IMPORTANT NOTICE: Thank you all for your patience, and sorry about that blunder! I’ve fixed Chapter 1137 now. <3

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"What?"

Jax blinked, wondering why everyone seemed so quiet as they stared at him.

It was Princess Kira who finally responded.

"Before the show aired..." she began slowly. "Did you already know he didn’t like them?"

Frankly speaking, she hadn’t even gotten that far in her own thinking.

Now that she reflected on it, none of the cadets had specifically asked Lord Killian about his personal opinion in the matter. They had simply panicked and just ran with what they heard.

Which was admittedly embarrassing, especially considering how she had also made controversial decisions about her love life. Shouldn’t she know better than to assume things from the get-go?

But sure enough, Jax, who always seemed to know more than he let on, was right.

They really should’ve asked first.

Had she exercised the same grace they’d given her, then she too would’ve known just as much as this guy and avoided making hasty conclusions.

However, before the Orcish Princess could praise Jax for his consideration, the redhead looked puzzled and said,

"Ah, no. I only heard about it now."

"...What?"

"But hasn’t he been saying it the whole time?"

The room somehow became even quieter.

This time, even Killian looked up from where he sat.

Across the table, Luca blinked in confusion.

"Oh, but big brother Killian hasn’t really said anything..."

"Huh?"

Jax looked genuinely perplexed.

"But he’s been making that face the entire time."

Kyle, the younger brother of said Killian, raised a brow but wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

Clinging to his backside, Ollie immediately asked,

"Making that face?"

Jax nodded.

"The same face he makes for burpees."

"..."

"..."

"And even if he said he liked it in his own words," Jax continued thoughtfully, "wouldn’t that be unbelievable when that’s not even close to the face he makes when he likes something?"

The redhead tilted his head slightly as he looked toward Killian.

Meanwhile, the young official, whose chin had previously been resting on his hand, found himself slowly straightening in his seat.

For once, the expression on his face wasn’t exasperation.

It was bewilderment.

Then again, Killian wasn’t alone in that reaction.

Across the room, one Imperial Crown Prince looked equally intrigued.

After all, Xavier—a man whose signature expression was distinctive enough to qualify as intellectual property—knew better than anyone what it was like to maintain nearly the same expression for everything.

So could Jax actually read Killian like an open book?

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Believe it or not, Killian Nox found himself momentarily praying to all that was holy that no one would ask Jax the most fundamental questions imaginable.

Questions such as how.

And, perhaps more terrifyingly, what.

Because while everyone else seemed content to stare at the redhead after that outrageous declaration, Killian himself very much wanted answers too.

How did he know?

What exactly had he seen? Just what gave it away?

Not that the official was under any illusion that Jax had somehow magically acquired information from the comforts of his bed when they hadn’t even met since the broadcast aired. In fact, the entire reason everyone was discussing this now was that the redhead had only just heard about it.

And while it was good that he apparently wouldn’t have to explain his thoughts on the matter to Jax, something he now realized he’d been worrying about for absolutely no reason, he still found the situation rather alarming.

Killian was well aware that he was more relaxed in the dungeon space than he was elsewhere, but even then, maintaining a relatively unreadable expression of exasperation had long since become second nature to him.

It might not have made him appear quite as intimidating as his father or some of the older members of the Imperial Family, but it was practical. More importantly, it was sustainable.

Ever since learning the reality behind the prominent positions they were expected to hold, he had made a habit of carefully controlling what people were allowed to see.

If their enemies didn’t know what truly mattered to him, then they couldn’t use it for leverage.

If they didn’t know what would make him run instead of walk, then they couldn’t threaten it.

And if they couldn’t distinguish between what could really make him tick and what amounted to nothing more than a passing inconvenience, then all the better.

The less people understood what truly moved him, the safer everyone around him would be.

That had been the logic.

It was a habit so ingrained that even now he rarely thought about it consciously.

Which was why this entire situation felt ridiculous.

Sure, he was admittedly more expressive around people he trusted. But being read through a holographic projection?

That sounded absurd.

Even more absurd was the possibility that Jax’s earlier confidence stemmed from the simple certainty that Killian had absolutely no desire to even see those twins’ shadows, much less entertain their public declarations.

And somehow, that realization only led to more questions.

Did Jax arrive at that conclusion instinctively?

Did he simply assume?

Or had he actually been paying attention all this time?

The more Killian thought about it, the less sense it made, but the more curious he became.

Though admittedly, such nagging thoughts weren’t exactly unusual, at least for him.

While Kyle was widely known as a thinker, his older brother might very well have been the poster child for overthinkers.

