Kage's expression shifted—amusement and certainty flickering across his features. He met Aldwyn's eyes.

"Because everything I need is buried beneath your foundations."

The words hung in the air, simple and strange.

Supreme Himura's brow furrowed. "Elaborate."

A boyish smile broke across Kage's face—the kind that stripped away pretense and left only his fifteen years bare.

"You're right that I could forge my own path. Hunt in the wilderness, seek out rogue purists, find some forgotten master in a cave. But that's the path of desperation—scraping together scraps of knowledge, praying luck favors me."

He gestured to the Chamber around them.

"This academy holds six centuries of accumulated knowledge. Techniques refined across generations. Resources gathered from across continents. Masters who've reached heights I can only imagine. And most importantly—"

He leaned forward, pupils dilating.

"—access to truths that don't exist anywhere else. Secrets that were sealed away deliberately. Knowledge that was buried because it was too dangerous, too powerful, or too vital to leave lying around for anyone to find."

Arch-Harmonist Zera's eyes narrowed to slits. "You seek forbidden knowledge?"

"I seek freedom," Kage shot back. "And freedom requires strength. Real strength—not the kind you're born with, but the kind you dig up from where others hid it. The kind that makes you dangerous enough that no one can dictate what you're allowed to become."

He spread his hands.

"I criticized your methods because they produce students who accept the boundaries you set for them. Who believe the world is what you tell them it is. Who never think to look beneath the harmony you preach to see what foundations it's actually built on."

Aldwyn's eyes narrowed fractionally. "And you believe something lies beneath?"

Kage's smile widened—reckless, young, seemingly naive.

"I believe every great institution is built on something. Every power structure has roots that go deeper than what's visible on the surface. Every seal has something worth sealing. Every foundation has something it's standing on."

His fingers curled into fists.

"And I intend to understand what this academy is really built on. Not the pretty story about unity and harmony and the Seven Arts. But the real reason—the thing that's vital enough to mandate attendance from every Great Clan heir for six centuries."

He paused, letting that settle.

"You don't build something this permanent, this powerful, this carefully maintained unless you're protecting something. Or containing something. Or standing guard over something."

Supreme Himura's river-voice carried warning. "And you think you'll simply... uncover these supposed secrets?"

"I don't know," Kage admitted with a shrug that seemed almost careless. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's nothing beneath the academy but old stones and older traditions. Maybe your system is exactly what it appears to be."

His eyes glinted.

"But I don't believe that. Call it instinct. Call it paranoia. Call it a bastard's suspicion that every official story has truth buried beneath it."

He met each Elder's gaze in turn.

"So that's my answer. I want to enter this academy because I believe something here can give me the strength I need to be truly free. And I believe that something isn't in your classrooms or your libraries or your training grounds."

His words dropped to barely above a whisper.

"I believe it's in whatever you built this entire institution to hide. Or protect. Or keep contained."

Kage smiled—sharp, hungry, utterly convinced.

"And if I'm wrong? Then I'll settle for becoming strong enough through your conventional methods that freedom comes anyway. But if I'm right?"

The smile turned feral.

"Then I'll find what's buried here. And I'll use it."

Silence filled the Chamber like water filling a well—deep, heavy, cold.

Then Arch-Harmonist Zera laughed. Actually threw her head back and laughed, the sound echoing off the pillars.

"Oh, he's precious. Listen to him—fifteen years old and convinced he'll uncover the academy's deepest secrets like some treasure hunter. As if six centuries of Triumvirates haven't dealt with ambitious children before."

Aldwyn chuckled, shaking his head. "Youth. They always think they're the first to notice the obvious. The first to question. The first to suspect."

Supreme Himura's lips curved upward, the lines around his eyes softening—the way one might regard a puppy growling at a mountain.

"Boy, every generation has students who think like you. Who see conspiracy in tradition. Who believe they'll uncover some grand secret that will change everything."

His river-voice carried gentle dismissal.

"You know what they find? Exactly what we teach them. The Seven Harmonious Arts. Cultivation methods. Combat techniques. They graduate, join clans or military, live their lives, and eventually realize the 'secrets' they sought were just the normal accumulated knowledge of an educational institution."

Zera wiped a tear from her eye, still chuckling.

"But I suppose that hunger—that conviction that there's more to learn—is exactly what makes a good student. Even if the object of your search is imaginary, the drive will push you to excellence."

She leaned forward, her wrinkles deepening with amusement.

"Very well, Son of Ironstorm. Go ahead. Seek your 'buried truths.' Dig beneath our foundations. Question everything. Suspect everyone."

She smiled, all warmth and condescension.

"Just know that at the end of your two years here, you'll look back on this moment and laugh at yourself. The way we all laugh at the naive certainties of youth."

Aldwyn stood fully now, his presence filling the Chamber.

"We have heard enough. Your examination performance, your... unorthodox methods, your challenge to our traditions, and your answers to our questions have all been weighed."

His hammer-voice rang with finality.

"Kage, Son of Ironstorm, Bastard of the Highland Domains, you can leave now. You shall see whether you gained admission or not with the others."

Kage glanced briefly at them and bowed his head before retreating, then stopped. His gaze dropped to the stairs below.

He turned back.

Grand Master Aldwyn's frown appeared instantly.

"What is it, boy?"

Kage met his eyes.

"Is there not an alternative path beside these stairs? Why create so many stairs?"

The elders had a blank expression on their faces, then they burst out laughing yet again.

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