Chapter : 1705

  He had manipulated her grief to save his own skin. He had weaponized her love to force her into exile. It was efficient. It was brilliant.

  Lloyd pushed himself up. The cold stone was leeching the heat from his body, and he knew he couldn't stay here. If he passed out now, he would freeze to death, and the irony of that would be too much to bear.

  He needed to move. He needed to secure the town. He needed to check on the civilians. He needed to formulate a cover story before the spies of the other noble houses started asking questions.

  He limped toward the stairs. Every step sent a jolt of white-hot agony through his left leg. He gritted his teeth, forcing his body to obey.

  Move, he commanded himself. You don't get to rest. You broke it, now you fix it.

  He descended the spiral staircase of the Clock Tower. The stone steps were slick with ice. The walls were cracked from the sonic booms.

  He emerged from the base of the tower into the ruined square.

  The devastation at ground level was even worse than it looked from above. The town square was a cratered wasteland. The beautiful cobblestones were gone, replaced by mud and black ice. The air smelled of sulfur and fear.

  The townsfolk were just beginning to emerge from their shelters. Cellar doors creaked open. Shutters were pushed back tentatively.

  They looked around with wide, fearful eyes. They saw the smashed stalls. They saw the sliced buildings. They saw the lingering spikes of black ice.

  And then they saw their Lord.

  Lloyd walked into the center of the square. He was battered. He was bloody. He was limping. But he walked with his head up.

  "Lord Ferrum!"

  The shout came from the foreman, a burly man named Miller. Miller rushed forward from the doorway of the blacksmith shop, his face covered in soot.

  "You're alive!" Miller yelled, stopping a few feet away, afraid to approach too closely. "We thought... when the witch screamed... we thought it was over."

  Lloyd raised a hand to stop the man. He didn't want to be touched. He felt fragile, as if one friendly pat on the back would shatter him into a thousand pieces.

  "It is over," Lloyd said. His voice was rough, like sandpaper.

  Miller looked around, his eyes darting to the sky. "And... the Queen? Lady Rosa? Is she... is she dead?"

  Lloyd looked north again. He felt the weight of the lie settling on his shoulders.

  "She is gone," Lloyd said.

  "Gone, my Lord?"

  "She was... unwell," Lloyd said, choosing his words with surgical care. He couldn't tell them the truth. He couldn't say, My wife went insane because I got her sister pregnant. That would cause a civil war.

  "She has departed to seek healing," Lloyd lied. "She realized her cultivation had become unstable. She left to protect you."

  Miller blinked. He looked at the ruins of his town. He looked at the ice spikes. It didn't look like protection. It looked like a massacre that barely missed.

  "Protect us," Miller repeated, clearly unconvinced but too scared to argue.

  "Yes," Lloyd said, his voice hardening. He activated a fraction of his [Black Ring Eyes], pushing a subtle wave of intimidation into the air. "And this incident... never happened."

  Miller stiffened. "My Lord?"

  "This was a training accident," Lloyd said firmly. "We were testing a new defensive array. The magical feedback caused a weather anomaly. Do you understand?"

  Miller swallowed hard. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the freezing cold. He looked at the destruction. It was an absurd lie. A training accident didn't slice buildings in half.

  But Miller was a smart man. He knew who signed his paychecks. He knew who kept the Devils away. And he looked at Lloyd’s eyes—eyes that were cold, serious, and dangerous.

  "Yes, my Lord," Miller whispered. "An experiment. Of course. That explains the... the ice."

  "Good," Lloyd said. "Organize a damage assessment. Get the healers to the injured. I want a full report in an hour. Anyone who talks to the press or sends letters to the capital will be dealt with personally by me. Is that clear?"

  "Crystal clear, sir."

  Lloyd dismissed him with a wave.

  He watched Miller run off, shouting orders to the workers. The town began to come alive again. People started clearing the debris. Healers rushed to the injured. The machinery of the empire began to turn, grinding over the tragedy as if it were just another bump in the road.

