All Chapters of Reliquiae Amoris: The Last Lie Crown: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

IN this world, no one ever truly disappears. Or so the ancient sorcerers believed. There is a belief that every life they live will always leave a trace—on a doorknob, footsteps on a stone floor, a sound that once filled a room, even a memory long buried deep within a person's mind—all of it will leave a small echo in an invisible world.They call it The Veil.The Veil is not a realm separate from the reality of the present world, but rather a hidden layer that holds the traces of everything that has ever existed.Most humans cannot sense the Veil's existence. They simply walk through streets and places that have held tens or even hundreds of thousands of years of stories, yet they never truly realize that traces of the past are stored within them.Those who possess Resonance within themselves can sense the Veil's presence, as this ability serves as a bridge between the individual and the hidden layer of the world. Magic does not simply appear out of nowhere, nor is it conjured from n

A LITTLE girl fell to the ground for no apparent reason. She hit the grass with both knees first before her palms struggled to support her entire body weight. The impact didn’t feel that hard, but it was enough to startle her, leaving her momentarily confused before she realized what had actually happened to her. With long, wavy brown hair framing her face, Seraphine looked up and surveyed her surroundings.Only then did she realize she was in her backyard. The grass was growing a little too tall around her feet, the small flowers her mother had planted were swaying in the breeze, and the laundry hanging on the side of the house was gently fluttering in the afternoon light.Her brow furrowed even deeper as she turned toward the back door, then looked back at the spot where she had fallen, as if hoping to find footprints or some other mark in the grass that might explain how she’d ended up there.Unfortunately, she found nothing.Where her body had just landed, there was no hole or si

BEFORE the sun had fully risen, Seraphine had already noticed how chaotic her house had become because Mrs. Valence kept packing up things—things she didn’t really need—to take to Veyl. She simply watched Mrs. Valence go up and down the stairs repeatedly, calling out to Mr. Valence when she was at the bottom of the stairs, then calling out again when she reached the top, and finally yelling at Seraphine for still being in her pajamas—forcing her to turn back to her room and change immediately.In the living room, it was even worse. The suitcase they’d bought just yesterday was wide open, its contents not yet packed at all. It was so large it dwarfed Seraphine. Every time Mrs. Valence went to close the suitcase, she seemed to remember yet another new item she could stuff inside without asking Seraphine if she actually needed it.“I’m sure six pairs of socks are more than enough, Mom. I’m sure there’s some kind of laundry facility there,” she said, walking down the stairs with puffy eye

“Are we really going to study with him?”Seraphine cursed under her breath as she read the class schedule she’d found slipped under her door. Most likely, the Head of the Dorm had slipped the paper under every student’s door. Just one of the names listed on that schedule was enough to make her first morning even more difficult.Blackthorne.The morning sunlight was glinting off the surface of the lake, making the pond in the courtyard look even more serene. Mara was still lying on her bed, fully dressed in her school robes. Her shoes were neatly placed on the floor, while both her hands rested on her stomach like someone who’d decided to take a break after the struggle of getting dressed.Mara opened one eye. “Who?”“Blackthorne.”Now her other eye opened as well. Mara sat up lazily, then got out of bed and walked over to her. Seraphine handed her the schedule before Mara even had a chance to ask for it.“There’s no way we can avoid him for six years,” Mara said as she read. Her finge

Seraphine, Mara, and Elian walked with Professor Blackthorne toward the eastern wing of the castle, a part they had never visited before. They passed many classrooms they had never actually used, then descended a narrow staircase whose walls bore no House crests. The farther they walked, the fewer other students they encountered. Seraphine had thought that Blackthorne was taking them to the archives, but as the professor kept walking to the end of the hallway—which led them to an uneven, much older floor—she no longer dared to guess where he was taking them.She had been absolutely certain that they passed through the same hallway every day, but seeing how different this much older one was, she thanked Mara for always showing her the fastest route to class—one that didn’t involve the narrow stairwell and old hallways they were currently exploring. Nevertheless, as they approached the wall carved with stars, Seraphine noticed that one star had a broken tip near its bottom. She only rea