Chapter 237: This Is Sabotage

At nine o’clock in the morning, the grand auditorium of the Capital Commerce Hall was packed to capacity. Over fifty accredited journalists, hospital procurement directors, and guild representatives filled the tiered seating, their cameras aimed at the elevated mahogany stage.

Director Crowe stood behind the central podium in a tailored navy suit, soaking in the flashing lights with an expansive, smug smile.

Beside him sat three senior board officials and the lead formulation chemist from their affiliate laboratory.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Crowe announced, his voice amplified across the hall. "Today marks a historic turning point in trauma medicine."

He held up a six-ounce glass jar of pale green ointment, tilting it so the cameras could catch the polished gold lettering.

"For the past three years, the Capital Alchemical Regulation Board has dedicated its finest research talent to developing an unprecedented treatment," Crowe declared proudly. "We call it Verdant-Jade Cellular Balm. It delivers rapid tissue closure and instant pain suppression for both civilian injuries and rift trauma."

A murmur of excitement rippled through the audience as flashbulbs strobed in rhythm with his words.

Crowe leaned closer to the microphone. "Recently, rumors circulated that an unlicensed private workshop in District Two attempted to copy our early formulation. But the Board took immediate legal action, securing our priority patent to ensure our soldiers receive only verified imperial medicine."

He opened the jar, displaying the smooth, emerald-tinted surface to the front-row reporters. "While patients may experience a harmless, temporary tightness at the application site, our clinical trials confirm it is merely proof of active cellular contraction."

Before the reporters could raise their hands to question him, the double doors at the back of the auditorium swung open with a resounding thud.

The sudden disturbance made every camera turn toward the entrance.

Evren walked into the hall, wearing his dark combat coat open over a clean grey shirt. Beside him walked Calista, dressed in a stylish high-collar dark blouse with tailored trousers and flat leather boots, her silver hair tied back neatly.

She walked gracefully and confidently beside Evren. There was no sign of hesitation as she moved, stunning the dozen senior reporters who still remembered her as the paralyzed heiress of House Vesper.

Behind them walked Amber, Zephyra, and Major Bradley in full imperial army dress uniform, flanked by six armed Provost soldiers under Captain Keller.

A wave of shocked whispers washed through the auditorium. Reporters scrambled to their feet, snapping rapid photos as the group walked down the center aisle.

Crowe’s smug smile instantly vanished, his face flushing red with fury. "What is the meaning of this disruption? Security, remove these trespassers from this regulatory conference immediately!"

Four hall guards moved forward, but Major Bradley stepped ahead of Evren, raising a gold-trimmed leather credential.

"Stand down," Bradley barked in a parade-ground roar that silenced the room. "Under Imperial Readiness Decree Twelve, this proceeding is under official military jurisdiction. Anyone attempting to interfere will be arrested on the spot for obstructing wartime defense operations."

The hall guards froze, glancing nervously between Crowe and the armed Provost squad before quietly stepping back against the walls.

Calista walked up the side stairs and stepped onto the mahogany stage.

"You talk at great length about your brilliant research, Director Crowe," Calista said calmly, her clear voice carrying into the live microphones. "If this balm is truly your board’s three-year achievement, perhaps you can tell the Empire what you used as your primary active binding agent."

Crowe gripped the edges of the podium, sweat glistening at his temples under the hot studio lights. "The formulation contains proprietary botanical compounds protected by trade secret protocols. We are under no obligation to disclose raw specs to an unlicensed competitor."

"You won’t disclose it because you don’t know it," Calista countered with a smile.

She pulled an encrypted data drive from her pocket and plugged it into the podium terminal. With a few taps on the touch screen, the three massive projection monitors behind the stage flickered to life.

Detailed spectral graphs, molecular weight spikes, and thermal absorption curves filled the giant displays in crystal clarity.

"Three days ago, Starlight Pharmaceuticals conducted clinical trials at its facility," Calista explained to the transfixed journalists. "Director Crowe obtained a trial jar through his contacts and handed it to his affiliate chemists to reverse-engineer."

She gestured toward the molecular readouts on the screen. "However, my genuine Star-Jade Salve requires rare Star-Jade tree sap, which exists exclusively in House Vesper’s private ancestral grove. Because Crowe could not purchase real sap on the open market, his chemists cut corners."

Calista pointed her finger at the prominent chemical peak on the center monitor. "They substituted Star-Jade sap with Synthetic Emerald-Bark Resin."

A collective murmur broke out among the pharmaceutical analysts in the audience, several of them squinting at the chemical markers.

