I look at Lila.
Her eyes are still searching mine — confused, shaken, but not yet afraid.
"As you know... as you found out that night in my room, I was once a soldier," I begin. "World War One was one hell of a war for me and my brothers."
Kai lets out a sharp, incredulous sound.
"That doesn't make any sense. Look at you."
His hand gestures at my face. My body. Unaged. Unchanged.
The old man's voice cracks like a rifle shot. "Let him speak."
Silence follows immediately.
Kai clenches his jaw but steps back half a pace.
For the first time since entering this house — I sit.
The leather creaks beneath my weight.
"We were young," I continue. "Proud. Stupid enough to believe war made men into something greater."
My gaze drifts — not to the walls, but beyond them.
"But the war broke
