Chapter 558: Two Lives, Two Fates
Primrose straightened the moment she heard a strange voice echo inside Edmund’s mind. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the skull’s empty eye sockets glowing with a faint green light.
Without thinking, she took a step toward him, but Leofric quickly caught her arm and pulled her back.
"No," he said firmly. "Whatever you want to do, you have to do it from here. I promised Edmund."
Primrose shot him a sharp glare. "That skull is talking to Edmund again."
"It isn’t the skull," Leofric corrected. "It’s whatever is inside it." He paused before adding, "But that’s not the point. Edmund doesn’t want you to get close to him. If you want to help, do it from a distance."
Primrose let out an annoyed huff. Even so, she had promised Edmund that she would stay under Leofric’s watch. So, although she didn’t like it, she walked back to Leofric’s side.
"Fine," she said. "But at least let me see his face."
Leofric nodded and guided her around until they were standing in front of Edmund.
"Do you really believe she’s as kind as you think?"
Primrose stopped walking the moment she heard those words. Once again, the mysterious voice was trying to convince Edmund that she wasn’t a kind person.
Well... she already knew that, but so what? Edmund had never cared about that anyway.
It wasn’t as if she had burned an entire kingdom to the ground or committed some terrible war crime. So why did it keep bringing it up?
"Edmund," Primrose called softly. "Just focus on listening to Lorelle’s voice, not the skull’s."
Edmund gave her a slow nod. He closed his eyes for a moment, took a few deep breaths to steady himself, and then continued, following Lorelle’s instructions.
"You need to write a few words in the ancient runes," Lorelle said gently. "You still remember how to write them, don’t you?"
"I do," Edmund replied with another nod.
"Good." Lorelle handed him a small container of ink. "Now use your fingers to write those words directly on the skull."
While Lorelle was guiding Edmund, Primrose turned to Leofric. "Do you think I can enter someone’s mind?" she asked. "Like... talking to them inside their head?"
Leofric stayed quiet for a moment before answering, "I’m not sure. But I believe your ability is much stronger than either of us realizes. So... why don’t we try an experiment?"
Primrose raised an eyebrow. "An experiment? What kind?"
Leofric looked at Edmund. "That thing inside the skull is still talking to him in his head, right?"
Primrose nodded. "Yes. And it’s making me want to smash that skull into pieces."
"Good," Leofric said. His answer immediately earned him a sharp glare from Primrose.
Before she could say anything, he quickly explained, "Sometimes, the only way to awaken a new ability is to have a strong reason for it. Right now, I know you hate that skull more than anything. You want to get inside Edmund’s mind and stop it from speaking to him."
He looked at her with a calm expression.
"So use that anger and turn it into focus," Leofric said calmly. "Don’t think about whether it’s possible or not. Just think about reaching Edmund’s mind."
Primrose immediately fixed her gaze on her husband, who was carving ancient rune symbols across the surface of the skull.
Even from where she stood, she could still hear the skull speaking to him inside his mind.
"Do you think you would have ended up like this without her? If you had never met her, you probably could have achieved far more than whatever your life has become now."
"Was it really worth living in pain from the day you were born?"
"Was it worth killing your parents?"
"Was it worth living like a stray dog, searching through trash just to find something to eat?"
Edmund gritted his teeth as the thing inside the skull kept throwing questions at him, forcing him to remember the life he had tried so hard to leave behind.
"My wife has nothing to do with the life I lived back then," Edmund finally replied.
"Don’t talk to it," Lorelle reminded him. "It can poison your mind with lies or something like that."
"A lie?" The skull glowed even brighter as it let out a low laugh. "Why would I lie, Edmund? I may be many things, but I’m not a liar."
"You’re a liar," Edmund replied, ignoring Lorelle’s warning. "My wife wasn’t even born when I went through all of that."
"Her body might not exist yet, but her fate line has already become intertwined with yours."
"The daughter of a loving father and the son of abusive parents."
"The spoiled daughter of a Duke and the bastard son who killed his own parents."
"The Princess of a prosperous kingdom and the Prince of a fallen kingdom."
Edmund frowned as the skull continued speaking about things that didn’t sound like his life with Primrose at all, yet the skull showed no sign of stopping.
"The most beautiful woman in the entire kingdom and the ugliest man."
"The greatest healer of the age and the man cursed to never be healed."
"The brightest star of the Empire and the forgotten child no one wanted."
"The noble lady loved by everyone and the slave who wore nothing but chains."
"Stop it! Those aren’t our lives!" Edmund shouted. His hand finally stopped carving the ancient runes into the surface of the skull.
"Edmund, stay focused!" Lorelle called out.
But the skull’s voice had already sunk deep into his mind, leaving him unable to think clearly. Before he realized it, he turned toward Lorelle and shouted, "Shut up!"
Lorelle flinched in surprise because Edmund had never yelled at her with such hatred before. Even so, she refused to back down and tried to reason with him.
"That skull is lying to you," she said firmly. "Don’t believe everything it says."
The thing inside the skull ignored Lorelle and continued speaking.
"The lady who lived in a palace of gold and the boy who slept beneath broken bridges."
"The strongest swordswoman on the battlefield and the cripple who could not even lift a blade."
"The daughter of the richest merchant and the orphan who had never owned a single coin."
"The woman who carried hope wherever she went and the man who brought nothing but despair."
"The Queen who ruled over millions and the prisoner locked away beneath his own palace."
"You lived through one hundred lifetimes together."
"She spent every one of them surrounded by fortune, while you spent every one of yours buried in misfortune."