Chapter 127: Liana’s Heart

Rhain could feel a piercing gaze boring into the side of his face.

He didn’t need to turn his head to know it was Seris.

He shifted his eyes toward Aurelian and Solas.

Both were looking at him with eager, hopeful expressions, practically ready to start planning the wedding banquet right then and there.

Then his gaze drifted to Liana.

The usually confident and elegant pearl of Mirravele City was peeking through her fingers, acting as shy as a newlywed bride.

Rhain was really troubled.

Dealing with this... was really harder than dropping a miniature sun on the Ashvele Clan.

"Patriarch Aurelian," Rhain finally spoke, "I am deeply honored by your sincerity, and I have the utmost respect for Lady Liana. She is talented, and possesses a character that would make any man fortunate to stand beside her."

He paused, taking an apologetic glance at Liana.

"But I must decline. My path ahead is long and uncertain. The Inner Province, and the world beyond it, hold dangers that I have not yet begun to face. I am not in a position to make such commitments, nor would it be fair to Lady Liana to tie her future to someone whose road may lead through places from which there is no return."

The hopeful smiles on Aurelian and Solas’s faces vaporised.

"Furthermore," Rhain continued, "Neither Lady Liana nor I harbor those kinds of feelings for one another. To bind her to such a relationship merely out of gratitude would be a grave injustice to her."

It was a polite rejection.

Aurelian opened his mouth, wanting to persuade him, but seeing the resolute indifference in Rhain’s dark grey eyes, he could only swallow his words with a bitter sigh.

"I see," Aurelian said with a rueful, bittersweet smile hanging on his lips. "It seems I was too presumptuous. Forgive me for my desperation."

Rhain gave them a final, courteous nod. "Take care of your clan. Farewell."

Without another word, he turned around and began walking toward the courtyard exit.

Seris, whose tense body had instantly relaxed the moment Rhain refused, offered a quick, polite bow to the Patriarchs.

Her eyes then shifted to Liana.

Liana had already dropped her hands covering her face.

Her head was lowered, looking down at her own feet.

Seris hesitated for a moment, before she stepped toward Liana and gently took her hands.

"Liana..." Seris said softly, her pale purple eyes filled with a complicated mix of both sorrow and guilty relief. "You are the most incredible girl I have ever met. You are beautiful, talented, and your heart is warmer than anyone I know. One day, you will definitely find someone just as wonderful as you deserve. Someone who will treasure you the way you should be treasured."

Liana kept her head lowered, hiding the mist gathering in her silver eyes.

"Mmm," she murmured quietly.

A few seconds of silence passed before Liana finally lifted her chin slightly, pulling a stiff, fragile smile onto her beautiful face, "It’s okay, Seris. I... I didn’t actually have feelings for him anyway. It was just my father talking nonsense. You two should go. Don’t keep him waiting."

Seris smiled, visibly relieved.

"Then, I’ll see you in the future, Liana."

She then hurriedly followed closely behind Rhain, her footsteps noticeably lighter than before.

Liana stood quietly.

She watched Rhain’s broad back, until his figure completely disappeared from her line of sight.

And the moment he was gone, the forced smile on her flawless face shattered.

Her silver eyes, which had sparkled with such vibrant life all the time, dimmed to something hollow and aching.

Her heart, which had been hammering with wild hope just moments ago, felt as if it had been forcefully plunged into an icy lake.

She was disheartened.

Truly, deeply heartbroken.

She lied to Seris.

Not just Seris, she even lied to herself.

She had never dared to openly accept the proposal or voice her thoughts, mostly because of Seris.

But how could she not fall for him?

She didn’t know exactly when it had started.

Perhaps it was the night he had casually deconstructed her hereditary curse with a single glance.

Perhaps it was when he sat beneath that spirit-willow tree, calmly correcting her sword stance with such effortless precision that decades of frustration melted away in a single afternoon.

Perhaps it was something even simpler than that — the way he looked at her.

Or rather, the way he didn’t.

Every man she had ever met stared at her beauty.

Their eyes would linger on her figure, her face, her hair.

They always looked at her like hungry wolves, full of lust.

