Chapter 3
"I'm going back to the academy tomorrow."
I said it plainly, like it was just another morning, just another line in Kael's routine.
The room went still.
I glanced toward the window — where the city of Eldrigrade stretched beyond the glass. Dozens of towering skyscrapers pierced the sky, clustered tightly at its heart. Around them, long European-style buildings sprawled outward — elegant, elongated, and laced with modern technology
Behind me, silence stretched.
Then:
"…Didn't expect you to listen, Kael."
Evelyne's voice came quieter than before. Not softened — just thrown off balance.
I turned slowly to face her. "There's something else."
In the novel, Kael was everything the Valery House worshipped.
The youngest born, yet he had the Mythrigan — the "Eye of God." The prodigy. The boy with limitless potential. His father didn't hesitate to name him heir, even with Evelyne right there.
Older. Stronger. More disciplined. More compassionate.
I glanced at her hands — bandaged. Faint red stains soaked through the wrappings. Training wounds, maybe. Or worse, self-inflicted standards.
She worked for everything I was handed.
And I never deserved any of it.
He never deserved it.
And so, after a pause, I spoke the words he never did.
"I'm stepping down. You're the heir now. That title — it should've been yours all along."
She froze.
The air shifted.
Her golden eyes, sharp and bright with that unmistakable Stage 3 Lumigan, locked on mine.
"…What did you just say?"
"You should have been the heir from the start," I said. "You earned it. Everyone saw it. You've carried this house more than I ever did. You were the one holding everything together while I… played at being a god."
She looked like she didn't know whether to slap me or ask if I was sick.
"You—you're not serious. What kind of game are you playing, Kael?"
"I'm not playing anything," I said, voice quieter now. "I don't want it. I never did."
A beat of silence.
She stepped closer. Her voice was lower this time — not angry. Just… tired.
"You think throwing away the title makes you a martyr? You always-"
"It's not an apology," I interrupted. "It's a decision."
Her expression cracked — barely — but it was there.
A flicker of something behind those eyes: disbelief, pain, maybe even confusion. But not hatred.
For the first time since I woke up in this body, she didn't look at me like I was the Kael who'd always ruined things.
She looked at me like she was trying to figure out who I was.
"What happened to you?"
Her voice was flat, but her eyes weren't. They were searching — sharp,, and maybe even a little worried.
Of course she'd ask.The real Kael would never hand over the heirship. Would never speak like this.
But I wasn't him anymore.
"I'm not interested in some old family politics, if that's what you're thinking," I said, gaze steady. "That kind of thing is beneath me now. Go."
…and as the words left my mouth, I hated how they sounded. Too cold. Too much like him.
It sounded like arrogance — and maybe that was the point.
But as I turned, my left eye caught hers —
The Mythrigan glinting faintly in the morning light.
She flinched. Just barely.
But I saw it.
Her bandaged arm twitched. Her fingers curled tighter around the bloodstained cloth, like she was holding herself back from something — words, maybe. Or rage.
Her mouth opened.
Then closed again.
Whatever she wanted to say, it stayed buried.
Finally, she exhaled.
"You don't get to walk away from this, Kael But. If you're going to tarnish this house's name—then I'll be the one to fix it."
And with that, she walked away.
As evelyne walk away across the hallway
She muttered "has he changed?"
Kael pov
After Evelyne left, it felt like the weight she carried dropped onto me.
My knees gave out, and I collapsed back onto the soft carpet.
I stared at the ceiling, letting the silence settle.
"…Damn it."
Why?
Why him, of all people?
Of all the characters in Hero of Light Chronicles, I had to reincarnate as Kael Valery?
I gritted my teeth, back pressed against the polished wall.
Kael Valery wasn't just a privileged noble.
He wasn't just cruel.
He nearly assaulted the Crown Princess of Valkcross — the one person in this world you never lay hands on.
Not because she was a woman.
But because she was power incarnate.
The heir to the imperial throne.
A living symbol of order.
And Kael — he looked her in the eyes, not with fear or respect…
…but with hunger.
To break her. Bend her. Just to prove he could.
I nearly gagged.
Even if I didn't do it — even if I wasn't him — I wore his face now.
Every look I'd get. Every whisper behind my back. Every clenched jaw from palace guards. It would all be for that.
Not for Adrian.
For Kael.
"Damnit… damnit all!"
I staggered back.
And then — they hit me.
Memories.
Memories that weren't mine — shoved into my head like splinters.
Kael's past.
His pride. His sins.
A golden banquet hall,where noble laughs with other.
A girl crying behind a locked door.
Laughter — Kael's laughter — cruel and sharp.
Blood on his hands.
His father's cold eyes.
Evelyne's face, twisted in betrayal as the heir was named.
The weight of what he'd done crashed into me — too fast, too vivid.
My chest convulsed. My hand gripped my face, fingers trembling.
"Get out—get out—GET OUT!"
But it wouldn't stop.
My left eye burned, a deep throb that didn't belong to me.
The Mythrigan.
It pulsed — reacting, awakening, feeding.
And then—
BOOM.
The pressure exploded outward.
Wind. Force. Power.
Furniture blasted back. Glass cracked. Shelves tipped.
A wave of raw energy ripped through the room, as if the Mythrigan had screamed with me.
And when it stopped, I knelt in the ruins — panting, shaking, afraid to even look at my own reflection.
Because I wasn't sure who would be looking back.
As I sat there, gripping my left eye, blood seeping through my fingers, the wreckage of Kael's room sprawled around me, I could hardly believe this place was once a palace of gold.
A room fit for royalty. Now shattered.
Just like the boy who once lived in it.
The polished floor was cracked. Statues lay in pieces. The windows, now splintered with spiderweb veins.
And in the center of it all… me.
Me. Kael. Adrian. Whoever I was now.
Breathing heavy. Shaking. Eye burning like hellfire in my skull.
I looked at the blood on my palm. His blood.
My body now.
His sins, now mine to carry.
I clenched my jaw.
"I can't undo what he did…"
My voice came hoarse. Bitter. True.
"But maybe… I can stop what he was meant to become."
Not the monster the world remembered.
Not the tyrant that drenched his name in fear.
Maybe this time… Kael Valery doesn't have to be the villain.
Maybe this time, the story goes differently.
Maybe I can carve out a new path with these cursed hands — not to be forgiven, not to be praised — but to be better.
Even if the world never believes it.
Even if Evelyne still hates me.
Even if the scars he left can't be erased.
If there's even a chance to change the ending… I'll take it.
I'm not Kael Valery.
But if I'm going to wear his face…
Then I'll make sure it means something.
A hesitant knock, then the door creaked open.
"My lord… we heard an explosion—"
I didn't look up from where I sat.
"Get me a new room," I said, voice low and hoarse. "Don't report this to the guards. I was… angry."
The steward hesitated in the doorway, eyes wide. "But, my lord, the damage—"
"And prepare the paperwork," I interrupted. "I'm giving up the heirship."
He blinked. "But… my lord, you—"
"Now."
That silenced him. His throat bobbed, then he bowed deeply.
"As you command, Lord Kael."
The steward rushed out, leaving me alone in the ruin
I leaned back against the cracked wall, breathing slow.
For a long moment, I just sat there, listening to the silence.
And then—without really meaning to—I smiled.
Faint. Wry.
Not the smirk of a villain.
Not the pride of an heir.
Just… a tired boy, caught between two lives.
"Let's see what kind of story I can write… with his name."