Chapter 33: Villain or Hunter
The magical tripwire sent a numbing shock through Esme’s arm, but her body didn’t flinch. Her heart should have been hammering against her ribs. Panic should have squeezed air from her lungs. Yet the [Aura Mask] suppressed her every physical reaction. Her pulse remained steady and her breathing stayed slow and even.
Inside her mind, however, panic erupted.
She knew that if he had felt anything, it wouldn’t matter if he was standing in front of the Emperor. He would leave the Imperial assembly without any explanation and tear through the crowded streets like a wild animal to return to his home.
"Ten minutes," Esme whispered to herself. "The palace is five miles away. If he abandoned the meeting immediately...I have, at best, ten minutes before he turns this townhouse into a crater."
Ignoring the pain of the shock, Esme grabbed the Black Ledger quickly and ran to the nearest table.
"Alright," she murmured, hastily opening book. "Let’s see what secret is worth destroying kingdoms."
She had expected to discover the proof of his treason that would lead to his ultimate downfall. She had expected ledgers of stolen gold, bribed Imperial officials, secret military movements, or perhaps the Crown Prince’s darkest secrets.
But she was completely wrong. There were no financial records or troop movements. The ledger was actually a catalog. It was a horrifying and detailed history of transmigrations.
Eveyr had handwritten every word himself. Esme’s blood ran cold as she read the entries aloud.
Year 1241: Target intercepted at the border. Vessel collapsed upon interrogation. Soul was artificial and completely empty. I burned the body so it could not respawn.
Esme swallowed hard and flipped the page with trembling fingers.
Year 1243: The Architect attempted to insert a parasitic entity into a northern baroness. The entity tried to override the host’s mind to gather intelligence on my wards. I severed its head without wasting a second.
Esme staggered back, gripping the edge of the table tightly. She looked up at the ceiling, talking to the system in her mind.
"He isn’t the villain of your game," she whispered, horror creeping into her voice. "He is the hunter. You brought me here because he has been killing your hosts for years."
"What else?" Esme asked the empty library. "There has to be something else."
She took a step forward and flipped to the last pages of the ledger quickly.
"What else is he hiding?"
She reached the last entry. It was dated exactly seven years ago. It wasn’t a text log or an entry about a severed head or a burned body. The page had a detailed charcoal sketch that covered the entire page.
Esme stopped breathing. It was a drawing of her. The artist had perfectly captured the sharp line of her jaw, the bags under her eyes from late nights in the office, and the cold stare she used to keep the world at bay.
Under the sketch, Eveyr had written a note.
The Architect hides her in a world of glass, but my bloodline wants her. My magic recognizes her soul across the void. I will tear the veil between worlds. I will break the fabric of reality itself until she is mine.
"Seven years," Esme gasped, tears forming in her eyes. "You’ve been looking for me for seven years?"
She sobbed.
"So...Eveyr wasn’t being delusional. My transmigration wasn’t an accident. Eveyr had hunted my soul across dimensions for years," she whispered. "He had actually torn a hole in the universe just to bring me into his arms."
Esme closed the ledger, her fingers lingering on its worn cover.
Run.
A man who could tear open dimensions to find one woman wasn’t romantic. He was terrifying.
Yet... another thought refused to leave her mind.
Seven years
No one in her original life had searched for even for seven minutes. She had spent years invisible being just another employee in a crowded office, an ignored girlfriend and an abandoned child.
But there was someone who had remembered her. Someone who had refused to forget her.
Esme closed her eyes.
"What is wrong with me?" she said angrily. "Come back to your senses."
CRASH
The loud sound of the townhouse’s front gates being ripped off their hinges echoed through the library’s glass windows.
"No," Esme murmured.
Eveyr was back. Esme closed the ledger instantly. She picked up the ledger, ran back to the hidden alcove, and shoved it onto the velvet pedestal. Then she swung the oil painting of the First Duke shut.
Downstairs, Commander George shouted orders, trying to clear Eveyr’s path. Esme spun around and scanned the room. She sprinted to the nearest desk, grabbed a random poetry book, and threw herself into a chair by the fireplace. She crossed her legs, opened the book to the middle page, and pretended to read.
BOOM
The library doors burst open. The wood splintered into fragments and rained on the expensive rugs. Eveyr stood in the shattered doorway. He looked like a god of destruction. He was breathing heavily, his uniform a mess.
He looked around the library and stopped when he spotted Esme sitting on a chair. Esme slowly looked up from her book, looking completely calm.
"You’re home early," Esme said softly. "Did the assembly run short? I didn’t expect you for another hour."
Eveyr didn’t respond. He crossed the library and dropped to his knees in front of her chair. He held her both hands and pulled her palms to his face, buried his nose in them and inhaled deeply.
Esme’s breath caught as Eveyr slowly looked up, his eyes looking at her intensely.
"You touched it," Eveyr whispered.
"What? What did I touch?" Esme lied, trying to pull her hands back.
Eveyr only tightened his grip. He could smell the metallic copper of his triggered magical ward lingering on her fingers.
"Do not lie to me. Not now, Esme," Eveyr pleaded and pressed her palms against his cheeks. "Tell me. What did you see?"
