CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 81 – SHATTERED LOYALTIES

The mirrors did not fade.

They pulsed like wounds torn open in the world itself, spilling memory and accusation into the chamber. Blood and fire, betrayal and bargains, each shard reflecting not just the past but the cracks already gnawing at Kai’s fragile harem.

Kai’s daggers whirled as he deflected a downward strike from the intruder — steel biting sparks from steel. The stranger’s mask grinned back at him, fractured now with spiderweb cracks. A single eye glared through, gleaming with venomous delight.

"You see it now, don’t you?" the intruder spat, blade twisting dangerously close to Kai’s throat. "They’ll never look at you the same again. You hide behind charm and promises — but every one of them has seen the leash on your neck."

Velis moved to flank, her sword a streak of silver fire. "Then I’ll sever it!" she snarled, striking at the intruder. For an instant, Kai thought she meant the enemy — until her eyes cut toward him, sharp, unreadable. The Queen’s whispers had reached her heart.

The intruder laughed, retreating into a swirl of smoke.

The Queen herself rose from her throne, wine glass still in hand. She had not spilled a drop. "What fragile things loyalty and love are," she said, her voice carrying across the chamber. "So easy to snap when the truth is held to the light."

Another mirror burst into vision — Astra, kneeling beside Kai, her lips whispering something only he could hear. But the Kai in the mirror looked away, his hand gripping the hilt of a dagger behind his back.

Astra froze, her fan clattering to the floor. "No..." Her voice shook with uncharacteristic fear. "Is that... what you thought of me all along?"

"Astra, it’s a lie!" Kai shouted, parrying another strike as the intruder lunged from the smoke. "You know it’s a lie!"

But doubt already shimmered in her eyes.

Velis struck again, her blade meeting Kai’s for a single jarring instant — not an attack, but not quite an accident either. Her voice was iron. "Answer her, Kai. Answer all of us."

Lyra’s bowstring trembled as she aimed at the intruder, but her tears blurred the sight. "Please... tell me none of this is true."

The chamber roared with clashing steel and shattering illusions. The Queen’s smile never faltered.

And Kai knew — the battle ahead was no longer against a single masked enemy.

It was against the breaking hearts of the women he loved.

Kai pivoted, blades crossing as the intruder struck from above. The impact jolted his arms, but he twisted, sending the masked man skidding across the polished floor.

"Focus on him!" Kai shouted at the harem. "Don’t let her games break you!"

But the words fell flat.

Astra moved closer, not to aid, but to circle him. Her fan had snapped open again, its steel-ribbed edges gleaming like knives. Her lips curled in a bitter smile.

"Funny, Kai. You always said I was the one who played games. But maybe it was you all along."

She snapped the fan shut and struck — fast, precise, aimed not at the intruder but at him.

Kai blocked, barely. The clang of steel against steel rang louder than the chaos around them. "Astra, stop!"

Her eyes were wild, her breath uneven. "I saw it! You—about to stab me. The way you looked at me when you thought I wasn’t watching. How many times were you planning it? How many times was I just a pawn?"

Velis did not move to stop her. She stood like a sentinel, sword raised, but her gaze fixed on Kai, measuring every word, every hesitation.

Lyra’s voice cracked as she screamed, "He wouldn’t! Astra, he wouldn’t! You know he—he—" Her words broke into sobs, the arrow on her bow trembling, useless.

The intruder danced at the edges of the mirrors, laughing. "Ah, there it is! The first cut to the heart. How easily passion curdles into betrayal. Which one will bury their knife in him first?"

Kai’s chest tightened, not from the battle but from the weight pressing on him from all sides. The Queen’s banquet had become an execution hall — and it wasn’t the intruder holding the blade to his throat.

It was Astra.

Astra moved with a fury Kai had never seen from her before. She wasn’t the teasing courtesan who toyed with nobles or the silver-tongued schemer who danced between blades with laughter.

She was a storm.

Her fan snapped open, then spun into a knife-hand strike. Kai deflected with his dagger, but Astra slipped inside his guard with terrifying precision. The steel edge traced across his cheek—

A thin red line blossomed.

