A few hours later, Edith arrived at Booth's castle. The moment Edith entered the guest room, she saw Booth waiting for her with his men. Judging by the dark lines on his face, she could tell the negotiation with Oswald did not go as Booth liked.

"Miss Edith," Booth greeted her with a light bow.

"How did it go?" asked Edith.

"I have good and bad news. The good news is that gross pig agreed to help us. The bad news is the Guardian will only send a Half Immortal off the books," said Booth.

"They are afraid of the effects of two Immortals battling it out,"

Edith joined Booth and his men at the table.

"I expected this. But if my plan worked, the guardians would be forced to send all their Immortals after Ghost. Give me the reports of the Golden Port battle,"

Booth grabbed a scroll and slid it toward Edith. She opened it up to read everything that had transpired in the Golden Port. Victoria's spies wrote everything that happened in the Golden Port from start to finish.

"General Franklin finished his mission," said Edith. Booth was confused by her words. As far as he read the report, Ghost massacred the death squad. Furthermore, they managed to lose the Immortal killing weapon given to Franklin by Princess Victoria. That spear was more valuable than Franklin's life. So even if Franklin was alive, Booth would have killed him just for losing the spear.

"Unless his mission was to lose the spear and die, I don't see how his mission was a success," General Zakari rolled his eyes.

"That was his mission,"

Everyone, including Booth, was startled by her answer.

"Is there something you need to share with the group Miss Edith?" Booth's voice became cold. As the General of the Thusian army, Booth did not like secret plans behind his back. Judging by the look in Edith's eyes, Booth could tell she did plan something behind his back.

"I placed a special rune on the spear,"

"Special rune?" Booth tilted his head.

"Do you remember that the Dark Lord chased Ghost to the Royal Land Holy church and almost killed him?"

Booth and his men nodded.

"Thanks to the talented engineers and runemasters in Thusia, we have managed to create a rune that would mimic the Dark Lord's energy signature,"

Seeing the bewildered faces of the generals, Edith sighed. She took a moment to simplify things for them to understand.

"Just think that the rune will make Ghost look like the Dark Lord," said Edith. Truth be told, even Edith wasn't clear about the effects of the rune. Unlike she told Booth and her men, neither she nor the thusians created the rune. Instead, she found the scroll instructing her how to create the rune to stop Ghost in her room. To this moment, she had no idea who left the rune or how they managed to get into her room in Thusian castle, one of the most protected places in the world.

The circumstances forced Edith to create the rune instead of finding out who had left it in her room.

"So why aren't we not activating the rune? If what you said about the rune was true, we don't need Oswald," said Booth.

"We need four more days for the rune to stay with Ghost. According to this report, he had taken the spear with him. Let him keep that. We just need four more days," said Edith.

*******************************************************

After meeting Booth, Edith returned to her room in Thusian castle. To her shock, Lailah was standing inside her room with an ancient parchment in her hand. Lailah's eyes were both filled with anger and concern.

"What is this?" Lailah raised the parchment with several runes and instructions written on it.

"It'sIt's nothing" Edith rushed forward and snatched the parchment from Lailah.

"And what the hell are you doing in my room? Isn't it enough for you to stay in the castle? Now you need to stay in my room?" Edith snarled.

"You created something you shouldn't have. You are making things worse for everyone, Edith," Lailah's voice was colder than usual. Although she was not a runemaster, she knew enough to know Edith had created something to turn Ghost into the Dark Lord in front of the world. Lailah didn't come here to protect only Edith but also Ghost.

Seeing Edith stoop to such lengths to save Thusia and the royal family hurt Lailah.

"At Least I am doing something," Edith's eyes turned red in anger.

"You're trying to frame Ghost for being the Dark Lord. He doesn't deserve that. Don't you think Thusia has taken enough from him? You know everything they did to him. Why are you still siding with them?"

"Because Victoria is my friend" Edith stomped the floor.

"And I am your sister," Lailah raised her voice.

"Do not do this, Edith. If you do this, the thusians will keep hurting innocent people,"

"Open your eyes, Lailah. We are at war, and I picked my side. If I don't stop Ghost, he will kill Victoria and her family. I won't let that happen as long as I am alive,"

"This is not the way to stop him. Listen to yourself. This is not you," Lailah grabbed Edith's shoulder and shook her.

