"Found her?" Noah's voice was cold. He stared at the man sitting on the throne.
Noah's older brother, Emperor Nerza, was sitting at the far end of the grand hall, legs crossed, lazily resting his head on one hand.
"My little brother, I didn't expect you to come just because of a letter." The Emperor grinned. "How's life been treating you? You're turning eighteen in three days, right? Oh my, you've grown so fast."
After all those years, Nerza sent him a two-word letter — and it made Noah travel all the way from that far-off exile palace just to be handed this crap?
That wasn't something Noah cared about at all. Without thinking twice, he turned his gaze away and moved to leave.
It was like Noah didn't even care that the man in front of him was the most powerful, most dangerous emperor in the world.
Nerza let out a loud, amused laugh at the cold, cocky attitude of his younger brother. "Fine, fine, don't leave so fast. At least hear me out."
Noah took a slow breath, already fed up. "What's so important that I had the honor of being summoned here, Your Celestial?"
The Emperor rose, the black horn on his head shone in the dim light. "Like I said in my letter. I found her."
That was what he'd come for from the start—'found her'. Since they had two missing sisters, Noah figured it might be news about them. Not that he was close with them or anything, but he cared a little, at least.
Noah's gaze landed on him straight away. "Nira or Aro?"
The Emperor took a moment to catch what Noah meant. He didn't care about their sisters as much as Noah did.
"Not our sisters. I'm talking about that damn angel, you idiot." He sighed, looked a bit annoyed.
Noah blinked at his brother a few times, couldn't tell if he'd heard him right.
Angel? The angel race is dying out right now.
Besides few male angels in the army, probably only a handful of other male angels hiding in the shadows.
But a female angel? Impossible.
The Emperor could read Noah's thoughts from his eyes.
"Listen, Noah. During the Commanders' Council, the Stalkers reported something. They sensed a Nameless, under Arindor Palace."
A Nameless—A girl with no Code, meant that the King of Arindor has a daughter and he's been hiding her.
That wasn't impossible—no king would ever agree to kill his own daughter or hand her over to the Sakaris Empire as a slave. So of course, he'd keep her hidden.
Still, this wasn't Noah's business, so he just nodded reluctantly. "Perfect timing, huh? You've been waiting forever to crush Arindor. If they have a girl, you can execute the whole royal family under the law."
"You're short-sighted. Royal girls of Arindor don't just appear every day." Nerza shook his head, almost patient.
"'No girl of royal blood shall be born'. I thought you respected Lord Sakaris's doctrine, Celestial." Noah's tone stayed blank.
"Of course I respect our ancestor. Enough that I intend to finish what he started."
The Emperor stepped closer and continued:
"Eighteen years ago, a relic was found. The oracles said that if it awakens, it will reveal the location of all the Cores. And if that girl can awaken it—"
Noah stepped back and cut him off. "Only divine blood can awaken relics and ancient paths. Not some royal girl."
"And what if she carries divine blood?"
A royal girl from Arindor would be rare, sure, but she still wouldn't be an angel.
Even if she was an angel, there's no way divine blood would run in her veins.
The only body that could carry divine blood is the one Valkyrie chooses to be reborn into.
But by the legends, Valkyrie's rebirth happens at the same time as Sakaris is born. Lord Sakaris hasn't been born in the Sakaris line yet, so there's no Valkyrie rebirth coming.
Even if the legends about simultaneous birth were wrong, there was no hiding an infant chosen by Valkyrie—elves, dragons, even goblins could sense them from anywhere in the world.
This isn't that kind of rebirth that the world could just ignore—so that girl definitely isn't Valkyrie's vessel, and she doesn't have divine blood.
Noah still couldn't understand his brother's logic...
What is Nerza thinking, risking breaking his own country's law? Is there some secret here? Or maybe Noah was overthinking.
The Emperor rolled his eyes, smirking. "Just bring that Nameless to me. She'll die anyway, but if I get my shot at her first? Even better."
"Why me all of a sudden?" Noah frowned in annoyance. "You have the largest and most dangerous army in the world. Let one of your Severans handle it."
Nerza's eyes narrowed. "You're making me wonder what use I have for a brother."
Silence.
Noah had nothing to say.
But that didn't keep the Emperor quiet.
"Little bro… I hear you want to join the Severan Legions." Nerza leaned in, whispering. "Ambitious, for an outcast with no Nexus. Don't forget, you're still an Unseen. But maybe this is your chance to prove yourself."
Noah's jaw clenched, his eyes fixed on the floor.
