“Huh?”
Meleonora froze. Her knees gave out, and she almost collapsed to the floor.
“Seven?” she whispered, her voice trembling as though the word itself carried physical weight.
Her mind spun.
“Wait… seven nukes. Let’s say each nuclear bomb costs 30 billion dollars. Seven means… almost 210 billion dollars.”
Her lips trembled.
“That’s nearly half of some countries’ GDP.”
She felt her breath catch in her throat.
“This… this is insane,” she whispered.
“So… petty.”
Her eyes shook with disbelief.
The purple-haired man, who’d been crouching on the ground the entire time, finally found his voice. His eyebrows twitched as he ran a shaky hand through his hair, his mind struggling to keep up.
“Wait, wait, wait.” He almost stumbled as he tried to stand. “You’re telling me… you actually fired nukes?”
He gulped. “Wait… doesn’t that mean… I kinda have a hand in this? I… gave you the number seven, right?”
Lucian turned toward him, a playful grin on his face.
“Yup,” Lucian said, popping the ‘p’ with extra emphasis. “Congratulations, man. You just became part of history.”
The man went pale.
“I… I thought you were joking!”
Lucian’s grin widened. “I never joke about nukes.”
“Ehhh… nooooo!” the purple-haired man wailed. “I don’t wanna go to jail!”
Tears pooled in his eyes as reality sank in.
But then, he froze mid-panic, his expression shifting into something oddly proud.
“Wait a second… I just gave the launch number for a nuclear strike.” His lips quivered. “I… I’m part of history!”
Tears of panic mixed with tears of pride.
“I swear… I’ll tell my next seven generations about this. Their ancestor… yeah, I’ll tell them their ancestor once ordered a nuclear strike!”
His face lit up, though his eyes remained watery with fear.
“You…” Meleonora’s voice broke the chaotic moment. She clenched her fists, stepping toward Lucian with fury burning in her eyes. “You psychotic bastard!”
Lucian chuckled. “Relax, dumbass. It’s not like I hit a city.”
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“You hit an island!” she screamed.
“Yeah… but not a city,” Lucian said with mock innocence, tilting his head as though he were explaining something simple to a child.
Meleonora’s vision blurred with rage.
Suddenly, the General moved toward a desk on the side of the room. He grabbed a remote and pressed a button.
The television mounted on the hospital wall crackled to life.
BREAKING NEWS:
The screen flickered before settling on an aerial feed. A news helicopter hovered above what looked like… endless ocean.
The camera panned across the water calm, unnaturally calm.
“This… doesn’t look like normal footage,” Meleonora muttered.
The resolution and perspective were too high-quality to be from a regular helicopter.
“A satellite feed,” she realized with dread. “That makes more sense. No one could get there this quickly… it’s been only five minutes since the explosion.”
The screen showed faint traces of mushroom-shaped clouds still lingering over the water.
The news anchor’s voice trembled through the speakers.
“W-we… we are live at the site where, just moments ago, the Silvit family’s private island… disappeared.”
The words struck like thunder.
Meleonora’s breath hitched in her throat.
“Disappeared?”
The news anchor continued. “We have no confirmed details yet, but the explosion was recorded as strong enough to send shockwaves causing minor earthquakes within a 20,000-mile radius.”
The room went silent.
Meleonora’s mouth went dry.
Her eyes remained glued to the television as the satellite feed zoomed in.
There was nothing.
No landmass.
Just violent, churning seawater where the island had once stood.
The surface of the ocean was coated in vapor from the heat. Smoke still lingered like a ghost over the water.
“It’s… really gone.”
Meleonora’s voice cracked.
The camera feed shifted to show footage taken from nearby islands and coastal areas.
Even from hundreds of miles away, the mushroom cloud was clearly visible, rising into the sky like a grim monument to destruction.
The General swore under his breath and covered his face with his hand.
Lucian?
He just stood there, his grin never wavering.
——
Kane Family Manor – Hours Ago
Olivia sat on the couch, her fingers tapping anxiously against her phone.
“Why hasn’t Rose come back yet?” she muttered to herself. “Didn’t she say she was just going to meet Luna? It’s almost midnight now.”
Her brows furrowed as she glanced at the screen multiple missed calls.
“Are they really talking this late? Even if they are, why isn’t she picking up?”
She sighed, rubbing her temple. “Did she plan to spend the night there?”
No. That didn’t make sense.
“Rose never spends the night out without informing me… and even if she did, she would have at least called.”
A deep sense of unease settled in her chest. Something felt off.
“I should tell Lucian.”
Standing up, she hurriedly walked upstairs toward his room.
She knocked.
“Lucian.”
No response.
She knocked again, louder this time.
“Lucian, are you inside? Something happened open the door!”
Silence.
Her pulse quickened. “Why isn’t he replying?”
Just as she was about to knock again, the door to the room beside Lucian’s suddenly opened.
A sleepy voice mumbled, “Huh… Mother-in-la no, Aunt Olivia?”
Celestia blinked groggily, rubbing her eyes.She had clearly just woken up
“What happened? Why are you knocking on Lucian’s door so late?” Celestia asked, her voice still laced with drowsiness as she rubbed her eyes.
Olivia let out a tense sigh, the worry on her face deepening.
“Celestia…it’s Rose.”
“Huh? Rose?” Celestia’s confusion turned into concern at the mention of the name.
“She went out this evening and hasn’t come back yet. I’ve been calling her for hours, but she isn’t picking up.”
“What? Rose didn’t come back?”Celestia asked, the sleep fading from her eyes. Seeing Olivia’s anxious expression, she quickly straightened her posture.
“Yes… I thought maybe Lucian would know something. I wanted to ask him to go look for her, but he isn’t opening the door.”
Celestia frowned.”That’s strange… you were loud enough to wake me up, so there’s no way he wouldn’t hear it.”
Olivia’s chest tightened. That same ominous feeling of dread she’d been trying to ignore was growing stronger with every passing second.
“Maybe he’s just sleeping deeply…”she murmured, more to herself than Celestia. “I’ll wake him up.”
Without another word,Olivia grabbed the door handle and pushed it open before Celestia could object.
The door creaked, revealing the dimly lit, empty room beyond.
Olivia’s eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat.
“Huh…?”Her voice faltered. She took a step inside, scanning the room, disbelief tightening her throat. “Lucian…?”
Her gaze darted around the empty room unmade bed, slightly ajar window, the faint scent of smoke lingering in the air.
But no Lucian.
“Where… where is Lucian?” she whispered, the realization settling like ice in her veins.
Celestia stepped into the room behind her, eyes wide.
