‘What in the world happened here?’
I scanned the room in confusion. Deep scars marred the training space, some more jagged and severe than others. But most shockingly, the area around me remained untouched, pristine, as if nothing had happened.
The sight left me at a complete loss.
‘How did things turn out that way?’
…And why couldn’t I recall a single thing?
Blank.
The moment I tried to recall something, my mind would go blank.
The last thing I remembered was Leon getting into a stance before the scene shifted to the current one.
How did this make sense?
No, most importantly, where was Leon?
Frowning, my gaze finally settled on the struggling figure in the distance. My eyes widened as he clutched his head with both hands, writhing on the floor in pain.
‘He doesn’t look okay.’
Leon reached his hand my way.
“H-help me.”
“Yes, he definitely doesn’t seem okay.”
I quickly pushed myself up and rushed toward the struggling Leon. He was so out of it that he barely seemed to register my presence, his breaths coming in ragged, desperate gulps.
“Ukh…! Ukh!”
“What in the world happened?”
“T-that… I….”
Leon was very clearly trying to explain the situation to me, but unfortunately, whatever was happening to him was preventing him from speaking as he clutched his head every several seconds.
“Ukh!”
A pained groan escaped him each time, his forehead straining as veins bulged beneath his skin.
It took a good minute for him to finally settle down, and as his breathing started to even out, he finally spoke,
“….I-I don’t really know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
I looked around.
“Then what about what happened around us? I’m sure you were the one who did it.”
“I did.”
“And…?”
“I… don’t know.”
“But didn’t you say you did it? How can you not…know it?”
“Then… didn’t you see it?”
“I…”
I didn’t know how to answer that. I didn’t see it. The only explanation that crossed my mind was that he had gone so fast that I hadn’t been able to see his movement; however, thinking about it more clearly, I knew that this probably wasn’t the case.
For whatever reason, my mind blanked out the moment he started performing the strange sword technique.
‘But why? Why would I blank out…?’
And another thing,
“Why are you like this, Leon? Did you overexert yourself during the movement?”
“Ughh…”
Letting out another groan, Leon slowly helped himself up as he took several deep breaths.
“Y-you can say so, but…”
“But?”
Leon’s brows furrowed tightly, his pale face turning towards me.
“I… something strange happened in that moment. I don’t really… know how to explain it, but I fell into a strange trance. I suddenly found the world around me disappear, replaced by stars. It felt.. weird. Blinding, but at the same time, it almost felt like I was slowly disappearing.”
“What…? Disappearing?”
I took a deep breath and processed his words. For whatever reason, his words were starting to remind me of the conversation I recently had with Jackal. The one regarding the strange ‘source’.
But the only thing I remembered him saying was that he felt like he was ‘losing’ himself. The way Leon described it now—it felt eerily similar.
However, he never said anything about stars and stuff.
‘Am I overthinking things? …Or could what Leon had experienced be related to what Jackal had previously mentioned?’
That source thing…?
But that didn’t really make sense… How could he suddenly manifest it right after Jackal talked about it?
Not only that, but it almost felt like this wasn’t the first time I had seen this happen.
In fact, Kiera…
Could she have also?
“Hmm.”
I had a hard time knowing. Having never experienced such a phenomenon in the past, and also knowing that Leon’s domain was related to stars, I felt like perhaps the two weren’t correlated.
I wasn’t so sure about Kiera.
However, Leon’s mention regarding the ‘losing’ himself feeling felt rather unsettling. It continued to linger in my mind, reminding me over and over again about Jackal’s previous words.
‘There’s really no correlation, right?’
“H-haa.”
As Leon took a strained breath, his gaze shifted from me to his sword, lying scattered a few meters away.
“Could you… could you get the sword?”
“Ah, sure.”
Snapping out of my thoughts, I let out a breath and hurried over to his sword. Picking it up, it was rather light to the touch. It felt different from the sword Leon usually used.
‘I guess it makes sense considering that this is merely a training sword.’
On another note…
I looked around me and stared at the surrounding walls that were filled with scars.
My heart sank at the sight.
“I hope they won’t ask us to pay to fix this.”
I had a certain feeling it wasn’t going to be cheap. Thankfully, the insulation within this place was excellent, and nobody had yet to come. However, I couldn’t guarantee that they hadn’t noticed a thing yet, so it was best for us to leave now.
Swoosh!
I casually waved the sword in the air and took a step forward.
“Yeah, this is quite light.”
It felt rather good.
Swoosh!
I swung the sword again.
This time, the swing was sharper than the previous one.
A gentle, yet pleasing whistle echoed in the air.
Swoosh, swoosh—
I swung it a couple of more times, the movement becoming even smoother than before.
‘It’s strange.’
Each time I swung the sword, I felt a weird feeling. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before when swinging the sword. This.. It felt a little different, and my expression changed as I noticed the change.
Swoosh!
I swung again.
For whatever reason, each swing seemed even more different. Sharper, more precise, and more ruthless.
What is…
SWOOOSH!
“….!?”
By the time I slashed the sword for the nth time, I felt a massive change, and when I looked up, I saw it…
Over a dozen different golden lines covered my vision.
