Pain was the first thing Zion felt when he regained consciousness.
It came suddenly, deep enough to make his entire body tense.
He did not know where he was.
He did not know how long he had been unconscious.
And most importantly, he did not know why he was still alive.
Zion kept his eyes closed for several seconds, afraid that opening them might somehow confirm that something had gone terribly wrong. His breathing was shallow, each breath bringing a dull ache through his chest, while the bitter smell of medicine and old incense lingered around him.
Somewhere nearby, a lantern crackled.
Wind rustled faintly outside.
He listened.
No beasts.
No collapsing ruins.
No blood-soaked battlefield.
Nothing familiar.
Slowly, Zion opened his eyes.
Unfamiliar wooden beams greeted him.
He stared at them for several seconds before his brows slowly drew together.
This was not the ancient beast nest.
It was not the Xynnar Continent.
"Where am I?"
His voice came out hoarse.
The question received no answer.
Zion tried to move, but his battered body protested immediately. He stopped and remained still, forcing himself to think.
The last thing he remembered was the ancient beast nest.
The mountain of bones.
The black ring hidden beneath them.
Then his own blood had touched it.
And everything had changed.
A violent force had erupted from the ring, dragging him into darkness before he could understand what was happening.
After that...
Nothing.
Zion's expression tightened.
Something was very wrong.
Before he could make sense of it, a sharp pain suddenly tore through his skull.
"Mgh!"
His hand flew to his head.
Then the memories came.
Not one or two.
Thousands.
Faces he had never seen.
Places he had never visited.
A family he had never known.
A childhood that had never been his.
The memories crashed into his mind so violently that Zion could barely breathe. For a brief moment, he felt as though another person's entire life was being forced into his consciousness.
Then everything went still.
Zion remained frozen on the bed.
His breathing slowly settled.
The unfamiliar memories were still there.
He could feel them.
Understand them.
Remember them.
His expression gradually changed.
"This isn't my body..."
The realization was followed by another.
His eyes widened.
"I crossed over."
He stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.
"I actually crossed into the Holy Continent..."
His voice dropped.
"...a thousand years into the future."
Even after saying it aloud, the thought remained absurd.
Back in the Xynnar Continent, Zion had stood at the peak of his generation despite his young age. He had become the youngest clan head in history, and his talent had been enough to shake countless established powers.
He had spent years fighting for everything he possessed.
He had climbed over mountains of corpses and walked through blood to reach that position.
And now, because of a strange black ring, he had been dragged across time itself and placed inside another person's body.
A person who happened to share his name.
Zion.
The coincidence was almost ridiculous.
But the similarities ended there.
The original owner of this body had lived a miserable life.
He had been the neglected young master of the General's Manor, possessing a prestigious title without receiving the care or affection normally associated with it. His mother had died when he was young, while the General rarely paid him any attention.
The only thing that had once protected his position was his engagement to the Crown Princess.
Elysia was different from many other kingdoms.
Its society was not built around the assumption that men had to be the heads of their households. From ordinary families to the royal family itself, either a man or a woman could inherit that position.
Because of this, the original Zion had been betrothed to Crown Princess Vanessa Moonstone and was expected to become a matrilocal son-in-law.
It had been the one thing giving his otherwise miserable life some stability.
Then, three months ago, he had suddenly lost his eyesight.
Yesterday, the imperial family had officially annulled the engagement.
And behind nearly every tragedy in this life stood one person.
Kaelan.
His younger brother.
The favored child of the General's House.
The one everyone regarded as kind and gentle.
The memories were still clear.
Kaelan comforting him whenever he was at his lowest.
Kaelan speaking softly whenever Zion felt hopeless.
Kaelan offering advice that sounded caring on the surface but always seemed to push him deeper into despair.
Even the original Zion's decision to swallow gold in an attempt to end his suffering had come after Kaelan repeatedly encouraged him to calm down and stop suffering.
Zion's expression slowly hardened.
As for his blindness...
His eyes narrowed.
That too likely had Kaelan's fingerprints all over it.
"What a troublesome mess."
Zion exhaled slowly.
He lifted one hand.
Then he stopped.
His gaze fell upon his finger.
The black ring was still there.
Its ancient surface reflected the weak lantern light. It looked exactly the same as it had inside the ancient beast nest.
Dark.
Cold.
Silent.
Zion stared at it for several seconds.
"You followed me too?"
The ring gave him no answer.
Of course it did not.
