Chapter : 1405

  She had come to the manufactory to bring Lloyd a report on the estate's finances. A peace offering. An attempt to be the useful partner she promised to be.

  She had arrived just as the workers were leaving for lunch. She had walked to the door, intending to knock. But then she heard the laughter. She heard the soft voices.

  She peeked through the small glass viewing port.

  She saw them.

  She saw Lloyd hanging upside down. She saw Mina wiping his face. She saw him kiss her hand. She saw the look in his eyes—a look he had never, not once, given to her.

  Rosa stood frozen. The report in her hand crumpled as her fist clenched. Frost began to spread from her boots, creeping across the stone floor.

  It wasn't the rage of a betrayed queen. It was the heartbreak of a woman who realized she had lost the race before she even knew it had started.

  "So," Rosa whispered, her voice trembling. "Just as I suspected.."

  She had told herself that Lloyd's distance was because of their past. Because of her betrayal in the early marriage life. She thought if she worked hard enough, if she proved herself, she could win him back.

  But now she saw the truth. He wasn't distant because he was angry. He was distant because he was in love with someone else. And that someone was her own sister.

  The pain was blinding. It was cold and sharp, like a shard of ice in her heart.

  She turned away from the door. She didn't barge in. She didn't scream. That would be undignified. That would be messy.

  Rosa Siddik did not do messy. She did cold. She did calculated.

  She walked down the hallway, the temperature dropping with every step. The workers she passed shivered and stepped out of her way, sensing the aura of absolute zero radiating from her.

  "You want a war, Lloyd?" Rosa thought. "Fine. You can have a war. But this time, I won't be the spy. I will be the enemy."

  That evening, Lloyd returned to the estate. He was whistling. He felt good. The suit was progressing. His relationship with Mina was... progressing. Life was complicated, but good.

  He entered his study. Rosa was waiting for him.

  She was sitting in his chair behind his desk. The room was dark, lit only by a single candle. The fire in the hearth was dead. The room was freezing.

  "Rosa?" Lloyd asked, stopping in the doorway. "Why are you sitting in the dark? Are we doing a dramatic reading?"

  "Close the door," Rosa said. Her voice was flat. Dead.

  Lloyd closed the door. He felt the hair on his arms stand up. This wasn't normal Rosa. This was the Ice Queen.

  "What's wrong?" Lloyd asked, walking towards the desk. "Did the Envoy do something? Did he bring more elephants?"

  "I went to the manufactory today," Rosa said.

  Lloyd froze. "Oh. Did you? I didn't see you."

  "I know," Rosa said. "You were busy. With your... consultant."

  Lloyd's heart hammered. "Mina? Yes. We were working. On the suit. It's very complex."

  "Is kissing her hand part of the engineering process?" Rosa asked. She looked up. Her eyes were dry, but they burned with a cold fire. "Is gazing into her eyes a requirement for alchemical synthesis?"

  Lloyd opened his mouth, then closed it. There was no point in lying. She had seen.

  "Rosa," Lloyd said quietly. "It's not what you think."

  "Do not insult my intelligence," Rosa snapped. The candle flickered. "I saw you. I saw the way you looked at her. You look at her like she is the sun. And you look at me like I am a winter storm you are trying to survive."

  "I care about her," Lloyd admitted. "She is... important to me."

  "She is my sister!" Rosa shouted. She stood up, slamming her hands on the desk. "She is my flesh and blood! And you... you are courting her right under my nose! While I am fighting for us! While I am trying to fix what I broke!"

  "You broke us, Rosa!" Lloyd yelled back. "You broke us in the first life! You can't just fix that with a few good deeds! Trust doesn't grow back overnight!"

  "But love does?" Rosa countered bitterly. "You love her. Don't you? You love her in a way you never loved me."

  Lloyd looked at her. He saw the pain beneath the anger. He saw the lonely girl who had been sold to demons.

  "It's different," Lloyd said. "With her... it's easy. It's clean. With us... it's a battlefield."

  Chapter : 1406

  "Then end the battle," Rosa said. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Choose me. Fight for me. Stop this... this affair. Send her away. Send her back to the South."

