Chapter 132: Damon.

"What about the records?" Christophine asked, her eyes moving toward the numerous documents that still covered the tables around them, but before Xandros could answer her question, a deep voice suddenly echoed through the enormous chamber, coming from somewhere beyond the darkness that stretched behind the ancient pillars.

"You can leave them."

The unfamiliar voice travelled through the room with an almost effortless calmness, yet there was something about it that immediately caused Christophine to tense. Seth’s hand instinctively moved toward the weapon at his waist while his eyes searched the shadows, trying to determine where the speaker was hiding, but Xandros remained exactly where he stood, his expression giving away nothing as his grey eyes slowly swept across the chamber.

"And who exactly are you?" Seth asked, his voice carrying through the silence as he took a cautious step forward.

A low chuckle answered him.

The sound of approaching footsteps soon followed, slow and deliberate, as though whoever was coming had no reason whatsoever to fear the three people waiting for him. Christophine narrowed her eyes as she watched the darkness ahead of them, and after several seconds, a man finally emerged from the shadows.

The moment she saw his face, her expression changed.

"Lucien?"

The man stopped beneath the faint golden light and smiled at her.

It was unmistakably Lucien’s face, the same features she had seen earlier in the Western District, yet something about him was completely different. His posture was more relaxed, almost arrogant, and the familiar uncertainty that had once accompanied Lucien’s expressions was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was an unsettling confidence in his eyes, a kind of amusement that made it seem as though he already knew exactly how the entire conversation would unfold.

Seth stared at him for several seconds before looking toward Christophine.

"That is Lucien, isn’t it?" he asked quietly, but even he sounded unconvinced by his own question.

Christophine did not answer immediately because she was too busy studying the man before them. She knew Lucien’s face, but the person standing inside that face felt like someone entirely different.

The stranger seemed amused by their reactions, and without saying another word, he slowly lifted one hand and casually swiped his fingers through the air.

The change happened instantly.

The old underground chamber seemed to ripple as though the very space itself had been disturbed, and within seconds, the tables, documents and dusty stone surfaces disappeared beneath a wave of magic. The rough floor transformed into smooth black marble, the ancient pillars became polished columns decorated with delicate silver patterns, and the dim enchanted lamps brightened until the entire chamber was illuminated by a warm golden glow.

Even the atmosphere changed.

What had previously looked like a forgotten underground hideout suddenly resembled an extravagant private hall belonging to someone who had no intention of living modestly.

Seth stared around the room in disbelief while Christophine remained still, her eyes following every change.

"A little better," the stranger said casually, and with another movement of his hand, a large chair appeared behind him.

He walked toward it without hurry and lowered himself into the seat, crossing one leg over the other as he rested an arm against the side of the chair.

Then his gaze settled upon Xandros.

Xandros did not react.

His face remained completely expressionless, his posture straight and composed as he stared at the man sitting before him.

Seth, however, was not nearly as successful at hiding his confusion. His eyes moved from the transformed chamber to the man and then back to Christophine, as though he was waiting for someone to explain what exactly was happening.

Xandros finally broke the silence.

"Are you the one controlling the smuggling operation?" he asked, his voice calm despite the obvious threat contained within his words.

The stranger looked at him for a moment before a slow smile appeared on his face.

Then he nodded.

"Yes."

The answer was so simple that Seth almost thought he had misheard him.

"You admit it?" Seth asked, his eyebrows drawing together.

The man looked at him with mild amusement.

"Why would I deny it?"

Xandros’s eyes remained fixed upon him.

"Why?"

The man shrugged his shoulders as though the question required far more thought than it actually did.

"I don’t know," he answered casually. "I suppose I was bored."

For a few seconds, nobody spoke.

Xandros stared at him as though he was trying to determine whether the man was serious, but there was not a trace of hesitation in his expression.

"You were bored?" Xandros finally repeated, his voice becoming colder.

The man nodded.

"So you decided to use people’s livelihoods as entertainment?"

A quiet laugh escaped the stranger’s lips, and he leaned farther back into the chair, apparently enjoying the Duke’s reaction.

"You make it sound terrible when you put it that way."

"It is terrible," Xandros replied without hesitation, his eyes hardening. "You manipulated merchants, altered records, created illegal routes beneath the district and put ordinary people at risk simply because you had nothing better to do."

The man’s smile widened.

"You really haven’t changed."

Xandros’s expression remained cold.

"I haven’t seen you in years."

"And yet you still look at me the same way."

The stranger leaned forward slightly, resting his elbow against his knee as he studied Xandros with an almost playful expression.

"Don’t look at me like I’m some bad guy, Xandros. I know you. I know exactly what kind of person you are, and you know exactly what kind of person you are."

