Chapter One: The Ashen Invitation

【Collateral bloodline of the Dragon Emperor detected.】 【Causal anchors detected: Ashen Banquet invitation, royal wax, funerary silver mark.】 【Dragon-Soul Deduction System awakening.】 Lain looked first at Serena. She was frozen in the act of reaching for him. She could not see the words. “Who are you?” 【The system is not alive. Irrelevant questions cannot be answered.】 “Who created you?” 【Insufficient authority.】 “What can you do?” 【Use memory as fuel to deduce the fire of causality. Available event: Ashen Banquet.】 A scale appeared. The invitation rested on one side, three lights on the other. 【Shallow deduction: reveal one direct fatal threat. Price—one minor emotional memory.】