Before the next major deployment, the military brigade held a festival.
Music filled the grand hall. Officers in green uniforms laughed louder than necessary.
Seraphine stood beside her uncle — General Cassian Ardent.
Even he admitted privately that her power had surpassed his.
"Uncle," she said quietly, "there's something about Riven."
Cassian listened carefully.
She hesitated.
Then said it.
"Whenever someone truly fights him… they either disappear… or forget their entire life."
Cassian's expression hardened.
"Rumors?"
"Incidents."
She remembered them clearly.
A senior student who once challenged Riven publicly — transferred days later without explanation.
Another who claimed to have defeated him — and the next morning couldn't remember his own childhood.
Meanwhile—
Riven sat in his room drinking milk tea.
There was a knock.
His uncle stood outside.
"A performer didn't show up," he said casually. "You're filling in at the brigade function."
Riven blinked once.
"Understood."