A Peacock Husband of Five Princesses by day, a Noble Assassin by Night

After a while;

The three were seen on the rooftop of a distant but not far away residence.

Alice lay stretched out on her back, hands behind her head, gazing lazily at the stars above. A small smile curved her lips. "Kael," she said softly, patting the floor beside her. "Come here."

He glanced at her, uncertain.

"Come on," she tugged at his sleeve, dragging him down beside her. "Stop focusing too much on the ground and look up for once."

With a reluctant huff, Kael settled next to her, lying on the cool stone. The sky above was vast with an endless sprawl of stars splattered across a black canvas, glimmering like scattered crystals.

A few feet away, Shiera sat cross-legged with arms around her knees, although her focus never strayed from the graveyard.

Kael tilted his head toward her. "Hey, Shiera. Come lie down with us. You should look at this. It's… beautiful"

She didn't turn. "I don't care."

Alice snorted quietly. "Told you," she said, voice low. "Don't bother. She doesn't know how to relax."

Kael gave a small sigh and shifted his eyes back to the sky.

"Look there," Alice said suddenly, pointing upward. Her voice had softened, grown more excited. "See that elongated smudge? Right there…

He followed her finger. "Yeah?"

"That's one of them," she said, eyes shining faintly in the starlight. "And see that irregular blob over there? It's not perfectly shaped… kinda lumpy?"

"Uh-huh."

"And that faint cloudy patch just above it… like a fog, but fainter than the others. You know what they are?"

Kael stared for a few more seconds, then nodded. "My mother told me once, when I was small. Those are spirit realms where our souls rest after our death. Or so the stories say."

Alice's lips curved more deeply. "Yes, but not quite."

Kael turned his head slightly. "Not quite?"

She kept her eyes on the sky. "That lumpy one? That's where the spirits go after death. The spirit realm of rest." She shifted her finger to another one. "The cloudy one… that's the spirit realm of judgment. It's said the souls line up there, waiting to be weighed. And the elongated smudge? That's the spirit realm of reincarnation. It is where the judged spirits wait to be reborn."

He blinked. "Wait there? Like in a queue? Judging by the fact that it is bigger than the other two, the waiting souls must be higher in number."

She laughed softly. "Something like that. And you know, the spirit realm of reincarnation is only seen in autumn and winter."

"They say…" Alice continued, her voice barely louder than the breeze, "That when that third realm appears, one out of every hundred thousand reincarnated babies is born different. Like a genius among geniuses. What takes others years, they learn in weeks. Or even days. You can see almost three-fourths of those who were genius magisters were all born in those months."

Kael nodded. "Hmm… I see… I never paid much attention to that before."

She continued. "And even rarer than that, when all three spirit realms appear together, side by side in the sky… that's once in sixty, maybe seventy years."

A pause. The wind brushed his hair.

"And when that happens…" She turned to look at him now with a gleaming eye. "It's said a soul is born with memories of their past life. Some souls remember from the moment they were born, while some remember when they faced a near-death situation. The last time such an event happened was two decades ago," she whispered. "In the same year and the month, you and I were born."

Silence followed, broken only by the occasional gust of wind. The stars pulsed faintly above them, ancient and distant.

Alice smiled again, tilting her head to meet his gaze. "Fascinating, isn't it?"

Kael nodded slowly, eyes wide, mind distant. "Yeah… it really is."

From her perch a few feet away, Shiera hadn't moved, but her gaze flicked upward for a moment, to the faint smudges in the sky.

And then her facial expression changed.

"That's nonsense," she said outright. "A fairy tale cooked up by desperate novelists trying to make a coin."

Kael blinked, startled by the sudden interruption.

Alice frowned and looked over. "Excuse me?"

Shiera slowly turned her head, eyes meeting hers coldly. "Souls that go through judgment don't get to remember anything. That's the entire point of the process. They drink the Potion of Forgetfulness."

Alice sat up slightly. "You say that like it's a fact carved into stone."

"It is." Shiera's eyes narrowed. "Only souls captured by special artifacts retain their memories. And even then, they don't reincarnate. They transmigrate into a dead body or possess someone alive."

Alice scoffed as she sat up, brushing her hair from her face. "Just because you don't want to believe something doesn't make it a myth."

