If Heaven hadn't given birth to me, I would be arrogant.

"Rebellion?" Zong Ze was taken aback, then burst into laughter: "Haha, I say, Lord Fox, you are supposed to be the head of the Imperial Foreign Affairs Department, how can you be so lacking in common sense? The entire academy guard battalion only has 20 soldiers in total. Are you implying that I am leading 20 soldiers in a rebellion?"

Upon hearing Zong Ze's words, Fox's face stiffened. He realized he had misspoke and had simply been too nervous. However, as a minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was not lacking in verbal skills: "Then let me ask you, we are clearly handling the case of your murder of a nobleman of the Dragon Empire, so why did you call for soldiers for no reason?"

"What? Didn't you hear me?" Zong Ze sneered, his tone full of sarcasm. "Could it be that your ears are playing tricks on you, Your Excellency Fox? I made myself perfectly clear. I have witnesses!"

"Haha, what a joke!" Long Xiaotian jumped out again at this moment: "Zong Ze, don't tell me that your witnesses are those soldiers? Are you saying that those soldiers were standing next to you when you killed them?"

"You'll know when they arrive!" Zong Ze said only this much before falling silent, gazing towards the stairwell, clearly waiting for the guards to arrive!

Upon receiving the summons from the Shenji Battalion General, the guards arrived quickly. Soon, the sound of orderly footsteps echoed on the stairs. Led by a squad leader from the Imperial Army, twenty soldiers jogged up to Zong Ze.

"Reporting, General!" The squad leader approached Zong Ze, raising his right hand to his chest. After giving a standard Royal Army salute, he said, "The Imperial Military Academy Guard Battalion is reporting for duty. All 20 members of the battalion are present. Please give us your instructions, General!"

"Hehe!" Zong Ze returned the salute and laughed, "There's no speech here. I called everyone here to have you all act as my witnesses!"

After saying that, Zong Ze pointed to one of the soldiers in the ranks and said, "You, come out here for a moment!"

"Yes, sir!" The soldier called upon was the very one Zongze had sent to collect the body that evening! Hearing Zongze order him to step forward, he quickly stepped forward and saluted Zongze, saying, "General!"

"Hmm!" Zong Ze chuckled and said, "Do you remember what I asked you to do a few days ago this evening?"

“I remember, General!” the soldier replied. “It was four days ago, in the evening. The General came out of the academy and told me that a rapist had been shot dead in the woods in front of the dormitory area. The General ordered me to collect the body and find the victim’s family!”

"Hmm!" Zongze nodded. "And then?"

"Then I went to the woods, but found nothing, not even a body. There was only a small pile of blood and a few pieces of torn clothing. Later, I notified our captain, who led us to search carefully, but we still couldn't find a body. We could only tell from the small pile of blood that it was freshly drawn from a human body!"

"We assumed at the time that because it was still dark, the general thought he had killed the rapist, but in reality, the rapist wasn't dead; he was just wounded and had stopped breathing. By the time we arrived, the rapist had already woken up and escaped. This kind of thing happens frequently on the battlefield!" the soldier shouted in response to Zong Ze's question.

"It wasn't an injury that caused him to stop breathing; Mude is definitely dead!" At this moment, Cherte quickly explained, "I ran into the dormitory building because I was scared. Later, I saw Zongze leave, so I went downstairs and carried Mude's body into the dormitory!"

"Then why didn't you report it?" The captain suddenly interrupted as Cherte was speaking, his voice very serious: "Such a big case, and you didn't report it? Did you not know the location of the guard team, or did you not know the location of the guards at the academy gate?"

"I..." Faced with the serious captain, Cherte suddenly fell silent, and after a long while, he said, "I dare not report it to the police. After all, Zong is a general of your Rune Empire. Who knows if you will cover for each other? So I had no choice but to notify Mude's family as soon as possible, and then wait for His Highness the Third Prince to return!"

“Zongze!” Fox suddenly said at this moment, “These are the witnesses you’re talking about? But no matter how I listen to them, I feel that these witnesses you’ve found can only further prove that you committed murder.”

“I have never denied the murder!” Zong Ze replied. “I called them here to testify in order to prove that this was all a setup, a trap to frame me!”

"A trap?" Fox's heart skipped a beat when he heard Zong Ze say that. "Could it be that Zong Ze has figured something out?" But then he thought, "I don't care whether you've figured it out or not. It's certain that you killed someone. As long as I can hold onto that, I can take you down!"

Thinking of this, Fox burst into laughter: "Zongze, who do you think you are? The prince of the Dragon Empire has such a noble status, why would he need to set a trap for you? What do you have that makes you worth setting a trap for?"

"Whether it's worth it or not isn't up to you to decide!" Zong Ze had already seen that Fox was completely in cahoots with Long Xiaotian, and might even be involved in this conspiracy, so Zong Ze no longer gave Fox a friendly look: "You just need to watch now!"

After finishing his sentence, Zongze asked Cherte, "Was there any falsehood in what our soldier just said? Including the time, place, and people involved in the events?"

Cherte tilted his head and thought for a while, making sure that nothing the soldier said was in Zongze's favor, before nodding and saying, "He's absolutely right. The time, four days ago; the location, the woods in the dormitory area; the person, you!"

"Very good!" Zong Ze nodded, then suddenly pointed at Cherte and shouted to the soldiers, "Take this liar down and interrogate him thoroughly. Find out who gave him the audacity to deceive and frame the Empire's general!"

Although the soldiers of the guard battalion were responsible for guarding the academy, they were still soldiers. In this situation, they naturally took Zong Ze's orders as their first priority. Upon hearing Zong Ze's order, two soldiers stepped forward and captured Cherte!

"Outrageous!" Seeing the soldiers make their move, Long Xiaotian could no longer contain himself. He had already stated that Cherte was his attendant, yet he had been captured. This was a blatant slap in the face: "Zong Ze, do you know what you're doing? How dare you capture a nobleman of our country, my attendant?"

"Hmph!" Zong Ze sneered, "Long Xiaotian, don't push your luck. Even now, you still dare to say that this guy with the accent of the capital of the Luen Empire is your attendant who has been with you since childhood? Could it be that you grew up in our Luen Empire?"