"Don't talk to me like you know me Lailah,"

Lailah was stunned by Edith's words for a few moments. The anger in Edith's eyes shocked Lailah to the core.

"You care about Ghost more than you ever cared about your own family,"

"Edith," Lailah gritted her teeth. The temperature in the room suddenly dropped by several degrees.

"What? You want to kill me?" Edith growled.

"You have never ever given a damn about your family-"

Lailah slapped Edith with enough force to make Edith stumble backward and fall down. Blood trickled down from the corner of Edith's mouth.

"There she is. That's the Lailah Alden I know. That's the Lailah Alden our father knew. That's the Lailah Alden our Alden family knew before they killed our father because of what you did,"

Edith's eyes became watery.

"Don't put that on me. Father had no right to give his word to someone else about marrying me. It wasn't his decision to make,"

"He did nothing wrong as a father. You could have rejected the marriage in so many ways. But no, you shamed father in front of all Gondolin," Tears rolled out of Edith's eyes.

"You hated him for marrying my mother, and you used his one downfall to shame him. Because of what you did, they killed our father!" Edith's shout turned into a powerful wave. The flower vases in the room shattered as a result. Except for Lailah, Edith's furious roar moved everything in the room.

"I killed them all," Lailah growled. She couldn't control her body from trembling in anger. Until now, she didn't know Edith was blaming her for what happened to Nobert Alden. However, her hatred was justified. After all, Edith didn't know what really happened. If Lailah was in Edith's place, she would hate her too.

The only reason why Lailah didn't tell Edith was the truth would destroy the image of Nobert in Edith's heart. Lailah didn't want to sully the memory of Nobert.

"Did that bring father back?" Edith picked herself from the floor. Her cheek still had Lailah's handprint on it.

"You are the reason why father was killed. But you didn't care to stick around. I watched my mother cry every day. I watched our family decline. I lived in the mess you left behind. But where were you? You were living your life on your own island like a queen,"

"You have no idea what really happened, just like you have no idea what's happening around you now," said Lailah. Only a few really knew what really happened between Lailah and her father. Not even Edith's mother knew what he really did and why Lailah left her family, leaving everyone behind.

"Say what you want. I picked my side. Even if Victoria was in the wrong, I wouldn't leave her side. Do you know why? Because she was there for our family and me when you weren't. I might be naive, stupid, and all other things, but I am not ungrateful,"

"Did you bother to think about the people around Ghost? What would happen to them after you frame him?"

"I am sick of you caring for Ghost. Who is he to you?!" Edith raised her voice.

She grabbed Lailah,

"Who is he to you? Why are you trying to save him so much?" Edith shook Lailah as he continuously questioned Lailah about the relationship between her and Ghost. Lailah clenched her fist,

"He is the father of my child!" The moment these words escaped Lailah's mouth, Edith's body tensed. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Silence fell over the room.

"What?' Finally, Edith let go of Lailah as tears rolled out of her eyes.

Lailah kept this a secret long enough. She was already hurt by Edith, so when she kept questioning her about Ghost, Lailah couldn't control herself.

Her legs gave up as Lailah collapsed to the ground.

"Lailah, what are you talking about?"

Although Edith was furious at Lailah, when she saw the tears in her eyes, Edith couldn't stay mad at Lailah. Despite all the hatred and anger, Edith loved Lailah. That was the truth.

"You have a child?" asked Edith. She sat beside Laila and wrapped her hands around Lailah.

"A spirit child," Lailah mumbled.

It took Edith a few moments to let her words sink into her head.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" asked Edith.

Lailah sobbed instead of responding to Edith.

"It's okay. You don't have to carry the burden yourself. I am here. Please, get it out of your chest. Don't keep it bottled. I know what it would do to a person. You are always smarter than me. Tell me what happened Lailah," Edith wiped off the tears rolling out of Lailah's eyes.

Eventually, Lailah gave up and began to share everything that happened between her and Ghost with Edith. But unknown to them, someone else was outside their room, listening to Lailah's story.

"This can change everything," The figure standing outside mumbled.