Reincarnated as an Elf Prince
Chapter 249 - 249: Explanation (1)

Ashwing growled low.

A sound more felt than heard.

"I don't want to fight your kingdom," Lindarion said. "I'm here because something's coming. Something you haven't seen yet—but you will."

"And this," Leonhardt said slowly, "was the only way to make me listen?"

Lindarion didn't look away. "Yes."

Silence.

Then Leonhardt nodded once to the nearest guard.

"Stand down."

The guards hesitated, then obeyed.

No weapons raised.

No orders shouted.

Just silence. And Ashwing, still crouched like a coiled blade in the center of the room, watching everything.

Lindarion let out a breath.

Then finally said it.

"The next rune pulse hits your borderlands in three days."

Leonhardt didn't question what that meant.

Not yet.

Because his eyes were still on Ashwing.

And for the first time since Lindarion walked in—he was listening.

—

The door to the king's private quarters closed with a soft click behind them.

The hall faded. The guards stayed behind.

Lindarion said nothing as he followed.

The room they entered wasn't ornate. Not like the rest of the palace. No gold filigree or velvet-draped windows. Just high walls of dark stone, old shelves lined with weathered books, and a fire burning low in the hearth.

A pair of chairs sat near a square table in the center, worn but solid, the kind meant for conversation, not politics.

Leonhardt walked ahead, unfastening his cloak. "Sit."

Lindarion did.

Ashwing curled silently near the wall behind him, still in lizard form, his wings tucked neatly. The heat coming off his back was faint, barely noticeable, but still present. Watchful.

Leonhardt poured something dark from a carafe on the table, one glass, not two, and leaned back into the seat across from him.

"You've changed," the king said.

Lindarion met his gaze. "Four years will do that."

"You vanished," Leonhardt said. "Not a word. Not a body. Nothing left behind but rumors."

"I couldn't leave a trail."

"Not even for your allies? For Eldrin? For—" He paused. "Vivienne asked after you more than once."

That hit deeper than Lindarion expected.

He didn't let it show.

"I wasn't just hiding," he said. "I was being hunted."

Leonhardt frowned. "By who?"

Lindarion's fingers drummed once on the table. "At first? I didn't know. Then I started finding traces. Broken artifacts. Dead sites. Fragments of old architecture overwritten with things that don't belong to this era."

He leaned forward.

"They're building something. Slowly. Quietly. At first it looked like coincidence. Ancient magic resurfacing. But it's not just that."

Leonhardt listened. Silent. Focused.

"It's runes," Lindarion said. "Buried. Layered into the leyline structure across the continent. Hidden under noble estates. Disguised as ruin markers, border stones, crypt seals. Most people can't even see them."

"And you can?" Leonhardt asked.

"I've learned to. Or Ashwing has. Either way—"

His hand lifted, fingers drawing a rough shape in the air.

"A perfect ring. It spans all three human kingdoms. The last piece sits in Veldoria. But the center… the focal point?"

Leonhardt exhaled. "Vaeloria."

Lindarion nodded.

"And when they're all activated?"

"The leylines will rupture. Not destroy cities. Not directly. It's not about mass damage. It's about destabilizing the lattice that holds the deeper seals. The old ones."

Leonhardt's brow creased. "Prison runes."

"Worse. I think someone's trying to wake something that was never supposed to move again."

Ashwing stirred slightly near the wall. Lindarion felt the pulse through the bond. A flicker of shared memory, chains in the void, a sky too dark to be natural.

Leonhardt refilled his glass, but didn't drink.

"I've seen reports of mana interference," he said. "Minor things. Healers reporting delays. Scribes saying their tools spark for no reason."

"It's not isolated," Lindarion said. "Each symptom is an echo. Once the last rune pulses, those symptoms turn into collapses. Spells will backfire. Artifacts will fail. Entire kingdoms will bleed through the gaps."

"And the ones behind it?"

"I've seen a few," Lindarion said. "Shadows. Masked. Some mages. Some nobles. They don't wear colors. They don't sign their work. But they know what they're doing. They've existed longer than we think."

"Longer than the kingdoms?"

Lindarion hesitated. "Maybe."

Leonhardt finally drank.

The silence stretched.

Lindarion let him think.

Let him feel the weight of it.

When the king finally looked up, his voice was quiet.

"How much time do we have?"

"Three days until the next pulse. That's what I intercepted. If we don't sever that piece from the network, it accelerates."

"And the location?"

"Outskirts of Caldris. Duke Ravaryn's estate."

Leonhardt's eyes narrowed. "You've spoken to him?"

"I went in. He denied everything. But he's not in control. The rune there is buried under his foundations. And someone else visits it."

"Who?"

"Foreign mage. I couldn't identify him. But the mana signature matched the one that ruptured Evernight Academy four years ago."

Leonhardt sat back.

The fire crackled.

The wind outside touched the window like a whisper.

And for the first time since Lindarion had entered the city, Leonhardt didn't look like a king defending his borders.

He looked like a man who just saw the floor vanish beneath him.

"You came alone?"

Lindarion nodded once. "I did."

Leonhardt's gaze lingered. "You had allies before. You don't now?"

"I didn't want them pulled into this one."

"You trust them."

"I do. That's why I left them."

He didn't add especially her. Didn't say her name. Didn't need to.

He'd already told Luneth to stay behind. Told her the fight was shifting. That she still had time to study, to train, to live inside the part of the world that still pretended to be normal.

She didn't argue. Not exactly.

But she looked at him in that sharp, wordless way she always had. Like she was measuring whether he'd return in one piece, or at all.

Lindarion set that memory aside and looked at the king again.

"I came because someone had to. The next site is yours. The threat is real. And no one else will move fast enough."

Leonhardt exhaled slowly. The king's weight settled differently now, he wasn't seeing a boy anymore. He was seeing someone who had stood alone, chosen it, and kept moving.

"Then we move with you," Leonhardt said.

Lindarion didn't smile. But he nodded once. "Good."

He pulled out the scroll. "Here's what you need to see first."