Kaelan stood at the edge of the crowd, his fingers clenched around the mask covering his face.
He had arrived at the worst possible moment.
The words he had just heard seemed to echo inside his head, refusing to make sense.
Vanessa had come here to find Zion.
Vanessa had openly asked Zion to become her man.
And Zion had not even needed to answer before Vanessa declared that what she felt for him was true love.
Kaelan's grip tightened around the mask.
"Your Highness..."
His voice came out weak and unsteady.
Vanessa turned.
The moment her eyes landed on him, the confidence on her face faltered.
She clearly had not expected Kaelan to be here.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
Kaelan's heart sank as he looked at her.
"How... how can you say that?"
His voice cracked.
"How can you do this to me?"
He had spent days hiding inside the manor because of the scars covering his face. He had finally gathered enough courage to come to Origin Medical Hall because he believed the Divine Physician might be able to restore him.
Instead, the first thing he had witnessed was Vanessa declaring her love for another man.
Vanessa's expression hardened.
When she looked at Kaelan's scarred face, whatever surprise she had felt quickly disappeared. A trace of disgust crossed her features before she could conceal it.
"What exactly have I done to you?" she asked coldly. "There is nothing between us."
Kaelan's face went pale.
Nothing?
Had everything they had shared meant nothing to her?
He had believed that Vanessa loved him. He had believed that the two of them had a future together. He had even held onto that belief through the humiliation of losing his appearance.
Now she was standing in front of him and dismissing their relationship as though it had never existed.
Zion watched the exchange from nearby, his arms loosely folded across his chest.
He had expected trouble the moment Kaelan appeared.
Still, seeing it unfold was more entertaining than he had anticipated.
Kaelan stumbled forward.
"Your Highness, you said... you said I was the one you loved most."
He reached toward Vanessa, almost instinctively.
Vanessa immediately stepped back.
The rejection was so obvious that the surrounding crowd fell silent.
Then she looked at Kaelan's face.
"Love you the most?"
Her tone was almost incredulous.
"Have you even looked at yourself? Why would I still like you after you've become like this?"
A murmur passed through the crowd.
Kaelan's hand stopped in midair.
Vanessa reached forward and pulled the mask away from his face.
The movement was sudden enough that Kaelan did not react in time.
His scars were exposed to the entire street.
A collective gasp rose from the crowd.
"That's Kaelan?"
"His face..."
"How did he become like that?"
Several people instinctively stepped backward. A few parents pulled their children closer, while others stared despite themselves.
The poison had left Kaelan's skin swollen and scarred, destroying the appearance he had once been so proud of.
Kaelan's hands began to tremble.
He snatched the mask back and covered his face.
His breathing became uneven.
The word he feared most had already appeared in the whispers around him.
Ugly.
Disgusting.
Once, those were the kinds of words he had casually used when judging other people.
Now they were being directed at him.
For someone who had spent his entire life caring deeply about how others viewed him, the humiliation was almost unbearable.
Zion's gaze remained fixed on him.
He did not feel pity.
Not yet.
The pain Kaelan was experiencing now was only a small glimpse of what the original Zion had endured.
For years, the original Zion had been treated as worthless because of his weak body, humiliated by those around him, abandoned by the woman who had once been his fiancée, and ultimately pushed to the point where he attempted to end his own life.
Kaelan had never cared when that happened.
Now he was experiencing the consequences from the other side.
Zion had no intention of stopping it.
Vanessa, seemingly oblivious to the damage she had caused, turned back toward him.
"You see?" she said, as though Kaelan's presence had merely strengthened her argument. "How could someone like him possibly compare with you?"
Something inside Kaelan snapped.
His humiliation disappeared beneath a surge of rage.
"Zion!"
He lunged forward.
"You're a shameless bastard! I'll kill you!"
Spiritual energy erupted from his body.
The pressure of a late-phase Earth Stage cultivator spread across the street as his palm shot toward Zion.
The surrounding spectators cried out and hurried backward.
But Zion did not move.
He simply watched Kaelan approach.
His eyes remained calm.
Then, almost imperceptibly, he shifted his gaze past Kaelan.
Someone in the crowd had caught his attention.
A faint smile touched his lips.
Kaelan's palm was already less than a step away.
"You really are out of your mind."
Zion's voice remained quiet.
Before the attack could reach him, another figure moved.
Vanessa.
She crossed the distance in an instant and struck Kaelan directly in the chest.
Boom!
The impact sounded through the street.
Kaelan's body was thrown backward and crashed heavily onto the ground several meters away.
The crowd erupted in startled cries.
Vanessa did not even look at him.
She immediately turned back to Zion.
"Zion, are you hurt?"
She stepped closer, her expression suddenly filled with concern.
Zion calmly shook his head.
"No. Thank you."
Vanessa's chest lifted slightly with satisfaction.
His gratitude seemed to confirm what she had already convinced herself of.
"It's nothing."
She stood proudly, clearly pleased with herself.
Behind her, Kaelan struggled to his feet.
His chest burned from the impact, but the physical pain was nothing compared with the humiliation twisting inside him.
He stared at Vanessa in disbelief.
Then his expression distorted.
"You wolf!"
His voice rose above the surrounding noise.
"I've been with Her Highness for more than a year! She is mine! Who gave you the right to seduce her?"
He pointed toward Zion, his voice cracking under the weight of his anger.
"How can you be so shameless?"
The crowd immediately began whispering.
"I've heard rumors that Kaelan and Her Highness were together."
"So the person he is calling a wolf is the Divine Physician?"
"Then what's going on between the Divine Physician and the princess?"
The situation had suddenly become far more interesting than anyone had expected when Vanessa arrived.
Zion, however, remained remarkably calm.
He looked at Kaelan for several seconds before smiling.
"You're quite interesting."
Kaelan froze.
"If I'm shameless," Zion continued, "then what does that make you?"
"What are you talking about?"
Zion's expression remained relaxed.
"As everyone knows, Her Highness was once engaged to the eldest son of the General's Manor."
His gaze settled directly on Kaelan.
"And you are his younger brother."
The murmurs around them grew quieter.
People were beginning to understand where this was going.
Zion continued.
"The engagement was dissolved only recently. Yet you've just told everyone that you've been with Her Highness for more than a year. That means you have courted your brother's fiancée while he was bedridden..."
He tilted his head slightly.
"So tell me, Kaelan. Who exactly stole whose fiancé?"
The question landed harder than an accusation.
Kaelan's face lost what little color remained in it.
"I..."
He struggled to respond.
"I didn't steal anyone!"
His voice became desperate.
"Her Highness was the one who ended her engagement with Zion! How can you blame me for that?"
A few people exchanged glances.
That argument might have sounded convincing on its own.
But Zion had no intention of letting him escape so easily.
"Oh?"
His smile widened slightly.
"Since you didn't hear it clearly, let me ask say it again. The engagement was dissolved only a month ago."
He paused.
"And you've just told everyone that you've been with Her Highness for more than a year."
Silence.
The contradiction was impossible to miss.
Kaelan opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.