Blood.
The scent of it choked the air, thick and metallic. The grand halls that once echoed with laughter and power were now painted in crimson. Corpses littered the marble floors, knights and nobles alike—all fallen.
At the throne's base lay a man with silver hair, his regal robes stained with blood. His chest had been pierced through, his lifeless eyes still wide with disbelief.
Raizen's father—the Duke of Everhold—was dead.
And Raizen… was on his knees, bound in iron, forced to watch as his entire world burned.
The high nobles stood above him, their gazes cold and indifferent. The same men who had once sworn loyalty to his father now whispered behind silk veils, uttering words of treason without hesitation.
"For the crime of conspiracy against the crown, the House of Everhold is to be erased from history."
A faceless judge declared his sentence. A verdict written in blood before he was even allowed to speak.
His mother's scream still echoed in his mind. The image of her being dragged away—her fate unknown—was burned into his soul.
Raizen clenched his fists, his nails digging