Days later, Lusian walked the streets of Acropolis like a specter drifting through shadows.Not because people avoided him… but because they seemed to step back without realizing it, as if their bodies obeyed some primitive instinct.
There was no noise.No life.
Only a heavy silence that clung to the skin.
Windows shut with soft thuds.Shutters lowered just a little more.Hands came together in trembling prayer the moment they recognized him.
It was not hatred.It was not violence.
It was pure fear.
Children stopped playing, standing frozen, their eyes far too wide for their age.Adults avoided looking up—but when they did… terror reflected in their pupils.
Some whispered prayers.Others traced the symbol of the sun over their chests, a gesture meant to ward off misfortune.
The Heralds' prophecies had done their work.
Behind Lusian, Albert and thirty Douglas soldiers marched in silence.Their black armor, their synchronized steps, the silver wolf banner cutting through the wind…They were a warning:
No one would touch the duke.No one would defy House Douglas.
And yet, the presence of that guard did nothing to break the frozen air that surrounded their leader.
As he passed, merchants lowered their voices.Market stalls seemed to shrink inward.The usual bustle of the capital faded little by little, until only his footsteps echoed against the stone.
An older man, hunched, muttered as he walked away:
"They say wherever he walks… calamity follows…"
His wife pulled him along by the arm before Albert could react.
Lusian said nothing.
His eyes moved across the city like those of a man surveying a battlefield before the storm.The temples had spread their poison with surgical precision.
There were no insults.No stones thrown.No angry crowds.
Only distance.Only fear.Only a void opening wherever he stepped.
A void crafted by the gods.
When he finally stopped at the northern plaza, the silence was so absolute he could hear his own breathing beneath the armor.
The duke closed his eyes for a moment.
On that first day, he understood something he did not want to accept:
The true battle would not be against a god.It would be against the hearts of the people he had sworn to protect.
And against the shadow the gods had placed behind his name.