Kaden remained silent at the revelation, his mind still reeling from the words Aurora had just uttered, countless thoughts dancing erratically inside his head.

A slave? An Asterion a slave to another Asterion?

"How is that even possible?" Kaden blurted out, his voice thick with disbelief, his brows furrowed deeply. He stepped closer to Aurora and sat before her on a chair formed from condensed blood, suddenly finding standing unbearably heavy.

Aurora leaned forward, taking hold of his right hand and absentmindedly playing with his fingers, her voice echoing softly,

"Lady Sora did something considered humiliating and unacceptable to the Asterion back in her youth," Aurora revealed.

Kaden's frown deepened. "Don't tell me it's related to her creation of music? It cannot be that, certainly not. That would be too unreasonable!"

Aurora chuckled humorlessly. "Don't you know them by now?" she whispered, her fingers brushing over the softness of his palm. "The Asterion are people who think themselves above everyone, even above us, the Starborn and Moonborn, despite sharing the same roots."

She slowly raised her eyes to meet his, a faint smile curling her lips. "If her son can be ready to kill me for his goal, then she can certainly curse and enslave her own sister to calm the rage of dissatisfied nobles."

"It cannot be only that," Kaden countered.

"Of course it's not," Aurora agreed. "She did it to ensure her position would remain unchallenged."

"You might not know the Asterion's customs, so let me tell you," she said, intertwining her fingers with his. Her lips curved upward before she continued, "The Asterion are a family that can marry anyone outside their bloodline and still make them bear the Asterion's lineage."

Kaden tilted his head, confusion and shock painted clearly across his face. "What?"

Aurora continued,"They possess an ancestral ritual that can transform an ordinary person into one bearing their blood. That's how they ensure only Suns are ever born and why, no matter who wins their game of thrones, a Sun will always rule the empire."

"That's also, Fraud, why they're forbidden to marry a Moonborn or Starborn. The ritual doesn't work on us. Our bloodlines are equal to theirs, born from the same roots. If they ever integrated us, it would make it possible for a Moon or Star to rule the empire instead."

At that, she couldn't help but chuckle bitterly. "How blind must I have been not to see the flaw in Solaris's promise to marry me?"

Kaden listened in silence, the new information clicking pieces together in his mind.

So that was it.

That man, Luminary, had defied their ancestral rule.

But still…

"Why?" he inquired. "Why must the Sun rule?"

Aurora shrugged. "They say it's the instruction of Vesper Asterion, the Knower of Stars," she whispered. "He must have seen something in the stars that make him allow only the Asterion to keep the throne. So we obeyed, though we never understood why, nor whether that vision was ever true."

"For all we know, the Asterion created the myth to keep the throne for themselves. Yet we cannot be sure."

It was funny, in a way.

But it was how things were.

It was foolish to believe you must understand something in order to be affected by it. Even more foolish to believe that thing must be real to influence you.

'Well, something doesn't need to be real to sway people. It only needs to be believed by enough of them,' Aurora whispered inwardly, then continued aloud.

"As I said, the Asterion had only two daughters, the current Sun Empress and Lady Sora. The throne contest was between them, so the Sun Empress did everything she could to crush her rival, even if that rival was her own sister." She concluded, making Kaden's understanding deepen.

He nodded, his mind replaying everything he'd just heard, then asked, "Is that all we know about her?" Still thinking of Lady Sora, of the fact she was, horrifyingly, a slave to her own sister.

Aurora sighed and nodded. "A being like her would never unveil herself to anyone, not even to her son," she said. "But we have a lead." She looked at him, Kaden reading her intent.

He frowned slightly.

"You might not fancy the idea," Aurora said, squeezing his hand tighter, "but Lady Sora is our way to the Sun Empress."

"It doesn't necessarily mean we need to hurt her." She leaned in, resting her chin on his left shoulder. "It means we must be careful and ingenious enough to use her relationship with the Sun Empress to get what we want."

"Don't forget our goals, Fraud," Aurora whispered.

"Can you imagine?" Her voice turned cold, her body trembling with silent fury. "I lost years of my life, left with only two to live, because of the Asterion's machinations. I am not the only one. My parents died because of them. And Lady Sora is in this state because of them."

She paused to steady herself.

"I need the Asterion down, Fraud. And you want the same as I, don't you?"

Kaden nodded and smiled faintly. "I do."

"So are you ready?"

"I have to be."

Aurora smiled and hugged him, the bravado withered, revealing the fragile, determined girl she had become.

"Will we be okay?" she breathed, knowing full well the madness of what they planned. They were about to move against an entire empire, and she was about to betray her own blood, something Aurora had never imagined.

She had believed she was meant to die for the one who gave her the love she deserved, only to realize it had all been a lie.

So she would fight. She craved vengeance against the Asterion.

They said hunger for revenge poisons the soul.

Aurora's arms tightened around Kaden. 'Then let my soul be poison,' she whispered coldly.

Kaden felt her turmoil and smiled faintly, thinking at last that it was indeed time to go mad.

"Do not worry," he said. "It will be okay."

