Leon thought that he would get to see his sister stunned, but Veronica didn’t even flinch at all.

It looked to Leon that she was somewhere expecting this question.

"Your phrasing is wrong, you know that right?."

"....."

Having waited this long, and connecting the dots since then, Leon had reached a conclusion of his own.

After the king made the original Leon Valentine psychologically weaker by breaking his mind into pieces, it was Charlotte and Veronica who had helped the old Leon to recover.

That’s what he thought, but he doesn’t know why they would go so far as to save him?

Especially Charlotte.

Eula had told him she had witnessed her elder sister dying, her father had forced her to witness all of it.

Leon had a hunch that Charlotte’s death might have some connection with the old Leon Valentine’s past.

To Leon’s question, Veronica leaned back a little, relaxing on her desk before speaking.

"To be accurate, it was all hers doing, and not mine. Charlotte was the one who orchestrated all of it, while I just stood in this very room, and let her die."

Not even an ounce of sadness lurked on her face.

Surely, by that time, Veronica already became a Tower Head.

She had enough authority to topple the king.

But instead it was Charlotte who did everything, and Veronica didn’t even save her, nor did she try to take revenge after that.

Which raises the question of what made Veronica to remain calm.

Leon didn’t need to ask her for the answer.

He had a name of who had told her not to do anything.

"Was it Silvermoon?"

He coldly asked.

As Blood Tower Head, Veronica can receive direct orders from her from the upper domain.

If she had told her to do so, then she would need to follow her orders.

Veronica’s golden eyes glinted slightly at his question.

"You are calling out the Calamity’s name way too casually now. Also, this made your second question, you know that, right?"

She just said it like that. Then she changed her tone.

"Anyways. To answer your question, I would just say. No, you are wrong. Silvermoon was not the reason."

It was true, and genuine to the point.

For Charlotte, Veronica had been ready to go against Silvermoon’s will.

She had been ready to defy her own goddess herself, but she could not.

She had been forced by the fate of her own younger brother.

It was a prophecy that Silvermoon had uncovered across the numerous timelines she witnessed and had warned that Leon Valentine needed to be saved, and certain events had to unfold exactly as they were destined to.

Or else a catastrophic event close to the world ending would be triggered.

When Veronica had first heard it, she could not believe her ears.

How could her own brother’s death trigger something of that scale?

It was not like he was mightier than the Five Calamities.

It was not like he stood as a pillar of reality.

He was just a normal boy, her little brother.

Above all, Veronica was pleased to hear from the Silvermoon, that she had given priority to save Leon.

But there was a problem.

To save Leon from the King’s mind manipulation spell, they needed to make the King cast another spell of the same kind.

The Skill that the king used on Leon was called [Lie of Destiny]

It is a rare Mind Manipulation skill that allows the user to overwrite a single truth in the mind of a chosen target.

Once cast, the false memory becomes indistinguishable from reality.

At the same time, the skill carries one absolute restriction which Charlotte used to her advantage.

[The wielder can only embed ONE active lie at a time.]

If a second cast is performed after an active [Lie of Destiny], the older lie is overwritten and dispelled.

It was the same skill which the King had used during the time when he killed Charlotte, to fake her death as simply a mana core overload.

In a sense, Charlotte’s plan succeeded, and they were able to remove the Spell on Leon.

But, even so...

The Leon Valentine of that age had received an immense psychological trauma, which had inflected his overall growth, and made him act pathetic even after the Spell had been lifted.

After all of that, his image as a pathetic son of Duke Valentine had remained the same.

The people who had looked down on Leon during the King’s spell, kept on looking down even after the spell was lifted off.

No one can blame them for it...

Leon hadn’t even Awakened afterall.

Veronica bit the inside of her lip as she recalled Charlotte’s request.

Even now, after all those decades, the words still echoed inside her head as if they had been spoken to her only yesterday.

’Veronica, let me handle it this time.’

Charlotte had stood in this very office.

’You need to remain out of his target to save everyone. You are our only hope here. I will carve a path ahead, so you do not have to worry.’

It was a promise from her.

Spoken with the certainty of someone who had already accepted her own death.

’But in return. I will ask a favor of you.’

’Take care of the people I love.’

"...."

Veronica looked at Leon’s face, as she told him what Charlotte did to save him.

"Catastrophic? You are saying if I were to die, the world would end?"

"This is what Silvermoon told me."

She had seen it across the infinite timelines.

The death of Leon Valentine would set off a chain that no living being could stop.

"But... why?"

Leon did not understand.

How the hell would his death bring the entire world to its end?

Then he let Rumi share her thoughts on this.

’Haru, I will say this once. But I think Silvermoon knows something we do not.’

Leon listened quietly.

’For what I can see, and just my hypothesis, but... She might be aware of your past life.’

Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He did not know if this was true or not.

But given the scenario.

Rumi’s deduction might hold some truth, if not all of it.

Given that the odds of his transmigration into Leon Valentine’s body alone were already astronomically low.

If a goddess across infinite timelines had somehow noticed the man who came from outside this reality.

It would explain everything.

Why Silvermoon prioritized his survival, and why she warned Veronica.

Because Silvermoon was not protecting just Leon Valentine.

She was protecting whoever was inside him, or...

’...who was supposed to transmigrate inside of him.’

Haru Tsukishiro.

This raises yet another question.

Does Veronica also know that the current Leon Valentine was not actually his brother?

Leon saw that his sister went silent after she finished explaining.

From the moment Haru had opened his eyes in this world, and met Veronica for the first time. It didn’t look like she knew the reality.

Silvermoon had kept this thing hidden from her.

’Haru, if she finds out, what do you think she would do?’

Rumi’s question sent a chill down Leon’s spine.

He doesn’t want to think about his conscience.

..gulp.

’Yeah... let’s just never let her find out.’

[A/N : 2 Extra Chapter if we get 100 Powerstones in 24 hours]