The One King

Valier awakened from his coma to the sound of Lilian speaking.

At first, he understood nothing.

His head was throbbing with pain, and his body was crushed beneath the rubble, but Lilian’s fragmented words gradually began to reach his consciousness.

Twins...

Victor...

The Heavenly Council...

Exile...

Then his ears caught the murmurs of the soldiers, along with Lunaria and Selena’s words.

His eyes suddenly widened.

He began to understand what was happening.

“No...”

he muttered weakly.

“Impossible...”

He forced himself to stand.

One of the maids cried out:

“Lord Valier! Don’t move! Your injuries are severe!”

But he ignored her.

He pushed the rocks away and staggered to his feet.

His face was covered in blood, his bones were broken, and one of his legs could barely support his weight.

Nevertheless, he began limping toward Lilian.

Every step caused him tremendous pain.

But the physical pain no longer mattered to him.

Because what was tearing his heart apart now...

was something else entirely.

When he reached Lilian’s side, he looked at her with eyes filled with tears.

“Lilian...”

She turned toward him.

Her face was pale.

Valier spoke in a trembling voice:

“Is... is what I heard true?”

He swallowed with difficulty.

“Victor...”

Then he looked at Azrael.

“He’s our son?”

Lilian could only close her eyes.

The answer was obvious.

Valier trembled.

“We had twins?”

Then questions poured from his mouth.

“Why didn’t I know?”

“Why did you hide all of this from me?”

“What kind of father am I?”

Tears began streaming down his face.

“My child was taken from me...”

“And I didn’t even realize he existed?!”

He stared at Lilian as though waiting for an explanation that could restore his sanity.

Lilian answered him in a broken voice:

“You knew...”

Valier froze.

“What?”

She said:

“You knew.”

Then she continued:

“But when you tried to resist the Heavenly Council and refused to surrender Victor...”

Her voice trembled.

“They erased your memories of that day.”

Valier’s eyes widened.

“They... erased my memories?”

She nodded.

“About Victor.”

Then she added as tears streamed down her face:

“And about everything that happened.”

Valier gasped.

“Why?”

“Because they threatened me.”

Lilian placed a hand over her chest.

“They said that if you ever learned the truth again, they would destroy our entire family.”

Her lips trembled.

“That is why I carried this secret in my heart for twenty-six years.”

Then she whispered:

“I’m sorry, Valier.”

“I had no choice.”

Valier remained silent for several moments.

Then his face became deathly pale.

He coughed up blood.

“I...”

He staggered.

“I knew...”

Then he collapsed to the ground.

“Father!”

Selena screamed.

Lilian rushed toward him.

“Valier!”

She and Selena helped him.

As for Lunaria, who was still suffering from her injuries, she forced herself to walk until she reached her father’s side.

Valier stared at the sky with empty eyes.

Then he muttered:

“I couldn’t protect my wife...”

His voice trembled.

“Nor my son...”

He clenched his fist tightly.

“What kind of man am I?”

Then tears streamed down his face.

“Do I not deserve to die?”

Lilian broke down crying.

Selena did as well.

Lunaria placed a hand on her father’s shoulder, but her tears would not stop.

Amid this family collapse...

Azrael remained silent.

He was still holding Leon by the neck.

He looked at the Foyd family.

Then he spoke calmly:

“When I was ten years old...”

The voices stopped.

Everyone raised their eyes toward him.

“I always wondered about the identity of my family.”

Silence descended.

“And why they had abandoned me.”

His words were calm, but they caused Lilian’s heart to tighten.

“I wondered...”

“Had I done something that made them abandon me?”

Valier lowered his head.

Lilian began crying silently.

Azrael continued:

“And when I became a young man...”

“I began searching for any clue that could lead me to you.”

He looked at Valier.

“I wasn’t searching for power.”

“I wasn’t searching for wealth.”

“I wanted only one answer.”

He paused for a moment.

“Why did my family abandon me?”

Valier’s eyes trembled.

“My son...”

he said weakly.

But Azrael did not stop.

“I searched.”

“In cities.”

“In kingdoms.”

“And in worlds you didn’t even know existed.”

“And after hundreds of years...”

Azrael slowly raised his eyes.

“I found nothing.”

Silence descended.

But this time...

the soldiers of the Council were not shocked by the length of time.

They knew their Lord’s age.

Every one of them had lived for thousands of years within the Council Domain, and some had personally witnessed vast eras of Azrael’s existence. They knew that their Lord’s past stretched back to ages far beyond what ordinary humans could comprehend.

But what weighed heavily upon their hearts...

was realizing that their Lord, despite possessing such overwhelming power, had spent part of those vast ages searching for his family.

One of the Council soldiers whispered:

“So... he kept searching for them even after all those years.”

Another soldier answered:

“He wanted only an answer.”

Then he lowered his head.

“But he never found it.”

Silence returned to the ranks of the Council Army.

As for the Foyd family...

their shock was entirely different.

They had discovered that Azrael did not live according to their perception of age.

He was not merely a man who had lived for decades or even centuries.

He carried behind his existence an immense history they had known nothing about.

Then Azrael said:

“And as time passed...”

“I stopped searching.”

“Then I stopped waiting.”

“Then I stopped caring.”

He looked at Lilian.

“And after billions of years...”

A profound silence descended.

Even the members of the Foyd family seemed to stop breathing.

“My emotions toward my family disappeared completely.”

“I no longer felt longing.”

