CHAPTER 121: ZENON’S SUMMONED HER

{Elira}

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"I noticed how exhausted you were this morning," Zenon said, his tone calm but edged with a weight that made my skin prickle.

I forced a small smile. "I... didn’t sleep well last night."

His gaze didn’t waver. "You yawned three times during lecture. Twice you tried to hide it behind your hand. Once you nearly drifted off."

Heat flared across my cheeks. I didn’t he kept count. "I—I’m sorry, Professor. It won’t happen again."

"Won’t it?" His eyes narrowed slightly, not unkind, but sharp enough to pin me to the chair. "Fatigue doesn’t come from nowhere. You’re burning energy somewhere else. Where?"

My fingers tightened against the strap of my bag. I looked down at them, avoiding his eyes. "It’s nothing serious."

"Don’t lie to me." His voice dropped, soft but unyielding.

My chest tightened. I had hoped—naively—that I could give him a vague excuse and be dismissed. But Zenon wasn’t the type to let things slip.

The silence stretched, and with each heartbeat the weight of his gaze pressed harder, until I felt my defenses straining.

Finally, I exhaled, my shoulders sagging. "The Student Council..." My voice trailed, barely more than a whisper. "They... punished me."

Zenon’s expression sharpened instantly, though his body didn’t move. "Punished you?"

I nodded quickly, staring at my knees. "They said it was for ignoring a summon. But I didn’t ignore it—I went to their office, I explained to the secretary that I couldn’t attend that day because I had to go back home on the given day. But they didn’t care."

I explained my situation in a way that he would also understand that it was on that day he came to pick me up from the dorm and take me back to his home because of the Healer, that the Student Council gave me an appointment for.

Zenon’s fingers tapped once against the desk. "And the punishment?"

I swallowed. "Kitchen duty. For a week. Every meal. I have to wake up early to help prepare breakfast, and then again for dinner." My throat tightened. "That’s why I was so tired today."

The words spilled out before I could stop them, shame curling in my chest as if admitting it somehow made me weaker.

But Zenon’s silence was louder than anything I could have imagined.

When I finally dared to lift my eyes, his were fixed on me. He leaned back in his chair, the motion deliberate, controlled.

But there was nothing calm in his eyes. The storm in them had darkened, cold and cutting, as if every word I’d spoken had only sharpened the blade of his silence.

"You let them assign you kitchen duty?" His tone was deceptively soft, but the weight behind it made my chest tighten.

"I didn’t—" I stammered, then stopped. My lips pressed together. What excuse could I even give?

His hand curled into a fist on the desk. "They dared to humiliate you for something you already addressed properly with their own secretary."

His voice carried no rise, no shout, but the restrained anger in it sent a shiver crawling down my spine.

I had never seen him this way. Not in class. Not in any moment before now.

"Professor..." I whispered, uncertain whether I was pleading for him to calm down, or for myself not to crumble under the intensity of his fury.

His gaze flicked to me then, steady, unyielding. "You should not have been placed in such a position. You are not their plaything, Elira."

My heart jumped at the firmness of his words, but before I could respond, he reached for the black landline phone on his desk. The motion was smooth, decisive.

He dialed without hesitation. A beat of silence, then his voice, clipped and cold, filled the air.

"This is Professor Zenon." A pause followed, then... "Send Student Council President Kaelis to my office. Immediately."

The line clicked as he set the phone back into its cradle, his movements precise, final.

I stared at him, my mouth parting, my breath caught in my chest.

He had just summoned Princess Kaelis herself.

A mixture of disbelief and dread tangled inside me. Part of me wanted to thank him—for standing up for me in a way no one else ever had.

Another part of me wanted to sink through the floor, because I knew what it meant to challenge the Council.

And yet, watching him now, calm and immovable in his seat, I realized something: Professor Zenon wasn’t afraid of them.

Not the King’s daughter, or any of the well connected and positioned members.

And for the first time since I stepped foot into his office, I wondered what storm I had just set in motion by telling him the truth.

The silence stretched between Zenon and I was heavy and suffocating. My palms were damp where they pressed against my skirt.

Then came a knock—sharp, almost musical against the polished wood.

Zenon’s eyes didn’t leave mine. "Enter."

The door opened, and Kaelis swept in like she owned the room. Her silver curls shimmered under the light, her uniform tailored to perfection, a faint smirk already curving her lips.

She didn’t bow, didn’t even hesitate—just glided forward with the kind of confidence only a princess could wear.

"Professor Zenon." Her voice was smooth, polite on the surface but dripping with false sweetness. "I was told you wanted to see me."

Her gaze flicked briefly to me, seated stiffly in the chair across from Zenon’s desk. A spark of recognition—and amusement—glittered in her eyes.

Zenon gestured toward the second chair beside mine. "Sit."

Kaelis arched a brow but obeyed, settling into the chair with the grace of someone used to being obeyed rather than the other way around.

She crossed one leg over the other, her attention fully on him now. "What matter requires my presence so urgently?"

Zenon didn’t waste words. "Elira Shaw has been placed under disciplinary punishment by your council. Kitchen duty—for one week."

Kaelis’s lips curved into a sharper smile. "Ah. Yes. Actions have consequences."

"Her ’action,’" Zenon said, his voice turning colder, "was informing your secretary that she could not attend on the day specified. Which she did. Properly. She was then summoned again. And now punished."

Kaelis tilted her head, feigning thought. "If that’s how you see it..."

Zenon’s gaze hardened. "Do not play games with me, Kaelis."