Chapter 265: Calm down mydies...Interlude...


    ?


    The air was chilly.


    A biting wind swept through the space, but it wasn''t the cold that sent shivers down Riley''s spine-it was the weight of the moment, the suffocating tension that hung heavy in the air.


    Everyone''s thoughts seemed to converge on a single word.


    "Mama?"


    "Mama...."


    "M-Mama?"


    Three distinct voices, three very different reactions. Yet the same word spilled from their lips.


    Seo''s soft tone carried innocent confusion, her red eyes wide as she tilted her head ever so slightly.


    Snow''s trembling voice was filled with heartaching confirmation, her hands balling into fists at her sides as if bracing herself for something unbearable.


    Alice''s voice, on the other hand, quivered with thinly-veiled denial, like her mind refused to process the implications of what she had just heard.


    Eventually, two pairs of eyes turned toward him.


    Snow and Alice.


    Their gazes burned into him like searing mes, full of questions that carried a weight far heavier than words could express.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Riley..."


    Snow''s voice was sharp, her normally calm demeanor slipping as her piercing gaze demanded


    answers.


    "Junior..."


    Alice''s tone was less formal, but the dark undertone in her voice carried a dangerous edge, a cold fury barely held at bay.


    Riley felt the pressure intensify. Thebined stares of the two girls were suffocating.


    He gulped involuntarily, his throat dry, his mind racing for some semnce of an exnation, some way to untangle this impossible situation.


    But as he met their eyes-Snow''s icy, calcting gaze and Alice''s fiery, almost wild intensity -something in their expressions struck him.


    It was a look he recognized.


    A memory he thought he had buried deep resurfaced, unbidden.


    He recalled a girl from his childhood, her face twisted in a crazed, unrelenting obsession that had haunted him for years.


    Now, that same look was mirrored in the eyes of both Snow and Alice.


    Fear gripped him.


    His heart raced as he tried to suppress the rising panic.


    He''d faced monsters, disasters, and countless impossible situations before-but this? This was something else entirely.


    A slew of options shed through Riley''s mind, none of them particrly appealing.


    The first option was telling the truth-tly denying his dear daughter''s promation andbeling it as some borate prank.


    But that came with its own risks.


    While it might stop this strange situation from spiraling further, it would open the door to an even more dangerous conversation:


    "If she''s lying, then who is the mother?"


    The second option was to y along, using the opportunity Laura''s sudden deration had created to escape the moment unscathed.


    Yet this route came with an equally troubling consequence.


    Agreeing with Laura, even tacitly, would cause great misunderstandings-and Riley could already feel the sting of future usations brewing in Snow and Alice''s sharp gazes. His choices were painfully limited.


    And the more he thought about it, the more he realized just how precarious his position was.


    Riley''s gaze flickered briefly to Snow, her calm exterior barely hiding the inner storm brewing beneath.


    And then to Alice, her fiery eyes burning with suppressed frustration, her mind clearly racing to make sense of the unfolding chaos.


    He swallowed hard, recalling a very specific individual from his past.


    The dragon hiding behind an innocent fa?ade.


    Liyana.


    No.


    He couldn''t let their attention shift to her.


    The mere thought made his stomach tighten with anxiety.


    Getting Snow and Alice involved in anything rted to Liyana was too dangerous.


    Because as far as Riley knew, his fiancée was every bit as unpredictable as Rose when it came to certain actions.


    And unlike Rose—whose dangerous whims were often wrapped in calcted grace-Liyana''s unpredictability came with an untamed intensity Riley was far too familiar with.


    After all, he''d spent most of his childhood navigating the minefield that was Liyana''s peculiar


    logic.


    Riley clenched his fists subtly, his mind solidifying around one absolute truth:


    He couldn''t let Liyana be the center of attention.


    ''She probably came to the conclusion that I couldn''t let them know about Liyana...''


    Riley mused, analyzing Laura''s sudden actions.


    Her motives remained a mystery, but he didn''t let the thought linger too long.


    His focus shifted to the present, and more importantly, to the opportunity Laura had just handed him.


    If his dear daughter was crafting some borate, double-edged prank to give him a means of escape, he couldn''t afford not to take the bait.


    Taking a deep breath, Riley turned his attention to Laura and summoned the inner actor that had gotten him out of trouble so many times before.


    His expression softened into one of pure, innocent confusion, masking the rising tension in


    his chest.


    "Laura..." he began, his voice steady butced with just the right amount of disbelief. "Seo is


    your mother?"


    The room froze.


    Laura''s lips curved into a sly smile, amusement practically radiating from her face as if to say,


    "Good move, Papa."


    Snow and Alice, on the other hand, had entirely different reactions.


    Their eyes widened in synchronized shock, and the same question immediately formed in


    both their minds.


    "What do you-"


    Before they could finish, the swirling energy in the air surged with a deafening hum.


    The tension snapped as reality around them shattered like ss, filling their vision with an


    overwhelming sh of nk white.


    The oppressive weight of the domain lifted in an instant.


