---
Darkness.
Absolute silence.
It was as if the entire universe had stopped. No sound, no light, no pain… only emptiness.
"Did I die?"
The thought emerged faintly, like a weak spark in the middle of nothingness. He couldn't feel his body, nor the air in his lungs. But also… he didn't feel any pain.
"I thought dying would be scarier…"
His consciousness floated, weightless, like a breeze drifting through the vastness of the void. He didn't know if minutes or millennia had passed.
Then, a light appeared.
Faint at first, but quickly expanding. Warm. Alive.
And then he had no air — breath fled from his lungs, and he gasped desperately. The following seconds felt like hours.
Then it came.
The sensation of being pulled struck him suddenly, as if he were being sucked into a vortex of pure energy. The light engulfed everything.
And then…
Crying. He didn't know it, but it was a cry of liberation — finally able to breathe again — though without fully developed vocal cords, all he could do was scream and cry.
The high-pitched sound of a newborn echoed through an elegant hall.
"It's a boy!"
"Thank the heavens… after so much tragedy, finally a blessing."
"At last, my son is born. At last, my love… he's here with us."
A whirlwind of excited voices filled the room. There was a mix of joy and tension. Two women dressed in worn, simple clothes stood there, one of them holding a baby in her arms.
Beside the bed, holding the hand of the woman who had just given birth, was a man who seemed to be comforting her. She smiled and appeared to hand him a necklace before closing her eyes for the last time.
The baby slowly opened his eyes, and for a moment… they shone with an intelligence that did not belong to a child.
"...I've been reborn?"
Jumbled memories, strange sensations, and a deep confusion flooded his mind. He knew he wasn't an ordinary baby.
He knew that… he had lived before.
"This isn't a dream. But it's not my world either."
He didn't know how, but he could feel it: this was a new beginning.
---
Four years later…
---
In a small house far from the central core of the Imperial City, a man knelt in front of a child and spoke to him.
"Son, we're going to meet your grandfather now. Stay by my side, always. I know there will be people who won't accept my return, and they'll say terrible things to hurt you and me, but don't listen to them. I know your grandfather will receive us."
The boy knew he had a complicated past. His father, son of Duke Lei Tianlong, had run away with a commoner during a mission outside the capital. He abandoned his status, his inheritance, and his pride — all for love.
For five years, he lived in hiding with the woman he loved. Then came the pregnancy… and the woman he loved died giving birth to their son. He spent another four years alone, raising the boy, before making his decision.
Now, they had returned.
But the noble world does not forgive betrayal so easily.