Arthur stood before his daughter, bearing the full weight of her heartbroken accusation. His guilt was profound, but his immediate purpose was clear—to get Sunslite out of their home as quickly as possible.
"Listen, dear," Arthur said, his voice calm but insistent. "I am just saying one thing, just one thing: You must leave. Go now, this very moment."
Sunslite's tears dried instantly, replaced by astonishment and suspicion. "Why, Father? What is the reason for leaving? I won't go."
Arthur gripped her hands firmly, desperation in his eyes. "Because... in three days, you are going to be married, Sunslite."
At this news, Sunslite froze as if turned to ice. All her anger transformed into momentary shock. "To whom?"
Arthur glanced around quickly, as if the walls might be listening. "If I tell you that, he will kill me. He knows I will try to help you escape."
"Who?" Sunslite demanded forcefully.
Arthur didn't dare utter the name directly. He merely whispered in fear: "He... comes from a Garman Royal Family. He is very cruel by nature. I know he is a psycho."
Sunslite recoiled, as if hit by an invisible wall. Her mind quickly began piecing together the memories—Reinhart Manor, the chilling blue eyes, that steady, calculating smile.
Sunslite spoke almost to herself, her voice trembling: "The one he loves once never returns... everyone fears him. He has everything in his eyes, nothing is missing from him. He loves to read books and drive carriages..."
Arthur lowered his head, his silence confirming the terrifying truth: Hridoy. The True Eyes
Arthur then suddenly focused on another detail, realizing that before Sunslite could escape, she needed to know her true self.
Arthur looked into Sunslite's face and gently squeezed her hand. "Alright, Sunslite, your real eyes are blue. Why are you using a light brown color? Tell me the truth."
The secret Sunslite had hidden for so long, a failed attempt at protection engineered by her father, now burst into the open at his unexpected question.
Sunslite's eyes slowly widened. The Nexus energy woven into her by her father now channeled all her agony into power.
Slowly—almost magically—the light brown color in Sunslite's eyes faded away. From behind that veil emerged her true, cold, and intense blue eyes. That blue was as sharp as Hridoy's, but it held a new, fierce fire of rebellion.
Arthur saw that new power in his daughter's eyes. This was the strength that would make Hridoy fear her, the strength that could change her destiny.
"Go now," Arthur insisted, his voice firm. "Not three days, but very little time remains. Go to your destination with these blue eyes. Go to the study, find the journal. You are no longer your father's pawn, you are your own weapon."Sunslite returns to Reinhart Manor, choosing a path of confrontation over flight. She finds Hridoy in the library, sitting calmly with a book. Hridoy, supremely confident, lifts her into his lap and confirms her father's revelations: "Oh, my Queen, come, I missed you. You found out everything from your father, right? Truly, I am that King."
Before he can finish, Sunslite places her cold, resolute hand over his lips—a small, immediate act of defiance, her true blue eyes burning with defiance.
Hridoy is unperturbed. He removes her hand and tells her that her fear and power will soon be his. He then leads her to a table where a velvet box sits. He opens the box to reveal Arthur's Journal, the very book Sunslite was supposed to search for.
"Your father told you to find a hidden book to arm yourself against me," Hridoy says with a chilling smile. "But I say: your journal is right here. Now you decide, Queen. Will you turn these pages? Or will you remain in my lap and wait... for the wedding night?"Hridoy holds Sunslite close, delivering a chilling promise in a low voice: "Tonight, I will make you cry." He then executes a slow, possessive kiss on her neck—a cold symbol of his ownership—before silently leaving the library, leaving Sunslite alone.
Sunslite is left shaken but not broken. Hridoy's threat fuels her resolve. She realizes that her only path to survival and revenge is through knowledge.
She immediately grabs Arthur's Journal from the table. The leather-bound book is heavy with secrets. As she opens the first page, she sees a note written in her father's familiar, hurried hand.Sunslite, having read her father's journal, is ready for Hridoy's confrontation. Hridoy enters the room to fulfill his threat to make her "cry," viewing the intimacy as a means of total psychological dominance. He lies next to her and holds her hand, a gesture of ownership.
Sunslite, however, is not yielding. With her new, powerful blue eyes focused and her mind clear from the journal's teachings, she waits for Hridoy to feel most victorious.
As Hridoy whispers his promise of ownership, Sunslite concentrates and uses a psychological technique learned from the journal. She asks a silent, penetrating question directly into his mind, hitting his deepest secret:
"Don't you remember why your first Queen abandoned you?"
Hridoy freezes. His victorious expression vanishes, replaced by a look of profound, dark pain. He instantly releases her hand, as if burned, and his gaze becomes unfocused, lost in a painful memory.
