Gathering Wives

Twilight slowly embraced the sky above the Moretti estate. The golden-orange hues of the setting sun cast long shadows across the vast garden, creating silhouettes of swaying trees as the evening breeze whispered through the leaves.

On the terrace overlooking the garden, two women sat in silence.

Lady Evelyne Moretti, Kein's biological mother, gazed blankly at the darkening sky. Her eyes were swollen, but she had long run out of tears to shed. Beside her, Lady Clarissa Moretti, Kein's stepmother, sat with a calmer expression, though the exhaustion on her face was unmistakable.

The day had been long—filled with tension, anger, and confusion. Yet, for now, they just wanted to sit in quiet, trying to make sense of their own emotions.

The evening breeze carried the scent of roses from the garden. Eventually, Evelyne broke the silence, her voice barely above a whisper, as if speaking more to herself than to Clarissa.

"I always felt like something was wrong..." she murmured. "I should have known sooner. A mother should be able to sense if her child is no longer the same..."

Clarissa remained quiet, letting Evelyne continue.

"Kein was so different as a child. He used to be sweet, a little shy… but then, all of a sudden, he changed into someone I couldn't recognize. I… I thought it was just a phase. I thought he was just acting out."

Her voice trembled.

"But in truth… I lost my child far earlier than I ever realized."

Clarissa took a deep breath. She wasn't Kein's birth mother, but as a woman who had once been a mother herself, she could understand Evelyne's pain.

"I know this is difficult for you, Evelyne."

Evelyne shook her head weakly. "I was a fool, Clarissa." She stared at her hands—hands that had once stroked Kein's hair with love but now felt so empty. "How could I not realize it sooner?"

Clarissa looked ahead, her gaze fixed on the sun that was about to disappear beyond the horizon.

"Because we all want to believe that what's in front of us is real."

Evelyne turned to her.

"What do you mean?"

Clarissa exhaled softly. "I am a mother too, Evelyne. I know what it's like to want to believe that your child is fine, even when all the signs say otherwise. We blind ourselves to the truth because accepting it is too painful."

She turned to Evelyne with a softer expression. "You're not a fool. You're just a mother who wanted to believe that your son was still there."

Evelyne lowered her head, her eyes glistening once more. "But he isn't..."

Silence returned.

After a while, Evelyne spoke again.

"You never liked Kein, did you?"

Clarissa raised an eyebrow but didn't answer immediately. She seemed to choose her words carefully before finally saying, "I never hated him. But I also never truly saw him as my own child."

She gazed out at the garden, where the wind gently rustled through the roses.

"But now, I feel sorry for him."

Evelyne looked at her in shock. "Sorry?"

Clarissa nodded. "Whoever he really is… the one who has been living as Kein all this time must have suffered as well."

Evelyne fell silent, processing those words.

After a long pause, she finally said, "I just want to know… is the real Kein still out there?"

Clarissa didn't answer. She simply looked up at the sky, where the last light of the sun was fading away.

Elsewhere…

The night had long settled in. The sky above London was shrouded in thick clouds, illuminated only by the faint glow of the moon. In an old building that looked like an abandoned factory from the outside, something far more significant was unfolding.

Duke Raphael Moretti stood in the center of a vast chamber filled with magical artifacts, floating maps, and dimly glowing spell circles. This place wasn't just a secret base—it was the heart of an underground operation he had built for years, hidden from public eyes, beyond the kingdom's surveillance.

That night, the chamber was filled with elite sorcerers from the Tower Society—a prestigious group of scholars and high-ranking magic users who rarely offered their services to anyone. But with his power and wealth, Duke Raphael had gathered them here for one purpose: to locate the real Kein Moretti.

In the center of the room, a middle-aged sorcerer clad in black and gold robes stood with his hands raised. His eyes glowed with arcane energy as he chanted an incantation in an ancient tongue. The magic circle beneath him pulsed brighter, creating an illusionary world map that continuously shifted, searching for the right point.

Yet, nothing appeared.

"Impossible…" murmured a young sorcerer nearby. "If Young Master Kein were still alive, his soul's trace should be detectable. But this…"

Duke Raphael clenched his fists. "What do you mean?" he demanded sharply.

The elder sorcerer sighed heavily. "Duke Moretti, we have used every tracking method available—from blood resonance to soul detection. If your son were still in this world, we should have found him by now. But…"

He turned to the unstable world map, hesitation clear in his expression.

"His trace… is gone. As if he has crossed a boundary that magic cannot reach."

The room fell into a tense silence.

Duke Raphael stared at the flickering map, his gaze dark and unreadable. "Are you telling me my son is dead?"

The sorcerer shook his head. "Not dead, Your Grace. But… something far more complicated. It's as if… he has crossed into another dimension, or his body and soul are in an unnatural state."

Whispers filled the chamber as the gathered sorcerers exchanged uneasy glances.

One of them, a woman in a deep blue robe, stepped forward. "There is… one other possibility," she said softly.

Duke Raphael turned to her, his expression sharp. "Speak."

The woman hesitated before continuing, "If a soul exchange ritual was performed when he was an infant, then his original soul might still exist in this world—but trapped in another body. If that's the case, conventional tracking spells would be ineffective."

Duke Raphael frowned. "Then is there another way?"

The woman hesitated again, then finally said, "We could attempt a Soul Summoning Ritual. It is… a last resort, but highly dangerous."

The tension in the room thickened.

Duke Raphael was silent for a moment before finally speaking in a cold, firm voice.

"Do it."

That night, preparations began for a powerful ritual within the Moretti family's hidden base.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, the real Kein Moretti—now living under a new identity—remained completely unaware that his family was searching for him with everything they had.