If things went wrong, we could always restart.

After all…

"I already told you, keeping me dead is something even the gods would have to sweat over."

Aurora chuckled at his arrogance, and yet that arrogance made her feel strangely safe.

"Our first target?" Aurora asked playfully.

Kaden's grin widened.

"We have unfinished business with Lord Silver, haven't we?"

…

Fokay — Asterion, Tycoon's Merchant.

Nihilia Ra Smith.

Her full name. Since when had anyone called her by it? Or rather, since when had she even dared utter it herself?

Ah… she knew exactly when. It was that day…the day she swore upon The Will to become the slave of Mahina Moonborn.

Since that day, Old Smith had forbidden herself from speaking her name, as if by not doing so she could somehow — by some miracle — forget the truth that she was now owned by another.

Owned by someone whose heart was frost to everything and everyone except her own family. Someone who didn't care how much you bled, how much you hurt, or how much you cried, as long as the work was done exactly as commanded.

Yes, she wanted to forget. Because forgetting was far easier than living with the weight of being a slave.

But even forgetfulness was a mercy not meant for a deserter like her.

She lowered her head, staring at the right-hand wall of her room. Behind her stood Anthropologist and Abomination silently, still waiting for her to lead them to Dain.

She didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know what would happen if those monsters met Dain. But though Old Smith liked the boy, she still didn't wish to die.

There was too much left to accomplish. Too many sins left to atone for before she could allow anyone — or anything — to claim her life.

Her life was not her own. So she couldn't offer it up before her duties were done.

So let her be a slave. Let her be nothing more than a blacksmith looked down by others.

But she needed her life.

Her heartbeat climbed to her throat as she pressed her blood-soaked right hand to the wall. A rune flared into existence — a yellow one — and pulsed once, then twice. At the third pulse, a blinding golden light spread through the room, followed by the wall parting like a curtain.

A path revealed itself an underground passage veiled in restless shadows.

Old Smith turned her head, nodding stiffly to the two beings behind her before stepping slowly beyond the threshold.

"C-Careful," she whispered, her voice trembling. "The Empress left her own intent here to see who enters and who doesn't."

But the Crimson Veil's members came prepared.

Perks of having a Seer.

They activated an artifact shaped like a ring, and with their combined power and intent amplifying its effect, they easily bypassed Mahina's residual will.

Old Smith grew even more frightened, realizing with chilling clarity that they seemed to know everything.

Wordlessly, she led them deeper into the shadows. Yet the further they walked, the more the temperature rose, blisteringly so, and the louder the sound of hammer striking steel echoed around them, sharp and rhythmic, like music forged in fire.

The two grew curious.

Their descent continued for several minutes, climbing down a ladder until they reached solid ground. By then, the heat was enough to melt the bones of any Intermediate-ranked being in an instant.

Even Anthropologist, with his innate rocky body, found the place unbearable, his stony expression twisting into a rare frown.

But all such discomfort was forgotten when their eyes finally registered the scene before them. Instinctively, their hearts froze at the dreadful sight.

A few meters ahead, encircled by a domain of molten fire, stood a man, seven feet tall, his frame immense and powerful, though only the echo of it remained.

His entire body was engulfed in golden and yellow flames so searing that his flesh had melted away completely, leaving behind blazing red bones veined with cracks, each fissure exhaling thick, hissing steam.

His hair was no longer hair but a roaring conflagration of golden and yellow fire locked in violent dominance.

The skin on his face was half-gone, half-there making look like a grotesque fusion of flesh, bone, and flame.

He looked like a wrathful god of fire, his eyes spitting molten light, his mouth exhaling condensed infernos.

In his right hand, he gripped a colossal, worn-out hammer, striking down relentlessly upon a blazing red axe set on an anvil. On the axe lay a golden ring, half-melted into the weapon, each strike causing space itself to recoil in dread.

Around the axe — or rather, around the golden ring — circled a furious creature both Anthropologist and Abomination recognized: a fairy, this one shaped like a griffin made entirely of golden fire, battling viciously against the man's searing yellow flames.

"HAHAHAHAHAH!!" The young man laughed manically, even as his body turned slowly to ash.

"LET'S SEE, GRIFFIN! LET'S SEE WHO WILL PREVAIL!" he roared, bringing the hammer down again with terrifying precision.

The griffin screeched, its voice shrill with rage and agony, its claws blazing with golden fury as it lashed at him. "I WILL KILL YOU, DAIN! I WILL KILL YOU, DAIN WARBORN!"

Old Smith, Anthropologist, and Abomination watched, stunned by the impossible sight.

How could a being merely at the Grandmaster rank stand against the will of a mythical artifact, one bathed in the light of a god?

Was this man truly…?

The man, Dain Warborn — Firstborn of the Warborn Family, elder brother to Daela and Kaden Warborn — only laughed harder at the griffin's threats.

He raised his crumbling hammer, held together by sheer, unyielding will, his mouth and eyes blazing with divine flame.

And then, the hammer fell.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"

CLANK—!

—End Of Chapter 321—

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