A week quietly passed after Lia’s and Maximus’s reunion.
For several more days, the two of them remained inside William’s domain instead of returning to the outside world immediately. The time dilation within the domain allowed them to spend what felt like several peaceful years together while only a handful of days passed outside.
After everything they had endured, neither of them wished to waste even a single moment worrying about the outside world. They simply stayed together, speaking about everything they had been suppressing for years.
The invisible distance that had existed between them during their reunion gradually disappeared.
The guilt that weighed upon Maximus’s shoulders had not vanished, nor had Lia forgotten the suffering she had endured, but both of them slowly began learning how to live beside those painful memories instead of allowing them to dictate every moment of their lives. They were no longer attempting to recover what had been lost. Instead, they were carefully building something new upon the broken foundation of their past.
Eventually, the two of them expressed their wish to leave the domain and return to the real world. On being asked about Lia’s past that she had earlier refused to reveal, Lia wished that she could write it down in a journal comfortably rather than dictate it on her own. Nonetheless, her panic attacks had substantially lessened thanks to Maximus’s presence.
To William’s surprise, Kara stepped forward during the farewell, offering them a place to stay within the Babylon Empire for as long as they wished, promising them a place where they could quietly begin their lives again without worrying about outside interference.
Even being humans among beastkin would not be a problem, according to her.
Considering Kara’s position, her offer was more than simple hospitality. It was protection backed by the authority of an entire empire.
Neither Lia nor Maximus refused the offer; they were not stubborn and knew that they needed help. According to Maximus, there was no reason for him to return to the Sinclair Estate.
"I’ll only set foot in that place again when it’s time for revenge," he had said calmly. "Until then, I have nothing to do with that family."
There was no hesitation in his voice when he spoke those words. Whatever attachment he had once possessed toward the Sinclair family had long since died after his mother was murdered.
The Sinclair Estate was no longer his home. It was merely the place where the people he intended to destroy still happened to live.
William silently wondered how their arrangement would work in the coming weeks.
The academy’s break was scheduled to end within another week. Maximus, as a student, would eventually have to return to the academy, whereas Lia had never been admitted there in the first place. Their circumstances were still complicated, and practical problems would inevitably arise once everyday life resumed.
Even so, William decided not to ask any questions.
Those were matters that belonged to the two of them. After everything they had survived, they deserved the opportunity to solve those problems themselves without someone else interfering.
He had his own responsibilities waiting for him.
Once everything regarding Lia and Maximus had finally been settled, William bid farewell to Seraphine. After exchanging a few hundred kisses and hugs, he and Tamasya departed from the Elven Empire and returned to the eternal sun.
Meanwhile, the landscape of Aris had already begun shifting.
News regarding the attempted coup against Empress Selena spread across the continent with astonishing speed.
Curiously, the information was officially announced by the Sylvaris Empire. The same version of events somehow appeared simultaneously across taverns, marketplaces, noble gatherings, merchant caravans, and information networks.
The declaration was remarkably consistent and generally remained along the lines of that the Prime Minister of the Sylvaris Empire colluded with a mysterious secret organization in an attempt to overthrow Empress Selena.
Fortunately, Prince William of the Eternal Sun Empire happened to be present and intervened; with his help, Selena successfully crushed the rebellion. Thanks to his assistance, diplomatic relations between the Eternal Sun Empire and the Sylvaris Empire have grown stronger than ever.
It was an exceptionally clean story, yet it caused a lot of buzz everywhere; the Sernora family had earned a lot of fame across generations.
Yet there were a few missing pieces of info; there was absolutely no mention of Logan’s elaborate scheme involving mind control.
There was no mention of how William himself had nearly been framed as the mastermind behind the entire conspiracy.
Most notably, there was no mention whatsoever of Selena completely eradicating the ancient Sernora Bloodline from the face of Aris. A family that had survived for thousands of years had disappeared within a single night, yet according to the circulating rumors, it was almost as though they had never existed.