He was about to examine it more closely when footsteps sounded from outside.
Two people were approaching.
One set of footsteps was light and unhurried, while the other was steadier.
A moment later, the door opened, and two figures entered the room together.
Zion's gaze immediately settled on them.
He recognized them from the memories he had inherited.
The first was Kaelan, the younger brother of this body's original owner.
The second was Vanessa Moonstone, the Crown Princess of Elysia.
But the way they entered together made their relationship painfully obvious.
Kaelan walked beside Vanessa with a familiar ease, and one of his arms was wrapped around her waist.
There was nothing brotherly about their closeness.
Vanessa was supposed to have been Zion's fiancée until yesterday.
Now, she stood beside his younger brother.
The betrayal was almost absurd in its simplicity.
Vanessa was a strikingly beautiful woman, with refined features and graceful movements that suited her royal status. Yet there was no warmth in the way she looked toward the bed. The moment her eyes landed on Zion, her expression changed to one of unmistakable disdain.
Beside her, Kaelan wore a gentle and concerned expression.
Anyone unfamiliar with him might have mistaken it for genuine worry.
But Zion had inherited his memories.
He knew better.
Kaelan was the favored younger brother of the General's House, the son who had received the affection and attention that the original Zion had been denied.
And now he was standing here with Zion's former fiancée wrapped around his arm.
Zion's eyes narrowed slightly.
So they had come together.
Perhaps they had expected to find a corpse.
What a disappointment this must have been.
"Brother," Kaelan said softly.
His voice carried practiced concern.
"Why were you so stubborn? Swallowing gold because of a girl... You truly frightened everyone."
His tone was gentle.
Far too gentle.
Zion watched him silently.
There was something almost impressive about how naturally Kaelan could hide his malice behind concern.
Vanessa, however, did not bother pretending.
"Why waste concern on him?"
She tightened her arm around Kaelan's.
Her gaze toward Zion contained nothing but contempt.
"A useless cripple dying would have saved everyone trouble. That engagement should have ended long ago."
She did not lower her voice.
She did not even seem to care that Zion was awake.
"If Kaelan hadn't insisted on checking whether he was still alive, I wouldn't even bother stepping into this broken courtyard."
Kaelan lowered his eyes.
A shy expression appeared on his face.
"Your Highness, he is still my brother. How could I ignore him?"
Zion watched the performance.
His face remained pale.
His breathing remained shallow.
He did not allow the slightest change to reveal what he was thinking.
Good.
Keep talking.
People showed their ugliest sides most freely when they believed they had already won.
Vanessa smiled warmly at Kaelan.
"Kaelan, you are too kind. I truly adore you."
Her hand reached up and gently touched his face.
Kaelan turned slightly toward her.
"Please do not say such things."
His voice remained soft.
"Brother will feel hurt."
"Hurt?"
Vanessa laughed.
The sound was cold.
She turned toward Zion.
"If not for the General's reputation, I would never have accepted that engagement in the first place. The one I always wanted was you."
Silence filled the room.
Only the faint crackling of the lantern broke it.
Zion looked at them.
So this was what they had come here to do.
A performance.
They wanted him to watch.
They wanted to see his expression change.
They wanted to know whether the broken young master they remembered still had enough pride left to suffer.
How laughable.
If the original Zion were still in this body, perhaps those words really would have destroyed him.
His fiancée openly embracing another man.
That man being his own brother.
And both of them deliberately displaying their relationship in front of him.
It would have been enough to crush someone who had already spent years being abandoned.
But that person was gone.
The soul inside this body had lived a completely different life.
Zion had clawed his way upward through blood and death long before reaching adulthood. He had faced people far more frightening than these two.
Compared to the monsters he had once fought, Kaelan and Vanessa barely qualified as snakes hiding beneath wet stones.
His gaze moved toward Vanessa.
The original owner had admired this woman.
That thought almost made Zion laugh.
Beautiful?
Perhaps.
But beauty was hardly enough to compensate for a lack of shame or intelligence.
Vanessa's expression grew increasingly smug when she saw that Zion remained silent.
Perhaps she mistook his silence for despair.
Then she suddenly pulled Kaelan closer.
She pressed several deliberately loud kisses against his neck before slowly approaching the bedside.
There was no subtlety in what she was doing.
She wanted Zion to see.
She wanted jealousy.
She wanted humiliation.
She wanted to watch his expression break.
