"They say the Varros name is done for."
"Kaelion must've finally lost patience with that old man."
"They had a good run. A noble family, sure, but in the end, they were just relics of a different age."
Laughter echoed in the streets. In houses, courtyards, and markets, tongues wagged with mockery and disdain. Once spoken with reverence, the name Varros was now dragged through the mud. Rumors spread like wildfire,that Kaelion had no more use for the family, that Isen's sons were being quietly erased, that soon, even Isen would disappear without a whisper.
Inside the Varros estate, the whispers had reached the heart.
Isen stood silently in the hall, fists clenched behind his back, staring out a window.
His daughter, a soft-spoken girl no older than nineteen, burst into the room with tears in her eyes. "Father… they're saying awful things. About my brothers. That they're,dead." Her voice cracked. "People were laughing, Father! At our name!"
She rushed forward, grabbing his arm, trying to force his gaze toward her.
"Tell me it's not true. Please. Just tell me!"
But Isen didn't speak.
He turned his face away, trembling with rage,but not at the rumors, not at Kaelion.
At his helplessness.
At his weakness.
At the growing suspicion eating away at his mind.
"I SAID STOP IT!" he roared—and in one sudden motion, he slapped her across the face with such force that she crashed against the marble wall and slumped to the ground, coughing from the impact.
The entire estate froze in that moment.
His daughter whimpered softly, stunned more by his fury than the pain itself.
Isen stared at his shaking hand. He didn't speak. He couldn't.
---
Rin came to the Varros estate every day.
At first, they let him in.
Isen would meet him with cold politeness, always seated beside Varn, always maintaining distance.
But as the days passed and the rumors grew darker, the gate no longer opened.
The guards stood firm.
"Lord Isen isn't receiving guests," they said.
Even when Rin shouted. Even when he pleaded.
"Please. There's no time. You'll regret this."
They didn't answer.
And so Rin stood outside the mansion gate every day, rain or sun, refusing to leave.
He shouted at the walls, at the sky, at the man who once called him Prince. "Do you care so little for your children that you won't even listen anymore?"
By the third week, he had stopped yelling. He simply waited. His presence became a ghostly fixture,noble robes dusted with sand, eyes sunken with quiet fury.
Inside the estate, Isen sat on a velvet chair, his thoughts unraveling more each day. His sons' last visit played in his head again and again. Something had been wrong. They were too quiet. Too obedient. And that look in their eyes...
He told himself it was fine.
Kaelion sent them personally. They were safe. He would never harm them.
But he remembered their silence. Their hollow smiles.
And the rumors never stopped.
They only grew louder.
---
By the last day of the month, Isen broke.
Rin stood outside the gate like always, arms folded.
But today, the ground trembled.
A deafening boom echoed from inside the estate,then a burst of pressure, a wave of power, erupted outward. The massive gates exploded open.
Then, the house shattered.
The entire Varros estate collapsed in an instant—stone, wood, and glass vaporized in a shockwave of raw rage.
Rin stepped back, shielding his face as debris rained down. When he looked up, Isen stood amidst the wreckage, aura blazing like a dying sun. His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice carried the weight of madness.
"LITTLE BOY!" he howled. "ENOUGH WITH YOUR GAMES! I'M AT MY LIMIT!"
Rin's expression twisted with anger. "So am I."
He turned sharply, walking away, voice cold as ice.
"I heard you loved your children, Lord Isen. But I guess those were just rumors."
---
The next morning, Rin sat alone in his mansion.
He hadn't eaten.
Hadn't slept.
He stared out the window, waiting.
Today is the day arkan will send proof to the world and especially isen that his sons are dead.
Rin was waiting patiently for isen to come crawling to him.