Elina opened the door to Rigo’s room slowly, her mind still clouded by the confusion from their earlier conversation. A vague unease lingered within her chest—an anxiety she could not shake, even though she had long grown used to the bitterness of life.
As she stepped into the hallway and began walking toward the main chamber, an unusual commotion echoed from somewhere down the corridor.
Instinctively, she turned toward the sound.
In the dimly lit hall, Elina saw her husband, Darius, holding a small boy by the back of his collar. The child struggled fiercely, kicking and twisting with all his strength in an attempt to escape Darius’s iron grip.
A crease formed on Elina’s forehead.
Without thinking, she walked closer.
“What is happening here?” she asked cautiously, her eyes fixed on the child.
As she approached, a strange sensation stirred inside her.
The boy’s eyes—though filled with anger and fear—felt strangely familiar. For a moment, Elina felt the same flutter in her chest she used to feel when looking into Rigo’s eyes as a child: defiant, wounded, yet filled with an unbreakable determination.
Leon, who had been struggling violently, suddenly froze when he noticed Elina approaching.
The hatred in his eyes shifted into something else—surprise… even confusion.
As if something about Elina made him stop resisting, even though Darius still held him firmly.
Elina also stopped where she stood.
For a moment, she simply stared at Leon.
Curiosity and something deeper filled her gaze.
“My dear… what are you doing?” Elina finally asked Darius, though her voice wavered slightly. Something about the moment made her nervous, as if she were facing something far greater than what appeared before her.
Darius turned toward her impatiently.
“The Emperor has decided that this boy, Leon, will be trained as one of his blades,” he explained flatly. “I’m just taking him to his room.”
The moment Leon heard those words, he resumed struggling violently.
“You don’t have to drag me like this!” he shouted angrily.
“I can walk on my own!”
His voice cracked with frustration and the desperate desire for freedom. Yet despite his determination, his resistance was useless against Darius’s far greater strength.
Elina watched Leon closely.
Her heart began beating faster.
Something about the boy’s gaze pierced through her, stirring emotions she could not explain.
A deep sense of pity rose within her.
And an overwhelming urge to protect him.
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“Darius, let him go,” Elina said softly but firmly.
“Let him walk on his own. There’s no need to be so rough.”
Darius hesitated for a moment.
Then he sighed heavily.
“The boy is stubborn,” he muttered irritably.
Still, he released Leon’s collar, letting the child drop roughly onto the marble floor.
Leon quickly stood up.
His face was filled with stubborn determination, though his knees trembled slightly.
He brushed his collar with shaking hands, yet the hatred in his gaze remained sharp.
But when his eyes met Elina’s again…
something changed.
His expression was no longer filled only with anger.
There was something else there.
Something difficult to describe.
A strange familiarity.
For a brief moment, Elina felt as though she were looking at her own daughter—but in a different form.
Leon said nothing.
He turned and began walking toward his assigned room.
Each step carried determination, though the pain in his heart was visible in every movement.
Elina watched the small figure disappear down the corridor.
An indescribable feeling tightened in her chest.
Every step Leon took echoed like a painful memory—reminding her of the young Rigo who had once walked alone through these same palace corridors, facing a fate as cold as the marble beneath her feet.
When Leon finally disappeared around the corner, Elina turned back to Darius.
“What happened to that child, Darius?” she asked quietly.
“He seems… different.”
Darius shrugged dismissively.
“He’s just stubborn,” he said coldly.
“Just like Rigo used to be.”
“And he needs to learn that weakness won’t help him survive here.”
“But he’s still too young,” Elina replied softly.
“You know what happened to Rigo when she was forced to grow up too quickly.”
“Don’t let this child suffer the same fate.”
“The Emperor doesn’t care about age,” Darius answered sharply.
“He only cares about results.”
“If that boy wants to live, he’ll have to learn to become stronger—and fast.”
Elina sighed deeply.
She knew arguing with her husband would change nothing.
Yet the strange feeling she had toward Leon refused to fade.
There was something deeply familiar in his eyes…
something that felt painfully close to her heart.
Inside a small, dim room, Leon sat on the edge of his narrow bed.
His breathing was still heavy from the earlier commotion.
His body ached—but it was not physical pain that troubled him most.
What haunted him was Elina’s gaze.
A gaze filled with a mother’s warmth and love.
Something he had not felt for a very long time—yet something painfully familiar.
His heart pounded.
A sharp sense of nostalgia pierced through him.
Blurred memories surfaced—memories of a mother from another life.
Somewhere deep within his buried memories, Leon could still feel the warmth he had once known as Rigo when he was small.
A warmth he had long forgotten.
Leon rubbed his face with trembling hands, trying to push away the overwhelming emotions.
“This is just an illusion,” he whispered to himself.
“I can’t be weak.”
“I need to focus on my mission.”
But the memories refused to fade.
Elina’s eyes.
The gentleness of her voice.
The warmth radiating from her presence.
All of it felt like fragments of a past he could no longer reach.
Even though he now lived as Leon, part of him still longed for Elina—the mother he had once known in another life.
Leon clenched his teeth, struggling to hold back the tears threatening to fall.
He knew he was here for a reason.
A purpose greater than mere survival.
He had to change fate.
He had to save his family from the same destiny he himself had once endured.
But facing Elina—the woman who had been Rigo’s mother in his past life—shook his resolve.
“No,” Leon whispered as his determination slowly returned, though his heart still ached.
“I have to protect them.”
“Even if I have to sacrifice everything.”
Elsewhere, Elina sat alone in her room.
Leon’s face—filled with anger and pain—refused to leave her thoughts.
A strange feeling stirred deep within her heart.
Something familiar.
Something that felt like she was looking at a soul she had once known.
“Who are you, Leon…?” she whispered to herself, her eyes glistening with tears.
A strange longing filled her heart.
As if she were missing someone who had never truly left her.
Leon’s eyes—even when filled with hatred—felt like the eyes of a child she once loved with all her heart.
Yet Elina did not know that behind Leon’s resentful gaze lay a profound secret.
A secret that would reveal the hidden connection between Leon and Rigo.
A fate that bound them together in a repeating circle of time—
bringing back wounds from the past that had never truly healed.
In the quiet of the night, Elina could only hold herself tightly and pray…
that the child now living under the Empire’s shadow would not end like Rigo—
trapped forever in endless darkness.