  Chapter : 1706

  Lloyd walked to the edge of the square. He found a crate that had miraculously survived the devastation and sat down heavily.

  He put his head in his hands.

  He was exhausted. His mana core was empty. His body was screaming in pain. But his mind wouldn't stop racing.

  He had won. He was alive. Mina was safe. The secret of the pregnancy was still, theoretically, safe from the wider public, though Rosa knew.

  But the cost.

  Rosa was out there. Alone. Thinking she had killed him.

  The psychological damage that belief would inflict on her was incalculable. She was a Sovereign-level entity with a fractured psyche. She was a ticking time bomb of grief and guilt.

  And he was the one who had lit the fuse.

  He thought about chasing her. He could track her. He had satellites. He had Ken. He could find her in a few hours.

  But what would he say?

  Surprise, I'm not dead. I just tricked you into a mental breakdown so you would leave me alone?

  She would kill him for real this time. Or she would break even further. The betrayal of the affair was bad enough; the betrayal of the fake death was a cruelty that went beyond forgiveness.

  No. She needed time. She needed distance. And frankly, so did he.

  He couldn't deal with her right now. He had a war to fight against the Devils. He had a pregnant mistress to protect. He had an empire to run. He didn't have the emotional bandwidth to fix a broken Sovereign.

  Rosa had removed herself from the board. It was, strategically, the best possible outcome.

  Strategically, his mind sneered at him. You sound like a machine. You sound like the cold-blooded monster she accused you of being.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out his communication stone. It was vibrating. It had been vibrating for ten minutes.

  He activated it.

  "Master?"

  Ken’s voice came through instantly. It was tense, sharp, and alert. Ken never sounded panicked, but this was close.

  "I felt a massive energy spike," Ken said rapidly. "The sensors in Serrum went off the charts. Sovereign-level discharge. Ice and Void signatures. Are you compromised? Do I need to deploy the Wraiths?"

  Lloyd stared at the stone. He could tell Ken. Ken was loyal. Ken would understand.

  But Lloyd found that he couldn't speak the words. He couldn't admit what had happened. It was too messy. Too shameful.

  "I'm fine," Lloyd lied. His voice was flat, devoid of emotion.

  There was a pause on the other end. Ken knew Lloyd better than anyone. He could hear the exhaustion. He could hear the pain.

  "You don't sound fine, sir," Ken said quietly. "The energy signature... it matched Lady Rosa."

  "It was a sparring match," Lloyd said. "It got out of hand."

  "A sparring match that leveled a town square?" Ken asked skeptically.

  "We are powerful people, Ken," Lloyd said. "Accidents happen."

  "And Lady Rosa?" Ken asked. "Where is she? I am not detecting her signature anymore."

  Lloyd closed his eyes. He pictured Rosa flying north, crying, her heart broken by a lie he had crafted.

  The silence stretched for a long time. The wind whistled through the ruins.

  "Lady Rosa is on sabbatical," Lloyd said finally.

  "Sabbatical?"

  "She has gone on a private pilgrimage," Lloyd said, the lie tasting like ash on his tongue. "She realized she needed solitude to process the... changes in her cultivation. She is not to be disturbed. By anyone."

  "Understood," Ken said slowly. He didn't believe it. Lloyd knew he didn't believe it. But Ken was a good soldier. He followed orders. "And if the Siddik family asks?"

  "Tell them she is safe," Lloyd said. "Tell them she is training. Tell them she will return when she is ready."

  "It is a plausible cover," Ken agreed. "Sovereigns are known to be eccentric. A sudden retreat into the mountains is not unheard of."

  "Make it official," Lloyd said. "Release a statement from the House. Control the narrative, Ken. I don't want rumors."

  "I will handle it, sir. Do you need extraction?"

  "Yes," Lloyd said. "Send a carriage. And a cleanup crew. Serrum needs resources for rebuilding."

  "On my way."

  The connection cut.

  Lloyd lowered the stone. He sat alone in the wreckage of his own making.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Zippo lighter. He flicked it open.

  Click.

