The chaos in Merchant Town was finally beginning to subside.
But the calm that followed had come at a terrible cost.
The once-lavish district, which had stood for generations as a symbol of the Western Empire's prosperity, was now a vast stretch of ruins. Magnificent buildings had been reduced to rubble. Streets that had bustled with merchants and travellers lay deserted. The air still carried the scent of smoke and burnt stone, and it would carry it for days.
The incident had shaken the entire Western Empire.
Even the capital, already struggling to keep order amid growing unrest, was beginning to feel the consequences. Whispers moved through its streets faster than any guard could silence them.
And one name was at the centre of those whispers.
Richard.
The Royal Court of Astral Arts had named him the prime suspect and taken him into custody. His decision to stay behind had ensured that Rudra would not become the Empire's first target. But it had also placed Richard himself in a very dangerous position.
Across the city, Elden had brought Marrien to a physician.
The man examined the head butler carefully, inspecting each injury in turn. With every wound he found, his expression grew more serious, until at last he turned to Elden.
"May I ask what happened to him?"
Elden stood beside the examination bed, his face troubled. "He was caught in the incident at Merchant Town. He was gravely wounded."
The physician looked down at Marrien once more. Then he let out a quiet sigh.
"I will do everything within my ability. But given his condition..." He chose his words with care. "I cannot promise that I will be able to save him."
Elden's jaw tightened.
He looked at Marrien, who lay utterly still. The man who had stood between a sword and a boy he was not obligated to protect. The man who had told Rudra that time was a currency even gods could not mint twice.
For a long moment, Elden said nothing.
On the other side of the capital, Kael was making his way toward Richard's mansion.
Rudra was unconscious in his arms. Alex had collapsed somewhere along the road, his broken ribs finally overruling his stubbornness, and Kael had been forced to commandeer a cart to carry him. Neither of them could wait. Richard had given him clear instructions before the Empire arrived, and Kael intended to follow them without wasting a single minute.
At the mansion's main gate, the guards stepped forward at once.
"Halt! Who are you? What business do you have here?"
Kael didn't answer.
With two badly wounded people in his care, he had no intention of explaining himself to every guard who crossed his path. He simply walked past them toward the mansion.
"Hey! Stop right there!"
He kept walking.
But at the main entrance, someone else was already waiting.
The head maid.
She stood squarely in his path, her face cold and unyielding. "One more step, and you will regret it."
Kael stopped. He looked at her calmly.
"You are mistaken. I am here on Sir Richard's orders." He turned slightly and nodded toward the two figures behind him. "Look at them."
Her expression changed the moment her eyes fell on Rudra and Alex. Their clothes were torn. Their bodies were marked with injuries. Neither showed any sign of waking. For a moment she seemed unable to process what she was seeing.
"...Please inform Lady Victoria at once," Kael said. "I will explain everything to her myself."
The guards who had followed him closed in around him with their weapons half-drawn.
"Enough." The head maid raised her hand. "He is here on our master's orders. I will handle this."
She turned to the guards. "Return to your posts. No one enters this mansion without permission. If anyone fails in this, they will answer for it."
The guards bowed and withdrew.
Understanding the seriousness of the situation, the head maid hurried toward Victoria's chambers.
Victoria stood by her bedroom window, listening to the distant sounds of a city that had stopped feeling like home.
The past few days had made the capital strange. Streets that usually stayed lively until late evening had grown quiet and watchful. She had been standing there for a long time with her thoughts when the door burst open.
"L-Lady Victoria!"
Victoria turned. "What is it? Why are you in such a hurry?"
"Someone is waiting in the main hall, my lady, with the young master and Sir Alex. I believe you should come immediately."
Victoria's face changed. "Rudra? Alex? What happened to them? Are they all right?"
"I do not know the details, my lady. But both appear to be seriously injured."
Victoria didn't wait for another word. She followed the head maid at a pace that was very nearly a run.
In the main hall, her eyes fell on two familiar figures lying unconscious.
Beside them stood a man she did not recognise. She crossed the room quickly, her attention moving between the two of them. "Who are you? What happened to them?"
The man turned toward her.
"Forgive me, my lady. I will explain everything, but first I must ask you to take me to the secret chamber. Sir Richard instructed me to bring them there."
Victoria studied him for a moment.
"So you come on Richard's orders."
"Yes, my lady."
"Then come with me."
Before she left, she told the head maid to summon the underground physician without delay. The maid bowed and hurried off.
