standing before the entire imperial court.
Not inside Origin Medical Hall.
Not dressed as a physician.
And certainly not wearing the sickly appearance everyone had once associated with the second young master of General Helius's household.
Zion had entered the Royal Garden beside Callista.
For a moment, nobody knew how to react.
Confusion, disbelief, curiosity, and shock passed through the crowd in waves.
Among the nobles, Kaelan stood completely still.
The instant his eyes landed on that familiar face, everything around him seemed to disappear.
'It's him...'
His pupils contracted.
'It's Zion.'
Hatred surged through him so violently that even his hands trembled.
If it had not been for Zion, how could he have fallen into such disgrace?
If Zion had never appeared at Origin Medical Hall, Vanessa would never have turned her attention away from him.
If Zion had not exposed what happened between him and Vanessa, his relationship with her would never have been dragged before the entire Imperial City.
And if Zion had not appeared, he would never have suffered the humiliation of being rejected and exposed in front of countless people.
Everything had begun with that man.
Yet now, Zion had actually dared to appear at the Crown Princess's imperial banquet.
Kaelan's expression twisted with anger and resentment.
He could not understand it.
After everything that had happened, how could Zion still stand there so calmly?
Across the garden, Vanessa was equally stunned.
Her gaze remained fixed on Zion.
She had never expected to see him tonight.
More importantly, she had never expected him to appear like this.
Since the day Zion had rejected her at Origin Medical Hall, they had not met again.
Vanessa had told herself that she would eventually forget him.
She had tried.
But that had proven much harder than she expected.
Perhaps it was because she had never been accustomed to being rejected.
As Crown Princess, she had grown up surrounded by people who sought her approval. Nobles competed for her attention, and young men dreamed of becoming her husband.
Zion had been the first person to look at her without caring about any of that.
He had refused her.
He had dismissed her.
And somehow, that had made his image linger in her mind far longer than she wanted to admit.
Now he was standing before her again.
And he looked nothing like the weak young man she remembered.
His white robes were simple, yet they suited him perfectly. His black hair was neatly tied behind him, his posture straight and relaxed. There was no trace of the timidity that had once accompanied the sickly young master of General's Manor.
The person standing before her was calm, confident, and impossible to overlook.
Vanessa's eyes remained on him.
She did not even notice the young men around her becoming increasingly uneasy.
The nobles who had spent the entire evening dressing themselves carefully and preparing every possible advantage to attract the Crown Princess's attention suddenly felt as though all their efforts had become meaningless.
Zion had not even tried to attract anyone's attention.
Yet the moment he appeared, the entire garden had turned toward him.
A young nobleman finally whispered, unable to conceal his displeasure.
"This is the Crown Princess's imperial banquet. What is Zion doing here?"
The question spread quickly.
Many people were wondering the same thing.
After all, everyone knew what had happened at Origin Medical Hall.
Zion had openly rejected Vanessa.
So why had he come to the banquet now?
Had he changed his mind?
Before anyone could speculate further, Kaelan suddenly stood.
His voice cut through the gathering.
"Zion!"
Everyone turned.
Kaelan's expression was tense, but he forced himself to remain composed.
"This is an imperial banquet. You are neither a noble nor an official of the court. What right do you have to appear here?"
The accusation immediately silenced the surrounding nobles.
Countless eyes shifted toward Zion.
Even Emperor Alexander and the Empress turned their attention toward the disturbance.
Zion did not appear bothered.
Instead, the corners of his lips slowly curved upward.
There was no anger in that smile.
Only a faint, almost amused mockery.
His eyes settled on Kaelan.
"Brother..."
His voice was quiet enough to sound almost gentle.
"Don't you recognize me anymore?"
The moment Kaelan heard that familiar voice, his body stiffened.
It was the same voice.
There was no mistaking it.
His pupils contracted sharply, and the confidence he had forced onto his face disappeared.
"You..."