Unfortunately for her, the person lying in that bed was no longer the helpless young master she remembered.
Zion's gaze quietly shifted toward a small bead blossom ornament resting beside his pillow.
His fingers moved.
Barely.
He touched the ornament.
Then, with a tiny flick of his finger, sent it rolling across the floor.
It made almost no sound.
The ornament continued forward.
Straight toward Vanessa.
One heartbeat later, her foot came down on it.
"Wha..."
Her balance vanished.
Vanessa's body lurched forward.
Her arms flew outward as she desperately tried to regain her footing.
Kaelan was caught completely off guard.
The sudden movement tore him out of her embrace, sending him stumbling forward as well.
"Ah!"
His face struck the wooden bedframe.
A dull crack sounded through the room.
Blood immediately began flowing from his nose.
At nearly the same moment, Vanessa crashed onto the floor.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The room went silent.
Zion widened his eyes.
"Brother?! What happened?!"
Vanessa struggled to stand.
Her face was already red with humiliation.
Then her foot slipped again.
THUD!
Her face slammed directly into the side of the bedframe beside Zion.
The wooden frame shook.
"Kyaaaa!"
Her scream echoed through the courtyard.
Blood immediately began pouring from her nose.
Zion stared at her.
From the sound alone, it seemed that her nose had suffered quite a bit of damage.
Inside his chest, however, something warm and satisfying slowly spread.
'You drove the original owner to death.'
His gaze remained innocent.
'This can count as interest.'
"Your Highness!"
Kaelan hurried toward Vanessa while clutching his own swollen face.
His elegant appearance had been thoroughly ruined.
For a moment, Zion almost laughed.
The two of them stared at each other.
Blood beneath their noses.
Pain written across their faces.
Their earlier arrogance completely destroyed.
Then Vanessa's humiliation turned into fury.
"Damn you!"
She suddenly turned toward the bed.
Zion barely had time to react before she lunged forward and grabbed him by the throat.
"You did this, didn't you?!"
Her fingers tightened.
Zion felt pressure around his neck.
Her hands were trembling.
Whether from pain or rage, he could not tell.
Perhaps both.
For a moment, Vanessa genuinely looked capable of strangling him.
Zion raised both hands and weakly grabbed her wrists.
"Your Highness... I did not do anything..."
He deliberately made his voice fragile.
Vanessa's breathing became harsher.
Her eyes burned with rage.
Zion did not struggle too violently.
He simply waited.
She could hurt him.
But killing him would be another matter.
No matter how badly the engagement had ended, he was still the General's son.
And after yesterday's suicide attempt, openly harming him would bring consequences Vanessa would rather avoid.
Sure enough, after several tense seconds, she finally shoved him away.
"Worthless trash!"
Zion coughed.
He raised a hand and gently rubbed the reddened skin around his throat.
Then he tilted his head.
His voice remained quiet.
"Your Highness..."
Vanessa glared at him.
Zion paused deliberately.
"Perhaps you are embarrassed."
Both Vanessa and Kaelan stiffened.
Zion's expression remained sincere.
"I once heard this courtyard is haunted."
He glanced around.
"Strange things happen here."
His eyes lowered.
"People suddenly fall. Objects move by themselves."
The lantern flame flickered.
Outside the room, wind moved through the trees.
The branches brushed against one another with a low rustling sound.
Zion lowered his voice slightly.
"I never told anyone because nobody cared enough to ask."
The atmosphere changed.
It was only a few words.
But Kaelan's expression twitched.
Clearly, he did not like this courtyard.
Zion noticed.
Interesting.
He turned his attention back toward his brother.
"Brother..."
His voice carried just enough helplessness.
"Can you help me ask Father to move me somewhere else?"
The request hung quietly between them.
Kaelan froze.
Zion knew exactly why.
Moving him somewhere else was the last thing Kaelan wanted.
This ruined courtyard was isolated from the rest of the manor. Nobody cared about the young master living here, and that made it the perfect place to keep him forgotten.
As long as Zion remained here, Kaelan could continue controlling the situation from a distance.
But refusing outright, especially with Vanessa standing beside him, would be difficult.
Several seconds passed.
Finally, Kaelan forced a gentle smile.
"I... will try."
His gaze shifted away.
"But Brother already knows Father may not agree."
Zion lowered his eyes.
He allowed his expression to become obedient and resigned.
But beneath that harmless appearance, cold amusement quietly settled in his eyes.
'Exactly the answer I expected.'