Chapter 56 — The Road Between Worlds
The city stretched out before him like a canvas of lights and silence.
Jaeheon sat in the backseat of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Elysian — custom-built, obsidian black, and armor-quiet. The windows were tinted to perfection. The hum of the engine was near-silent, but he didn't need the quiet to think.
He was already deep within it.
The car moved like a ghost through Seoul's glittering streets, elevated and removed — untouched by the world it passed through. Every detail around him had been orchestrated. The scent in the cabin: subtle bergamot, sage, and something sharp — winter rain on old stone. The temperature, a precise 21°C. Even the drink by his side: white tea with a hint of plum, left untouched.
He hadn't taken a sip.
Outside, the world didn't know.
Didn't know that this car wasn't just heading to a ball.
It was crossing a boundary.
Between myth and memory. Between a boy who once stood in the shadows of chandeliers, and the man who would return tonight — not to witness her, but to be seen by her.
To be known.
To try again.
He hadn't told anyone what this night meant.
They thought it was just another gilded event — some obscenely elite gathering attended by the richest, the oldest, the most powerful.
They didn't know what it meant to him.
The Seven Legacy Courts.
That was the name written faintly at the bottom of the invitation. A name most people had never heard, because they weren't meant to.
Seven ancient bloodlines — old wealth, older history. So powerful they had carved their own rules into time itself. So private that their events didn't make the news — not because they were secret, but because they were beyond public.
Each court governed their industries like dynasties: finance, biotech, global trade, intelligence, arms, media, and the arts.
Only heirs, crowned successors, or chosen guests ever received those invitations.
And tonight's ball… was for all seven.
The car turned. The city blurred.
Jaeheon didn't check his phone.
He'd already written the message hours ago. Just one sentence. No expectation. No pressure.
"I'll be there."
He hadn't sent it.
But he would, right before walking in.
His outfit for the night had taken five weeks of hand-finishing.
But it didn't matter.
Clothes were never what made someone worthy of standing beside her.
Still — he wore it.
A midnight black three-piece suit, stitched from obsidian velvet and silverthread silk, the kind that shimmered between blue and black in motion. The cuffs were detailed with platinum embroidery — not patterns, but runes — subtle, ancient characters only those within the Legacy Courts would recognize.
His cufflinks were antique platinum. His shoes, hand-forged Italian leather.
Everything on him whispered money so old it didn't make noise anymore.
But none of that was why he looked different tonight.
He looked different because he allowed himself to feel.
He wasn't the ice prince of AUREUS.
He wasn't the heir of Korea's richest bloodline.
He was someone who had been waiting half his life to stand in the same room as her again.
And this time, he wouldn't be fifteen.
He wouldn't be hidden.
He wouldn't just watch.
The car slowed.
Ahead, in the forested hills outside of Seoul, the estate came into view.
La Vallée d'Or — The Golden Valley.
An estate built with no regard for time or price. Pale limestone towers rose above moonlit gardens. A cascade of glowing fountains stretched down marble steps, flanked by firelit glass sculptures that danced like ghosts in the night.
Guards lined the front — dressed in ceremonial black, silent and unmoving.
A crimson carpet stretched past the courtyard and up into the heart of the palace-like manor.
And waiting at the gates…
A second man in black stepped forward. Without speaking, he lowered his head in formal greeting, then opened the door.
Jaeheon stepped out.
And the world around him shifted.
His first breath was slow. The night air was crisp, sweet with the scent of orchids and moss. He straightened his cuffs, adjusted nothing. His posture was impeccable.
Then, wordlessly, he handed the man his invitation — encased in crystal and gold.
The man bowed again. "Welcome, Prince Kang."
No cameras.
No applause.
No recognition from the outside world.
But this was his real world.
As he walked toward the entrance — past the tall white columns, under an archway carved with names older than nations — Jaeheon allowed himself one fleeting thought.
If she's here tonight… I will find her.
And this time… I will not leave without trying.