“Tch. Why do you think I’m here?” Shiguang’s sneer cut like a winter blade. “Did you really think His Highness Moragus found our hideout by accident, like a leaf blown by chance?”

“Please. Use that soft little pig brain,” he said, voice like gravel on stone. “There aren’t coincidences that neat under this sky.”

“What!” Shiqianshi’s face cracked like thin ice. Then the meaning slammed in like a hammer, and anger flared like dry grass on fire. “You betrayed Her Majesty, didn’t you!”

“After all she gave you, can you face the Queen’s grace?” His words shook like a bowstring in wind.

“Shut up, Shiqianshi. You understand nothing.” Shiguang moved like lightning behind cloud. In a blink, his strike snapped like a whip and hurled the half-bent man aside. Blood spattered the ground like red petals. He ground a boot into the man’s chest, his silver armor flashing sun-cold like a sheet of ice.

“That damned old hag used me for years under her crown,” he spat, words like coals flung on snow. “What did I owe her? I only wanted our lives better, like fields drinking good rain. Is that a sin?”

“We who endure like old pines should rule this world, not wither under shrubs,” he went on, breath like a forge. “His Highness Moragus fits a ruler’s shape like a sword fits its scabbard. Joining him was water running to the sea.”

“You betrayed the Queen… you’re faithless,” Shiqianshi rasped, thick blood bubbling like tar. He glared at the silver spear before his eyes, its point cold as a winter star. “She did so much for us. As subjects, we should follow her will like rivers follow the moon. Even with grudges, we shouldn’t set ourselves against her like cliffs against the tide.”

“For selfish desire you turned on the Queen and the clan,” he choked, voice like wind through broken reeds. “You’re unworthy of her grace, and unworthy of the Shi name.”

“Insolent!” Shiguang’s heel crashed down like a boulder. More scarlet rushed out, bright as maple leaves. He looked down with eyes flat as a frozen pond and mocked in a voice thin as frost. “You think you’re still that shining minister, a lantern on festival night? The dead old hag is dust. Now you’re as low as the slum trash that grub in rain like rats.”

“If not for our past ties, you’d be another scrap on the heap, like a broken tile,” he said, words clicking like bone.

“You think I don’t dare kill you?” His laugh snapped like a dry twig. “His Highness Moragus has waited years for that last shard of the Law of Time in you, like a hunter by his snare. And you show up like a fish to the net, to steal the hourglass that dead hag left at the end? Don’t make me laugh. A cracked hourglass won’t haul her from the dark, like a burned wick won’t catch light.”

He pressed harder. The weight fell like a mountain.

“Ugh…” The groan tore up Shiqianshi’s throat like a saw through green wood. Pain bit his chest like a serrated knife grinding in meat, nerves shrieking like winter cicadas.

Behind him, little Nainai crouched under a guard’s arm like a quail in thorn. Her limbs turned to water, and fear wrapped her like a cold fog that wouldn’t lift.

“Captain, stop.” The voice cracked down like thunder from a clear sky. Eardrums buzzed like bees. A tall figure stepped into sight from nothing, like a hawk’s shadow falling.

“Your Highness Moragus… why are you here?” Shiguang’s eyes flared like lanterns. He bent like a reed under wind. “It’s just a remnant of the ancient old faction, a leaf on a dead branch. Not worth you leaving the palace like a dragon from its pool. I’ll bring you that Law soon, like a courier at full gallop.”

“No matter, Captain.” Moragus stood in the air like a mountain above cloud, his laugh rolling like a warm tide. “It’s rare to meet an old acquaintance; even I feel a touch of autumn.”

“You,” he said to the man under Shiguang’s boot, gaze bright as a polished blade. “If I recall, you were that woman’s closest minister, a shadow at her sleeve. Tsk. Nearly a thousand years flowed by like leaves on a river, and you’ve clung to a thread of her Law like an ember in ash. But your strength’s thin, like tea on its third pour. Too long in hiding, and the edge dulls, yes?”