The Emperor straightened, returned to his throne, and crossed his legs, grinning smugly. "This is an imperial command. Bring me that Nameless alive, before my dear knights kill her. I know you won't disobey. You may borrow my dragon to reach Arindor—though once you let it go, it'll return on its own."
Noah turned toward the door, his face a mask of cold indifference.
"Best hurry," Nerza called after him. "The Shadow Knights will kill her by dawn."
-
"Why does time crawl like this?" As a girl who'd only ever had herself, Eri spoke her thoughts out loud, like always, argued and talked to her loneliness.
She paced her tiny room, restless, her eyes darting to the bricks as if praying they would open.
After what felt like forever, she sank to the floor with a heavy sigh.
"I can finally be free soon."
She closed her eyes, trying to steady her racing heart.
"The world… I wonder what it looks like."
Eri had waited so many years for this—just three days left until her eighteenth birthday, and already time itself was starting to torture her.
After all this time, her room hadn't changed at all.
In fact, it felt even smaller now, since she wasn't a little five-year-old anymore, but a grown girl.
Rolling onto her side, her gaze fixed on the bed. Something seemed to pull her toward it again.
The dark room felt as if it might burst into light, made her to squeeze her eyes shut.
Heat spread across her eyelids for a brief moment—just like it had so many times in the past thirteen years.
"Don't listen to the lights, Eri! One mistake, and Dad will regret everything!"
Her chest tightened, gasping, she rushed to the bricks. "I can't take it anymore."
A drop of blood fell, and the bricks shifted, showed a door.
As if she had done it a hundred times before, she picked the lock with a hairpin and slipped out.
She had spent thirteen years training herself to completely ignore the lights and their whispers. But this had nothing to do with the times she sneaked out of her room just to breathe a little.
The more she practiced, the better she got.
Her footsteps grew quieter, her breathing steadier, her presence lighter, her instincts sharper.
After a while, even her father and brother couldn't tell she had left the room. She'd turned into a professional prisoner, always slipping in and out of her own cell.
From her dungeon at the lowest level, she climbed the stairs, passing the prison floor without a glance, until she reached the halls above.
She pushed open a door, and air brushed against her face.
Not sunlight, but brighter than her room.
"No one will notice if I look around again, right?"
She touched her necklace. It flickered—then she vanished, darting through the halls with childlike joy.
She spun, climbed banisters, slid across polished floors, and even tumbled a few times, stifling her laughter. All alone, she just enjoyed it.
"What's my brother doing? Should I peek a little?"
Then she ran toward Eric's room.
But halfway there, she froze—right beside her father's door.
The hallway suddenly felt just as suffocating as her own cell. A strange glow spilled out from under the door.
Eri's eyes lingered on it, hesitant, before she quickly turned away. "That's enough for today—"
"Eri…"
The whisper of a woman's voice made her freeze.
The more Eri tried to ignore the lights, the stronger they got each day.
They weren't anything but strands of light, tangled together, floating slowly in the air. But they were sneaky, always tempting her, whispering at the wrong times, trying to pull her in.
Her fists clenched. She tried to hold herself back, but step by step, she turned toward the door.
After a moment's hesitation, she pushed her way inside. "I must've lost my mind."
A bed to the right, and to the left, the study door leaked the same strange glow.
"If Dad catches me… that's it. I'm done." Muttering under her breath, she walked into the study.
Books lined the walls, a desk stood in the center.
Eri stepped closer.
Something unseen tugged her toward one drawer in particular.
She pulled—but it was locked.
"Knew it. I'm going crazy." She turned to leave.
Then a faint click made her spin back.
"What…?"
She pulled again—and this time, the drawer opened.
Inside lay a family photo—the King, Eric, and a beautiful woman.
Eri grabbed the frame, her eyes wide. "Is she… Mom? But how? Dad said there were no pictures of her."
Eri had asked her father so many times if she could have a picture of her mom. But every time, he shut her down. For some reason, he never wanted Eri to know what her mother looked like.
Just then, loud voice from outside startled her.
Her grip slipped, and the frame hit the ground, shattered.
"We won't talk about this again! Enough!" The King's voice roared.
He entered the room with Eric.
Eri panicked, vanishing once more.
"Father!" Eric's voice rose, "How long can we keep this? We should tell her!"
"You expect her to understand?" the King snapped. "Years of lies—and she would willingly walk back into that dungeon?"
"This can't go on! You won't even give her Mother's letter—"
"I swore not to open that letter, not to hand it to Eri! What if the truth is inside?!"
