Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner Chapter 266: Empress

The options hung in the air in front of her, visible only to Aegis, painted into reality by Lune’s brush.

To her left, she saw herself on a throne of black stone, shadow magic coiling around her arms like living armor, the Umbral Blade kneeling at her feet. The Shadow Empress. The villain the prophecy had promised.

To her right, she saw Sylceris on her knees in a courtyard, a headsman’s axe raised above her neck, the crowd watching in silence. Justice served. The threat eliminated.

And straight ahead, she saw herself in a crown, sitting on the Valdrian throne, the kingdom reshaped in her image. A queen. A ruler. The ultimate ending for a commoner who’d clawed her way to the top.

Aegis looked at all three of them.

Then she grinned, raised her hand, and flicked them away like crumbs off a table.

[No thanks. I think I’ll write my own.]

The System flickered.

The HUD glitched, lines of text scrambling, the interface stuttering in a way Aegis had never seen before. Then, for the first time in the entire year and a half she’d spent in this world, the System responded.

[...Fair enough.]

Aegis smirked.

[Thanks, Lune.]

The black-green aether crackling across her skin pulsed once, twice, and then stabilized.

The wild energy settled, sank inward, absorbed clean into her pathways like water into dry earth. The crackling stopped. The humming stopped. The scorch marks on the marble still smoked faintly, but Aegis’s skin was clear.

MP: 1100/1100

She exhaled.

[Ow. Everything hurts. But I’m alive, so, you know. Win.]

Selene was standing ten feet away, her sword still raised, her blue eyes wide, her whole body shaking. The inquisitors behind her hadn’t moved. Nobody in the room had moved.

Sylceris was exactly where Aegis had pushed her, sitting on the marble floor, staring at Aegis like she’d just watched someone walk through fire and come out smiling.

Aegis stood up, rolled her shoulders, checked her hands, patted herself down, and turned to face the room.

[... One more Charisma check, huh?]

"Threat’s neutralized," she said, brushing dust off her dress. "The convergence bomb has been fully absorbed. Nobody’s dying tonight."

Her voice echoed across the empty ballroom, casual, like she was announcing that dinner would be served shortly.

Selene lowered her sword slowly, one inch at a time, like she wasn’t entirely sure the danger had passed. She took a breath, then another, and Aegis could see her professional composure sliding back into place like armor. The fear drained from her face, replaced by the focused, controlled expression of a church officer with a job to do.

Selene turned toward Sylceris.

She sheathed her sword and walked toward her, her boots clicking on the marble, her back straight. The inquisitor face was back on, and it was pointed directly at the woman sitting on the floor.

Aegis stepped in front of her.

Selene stopped.

"She’s with me," Aegis said.

"Lady Starcaller." Selene’s voice was level, professional, and carried an edge that said she was not in the mood. "She is a confirmed shadow mage and a member of the Umbral Blade. She participated in a conspiracy to commit mass murder. I have every legal right to—"

"She’s my apprentice."

Silence.

Behind Aegis, she could feel Sylceris staring at the back of her head. She didn’t need to turn around to know the expression on her face.

Selene blinked.

"Your what?"

"My apprentice. Under my formal supervision and protection. Which means any charges against her go through me and, by extension, through House Starcaller and House Stone."

"That is not how this works. The church has jurisdiction over—"

"The church has jurisdiction over shadow magic practitioners," Aegis said, keeping her voice even and her eyes locked on Selene’s. "However, Sylceris was not an agent. She was my spy."

Everyone, Sylceris included, pulled back.

Aegis kept the bullshit going.

"She told me about the plot. Without her information, everyone at this Ball would be dead right now, including you."

Selene’s jaw tightened.

Her blue eyes searched Aegis’s face, and Aegis could see the war happening behind them, the church officer who knew the law was on her side fighting against the woman with five hearts who trusted Aegis with her life.

"She’s a terrorist, Aegis."

More quietly, just between them, Aegis replied:

"She’s a twenty-year-old girl from a conquered territory who got recruited by people who told her they could fix the world. She was wrong. She knows she was wrong. And I’m telling you, right now, that she is worth more alive and under my supervision than she is rotting in a church prison, or worse."

Selene stared at her for a long time. The ballroom was silent except for the faint hiss of the still-smoking scorch marks on the floor.

Then Selene closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose.

"She will be under your formal supervision, Lady Starcaller. You are personally responsible for her actions from this point forward. Any further incidents—"

"Noted, thanks, you’re a gem."

Selene opened her mouth. Closed it. Turned on her heel and walked away, gesturing for her inquisitors to follow, and Aegis could practically hear her teeth grinding from across the room.

[That’s my girl.]

The ballroom doors burst open.

Talia came through them at a near-sprint, her blue gown billowing behind her, her yellow eyes scanning the room until they found Aegis. She didn’t say anything. She crossed the scorched marble in about four steps and crashed into Aegis so hard they nearly went down together, her arms wrapping around Aegis’s neck, her face buried in her shoulder.

Aegis caught her, stumbled back half a step, and held on.

"I’m okay," Aegis said.

Talia didn’t respond. She just held tighter.

"I’m okay, Talia. I promise."

"You are never," Talia said into her shoulder, her voice muffled and furious and breaking, "doing anything like that again."

"Noted."

"I mean it."

"I know you do."

They stood there for a while, in the middle of a scorched ballroom, holding each other. Aegis pressed her lips to Talia’s hair and closed her eyes and let herself have this. Just for a minute.

Then she looked up.

Sylceris was standing exactly where Aegis had left her, on the marble floor, watching all of this. Her dark eyes were unreadable, her arms hanging at her sides, her face still streaked with dried tears.

Aegis raised an eyebrow at her.

Sylceris looked away. But she didn’t leave.

---

They walked out of the ballroom together, the two of them. The courtyard was packed with confused nobles and anxious students, Selene’s inquisitors maintaining order, Scarlett and Kanna standing guard near the entrance.

Aegis slowed her pace until she was beside Sylceris, and then she threw an arm around her shoulders.

Sylceris went stiff as a board.

"Relax," Aegis said.

"You just told the church I’m your apprentice."

"I did."

"I tried to blow up a building full of people."

"You did."

"And your solution is to... keep me?"

"It was the only way I could keep your head on those pretty shoulders." Aegis squeezed her arm. "The church would’ve executed you, Sylceris. Or locked you up for the rest of your life. This way, you’re under my protection. Legally, politically, and personally. Nobody touches you without going through me."

Sylceris was quiet for a long moment, her jaw working, her dark eyes fixed on the ground.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I meant what I said in there. I don’t think you’re that bad a person. You just needed someone to have faith in you." Aegis stopped walking and turned to face her. "So, how about it? Will you be my apprentice?"

Sylceris looked at her. Looked at Talia, who was watching with her arms crossed and an expression that said she had opinions about this but was choosing, for once, to keep them to herself. Looked back at Aegis.

Then, slowly, Sylceris dropped to one knee.

She bowed her head, her white hair falling across her face, and placed a fist over her heart.

"My Shadow Empress," Sylceris said.

"No no no." Aegis waved a hand. "It’s just Empress."

[... Yeah. That works.]