He woke up mid-beating—breakfast of a cowardly father, a coffin he remembered, and the sting of shame that once sent his family to the gallows. This time, Rohan Acevedo remembers everything: every betrayal, every corrupt official who smiled while plotting a family's ruin, every hand that shoved him toward a palace cell. He also remembers the one man who both saved and haunted him—Remy De Luca, the imperial eunuch with fingers in every court wound. Now sixteen again with a scholar's skills and a dead woman's memory, Rohan will sit the exams, take the throne of filial duty, and refuse to be anyone's plaything. He will win honor, weaponize a favor, and learn how to trade a threat for power. But the throne's shadows are long—and the favor that lifts him may be the chain that drags his family into ruin. Who will he become: the scholar the realm needs, or the instrument of a eunuch's vengeance?

13 Chapters