Reborn before my betrayal

The Shadow of the Eclipse

I didn't hesitate.

Relying entirely on the burning, artificial energy of the Crimson Elixir, I forced my legs to move. I vaulted over a shattered marble banquet table, my black cloak cutting through the rolling purple miasma. My wounded hand throbbed with white-hot pain, but I forced my fingers to lock around my hilt.

The shadowed figure was already at the edge of the royal seating box. His blade was a whisper away from Princess Iris’s throat. She was only fourteen, frozen in petrified terror, her eyes wide as the assassin closed in.

Not this time, Julian, I snarled internally.

I threw my weight forward, tackling the assassin mid-air just as his blade began its downward arc.

BOOM!

We smashed into the stone floor, rolling through the debris. The assassin was agile, a trained operative. He recovered instantly, driving a vicious kick toward my ribs.

I blocked it with my forearm. Even with the elixir numbing my senses, the raw force rattled my weak bones, and a sharp spray of blood erupted from my lips as my overtaxed meridians began to tear. But I had ten lifetimes of combat experience over this amateur. I twisted my body, ignoring the physical agony, and drove the hilt of my hidden shadow guard sword straight into his jaw.

CRACK.

His head snapped back. Before he could recover his balance, I drove the blade cleanly through his throat.

Dark red blood splattered across my face. I stood up, grabbing the assassin by his hair and violently ripping the mask off his corpse in front of the entire recovering court.

It wasn't a cultist.

"Commander Vane?" a high duke gasped from the fog.

The room went dead silent, the remaining pockets of the cult being rapidly suppressed by the royal mages. Everyone stared. Vane wasn't a terrorist. He was the captain of Julian’s personal palace guard—the exact man whose boots I had ruined with wine just hours ago.

I looked up, making direct eye contact with Julian through the clearing smoke. He was standing near the throne, surrounded by his personal shields, staring at me with a face full of pure, naked horror. His hands were shaking. He realized his entire hidden plot to execute Iris and blame the cult had just been dragged into the light.

"Kaelen!" Iris sobbed, grabbing the edge of my cloak from inside her box, her small hands trembling. "He... he tried to kill me."

"I know," I said, my voice echoing like ice against steel across the silent hall.

I turned toward the high throne, dragging Vane’s bleeding corpse by the collar and dumping it directly at the steps of the Emperor's dais. The blood smeared a long, jagged red line across the white marble.

"The vipers are already inside the nest, Father," I said, looking my father dead in the eye. I didn't bow. I pointed my bloody sword straight at Julian. "Your golden prince didn't want to protect the empire. He wanted to clear the board. He sent his own captain to slaughter your daughter in the chaos."

"Lies! This is a fabrication!" Julian shrieked, stepping forward, his face completely pale as the surrounding generals and nobles began to murmur in disgust. "Father, Kaelen has clearly colluded with the cult! He killed Vane to cover his own tracks!"

The Emperor slowly rose from his throne. The air in the room grew heavy, suffocated by his supreme, high-tier mana. His gaze moved from the dead captain, to Julian’s panicked eyes, and finally settled on me.

He knew the truth. But I knew how his mind worked from my past life. The Emperor didn't care about justice; he cared about the reputation of the royal lineage. Exposing the Crown Prince for treason and fratricide today would cause a civil war that would destroy the empire. He needed to bury this.

"Silence," the Emperor rumbled, his voice vibrating the stone walls.

He looked down at me, his eyes filled with a warning light. "The Third Prince has successfully defended the royal blood. However... his wild accusations against the Crown Prince are a symptom of madness brought on by the northern frost."

He was going to cover it up. He was going to protect Julian to protect the crown.

"Therefore," the Emperor continued, his voice turning cold and detached. "To preserve the peace of the realm, Kaelen of the Azure Lineage is hereby stripped of his titles. Your name is erased from the ancestral books. You are granted your request. Take your absolute, permanent exile into the Forbidden Outlands—effective immediately."

Julian let out a subtle, sharp breath of relief. He thought he had won. He thought that by exiling me, I was walking to my death as a nameless rogue.

But as the royal executioners stepped forward to seize my weapons and escort me out, I looked at Julian and let out a low, dark laugh.

"You think this is a punishment, Julian?" I whispered, loud enough for his sharp ears to catch.

I didn't wait for the guards to touch me. I unbuckled my sword belt, letting the weapon clatter to the floor, and turned my back on the imperial throne.

But as I reached the massive double doors of the exit, the air behind me violently shifted. Julian couldn't let me leave alive with his secrets. Through the reflection of the polished marble floor, I saw him make a subtle hand gesture to the two highest-ranking elder mages in the room.

They weren't letting me walk out to the border. They were going to destroy my unawakened core right here in the doorway, formatting it as an "accidental backfire" of the exile curse.

Two massive, blinding circles of forbidden light magic materialized directly beneath my feet, locking my ankles to the stone as a crushing, lethal gravity began to implode around my chest.