THE UNDERESTIMATED HEIR

✨ EPILOGUE – THE LIGHT THAT REMAINS

The night wind swept softly across Neovalle.

Below, the city pulsed with a gentle rhythm — a million points of light, breathing in unison like a living heart.

Towers shimmered, bridges glowed, and quiet laughter echoed through the avenues. Every glow was a story, every spark a memory.

Marvin stood at the edge of the Solar Crest Terrace, the highest point above Helios Square. From there, the world looked reborn — no longer a battlefield of ambition, but a garden of light.

Beside him stood Stella. Her fingers were laced through his, warm and steady — a reminder that even after storms, hands meant for healing could still find one another.

Lucian rested on Marvin’s shoulder, small arms curled around his neck. The boy’s breathing was soft, peaceful, untouched by the darkness his father once knew.

“Do you ever miss it?” Stella’s voice was quiet, almost carried away by the breeze.

Marvin turned his gaze toward the horizon. The solar lamps lined every street below, glowing gold and steady — each one a promise fulfilled.

“Miss what?” he asked.

“The fight. The rise. The endless proving.”

He smiled faintly, his reflection mingling with hers in the glass barrier before them. “There was a time when I thought I needed the war to feel alive. But peace… peace taught me to breathe again.”

Lucian stirred in his sleep, and Marvin adjusted him gently.

“Once, I was the man people doubted,” he whispered. “The heir who was cast aside. The one who rose from ashes. But in the end, I learned that light isn’t born from power — it’s born from pain that refused to die bitter.”

Stella leaned closer, resting her head against his arm. “You gave both Richmonds and the people here a future,” she said softly. “And you gave us one too.”

Marvin looked out over the city — at the bridges lit like constellations, the parks alive with music, the rooftops crowned with solar glass.

“I only gave them what I wished someone had given me,” he murmured. “A chance to see beyond the dark.”

A hush settled over the terrace. Somewhere below, a child’s laughter echoed — pure, unburdened. Marvin closed his eyes and breathed deeply, letting the sound fill the spaces where pain once lived.

He thought of Uncle Christopher, of the wars fought and won, of the people who believed even when he didn’t. He thought of the countless nights spent building, breaking, rebuilding.

And then he thought of now — this moment. Stella’s hand. Lucian’s breath. The city’s glow.

He smiled — not as a warrior, not as a savior, but as a man who had finally come home to himself and found peace within himself.

“The light we build,” he said softly, “should always outlive us.”

Stella squeezed his hand. “It already has.”

The wind rose gently, brushing through their hair as the city of Neovalle shimmered beneath them — radiant, eternal, unafraid.

And as Marvin lifted his eyes to the stars, the world below mirrored them — a reflection of every scar, every sacrifice, now turned into brilliance.

He exhaled slowly, peace filling his chest for the first time in years.

The journey was over.

The light remained.

— THE END —