The baby in the crib started crying.

Alaric picked up the infant, his face showing nothing, his silver eyes cold as he looked down at the child who would die in place of Darius’s child.

’Forgive me.’

Whoosh

He teleported back.

The woman had collapsed against the table, her aged form barely able to support itself.

Little Crimson lay crying weakly, his small body exhausted from whatever she’d done.

Alaric set the servant’s child down beside him.

"The Bloodworth markers you removed from your son."

His voice was quiet.

"Can you transfer them to this baby?"

Her eyes widened, understanding cutting through the haze of pain.

If enemies were tracking Bloodworth blood, they needed someone who would register as the target. They already knew there was a Bloodworth inside this portal.

Fresh tears poured down her face as she looked at the innocent child.

"I’m sorry..."

Her voice cracked.

"I’m so sorry... Please forgive me... I’m damning you... I’m sorry..."

Her hands moved again, those same impossible patterns.

Blood flowed between the two infants, the Bloodworth markers that would mean death transferring from one child to another.

The servant’s baby now carried a death sentence disguised as a birthright.

She finished and pulled the decoy close, her aged face showing nothing but grief as she held the child who would die because her real son needed to live.

Then she turned to her baby.

Her hands trembled as she picked him up, cradling him against her chest.

"D-Darius told me about you and your wife."

Her voice was barely a whisper, life force nearly gone.

"He said... you wanted a baby more than anything in the world..."

She kissed her son’s crimson eyes, her tears falling on his small face.

"Please... treat him as your own."

Another kiss, this one on his forehead.

"G-give him a normal life."

Her voice was breaking apart.

"Away from all this... Away from the darkness... Let him be happy... Please let my baby be HAPPY."

She pressed something into Alaric’s hand, a black ring with a bloody B carved into it.

"If he becomes powerful enough, this will open... But I wish that day never comes. I wish he lives his whole life never knowing what he lost. Never knowing any of this... Just... just let him be a normal boy with a family who loves him."

She placed her son in Alaric’s arms.

And didn’t let go.

Her hands lingered on the baby’s body, maternal instinct warring with necessity, her fingers tracing his small face like she was trying to memorize every detail.

"I can get you out too."

Alaric’s voice was gentle despite everything.

"My spatial manipulation can take us both. You don’t have to–"

"I’m already dead."

She cut him off, finally releasing her son with visible effort.

"I burned my life for those techniques... There’s nothing left... And I’m the wife of Lord Bloodworth... I won’t dishonor my husband’s sacrifice by surviving when he gave everything to buy these minutes for our son... I will do everything for my son as well."

She picked up the decoy child, holding him close.

"They need to think we’re all dead... Every trace gone... If even one survivor exists, they’ll keep hunting until the bloodline is extinct."

Her voice became firm despite her weakness.

"I need to die protecting this child... They’ll believe he’s the real heir when they kill him... And my Little Crimson gets to LIVE."

She moved toward the door, stopped and turned back.

And the look on her face would haunt Alaric for the rest of his life.

Love and agony and desperate hope all mixed together, a mother’s heart shattering as she walked away from her child to save him.

"T-Thank you."

The words came out broken.

"Thank you for... for everything."

She walked toward the door, but kept turning back.

Every few steps, she’d look at her son one more time.

Tears streamed down her aged face, her white hair falling around her shoulders, her body shaking with sobs she tried to suppress.

"I love you~"

Her voice was so quiet Alaric almost didn’t hear it.

"Mommy loves you so much... Be happy, my Little Crimson... Be safe... Find people who love you... Live the life we wanted to give you~"

Another step and another look back.

"I’m sorry I can’t stay... I’m sorry I can’t watch you grow up... I’m sorry for everything."

Her voice broke completely.

"But Mommy will always love you... Always... Even from wherever I’m going... I’ll love you forever~"

She turned and ran, still looking back and still crying.

Still drinking in the sight of her son until the moment she disappeared around the corner to move towards the Monster occupied regions.

Gone completely.

Running toward whatever death was coming, carrying a decoy baby to ensure the real heir would escape notice.

Alaric stood frozen.

Then his senses screamed.

Multiple powerful presences started coming through the portal exit, moving with coordinated precision and murderous intent.

He teleported away to the only safe region he had found earlier during his missions inside this portal.

Whoosh

They materialized in a forest far from any military settlement or Monster occupations.

Alaric looked down at the baby in his arms.

The infant had stopped crying, crimson eyes looking up at him with innocent confusion, unaware that his entire world had just ended.

Unaware that his mother had sacrificed herself.

Unaware of everything except that someone was holding him, keeping him warm, making him feel safe.

"Damian."

Alaric’s voice was soft, gentle in a way it rarely was.

"Your name is... Damian... Valcor."

Something invisible shifted as the world acknowledged the naming.

The baby’s status screen, hidden from everyone’s eyes, registered the change.

Name: Damian Valcor

What had been an Imperial heir born to rule became a commoner’s son with no legacy.

What should have been power and privilege and destiny became normalcy and safety and love.

The Bloodworth family’s last living member disappeared into history, replaced by a child who would know nothing of what he’d lost.

Everything the boy had been born to be was erased in that single moment, replaced with the normal life his mother had died to secure.