Chapter 9 Her Scent, His Madness

• Lucian P.O.V
• "Get out! You're no longer welcome at Etaariyaki!"
• The words still echoed in my mind, sharp and relentless, as if they were being spoken again and again with each step I took away from the place I once called home. Five years had passed since that day—the day he cast me out, banished me to the desolate ruins outside the realm. Five years of wandering, drifting from one shadow to the next, lost to the world and to myself. And still, those words haunted me.