Eric dragged his hands through his hair with a growl. "She'll find out sooner or later."
"No. Ever!! If necessary, she'll be chained!"
"Chains won't work. You know that's always clung to Eri—even with Mother's sacrifice."
Her body shook, each word cutting deeper than a blade.
'M-Mom… died because of me?!'
Her gaze fell to the shattered frame, to the happy family within.
'Maybe… they were happier without me…'
Then her eyes caught on something beneath the photo.
A sealed envelope. Her mother's letter.
She snatched both letter and photo, clutching them to her chest.
Still invisible, she slipped out of the study in silence.
A flicker of despair—or perhaps only exhaustion—passed across her face.
Just then, a knock rattled the door.
A soldier's voice followed "Your Majesty, I have a report."
The soldier opened the door and froze, struck by the tension in the room.
No one moved or spoke, placing the weight of starting the conversation on the soldier's shoulders.
He swallowed hard and forced himself to speak. "Y-Your Majesty… a boy has entered Arindor. He's near the capital—riding a Shadow Dragon."
The King and Eric's eyes widened.
The same thought struck them both: 'They noticed Eri?'
"S-Shadow?!" Eric clenched his jaw and for no reason, shot the poor soldier a glare that made him shiver.
The King's fist tightened.
"There are two months until the Sakaris Empire's inspection of Arindor. We can't allow an intruder in the capital. Capture him—now!" he said with a controlled voice.
Eri slipped past the soldier and returned to her room quietly.
She leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor, wiping away her tears before they could fall.
"Almost there. Just a few more years. I can endure it."
A bitter laugh escaped her lips, quickly broken by sobs.
"Some beautiful lies, huh? Freedom? I was expecting too much. How can hope feel so beautiful… yet so terrifying?"
She had waited so long, tried so hard to obey her father.
Even when she left her room, she never once went near the exit of the castle. Not once did she break her promise or stop playing this endless game of hide-and-seek.
Her only hope was that one day it would finally end. At least, it was supposed to.
But now… what awaited her after her eighteenth birthday wasn't freedom—it was just more chains, again and again.
Now she had noticed that just by being born, she had caused her mother's death. She had stolen the smile from her father's and brother's faces.
Whatever the reason, she was nothing but a cursed girl.
A curse that never let her family live happily—and never let her live either.
.
.
When her tears finally dried, she reached for the letter.
"What could Mom have written? That she died because of me? That she hated me? Yeah, probably."
But the page held only one line:
[Follow the Light, my dear. Your destiny awaits there]
"Follow… the Light?!"
Weren't the lights supposed to be her enemies? Wasn't she supposed to ignore them?
If this was her mother's wish, then why had her father made her promise to never follow them?
A thousand questions swirled in her head, but the only thing that mattered was—she couldn't help it. Without thinking, she instantly obeyed her mother's words.
Her heart raced.
The weight of years of suppression faded in an instant.
The warmth returned, and threads of light shimmered around her once more—just like when she was a child.
The lights drifted toward her bed.
Still bewildered, Eri followed them, reaching out and pulling out the page she had hidden for thirteen long years.
Her expression softened, as if lost in thought.
Valkyrie—a divine angel, the Light who had fallen to earth three thousand years ago, bringing blessings and peace. The one whose rebirth was awaited, to finally stand against Sakaris—the greedy devil of the shadows.
And now, the strange lights that had followed Eri since her birth showed her this page again after so many years.
Whether they meant she was special or not didn't matter to her. It was enough that she finally knew—her fate could maybe be something different.
Maybe just a little different than being chained up in a dungeon...
...If only she could escape.
Finally, she turned to the wall covered with her childhood drawings and gently hung her necklace upon it.
"Sorry, Dad. But I'm done playing hide-and-seek. I want to follow the Light now. Just like I always wanted."
Her hand lingered over the central painting: a great tree with colorful streams flowing from its branches, tiny flowers drifting in the air, and a cloudy house above.
"One of my strange childhood dreams," she whispered. "I always wanted to live somewhere like this."
Anyway, all her childhood drawings were kinda weird.
From the branches of a tree reaching down to the deep, to the depths of a glassy pit in the ocean, even a huge crack splitting the earth, or a glowing waterfall inside a volcano.
None of them made any sense—they were just messy, random doodles from a kid's imagination.
She left her room and hurried up the dungeon stairs toward the prison level. After a corridor lined with cells on both sides, she reached the metal door at the end.
And with all her strength, she pushed the door open—into her first rays of sunlight.