  The flame flared up, small and orange against the grey backdrop of the ruins. It wavered in the wind, struggling to stay lit.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Lloyd stared at the fire. It was the only warmth in the frozen town.

  Chapter : 1707

  He thought about Mina. She was safe. She would be relieved.

  He thought about the baby. It would be born into a world where its aunt was an exiled madwoman and its father was a liar.

  He thought about Rosa.

  I will keep you in my memory, she had said to his "corpse."

  He snapped the lighter shut.

  Click.

  The flame vanished.

  "I'm sorry, Rosa," he whispered to the cold air.

  He stood up. He ignored the pain in his leg. He ignored the ache in his shoulder. He straightened his back. He put on the mask of the General, the mask of the Lord who had everything under control.

  He walked toward the workers who were waiting for him. He had a town to fix. He had an empire to build.

  But as he looked at the spot where he had "died," he knew that some things couldn't be fixed. Some things just stayed broken forever. He had won the battle, but he had lost his humanity somewhere in the ice.

  The silence she left behind was louder than any scream. It was a silence he would have to live with for a very long time.

  The return to the capital was a blur of pain and logistics. Lloyd spent the journey in the back of a carriage, nursing his wounds and drafting directives. He had Ken lock down the information coming out of Serrum Town with ruthless efficiency. Bribes were paid, non-disclosure oaths were sworn, and the official narrative was established: A localized mana storm, a freak natural disaster.

  But secrets of that magnitude had mass. They displaced the air around them.

  When Lloyd arrived back at the Ferrum estate, the absence of Rosa was a physical void. Her suite was empty. Her garden was silent. The servants moved quietly, sensing the shift in the house's atmosphere but too afraid to ask questions.

  Lloyd didn't rest. He went straight to his study, summoning Ken.

  "Find her," Lloyd ordered. He looked exhausted, his eyes sunken, his movements stiff. "Use the Wraiths. Use the merchant network. Use the All-Seeing Eye proxies. I want to know where she is."

  "Sir," Ken said, hesitating. "If she is a Sovereign... she might not want to be found."

  "I don't want to bring her back," Lloyd said sharply. "I just need to know she's alive. I need to know she hasn't... done anything foolish."

  Ken nodded solemnly. "I will deploy the network immediately."

  For the next three days, Lloyd lived in a state of suspended animation. He went through the motions of his life. He met with Mei Jing about the Eastern expansion. He reviewed the Aegis production schedules with the alchemists. He even had a tense, brief tea with Amina, who looked at him with sharp, knowing eyes but—mercifully—asked nothing.

  But his mind was always north.

  He spent his nights on the roof of the estate, using his own [All-Seeing Eye] to scan the horizon. He pushed his perception to the limit, straining to catch a glimpse of a familiar blue-white energy signature.

  Nothing.

  The north was a blank slate. It was as if she had ceased to exist.

  On the fourth day, Ken returned. He looked weary.

  "Report," Lloyd said, not looking up from his desk.

  "Nothing, sir," Ken said. "We have scoured the trade routes, the villages, the mountain passes. No one has seen a woman of her description. No magical disturbances have been reported since Serrum."

  Lloyd closed his eyes. "She's cloaking herself. Or she's gone deep into the Dead Zones where your spies can't go."

  "It is likely," Ken agreed. "Sir... the Siddiks are asking questions. Viscountess Nilufa sent a message this morning. He wants to know when his daughter will return."

  Lloyd sighed, rubbing his face. This was the part he had dreaded. The lie.

  "Tell her..." Lloyd started, then stopped. He hated lying. He had done so much of it lately. "Tell him Rosa has gone on a private pilgrimage. Tell him she needed solitude to process the... changes in her cultivation. Tell him she is safe, but she is not to be disturbed."

  "A pilgrimage," Ken repeated neutrally. "It is a plausible cover. Sovereigns are known to be eccentric."

  "It will have to do," Lloyd said. "Make it official. Release a statement from the House."

  Ken turned to leave, then stopped. "Sir. If I may."

  "What is it, Ken?"