“Nor curiosity.”

“Nor resentment.”

“Nor even hatred.”

Lilian trembled.

Valier continued staring at him with eyes filled with regret.

Selena whispered:

“Billions of years...”

She knew that Azrael had lived for a span of time that could not be compared to a human lifespan.

But hearing that number from his own lips made the truth far more painful.

Lunaria spoke in a trembling voice:

“It’s not that you lived for thousands of years...”

She raised her eyes toward him.

“But billions...”

Azrael did not answer.

She continued with difficulty:

“What could happen to a person over such an impossibly long period of time?”

She paused.

Then whispered:

“How many times were you forced to start over?”

Azrael remained silent.

And his silence alone was enough to terrify her.

Selena said:

“All those eras...”

“And all those lives...”

She looked at his face.

“Did you carry a single question throughout all that time?”

Azrael answered:

“At first.”

Then he added:

“Later... there was no question left.”

Selena froze.

Lilian felt as though something cold had pierced her chest.

She understood what he meant.

He had not forgotten the question because he had found an answer.

He had lived for so long that his desire to know the answer had eventually died.

Then Azrael said:

“My experience with death four times...”

His eyes paused for a moment.

“Made me even more indifferent to everything connected to the past.”

Lilian gasped softly.

Lunaria stared at him, trying to comprehend what it meant for someone to die four times and still continue existing.

She said:

“Four times...”

“You died four times?”

Azrael answered:

“Yes.”

Selena asked in a trembling voice:

“And then you returned...”

“Every time?”

“Every time.”

Silence descended.

This information was not new to the soldiers of the Council.

Some of them had known the stories of their Lord’s incarnations for a very long time.

But hearing it now in front of the Foyd family made its impact entirely different.

As for Valier...

he stared at Azrael with eyes filled with helplessness.

“Billions of years...”

he whispered.

“And four lives...”

Then he looked at his hands.

“All of that happened to my son...”

He raised his head.

“And I wasn’t there.”

Azrael did not respond.

Then he said:

“So don’t even think about begging me to spare Leon Foyd’s life.”

Lilian froze.

“Being born from the same womb...”

He looked at Leon hanging from his hand.

“Does not make us the same person.”

Then he added:

“Our existences are completely different.”

He raised his other hand.

He cut his finger.

A drop of dark purple blood emerged.

At the same time...

a crimson drop of blood rose from the wound on Leon’s face.

The two drops floated in the air before the Foyd family.

They moved toward each other.

Then attempted to merge.

But...

they failed.

Each drop moved away from the other.

Shock spread through everyone.

One family member whispered:

“Even their blood...”

Another said:

“They cannot merge.”

Selena stared at the two drops in shock.

Lunaria covered her mouth.

Lilian could only stare at the purple blood.

Azrael said:

“Even my blood is no longer what it once was.”

Then he looked at Lilian.

“You lost a son twenty-six years ago.”

His eyes paused.

“But I lost my mother the moment you abandoned me.”

Lilian trembled violently.

Valier spoke in a broken voice:

“You searched for us...”

Azrael looked at him.

Valier continued:

“All those years...”

“And I didn’t even know whether you were alive.”

Then he closed his eyes.

“I couldn’t be your father.”

He opened his eyes again.

“But I wish...”

He hesitated.

“I wish I could return to that day.”

Azrael did not answer.

Valier stared at his face for a long time.

Then the strands of his hair gradually began turning white.

Selena gasped:

“Father!”

Lunaria raised her head in shock.

Valier looked as though many years had suddenly passed over his body within moments.

But Azrael did not change.

His expression remained calm.

Cold.

Then he said:

“So don’t ask me to forget.”

He looked at Lilian.

“And don’t ask me to treat Leon as though nothing ever happened.”

Lilian trembled.

She said softly:

“I’m not asking you to forget...”

Azrael raised his eyes toward her.

She continued:

“And I’m not asking you to erase your pain.”

“I only...”

She stopped, her voice choking.

“I don’t want to lose you again.”

He did not answer.

Selena stepped forward.

“Azrael...”

She stopped.

Then looked at Leon.

“He didn’t know the truth either.”

“Leon didn’t know you were his brother.”

Azrael remained silent.

Lunaria said:

“Neither did I...”

Then she gave a sorrowful smile.

“Until moments ago, I thought I knew my family.”

“And now I’ve discovered that an entire part of it was hidden from me.”

Azrael did not answer her.

So Valier spoke weakly:

“Did...”

He hesitated for a long time.

“Did you hate us?”

For the first time, the question seemed to carry something heavier than fear.

Azrael looked at him.

“At first.”

Valier froze.

“And then?”

“Then the hatred died.”

Silence.

“Just as the longing died.”

Then he said:

“And so did all the questions.”

Tears streamed down Lilian’s face again.

Valier lowered his head.

He no longer knew what a father could possibly say before a son who had lived for billions of years searching for him, only to eventually reach a point where he no longer wanted anything from him.

Azrael raised his gaze toward Leon.

Leon remained unable to move, barely conscious of what was happening.

Then Azrael said coldly:

“And now...”

“I want to know only one thing.”

The Foyd family froze.

“Will you stand in my way...”

His eyes stopped on Lilian.

“Or will you accept that this ended a long time ago?”

No one answered.

Because everyone realized that the truth Lilian had revealed was not the end of the tragedy.

It was...

the beginning of the most difficult family confrontation the Foyd family had ever faced.

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