Lysandra looked down at the girl, her expression one of bored pity as she adjusted her sleeve, barely glancing at the poor maid.

"And what could a simple maid possibly offer us?" she shrugged. "Besides, Lucian is beyond the help of medicine or magic. There is no helping him now. I mean, look at reality, Aria. A bird with torn wings doesn’t get to fly again. It just waits in the dirt to be eaten by the hounds. He is already a corpse breathing out of habit."

Cassia’s eyes flickered. She didn’t say a word, but she moved her elbow sharply catching Lysandra lightly in the ribs.

"Ow — hey, I was telling the truth," she groaned, rubbing her side as she caught Cassia’s flat, unreadable gaze.

"Alright, alright! Hmph. I suppose we can take a look."

A few minutes later, the three of them stood outside his room.

Lysandra slightly leaned and called out through the door.

"Lucian, dear brother. Are you planning to rot in the dark forever? It’s becoming terribly inconvenient for the servants to clean up your self-pity.

If you’re going to act like a corpse, you might as well go lie in a coffin instead of ruining a perfectly good bed."

Silence. Not even the rustle of bedsheets answered her from within.

She scoffed, ready to turn away, but ignoring her, Cassia stepped forward. Without asking for permission, she reached out and pushed the heavy door open.

The hinges groaned, revealing the pitch-black, suffocating gloom of the bedroom.

"Big brother..." she whispered, almost to herself.

When no response came, Cassia slowly pulled the door back. With a heavy click, the room was sealed in darkness once again.

Then, she looked directly at Aria, her voice turning into cold stone. "There is no help coming, Aria. Not from us. Not from anyone."

Lysandra sighed, gracefully dusting off her dress as if simply standing near his room had soiled it.

"Well, we tried. Don’t come crying to us again, dog. Let the trash rot where it belongs."

Without another backward glance, both sisters simply walked away, their footsteps fading down the empty corridor.

Aria stood completely alone outside the closed door. Her hands clenched into tight fists, her nails biting into her palms. The family wouldn’t help. The world didn’t care.

If Lucian couldn’t be saved from this crushing despair... then there was only one painful thing left to do to free him from the pain.

Aria pushed the heavy oak door open and stepped into the gloom of the bedroom.

"Young Master?" she called out softly. "Lucian...?"

Only the faint, ragged sound of breathing answered her from the lump huddled beneath the thick blankets.

Aria stood by the bed, her chest tight with overwhelming guilt.

Her breathing hitched. Slowly, her trembling hand crept up to her flushed cheek. A dark, possessively sadistic smile stretched across her lips. Her other hand dropped, frantically clutching the fabric of her skirt tightly between her thighs.

A twisted, sickening thrill sent violent shivers down her spine.

He is broken, the thought echoed in her mind, sending a rush of twisted euphoria through her veins. He is entirely helpless. He belongs completely to me.

She was reveling in his absolute despair.

Gasp!

Then she suddenly snapped out of it, stumbling back as if she had been physically burned. She stared at her own trembling hands in sheer horror. The twisted arousal vanished instantly, replaced by a wave of nauseating self-hatred. She was turning into a monster. If she stayed, she would only ruin him further.

Steeling her nerves, she stepped forward, grabbed the edge of the heavy blanket, and yanked it away in one violent motion.

The cold air hit him, but Lucian didn’t scream nor did he complain or try to fight back. The boy simply curled tighter into a pathetic, shivering ball on the mattress while his lifeless eyes staring blankly at the wall.

Aria’s heart clecnhed as She climbed onto the bed and pulled his frail, shivering body into her arms, pressing his head against her chest in a deep, motherly embrace.

"Shhh..." she whispered, her tears falling into his messy hair as she gently patted his head.

"It’s alright, Young Master. Please don’t suffer anymore. I will fix it... I will fix everything."

Lucian didn’t react. Yet, Aria didn’t need him to.

She closed her eyes. A soft, ethereal pulse of telepathic energy flared from her fingertips, sinking directly into his brain.

She went to work, erasing all the agonizing memory of his core.

Starting with the warm, protective smiles of Lydia — including every single trace of her own existence. And finally, she placed heavy, unbreakable mental blocks over his cognitive functions, dulling his brilliant intellect so he could never perceive the world as a genius again.

Ignorance was the only shield she could give him against a world that demanded greatness.

Lucian let out a soft breath, his body going completely limp in her arms as he lost consciousness.

Aria gently laid him back down on the pillows. Hot tears streamed down her face, falling onto the cold sheets. She backed away from the bed. The deed was done. He was free from the pain of his past, but she was still drowning in it. The guilt of ruining him, twisted love she harbored, those agonizing memories — it was too painful to live with for her soul too.

Raising her trembling hands to her own temples, Aria let out a broken sob.

With a final, devastating surge of her telepathy, she forcefully shattered her own memories. Erasing the boy she loved, the sins she committed, and the crippling pain that haunted her mind.

Her emerald eyes glazed over, losing all their sorrow. Without looking back at the sleeping boy one last time, the blank-faced maid turned around, walked out of the House of Valemont, and disappeared into the night forever.

And from that night onward, the once-in-a-century prodigy truly ceased to exist. In his place, a new Lucian was born.

The discarded Valemont bastard.