Reborn: Apocalypse Ready. War Goddess by My Side novel Chapter 42

Chapter 42 What Does This Change?

Nelson and Bianca both felt a spark of desperate hope. Is this actually turning around?

The officers exchanged a look, their expressions dropping. They glanced at Timothy.

Timothy’s face had gone the color of old ash.

How far back does this recording go? He walked away before things escalated! There’s no way it caught what came afte

He still tried to hold his ground.

“So what? Yeah, I hired that guy to rough you up. You still killed someone! You’re still standing here trying to wriggle out of a murder charge!

“Officers, take him in already! He’s just trying to muddy the water!

“What I did was just a stupid school beef! He’s the one who killed someone!”

Timothy was losing it fast.

He desperately wanted the officers to drag Steven out of there right now, and he needed that video wiped out before

else could see the rest of it.

anyone

A cold, sinking dread told him things were about to get very, very

bad.

Fear was settling in fast, drenching his heart in something freezing.

Steven tilted his head with a slow, unbothered smile. “Easy there, class president. The video’s not over yet. The best part’s still coming. Just hold on.

“If I actually killed someone, I’ll own it and take whatever’s coming.”

Timothy’s dread sharpened into full–blown panic.

Chris was barely keeping it together beside him, his whole body stiff with dread.

If that footage showed what he thought it showed, his entire future was gone.

A collective unease rippled through the rest of the class. Something was shifting. Everyone could feel it.

The tables would turn.

The projection continued, and it showed Timothy and Chris watching Steven’s fight with the young man from a distance.

Then Steven walked away and entered a nearby shop.

“See?” Timothy burst out. “That proves nothing! You still beat a man to death! Officers, take him now!”

Every eye in the room swung toward Timothy.

His desperation was doing more damage to his case than the video was.

11:22 Wed, Jun 10

Chapter 42 What Does This Change?

Steven’s smile stretched, slow and sharp as a blade drawn in the dark.

“Just a little longer,” he said. “The real highlight’s almost here.”

The footage kept rolling. The moment Steven disappeared into the shop, Timothy and Chris emerged from the alley and walked to where the young man lay.

They stood over him for a moment, talking.

Then they moved.

Timothy and Chris’s composure crumbled in real–time as the class watched the footage.

Timothy couldn’t wait any longer. Something feral and frantic overtook him, and he hurled himself at Steven with everything he had, fist aimed straight at Steven’s wrist.

That video must be destroyed.

The class erupted in a collective gasp.

Steven saw it coming.

The corner of his mouth curved with something cold and absolutely certain.

11:22 Wed, Jun 10

The truth was out, clean and absolute and impossible to misread.

Timothy and Chris crumpled to the floor, all the fight gone out of them.

The class erupted in horrified understanding, every face turning toward the two of them with a dawning. disbelieving shock.

Timothy and Chris planned the whole thing. Every piece of it.

Bianca’s tears stopped. Steven was safe.

He didn’t kill anyone.

Nelson let out a long, shuddering breath beside her. He’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes.

From her seat, Lilliana watched Steven with an expression that had transformed completely, something flickering and complex moving behind her eyes.

Steven’s something else entirely.

It was a supposedly airtight trap, and he’d been ready for it all along.

He didn’t stumble into a reversal. He built one, deliberately, and waited for Timothy to walk straight into it.

The way the class looked at Steven shifted in a single breath, filling with something that looked a great deal like awe.

Steven turned to the three officers with a perfectly pleasant expression.

“So, officers, as you can see, everything’s out in the open now. At most, what I did was self–defense. I fought back when someone attacked me and put him on the ground. Meanwhile, these two over here hatched a whole scheme, deliberately killed a man just to pin it on me.”

He shook his head slowly, like someone genuinely saddened by human nature.

“You really never know what people are capable of. I hope you’ll make sure justice is thorough here, officers. This can’t be handled lightly.”

The three officers stared at him with a long, measuring look. This kid played every single piece of this like a grandmaster.

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11:23 am