Claude exhaled a slow stream of smoke into the night sky before he continued. "I was a fool. I sincerely believed that if I swallowed my pride and kissed the rings of those devils, they would let us be. I tried so relentlessly to earn their hollow noble titles, compromising my very nature just to settle on the quiet seashore, hoping to simply exist beside the only woman I ever needed."

His grip on the cigar tightened. "I broke my own back trying to make them see me as a worthy man. But the aristocracy does not look down and see men. They only saw a wretched peasant with the audacity to steal their most prized political pawn."

He let out a humorless chuckle. "I wanted to force their respect, so I foolishly obeyed the very same rules you just rejected tonight. I built an unstoppable merchant chain, carving my way into their elite circles through sheer skill and sacrifices. But power without a crown only breeds envy. And my climb surrounded me with deadly enemies on every side."

His eyes drifted somewhere far away. "My rising influence terrified the cowardly aristocrats. But the true tragedy began when our most beautiful secret slipped into the wind and reached the ears of the ruthless. That Ariana and I were expecting a child."

Jax stood completely still. He did not interrupt. He simply watched the older man unravel in front of him in the quietest possible way.

"What happened next is an eternal nightmare. They tore Ariana away from our house, dragging her out of our little heaven and condemning my soul to hell. Their only justification was the terror of my dirty peasant blood mixing into their divine lineage."

Claude tapped the ash off his cigar. His hand was steady but his voice was not. "And that was the exact moment the final veil fell from my eyes. I realized that begging the universe for a tiny sliver of peace is the most unforgivable sin a man can commit. I honestly thought I could buy her a safe life with respect and wealth, completely forgetting that wolves do not care how rich the sheep is."

He turned his head slightly toward Jax. "But I learned the exact brutal truth you just shouted at me tonight. If you desperately want to keep the one you love safe, you cannot just build a quiet house on the fragile shore. You have to mutate into the raging storm that completely devours the ocean."

His jaw tightened. "And that burning revelation came to me a little too late. It took me a whole damn month to figure out the ultimate weapon in this broken world. The singular thing that possesses the potential to change destiny or destroy anything is absolute power."

He raised his cigar like a lecturer making a point. "Power can buy the entire world. It can buy the laws and it can buy holy justice. And it can even buy your innocence right after you slaughter the entire rotten bloodline of the most sacred hero of this land."

Jax felt that rage and knew where the story was going.

"For a whole agonizing month, I spent everything I had on building a terrifying army. I spent my nights forging dark connections and manipulating the shadows. All just to take Ariana back using overwhelming force."

His voice dropped into something hollow. "But the heavens are cruel. And nothing ever goes as planned."

He paused there. The silence stretched long enough that Jax could hear the cigarette paper burning.

"A sickening piece of news suddenly circulated, claiming that my Ariana had committed suicide. The noble court told the entire world she ended her life after realizing the profound mistake of loving a commoner."

A dark and terrifying smile twisted his lips. His fist clenched with bone crushing force around nothing at all. "I knew in my soul that they murdered her."

"What followed was an apocalyptic eruption of blind rage. And a horrifying bloodbath that this floating island has completely erased from the annals of time."

Jax stayed silent. He had heard stories of brutal men before. He had been one. But the temperature in Claude’s voice right now was something different.

"Every single person carrying the exact noble blood that tortured my Ariana was relentlessly hunted down. I dragged them from their golden palaces and their deepest hideouts and the cobblestone streets where they tried to disappear."

His eyes went hollow. "The whole kingdom was painted in red for an entire week, until every single breathing soul from those three ancient families was erased. Irrespective of their age. Or their gender."

"That blinding rage completely swallowed my humanity. I moved like a hollow ghost because everything I ever cherished was gone. My life was violently drained of every single color, and I eventually found myself standing at the gallows, ready to be hung for my endless crimes."

He took another long drag. "I was gladly accepting my execution with open arms. But then something unexpected happened."

A bitter smile curled his lips. "The exact same high nobles who once spat on my shadow were suddenly bowing at my feet. They begged me to abandon my peaceful surrender and redirect my endless violence toward the remaining political officials still clinging to their desperate power over the academy."

His voice took on a mocking lilt. "They desperately needed a monster to shift the balance of power and tear up the deep foundations of this very academy. They wanted me to forge a brand new political era where those exact corrupt scum would reap all the benefits after securing the ultimate power of the world."

He flicked the ash away. "They showered me with endless lucrative offers and extremely benefacting contracts and the highest noble positions. I rejected every single one of them, because my heart was already dead and I had no intention of drawing another breath."

He let the smoke curl up. "But then they brought forth an offer that grabbed my soul by the throat."