"Thank you, sister-in-law… if it wouldn't be a bother, might I get a list of my husband's information? I want to know what he's been up to." Sita said with a warm smile, and the king's frown deepened as these two women completely forgot where they were, talking amongst themselves as if the throne room was a living room and he wasn't sitting right there.
Also, why was Sita calling his daughter "sister-in-law" as if this was already a sealed deal? The marriage hadn't even been officially arranged yet, and she was already speaking as though she'd moved in.
On top of that, he was firmly against her seeing a detailed record of his son's activities. He feared that once she knew the full scope of what Ethan had been doing—and who he'd been doing—she would change her mind about marrying him entirely.
"Of course," Ellen said before her father could even open his mouth to object, and the king shot her a sharp glare that she absorbed without flinching.
"Don't worry, I got everything under control," Ellen said, giving her father a meaningful look—the kind that carried an entire unspoken conversation behind it. He held her gaze for a moment, then exhaled slowly and let his shoulders drop. He didn't like it, but he trusted her judgment. He calmed down. Slightly.
So, after a few minutes of pleasantries and formalities, Sita found herself in the guest room of the royal castle, seated at a desk with a thick file spread open before her. She flipped through Ethan's information page by page, and with each passing document, her expression shifted further and further from what it had been when she walked in.
She was stunned.
The United Empire had been quietly overrun by an underground organization that had risen to power over the past ten years, its influence spreading through black markets, shadow networks, and places the royal family's eyes couldn't easily reach… and Ethan was secretly the mastermind behind it all?
Ellen had compiled a detailed, almost frighteningly thorough list of Ethan's actions over the past several years, tracking everything from his finances to his movements to the people he surrounded himself with.
It started with how he bought slaves—people who had been discarded by society, written off as worthless—and instead of treating them like property, he gained their loyalty through genuine investment.
He gave them resources, training, and the opportunity to become powerful experts in their own right. People who had been nothing became something under his guidance, and in return, their loyalty to him was absolute.
Ellen had even noted Ethan's unusually high level of charisma in her reports, observing that he was capable of gaining the trust and devotion of just about anyone he came across, even when he wasn't actively trying to. It was almost like a passive ability—people just gravitated toward him, drawn in by something they couldn't quite name.
"Raven…" Sita paused when she came across the section on the Ashborn noble family and their young princess, Raven.
She was a genius who was loved by the darkness itself—a cultivator whose affinity for shadow and dark energy was so strong that it bordered on unnatural. She was normally a cold and distant woman, the kind who could walk through a crowded room without a single person daring to approach her… until Ethan showed up.
***
Flashback.
"..." Raven's eyes locked onto Ethan as he sat down at the same table as her, pulling out his chair and settling in like he belonged there.
This was an odd sight—everyone at these events normally avoided her table like it was surrounded by an invisible wall. Yet here was Ethan, a cripple with no cultivation to speak of, sitting down across from her with the audacity to smile.
"What?" Ethan asked with a look of genuine confusion, catching her staring at him.
"Do you not want me to sit here? Oh, wait, you're hot and all, so I'm guessing you're thinking I'm trying to hit on you or something. But worry not, I have no social energy and just want to be alone." Ethan said, still smiling at her as if he hadn't just said all of that out loud.
She was speechless. This man had just narrated his entire internal thought process to her face without a hint of shame. She looked at him for a moment, unsure what to do with someone like this, before turning her gaze away.
She scanned the room and noticed dozens of eyes already fixed on their table, nobles and officials watching with a mix of curiosity and disbelief that someone had willingly sat with the Ashborn princess.
This was some noble's birthday celebration—she had been forced to attend on direct orders from her father. If it had been up to her, she would have been deep in her darkness, cultivating in the darkness where she belonged.
Her attention shifted back to Ethan when she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. He had pulled out a sheet of paper and started drawing, his hand moving with a steady, practiced rhythm.