Shiera's tone hardened. "And just because there's no proof doesn't give you the right to spout off fantasy like it's gospel."

Kael held up a hand slightly, hoping to calm the growing tension, but Alice was already rising to her elbows. "Umm… ladies…"

"Yeah, right… Whatever." She turned her gaze back to the stars. "Why do you even care, anyway? I wasn't talking to you."

The rooftop went cold with silence.

Then, like a snap of frost, Shiera's voice cut through the air. "I care," she said, "because I don't want you filling my husband's head with lies."

Alice's mouth opened in disbelief at her statement, then a short laugh escaped her.

"Just because he's your husband," she said with a smirk, "doesn't mean you own him. Or maybe you do think that. Maybe you think just because your mother repaid his family's debts, you got a free claim on his soul."

Shiera's brows drew together.

"But," Alice went on, "Kael isn't your slave. He's his own person."

Shiera's face twitched in anger, bubbling just beneath the surface and about to erupt like a volcano at any moment.

"Don't twist my words, Alice," she warned. Her voice was still low, but the seriousness in it was obvious. "Whether Kael is my equal, my protector, or even my slave… It's between us. You don't get to shove your nose into our business. You're an outsider and better stay as one."

Alice stood on her feet now, crossing her arms tightly.

"As his friend," she said sharply, "I have every right to think about what's best for him. And I'll give him advice whether you like it or not."

She turned to Kael, who hadn't spoken a word, caught between them like a leaf in a storm. "And as for what he chooses…" She softened, just a little, as she continued, "That's entirely up to him. Only Kael gets to choose his future."

Shiera opened her mouth, clearly ready to fire back another retort.

But before she could speak, Kael suddenly stood and spoke aloud. "Okay, that's it. I'm done. I'm going back to Everlight City."

Alice turned to look at him. "What?"

Shiera did the same. "Kael, what are you talking about?"

He looked at them with a heavy, filled with frustration barely held back.

His voice turned sharp as he spoke to both of them, "Ever since the two of you met, it's been nothing but arguments. I didn't have a few moments of peace every time you were in the same space."

Neither woman responded, and their faces seemed to be quite filled with surprise, as if they didn't expect such a sudden reaction from the man.

"I'm not picking sides," Kael continued, sweeping a hand to both of them. "I don't care who's right. I don't care about spirit realms or past lives or what stories are true. What I care about is not getting dragged into a storm I didn't create."

He turned to the Princess. "Shiera, you told me once… that this isn't my problem. And I think you were right. I shouldn't have come here with you."

Shiera's eyes widened a fraction.

"So go ahead," Kael said. "Both of you. Figure it out however you want. Fight against each other. Kill one another or solve together. I don't care anymore. I had enough… I'm leaving…"

"Ignis… come out."

He lifted his hand and summoned his mount.

With a burst of dark-scarlet light, the Infernal pegasus jumped out of his tattoo, its hooves clinking faintly on the stone.

*Neigh*

Kael swung himself up onto the saddle with practiced ease.

Still, neither of them said a word.

Even Alice just watched him, speechless.

Kael looked down at Shiera one last time. His voice was neutral. "I'll see you again later."

Then he clicked his tongue, and the pegasus leapt into the air and vanished into the night.

The last flutter of wings faded into the distance, the pegasus nothing more than a speck swallowed by the dark sky.

Silence lingered on the rooftop for a few seconds.

As Shiera's eyes fixated on the dark sky, wondering why Kael was so agitated all of a sudden just because of some argument, Alice opened her mouth. "Well… since the trouble's out of the way, Princess… shall we finally sort out our problem?"

Shiera's hand instinctively drifted to the hilt of her sword, but she didn't draw it. Her eyes narrowed, steady and unblinking.

"What problem?" she asked coolly.

"I don't want to work with you," Alice said simply. "Someone from the palace. Consider this a request or warning. I'm telling you to leave."

Shiera's jaw tightened. She didn't move, her cloak fluttering behind her slightly as she squared her stance.

"There is no way I would leave," she said, her voice now laced with steel. "This graveyard is under direct martial authority. This entire case, everything about that statue, is officially royal business. You have no position here."

Alice smirked, sharp, mocking, and utterly cold. "No business?" she echoed. "Are you sure about that?"