  "I can't," Lloyd said. "She is my partner. I need her for the project."

  "You need her for your heart!" Rosa accused. "Admit it!"

  "Fine!" Lloyd shouted. "Yes! I have feelings for her! Are you happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?"

  The silence that followed was deafening. Rosa stared at him. The hope in her eyes finally died.

  "No," Rosa said softly. "That is not what I wanted to hear."

  She straightened up. The vulnerability vanished. The mask slammed back into place.

  "Listen to me, Lloyd Ferrum," she said coldly. "This is my ultimatum. You will end this 'distraction' with Mina. You will stop the flirting. You will stop the touches. You will treat her as a consultant and nothing more."

  "And if I don't?" Lloyd challenged.

  "If you don't," Rosa said, "I will burn your world down. I will tell the Envoy about your infidelity. I will tell the King that you are unstable. I will use every ounce of my influence, every connection my family has, to make your political life a living hell. I will block your funding. I will sabotage your alliances. I will make sure you never build that suit."

  "You would destroy everything?" Lloyd asked, stunned. "Just to keep me?"

  "If I cannot have your love," Rosa said, walking around the desk to stand in front of him, "I will have your duty. I will have your name. And I will ensure that no one else has you."

  She leaned in close. Her breath was cold against his cheek.

  "Make your choice, husband. The Scholar... or your Future. You cannot have both."

  She walked past him and out the door. The room remained freezing.

  Lloyd stood there, shivering. He was trapped. Again.

  He had thought he was winning. He thought he was building a new life. But the past refused to let go. Rosa refused to let go.

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  "A new war," Lloyd whispered to the darkness. "A personal war."

  He looked at the empty chair where she had sat. He realized with a sinking feeling that of all the enemies he faced—Firefly, the Seventh Circle, the Golem—his wife might be the most dangerous of them all. Because she knew exactly where to strike to hurt him the most.

  His heart.

  Lloyd sat in his study, nursing a glass of strong whiskey and a migraine that felt like a goblin was mining in his skull. The ultimatum from Rosa hung over him like a guillotine blade. End it with Mina, or lose everything. It was a brutal choice.

  He was trying to formulate a counter-strategy—maybe he could bribe the Envoy? Maybe he could fake his own death again?—when there was a frantic knocking at his front door.

  It was late. Past midnight. Guests didn't knock at midnight. Assassins knocked at midnight. Or ghosts.

  Lloyd drew a dagger from his desk drawer and walked to the door. He checked the peephole.

  It wasn't an assassin. It was Headmaster Valerius.

  The old mage looked terrible. His usually pristine robes were disheveled. His white beard was uncombed. His eyes were wide and bloodshot. He looked like a man who had seen the end of the world.

  Lloyd opened the door. "Headmaster? It's late. Unless you're selling cookies, go away."

  "Lloyd," Valerius gasped. He didn't wait for an invitation. He pushed past Lloyd into the hallway. "I need you. Now."

  "What's wrong?" Lloyd asked, holstering the dagger. "Did the students summon a demon again? I told them, no summoning on school nights."

  "Worse," Valerius said. He grabbed Lloyd's arm. His grip was shaking. "It's a curse. A new one. It's... eating the Academy."

  Lloyd guided the old man to the study and poured him a drink. Valerius downed it in one gulp.

  "Talk to me," Lloyd said, switching into crisis mode. "What kind of curse?"

  "It started a week ago," Valerius explained, his voice trembling. "Small things. A student's wand backfiring. A protection amulet failing. We thought it was just bad luck. Or bad craftsmanship."

  "But?"

  "But then the artifacts started changing," Valerius said. "The enchanted armor in the hall? It constricted around a guard and crushed his ribs. The healing fountain? It started pumping poison. The magical lights? They drain the mana of anyone who walks under them."

  "Corrupted artifacts," Lloyd muttered. "Converting beneficial magic into harmful traps. That's sophisticated."

  "It's insidious," Valerius said. "It doesn't attack people directly. It turns our tools against us. The students are terrified to touch anything. They are scared to use their wands. The Academy is paralyzed."

  Chapter : 1407

  "Have you tried to cleanse it?" Lloyd asked.

