Calvin descended the staircase slowly, each step echoing with deliberate weight, as though the very air in the hall bowed to his presence. Silence tightened around the gathering crowd. Some lowered their gazes. Others held their breath.

“Insolent,” he said at last, voice low and cold.

He stopped midway down, lips curving faintly in something that was not quite a smile.

“Really.”

“And you believe so?”

His gaze swept over Hollander with quiet disdain.

“Tell me… did you come here with eyes that refuse to see, or are you simply blind even when the truth stands before you?”

“I…” Hollander’s voice fractured, panic seeping through every syllable as he searched...