"I don't understand what's so interesting about this scenery. The sun and moon alternate, and to me it's like the ticking of a second hand, boring and dull."

On a mountain peak in the Supuha Mountains, Meredith lay on a withered root in the cliff face, swinging back and forth.

Beside her, on one side was a bottomless abyss, and on the other side were steep cliffs.

Meredith looked up at the man standing on the mountaintop and said, "The longer you live, the less important time becomes."

Facing the afterglow of the setting sun, Todd said softly, "Time only has meaning when you have something to care about in your heart."

Meredith lay down and said, "You speak of worries, but have I told you about my husband and children?"

Todd said, "I've heard you mention it before."

“In the three hundred years after Scáthach transformed me into a tyrant, I tried to have several husbands and more than a dozen children.” Meredith’s voice slowly lowered: “My first husband was a descendant of the Talos, an ordinary man. In the beginning, I tried to tell my family about my situation. Guess what happened?”

Todd shook his head and asked, "What happened?"

“My husband and children tied me up in the middle of the night and took me to a temple, claiming that a demon lived inside me.”

Todd sighed: "You ran away?"

“Yes, I had no choice but to run away. After that, I never dared to see my family again until their funeral.” Meredith paused, then said, “A long time later, I found a second husband, who was a mutant.”

“I observed him for a long time, and when I was sure he would accept everything, I told him my identity.”

Todd had a bad feeling: "Did you make a mistake? He can't accept you?"

"No, he can accept me, but he's insanely jealous of me."

"envy?"

“My second husband was in poor health due to the side effects of the foreign substance. He lived in pain every day and was terrified of death.”

“Tyrants can not only survive for a very long time, but they also possess power beyond common sense. My husband longs for this change.”

Todd asked in surprise, "He wants to ask you how to become a tyrant?"

Meredith said with a wry smile, "It wasn't just questioning; he used my child to blackmail me."

"Coercion?!"

"He put the knife to the child's neck, determined to force him to reveal the whereabouts of the Shadow Kingdom."

Todd asked, "And then?"

“I told him that tyrants are never a gift from God, but a curse from the devil. Putting aside the perilous path to becoming a tyrant, even if one succeeds in becoming a tyrant, one must constantly suppress one’s power afterward, or one will become a monster that has lost its reason.”

"He still hasn't given up?"

“Yes, he thought I was just selfish, wanting to keep the tyrant's secret to myself. During the argument, he became enraged, gradually lost his mind, and finally accidentally killed the child…”

Hearing this, Todd's heart sank: "Meredis, I'm sorry for what happened to you."

"This has nothing to do with you. At least I made that fool pay the price."

"You killed him?"

"No, I took him to the Shadow Kingdom and watched him be torn to pieces during the trial."

Todd fell silent.

Meredith said as she combed the raven feathers off her body, "After that, I tried to start a family a few more times, but without exception, they all ended in tragedy."

“I was tired, I gave up, I returned to the council of elders, and lived underground in the Supuha Mountains, with my father… Sutherland’s coffin, and began to fear having any further contact with this world.”

Meredith rose from the withered roots, black wings unfurling behind her. With a gust of wind, she flew across the canyon, soared into the sky, and finally landed on the ground.

Meredith walked over to Todd, sat down, and took off the raven mask that she often wore.

With a high nose bridge, deep-set eyes, and a sculpted facial contour, along with beautiful and neatly styled hair, Meredith possessed the face of a classically elegant Taro woman.

Perhaps because she had been unwilling to engage with the world for many years, her expression did not change much even when she spoke, and her eyes gave people a feeling of aloofness and coldness.

Todd looked at Meredith and said, "About your father... Sutherland..."

Meredith asked, "Which 'hi' do you want to ask about? Father? Hero? Or monster...?"

Todd frowned as he looked at Meredith, thought for a moment, and said, "I've heard that he is a very wise scholar."

Meredith: "Before his defection to Tyrell, he was a respected senator, a learned scholar, a highly respected elder... but he was a failed husband and an incompetent father."

“He spends a lot of time in the library and in parliament. He meets with members of parliament more often each month than he meets with his family. He forgets his wife and children’s birthdays, and he even forgets how to get home.”

Todd listened while shaking his head, thinking to himself, "As the saying goes, those who achieve great things don't care about their own family matters. Perhaps that's really true."

Meredith continued, "During the great purge of the aliens in Tero City, he single-handedly began preparing for his escape years in advance. He risked his life to save tens of thousands of aliens and create a peaceful place for them—the Council of Elders."

"From this perspective, he might really be a hero."

Meredith suddenly changed the subject: "But in that purge of the aliens, did anyone remember the fate of the Sutherland family?"

"My mother, brother, younger brother, and sister were convicted of treason by the Tyro Council. They were nailed to stakes and died tragically after days of agonizing screams. Has anyone ever written about them?"

Todd asked, "Why didn't Sutherland take his family with him when he went on the run?"

Meredith said coldly, "In order to lull the guards into a false sense of security, if we escape from Tero City, it will definitely attract the attention of the Cleansers, leading to the failure of our escape... In other words, my family and I have become bait for this escape, just to cover the aliens' departure."

Todd sighed deeply.

“For a long time, I hated my father and what he called the alien race.” Meredith looked up at the darkening sky. “But after learning of his death, for some reason, this hatred slowly faded away.”

"When I arrived at the tomb beneath the Supuha Mountains and saw my father Sutherland's coffin, all my thoughts of revenge were replaced by a single sentence."

Meredith turned to Todd, a look of grief appearing on her face for the first time: "I've lost my last family member."