The secret chamber lay far from the main living quarters, behind an inconspicuous passage. Richard had kept it prepared for exactly this kind of night: a place where someone could recover without attracting attention.
Inside were two beds against opposite walls, a few pieces of simple furniture, and shelves of medical supplies.
Kael laid Rudra gently on one bed and Alex on the other.
Victoria went to Rudra first. She looked at his pale face, at the injuries covering his body, and for a moment she simply stood there. Then she moved a few strands of hair from his forehead.
"Oh, goodness..." Her voice carried both concern and exasperation. "What kind of child are you? Trouble follows you everywhere."
She stroked his hair once more before turning to Kael. Her expression had become serious.
"Now tell me. What happened? And where is my husband? Why isn't Richard with you?"
Kael understood her worry. He also knew that what he was about to say would not be easy to hear.
"My lady, please sit first. What I tell you will be hard."
"Do not speak in riddles, Kael. Just tell me."
He nodded.
He told her about the quarrel with the slum thugs that had been staged to look spontaneous, and how it had grown into an organised assault on Merchant Town. He told her about Kaalrith's arrival, and the battle that followed. He told her about Lumi, whom Rudra had called his friend, and what she had done.
He did not soften it. But he did not linger either. Victoria's hands tightened in her lap at the mention of Lumi's name. She said nothing.
When he had finished, she asked the only question that mattered.
"Where is my husband?"
"He stayed behind, my lady." Kael held her eyes. "He accepted responsibility for the incident himself, so that the Court would look at him and not at Rudra. The Royal Court of Astral Arts has taken him into custody."
Victoria went still.
For a long moment she said nothing at all. Then she rose, walked to Rudra's bedside, and rested her hand on his head.
"This child," she said quietly, "is a magnet for trouble."
But there was no irritation in her voice.
Only love.
Kael watched her with an interest he had not expected.
He knew the boy was not her own. He knew Richard's business had suffered because of him. And now Richard himself had been taken, with prison or worse waiting at the end of it.
Yet Victoria's attention had not left the unconscious boy once.
"Forgive me, my lady," Kael said at last. "There is something I do not understand."
"What is it?"
"Why do you care for him this much? He is not your blood. Everything your family has lost, it has lost around him."
Victoria looked at him.
Then her expression softened.
"Don't all parents?"
She turned back to Rudra.
"What kind of mother would I be if I abandoned him because he is a troublemaker? It is not even his fault. He has always been different, and perhaps that is why trouble keeps finding him." Her voice grew quieter. "But to me, he is still a child."
She looked at Kael again.
"You tell me he put his life on the line to save everyone. I am proud of that. But being proud of a child's courage does not mean I want him to keep walking into danger."
Her eyes returned to the boy on the bed.
"Sometimes the bonds made by love are stronger than the ones made by blood. He accepted me as his mother even when I was cold to him. Even when I failed to give him what he deserved."
For a moment, regret crossed her face.
"That does not change anything now."
She laid her hand on his head once more.
"He is my son. My own son."
Kael said nothing.
He had expected many reactions from her. This had not been one of them.
His gaze moved to Rudra, lying unconscious and unaware of the conversation around him.
What kind of family is this?
A father who gives up everything for an adopted son. A mother who does not care what she loses, so long as that boy is safe.
He looked at Rudra's still face and thought of the ruined town, of Kaalrith, of the trouble that seemed to trail the boy like a shadow.
And the boy himself is a walking disaster.
Kael quietly sighed.
I sincerely hope things settle down soon. Otherwise I may regret getting involved with this family.
But he did not move from where he stood.
Victoria's voice drew him back.
"And do not worry about Richard. I know my husband better than anyone. If he chose to stay, he had a reason." She looked toward the chamber door. "He has always known how to handle difficult situations. I trust him."
Her attention returned to the bed.
"Besides, right now there are more important things to worry about."
She drew the blanket gently over Rudra's chest and tucked it at his shoulder.
"Let's make sure these two recover first."
Kael nodded.
For the moment, there was nothing more to be done.
Victoria drew a chair beside Rudra's bed and took his hand in hers. Beneath his skin, faint and steady, the blue light still pulsed, the Eternal Flame working quietly on a wound that had nearly ended him.
Across the room, Kael settled against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes closed. Victoria doubted he was asleep. She doubted he would sleep at all.
Neither of them spoke.
Above them, in a city that did not yet know the boy's name, the Royal Court of Astral Arts was already asking who had burned Merchant Town to the ground.
And somewhere in a cell beneath that city, Richard was preparing an answer that was not Rudra.