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The atmosphere in the room had settled into an odd sense of normalcy—or, at least, as normal as it could be after everything that had happened in the past few hours.
Venus and I exchanged a lot of words, and I finally accepted him as my grandpa.
Though calling him grandpa on a daily basis would have to wait.
Ma had begrudgingly accepted that we weren't trying to kill each other, and for the first ti since stepping into the Roro state, I didn't feel like a complete outsider.
Then the bell rang.
A single chi.
Sharp, clear, and deliberate.
The sound cut through the air like a knife.
Venus stilled. Sylvie's fingers tightened around her cup and I lowered my hand, eyes narrowing.
No one should have rung that bell.
No one should even know I was here.
The Roro estate wasn't a place where people simply dropped by.
It was a fortress hidden behind layers of security, surrounded by barriers, and occupied by so of the most dangerous individuals in the empire.
The only ones who could enter without explicit permission were direct family mbers or those personally invited by Venus.
Yet, soone had co.
One of the guards outside shifted uncertainly before stepping forward. "My lord," he said carefully, "shall we send them away?"
Venus didn't imdiately answer. He leaned back, tapping his fingers against the armrest of his chair, expression unreadable.
I glanced at Sylvie. She didn't look any more at ease than I felt.
Sothing about this didn't sit right.
Venus exhaled. "No," he finally said. "Let them in."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're just going to call them in?"
Venus smirked slightly. "A person who walks into a lion's den uninvited must either be very bold or very foolish.
Either way, I'd like to see who it is."
The guard hesitated, then nodded. "As you wish."
The door opened.
And in stepped the last person I expected to see.
I nearly smacked him in the face.
It was pure instinct—the second I saw him, my body tensed, my fingers twitched, and I almost sent his head flying before my mind caught up with my eyes.
The boy—no, man—before was not what I had anticipated.
Tall, lean, and draped in a plain black coat over dark, loose-fitting clothes, he moved with an eerie, soundless grace.
His ink-black hair was long and unkempt, strands falling ssily over his forehead, brushing against his lashes.
It was too long for a noble, too wild for a warrior, and too unruly for soone who cared about appearance.
But his eyes—
His eyes were what struck first.
A piercing shade of deep violet, unnatural in their intensity.
Not golden. Not hazel.
Not the signature color of the Roro bloodline.
That alone should have made him an outlier, an anomaly, a stranger.
Yet, I knew him.
Even before he spoke, even before I fully processed the sight of him, a mory clicked into place like a long-forgotten puzzle piece.
"Hello... brother." I breathed.
His violet gaze flickered toward . "You rember ."
It wasn't a question.
I exhaled sharply, forcing my muscles to relax. "Unfortunately."
Lucas blinked slowly, as if processing my words one at a ti, then gave a small nod. "That makes things easier."
Sylvie stared at him, then at , then back at him. "That's Lucas?"
Venus, still lounging in his chair, let out a soft chuckle. "He's grown, hasn't he?"
Grown?
That was an understatent.
The Lucas I rembered had been a quiet, shadow-like boy, always lingering in the background, always watching.
He had never spoken when he was supposed to, never responded the way people expected, and never, ever seed to grasp the proper timing of a conversation.
I rembered the first ti we had t as a child.
We were 5 years old back then—
I'd made the mistake of asking his na, and he had stared at for a full thirty seconds before saying, "I like the way blood looks on white fabric."
It had been the single most unsettling introduction of my life.
He had never been cruel, never malicious—but he had always been off.
An anomaly in the Roro bloodline.
He didn't have our golden eyes. He didn't have our instinct for political manoeuvring.
He didn't have our need for power or our thirst for control.
Instead, he had a sharp, calculating mind that worked in strange, unpredictable ways.
He had always been brutally honest, never understanding the point of lies or deception, and had a habit of saying things that made everyone around him uncomfortable.
It wasn't that he didn't feel emotions. He simply expressed them differently.
He had been the odd one. The strange child no one knew what to do with.
And now, he stood before , taller, sharper, and still utterly unreadable.
"Your hair's too long," I said before I could stop myself.
Lucas reached up, grabbing a fistful of his ssy locks as if just realizing the length. He stared at it for a mont, then shrugged. "It grew."
Sylvie muttered sothing under her breath.
I sighed. "No shit, it grew."
Lucas tilted his head slightly. "You look different, too."
"Obviously," I muttered. "It's been years."
He nodded. "Yes. Ti does that."
Lucas suddenly walked up to , squinting as he inspected my face. "Hmm… the dark circles under your eyes have gotten worse. And your skin is paler than I rember.
Are you sick? Dying?
Have you perhaps got a disease that will soon lead to your untily death?"
Venus let out a wheezing laugh.
I was two seconds away from throwing this guy out the window.
Ughhh
"I'm not dying," I gritted my teeth. "But you might be in a few minutes."
Lucas nodded slowly. "Homicidal tendencies. Noted."
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, counting to ten in my head.
This was fine.
I could handle this.
I had survived worse.
Damien, ever the instigator, crackled in my mind. "OH, THIS IS GOLDEN. NOAH, YOU'VE T YOUR MATCH."
Venus chuckled.
Sylvie groaned.
I dragged a hand down my face. "You still don't know when to shut up, do you?"
Lucas considered that. "No."
I stared at him. He stared back.
Nothing had changed.
I gave Venus a helpless look. "Do sothing."
Venus rely smiled. "I am doing sothing. I'm enjoying the show."
Lucas continued as if we hadn't spoken. "Also, you didn't die."
I narrowed my eyes. "No, I didn't die."
He tilted his head slightly. "That's surprising."
"..."
I almost threw my chair at basta-
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