Without another word or glance at Sunslite, Hridoy swiftly leaves the room. His threat failed; Sunslite did not cry. Instead, she managed to break his control and trigger his inner torment, securing a temporary, powerful victory.Sunslite leaves her room and silently follows the path Hridoy took, locating a slightly ajar door with light spilling out. Inside, she hears Hridoy's furious voice speaking to an unknown servant or advisor.
She overhears a conversation that reveals critical, immediate danger:
Hridoy's Weakness Confirmed: Hridoy is enraged and fearful that Sunslite mentioned his "First Queen," confirming that this past figure is his profound weakness.
The Journal's Importance: The advisor confirms Sunslite has Arthur's Journal, which must contain the secret to his past.
The Accelerated Timeline: Hridoy realizes Sunslite is now a risk because she knows his weakness. He cannot wait three days for the wedding to complete the process.
The Immediate Danger: Hridoy gives a chilling command: "Take her to the Nexus Chamber tonight. We will complete the power tonight. No resistance."
Sunslite realizes her time has run out. Hridoy plans to use the Nexus Chamber to force the full awakening of the power within her, tonight.As Sunslite quickly retreats from the door, driven by Hridoy's command to take her to the Nexus Chamber tonight, she accidentally brushes her hand against a decoration (perhaps a sculpture base with sharp, dark rose thorns) in the dim hallway.
A sharp thorn pierces her palm, and a drop of her warm blood falls onto the cold, stone floor.
The moment the blood hits the ancient stone, Sunslite's inherent Nexus energy reacts violently. Her blue eyes flare intensely. She doesn't see a light on the floor, but rather, a sudden, powerful vision or spatial awareness flashes in her mind:
A spiral staircase. Deep beneath the foundations. Where blood and power become one... the Chamber.
She realizes her blood, conditioned by her father, is the key to the Manor's secrets. Her bloodline is intrinsically linked to the Nexus. She must not escape the manor, but descend into its depths.Sunslite was still gripping her pricked hand, trying to focus on the faint vision of the hidden path. Her blood, her newfound energy, was pulling her toward the depths of the Manor.
Just then, a silent shadow descended behind her.
Hridoy was there. He had moved so quickly, so silently, that Sunslite didn't even notice him. His blue eyes were as cold and terrifying as the darkness itself.
In a single moment, Hridoy reached out. His fingers, hard as iron, clamped around Sunslite's throat. As her breath seized, Sunslite's eyes widened in panic. She might have dropped the journal, but her fist clenched even tighter around it.
Hridoy pulled her against him, whispering into her ear. His voice was a hiss, like a chilling wind:
"Returning to me so quickly, my Queen? Did you think your blood would show me the path, and I wouldn't see?"
His fingers tightened further on her neck. Hridoy seemed to count her every gasp.
"You read the journal, didn't you? But you forgot, every whisper, every secret path in this Manor... they all reach my ears. Your father's attempt was just a beautiful lie. And your courage... the fire in those blue eyes... I quite like it."
He pressed a cold kiss lightly on her earlobe, a threat more terrifying than violence.
"You will go to the Nexus Chamber, but not alone tonight. You will reach it in my grasp. Because you are the key, and the key always belongs to the owner. Let's go, Queen. Let the game begin."
Hridoy did not let her stand for another moment. Grasping her throat with one hand and holding her close with the other, he dragged her toward the secret path—the path that Sunslite's own blood had revealed.
A New Morning
The scene then abruptly changed.
When the scene cut, the soft, yet bright morning light streamed through the windowpanes of Reinhart Manor. The room was Sunslite's personal chamber, but now every corner seemed to hold a new, cold brilliance.
Sunslite lay in her bed, in a deep sleep. Her face was calm, but clearly marked by extreme exhaustion—as if she had been engaged in a terrifying battle, not just physically or mentally, but deep within her soul, the previous night.
The curtains had been drawn open, and the intense light fell directly onto her face. Her eyelids were closed, but her skin seemed paler than before, almost like white marble.
Even in her deep slumber, her true blue eyes twitched beneath her lids, as if the power within her had not yet rested, only attempting to find peace.
By the Bedside
As Sunslite lay there motionless, a few small objects in the room drew attention—
On the bedside table, next to a small teacup, lay Arthur's Journal. The book was closed, but a single drop of dried blood—Sunslite's blood from the thorn—was visible on its leather binding.
But there was one other thing, the most unexpected detail.
Resting on Sunslite's chest, right over her beating heart, was a tiny, crystal-clear stone. It looked less like glass and more like concentrated, cold light—the very essence of the Nexus energy from the Manor's chamber.
This stone was the evidence: whatever happened in the Nexus Chamber last night was complete and irreversible. Sunslite's power might not have been stolen; instead, it was permanently contained within her, perhaps exactly as her father had intended.
Sunslite was still lost in sleep, but this sleep held no weakness—only the exhaustion that follows the birth of a new, fierce power. The wedding was in three days. But this girl was no longer a frightened prey; she was now the vessel of the Nexus itself.