In Celitia's view, Augustus's behavior was quite contradictory.

The Brienne family that Augustus belonged to had long-standing marriage ties with the royal family.

This meant that Augustus, also being of royal blood, had inheritance rights to the throne, though his succession position wasn't as high as Sophia's.

As regent minister, Augustus held significant power and was generally diligent in his duties, maintaining a peaceful relationship with Queen Marianne.

From this perspective, Augustus was a relatively dedicated power-holding minister.

After all, according to Celitia's thinking, if he had any designs on the throne, Augustus should have acted long ago. Why would he still be honestly serving as regent until now?

However, Augustus's dissatisfaction with Sophia was also obvious.

Otherwise, Margaret wouldn't have specifically come over to constantly employ those underhanded tactics.

Sophia was about to come of age. Once she turned sixteen, she would have the qualification to formally participate in politics.

Given Augustus's attitude, he probably wouldn't be very willing to relinquish power to Sophia then.

Neither willing to give up power nor wanting to completely burn bridges—quite contradictory indeed.

Could he be... wary of something?

In this moment, many thoughts flashed through Celitia's mind.

But she showed none of it, only returning Augustus's gaze with an extremely faint, cool smile.

Soon, all the guests and students attending the ceremony had arrived.

Dean Colton took the stage and announced the results of this competition, followed by thunderous applause from below.

Under everyone's attention, Sophia walked onto the award platform and received the sword that Marianne presented to her.

This sword was one of the precious collections of the Lansca royal family. Although it had the suspicion of the left hand giving to the right hand, it also proved the royal family's importance placed on this competition.

Sophia cleared her throat lightly, and the audience immediately fell silent, waiting for the princess to give her acceptance speech.

However, Sophia didn't speak immediately. Instead, she extended her hand toward Celitia in the audience:

"Lily, come up."

In an instant, all eyes turned to Celitia.

Celitia was momentarily stunned.

Sophia hadn't told her beforehand about her plans for the award ceremony, leaving Celitia somewhat at a loss.

But in such a setting, Celitia couldn't possibly embarrass Sophia in public.

She was only stunned for a moment before decisively standing up, walking onto the award platform, and standing beside Sophia.

Seeing Celitia approach, Sophia showed her a bright smile.

She took Celitia's hand and raised the sword high toward the audience below.

"This victory is the result of many, many people's joint efforts. Besides Celitia's decisive role in strategy, everyone played tremendous strength in their areas of expertise. For example, Shanie's valor, Benita's composure, Rebecca and Linda's perseverance..."

Sophia called out the team members' names one by one, pronouncing each extremely clearly without forgetting a single one.

She showed an encouraging smile to the team members and declared loudly: "Everyone come up. This victory never belonged to me alone, but to all of us."

"Princess Sophia!"

Shanie was extremely excited, the first to stand up and unhesitatingly walk onto the award platform, standing on Sophia's other side.

Led by Shanie, Benita, Rebecca, Linda, and other blue team members lined up and walked to stand behind Sophia, all with excited expressions on their faces.

They never expected that Sophia would choose to let everyone ascend the award platform and share this moment of honor.

Countless gazes were cast over, looking at those on stage with envy or jealousy.

The defeated red team members were naturally dejected, but even more regretful were those original blue team members who had listened to Margaret's words and chosen to withdraw before the competition.

Originally, just by participating in the competition, they could have easily won and shared this moment of honor, along with the generous competition rewards.

But they had chosen Margaret's recruitment and withdrawn from the competition, severely offending Sophia.

Given Margaret's current situation, whether she would fulfill her original promises was still unknown.

The withdrawn team members regretted it so much their intestines were about to break.

Sophia's voice on stage continued.

This time, Sophia hadn't prepared a complex acceptance speech. What came out were all her heartfelt words.

"This competition made me understand that unity is indispensable, and more importantly, the spirit of fearlessness and never giving up when facing difficulties..."

As Sophia's speech ended, Marianne led the applause.

The audience below envied variously, while those on stage beamed with pride.

Only Margaret's expression was terrible to the extreme.

Coming to the award ceremony and watching the high-spirited Sophia and Celitia on stage was like having her face dragged over and slapped hard once more.

Unable to bear it any longer, Margaret suddenly stood up and headed toward the back.

"Margaret!" Augustus was very displeased. "Come back here!"

Augustus was never someone who couldn't accept failure.

As long as there was still a breath left, there was possibility for a comeback and victory.

What was important was learning from mistakes, crawling up from the mud, and continuing to persevere.

However, this daughter he had placed his hopes on was too immature in character, completely failing to understand his painstaking efforts.

Stopped by her father, Margaret had to halt her steps.

Before she could speak, Celitia, who had been observing them from the stage, leisurely spoke:

"Margaret, don't forget about the bet between us. Are you trying to run away?"

Margaret naturally hadn't forgotten.

She wanted to quickly leave the venue precisely because she was afraid Celitia would bring this up.

If she lost, she would have to publicly apologize to Sophia and openly confess everything she had done to everyone.

It was practically public execution.

Margaret's face gradually reddened, finally becoming nearly liver-colored.

She looked pleadingly at Augustus: "Father, do we really have to..."

"Margaret," Augustus said sternly, "the Brienne family has never been unable to accept defeat. Scheming and plotting isn't shameful, nor is losing to the enemy. The only thing you cannot be is a coward who can't accept reality and flees from battle!"

Augustus's words were harsh and severe, leaving Margaret speechless.

Celitia listened and gradually frowned.

Even she hadn't expected Augustus to be so forthright.

If Margaret reneged, it would only bring more unfavorable impact to the Brienne family's reputation.

Augustus taking such an attitude would actually benefit the family's reputation recovery.

Her plan to use this competition to crush Margaret to the point of never recovering would probably have to be discounted.

He truly was a difficult person to deal with.

Celitia's smile turned slightly cold.