  "You won the fight," Ken said quietly. "You survived. You protected the secret. But... you do not look like a victor."

  Lloyd laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "There are no victors in a civil war, Ken. Only survivors."

  Chapter : 1708

  The official narrative solidified into fact. The court, the guilds, and the public accepted the story of the eccentric Ice Queen’s sudden spiritual pilgrimage. It fit the persona Rosa had cultivated for years—cold, distant, and singularly devoted to the pursuit of power. The tension in the capital regarding the potential scandal involving Mina evaporated, buried under the convenient news of Rosa’s departure.

  But for Lloyd, the lie was a physical weight, a lead vest he wore under his shirt every day.

  He finally went to see Mina. He couldn't avoid it any longer. She had been sending discreet messages, her anxiety palpable even in the ink on the page.

  She was in her private quarters at the Siddik estate, still maintaining the ruse of a lingering illness to explain her seclusion. When Lloyd entered, the air in the room seemed to vibrate with her tension. She looked up, her face pale, her hands resting protectively over her stomach. She saw the fresh bandages peeking out from under his high collar, the new, deep lines etched around his eyes, and the way he held his left arm stiffly against his side.

  "Lloyd," she breathed, standing up too quickly. She swayed, and he rushed forward to steady her, guiding her back to the sofa. "You're hurt. What happened? Rosa... she was here. She knew. She went to find you."

  Lloyd sat across from her. He looked at the woman he loved, the mother of his unborn child. He saw the fear in her eyes—fear for him, fear for her sister, fear for the future.

  He knew he could not tell her the truth.

  If he told Mina that Rosa had turned into a monster of black ice, that she had tried to kill him, and that he had tricked her into believing she was a murderer to save his own life... it would destroy Mina. The guilt would kill her. She would blame herself for turning her sister into a demon. She would carry the weight of Rosa’s madness for the rest of her life.

  He had to protect her. That was the job. That was the burden of the General.

  "She found me," Lloyd said, his voice steady, devoid of the chaos that raged in his memory.

  Mina gasped, her grip on his hand tightening. "Did she... did she hurt you?"

  "We argued," Lloyd said. It was the truth, but a sanitized, hollowed-out version of it. "She was angry, Mina. Rightfully so. She unleashed her power. It was... intense. The town took some damage."

  "And then?" Mina whispered. "Where is she? Is she coming back?"

  Lloyd looked her in the eye. He summoned every ounce of his acting ability, every trick he had learned in eighty years of life and war. He made his face a mask of regretful resignation.

  "She is not coming back," Lloyd said softly. "She realized... she realized that there was nothing left for her here. The anger burned out, Mina. And when it was gone, she just felt empty."

  He squeezed Mina’s hand. "She chose to leave. She said she needed to find a place where the cold didn't hurt. She flew north. She didn't say when, or if, she would return."

  Mina let out a long, shuddering breath, a sound that was half sob, half relief. She slumped back against the cushions, tears streaming down her face.

  "Oh, Rosa," she wept. "My poor, proud sister. She must be so lonely."

  "It was her choice," Lloyd lied. The words tasted like ash. It hadn't been a choice; it had been a psychological checkmate. He had forced her into exile with a phantom corpse. But Mina couldn't know that. "She needs time. She needs to be away from us. Away from the pain."

  Mina looked down at her stomach, her voice a trembling whisper. "I am so sorry, Lloyd. I should have told you the truth the moment I knew. If I hadn't been so secretive, maybe Rosa wouldn't have been so blindsided. I was just so afraid of breaking your focus."

  Lloyd reached out, taking her hands in his. His gaze was steady, devoid of the surprise she expected. "Mina, look at me. I’ve known for over a month."

  Mina gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "A month? But... how? I was so careful with the tonics and the clothing."

  "My [All-Seeing Eye] doesn't just see through armor and stone, Mina," Lloyd said softly. "It sees the rhythm of life. I saw the second heartbeat forming the very first morning you came to the lab after the archives. I’ve watched that tiny spark grow every day we worked together."