    When the light faded, Riley found himself standing back in his room, the familiar surroundings a stark contrast to the chaotic scene moments earlier.


    His eyes darted to the others, quickly assessing their state.


    Snow and Alice appeared disoriented, blinking in confusion as they tried to process the


    sudden shift.


    Seo, meanwhile, stood rooted in ce, her face frozen in a mixture of disbelief and embarrassment, clearly still reeling from what she had just heard.


    ...


    ''We''re back...''


    The words echoed faintly in my mind as the reality of the room settled in.


    Alice''s confused face was the first thing I noticed, her golden eyes darting around as if


    scanning for residual mana.


    Her focus seemed to be entirely on the abrupt destruction of Wondend, her expression tinged with confusion and curiosity.


    Snow, meanwhile, was quiet but visibly perplexed, her gaze sweeping over the room before locking onto me with an unspoken demand for answers.


    Seo, still in a hugging position, tilted her head, her crimson eyes flickering with innocent


    confusion.


    It seemed to dawn on her that the person she had been holding moments ago had vanished from her arms, leaving her questioning reality itself.


    As for me, mana was slowly stabilizing within my body after the chaotic whirlwind of the domain copse. Yet my mind wasn''t afforded even a moment of peace.


    Laura''s whimsical smile shed in my memory, a clear reminder of how she had effortlessly


    cornered me with her antics.


    "Hehehe~ Papa! Try cranking that thing up!"


    "Oh yeah, Papa! Mama was looking for you-she looked really angry~!"


    "Ah~ Papa, look! I made this for you-why don''t you drink it!"


    A parade of memories came rushing back, each one featuring Laura''s yful, mischievous


    grin.


    Though she was meant to be nothing more than a fragment of someone I once knew, a person confined to my memories, her presence back then had felt undeniably real. Her demeanor, her personality—it was as if nothing had changed.


    Despite the trouble she''d caused, her actions had provided me with a means to divert their


    attention away from Liyana.


    But the reprieve was short-lived.


    "Riley... that girl... who was she?"


    Seo''s innocent, inquisitive voice cut through the tense atmosphere like a de.


    As if on cue, every pair of eyes in the room turned back to me, their gazes heavy with


    expectation.


    Alice''s sharp stare held questions she didn''t voice, while Snow''s cool, analytical eyes


    demanded exnations.


    Even Seo, though more na?ve in her approach, seemed genuinely curious, tilting her head


    slightly as if that would help her understand.


    The weight of their collective scrutiny bore down on me.


    ''Hahaha...''


    A nervous chuckle escaped my lips, beads of sweat forming on my temple.


    Well, I thought, if I was going to escape unscathed, I''d have to y this carefully.


    Feigning innocence seemed like the best option for now.


    Time to crank out a great excuse. After all, what better way to sidestep suspicion than with a perfect act of cluelessness?


    Clearing my throat, I put on my most confused yet earnest expression and prepared to talk my


    way out of this mess.


    "Now, about that girl...you might be the mother?"


    Now then n you might be the mothermence...


    Throughout her life as a Shadow Knight, Amana had been trained to expect the unexpected.


    From a young age, she had witnessed the world''s darkest atrocities, the heinous crimes


    people couldmit, and the strange, unpredictable events that unfolded from even the smallest of actions.


    Her experiences, both positive and negative, had shaped her into someone who believed she was unshakable, unppable, and immune to surprises.


    Yet, as she stood cloaked in the shadows, her eyes widened in disbelief.


    What on earth is happening here?


    She hade to this ce under a secret directive, her movements careful and precise to


    remain undetected.


    But now, the scene before her was far beyond anything she could have imagined.


    Three girls.


    Three distinct individuals, each with their own fiery personalities, were clinging to the same


    young man-him.


    The very same young man who had inflicted upon her an inescapable trauma less than a week


    ago.


    Mana gritted her teeth, her emotions in turmoil.


    ''I came here as per the emperor''smand... but what''s going on right now?''


    She squinted at the trio, her sharp eyes narrowing as she tried toprehend the sheer


    absurdity of the situation.


    "We got married in the future.... and we had a child.."


    The first voice rang out with confidence, filled with innocent honesty and certainty.


    "Junior said he couldn''t figure out who the mother was in his dreams, right? And Junior, you did say Laura loved ying pranks, didn''t you?"


    The second girl''s tone was calm but carried a sharp edge of analytical reasoning, as if she were unraveling a mystery right before their eyes.


    "There might be a chance she''s ours, Riley," said the third girl, her voice full of cold confidence as her piercing gaze pinned him in ce. "After all, I''m supposed to be your first


    wife."


    Amana blinked, her sharp mind trying to process the implications of the words she had just overheard.


    Three girls.


    Three wildly different opinions.


    And in the center of it all stood him.


    Riley.


    Amana couldn''t help but observe the subtle shifts in his expression as he tried-and failed-


    to keep hisposure.


    He was clearly overwhelmed, his usually confident demeanor cracking under the pressure of


    theirbined intensity.


    ''This...'' Amana thought, suppressing the urge to scoff, ''is the man who brought me to my knees just days ago?''