Chapter 65 Kaelion’s doubts

"Don't go yourself , Varros. If Kaelion set this up,if it's a trap. Then send a coupleof low levels guild members."

Rin's voice was calm, but his words were pointed. Varros hesitated for only a moment before nodding.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Rin vanished into the wind a few moments later, white wings stretching like knives across the sky. Varros looked down at the coordinates in his hand. A trap? Could it really be? He turned and began preparing the backup plan, just in case.

Far away, hidden among a dead grove overlooking the rocky terrain near the hostage site, Kaelion Solas stood in silence, golden armor glinting beneath a dark cloak.

"Still nothing," one of his personal guards murmured. "Should we engage the hired men?"

Kaelion didn't answer at first. He gazed through a spyglass at the clearing ahead.

"They're not moving," he finally muttered. "It wasn't Varros… Rin went himself."

The hired assassins he'd baited were meant to test his little brother's instincts. If it was Rin, the real Rin, he would have died by now. He wouldn't think like that. He wouldn't anticipate the trap. He wouldn't have sent warning. And yet…

Kaelion lowered the spyglass.

"Retreat."

"What?"

"Pull back. He didn't show up. Only his men. No need to waste time."

He turned his back on the scene with a scowl.

---

Kaelion hadn't been sleeping well.

He had been thinking. Thinking too much.

He remembered the last time he'd seen Rin before the Northern campaign. The boy had been quiet. His eyes,always a bit soft,had grown unreadable. His posture was tense, but his presence… overwhelming.

He's stronger now, Kaelion had thought. Finally, he's growing. He can protect himself.

But that wasn't all. Something else had changed.

Kaelion had raised him. He had trained him. Molded him.

This wasn't growth. This was transformation.

That's not the boy I raised.

So, to be cautious, Kaelion assigned two of his personal guardians to watch Rin in secret. "Protect him," he had said. "My brother's safety is a priority."

But even as he gave that order, he reached out to his agents in the North,four highly skilled operatives. He tasked them with a mission under the table:

Test him. Hurt him, if needed. I need to know what he's become.if you got caught in a problem don't say i sent you, even if it costed you your lives.

If Rin was still Rin, he'd be overwhelmed. The guardians would have to save him. And maybe, just maybe, he'd return.

But what came back wasn't the boy he remembered. It was a monster cloaked in armor.

Only Rin survived. The four agents were obliterated. No witnesses. No evidence. Just a message sent through shadows: Rin had walked away alive,and alone.

Now, Kaelion paced his study like a beast locked in its own cage.

He summoned Arkan.

"It doesn't make sense," Kaelion growled. "He's too different. He speaks like a ruler, acts like a warlord. He lies. He manipulates. He kills. That's not Rin."

Arkan adjusted his long robes and leaned calmly against the stone table. "It's not uncommon, Your Highness, for men to change in war."

Kaelion slammed a fist into the table. "This isn't change. This is replacement."

Arkan paused. "You think someone possessed him?"

"I'm not sure. But I know this,that thing isn't Rin. He acts like him, sure. He even remembers things. But there's no emotion, no familiarity. He's cold towards everyone here, even towards people who were his friends."

Arkan chuckled lightly. "Possession isn't so simple. When someone reaches the Soul Stage, they can invade a body, yes. But the soul rejects foreign influence. The host begins to rot. It collapses within 2 or 3 years."

Kaelion leaned forward. "What if it wasn't a Soul Stage? What if it was higher?"

Arkan's smile faded slightly.

"If someone that strong possessed him… why would they pretend to be Rin? Why choose him out of anyone?"

Kaelion didn't answer. His golden eyes narrowed in thought.

"And even if that were true," Arkan continued, "wouldn't the Emperor sense such a powerful entity inside the royal bloodline?"

Kaelion clenched his jaw.

"He's not fooling me," he finally whispered. "He thinks he's clever,turning the Varros against me, gathering power, executing nobles. But he miscalculated."

Kaelion turned toward the balcony, watching the clouds pass slowly over the capital.

"I raised my brother. I know him better than everyone. I know the light in his eyes. That thing wearing his skin… killed him."

He gripped the railing so hard the stone cracked.

"I will not stop until I make it suffer. Slowly. In ways even hell itself would envy."

---

Then came the news. More whispers.

Rin had held a brutal event. Executions by the hundreds. Thousands of prisoners dead. Rumors of his power spreading like wildfire. Nobles switching sides.

And most damning of all… it was Rin, he thought , who slaughtered Isen Varros' sons.

He's spreading chaos. War. Dismantling everything I built.

Kaelion sat down in silence, hands steepled together.

No matter what he told the others, he knew deep in his bones:

That… is not my brother.

That… is my enemy.