"I have a plan, and we will be following that. I am not letting you make the call here," Tamasya said as she looked at Elion with unwavering resolve. Her tone was firm, and there was no hesitation in her voice. The determination in her expression made it clear that she had already thought through every possible outco.
Elion shook his head slowly. The helplessness in his eyes contrasted sharply with Tamasya’s confidence. "Fate is not on our side!!!"
"Fate will have to bow," Tamasya replied without missing a beat. Her words carried the quiet authority of soone who had fought against impossible odds before and survived.
Just then, the doors of the mansion opened, breaking the tension between them,
"William?"
Before anyone could react further, William stepped inside without pause. The mont his eyes landed on Tamasya, every other thought seed to disappear. He crossed the room in an instant and pulled her into his arms.
anwhile, Elion, who had been caught off guard by the sudden arrival, looked at the young man with visible surprise. His throat tightened slightly as he studied William more carefully.
A faint mory stirred in his mind.
He still vaguely rembered the day when he had overheard a conversation between William and his own daughter, Annasthasia, inside the prison. At the ti, he had only been able to observe from a distance, but even then, sothing about the boy had left an impression.
Because of the poison in his body, Elion had long been forced into vegetative stillness. He had deliberately kept his movents to a minimum so that he could prolong his life and prevent the poison from reaching his vital organs. His control over spear intent was the only reason he was still alive.
Even from his confinent, Elion had remained aware of what was happening around him; he heard and sensed everything regularly. He still rembered the silhouette of a young man walking past his prison gate. He rembered the sa shade of blue hair and the sa outline that now stood before him in full clarity.
A rush of thoughts passed through his mind.
He rembered Annasthasia crying for days after realizing that she had unknowingly stood in front of her own son without recognizing him.
Now, seeing William properly, Elion understood why.
The resemblance was unmistakable, which might have gone unnoticed due to the darkness of the prison.
William had the sa hair as his mother, and his face was almost identical to his father’s. For a brief mont, Elion felt as though he were looking at the young Solaris emperor again, only dressed in unfamiliar clothes and bearing a different presence.
The eyes, however, were sothing else entirely. Though they were blue, just like Elion’s own, there was a depth in them that was uncommon in soone so young.
A quiet wave of pride rose within Elion as he sensed the power contained within William’s body. The pressure he gave off was far beyond what should have been possible for soone his age.
This was the grandson he had once dread of holding in his arms and raising with his own hands.
A faint smile appeared on Elion’s face. For a mont, he imagined finally speaking the words he had kept buried for years.
Then, all of a sudden, the mont turned awkward. He noticed the way William was holding Tamasya.
The embrace was far more intimate than what one would expect between a disciple and his master. Even that could perhaps have been overlooked under the circumstances.
What happened next, however, removed all doubt. William lifted a hand, gently cupped Tamasya’s cheeks, and kissed her.
Elion’s enthusiasm turned cold. He had no words. His long-lost grandson was apparently far more passionate than he had imagined.
Suddenly, as if sensing Elion’s gaze, Tamasya snapped out of the mont. She quickly pushed William away, though not with much force. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassnt, and for the first ti since William’s arrival, she seed visibly flustered.
She cleared her throat lightly and turned toward Elion.
"He is Lord Elion, patriarch of the Moon Clan," Tamasya said, trying to regain composure.
William turned and finally gave Elion his full attention. His expression was calm, but there was still lingering concern in his eyes from monts earlier.
He acknowledged Elion with a simple nod, still regarding him like a stranger.
"Rember my friend Anne, who is imprisoned in Holy Sun? He is Anne’s father, and he is also like a father to ," Tamasya added with an awkward smile. The mont William heard Anne’s na, the guarded look in his eyes softened.
"Oh, I apologize for not greeting you earlier. Since you are Tamasya’s father, that makes you my father, too," William said. Without any hesitation, he bowed respectfully.
The sincerity in the gesture was enough to ease so of Elion’s awkwardness.
Elion gave a slight nod. "Good lad. I have heard a great deal of praise about you from both Anne and Tamasya. But what I just witnessed was rather unexpected. Tell , young man, what exactly is your relationship with Tamasya?"
William did not hesitate even for a second.
One of his arms was still firmly wrapped around Tamasya’s waist. Behind his back, Tamasya had discreetly begun pinching his arm in warning, clearly trying to stop him from saying sothing outrageous.