She glanced at the sketch despite herself. What she saw was Ethan drawing the blueprints for a car, but it looked different from any vehicle she had ever seen. He was using detailed sketches of animals alongside the mechanical designs—birds, fish, big cats—their body structures serving as reference points for the shape and function of the car's frame. It confused her.
"Confused? Animals are perfect; nature built them to be pros at what they do. Let's look at flight, for example. I plan to one day build an airplane inspired by how birds fly. Instead of doing things by raw power, why not copy from nature?" Ethan asked with a grin, looking over at her as though they'd been friends for years.
She frowned, not appreciating how casually he was talking to her. She wasn't used to people speaking to her at all, let alone like this—like she was just another person at the table. But she was curious, and the way he had explained it made sense, so she gave a small nod of acknowledgment before looking away again, silently communicating that she didn't want to continue the conversation.
"...Now that I look at you, I want to model something after you," Ethan said softly, his voice shifting as he studied her with a thoughtful expression. Her hand snapped toward him on reflex, her fingers stopping just short of his throat, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits at those words.
"You're like darkness taken form. It's beautiful. The more I look, the more I feel like I would be swallowed whole, but I find myself unwilling to look away… I wonder what I could build off such a concept." Ethan said softly, his gaze never wavering, and she froze on the spot. Her hand slowly lowered back to her side as she looked at those eyes of his—eyes that held no fear, no judgment, and no ulterior motive. Just genuine fascination.
She couldn't help but shift in her seat, growing nervous and self-conscious for the first time in her life. She wasn't used to this—being looked at like she was something worth admiring rather than something to be avoided. She wanted him to stop talking, but he kept going.
"I thought darkness was to be feared… yet here I am, wanting to be swallowed by it. I want the lights to be turned off right now, so I can see you in your full glory… what a shame. Would I ever have such an opportunity to see you again? Would I ever have the chance to look into darkness, and bathe in its beauty like I am today?" Ethan said, genuine disappointment coloring his voice, and she just stared at him. He meant every word. There was no flattery, no angle, no game being played. He was speaking the truth to her—the kind of truth that most people didn't even know how to say.
"You like darkness?" She asked softly, her voice was emotionless, without a hint of life.
"No, I'm scared of it… But with you, darkness somehow looks so beautiful. You can make something so terrifying look so… beautiful. You're amazing." Ethan said, and there wasn't a single waver in his voice. She froze again, but this time it wasn't from surprise—it was from something deeper. Her heart, which normally beat at an unnervingly slow rhythm—one beat every few minutes, suddenly began pounding rapidly, hammering against her ribs like it was trying to break free.
"Beautiful…" She repeated the word under her breath, looking down at the table as a blush spread across her pale skin.
And that was how Ethan got someone like Raven to fall in love with him. Ellen noted in her report that from the very first moment, Ethan had positioned himself carefully, laying the groundwork for everything that followed with a precision that most people would mistake for luck.
Ethan, although a mortal without a shred of cultivation, was terrifying in the sense that his charisma and ability to read people were so far beyond normal that they might as well have been supernatural. He didn't need strength. He had something far more dangerous—the ability to make anyone feel seen.
There was another entry in the file—a moment when Ethan had come across an elf princess while he was out exploring the human domain's outer territories. He had stumbled upon her while she was fleeing for her life, being hunted through the void of space.
***
Another Flashback.
An explosion tore through the silence of space, and an elf wearing a breathing mask could be seen launching herself away from the wreckage of her spaceship, which had just been blown apart from the inside.
Her face was deathly pale, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth and from the sword that was still lodged through her stomach, its blade slick with red that floated away in weightless droplets.
She gripped the magical wing item in her hands—some kind of flight treasure—and pushed it to its limit, rocketing through the void at full speed. But behind her, a group of bandits in reinforced space suits mounted on armored space bikes were already in pursuit, their engines flaring as they closed the gap with terrifying ease. They were faster than she could flee, and they knew it.