Anyone with a generous amount of experience in political deception could immediately recognize what had happened.
The narrative had been written by the victors. More specifically, it had been carefully engineered by Selena herself.
Ironically, the idea had not come up in her mind. She had learned the strategy from none other than William.
When William had taken control of the Holy Sun Empire, he had deliberately shaped public perception before anyone else could establish a competing narrative. Facts alone rarely determined history. The first believable story people heard often became the version they remembered, regardless of how incomplete it actually was.
Selena had simply adopted the same method.
It was an effective political weapon.
Rumors spread naturally over time, but natural rumors were unpredictable. They could grow into dangerous accusations before the government had a chance to respond.
However, if the ruling side established a convincing version of events immediately after the incident, then every contradictory story that emerged afterward would appear less credible.
Memory of the public was surprisingly fragile.
As time passed, details faded while first impressions remained.
People naturally questioned later accusations because they conflicted with the version they had already accepted as truth.
By the time unpleasant details finally surfaced, the emotional impact of the original incident had already diminished. Most ordinary citizens no longer cared enough to investigate further.
For Selena, the benefits were too significant to ignore.
If the common people believed she was a benevolent ruler who had heroically survived an attempted coup with the help of a trusted ally, then there was little reason to expose the bloodshed orchestrated by her following that betrayal.
The average citizen accepted the official version without much suspicion. However, rulers of other empires were not nearly as easy to deceive.
The leaders of powerful factions possessed intelligence networks far beyond what ordinary people could imagine. They understood that the public story concealed numerous missing pieces. They knew the events surrounding the Sylvaris Empire had been far more complicated than the rumors suggested.
Surprisingly, William’s strength was not what concerned them the most. Neither was Selena’s manipulation of public opinion.
Instead, their attention focused upon something entirely different. The mysterious organization that had secretly infiltrated the Sylvaris Empire.
That unknown force had nearly succeeded in toppling one of the oldest imperial families on the continent from within. If they possessed the capability to orchestrate something on such a scale, then there was no guarantee that another empire would not become their next target.
Their motives remained completely unknown. That uncertainty made them far more frightening than a visible enemy.
The Eternal Sovereign already cast a long shadow across the continent. As though that were not enough, another major shift had occurred.
The Astral Warden Council no longer existed. The organization that had once stood as one of the continent’s greatest stabilizing forces had completely collapsed.
Its four greatest pillars—the Primarchs—were all dead.
The remaining elders had either fallen to Ming Long or perished at William’s hands. When the dust finally settled, only Storm Dragon remained as the oldest surviving powerhouse from the council.
An era had quietly come to an end.
William understood the implications better than most; there was a power vacuum on Aris, and he needed to fill that.
Someone would inevitably attempt to replace the Astral Warden Council.
As expected, that someone had already stepped forward.
Cindros Ashfall, the Phoenix Emperor, had begun laying the foundations for an entirely new continental council. For the time being, he intended to limit its membership to the rulers of each empire, creating an organization that could coordinate diplomacy and respond to large-scale threats without relying upon the now-destroyed Astral Wardens.
William naturally became aware of those developments, and he was thinking of using this opportunity as well for himself.
Kill Cindros. Take control of the organization afterward.
The thought itself was simple.
Reality was not.
William fully understood that assassinating the ruler of an entire race would never produce a smooth transition of power.
Regardless of his personal strength, credibility could not simply be seized through violence. The moment he eliminated Cindros, countless rulers would immediately question his intentions.
Instead of becoming the council’s leader, he would likely become the continent’s greatest tyrant in their eyes. Maintaining such an organization afterward would require endless coercion, suppression, and fear.
That was not the outcome William desired. Because of that, this thought remained an idea, not an immediate course of action.
For now, he intended to wait.
If Cindros eventually chose to move against him directly, then William would respond and sweep him off in a single attempt.
Until then, there was no reason to provoke another unnecessary conflict.