The Superior Rebirth: A Hero's Awakening

A Bond Forged in Black Oil

The evening breeze drifted softly through the air as Caelen came to a stop before the Imperial Research & Engineering Directorate. Its grand facade stretched high above him, imposing and silent, like something caught between the world he knew and something far older — something that shouldn't exist yet did.

He turned to Sir Alaric Gravesend, who stood a few paces behind him, straight-backed and ever-watchful, flanked by the elite knights under his command.

"Wait here," Caelen said simply. "All of you."

Sir Alaric didn't protest. He never did. With a firm nod, the Head Commander took his post outside, and his men fell into formation at his flanks, obedient as shadows.

Caelen stepped inside alone.

What met him within those walls was nothing short of staggering.

Biological research. Technological development. Theoretical sciences that humanity was only just beginning to scratch the surface of — disciplines that were barely a breath old compared to the long arc of recorded history, and yet here they were, alive and breathing before him. Strange instruments hummed at their stations. Glass containers held things he couldn't name. The air itself felt different inside — heavier, charged with the quiet electricity of minds at work.

And yet, something about it all made his chest tighten.

He had seen things like this before. Not here — not in this country, not in this life. Back then, behind the walls of Percival's kingdom, in the depths of a place he had no name for other than hell. He had walked past rooms like these without understanding what they were. Without understanding anything, really.

He still didn't. Not fully. But the recognition was there, low and unsettling, like hearing a familiar voice speaking words you couldn't quite make out.

Lady Victoria had already moved ahead, her composed stride carrying her toward the reception desk with the quiet authority that came naturally to someone of her standing — both as a member of the royal family, and as the newly appointed head of the Scientific Research Department, second in authority only to Professor Arkady Mirovich himself.

She inquired after Princess Teslaine. The receptionist responded with visible deference.

Then went to ask her colleagues.

A pause.

Then another.

One by one, the answer returned the same.

No. No. No.

"That's odd." Lady Victoria raised an eyebrow, and there was genuine puzzlement in her expression — the kind that came not from confusion, but from a disruption of expectation. "Teslaine told me just a few days ago she'd be pulling an all-nighter in her personal research room for several days running."

She stood still for a moment, frowning. Not panicked. Not undeterred, either — just genuinely unsettled, which, for Victoria, was saying something.

Then she turned to Caelen, and whatever tension had gathered behind her eyes softened into a confident smile. "You don't have to worry, Caelen. I'll find her. I'm sure of it."

Caelen watched her.

"...I'm fairly certain," he murmured, "that you're the worried one here."

Victoria chose not to dignify that with a response. She rallied the concerned staff members and set off to search the building, leaving Caelen standing in the middle of the floor like a misplaced piece of furniture.

He stood. And waited.

And kept waiting.

And the longer he stood there, the more he began to question why he'd even come in the first place. Reuniting with Teslaine wasn't something he'd had any particular feeling about either way — he didn't dislike the idea, but he hadn't exactly longed for it either. The truth was he'd only agreed to come at all because Lady Victoria had proposed it, and he hadn't had a strong enough reason to refuse.