Chapter : 1749

  The shadows around her danced. Mammon was delighted.

  See? the whisper said soothingly. He chooses her. He despises you. You must be strong, Rosa. You must be cold. Feelings are a weakness he will use to hurt you. Freeze your heart. It is the only way to survive him.

  Rosa closed her eyes. A tear leaked out, but it froze on her cheek before it could fall, turning into a tiny diamond of ice.

  "I abandoned her," Lloyd said, his voice thick with guilt. "I left her alone with the devil in her head."

  "We both did," the Reflection agreed. "I thought I was fighting for my freedom. I thought I was finding true love with Mina. But I was just a puppet dancing on strings. I didn't see the truth."

  The Reflection turned to look at Lloyd.

  "The rivalry between the sisters... the tension in the house... none of it was real hatred. Rosa loved Mina. Mina loved Rosa. And they both tried to love me. But Mammon took that love and twisted it until it strangled us all."

  The dining hall began to dissolve. The colors of the dreamscape swirled again, turning darker, turning red.

  "I thought I had found happiness," the Reflection said as the darkness closed in. "But Mammon was just fattening me up for the kill. The tragedy wasn't that I loved Mina. The tragedy was that I let that love blind me to the war that was coming."

  The dream faded, dragging Lloyd toward the next painful memory. The memory of the little girl in the alleyway. The memory of the lie that would end everything.

  ________________________________________

  The dreamscape shifted again. The warm, heartbreaking colors of the library and the dining hall dissolved. They were replaced by the color of wet slate and old mud.

  Lloyd found himself standing in a narrow, dirty alleyway. It was the capital city of the kingdom, but it wasn't the shining, prosperous city he knew in his current life. This was the city from the first timeline—a place that felt heavier, darker, and much more dangerous.

  And, of course, it was raining.

  "It always rained back then," the Reflection said. He stood next to Lloyd, leaning against a brick wall covered in green slime. He looked at the scene with a mix of disgust and deep sadness. "Or maybe I just remember it that way. When your life is a storm, you tend to forget the sunny days."

  Down the alley, a figure was walking. It was the Original Lloyd.

  He looked terrible. He was wearing a cloak that had seen better days, the hem caked with mud. His boots were worn down. He didn't walk with the confidence of a noble or the stride of a warrior. He walked with his head down, shoulders hunched, trying to make himself as small as possible. He looked like a stray dog that expected to be kicked.

  "Look at me," the Reflection said, pointing at his past self. "I had been kicked out of the estate. I was wandering the capital, trying to find answers, trying to find help. But mostly, I was just looking for a reason to keep going. I was angry, Lloyd. I was so angry at the world, but I didn't know where to aim that anger."

  The Original Lloyd stopped walking. He tilted his head.

  From behind a stack of rotting wooden crates near a dumpster, a sound drifted out. It was a soft, hiccuping sound. Someone was crying.

  "Don't do it," the current Lloyd whispered to the memory, knowing it was useless. "Keep walking."

  But the Original Lloyd didn't keep walking. He was a man who had lost everything, and because of that, he couldn't ignore someone else in pain. He stepped over a puddle and approached the crates.

  "Hello?" the Original Lloyd asked, his voice rough from disuse. "Is someone there?"

  The crying stopped abruptly. There was a rustling sound, like a frightened animal trying to hide.

  The Original Lloyd moved the crates aside gently.

  Huddled in the corner, shielded from the rain by a piece of broken canvas, was a little girl. She looked to be about ten years old. Her dress was little more than rags, stained with soot and grease. Her face was smudged with dirt, but her eyes were bright, wide, and filled with terrified tears. She looked harmless. She looked like the most vulnerable thing in the city.

  "Mammon," the current Lloyd said, his voice cold. "The genderless freak likes to play dress-up."

  Chapter : 1750

  "A perfect disguise," the Reflection agreed. "He knew my psychological profile better than I did. I was suspicious of adults. I was suspicious of soldiers, nobles, and merchants. I thought everyone was out to get me. But a crying child? Who guards their heart against a crying child? It bypassed every defense I had."

  In the memory, the Original Lloyd crouched down. He didn't have much, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out a clean-ish handkerchief. He held it out to the girl.

  "I'm not going to hurt you," the Original Lloyd said softly. "Are you hungry?"

  The girl looked at the handkerchief, then at Lloyd’s face. She seemed to search his eyes for any sign of malice. Finding none, she snatched the cloth and wiped her eyes. Then, she launched herself at him.

  She wrapped her thin arms around his neck, burying her face in his wet cloak. She began to sob loudly, a release of pure misery that echoed off the alley walls.

  "It’s okay," the Original Lloyd said, patting her back awkwardly. "You’re safe. What happened? Where are your parents?"

  The girl pulled back, sniffing. "They... they’re gone," she stammered. Her voice was small and trembling. "The bad men... the soldiers... they took them."

  "Soldiers?" Lloyd asked, his brow furrowing. "Which soldiers?"

