Bitter Acceptance
The Palace of Lucia, Four Days Later
The air felt different.
Colder.
Still.
Thomas stood alone in the high western archives, fingers ghosting over the spine of a book he'd read a dozen times before.
He wasn't looking at it.
Not really.
He was listening.
Footsteps echoed through the stone halls, measured, purposeful.
Not a servant.
Not Elyra.
Guards.
A knock.
Before he could answer, the doors opened.
"Master Thomas Le Snow," came the voice of Chancellor Marev, flanked by two royal sentries.
"By royal decree, you are to accompany us"
Thomas didn't flinch.
Not at first.
"On what grounds?" he asked calmly.
The Chancellor didn't blink.
"Treason"
He met Thomas's eyes.
And something in his face twisted, like even he didn't believe the words he was saying.
"I see," Thomas whispered.
They didn't shackle him.
That was the first sign.
They didn't take him through the main halls.
That was the second.
Through the servant corridors, down the side staircases, beneath the palace proper.
To the old holding cells.
Empty, unused.
A place built for shame, not justice.
They left him with a single candle and a cot that smelled of mildew.
He sat in silence for hours, the cold seeping into his bones.
He didn't ask for Elyra.
He already knew she wouldn't come.
The Throne Room, the Next Morning
It was private, as private as such things could be.
No public trial.
No audience.
Just the King.
Chancellor Marev.
A few High Lords.
And Elyra.
She stood at her father's side, expression blank, hands clasped in front of her.
She wore the royal colors.
Hair braided in the formal style.
He didn't meet her eyes.
He couldn't.
"Thomas Le Snow," the King intoned.
"You stand accused of high treason, of seducing the heir to the throne, of corrupting the purity of the royal line, and conspiring to interfere with royal succession"
Thomas said nothing.
The King's voice echoed.
"You are a brilliant man. A respected man. You have served this kingdom for twelve years with honor"
"But your actions have made a mockery of your station"
Still, Thomas didn't speak.
Because what was there to say?
He hadn't seduced Elyra.
He hadn't conspired.
He had only loved her.
And that, in the end, was the greatest crime of all.
"..."
Well, maybe he should have been a poet instead of a scholar.
"You will be exiled," the King declared.
"Stripped of title and memory"
That part made him blink.
Memory?
He looked up.
And saw the royal mage step forward, robed in ceremonial black, fingers already glowing with the arcane.
"No—"
But it was too late.
The spell struck like lightning—
No incantation.
No warning.
Just power.
A surge of heat, a cracking sound like glass breaking behind his eyes—
Thomas staggered.
His mouth opened in a scream, but no sound came out.
His knees hit the marble.
His vision fractured.
And then—
Darkness.
Somewhere Far From Lucia
The sun was high.
The grass swayed gently in the wind, thick with wildflowers and silence.
He awoke in a quiet field, face to the sky, eyes unfocused.
He sat up slowly, as if waking from a deep and terrible sleep.
His fingers curled into the dirt.
His breath came slow, unfamiliar.
Clothes plain.
Boots worn.
A small satchel lay beside him.
No insignia.
No coin.
No clue.
His hand brushed his chest, no wounds.
But inside, it ached like something had been carved out of him.
He frowned at the horizon.
Then at his hands.
Then—
"…What was I…"
No name came.
No place.
Just a blur of books, stars, and—
A girl.
Golden hair.
Eyes like the sea.
A laugh soft as wind in the trees.
Gone.
He reached for the image, and it slipped through his grasp like water.
All that remained was the whisper of a name.
Elyra.
But it meant nothing.
Not anymore.
For his headache was no longer, and yet… he felt the need to keep walking to a certain place.
The Royal Gardens of Lucia, That Same Evening
Elyra knelt beside the old stone fountain, the one tucked between the rose hedges.
The one he had always liked best.
The stars were beginning to emerge overhead.
She held a handkerchief tight in her fists.
No one had spoken to her since the trial.
No one dared.
She had not spoken either.
Not to her father.
Not to Marev.
Not to the mage whose spell had made it all possible.
She was Queen-to-be.
The people would say she had done what must be done.
