The sharp slam of the door was still echoing when Sophia’s heart sank.Her breath caught in her throat. She already knew.She didn’t need to guess. The second she heard the footsteps, the rustle of expensive fabric, the weighty silence followed by a familiar scoff—it was enough.Her eyes slowly shifted toward the doorway, and there they were.Her grandfather entered first, tall and stern as ever, his walking stick hitting the tiles with cold authority. Behind him, her father, Mr. Callum, stood with a deep frown, arms folded tightly across his chest. And then… her mother—Clarissa Callum, perfectly dressed as if she hadn’t just stormed into a hospital room, her expression twisted with a mix of panic, rage, and exhaustion.Sophia’s body stiffened beneath the bedsheets.Clarissa didn't wait.“You see? You see what you’ve done to yourself?” her mother snapped, her voice slicing through the air. “We warned you, Sophia! Didn’t we warn you?!”Sophia didn’t respond. Her fingers tightened aroun

That was the only thought he could cling to now—the only thread of hope dangling in his mind. Serenity. Yes, Serenity would do something. She had to. She could still speak on their behalf. She had influence. If she could put in a good word before the Supreme King, perhaps the door to power wasn’t completely shut. Perhaps they hadn’t lost everything.But even that hope couldn’t wash away the sour sting of disgrace.Because as he stood there, shame gnawed at his chest like a silent storm. Damien—this same boy he had looked down on, dismissed, insulted—had become their savior. Not only had he exposed the very monsters they once trusted… he had also saved Sophia.And now… he was standing right there.A few feet away. Calm. Composed. Not angry, not proud. Just… present. And that alone made it worse. The old man couldn’t even raise his head. He felt it deep in his bones—the weight of having sold out Damien’s heart, dismissed his worth, only for that same heart to carry his family through th

Her question was directed at Winston's father, who stood with grief etched into every line of his face. His eyes never left Damien as he gave a slow, deliberate nod.“Yes,” he said, his voice thick with conviction. “That is the same person. I would recognize him anywhere.” His fists clenched at his sides, knuckles white with tension. “I am very, very sure.”The weight of his certainty hung in the air, choking any protest Sophia might have formed. She glanced at Damien, searching his face for some reaction—denial, shock, anything that might suggest innocence—but his expression remained carefully controlled, only the slight tightening around his eyes betraying any emotion at all.Whisting's father stepped forward, his face contorted with desperation and rage. His finger remained pointed at Damien, trembling with the force of his accusation.“He has been the one having issues with Whisting ever since the beginning,” he spat, voice breaking. “And I am very, very sure that he is also the

At that moment, Damien stood up slowly from his chair.The faint sound of the legs scraping against the hospital floor echoed sharply in the thick silence. His movements were calm, composed—but anyone watching closely could feel the storm brewing underneath his stillness.He tucked his hands into his pockets and glanced at the people standing before him, one after the other, his gaze cold and distant, almost as if he was looking through them rather than at them.“I've kept quiet long enough,” Damien said, his voice steady, but edged with a sharpness that couldn't be missed. “And frankly, it seems I'm just wasting my time with irrelevant noise.”The temperature in the room seemed to drop by a few degrees. No one dared to interrupt.Then Damien took a slow step forward, speaking with a chilling clarity, every word landing with precision.“I'm not the kind of person who seeks the downfall of others. I'm not the kind of person who finds joy when others are crying or broken,” he said, his

At that moment Serenity stood there, frozen, her mind blank and her fingers curling slightly into her palms. She couldn't move. She couldn't even breathe properly.Everything that just happened felt surreal, as if the world had been flipped upside down in a single heartbeat.The heavy silence pressed down on her, and no matter how much she tried to pull herself together, she couldn’t shake the strange, overwhelming feeling swirling in her chest. She could still see Damien's calm back as he walked away earlier, like nothing that had happened even scratched him.How? she thought blankly. How can he be so composed? How did he even do what he did?She had heard about that skill before—the technique of controlling speed within a person's body, a forbidden art in the military, only accessible to those who reached an unimaginable level of cultivation. It wasn't a rumor. It was fact.And only a handful, a very rare handful of people, could even dream of achieving it.For Damien to be among th