  "We tried," Valerius said despairingly. "I used the Grand Dispel. The faculty combined their power. It didn't work. The curse... it adapts. It feeds on the cleansing magic and gets stronger."

  Lloyd frowned. An adaptive, corrupting curse that targeted technology (or magic items). That sounded familiar. It sounded like the kind of asymmetrical warfare Firefly would design. Or the Seventh Circle.

  "Why come to me?" Lloyd asked. "You have the Royal Mages."

  "The Royal Mages are bureaucrats," Valerius spat. "They will quarantine the school. They will shut us down. They will treat the symptoms, not the disease. I need a surgeon. I need someone who understands the structure of magic. I need you."

  Valerius looked at Lloyd with pleading eyes. "You are the only one who sees the patterns, Lloyd. You fixed the Golem Heart. You built the logic engine. You see the gears behind the spell. I am begging you. Save my school. Save my students."

  Lloyd looked at the old man. Valerius was proud. He was powerful. Seeing him beg was disturbing.

  "Is there anything else?" Lloyd asked sharply. "You're holding something back. A curse is bad, but you look terrified."

  Valerius hesitated. Then he leaned in close.

  "The curse," he whispered. "It couldn't have breached the outer wards from the outside. The shields are intact. The perimeter is secure."

  Lloyd understood instantly. "It came from inside."

  "Yes," Valerius nodded grimly. "Someone planted it. Someone placed the seed. There is a traitor, Lloyd. A traitor in the faculty. Or the student body. Someone is poisoning us from within."

  Lloyd sat back. A traitor. Another traitor. It seemed his life was infested with them.

  "If there's a mole," Lloyd said, "then no one is safe. If I go there, I'm walking into a trap."

  "I know," Valerius said. "But you are the only one I trust. You are the White Mask. You are the variable the enemy cannot predict."

  Lloyd rubbed his temples. He had so much on his plate. The Aegis suit was only 30% done. The Envoy was breathing down his neck. Rosa was threatening nuclear war. And now, a cursed school.

  "I can't just leave," Lloyd said. "I have... obligations here. My research. The suit."

  "Bring it with you," Valerius offered immediately. "I will give you the Old Tower. It's isolated. Secure. It has its own mana well. You can set up your lab there. No one will disturb you. You can work on your project and investigate the curse."

  "A private lab," Lloyd mused. "Away from the estate. Away from the Envoy. Away from Rosa."

  It was tempting. Incredibly tempting. It was an escape hatch. A way to get out of the pressure cooker of his home life while still being productive.

  "And Mina?" Lloyd asked. "I need my assistant. She's vital to the project."

  "Bring her," Valerius said. "Bring anyone you need. Just come."

  Lloyd thought about it. The Academy was dangerous. But staying here was political suicide. And if the curse was connected to the Devil Race, which it almost certainly was, then investigating it was part of his war.

  Plus, Airin was there. The ghost. If the school was dangerous, she was in danger. He couldn't leave her unprotected.

  "Okay," Lloyd said. He stood up. "I'll do it. I'll come to the Academy. I'll find your traitor. I'll fix your curse."

  Valerius let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for days. "Thank you. Thank you, Lloyd."

  "Don't thank me yet," Lloyd said grimly. "If this traitor is who I think it is... things are going to get messy."

  He walked Valerius to the door. "Go back. Don't tell anyone I'm coming. I want to arrive quietly. I want to see the rot before it hides."

  "Understood," Valerius said. He bowed and disappeared into the night.

  Lloyd closed the door. He leaned against it.

  "Well," he said to the empty hallway. "I guess I'm going back to school."

  He had a plan. He would move his operations to the Academy. He would take Mina. He would escape Rosa's glare and the Envoy's elephants. He would solve the mystery, save the students, and maybe, just maybe, find a moment of peace to build his robot.

  It was a good plan. Or at least, it was better than staying here and waiting for his wife to destroy him.

  "Ken!" Lloyd shouted. "Pack the bags! We're moving out!"

  He walked towards his bedroom, his mind already racing with theories about the curse. Was it a biological agent? A spiritual parasite? A memetic virus?

  Chapter : 1408

  He didn't know. But he was going to find out. The Professor was back. And this time, detention was going to be lethal.

