Upon returning to the manor, Kiarha had bid them a farewell as she traveled back to her own family. Luke had finished unpacking and setting all of his things back in their places.

As Luke laid down on the soft cushion, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened a few days earlier. Adeline had rushed into the parlor, sweaty and gasping for air.

She had declared that she had seen something urgent and that he and his family should come outside at once. But when they did, all they saw was an empty road and a motionless Adeline.

Whoever had done this had certainly cleaned up the loose ends. And someone had to have been planning this for days to confidently stage an attack that involved incapacitating someone.

Luke decided to brainstorm on who could have incapacitated Adeline.
It obviously wasn't his parents or Hara's parents.

Yanna had been in her room, which Luke had confirmed when they had read a book together per Yanna's invitation.

That left Hara and Kiarha.

Hara had also been shut in her room, refusing to talk to anyone except her parents and Kiarha. Oftentimes, when he was passing by, he would spot the two poring over a book on her bed.

Although, he didn't have any evidence of either of them. Whoever had done this had made sure they couldn't be traced, and that was bad.

Now that the attacker knew how to make moves without leaving a trace, he had little doubt that this attack would just be the starting point of a series of increasingly stealthy and deadly attacks.

The window that had been broken into had been fixed, but it appeared that nothing had been taken. Which made it all the more suspicious.

Why would someone break a window for no apparent reason? It didn't make sense.

He went downstairs, answering the summons of his father who had called him down for lunch. Making his way to the dining area, Bernard noticed him and gave him a small nod.

As he ate, he couldn't help but think that if he ever wanted to be able to combat Hara, he would need to know where the Gem of the Winds was.

After he ate, he made his way back to his room upstairs. He laid back down on his bed, and tried to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, he couldn't. His mind was far too awake for him to shut off. There were still so many things that he needed to answer.

First off, Yanna's ruby tokens. He still hadn't discovered what they were made of yet. Every reading he had subjected them to, they had all come up blank or just errors.

There was also the matter of the slab of silver that had been painted as ebony wood. He still hadn't discerned what it was either, as he had been mainly focusing on the ruby love tokens.

Suddenly, he heard an all too familiar sound. A sound that wasn't supposed to be heard, the sound that he had first heard when he had first materialized in this parallel world.

It was the sound of a rift opening.

It was loud, but he doubted his parents and the servants had heard. And even if they had, they wouldn't know what it was unless they had experienced the same thing Luke had.

This meant that someone had used the Amarok. But that wasn't supposed to be possible! There was supposed to be only one Amarok, and it hadn't even been fully formed yet! The only one he had temporarily owned was the Traveler's Amber, and Hara had taken that during that unfortunate visit to her living quarters.

But it didn't mean that only the Amarok was capable of shaping reality. There were other means of creating rifts. This meant that the person behind this had simply found an alternate way to shape reality without having to find the Gems of Fortune first.

Remembering this was both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, this meant that he didn't have to rely entirely on the Amarok to get back to his home reality.

On the other hand, the person who opened the rift had discovered how to mold reality to their will, and now, depending on what they did, Luke could either be a step closer or a million steps farther to his goal.

Judging by how loud it was, he assumed that the rift was nearby. And by looking outside his window, he found it.

It was beyond the fence of the courtyard, a blue portal whirring steadily.

Luke knew this could go two ways. Either someone from here had opened a rift to travel to a different reality, or someone from another reality had travelled to this one.

And so, the waiting game began.

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It didn't seem like there was going to be anyone entering or exiting the portal. Just when he had given up on it and was about to turn around, he caught sight of a hand.

A manicured right hand, nails trimmed to perfection. A golden ring bearing the Schuyler emblem was on the hand's ring finger.

As the person stepped out of the portal, Luke's eyes widened and his jaw slackened in shock.

It was him. But judging from this appearance, this was a Luke Schuyler from another reality, a reality where he wasn't just Duke, but King.

Knowing that the timeline would again be changed if he would be spotted, Luke quickly vanished from the window.

He heard a snatch of words coming from his future self, and leaned a little bit closer to be able to hear what he was saying.

"...Quite the reality the Amarok has taken me to. This must be in the past, judging by the fact that my first manor is still intact."

...wait, what?

What did he mean, "still intact"? Would it not be intact? Would it be destroyed?

He continued to listen.

"And by the fact that the courtyard is empty, this means that the me in this reality has managed to save my father. I'm glad."

He could almost hear the smile on himself as he spoke. It was as if he was voicing out his thoughts for him.

But one thing still made him curious. With the golden crown perched upon his head, this Luke was definitely king. The question was, who was the queen?

That question would soon be answered once he spotted the blonde Lexi Bonneau step out a little later, clutching...

Wait, that couldn't be right. Was that another Amarok?

Then that meant that this Lexi had travelled from another reality as well.
But for the two of them to get married, they must have coincidentally travelled into the same reality, met each other, and decided to marry.

He watched King Luke clutch Lexi's arm, their grip tight and strong. It was clear that their relationship was healthy and full of love, just from the way the two of them looked at each other.

He was half-tempted to wave out of the window, but he knew that if he was seen, it would be cataclysmic.

This type of reality travelling was called realm traversing. Each realm was bound to rules.

One such rule was that the same people could never meet. If they did, it would create a paradox, and the realms would become confused as to which of the copies originally belonged to their realm.

To avoid the confusion, both copied would simply be ejected into the abyss, both never to be seen again unless one of them wielded an Amarok.

He watched the couple hail a carriage, and one came. The driver was evidently confused, because he was familiar with the inhabitants of the manor, having driven past every day.

The driver knew how Luke currently looked, a tall young boy of fifteen years. So it was no wonder that the driver would be confused upon witnessing an adult version, wearing a crown and clutching an orb, his other hand holding the hand of a pretty young lady who was also holding an orb.

But as he was unaware of the scrambled reality currently unfolding before him, he simply agreed to take them to their destination, the Capital.
The last words he had heard before they were out of earshot were the words "Al-Tarouq Hassar."

He wondered what business his future self had with the largest lumber company in the world.
And he also wondered himself why he couldn't just meet up with the Hassar in his own reality, or the reality Lexi came from.

But he would never find out the answers, as he knew the dangers that came with trying to possess knowledge that shouldn't even exist from a person who didn't even come from this reality.

Luke felt that if he was in a story, he would definitely name this the "Chaos Between Realms" arc. And he wasn't just saying that.

He had a nagging feeling that King Luke and Queen Lexi would be the first of many, many visitors from other dimensions.