"I don't have time for this,” Alex snapped. “Every second I see you, I remember Charles—and it makes me want to break your damn face."

“Wait, wait,” Logan said quickly, blood still trickling from his nose. “It'll take just a second. You'll want to see this."

He slipped a ring off his finger. In a blink, a small picnic table unfolded on the ground-two chairs, a bottle of old wine, two glasses, even a box of ice that hadn't melted.

Alex froze, eyes wide. "What the hell...?"

Logan smiled, proud of the reaction. People always looked stunned when he did this.

"Everything in the world is strange and marvelous to well-open eyes. See? Wine's cold, chairs are ready in second." He wiped his nose, poured the wine with the care of a sommelier, and pushed one glass toward Alex.

Alex stared at the table, then at him. "How did you-" His voice caught between disbelief and curiosity.

Logan chuckled, reading him easily.

‘Men are all the same. Doesn't matter how broken their hearts are. Give them something new to figure out, and they forget the woman who wrecked them.'

Logan gestured to the chair. “Sit. Drink. I'll explain the ring."

Alex sat down, still on edge. Logan spun the ring between his fingers. "This comes from Prussia-the fifth most advanced nation on Earth. The city of technology itself." He handed the ring across the table.

Alex took it, turning it over in his palm. It looked ordinary—plain metal, nothing fancy.

“It's just a ring,” he muttered. "How did you fit all this inside it?”

"It's a spatial storage ring," Logan said. "There's a five-cubic-meter pocket inside it. Big as a small room."


Alex brushed a thumb over the band, feeling nothing special. “Doesn't feel like anything.”

"It won't,” Logan said with a grin. "It's bound to my DNA. Without me, it's just jewelry.”

Alex slid it back across the table. "Show me."

Logan slipped it on. The air shimmered.

The table, chairs, and wine vanished in a blink—gone like smoke in sunlight. Then, with another flick of his wrist, they returned exactly as before.

back, eyes sharp now, all traces of anger burned off by pure fascination. “That's..... impossible." Logan raised his glass.

out a small plate with steaming

on the table. “But inside this ring, time stops. Hot

took a bite. It

leaning back in the chair, wine glass in

first time, the ghosts of Charles and Josephine faded

ring came from the Sixth Country-Xia. Land of cultivators. Their top craftsman forged these

them spatial storage rings. But it's no simple trinket. Each one's engraved with formulas so complex that only someone with


a sip of wine before continuing. "Later, one of these rings made its way to the Fifth Country -Prussia. The tech capital of

algorithms, and quantum codes. This," he lifted the ring between two fingers, “is the result. Only the richest in Prussia can

the ring to

it in his hand, eyes sharp. “Amazing. Truly amazing,” he said. “But I thought

hardened. "Are you a Prussian spy,

Prussia or Xia would

from us is our cheap minerals. Nobody gives a damn about

explain it. How'd you

king's eyes and iron fist—and every sentence Logan spoke could

went quiet, watching, lips tight, as if

slid the ring back across

to

charges to be executed. Greed for the throne, illicit pacts with other states,


snapped, voice thin. "I'm

he was tasting a verdict. "We're not fools, Logan. We know each other's hands better than anyone.

wipe your slate clean. You live. You keep your

and suspicion battling in his eyes. "Tell me. What do you

Alex said bluntly.

a laugh that

unease. "Prussian?

heard kingswells are

Xia but

none of you can

in. “Immigrants drift through Prussia and Xia with no hope. If someone from Kingswell actually becomes a Prussian citizen, it gives our

"Alex, for most people, getting Prussian papers is impossible. For others, it's as easy as flipping a

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