Gasps tore from the watching nobles. Even Velis’s eyes narrowed at the sight.

Astra froze, staring at the blood on her fan’s edge. Her breath came ragged, uneven, and she whispered, "So easy..." as if testing the thought aloud.

Kai held his ground, though his pulse hammered. "Astra. Look at me. That wasn’t real. The mirror lies. I would never—"

"Never?" she snapped, voice breaking between fury and grief. "Never use me? Never betray me? You’ve lied before, Kai. Lied to all of us."

The Queen clinked her glass gently against the arm of her throne. "And at last the mask begins to slip."

The intruder lunged again, blades flashing like silver lightning, forcing Kai to turn his attention back to the fight. He barely blocked in time, Astra’s strike having broken his rhythm. His shoulder burned as the enemy’s blade nicked through leather.

Velis stepped forward now, her sword leveled at both intruder and Kai. "Enough." Her voice was cold, precise, deadly. "If he won’t speak truth, then perhaps his blood will speak for him."

Lyra sobbed, lowering her bow. "Don’t—please don’t—"

The mirrors flickered again, showing fractured images: Kai walking away from Velis in chains, Kai cradling Lyra’s dying body, Kai holding Astra’s throat. Lies or truths—it didn’t matter. They were breaking apart.

Kai staggered back, his cheek bleeding, his harem circling him like predators as much as protectors. And in the smoke beyond, the intruder’s grin widened.

He didn’t have to kill Kai.

The women would do it for him.

Velis’s blade lifted higher, catching the firelight of the chandeliers. Her eyes were unreadable, cold as tempered steel.

"You have one chance, Kai," she said evenly. "One chance to explain why every mirror shows you betraying us. If you can’t—then you’re the greatest danger in this hall."

Kai’s jaw tightened. He couldn’t defend against Velis’s words and the intruder’s strikes at once. Every breath was a choice between parrying steel or trying to hold his wives together with words.

Astra stood trembling, fan drawn back like a dagger. Her lips parted as though to curse him again, but no sound came. Her eyes flickered from the blood on his cheek to the shadowy visions in the mirrors. Fury and despair warred in her gaze, and Kai saw it—

The moment she nearly decided to strike.

Lyra cried out, voice raw. "Stop it! You’ll kill him! That’s what she wants—don’t you see it? That’s what she wants!"

But Velis didn’t lower her sword.

Astra didn’t drop her fan.

The intruder slid through the chaos like a serpent, unseen until the last second. His blade came from behind Kai, aimed straight for the heart.

Kai turned—too late.

The last thing he saw was Astra’s fan arcing down, Velis’s blade tightening its line, Lyra screaming his name—

And the intruder’s silver edge driving forward.

The banquet hall erupted into chaos.

Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 82: The Queen’s Gambit

The blade strikes—yet not all wounds are meant for the flesh. In the frozen instant between betrayal and salvation, choices are made that cannot be undone. Velis stands at the edge of judgment, Astra’s trembling hand decides her path, and Lyra’s scream echoes louder than steel.

But the Queen is not finished. The mirrors begin to shatter one by one, each explosion of glass unleashing something far more dangerous than illusions. The intruder’s true purpose is revealed—and Kai realizes too late that the banquet was never meant to test him alone.

Every vow will be tested. Every bond stretched to breaking. And when the knives fall, Kai must answer a question deadlier than any blade: can he still trust the women who love him... or will their love be the weapon that ends him?

✨ Call to Action ✨

The banquet has become a blood-soaked game board, and Kai is running out of moves. His harem—once his shield—is fracturing under the Queen’s manipulation, every glance, every hesitation a potential betrayal. Will Astra’s blade fall fully against him? Will Velis choose loyalty to her code over loyalty to her heart? And can Lyra’s desperate cry hold them together when the mirrors shatter and the Queen reveals her true hand?

The stage is set for heartbreak, bloodshed, and revelations no one can turn away from. The question is no longer if Kai will survive—but what price he will pay to do so.

Chapter 82 will decide whether love saves him... or destroys him. Don’t miss it!