Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 183; Executive meeting

Guilt crashed over her like a tidal wave. She’d known they would worry, but hearing the devastation in her father’s voice made it real in a way that abstract knowledge couldn’t.

"I couldn’t contact you before, my dear Father because I was lost in this wide universe..." she explained quickly, her hands gripping the edge of the sink. "The circumstances of what happened... they were complicated. I found myself in a human body, a woman named Shuyin who had passed. I needed time to stabilize, to understand this existence. I didn’t mean to cause you all such pain."

Her father leaned closer to his end of the connection, studying her intently, studying the face he knew, even as she inhabited a form he didn’t. "You speak of inhabiting human flesh. You wear their shape." His eyes narrowed with the shrewd intelligence that made him a formidable ruler. "What happened to you, Kailani? Who did this?"

Kailani glanced toward the washroom door, acutely aware that any human could walk in at any moment and see her true face reflected in the water. "I don’t fully understand it myself, Father. But I’m safe. I’m... learning to navigate this human world."

"Navigate?" The word came out sharp, almost wounded. "You should be home. In the palace. Not...." He gestured vaguely, frustration evident. "....wherever you are, hiding in some human dwelling, reduced to blood magic in a washbasin to contact your own family!"

Despite everything, a small smile tugged at her lips. "I’ve missed your dramatics Father."

"Dramatics?" His expression softened, just slightly. "Your mother nearly declared war on the surface world. Your eldest brother actually did sink three ships before we convinced him you probably weren’t being held prisoner by human sailors."

Kailani’s eyes widened. "He didn’t Father..." If she told him the truth, then chaos would erupt. Between their race and the human race, humans were bound to lose. Yes, she hated humans, but not all humans were terrible.

"He did. I’ll add ’explaining why we can’t wage war on humanity’ to the list of conversations we need to have." Her father’s stern demeanor cracked, revealing the worried parent beneath. "When are you coming home? Your mother needs to see you. We all do."

"Soon," Kailani promised, her heart aching with homesickness she’d been suppressing. "I need to settle some affairs here first. This body, the woman whose life I now inhabit, she had obligations. A life that was interrupted. I owe it to her to handle things properly before I can return Father."

Her father’s expression darkened with understanding. "This human, Shuyin. Her life became yours."

"Yes. And I can’t simply abandon everything she built, everyone who knew her." Kailani touched her chest, or rather, the chest of the body she now wore. "It wouldn’t be right." But she didn’t tell the truth that she was avenging her and herself and on top of that, she was married. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The king was quiet for a long moment, the water rippling with his unspoken thoughts. Finally, he nodded slowly. "You always had the strongest sense of honor among my children, Kailani. It’s what makes you worthy of your name, even if you’ve always preferred I call you by your nickname."

"Father...."

"But Junyao," he said, using her formal name with deliberate weight, "do not take too long. Your family has mourned enough. Come home soon, or I’ll send your brothers to fetch you, and they won’t care about human obligations."

She could picture it, her three overprotective brothers storming some human city, causing chaos in their determination to bring her back. The office building would probably end up flooded. "That won’t be necessary. I’ll visit within the month, I promise."

"See that you do." His expression softened again. "I love you, daughter. As does your mother, as do your brothers. Whatever form you wear, whatever life you live, you are still ours. You are still Princess Long Junyao, still our Kailani."

Tears pricked at her eyes. "I love you too, Father. Tell Mother... tell her I’m sorry, and that I think of her every day."

"Tell her yourself when you come home." He smiled, the expression transforming his stern features. "She’ll want to hear everything. Prepare yourself for at least a week of being unable to escape her presence."

"I wouldn’t want to escape it," Kailani said softly.

The connection began to waver, the magic requiring considerable effort to maintain across such a distance and between realms. Her father noticed, nodding in understanding.

"Go, before the spell exhausts you. But remember, Kailani, one month. Don’t make me wait longer than that."

"One month," she confirmed.

The water’s surface trembled, distorting the reflection of her father’s face one final time before going still. Kailani stared down at the ordinary bathroom sink, at the clear water that now held no magic, no impossible connection to the underwater palace she’d once called home. The porcelain felt cold beneath her palms.

One month.

She’d given herself a deadline, bound herself with a promise she couldn’t break, not to a father who’d already mourned her once, not to a mother who’d nearly started a war in her grief.

The weight of it all settled over her shoulders like a mantle made of lead and love in equal measure.

Behind her, the washroom door remained mercifully closed, the mundane sounds of the office building muffled through the walls.

How strange, to exist in two worlds at once. To wear human skin while dragon blood sang beneath the surface. To answer to Shuyin’s name while her father’s voice still echoed with "Kailani," with the formal weight of "Long Junyao."

She straightened slowly, catching sight of her reflection in the mirror above the sink, Shuyin’s face, Shuyin’s dark eyes, Shuyin’s body that had become her vessel when its original occupant departed.

The woman who’d had obligations, a life interrupted mid-sentence like a book slammed shut before the ending.

I owe it to her to handle things properly, she’d told her father, and he should probably understand her....