Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Chapter 315: Sincere Pity

After dismissing the girls he watched them disperse down the corridor, each heading toward her own chamber. The weight of recent breakthroughs and the looming shadow of war pressed on all of them, but for a brief moment the atmosphere had felt almost normal. Almost.

He adjusted his cloak and turned in the opposite direction, heading toward the eastern wing where the guest chambers were housed. The Ice Belle remained perched stubbornly around his neck, her legs dangling comfortably over his chest as if she had declared him her personal carriage. Every now and then she leaned forward to nibble the last scraps of the chicken bone, and Lucas could feel the faint chill of her breath near his ear. He did not try to move her. He simply walked.

The palace corridors were quieter than usual. Servants bowed deeply as he passed, their eyes filled with a mix of respect and disbelief. News of the simultaneous breakthroughs had traveled fast.

When he reached the chamber door guarded by two elite knights, they immediately straightened and saluted. One of them stepped forward and announced Lucas’s arrival in a formal tone, and only after a soft reply from within did the guards push the doors open for him.

He stepped inside.

The room was warm and softly illuminated by lanterns made of pale blue crystal. The Empress sat near a lattice window framed by flowing silver drapes, her veil still concealing her features. Seraphine was seated beside her, leaning forward in quiet conversation. The moment they noticed Lucas, both women turned.

The empress lifted a hand gently.

"Seraphine," she said, her voice calm, "give us a moment."

Seraphine looked at Lucas with a small, knowing smile. There was admiration in her eyes, but also a seriousness that reflected the weight of the coming days. She rose gracefully, bowed to the empress, offered Lucas a brief nod of acknowledgment, and then slipped out of the chamber without a word.

The door closed softly behind her.

Lucas walked farther into the room and bowed respectfully. The Ice Belle, who was clearly uninterested in etiquette, simply crossed her arms and stared at the empress with mild curiosity.

The empress studied Lucas in silence for a few moments. Her posture was composed, her presence serene yet heavy with authority and experience. Despite the veil covering her face, Lucas could sense that she was assessing him from head to toe, not with suspicion but with a thoughtful, almost calculating air. When she finally spoke, her tone was steady and purposeful.

"I called you here for two matters," she began. "Both of them are crucial and neither can be ignored." She paused briefly, as if choosing her words with care. "The first concerns a potion. I want to know whether you have the capability to create one that can restore something. Not partially, not temporarily, but fully restored."

Lucas blinked, taken aback by the directness of her request. He shifted slightly, one hand instinctively rising to steady the Ice Belle as she adjusted her perch. His expression turned thoughtful, his brow furrowing as he tried to understand the direction of her question.

"A potion that restores... anything," he repeated slowly, weighing each word. "That is a broad request, Your Majesty. Restoration can mean many things, and each of them follows a different principle."

The empress inclined her head, waiting for him to continue. Lucas exhaled softly.

"I would need to know what specifically this potion is supposed to restore," he said carefully. "Without that, I cannot determine whether it is possible or what approach it would require."

The empress did not answer him immediately. Instead, she took a slow step toward him, Lucas straightened instinctively, unsure of what she intended, and the Ice Belle tilted her head curiously but remained silent for once.

She stopped just a few paces away from him. For a moment she said nothing, simply turning her head slightly so that only the left side of her profile was visible to him. Then, with a grace that carried both dignity and hesitation, she lifted her hand and began to loosen the fabric that wrapped around her head. Her hair covering slipped free first, allowing an astonishing cascade of silver-black hair to spill down her back in a smooth, lustrous wave that caught the light and seemed almost unreal in its elegance. Lucas felt his breath hitch for a moment, not out of impropriety but out of sheer awe.

Then her fingers moved to the edge of her veil.

Lucas felt his heart skip. The empress of Lechia had never revealed her face to anyone since the moment he met her. She had always spoken, commanded, mourned and endured from behind a veil that shrouded her expressions and guarded her emotions. Watching her now, pulling the veil away piece by piece made his heart skip.

The veil slipped free completely.

Lucas’s eyes widened, and for a long moment he simply stared. The left side of her was breathtaking. Her skin was flawless, pale with a delicate glow, her cheek sculpted like fine porcelain, her lips soft and naturally shaped, and her eye...sharp, deep, and impossibly captivating...held a glow that only made her beauty more profound. Lucas felt something inside him go still. He had seen beautiful women before, many of them, yet this was different. This was the kind of beauty that made the world fall silent around it. In his mind he swore without hesitation or exaggeration that she was, without question, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.

But then she turned fully.

The right side of her face came into view, and the breath that had caught in his throat fell away into a stunned stillness. The skin on that side was marred by deep, jagged scarring, twisted as though burned and torn by something merciless. The scars traveled from her brow down her cheek and toward her jaw, stark and brutal against what should have been perfect symmetry. It was not a small blemish, not a faint mark...it was devastation carved into flesh. The contrast was so severe that it felt like two different lives had been forced to share the same body.

Lucas did not recoil. His expression did not twist with revulsion. Instead, something heavy and painful settled in his chest. His eyebrows drew together, his gaze softened, and sorrow filled his eyes so clearly that it could not be mistaken for anything else. He felt an ache he could not explain, a deep sadness for the suffering she must have endured, for the cruelty that had left such a wound not only on her face but undoubtedly on her spirit. Pity...not condescending, but human and sincere...washed over his features, and he looked at her the way someone looks at a person who has borne more pain than the world should ever demand of one soul.

The empress locked eyes with him, straight and unflinching. She had seen countless reactions to this scar...revulsion, fear, discomfort, veiled disgust hidden behind polite words...but never this. Never eyes filled with genuine pity and quiet sorrow rather than horror. His expression startled her, disarmed her in ways she had never expected, and somewhere beneath her calm exterior, something in her chest loosened, softened, as though a guarded corner of her heart had been touched for the first time in years.