  "The Royal Guard," the girl whispered, as if the words themselves were dangerous. "My papa... he was a scribe in the Palace. He cleaned the inkwells. He said... he said he found something he wasn't supposed to see. Something about the North."

  The word "North" acted like a trigger for the Original Lloyd. His entire body stiffened. The Ferrum estate was in the North. The tragedy that had ruined his life had happened in the North.

  "What did he find?" Lloyd asked, his voice becoming intense. He gripped the girl’s shoulders, perhaps a bit too tightly. "Tell me. What did he find?"

  The girl looked terrified. She reached into the lining of her ragged dress. Her hands were shaking so hard she almost dropped it. She pulled out a piece of parchment. It was crumpled, stained with water, and folded many times.

  "Papa hid this," she said. "He told me to run. He said... he said this was why the Ferrum family had to die."

  The Original Lloyd stopped breathing. He stared at the paper as if it were a bomb.

  "I took the bait," the Reflection whispered, watching the scene. "I was starving for a reason, Lloyd. I couldn't accept that my parents died because of bad luck. I couldn't accept that it was just a random cultist attack. I needed a villain. I needed someone to blame."

  The Original Lloyd took the paper. He unfolded it slowly.

  The current Lloyd leaned in to read it over his past self’s shoulder. It was a masterpiece of forgery. The paper was high quality—Royal stock. At the bottom was the wax seal of the Crown Prince, perfectly replicated.

  The text was a letter, supposedly written by the Crown Prince to the leader of the Shadow Cult.

  To the darker hand,

  The payments have been sent. The Ferrum dogs in the North have outlived their usefulness. They are obsolete. Their mines are dry, and their "engineering" is a joke that embarrasses the Kingdom. I do not care how you do it, but remove them. Burn the estate. Leave no heirs. We need the land for more capable allies.

  Make it messy. Make it look like a tragedy. Just get it done.

  — The Crown Prince.

  The Original Lloyd read the letter once. Then he read it again.

  His hands began to shake. But this wasn't the shaking of fear. It was the shaking of a rage so hot it could boil the rain.

  "Obsolete," the Original Lloyd whispered. The word tasted like ash in his mouth. "A joke."

  He looked at the seal. It was real. Or at least, it looked real enough to a nineteen-year-old boy who had never been allowed close to the Royal Court.

  The girl watched him. Her innocent act dropped for just a fraction of a second. A tiny, cruel smile flickered at the corner of her mouth, too fast for the Original Lloyd to see. Her eyes, filled with tears a moment ago, now held a glint of golden, malicious delight.

  "It's a lie," the current Lloyd said, feeling sick. "The Prince didn't write that. The Prince was actually trying to send us aid. Mammon wrote it."

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Chapter : 1751

  "Yes," the Reflection said. "Mammon wrote a script that confirmed my worst fears. He told me that I wasn't just unlucky—I was targeted. He told me that the people who were supposed to protect us, the Royal Family, were actually the murderers. It validated my hate. It gave me a target."

  The Original Lloyd crumpled the letter in his fist. He stood up. The slouch was gone. The hesitation was gone.

  "Did they kill your parents for this?" Lloyd asked the girl.

  "Yes," the girl sniffed. "They killed them to keep the secret."

  "Then they will pay," Lloyd said. His voice sounded different now. It was deeper, colder. "They think we are obsolete? They think we are a joke? I will show them. I will burn their precious city to the ground."

  He looked down at the girl. "Do you know where we can get weapons? Do you know people who hate the King?"

  The girl nodded eagerly. "I know some people. Friends of my papa. They hide in the sewers. They want revenge too."

  "Take me to them," Lloyd commanded.

  He began to walk down the alley, but he wasn't wandering anymore. He was marching.

  "And just like that," the Reflection said quietly, "I became a terrorist. I thought I was a freedom fighter. I thought I was an avenger. But I was just a puppet on a string, dancing to the tune of the Devil of Greed."

  The girl—Mammon—followed him, skipping slightly over the puddles. As she passed the "camera" of the dream, she looked directly at the current Lloyd and winked.

  ________________________________________

  The dream blurred and reassembled itself. Time had passed—maybe a few weeks, maybe a month. The setting was different now.

  It was night. The rain was coming down harder than before, a relentless sheet of water that turned the world into a gray blur. The wind howled through the trees, sounding like screaming ghosts.

  The Original Lloyd was dressed in black leather armor he had stolen. He had a sword strapped to his hip—a cheap, rusty thing, but sharp enough to kill. He was packing saddlebags on a stolen horse. His movements were jerky and frantic.

  "I was leaving," the Reflection narrated. "The girl had given me the mission. A suicide mission. We were going to attack a Royal supply convoy. It was madness. We had no plan, no real weapons, just anger. I was going to die that night, and I didn't care."

  "Lloyd!"

  A voice cut through the sound of the rain.

  The Original Lloyd froze. He didn't turn around immediately. He squeezed his eyes shut, his jaw tightening. He knew that voice. It was the one voice he didn't want to hear right now.

  Rosa Siddik stepped out of the shadows of the estate.

