Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads

Chapter 520: Chapter-520

Heena calmly picked up the items and walked over, placing the pen and paper directly in front of the kneeling prince.

”Before we proceed,” Heena said smoothly, crossing her arms. ”You just explicitly stated that you want me to go, right?”

The prince glared at the paper, then glared up at her. ”Is there even a single doubt about that in your head?! Yes! Leave!”

”Okay, fine,” Heena nodded agreeably. ”But before I leave, I need you to formally write that down. I need it explicitly stated, in your own royal handwriting, that it was ’you’ who absolutely refused to be taught by me, and ordered me out.”

The prince stared at her, completely bewildered. ”Why?! It is the exact same thing! You are leaving!”

Heena looked down at him with the deeply patronizing expression of a seasoned corporate manager dealing with an incredibly slow intern.

”How on earth is that the same thing?” Heena sighed, shaking her head at his lack of administrative logic. ”Listen to me, Your Highness. Voluntarily resigning is a completely different thing than being forcefully kicked out of the company. If I just walk out, the Empress will say I abandoned my post. If ’you’ fire me in writing, then my hands are legally clean. Now, pick up the brush.”

### **The Severance Package**

Even though the twelve-year-old prince had absolutely no idea what the word ”company” meant, his royal instincts sensed a trap. He stayed on the floor, clutching his stomach, but looked up at her with a highly suspicious, raised eyebrow.

”Why?” the Ninth Prince demanded, eyeing the blank paper as if it were coated in poison. ”Why should I give it to you in writing?”

Heena looked at him calmly, crouching down slightly so she was closer to his eye level.

”Do you think I would be crazy enough to just walk away based on a verbal tantrum?” Heena asked smoothly. ”You see, if you officially dismiss me in writing, with your royal seal, I can take that piece of paper directly to the Imperial Treasury. I will get quite a bit of money as compensation for wrongful termination, and then it would be a completely clean break.”

She smiled, a bright, deeply corporate smile.

”It means I get paid a massive severance package to sit at my estate and do absolutely nothing, while the Empress cannot legally blame me for your lack of education,” Heena concluded. ”It is basic contract law, Your Highness. So, please, write it down so I can go collect my gold.”

The Ninth Prince stared at her, his jaw physically dropping open.

His young brain rapidly processed the sheer audacity of her scheme. She wasn’t just trying to quit. She was actively trying to legally extort his royal parents, get paid a fortune, and leave him looking like the villain who threw a fit and fired her! If he signed that paper, she would win. She would get exactly what she wanted, and she would get rich doing it.

Suddenly, a wave of pure, spiteful rebellion washed over the young prince.

”No!” the prince shouted, violently slapping the ink brush away from the paper.

Heena blinked, feigning surprise. ”No? What do you mean, no? You just ordered me to leave.”

”I am not signing anything!” the prince sneered, pushing himself up into a sitting position and glaring at her with renewed defiance. ”You think you can just trick me into paying you to be lazy?! You think you can just take my family’s gold and go home to sleep?!”

”Well, yes, that was the general business plan,” Heena admitted casually.

”I won’t allow it!” the Ninth Prince roared, completely blinded by his own spite. He pointed his finger at her, his chest puffing out. ”I refuse to let you win! I am not giving you a single copper coin! If you want to leave, you will have to sneak out like a coward and face my mother’s wrath! I am not firing you!”

Heena stood back up, slowly dusting off her knees. She looked down at the furious prince, who was now absolutely determined to keep her employed just to ensure she didn’t get a payout.

”So, let me get this straight,” Heena said, suppressing the victorious smirk threatening to break across her face. ”You refuse to sign the termination papers, which means I am still officially your tutor. And since I am still your tutor, you are required to sit at that desk and finish the poetry assignment I gave you yesterday.”

The Ninth Prince froze. The gears in his head suddenly locked as he realized he had just aggressively argued his way entirely backward into doing his homework.

”Wait,” the prince stammered, looking at the desk, then at her, and then back at the desk. ”That... that is not what I meant!”

”Too late. Verbal contracts are binding in the absence of a written termination,” Heena declared ruthlessly. She gestured toward the mahogany desk with her riding crop. ”Get up, Your Highness. We have an hour left on the clock, and I expect two full stanzas on the beauty of the southern mountains before I leave.”

The translucent blue screen of the System flickered back into existence, finally recovering from its forced reboot after violently body-checking the prince. Because it had been offline during the earlier part of the lesson, it was completely out of the loop.

But hearing the mention of a poetry assignment, the System’s digital curiosity was piqued.

’’[Oh, really?]’’ the System chimed in, floating over Heena’s shoulder. ’’[What exactly did you give him to write about? A classic ode to the plum blossoms? A reflection on filial piety?]’’

Heena didn’t even look at the floating screen. She kept her eyes entirely fixed on the glaring, defeated Ninth Prince, and calmly stated the fact.

”The topic is: ’How a Dog Flies’.”

The System froze mid-air. Its glowing blue text literally glitched for a second.

’’[...What?]’’ the System asked, its mechanical voice sounding genuinely concerned for its own hardware. ’’[Host, I think my audio processing unit is malfunctioning. Or there is a severe misunderstanding in translation. What did you just say?]’’

Heena didn’t miss a beat. She spoke again, her voice clear, authoritative, and completely unapologetic.

”The topic for his poetry exam is: ’How a Dog Flies’.”

The System slowly floated around so it was directly in front of Heena’s face. If it had physical eyes, they would be staring at her in absolute, unadulterated horror.

’’[Are you serious?]’’ the System demanded. ’’[What type of poetry topic is that?! And more importantly, from a basic physics standpoint, how the hell do you even make a dog fly?!]’’

Heena looked at the glowing blue hologram with a perfectly calm, deadpan expression.

”Well,” Heena reasoned smoothly, ”if you hit a dog with a speeding car, or any other fast-moving vehicle... or if you simply pick it up by the scruff of its neck and physically throw it into the air... wouldn’t it technically be flying?”

The silence in the room was deafening. The Ninth Prince, who couldn’t see the System, just stared at his tutor as if she were a literal demon that had crawled out of the underworld.