But they didn't see the way she curled in on herself once the doors were closed.
Didn't hear her cry at night.
Didn't feel the phantom warmth of arms that would never hold her again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, voice breaking.
"I'm so, so sorry."
The roses swayed.
The stars wheeled overhead.
And far away, beneath that same sky, a nameless man walked.
Each step is unsure, but he moves forward all the same.
Something guided him.
Not memory.
No reason.
Just a feeling, deep in his bones, like the shadow of a forgotten promise.
He walked through forests painted silver by moonlight, past streams that sang to him in a voice he didn't recognize, over hills that seemed both foreign and achingly familiar.
Days passed.
Maybe weeks.
He did not know where he was going.
Only that he must go.
Lucia, One Year Later
The Queen did not smile anymore.
Her coronation had been beautiful, a gown of starlight silk.
Crowds singing her name.
A kingdom reborn in gold and celebration.
But the roses had withered.
And she no longer visited the observatory.
She ruled wisely.
Fairly.
Distantly.
At night, she sometimes dreamed of constellations and someone pointing to them, explaining with quiet wonder.
She would wake before the dream ended.
Before she could see his face.
Every time.
Elsewhere, A Seaside Town
He took the name Aster.
It was a flower, someone had told him.
Like the ones that grew in the field where he'd awoken.
He lived simply.
Helped at a bookshop.
Watched the stars from his attic window, never knowing why they made him feel safe.
Or sad.
Some nights, he would hum a melody he could not place.
A lullaby from another life.
And though he could not remember the words or the face that once sang them, his heart would ache.
And his hands would tremble.
And the stars would weep quietly above.
The Seaside Town / Two Years Later
The morning was quiet.
Too quiet.
He noticed it in the way the waves didn't sing, how the old man at the stall didn't meet his eyes, how the baker forgot to smile.
Rain touched the edges of the sky.
Distant thunder rolled.
By evening, it began.
Three riders.
No insignia.
No announcement.
Just a knock.
He opened the door.
A sharp sound, like a string snapping.
The arrow hit clean, just left of his heart.
He looked down.
Then up.
And said nothing.
There was no one to speak to.
He fell backward, into shelves of books and paper and silence.
The tea he'd made that morning still sat cooling by the window.
The rain came soon after, washing the blood into the floorboards, into the earth.
The Next Morning, The Queen's Quarters
"He was found," Marev said.
A pause.
"He's gone"
Elyra said nothing.
Not for a long time.
Then, softly—
"Did he remember?"
"We don't believe so"
"I see"
She dismissed them with a flick of her fingers.
The door closed behind them.
And then she broke.
Not loudly.
Not with screams or shattered glass.
She simply folded onto the floor and wept into her hands, like a girl who had never been taught how to be a queen.
The Observatory That Night
No one followed her there.
The doors were old, dust thick on the handles.
She walked slowly, past memories sealed in glass and brass and silence.
At the center, beneath the domed sky, she stopped.
Stars glittered above.
She remembered a voice.
"That one's Perseia. The Queen's Crown"
He had said it with a smile.
Long ago.
She tilted her head back and whispered to the ceiling, to the stars, to no one.
"I never stopped loving you"
And the stars—
For once—
Did not shine.
- ??? -
"Ow, my head!"
The boy blinked up at the tree above him, an apple rolling off his chest into the grass.
A servant rushed over from the garden path, wide-eyed.
"Young Master! Are you alright?"
He sat up, rubbing his head.
"Yeah, yeah… just… dreaming, I guess"
"Dreaming from an apple?" the servant asked, trying not to smile.
He didn't answer.
He was too distracted by the echo still ringing in his ears—
A woman's voice.
Soft.
Aching.
"I never stopped loving you"
"Big broooother!" a voice called from the house.
"You promised you'd take us riding!"
He turned, spotting his two sisters waving from the balcony.
Elara, the youngest, clutched her plush fox tightly.
While Liora, already dressed and eager, had her boots on and was ready to go.
He smiled.
"Coming!" he called back, standing slowly.
The sky was blue.
The grass was warm.
He dusted off his coat, picked up the fallen apple, and walked toward the stables.
The soft sound of hooves greeted him as he reached his horse, Rogue.