“What in the world…?”
I was completely at a loss as I took in the sight before me. Lines stretched in every direction, each tracing a different path I could almost feel the sword had traveled. The possibilities were endless—I could choose any path I wanted.
Not only that, but it felt as though each path shifted in response to the one I chose, revealing new, branching paths with every slash I took.
My eyes shook at the sight, and as my grip over the sword loosened slightly, Leon’s words echoed loudly in the background.
“Julien?”
“…..!?”
I snapped back to reality, the golden paths fading out of view completely.
“…Ah.”
As if everything had been a mere mirage, the golden paths vanished, leaving me blankly staring at the training room ahead, my chest strangely heavy.
“Julien?”
As Leon called me again, I slowly turned my head in his direction.
“What do you…?”
“M-my blazer.”
Leon mumbled, his expression pale as he looked around.
“Where… where is my blazer?”
“Your blazer?”
I paused for a moment and looked down. That’s when I spotted a small piece of black cloth on the ground and instinctively reached down to pick it up.
“This?”
“….”
Leon’s face grew even paler, despair slowly creeping across his features.
Then,
“Could you—”
“….Don’t even think about it.”
***
The next day.
It was the third day of the Congress, and today’s representatives were from the Verdant Empire. With most of the crucial topics already addressed by the Nurs Ancifa and the Aetheria Empire, the Verdant Empire seemed much more at ease, their vassals less tense than before.
…Or at least, that was how it should’ve been.
Today, however, tensions were running high within the confines of the Verdant Empire Royal Chambers.
“Have all preparations been made?”
“Yes, they have.”
“Excellent.”
Addressing his personal adviser and strategist, an old man with a short white beard and a golden monocle resting over his sharp nose, the Emperor nodded, his expression serious and unwavering.
“Have there been any movements from the vassals? Has the news leaked regarding our actions?”
“There have been some movements, but they don’t appear suspicious about anything. Their attention is still on Amell.”
“Hmm.”
The Emperor nodded, his brows closely knit together.
“Nevertheless, keep a good watch over them. We can’t have anything going wrong with the announcement.”
“Understood.”
With a bow, the advisor excused himself and quietly left the room, leaving behind the Emperor and the Empress.
The Empress watched him go, her gaze turning back to her husband, her teeth lightly biting at the edge of her lips.
“What do you think? Will something happen to V-I mean, Leon? Do you think they will start acting once the truth behind his origin gets released?”
“…I don’t know.”
The Emperor shook his head, his face growing less stern.
“There will certainly be a lot of eyes on him, but what I’m most worried about is whether he will resent us for suddenly placing this burden on him without giving him any warning.”
“But it must be done this way. Otherwise, he will be in even more danger.”
“I know.”
The Emperor sighed, his shoulders sagging as he made his way to a nearby sofa and sank down. In that moment, the regal, commanding Emperor seemed to disappear, replaced by a weary, troubled father.
“I had Amell try to get closer to Leon, to gauge his feelings about his biological parents—understand how he might react when we break the news.”
“And?”
“Haa…”
Propping his elbow over the armrest of the sofa, the Emperor sighed.
“Amell said he couldn’t get a read on him. Leon seems extremely reserved when it comes to matters related to the past. He suggested we’d talk to Julien if we want answers.”
“Julien?”
The Empress thought for a moment before recalling.
“I quite like that boy.”
She had a deep and favorable impression of Julien after meeting him a while back.
“We might have to bother him if it comes down to it, but I’m worried he might not even know. Could he have suffered some sort of trauma? The fact that he doesn’t even remember us suggests that…”
The Empress covered her mouth, her expression filled with worry. Seeing her like that, the Emperor reached his hand out to her, but soon stopped.
Gradually, his brows furrowed.
His actions didn’t go unnoticed by the Empress, who asked in concern.
“Is something the matter? Are you worried about how Leon will react tomorrow? If so—”
“No, it’s not that.”
“It’s not?”
The Empress raised her brow in surprise.
“Then…?”
“I’m more concerned about something else.”
“What could you be concerned about?”
“I’m… more concerned about how Leon ever made it to the Nurs Ancifa Empire.”
The Empress’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Wha—”
“Think about it.”
The Emperor sharply cut.
“Our estate is nowhere near the Nurs Ancifa Empire. After the fire in our household and his sudden disappearance, how could he have ended up there?”
The Emperor’s expression turned grave, his voice dropping to a low, tense whisper.
“Doesn’t it seem… suspicious? That something happened to him, something deliberate, and that it happened right under our noses?”
“Ah.”
The Empress’s hand flew to her mouth, her shock evident. She had considered the possibility before, but seeing Leon thrive had pushed those doubts aside. Yet, in this moment, the truth of it began to sink in.
“This…”
The Emperor’s grip on the armrest tightened, his knuckles going white.
“There’s more to Leon’s disappearance than we’ve been told. Someone must have orchestrated this, and if they were able to do it right under our noses…”
The Emperor’s eyes darkened with growing concern.
“They might be far more powerful than we realize.”