The air seemed to drain from the room as Magnus's verdict settled over the table.
For a moment, no one moved. No one spoke. The silence stretched, thick, suffocating, threatening to swallow everything whole.
Then—
"You can't be serious!" The words burst out of Roman before he could stop them. His chair creaked faintly beneath him as he leaned forward, his pulse pounding hard in his ears.
"Players fight all the time. Hockey is a violent game. Why am I the one being singled out for this?" he asked.
A few nodded, and that was enough.
"You're right," Magnus replied, a faint, knowing smirk settling on his lips. His voice remained calm. "Incidents happen on the ice." He paused, letting the words hang for a fraction too long. "But no one," he continued, his gaze sharpening, "has sent a fellow player into a coma, until you decided to set that record."
The words landed like heavy blows.