"Ready for a ride, old friend?"
Behind him, his sisters followed, eager to join him.
Liora's excited chatter and Elara's giggles filled the air as they saddled their horses.
Rowan mounted his horse, the reins firm in his hands.
As they rode out of the courtyard and into the open fields, he felt the cool wind rush past, sweeping away any lingering thoughts.
This was what mattered.
His sisters.
The ride.
The freedom of the fields.
Liora was already chatting excitedly about their next adventure, and Elara, clutching her plush fox, hummed a gentle tune as they all rode together.
The rolling hills stretched ahead, the wild grass rippling in the wind, and the distant forest beckoned with its comforting shade.
Rowan breathed in the fresh air, his chest light as he soaked in the vastness of the open land.
As the sun began to lower in the sky, Liora broke the silence.
"Race you back!" she shouted, urging her horse into a gallop.
"Hey, no fair!" Elara squealed, quick to follow.
Rowan smirked but didn't rush.
He allowed them to race ahead while he kept at his own pace, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his face.
Soon, they reached the edge of the estate again, where the warm light of the house beckoned.
Rowan slowed Rogue, bringing him to a gentle trot, and the others followed, all of them laughing.
"Race you next time," Rowan called to his sisters, his voice full of amusement.
Elara giggled.
"Next time, I'll win!"
"Sure you will," Rowan teased, giving her a playful wink.
They arrived at the stables, the horses eager to be returned to their stalls.
As they dismounted, the smell of supper began to waft from the house, a warm invitation to end the day.
"Father and Mother must be waiting," Rowan said, stretching his arms.
Liora and Elara nodded eagerly, and the three of them walked back to the house together.
Inside, the fire crackled, and the sounds of the evening preparations filled the air.
The table was set, and their parents were waiting, smiles on their faces as they greeted their children.
Rowan felt a familiar warmth fill his chest as he joined his family at the table.
This was home.
A Week Later
The wind rustled through the trees, warm and gentle, carrying the sweet scent of wildflowers.
A soft blanket lay spread over the grassy hill, sunlight dappling its fabric between the swaying shadows of leaves above.
Liora passed a small tart to Elara, who cradled her plush fox like a guest at the royal table.
Rowan leaned back on his elbows, watching them with a quiet, contented smile.
"Think we'll see the deer again?" Elara asked, eyes wide with wonder.
"Not with your stomping," Liora teased, poking her with a berry-stained finger.
Rowan chuckled.
"You scared them off last time when you tried to name them"
"I did not!" Elara huffed.
He closed his eyes, letting their voices drift over him like music.
This was what life was meant to be.
And then, silence.
A weight settled in the air.
Even the birds fell quiet.
Rowan's eyes snapped open.
His senses prickled.
A low, guttural growl rumbled through the trees.
He stood.
"Girls. Behind me. Now!"
Liora froze.
Elara clutched her fox tighter.
The bear emerged slowly at first, then with terrifying speed.
Its fur was matted, its eyes crazed.
Thin.
Desperate.
Rowan didn't think.
He stepped forward, blade already drawn.
"Run," he said again, quieter this time, but firm.
"Rowan—" Liora reached for him.
"Go!"
They ran.
The bear lunged.
Rowan moved quickly, practiced, and precisely, but the blade was too small.
His footing was unsure.
The beast's weight was too great.
He drove the knife into its shoulder and twisted it.
The bear roared, swiping with a massive claw that tore into his side.
Pain exploded through him, but he held on, using all his strength to drag the monster away from where his sisters had fled.
Another blow knocked him to the ground.
Breathless.
Bleeding.
The sun broke through the trees again, warm on his face.
He thought of Elara's laugh.
Of Liora's eyes when she smiled.
He thought of how peaceful the sky looked, even now.
And he felt the tears welling up, knowing that he'd never hugged them again.
Never sing them silly songs.
"Mom, Dad… this useless son is… sorry"
Then, the world faded.
[ - NEW SKILL -]
[ IRON WILL ]
- ??? -
Yuto's eyes fluttered open.
A blur of light greeted him, then the sharp sensation of an unfamiliar coldness biting into his skin.