If it were possible to think about everything and everyone all at once, then Killian probably would’ve attempted exactly that. Had he done so this time, however, he would’ve only ended up frustrating himself, because for the redhead at the center of this entire discussion, the answer hadn’t required mental gymnastics whatsoever.

For Jax, it seemed far simpler.

Something that required neither deduction nor much analysis but simply a lot of access.

Because while everyone else mostly ever saw the Chief of Staff from a comfortable distance, Jax couldn’t help but develop a certain sensitivity after being allowed to observe from a much, much closer distance.

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See, Killian was always tired.

And Jax thought that was perfectly understandable.

One look at those things the official was always carrying around, reading, writing on, signing, reviewing, or glaring at was enough to make the cadet feel grateful for his current hospitalization and very simple days.

Frankly speaking, the more paperwork he saw, the more he felt that perhaps staying in bed for a little longer wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Though more than the endless gibberish that was probably responsible for half of Killian’s headaches, Jax figured the bigger issue was much simpler.

The guy didn’t eat enough vegetables.

And he definitely didn’t take enough naps.

Even Luca started acting a little crazy whenever he missed a nap, and Jax had personally witnessed Xavier hauling their guild leader away for much-needed sleep more than once. Therefore, as someone who firmly believed in observing things to stay alive, Jax had long since accepted proper napping schedules as doctrine and simply slept whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Apparently, however, that wasn’t possible for certain people.

Their Captain was near the top of that list, largely because being the Crown Prince came with the unfortunate side effect of having to pretend he wasn’t the Crown Prince.

Then there was Kyle, who somehow managed to run out of hours before he ran out of responsibilities.

But just when Jax thought those two were already hopeless workaholics, there turned out to be someone even worse.

Killian.

The Empire’s youngest Chief of Staff.

Now that guy, given the opportunity, would probably choose to move around like one of the walking dead if it meant getting a few more things done.

Still, after seeing him practically every day since the incident with the bees, the only heir of House Taylor had gradually realized something important.

There were levels to Killian’s exhaustion.

And there were definitely levels to Killian’s irritation.

Most people probably wouldn’t notice.

In fact, Jax suspected most people couldn’t.

Killian’s default expression already looked permanently exhausted and mildly inconvenienced by existence itself. Compared to that, the differences were incredibly small.

But they were there.

The official had these tiny tells that became surprisingly obvious once someone knew what to look for.

Whenever he heard something he considered particularly outrageous, his head would tilt at a very specific angle.

Not much.

Just enough.

His left eye twitched whenever he was dealing with bureaucratic nonsense.

His right eye twitched whenever the cadets were responsible.

Sometimes both happened at once.

Those were usually bad days.

Even the muscles in his neck told stories if someone paid enough attention. And perhaps the easiest sign of all was how he’d occasionally hold his breath longer than usual whenever something genuinely unsettled him.

Jax found all of that fascinating.

Not nearly as fascinating as the expressions Killian made when he actually liked something, but fascinating nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the latter were admittedly as impossible to properly describe as they were exciting to experience firsthand.

Nonetheless, it was still why Jax couldn’t quite understand the articles D-29 kept flashing beside the endlessly replaying broadcast.

[CELESTIAL TWINS PURSUE CHIEF OF STAFF! NETIZENS CALL IT THE OPPORTUNITY OF TEN LIFETIMES.]

[AERUN ROYAL BEAUTIES MAKE THEIR MOVE! COULD HE REALLY BE HESITATING?]

[IS KILLIAN NOX TOO PICKY? THE UNIVERSE WEIGHS IN AFTER ROYAL PURSUIT GOES PUBLIC.]

[ARE HIS STANDARDS TOO HIGH? KILLIAN NOX REPORTEDLY UNMOVED BY TWO LIVING MASTERPIECES.]

Beauties?

Masterpieces?

Jax, who possessed two perfectly functional eyes, certainly wasn’t going to deny that the twins in the broadcast were good-looking.

That much was obvious.

But the way everyone kept talking about it felt strange.

Almost backward.

Not just that part about assuming Killian would want anything to do with them, but the even more baffling issue that Jax kept on seeing.

As though everyone had already skipped straight to the conclusion, operating under the assumption that the eldest son of House Nox should naturally consider the whole thing an incredible opportunity because only then would he be graced with such ethereal beings.

That part felt... wrong?

Maybe it could just be their defective eyes and the lack of carrots in the Empire.

Or maybe it was simply because they had never actually seen Killian in his unguarded state?

Because if they had...

If they had seen the same face he made whenever Jax prodded him in exactly the way he seemed to prefer...

If they’d just seen the expressions that slipped through whenever Killian forgot to be careful.

Or at best, had they seen the way he looked whenever he melted under him—

Hmm.

Then perhaps they would have a very different definition of what really constituted a masterpiece.

Oh well.