"He’s not going anywhere," Lily said in a firm tone.

Tony faced Lily with a surprise look after hearing her declaration.

"What do you mean?!" Hikaru asked, genuinely thrown. "He is a disciple of the Healing Tower... There are rules and regulations. You can’t keep him here as you like..."

"He is my husband," Lily said, cutting through the sentence cleanly. "It is my responsibility to keep him safe. So from today onwards, he stays with me. Here, close by, where I can see what is happening to him."

Leo blinked as he looked at his brother Tony, who was standing quietly beside Lily.

"Lily." Hikaru stepped forward with a righteous look. "This is not your home. The academy has rules. Tony is assigned to the Healing Tower and inside Healing Tower, he is secure. No one would dare cause harm to him here." She spread her hands in a gesture of reasonable appeal.

"Huh." Lily scoffed in utter disagreement..

"If the Healing Tower is really so secure... then why is my husband standing here right now?! Why did he end up alone in an emergency room with a dying patient and a closed door?! Do you have any idea how people outside are talking about him?!" Her voice demanded answersg. "His entire reputation was shattered inside your tower!! Where was all this security then?!"

Hikaru went quiet.

Because Lily was right, and Hikaru knew it. She is also one of the reasons for what happened. If she came on time, Tony sound’’t have entered the ICU room. And Kelly had used that opening exactly the way it had been designed to be used.

If Hikaru had simply shown up on time, none of this morning would have happened.

She sighed heavily before speaking.

"Lily. Listen to me. I spoke with Master Natasha. Tony has the greatest healing talent either of us has ever encountered. I am not exaggerating. Master Natasha said it herself." She held Lily’s gaze. "She wants to personally nurture him. She wants him to become the next Head of the Healing Tower. That is not an offer she has ever made to anyone in thirty years, Lily... Let him come with me. I will look after him properly. I promise you that."

Julie’s eyes went wide. Even Leo looked up.

Lily stared at Hikaru for a long moment... Then she shook her head.

"No." Flat... Absolute. "Tony is my husband. He will be the head of the Clark family. His future is already decided, and it is a bright one— one that has nothing to do with managing rumors inside a healing tower and dealing with whatever political games are running through this building." She held her chin up slightly. "He doesn’t need to become the head of anything here. He doesn’t need any of this."

Hikaru stared back at her with an angry glare.

"So you’re going to control him like a puppet?!" she said in a serious tone. "Just because he’ll be marrying you?! Does he have no say in his own future?! You want to lock away a talent like his...?!" She tilted her head, and her tone went from pointed to cold. "Now I see your game, Lily. You want a puppet husband whose reputation you can manage. One who stays where you put him. That’s what this is, isn’t it?!"

"Shut up!!" Lily’s voice cracked out like a whip.

It landed hard enough that even Leo flinched slightly. Julie pressed her lips together..

Hikaru didn’t move. She stood exactly where she was, completely steady, and looked at Lily with eyes that didn’t waver.

Lily’s jaw tightened. She took one step forward, and when she spoke again her voice had dropped back down to that level, controlled— which was somehow worse.

"What do you think of me, Moon Goddess Hikaru?! I am Lily Frost. Princess of the Frost family. With a single word, any man in this world would be at my door, begging." She let that sit for half a second. "So choose your next words very carefully before you stand in front of me and make accusations you cannot take back."

The air between them had gone genuinely cold.

Hikaru knew Lily’s reputation. Everyone at Nine Lotus Academy knew it— the prime disciple, the number-one ranked heir of the Frost family, Grandmaster Peak, the woman who had turned down offers from three major families without blinking. She had the ability, the backing, the name, and the talent to support every word she had just said.

And Hikaru knew all of that.... And she said it anyway after final thought.

"Oh really?!" Hikaru’s voice came out steady as a flat stone. "Then go find one of those men, Lily. Go find someone who fits neatly into your picture. Leave Tony to me." She held eye contact without blinking. "I will marry him. And he will shine like a star in the Healing Tower."

"*_ _"

Three seconds of absolute silence.

"WHAT?!" Leo’s voice came out at a volume he hadn’t intended.

Julie’s mouth fell open so completely that she forgot to close it.

Even Tony... who had been watching with an amused smile, got stunned by Hikaru’s direct proposal. Because Moon Goddess Hikaru of the Japanese healer lineage, Rank Five doctor, personal disciple of Natasha, pride of her family— had just declared, completely without hesitation, that she intended to marry Tony Clark.

The woman who had spent yesterday trying to keep her distance from him in crowded corridors.

That same woman.

Tony looked at Hikaru. Then at Lily. Then back at Hikaru.

He kept his mouth shut and his expression carefully neutral, because he had enough self-preservation instinct left to know that this was not the moment to visibly enjoy himself.

Lily did not explode.

That was, somehow, more alarming than if she had.

A killing intent settled over her face like a mask dropping into place. She looked at Hikaru the way you look at something that has just made itself a permanent problem.

"Now I understand your game," she said, slow and deliberate. "You want to take my husband."

-

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