  She wasn't dressed for court. She was wearing a heavy cloak over her nightgown, and her silver hair was plastered to her face by the rain. She looked frantic. She looked scared. This wasn't the "Ice Queen." This was a wife trying to stop her husband from walking off a cliff.

  She ran across the muddy lawn and grabbed Lloyd’s arm. Her grip was strong, desperate.

  "Don't go," she pleaded. "Lloyd, please. Stop this. You have to listen to me."

  The Original Lloyd yanked his arm away. He turned on her, his eyes wild with lack of sleep and too much hate.

  "Go back inside, Rosa," he snapped. "This doesn't concern you. Go back to your warm fire. Go back to your politics."

  "It does concern me!" Rosa cried, stepping in front of the horse to block his path. "You are my husband! And you are about to do something stupid because of a lie!"

  "A lie?" Lloyd laughed. It was a harsh, ugly sound. "I saw the letter, Rosa. I saw the seal. The Prince ordered the hit. He called us dogs. He had my parents butchered!"

  "The letter is a fake!" Rosa shouted, her voice cracking against the wind. "Use your head, Lloyd! Why would the Prince write that down? Why would he leave evidence? It's a forgery!"

  "And who told you that?" Lloyd sneered. "Your spies? The same spies who keep you safe while my family rots in the ground?"

  Rosa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, trying to use logic to reach him. "I investigated the girl," she said. "The orphan you found. The one who gave you the letter."

  "Leave her out of this," Lloyd warned. "She's a victim."

  Chapter : 1752

  "She doesn't exist, Lloyd!" Rosa said urgently. "My shadows tracked her. She has no record. No birth certificate. No parents who worked in the palace. She appeared in the city three days before you found her. She reeks of dark mana, Lloyd. She isn't a child. She's a construct. A trap."

  The current Lloyd noted. "She actually did the work to save me."

  "She did," the Reflection confirmed, looking at Rosa with pure heartache. "She spent weeks digging through archives, bribing officials, using her own mana to track the girl. She had proof. She had the truth right there in her hands."

  But the Original Lloyd didn't want the truth. He wanted the anger. The anger felt better than the grief. The anger made him feel powerful.

  "You're lying," the Original Lloyd spat. "You just don't want me to attack the Prince because he's your patron. You're protecting him! You care more about your political standing than you do about justice for my parents!"

  Rosa flinched as if he had slapped her. She took a step back, the rain mingling with the tears on her cheeks.

  "Is that what you think of me?" she whispered. "Do you really think I am that cold? That I would side with the people who killed your family?"

  "Yes," Lloyd said. He didn't hesitate. "I think you are exactly that cold. You’re the Ice Queen, aren't you? You didn't save my parents. You didn't save the estate. And now you're trying to stop me from getting revenge."

  He stepped forward, looming over her. "Get out of my way, Rosa. Or I will treat you like the enemy you are."

  Rosa stared at him. She looked into his eyes and searched for the boy she had married. She searched for the man who had made the medicine for her mother. She searched for any sign of doubt.

  But there was nothing. Just a wall of blind, stupid hate.

  She realized then that she couldn't stop him. Not with words. And if she used magic to stop him, he would hate her even more. He would think she was capturing him for the Prince.

  Slowly, painfully, she stepped aside. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

  "Go then," she whispered. Her voice was broken, barely audible over the storm. "Go and be the fool. Run into the trap. But do not expect me to be there to pull you out of the fire this time. I... I can't keep saving someone who wants to drown."

  It was a bluff. The current Lloyd knew it. The Reflection knew it. She would try to save him anyway. She would always try.

  But the Original Lloyd didn't know that. He took her words as confirmation that she didn't care.

  "I don't need you," he growled. "I never did."

  He swung himself onto the horse. He kicked the beast into a gallop, tearing up the mud of the garden. He rode out of the gate, charging into the dark night toward his own destruction.

  Rosa stood alone in the rain. She watched him go until he was swallowed by the darkness. She didn't move. She just stood there, letting the freezing rain soak her to the bone.

  In the shadows of the garden wall, hidden from sight, a small figure watched.

  It was the girl. Mammon.

  She wasn't crying anymore. She was smiling. It was a smile that stretched too wide, showing too many teeth. She watched the separation of the husband and wife with the look of a gourmet diner savoring a fine meal.

  "Delicious," the Reflection murmured, his voice heavy with self-loathing. "He isolated me. He turned me against my only ally. And I... I made it so easy for him."

  The current Lloyd clenched his fists. The memory was infuriating. He wanted to reach into the past and shake himself. He wanted to hug Rosa.

  "My refusal to listen was the final nail in the coffin," the Reflection said as the scene began to fade. "I chose the path laid out by a devil. I threw away the chance to unify with the Ice Queen. And in doing so... I signed Mina's death warrant."

  The dreamscape began to swirl, the darkness closing in like a shroud.

  "Because I was busy playing rebel," the Reflection added, "I wasn't there to protect the one person I had left. And Rubel... Rubel was watching."

  ________________________________________