The pinching intensified. William did not react in the slightest. Instead, he gave Elion a calm nod.
"Yes. I am in love with Tamasya, and I intend to marry her once I co of age."
By now, the skin on William’s arm had turned slightly red from the force of Tamasya’s pinching, but he still did not loosen his hold around her waist.
Tamasya could only manage an embarrassed smile. William, on the other hand, seed to be enjoying himself far too much.
Elion, noticing the change in mood, let out a quiet breath. The warmth between them was too obvious to deny.
"It is quite clear that she loves you, too. The mont you arrived, her tears disappeared," Elion said with a faint nod.
Even as he said it, he deliberately chose not to reveal William’s true identity. If William learned the truth now, Elion was certain that the boy would throw himself into the fire without hesitation just to save his mother.
Elion had already seen enough of William’s temperant to understand that.
He still did not know how to handle that truth, so for now, he kept it to himself.
William, anwhile, had already noticed the traces of fear in Tamasya’s eyes.
His tone grew serious imdiately. "Why were you crying??"
Tamasya instinctively looked away. "I was not crying. I just panicked."
Now that the rush of emotions had subsided, she could finally acknowledge how frightened she had truly been for Anne.
She took a breath and looked at William properly.
"Elion is one of the prisoners who was being held alongside Anne. The Pope released him to lure there. He has made it clear that if I do not surrender peacefully, Anne will be killed within the next few hours."
As she explained everything, William’s expression darkened. The irony of the situation was not lost on him.
The sa enemy he had already targeted had now found a way to threaten soone Tamasya loved.
"William, I do not trust the Pope even slightly. That is why I have decided to surrender, but instead of using actual mana restriction chains, we will use dummy chains that look identical. I still have a few from the Prison of Gods, where I was once confined. They look almost exactly like the ones the church uses."
Tamasya explained her plan carefully. To her surprise, William did not reject it. Instead, he listened in complete silence.
Then, unexpectedly, a faint smile appeared on his face. He reached out and gently caressed her head, his touch soft and reassuring.
"That is actually a brilliant plan, I believe I have a few things to add to that arrangent."
Before Tamasya could respond, Elion imdiately stepped in.
"You do not understand!! What if this is all a trap? The mont you enter Winston’s territory, you will be walking straight into his hands."
Elion was concerned genuinely; he had lived long enough to know how dangerous overconfidence could be.
William turned toward Elion and t his gaze calmly. "Do not worry. I have already walked through that trap several tis over the past few days."
The statent was so unexpected that both Elion and Tamasya tightened their brows.
Tamasya imdiately cupped William’s face and forced him to look at her. "What happened?" she asked in a strict tone.
William’s warm gaze slowly turned cold. Without answering imdiately, he reached into his inventory and took out a folded parchnt, and handed it to Tamasya.
Tamasya read it and within seconds, the color drained from her face.
Elion, now equally alard, stepped forward and took the parchnt from her hand. As he read it, a deep frown settled over his face.
"What does this have to do with what you just said??" he asked.
William took the parchnt back and held it in his hand for a mont.
Then he finally spoke.
"I was an orphan raised by the kind Kaiser family. The old couple took in and cared for as their own while silently carrying the grief of losing their real son."
His voice was steady, but every word carried weight.
"My na is William Kaiser. I am the younger brother of Major Nevin Kaiser, whose dead body was publicly humiliated by the church in front of the whole public of the Holy Sun Empire.
The room fell silent.
The gravity of his words settled over them like stone.
"My parents never burdened with the weight of revenge. In fact, I did not even know I had a brother until recently. But the day I found out was the day Winston and his entire bloodline signed their death sentence."
William’s voice remained calm, but beneath that calm was sothing absolute, a conviction that could not be shaken.
"For the past four days, I have been in the Holy Sun Empire, preparing to begin my revenge."
"And I can tell you this much, I have already taken the first step."
Tamasya’s breathing beca uneven. Sothing in the way William said those words unsettled her deeply.
"What did you do??" she asked softly, fear began to rise in her voice.
William turned to face her fully.
Then, without warning, he raised his right hand.
A flash of light appeared and in the next instant, a severed head materialized in his grasp.
"I killed Winston’s son," William declared with finality while fresh blood dripped on the floor echoing louder than anything.
"I killed his blood, his family, his pride."
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