The words seemed to hang in the air.

Then something changed.

The stranger’s eyes suddenly shimmered.

Christophine noticed it first, and her eyes narrowed as the colour of his irises slowly shifted beneath the golden light. Xandros’s expression remained still for only another second before his eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

He knew those eyes.

He had seen them before.

Not on Lucien.

On someone else.

Someone who should have been nothing more than a memory.

"Damon..." Xandros whispered.

The name left his lips so quietly that Seth almost failed to hear it.

Christophine, however, heard it clearly.

Her eyes immediately moved toward Xandros before returning to the man seated before them.

The stranger smiled.

Xandros slowly stepped forward, his expression finally losing the complete calmness he had maintained since entering the chamber. He stopped directly in front of the man and stared into those familiar eyes, as though looking hard enough might somehow force reality to make sense.

"What is going on with you?" Xandros demanded, his voice low and controlled, although the tension beneath it was impossible to hide. "And why isn’t Lucien here?"

The man chuckled before raising both hands slightly.

"Easy, older, older," he said, his tone almost teasing. "You’re looking at me as though you’ve seen a ghost."

"You should be a ghost."

"I suppose I am."

Xandros’s jaw tightened.

The man then looked down at his own hands, turning them slightly as though admiring the body he currently occupied.

"It is my body now," he explained casually. "I’m only borrowing it."

"Borrowing it?" Christophine repeated, her eyes narrowing as she stepped closer. "You’re inside Lucien?"

The man glanced toward her.

"Not exactly."

"Then explain."

He smiled.

"Lucien is still Lucien."

Christophine’s expression became more suspicious.

"That doesn’t explain anything."

The man sighed as though he found the conversation unnecessarily complicated.

"Lucien really does know Rosaline," he finally said, causing Xandros’s eyes to immediately sharpen. "Whatever connection he has with her is real, but his memories are incomplete."

Xandros remained silent.

The stranger continued, his voice becoming slightly more serious.

"Lucien died, Xandros. Death has a way of destroying things, and memories are not always spared. He remembers pieces of things, feelings without explanations, faces without names and places without knowing why they feel familiar."

Christophine listened carefully.

"So when he looks at Rosaline..."

"He genuinely recognizes something about her," the man finished. "He simply doesn’t know what it is anymore."

Xandros stared at him.

"And you?"

The man smiled again.

"I simply found his body useful."

There was something almost shameless about the way he said it.

He leaned back against the chair and casually ran his fingers through Lucien’s hair before looking at Xandros again.

"I had already tried using the same body once before, when he was killed. His appearance wasn’t bad, and considering what I needed a body for, I thought I might as well use one that was already available."

A faint grin appeared on his face.

"Besides, I found him rather handsome."

Seth’s brows lifted.

The stranger then looked directly at Xandros and gave him a deliberately teasing smile.

"Though not as handsome as you, of course."

Xandros’s expression remained completely unimpressed.

The stranger studied his face for another moment before nodding approvingly.

"But I’ll still give it a fine rating."

Christophine looked away, clearly unwilling to become involved in whatever strange conversation was developing between the two men, while Seth stared at them as though he had suddenly found himself trapped inside a completely different story.

Xandros, however, did not smile.

His eyes remained fixed upon the man before him.

"You’re using Lucien’s body for this operation."

The stranger’s smile slowly returned.

"Yes."

"And you’re telling me you did all of this because you were bored."

"I was."

Xandros stepped closer.

"Then what exactly are you planning?"

For the first time since he had appeared, the stranger’s smile became difficult to read.

He looked at Xandros for several seconds before slowly rising from the chair.

The moment he stood, the atmosphere inside the chamber seemed to shift again.

"I told you," he said quietly. "I was bored."

He walked past Xandros, his footsteps echoing against the polished floor, before stopping beside one of the tables that had reappeared beneath his magic.

His fingers brushed across the surface.

"And now I’ve found something interesting."

Xandros turned to face him.

"What?"

The stranger looked over his shoulder.

His eyes were once again carrying that familiar gaze, the same gaze Xandros had not seen since the day Damon disappeared from his life.

A slow, unsettling smile appeared on his lips.

"Something that has nothing to do with the merchants."

And before Xandros could demand another answer, the stranger’s expression changed into something far more serious.

"Something that has everything to do with why I came back."

The words settled over the chamber like a warning.

Xandros stared at him in silence, while Christophine and Seth exchanged a confused glance, neither of them understanding what the man meant.

The stranger simply smiled.

And somewhere beyond the transformed chamber, deep within the underground passages, another ancient door slowly began to open.