“That’s Moragus?” The System watched from the dark like a cat under the eaves. He wore no noble chill, only a warmth like spring sun on old stone. That kind is the hardest to handle, silk hiding steel.

“Hm?” Moragus tilted his head like a wolf pricking its ears. “A little mouse snuck in?”

The System blinked, and the world lurched like a lantern in wind. In the next breath, that towering figure, heavy as stormcloud, stood before her like a cliff.

“Damn.” Reflex moved before thought, a fish darting under ripples. Ningyi’s fingers found a slim knife at her waist, the blade a cold breath. Before she could strike, Moragus rode the Law of Time like a swift current and caught her wrist, grip iron-calm.

“Slums?” He studied her young face, a ripple crossing calm water. “No… a kid from the ordinary district?”

Confusion flickered and died like a moth. Then she gave him a sharp surprise, bright as frost.

Crack. The sound was clean as ice splitting.

She broke her own wrist like snapping a twig, twisting with the shock like a kite on a gust, and stabbed from an odd angle, her knife a darting swallow.

“Your Highness!” Soldiers shouted like crows lifting. They saw a child in Moragus’s grip, left hand reverse-gripping a blade, driving for his heart like a falling star.

“Mm. Interesting little one.” Moragus smiled, eyes lighting like kindled stars. He flicked the System away, easy as tossing a pebble into a pond, his look filling with rare interest like wine warming in a cup. “What’s your name?”

“Ningyi.” She caught her balance like a reed finding root. Cradling her broken right hand, face taut as drawn silk, she answered without slack. In her head the thought rang like iron: the final boss in my host’s mental plane—stronger than any foe yet.

“Ningyi. Good name.” He tasted it like favorite tea, rolling the sound like a pearl. Then he invited with rain-soft words and stone-hard will. “How about it? Be my subordinate. On future fields you could reap enemies like wheat. Do that, and I’ll overlook today’s offense.”

“What if I refuse?” Her voice dropped like a pebble into deep water.

“You don’t have the right to refuse.” Moragus smiled, sunlight in his eyes glinting like gold on a blade, without warmth.

The System hadn’t expected it, and shock pricked like sleet. For a moment she stood blank as snow. Forced into a villain’s ranks—another fate written in red.

She wanted time to think, a tortoise into its shell. The current allowed none, a river dragging a boat.

“Your answer?” His voice pressed close like fog.

“I can agree,” she said, breath steady as a drum. “But I have a condition. Grant it, and I’ll join your army like a soldier to the banner.”

“By rights, a little one like you can’t bargain with me,” he said, amusement rising like smoke. “But I’m in a good mood. I’ll grant one.”

“Release Shiqianshi,” she said, gaze fixed like an arrow. “Let him take those two kids out of the city, like birds freed from a snare.”

“Impossible!” Shiguang cut in, sparks flying like flint. “Your Highness, that can’t be! Shiqianshi’s the remnant you’ve waited near a millennium to net, a fish fattened for harvest. If we free him, who knows when he’ll surface again, like the moon behind clouds?”

“Quiet, Captain.” Moragus kept that thin, harmless smile, light as a spring breeze, yet his tone bled chill like a knife on the tongue. “Since when do you decide my mind, like a hand steering the sun?”

“I… I wouldn’t dare,” Shiguang said, fear flooding like cold water. He bowed low, voice rough as sand. “I spoke out of turn. Begging Your Highness’s pardon.”

“No matter. You’ve followed me the longest, a shadow at my heel. How could I bear to blame you?” Moragus waved it off, casual as brushing dust from a sleeve.

“Ningyi, I’ll grant your condition,” he said, eyes calm as still ponds. “But if you fail my expectations, I may go back on my word, like frost after thaw.”

He didn’t worry about the shard of the Law of Time. So long as he lived like an old pine on the ridge, those hiding would surface like fish to bait. He’d waited nearly a thousand years, stars walking the night. A while longer was nothing.

“As for Shiqianshi and those two brats—Captain, see them out of the city, like dew let go by dawn.”

“As you command, Your Highness.” The answer fell neat as a sheathed blade.