Publicly executed.
The words were a splash of ice water, a stark reminder of the game I was playing. Seraphina wasn't just co-opting Valerius; she was immediately using him to eliminate her rivals with brutal efficiency. And her first target was Lyra.
My new "ally." My unwilling partner. My nemesis.
A lesser man would have been paralyzed by the choice. Let Lyra be executed? It would remove a major threat from the board. Save her? It would mean protecting the woman who actively plotted my death.
But I was not a lesser man. I saw the board with cold, inhuman clarity.
Lyra's execution would be a disaster for me. It would be a massive victory for Valerius and Seraphina, consolidating their power and righteous authority. It would remove a key player that I was using to create chaos. Most importantly, it would remove a piece that belonged to me.
My obsession from my last life had not vanished. It had been refined. Lyra was not just a political tool. She was a prize. My prize. Whether she ended up in my bed as my queen or in my dungeon as my pet, her fate was mine to decide, not Seraphina's. For another to kill her was an unacceptable theft.
Seraphina had made a critical mistake. She had targeted something I considered my property.
I had just formed a truce with Lyra. It was time to prove its value.
I found her in the Imperial Archives, frantically searching through old succession records, likely looking for a legal loophole to counter Valerius's claim.
"Stop wasting your time," I said, my voice low as I approached her secluded alcove.
She looked up, her eyes flashing with annoyance. "Our 'truce' doesn't make you my commander. I am looking for a weapon to use against Valerius."
"And I am bringing you one," I said. "Seraphina has already made her move. She has convinced Valerius to accuse you of treason and accomplice to Lin Feng's escape. They are fabricating evidence as we speak. They plan to have you arrested and executed."
The color drained from her face. For all her knowledge of the previous timeline, this was a move she could never have predicted. Her expression shifted from shock to fury, and then to a cold, pragmatic fear. Public execution was a very real, very final end.
"How… how do you know this?" she whispered, her voice tight.
"I have my sources," I replied, the lie smooth and easy. "The 'unique methods' I mentioned. Now is not the time for questions. It's time for a counter-move."
"There is no counter-move!" she hissed, a note of genuine panic in her voice. "Valerius has the armor, the will, the Vanes' backing, and the moral high ground. An accusation of treason, even a false one… it will stick. The council is weak. Father is losing his grip."
"Then we won't fight him in the council," I said. "We will fight him in the arena he has chosen: the court of public opinion."
She looked at me, confused.
"He has painted himself as the 'Protector of the Bloodline's Purity'," I explained, a plan forming in my mind with crystalline clarity. "He is the righteous son, trying to save the dynasty from the taint of a demonic bastard. So, we will give the people a different story. A more compelling one."
I leaned in, my voice a conspiratorial whisper. "You are not a traitor, Lyra. You are a victim. A pure, innocent princess who was targeted, harassed, and ultimately violated by the demonic fugitive Lin Feng. Your 'obsession' with him was not affection; it was the traumatic response of a maiden whose honor was stolen."
Her eyes widened as she began to understand. I was not just creating a defense. I was creating a narrative.
"And I," I continued, my smile turning sharp, "am not the disgraced prince who let him escape. I am the avenging brother. The one who has sworn a blood oath to hunt down the monster who defiled his beloved sister and bring him to justice. A justice that the court, in its political squabbling, is too slow to deliver."
It was perfect. It recast the entire situation. It turned Lyra from a potential traitor into a tragic heroine. It turned me from a failure into a lone, determined hero. And it painted Valerius, who was about to persecute this 'victim', as a cold, heartless politician, using his sister's tragedy for his own political gain.
"We will leak the story ourselves," I said. "To the court gossips, to the servant networks, to the city criers. By the time Valerius makes his accusation, the entire capital will already see you as a victim to be pitied, not a traitor to be condemned."
Lyra stared at me, her expression a complex mixture of revulsion and grudging admiration. She hated me. She wanted me dead. But she was also a master of political maneuvering, and she knew a brilliant strategy when she heard one.
"It could work," she admitted, her voice barely a whisper.
"It will work," I corrected her. "Go. Play your part. Be seen in the temples, praying. Look distraught. Look fragile. The court must see you as a broken flower, not a scheming princess. Leave the rest to me."
She gave me one last, long look, then turned and left, a ghost in the dusty archives. Our truce was now cemented, not by trust, but by mutual, desperate need.
I spent the next day orchestrating the information leak. I used my network of informants, the ones I'd cultivated in my dandy prince days, to spread the story. It was a masterpiece of propaganda, a tale of tragedy and honor that was far more compelling than Valerius's dry legal claims.
On the third day, just as the story reached a fever pitch throughout the capital, Valerius made his move. He officially petitioned the Emperor to have Princess Lyra arrested for treason.
It was exactly what I was waiting for.
Before the Emperor could even respond, I acted. I strode into the main throne room, clad not in a prince's silks, but in black leather traveler's gear. I carried a longsword on my back and the Shadowfang Dagger at my hip. I looked like a hunter, a man of action.
I knelt before the throne, my voice ringing with righteous fury.
"Father! I have heard the disgusting, baseless accusations my brother has leveled against our sister. He seeks to use her pain for his own ambition. I will not stand for it."
I drew the Shadowfang Dagger and held it aloft. "I, Kaelen Ravencrest, hereby declare a Blood Hunt. I forsake my titles, my comfort, my place in this palace. I will not rest, I will not sleep, I will not know peace until I have hunted down the demon Lin Feng and brought his head back to the capital to clear my sister's name."
I was publicly, dramatically, and irrevocably taking matters into my own hands. I was abandoning the political game and declaring myself a rogue agent of vengeance.
It was the perfect exit. It allowed me to escape the stifling confines of the palace. It gave me a public, heroic reason to travel, to gather power, and to operate outside the law. And it left my siblings and Seraphina trapped in their political quagmire, fighting for a throne while I was out in the world, fighting for real power.
My father, caught between his two warring sons and a daughter now painted as a tragic victim, was left with no choice. To deny my quest would be to side with the "heartless" Valerius.
"Your hunt is sanctioned," he said, his voice heavy.
I bowed and left the throne room without another word. I had just become a free agent.
But as I walked towards the palace gates, ready to begin my true journey, a new alert flashed in my vision. It was the data-siphon, picking up a new development from Seraphina's system. She was reacting to my move, and her counter was a twist that showed she was always, infuriatingly, one step ahead.
[SYSTEM ALERT - FATE INTERFERENCE DETECTED!]
[User 'Seraphina Vane' has consumed a high-tier destiny-altering item: 'Scroll of Fated Encounter'.]
[Effect: The scroll will forcibly create a 'fated encounter' between an individual of her choosing and a target of immense opportunity.]
[Chosen Individual: Her personal, most loyal knight-captain.]
[Target of Opportunity: The escaped prisoner, Lin Feng.]
[Predicted Outcome: Her knight will 'stumble upon' the wounded and desperate Lin Feng. He will 'save' him from a monster or bandits, earn his trust, and become his sworn brother, acting as Seraphina's deep-cover agent, guiding the World-Breaker from within.]