Severin Kaelros died knowing one thing.
He failed her.
The car never slowed.
The rain never stopped.
The red light never mattered.
The impact was violent enough to erase sound itself.
For one stretched, impossible moment, the world lost weight.
Metal folded inward.
Glass burst like crystal rain.
The steering wheel crushed into his chest with a sound that did not belong to a human body.
Pain arrived late.
The first thing Severin noticed was her hand.
Still in his.
Still warm.
"Selyne…"
The name left his mouth before his mind could stop it.
Blood flooded his throat.
His vision blurred, then sharpened again—unnaturally clear.
Her head lolled toward him.
Her eyes—those eyes—searched his face, unfocused but trying.
Rain streamed down the shattered windshield.
Sirens wailed somewhere distant, irrelevant.
"I should've…" Severin swallowed.
"I should've protected you."
Her lips moved.
No sound came out.
Her chest rose once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Something inside Severin collapsed.
Not his lungs.
Not his ribs.
Something deeper.
He pulled her closer, ignoring the agony screaming through his body, forehead pressed to hers like he could hold life back through contact alone.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"I won't fail you again."
Her eyes went empty.
The world followed.
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Severin woke up choking.
Not on smoke.
Not on blood.
On silk sheets twisted around his legs.
He sucked in a sharp breath and bolted upright.
The room spun violently.
The ceiling above him was wrong.
Wooden beams.
Cracked.
Ancient.
Gold leaf peeled at the corners like dying sunlight.
His heart hammered.
This wasn't a hospital.
This wasn't anywhere modern.
Rough hands grabbed his shoulders.
"Your Highness—please—wake up!"
Highness?
Severin shoved the hands away, chest heaving.
That was when he noticed the weight of another presence beside him.
A woman sat on the edge of the bed.
Half-dressed.
Hair tangled.
A bruise blooming red and ugly on her pale shoulder.
Her eyes met his.
And Severin forgot how to breathe.
It was her.
Not similar.
Not familiar.
Her.
The same curve of her lips.
The same line of her jaw.
The same eyes that had lost light in the rain.
Alive.
"Selyne," he breathed.
The woman flinched.
Her gaze hardened instantly.
"Don't say my name like that."
Her voice was sharp.
Cold.
"As if you have the right."
The words hit harder than the crash ever did.
Footsteps thundered outside the room.
Angry voices.
Shouts layered with outrage and panic.
Severin's head throbbed as fragments of memory slammed together—memories that were not his, yet sat heavy in his mind like borrowed sins.
A prince.
A reputation.
Whispers.
The door burst open.
Guards flooded in.
Courtiers.
Nobles draped in silk and judgment.
Their gazes dropped immediately to the bed.
To Severin.
Then to the woman beside him.
Silence crashed down.
Then—
"How obscene."
"With a commoner?"
"So the rumors were true."
"A disgrace to the crown."
The woman stiffened beside him.
Commoner.
Lowborn.
Severin turned to her instinctively.
She was already standing.
Her hands trembled—but she didn't hide them.
Instead, she dropped to her knees.
"I swear," she said, voice steady despite everything.
"I did not seduce His Highness."
Every head snapped toward her.
"I begged to leave," she continued.
"But he wouldn't let me."
Her gaze flicked up.
Locked onto Severin.
There was no fear in it.
Only resentment.
And something far worse.
Hatred.
Severin stared at her, stunned.
Not because of the accusation.
But because she looked at him like a stranger.
Like a man who had ruined her life.
She didn't remember him.
Not the rain.
Not the blood.
Not the promise he whispered over her dead body.
A heavy presence filled the doorway.
An older man stepped inside.
A crown rested on his head like a burden sharpened into a weapon.
King Aldric.
"So," the king said quietly.
"This is how the royal blood humiliates itself."
Severin opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
The woman spoke first.
"You always do this," she said.
"You take what you want, then hide behind your title."
Always.
The word lodged itself into Severin's chest.
The king raised a hand.
"Enough."
The room froze.
"This court will not tolerate such disgrace," Aldric declared.
"A prince who cannot control himself has no place among us."
Severin forced his voice to work.
"She's lying," he said hoarsely.
"I would never—"
She laughed.
A short, bitter sound that cut deeper than any scream.
"Of course you'd say that," she replied.
"Men like you always do."
The king turned away.
"Strip him of his privileges," Aldric said.
"Exile him to the borderlands."
A ripple of shock passed through the court.
The borderlands.
Starving territory.
Lawless.
Forgotten.
"And the woman?" someone asked.
The king's lips curled.
"She goes with him."
Her breath hitched.
Severin stepped forward without thinking.
"No."
Chains rattled.
"Don't punish her for my—"
"For your weakness?" the king cut in.
"For your desire?"
The guards closed in.
As they dragged him from the room, Severin locked eyes with her one last time.
She stood frozen.
Her fists clenched.
Her jaw tight.
"I don't know what kind of monster you are," she said quietly.
"But I will never forgive you."
The door slammed shut.
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The carriage stank of iron and dust.
Cold wind tore through the cracks as the wheels rolled toward exile.
Severin sat in chains, head bowed, mind racing.
He had died.
He had come back.
And somehow, the first thing he did in this life was destroy her.
Her name surfaced again in his mind—new, unfamiliar, yet aching.
Selyne Rowan.
Lowborn.
Condemned.
Hated him.
As the carriage crossed into barren land, something shifted.
A pressure bloomed behind his eyes.
Then—
A soundless presence unfolded inside his mind.
[ Empire Tycoon System — Initializing… ]
Severin sucked in a breath.
Letters burned into existence.
[ Survival Contract Detected. ]
His pulse spiked.
Another line followed.
[ Warning: All actions that endanger civilians or Selyne Rowan will be penalized. ]
His hands clenched around the chains.
So even fate knew.
He closed his eyes.
"I failed to protect you once," he whispered.
"I will not fail again."
The carriage lurched forward.
Into starvation.
Into ruin.
Into a kingdom already dying.
And the system finished loading.