Episode-854
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."