His lips parted, but no words came.
Zion took a step forward.
Then another.
He did not hurry.
He simply walked into the center of everyone's attention, his movements steady and composed.
When he finally stopped, his voice carried clearly throughout the silent garden.
"I am Zion of House Phoenix, the former heir of General Helius's household."
The words fell into the garden with absolute certainty.
For several seconds, nobody reacted.
Then the meaning finally reached everyone.
Zion.
That name was impossible to forget.
The disgraced former fiancé of the Crown Princess.
The sickly young master who had been regarded as useless.
The young man whose engagement had been cancelled and whose position within General Helius's household had become a subject of ridicule.
And now...
The Divine Physician of Origin Medical Hall.
The same person.
The Royal Garden erupted.
"Impossible!"
"How could he be Zion?"
"Wasn't he sickly and unable to cultivate properly?"
"That is really the Divine Physician?"
The crowd struggled to reconcile the two images.
The man standing before them bore the same name, the same voice, and the same general features they remembered.
But his entire bearing had changed.
The timid and sickly young master they had once pitied was nowhere to be found.
In his place stood a composed young man whose confidence required no explanation.
Kaelan's face had gone pale.
He stared at Zion as though looking at someone who had returned from the dead.
Then Zion spoke again.
"We lived under the same roof for more than ten years."
His gaze never left Kaelan.
"Even after you poisoned me, you should not have found me strange."
The garden went completely silent.
The words were spoken without shouting.
That made them all the more frightening.
Kaelan's face lost what little color remained.
Zion continued calmly.
"Now I'm standing directly in front of you, and you still can't recognize me."
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"That is rather disappointing, Brother."
The words were soft, but they landed harder than an accusation shouted across the garden.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then the whispers began.
"Zion is actually the young master of General Helius's household?"
"Then Origin Medical Hall belongs to him?"
"So the Divine Physician we've all been talking about..."
"My heavens."
One revelation followed another.
Then someone caught onto the most shocking part.
"Did he just say Kaelan poisoned him?"
The surrounding nobles looked toward Kaelan.
Their expressions changed.
A few had already heard rumors about the scandal involving General Helius's household, Vanessa, and the former engagement. But hearing Zion openly accuse his own younger brother of poisoning him in front of the Emperor was an entirely different matter.
"If Kaelan could poison his own brother..."
"And he was involved with the Crown Princess while she was still engaged to Zion..."
"Then what wouldn't he dare to do?"
The whispers multiplied.
Kaelan heard every one of them.
His breathing became increasingly uneven.
He wanted to deny it.
He wanted to shout that Zion was lying.
But the problem was that Zion was standing before him with the same voice, the same eyes, and the same features he had known for years.
Even if Kaelan desperately wanted to reject the truth, his own memories betrayed him.
It really was Zion.
There was no longer any room for doubt.
General Helius stood rigidly among the ministers.
Beside him, Jasmine's expression had also frozen.
Neither of them could look away from the young man in white.
They had known Zion for years.
They knew the shape of his face.
They knew his voice.
They knew his mannerisms.
And now that they looked closely, the similarities they had initially overlooked became impossible to ignore.
The person standing in the center of the Royal Garden was indeed the second young master of their household.
Only his temperament had changed so completely that everyone had failed to recognize him at first.
The sickly, timid boy they remembered had disappeared.
In his place stood someone calm, self-assured, and utterly unwilling to lower his head before anyone.
Jasmine's face turned pale.
Kaelan was trembling now.
The truth he had been desperately trying to escape had finally caught up with him.
'So it really is him.'
He had been right to fear this possibility.
The Divine Physician everyone in the Imperial City admired was Zion.
The man who had risen from the humiliation of General Helius's household was Zion.
And now, standing before the Emperor and the entire imperial court, Zion had begun exposing the past.
Everything Kaelan had done.
Everything he had tried to bury.
It could no longer remain hidden.