Chapter 470 - I take responsibility.

The silence that settled in the room after Kael's words was not merely a pause in speech. It was a space where decisions began to take shape, where dangerous possibilities slowly organized themselves within the minds of two of the most powerful people in that empire. The atmosphere, once almost domestic with the soft aroma of tea and fresh fruit, now carried a political and strategic weight that made the air denser, harder to ignore. Kael remained standing, motionless, observing, allowing that pause to exist, because he knew that interrupting it would break a crucial moment.