  The next morning was a blur of activity. Lloyd organized the transfer of his lab equipment with military precision. Crates of tools, raw materials, and the precious Lilith Stones were loaded onto unmarked wagons. The Golem Heart was secured in a special lead-lined box.

  "We are moving the operation," Lloyd told Mina when she arrived. "To the Academy. Headmaster Valerius has offered us a secure facility."

  Mina looked relieved. "The Academy? That is good. It is neutral ground. Away from... here."

  "Exactly," Lloyd said. "It's a tactical withdrawal. And a new mission. There's a curse we need to break."

  As they were supervising the loading, a carriage pulled up. It bore the crest of Zakaria. Princess Amina stepped out. She looked regal and determined.

  "I hear you are leaving," Amina said, walking up to Lloyd. "Running away again?"

  "Strategic relocation," Lloyd corrected. "I have a job to do. A crisis at the school."

  "I am coming with you," Amina stated. "I am your fiancée. Where you go, I go. That is the deal."

  Lloyd sighed. "Amina, you can't. The Academy is under quarantine. It's dangerous. There's a curse that eats magic items. Your jewelry would try to strangle you."

  "I can take care of myself," Amina argued. "And I have business in the capital."

  "No," Lloyd said firmly. He took her hands. "Listen to me. You need to go home. To Zakaria."

  "Why?" Amina asked, hurt flashing in her eyes. "Are you sending me away?"

  "I am sending you to negotiate," Lloyd said. "Your uncle is here. He is putting pressure on my father. He wants a wedding. I need you to go to your father, the Sultan, and talk to him. Tell him... tell him what you want. Tell him we need more time. Tell him the truth about us."

  "The truth?" Amina asked softly. "That we are partners?"

  "That we are partners who respect each other," Lloyd said. "But who are being forced into a corner. If we marry under pressure, it will be a cage. I want us to choose our future, Amina. Not have it dictated by elephants and contracts."

  Amina looked at him. She saw the sincerity in his eyes. She saw that he wasn't rejecting her; he was trying to buy them freedom.

  "You are right," she sighed. "My uncle is a blunt instrument. My father is the scalpel. I need to speak to the scalpel."

  "Exactly," Lloyd said. "Go home. Manage the politics from that end. I will handle the war here. When you come back... we will figure this out."

  "Okay," Amina said. She squeezed his hands. "But do not die, Lloyd. I have invested a lot in you."

  "I'll try not to," Lloyd smiled.

  "And Lloyd?" Amina added, her voice lowering. "My father... and your father... they have already agreed. The contract is signed. The wedding is inevitable. Just... know that."

  Lloyd felt a cold weight in his stomach. "I know. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Or burn it."

  Amina kissed his cheek. "Goodbye, partner."

  She climbed back into her carriage. Lloyd watched her go. One problem managed. One Queen sent away.

  He turned back to the wagons. Mina was waiting for him. She had heard everything.

  "So," Mina said quietly. "The wedding is inevitable."

  "Nothing is inevitable," Lloyd said stubbornly. "Except death and taxes. And maybe my bad luck."

  "Lloyd," Mina said. She stepped closer. "We need to talk about reality."

  "I hate reality," Lloyd grumbled.

  "In this world," Mina said, her voice steady, "a man of your status... a Lord, a hero, a wealthy merchant... it is not uncommon for him to have multiple wives."

  Lloyd stared at her. "What?"

  "Polygamy," Mina said. "It is legal. It is accepted. Especially for powerful men who need to secure alliances."

  "I know it's legal," Lloyd said. "But... Rosa? She would kill her. She would freeze her and shatter her into a million pieces."

  "Rosa wants to be your wife," Mina said. "Amina wants the alliance. And I..."

  She looked down. "I want you."

  "Mina..."

  "If you marry Amina," Mina said, "Rosa will be furious. But if you keep Rosa and marry Amina... it is a political solution. And if you... have me as well... perhaps, in time, it could work."

  Lloyd looked at her. She was proposing the harem route. The route he had mocked. The route he thought was impossible.

  "You would be okay with that?" Lloyd asked. "Sharing?"