He gasped, disoriented.
His body ached, every muscle, every joint, like he'd been battered and bruised.
But none of that explained the emptiness gnawing at his chest, the confusion swirling in his head.
Where was he?
The last thing he remembered was... a bear.
His sisters.
The pain.
The end of so many different lives.
He sat up quickly, his heart pounding in his chest, only to be met with the sight of an endless void stretching out before him, shadows twisting and swirling like a darkened ocean.
He couldn't place his surroundings.
The world didn't make sense.
A dissonance between his mind and his body.
He stood shakily, his breath coming in uneven gasps.
"What... even am I?"
The emptiness seemed to answer him with only silence.
No birds, no wind.
Just the hum of his heartbeat in the void.
"Elise..." he muttered, his voice tinged with a familiar frustration, a spark of recognition.
The sense that she was watching, always watching.
He knew what came next, but he was done with it.
He didn't want another moment of cryptic riddles.
"Elise!" he called out, his voice raw with anger, frustration thick in the air around him.
"Enough of this. I've had enough of the games. No more mysteries. No more bullshit!"
The void seemed to pulse, a ripple of energy passing through the darkness.
A figure appeared before him, tall and looming: Elise, her presence unmistakable.
But she was different this time.
There was a coldness to her, a distance that hadn't been there before.
"Oh," she said softly, but there was a hint of sorrow in her voice.
"You have returned"
Yuto clenched his fists, anger bubbling up from the pit of his stomach.
"I'm done with this cycle. I'm done with being dragged into this... this game!"
"You are... always the same," she said.
"Every time you return, you carry the same rage, the same confusion"
"But you are never the same, Yuto. You never understand. Not yet"
"I don't care," Yuto snapped, his voice sharp.
He took a step forward.
"I'm done dying for no reason. I've died so many times, and it's never made any sense"
"I've lost everything... for nothing. And you… You keep pulling me back here"
"Why? Why do I keep coming back to die again?"
The world around them trembled, the shadows swirling faster, tightening.
Elise didn't move, didn't react, she simply watched him with that unreadable gaze.
"You've died for a reason, Yuto," she said.
"But that reason... is not one you are ready to understand"
"Stop it!" Yuto roared, his voice echoing through the vast space.
"I don't want to hear your bullshit! I want answers! I want to know what's going on"
Elise's gaze softened ever so slightly, though there was no pity in her eyes, only the same distant sadness she always carried.
"This… isn't the first time you asked that"
"..."
"..."
There was a long silence.
And then, for the first time, Elise spoke words that were not a riddle.
"You are a hero and a villain," she said, her voice quiet but unshakable.
"But not in the way you think. Your death was not the end"
"Your pain... will shape the future. But you must choose how it shapes you"
"That is your path"
Yuto's jaw tightened.
He was so tired of this.
But something in her words made the tension in his chest loosen slightly.
The future.
The path.
He was done with waiting.
Done with wondering.
"So what's next, huh?" he asked, his voice low but steady.
"Tell me what you want me to do. No more cryptic shit. I've earned the right to know"
Elise's eyes narrowed, but she didn't speak immediately.
It was as if she were weighing something deep within.
Then, finally, she nodded.
"Your journey is far from over, Yuto. But this time... this time, you will choose your own path"
He stared at her, his fists clenched at his sides.
"And if I don't like the path you've set for me?"
"You will create your own," she replied, her voice calm, yet the weight of her words settled in the air like a challenge.
"But it will not be easy. There will be trials, obstacles, and moments where you question everything"
"You will face yourself in ways you have never done before"
He stood there in the dark, feeling the weight of those words settle over him.
He had never asked for this.
He never asked to be a hero.
To be a fucked up villain that people still manage to love.
He saw more lives than he cared to share.
Each death seemed more pointless than the next one, and each only gave him more blessings and skills that he felt only came from pity.
Why?
Why did he have to die just to earn nothing?
No truth.
No answers.
Mere riddles and visions of a cruel world, or at least cruel to him.
He did see the truth of the old hero… of the demon prince… but that's not a life he wants to remember, at least not now.
Not when he saw over 100,000,000 different lives in the span of what felt like a second.