"This is an outrage!" Crowe shouted, slamming his palm against the wood and pointing an accusing finger at her. "Deconstructing our evaluation sample without authorization is a blatant patent crime!"

Evren stepped forward and replied withour missing a beat. "Deconstructing a commercial sample for safety diagnostics is fully protected under imperial law, Director. It only becomes a crime when someone reproduces the formula to sell it for profit," he added with a cool smirk. "Which is precisely what your board did after stealing Miss Vesper’s Star-Jade Salve."

A wave of whispers rippled through the press corps, leaving Crowe sputtering in fury.

"Nonsense!" Crowe yelled, his face turning an uglier shade of crimson. "Emerald-bark resin is a recognized alchemical stabilizer, and our balm passed every standard viscosity test!"

"It passed viscosity at room temperature," Calista replied smoothly. "Now let us see how your synthetic resin performs inside a living human body."

At her signal, Sharon Lee and Raymond Wells rolled a stainless-steel testing cart onto the stage. The cart held two thermal skin-simulation plates, both connected to digital monitors calibrated to thirty-seven degrees Celsius with active mana circulation lines.

"Plate A represents my genuine Star-Jade Salve," Calista announced, applying a fingertip of translucent golden-green balm to the warm membrane. The salve melted smoothly on contact, absorbing into the artificial pores within seconds and radiating a soft jade glow as the vitality sensors spiked green.

"Plate B represents the Board’s Verdant-Jade Balm, taken directly from an official evaluation kit," Calista continued, applying a dollop of Crowe’s pale green ointment to the second plate.

Initially, the ointment appeared smooth. But as the thermal timer ticked past sixty seconds, the reaction began.

Deprived of true botanical catalysts, the synthetic resin failed to break down under body heat. The smooth ointment rapidly curdled into a cloudy, greyish paste, hardening into a stiff, micro-crystalline crust across the surface of the plate.

The mana flow sensors on the monitor plummeted to zero, flashing a bright red warning as the artificial capillaries completely choked.

Calista turned back to the crowded room. "This is the ’harmless tightness’ Director Crowe mentioned in his pamphlet. Synthetic Emerald-Bark Resin cannot metabolize in human tissue, forming microscopic mineral deposits with repeated applications that can clog fine mana meridians."

She looked straight at the row of military procurement buyers in the second row. "If frontline soldiers use this product continuously for weeks, their mana circulation will choke, permanently ruining their combat reflexes in the middle of a rift."

Uproar exploded across the auditorium. Journalists leaped onto chairs, shouting questions and shoving microphones toward the stage as the broadcast cameras beamed the frozen, blocked sensors to millions of viewers.

Crowe stumbled backward from the podium, his face as pale as chalk. "Turn off the broadcast and cut the feeds immediately! This is sabotage!"

Major Bradley stepped to the microphone, his stern face carved from granite.

"Director Crowe," Bradley said, his gravelly voice cutting through the shouting press. "Under Imperial Readiness Decree Twelve, knowingly attempting to supply fraudulent, meridian-crippling medical substitutes to the Imperial Army during wartime constitutes medical treason."

He turned to the waiting Provost squad. "Captain Keller, arrest Director Crowe and seize all affiliate stockpiles for criminal investigation."

"With pleasure, Major," Keller replied.

Keller stepped forward, twisting Crowe’s arms behind his back and snapping cold titanium cuffs around his wrists. Crowe yelled and struggled, but the Provost soldiers marched him off the stage under a storm of flashing cameras.

The auditorium fell completely silent as Major Bradley adjusted his uniform and stepped back to the center microphone.

"By the direct order of Grand Arbiter Kincaid and the Imperial Defense Division," Bradley announced with authority. "All administrative holds placed against Starlight Pharmaceuticals are officially revoked."

He lifted a stamped imperial document bearing the gold wax crest of the Sovereign Defense Division.

"Furthermore, the Imperial Army hereby places all of Miss Calista Vesper’s breakthrough formulas under an Imperial Military Priority Patent and Defense Charter," Bradley declared. "Starlight Pharmaceuticals is officially designated as a Category-One Defense Supplier, operating under supreme imperial protection."

A stunned silence held the room for a heartbeat, followed by a thunderous standing ovation that shook the walls of the Commerce Hall.

Reporters pushed toward the stage, their microphones stretching out toward Calista as she stood tall and radiant beneath the bright lights.

Calista looked across the crowded stage to where Evren stood, his arms crossed and a proud smile on his face. Their eyes met, and she mouthed, "Thank you."