She had grown so accustomed to it that she had long since stopped noticing.

She had been hoping for someone who could look past her beauty, and notice her talent, her nature.

And she found Rhain.

Rhain had never once looked at her the way others did.

He had treated her kindly, yet kept his distance.

He was tall, handsome.

Not to mention his incomprehensible talent in both martial arts and alchemy.

It was fundamentally impossible to not like him.

But she knew it already.

From the moment her father opened his mouth, some quiet, honest part of her heart had already known what Rhain’s answer would be.

Perhaps it was precisely because of all those reasons that he didn’t want her.

Maybe... she just wasn’t good enough for him.

A heavy hand gently rested on her shoulder.

Solas looked at his granddaughter, and let out a helpless sigh.

Having lived for over a century, how could he not see through the heart of his own flesh and blood?

"Liana..." Solas comforted her gently, "It’s okay, my dear. You do not need to pretend in front of your old grandfather."

"Grandpa!"

Liana finally broke down.

She turned into her grandfather’s chest, and cried, her slender shoulders shaking with each sob, her tears soaking Solas’s robes.

Solas wrapped his massive arms around her, holding her the way he had held her when she was a little girl frightened by thunderstorms.

He said nothing for a long while, simply letting her cry until the worst of the storm had passed.

When Liana finally pulled back, her eyes were red and swollen.

"Grandpa."

"Hmm?"

Liana raised her head, and the look in her eyes had changed.

The fragility was gone. In its place was an unyielding determination.

"I will pass the Stormveil Academy trials," Liana vowed with an unshakable resolve. "I will enter the Inner Province. I will become stronger — strong enough that no one in this world can ever look past me again."

Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"One day, I will stand on the same stage as him. And on that day, he will see me. And he will know that I was always worthy of standing by his side."

Aurelian looked at her daughter, as a man who could shake the whole Mirravele City with his will, for the first time in his life, he was feeling so powerless.

He knew how hard was the path that Liana wanted to take.

As a father, he didn’t want her daughter to take such arduous path.

The eagle that soars above the clouds cannot easily stop for the flowers on the ground.

But Aurelian didn’t dare to say anything that could hurt her precious daughter.

He gently patted her head.

"You can do it, my brave princess."

__________

High above the sprawling expanse of the Outer Frontier, a massive blue light tore through the endless sea of white clouds.

It was Kiki.

Standing at the very front of the massive beast’s back was Rhain, his dark robes fluttering gently in the air.

Right beside him stood Seris.

Her delicate fingers were intertwined tightly with his large hand.

In fact, ever since they had walked out of the towering gates of the Silvercrest Clan, she had latched onto his hand and stubbornly refused to let go.

When Aurelian had suddenly proposed the marriage back in the Grand Hall, Seris’s heart had nearly stopped beating.

The sheer panic that had gripped her soul in that split second was something she never wanted to experience again.

Sensing the tightness of her grip, Rhain didn’t pull away.

He simply let her hold his hand, his thumb occasionally brushing gently against her soft knuckles.

A faint, indulgent smile rested on his face as he looked out over the endless horizon.

A few paces behind them, Vulcan and Declan stood quietly.

They had been flying for hundreds of miles, leaving the colossal behemoth of Mirravele City far behind them.

Suddenly, Declan’s eyes sharpened.

He stepped forward slightly, raising a finger to point toward a mountain range in the distance.

"There... Rhain," Declan’s whole body was trembling with overwhelming emotions. "Directly ahead. Within that gorge."

Rhain’s dark grey eyes shifted toward the direction Declan pointed.

Vulcan immediately ordered, his booming voice ringing out. "Kiki."

SCREEECH—!

Kiki let out an ear-piercing, majestic cry that shattered the surrounding clouds.

Tucking its massive sapphire wings, Kiki altered its trajectory in an instant, plummeting from the skies toward the earth below like a descending blue meteor.

As they neared, the sprawling landscape below finally revealed itself.

Nestled heavily within the natural fortress of the valley, surrounded by towering stone walls and heavily armed patrols, a large sect appeared before their sight.

Iron-Blood Valley.