Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Time Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"All I’m hearing is that you people used every excuse possible to deny the descendants of the Unparalleled Bloodline’s progenitor a seat on the council.

Luna, I can understand.

But how do you justify rejecting the Southern Princess because of her choice of husband? Who she loves or wants to build a family with has nothing to do with whether she’s fit to sit on your council.

And how do you justify rejecting Anna for wiping out a clan of demon worshipers? Since when did killing demon worshipers become a sin? Are you saying our predecessors were sinners too, even though they fought demon worshipers to protect their world and their people from demon invasion?

You guys are bold. I’ll give you that. Sitting in your precious time vestige, deciding who’s right and who’s wrong based solely on what suits you. You’ve become exactly what the Unparalleled Bloodline’s progenitor feared. Lucine, shame on you for letting it come to this. Forget the Southern Royal Family. Do you think your ancestors will be happy to learn the current state of the council?"

I laid the blame squarely on Lucine. The council that was meant to serve the greater good had become nothing more than an arm of Morningstar University—becoming the very thing it was created to prevent.

From Lucine’s explanation, three things became clear to me. First, I used to wonder why the descendants of the Southern Royal Family kept attending Morningstar University—so far from home and at the cost of their own security—instead of simply studying at the academies in the Southern Academic City. Now I understood it wasn’t a tradition but a part of the test to enter the council.

Second, the Unparalleled Bloodline Progenitor was a self-righteous prick—someone willing to sacrifice the very people who depended on him for the sake of his so-called greater good. I despised people like that. And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed likely that he had brainwashed Bloodette into accepting whatever cruel fate he had arranged for her.

Lastly, it was obvious that certain members of the council had taken advantage of the long absence of a Heatsend representative. They were slowly stripping away the privileges Lucine’s ancestors had granted to the Southern Royal Family, acting as though the agreements of the past no longer mattered.

Even I could see they were targeting the Southern Royal Family, yet Lucine kept defending them, brushing it off as ’just life.’ As the last living descendant of Morningstar University’s founders, she clearly wasn’t fulfilling her responsibilities. Her time-rule dementia wasn’t a valid excuse either—she had only developed it in the last couple of decades, while the council had rejected the Southern Princess and Anna long before that.

If I hadn’t already come to understand what kind of person Lucine truly was, I would have suspected she was working with the other council members behind the scenes.

I believed the reason for Lucine’s failure to protect her ancestor’s legacy was simple: She had been so absorbed in her research and projects that she never truly kept an eye on the council. She trusted them to uphold the greater good and assumed they would do the right thing. Instead, they began coveting the privileges granted to the Southern Royal Family. They seized every excuse they could find to strip away those hard-earned benefits, one piece at a time.

"Wyatt, it’s not as simple as that—" Lucine began, trying to defend the council’s decisions. I cut her off.

"No, Lucine. It is as simple as that. The council members aren’t just making it impossible for a Heatsend to claim their rightful seat—they’re actively targeting them. They’re withholding the privileges the Southern Royal Family is entitled to. Anyone paying the slightest attention would see it. But you can’t... I honestly don’t know why the best and brightest women always end up trusting treacherous jerks and idiots."

Hearing me throw her own words—once meant for the Southern Princess—back at her, Lucine stared at me, unblinking. But deep in her chest, something trembled. A quiet, unwelcome thought whispered that I might actually be right. Maybe she had trusted her people too blindly. Maybe she had failed to see the ugliness in them that others could spot with ease.

Lucine didn’t want to doubt her own people—she never had. But when she imagined the day she would have to face her ancestors and explain the state of the council, she faltered. That hesitation was enough. For the first time, instead of reflexively defending them, she decided she needed to take a long, hard look at everything she had ignored until now.

"Wyatt, I promise you I’ll fix this—if it truly needs fixing," Lucine said, her voice steady with resolve. It was the first thing she mentally added to her agenda for when they returned to their present.

"I don’t care how you fix it," I replied. "What I want is the Southern Princess on the council by the end of this week. If you don’t make it happen, I’ll give her the information I have and let her fight for what rightfully belongs to her family."

I didn’t particularly want the Southern Princess gaining more authority. Especially through me then she already was. If anything, I would’ve preferred Anna taking that seat. But this could serve as a fitting return gift to the Southern princess who had given me the Freedom Fighters as a gift. It would settle the score between us when we finally met.

And besides... Anna already had more weight on her shoulders than she was ready for. She didn’t need another responsibility added to the pile—not yet.

"What do you mean? I told you all of this in confidence—not so you could turn around and blackmail me with it," Lucine sighed, wondering how she had ended up trusting and opening her heart to such a treacherous jerk and idiot.