"Heh… hehehe… HAHAHAHA!"
His laughter was a shallow, empty sound, like the air being exhaled from old, worn-out bellows.
His body felt drained, aching with the weight of the countless lives he had lived and lost.
He stood there in the void, silent for a moment, the heaviness of everything he had seen settling deep in his bones.
He took a slow breath as if trying to steady himself, but the exhaustion never left.
"I've seen too much," he muttered, his voice rough from too many words left unsaid.
His eyes wandered, but the void stretched on, unchanging.
"I don't know what your train of thought was… showing me everything all at once"
His gaze turned toward Elise, distant but still present, watching him with that unreadable look.
His frustration was gone, replaced with something quieter.
Something far more bitter.
"I don't even know what I'm supposed to be anymore," he said quietly, shaking his head.
"Hell… I don't even know what part of me is real and what part is not"
He laughed again, but it was hollow, devoid of the anger he had once felt.
There was no fight left in him.
"I don't want to be part of this anymore," he murmured.
"I'm tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of the dying, and the losing, and the endless... nothing"
"I just... I just want it to end. Can't it all stop?"
She finally stepped forward, arms opened wide.
"You saw everything… so that means–"
"Yes… I remember our relationship, its nature, how we feel, and yet right now, I feel nothing"
"Can you blame me?" he whispered, his voice felt empty.
Elise's eyes softened at his words, and for a moment, Yuto could have sworn he saw something flicker there.
Something more than the usual distance, more than the impartial figure she had always been.
"Can I blame you?" she repeated quietly, her voice carrying a weight he wasn't used to hearing from her.
"No, Yuto. You've carried more than anyone should ever have to. I understand the toll it's taken"
"The burden of so many lives, of so many deaths, all crashing into you at once"
He let out a slow, bitter laugh, but this time, it lacked the hollow edge it had before.
His chest felt lighter somehow, even if only just for a moment.
"I should be used to it by now. But no matter how many times I die, I never really learn anything, do I?"
His voice cracked as he continued, "It's never enough, Elise. It's never enough just to keep going"
"I keep losing people... her... every damn time!"
The emptiness around him seemed to pulse, almost as if it could feel his despair, and for a second, Yuto thought he saw a faint trace of something familiar in the void, a memory, a face he longed to see again.
Mizuki's face, her smile, and her eyes softened when they looked at him.
But it was gone in an instant.
"I don't know who I am anymore," he whispered, his voice quieter now, almost fragile.
"Am I the hero they think I am?"
"Or just some moron that was lucky enough to receive your love?"
Elise's presence drew closer, though she did not touch him.
She only stood beside him, close enough that he could feel the weight of her words sink deep within him.
"You are the hero, yes. But you are also the man who loves, grieves, and falters"
"That is the truth of it, Yuto. And there's nothing wrong with that"
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"What about me is so important that you keep giving me another chance at life? Why do you love me?"
Elise didn't answer right away.
Her gaze lingered on him, not as a goddess, but as something closer, quieter.
Human, almost.
The tension in the void seemed to pull taut between them.
"You ask why I love you," she said at last.
Her voice was steady but not cold.
"And maybe it's time you saw it for yourself"
Before he could respond, the space around them shifted.
Light bloomed from nowhere, soft but growing in intensity.
It wasn't harsh or blinding; it felt clean and clear, like spring water pouring into old cracks.
They pulsed with light.
"Elise… what is this?"
"My blessing," she said simply.
"Not a weapon. Not armor. Just... clarity. The strength to hold on. To remember who you are, no matter how many lives pass"
He swallowed hard.
"This doesn't feel like a gift," he muttered.
"It's not," she said.
"It's a truth. One you've always had, but couldn't see through the noise"
"You think you've forgotten how to love. How to feel. But it's still there. Buried, not broken"
The light steadied around him, wrapping into his form, not overtaking it, but settling like it belonged.
"Why give this to me now?" he asked quietly.
"Because you're finally ready to carry it," she said.
"..."
He closed his eyes.
"Alright," he said.
"One more time"
Elise nodded once.
"One more time"
[ - NEW BLESSING - ]
[ ??? ]