All Chapters of REVENGE AFTER REBIRTH-THE LORD'S FORSAKEN BRIBE: Chapter 101 - Chapter 105

The city hadn’t slept in days. Fear had become a living thing, moving through the streets, whispering in the markets, curling up in the corners of every home.One name carried on every breath.Aria.The woman who had once been caged beneath the palace now walked free again.And I could feel her presence in every flicker of shadow. The council hall felt colder that morning. The nobles spoke in circles, demanding executions, while others begged for peace. I didn’t answer them right away. I just watched the flame burning in the center of the table, its light steady against the gloom.“We will not chase ghosts,” I finally said. “We will find her, but not by tearing apart the city we swore to protect.”Lord Alaric scoffed. “You think to reason with a serpent?”I looked him in the eye. “No, I intend to starve it.”They fell silent. Cassian stepped closer to me, his expression calm, but his eyes told me he was tired. He hadn’t slept, not really. None of us had.“The merchant’s death

I woke before dawn, long before the bells. I hadn’t slept much; Aria’s lies still echoed in every corner. Even silence carried her voice.Cassian stood by the window when I entered the war room. His armor was half buckled, his hair still damp from the morning rain.“She’s turned the council against itself,” he said. “Half of them believe I sold secrets to your sister.”I moved to the table and spread the newest reports across it. Letters, sightings, names. “Then we give them proof she’s lying.”He frowned. “How?”“By finding the mouths she feeds,” I said. “Every rumor starts somewhere. Find it, and we cut it off before it spreads again.”Cassian nodded. “You want spies.”“I want truth,” I said quietly. “And I don’t care how we find it.” By noon, the city was restless again. The rain had stopped, but the air felt thick, waiting for something to happen.I rode through the streets with only a small escort. People stopped to stare. Some bowed; others looked away.Rumor had teeth. You c

Morning came grey and heavy, as if the sky itself had not slept. The smoke from the night’s fire still lingered, thin threads that refused to fade. From the window of what was left of my chamber, I could see the workers clearing debris from the courtyard, carrying buckets of water, stacking blackened stone into neat piles. The palace was breathing again, but it breathed through pain.Cassian entered without knocking. His armor was polished but dented in places, a reminder that he had spent most of the night in the ashes with the others. He set a small bundle on my table, a handful of letters saved from the flames.“They found these in the west corridor,” he said. “Most of the others are gone.”I unwrapped the cloth. The letters were scorched around the edges, the ink blurred, but the seal on one of them was still clear, the serpent’s mark.“They were inside the palace,” I said quietly.Cassian nodded. “Too deep to be a courier’s mistake.”I ran my thumb over the seal. Aria’