The air tensed tight as a wire pulled to the edge of snapping.
In a blink, steel shimmered.
Jin's sword was at Kael's neck, the edge glowing faintly with aura, as if dipped in lightning and silence. It didn't cut but hovered just a breath away from drawing blood.
Kael didn't flinch.
Didn't even blink.
"You didn't dodge," Jin said, his voice calm but not cold.
Kael's lips parted but it wasn't the voice he usually spoke with. This one was deeper, rougher, soaked in the memories of blood, war, and death.
"Didn't realize this is how you say hi to others."
It wasn't a threat. It was a fact. A warning. The tone of someone who'd stood among the dead too long to care about playful posturing.
Jin's eyes narrowed slightly.
Still, he didn't back away.
"Who are you?"
Kael's gaze darkened, shadows flickering faintly in the corners of his irises.
"Not your business."
Jin's blade inched closer one flick, and it would split skin.
But in that very instant.
Kael vanished.
A whisper in the air, a blur in motion. In the same heartbeat, he was behind Jin.
"You're fast," Jin muttered, already turning with fluid precision.
Swordsman to swordsman. Aura user to something... else.
"Are you here to cause harm?" Jin asked.
Kael's voice was back to normal now, the deadened tone gone like mist burned off by the sun.
"No."
Simple. Clear.
Jin's mind shifted into caution mode. Normally, those words wouldn't be enough. But...
[Lie Detection Skill: No falsehood detected]
He studied Kael a moment longer. Still… no reaction. No flicker. No lie.
"Interesting," Jin finally said, sheathing his blade with a clean click.
He turned.
"For now… that's enough."
As Jin walked out of the room without another word, the tension lifted like a curtain drawn away from a stage.
Kael let out a soft sigh, his breath shaky for the first time in hours.
That guy… is something else. If I didn't move when I did...
He glanced at Samantha still lying unconscious on the bed but her brow was slightly furrowed, and beads of sweat rolled down her temples.
Kael chuckled softly and ran a hand through his hair.
"Sorry," he muttered to her. "Didn't mean to wake the princess."
And in that quiet room, with tension faded and the sun shifting lower, Kael stood between two worlds: the past he came from, and the future he was reshaping.