Valmont Series - Inheritance Code

Chapter 7.5 - Linked in Public

Then—

A shift.

Small. Precise. But the kind that cuts clean through silence.

Luc Raveneau stood.

No flourish. No spectacle.

He didn't clear his throat. He didn't request permission.

And for Aria—time broke.

Not shattered. Slowed. As if the entire room submerged beneath still water.

Sound dulled. Her own breath faded to a hush.

Every motion—every glance—became distant, fragile, unreal.

The glint of the dome lights against his uniform.

The weight of his name, his House, his myth.

The slight turn of his head.

She saw all of it.

Not in order. Not in logic.

Just impact.

Everything else—the tribunal, the tension, her trembling hands—blurred into the background.

Like the system itself had suspended judgment to watch.

And in that suspended second, she felt the shape of something irreversible.

Luc Raveneau had stood.

And the world would not forget it.

A ripple traveled through the mezzanine like a pressure wave, unspoken but undeniable.

Eyes turned—not just because of who he was, but because of what he meant.

Calculated presence. Unmistakable weight.

Below, even Vesaria's gaze shifted.

Her words cut with surgical precision.

"Luc, do you intend to interrupt?"

Luc's reply was almost too quiet.

But somehow, the whole room heard it.

"No."

"Just observing... what belongs to me."

He didn't look at Aria when he said it.

He didn't need to.

It wasn't defense.

It wasn't defiance.

It was precision.

And it landed like checkmate.

Somewhere deep in the AVNX layers, a flare ignited—

a Prestige Link, high-tier, encrypted, system-registered.

The system didn't hesitate.

It recognized the alignment.

Luc Raveneau had linked her.

Not as rumor.

Not as gesture.

As fact—validated by AVNX itself.

And now—he admitted it. Publicly. Calmly. With the quiet finality of someone who didn't need permission to choose.

Luc Raveneau had chosen her.