Silence reigned long after the Bluemoon brothers left the arena.
Ray lay motionless on the stone floor, face contorted in pain, his wooden sword splintered beside him. His eyes—wide, unblinking—stared blankly at the sky, as if trying to grasp something that had already slipped beyond his reach.
His body trembled.
Not from the cold.
Not from pain.
But from everything else.
Grief. Rage. Helplessness.
'Mother…'
He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye.
Around him, the crowd stood frozen. The excitement of the earlier duel had vanished, replaced with a heavy, suffocating silence.
"Did they really cripple him…?"
"His core… it's shattered."
"I heard there is no recovery from that…"
"Those guys were monsters."
"Is he… crying?"
Ray wasn't crying. His eyes were dry. But the blank stare he wore—the one filled with nothingness—was far worse.
Rina dropped to her knees beside him.
"Ray! Ray, talk to me!"
She touched his cheek, but he didn't respond.
"Ray, please…" Her voice cracked.
"Can you hear me?"
Beside her, Mei's had already removed a healing elixir.
"His mana circulation is wrecked," she said through gritted teeth.
"And he's losing consciousness!"
She turned to the dumbstruck students. "Get help! NOW!"
That snapped a few of them out of their daze. Some rushed toward the infirmary, while others backed away slowly, murmuring about the terrifying power the Bluemoon family just displayed.
"Damn nobles… no consequences for anything they do…"
"They shattered a second-year's core like it was nothing…"
Rina clenched her fists, teeth grinding. "I should've stopped them. I should have—"
"No." Mei cut her off.
"If you had stepped in sooner, they might've done the same to you."
"But he's—he's broken…" Rina whispered, voice trembling.
Mei looked down at Ray's pale face.
He wasn't the same boy who had confidently faced her in the arena just hours ago.
This… was someone else.
Someone lost.
"We'll fix him," she said softly. "No matter what it takes. We will get him back."
...
~Three months later~
The sun had barely risen when Rina knocked on the door to Ray's quarters.
"Ray?" she called softly, nudging the door open after no answer. Mei stood behind her clearly just as worried as her friend.
For the past three days, they hadn't seen Ray anywhere around the academy.
Inside, the room was... clean.
Too clean.
The bed was made. The training gear he always tossed carelessly in the corner was gone. No trace of his presence, as if he'd never stayed here at all.
Then Rina saw it.
A folded parchment, sitting silently on the desk, sealed with a simple press of wax.
Her fingers trembled as she reached for it, Mei silently inching closer behind her.
The wax cracked as she opened the letter, eyes scanning quickly—then slowing—then stopping.
"No..." Her voice broke.
She slumped into the chair, the letter falling from her hand like it had burned her.
Mei picked it up, reading aloud the words that shattered what remained of their fragile calm:
"I'm sorry.
I wanted to stay—really, I did.
But there's nothing left for me in this world.
You gave me light in a world that had already gone dark, but I was too far gone to follow it.
I'm tired of being the burden, the broken thing you try to fix.
Please don't look for me. I'm not lost. I've simply chosen to be forgotten.
Thank you—for everything.
Live well.—Ray"
Rina's breaths came faster. Her eyes flooded.
"No, no, no—he promised he'd stay…" Her voice cracked, becoming a whisper, then a scream as she slammed her fists against the desk.
"Why didn't I see it?!"
Mei reached for her, but Rina shoved her hand away.
"I was right there," she sobbed, "every day, talking, training, and he seemed like he was okay. Like he still had hope. And I knew—I suspected something was off at first, I felt it—but I thought... I thought I could just... pull him out of it."
Her shoulders shook. "What a cocky bastard. Acted like everything was fine only to leave us a damn letter."
Mei's own eyes were glassy, but she knelt beside her friend and gently rested her head on Rina's arm.
"Did you tell your prince what you felt about him?" she whispered.
"No... and I'm afraid it might be already too late..." Rina whispered back, broken and breathless.
"But maybe if I had confessed earlier... he wouldn't have left me behind."
~Meanwhile, miles away~
The forest's air was still.
Ray sat on a moss-covered rock, hunched over, arms resting on his knees. The wind whispered through the trees, cold and indifferent. A beast's growl echoed faintly in the distance. He didn't flinch.
He hadn't come here to run. Or fight.
He had come here seeking death's embrace.
The weight in his chest wasn't fear, or even grief anymore.
It was hollow. A slow, numbing ache that made time feel heavy, dragging.
No one knew where he had gone. Not Mei. Not Rina. Not the instructors or the healers.
And he preferred it that way.
They'd done enough.
They tried... they tried so hard.
He could still see Rina's eyes, always on the verge of tears she refused to shed. While Mei turned into his personal motivator.
Their kindness made it worse somehow. Their hope, unbearable.
He didn't want to hurt them.
He just didn't want to keep pretending he was still him.
The sun dipped low behind the trees, throwing long shadows across the forest floor. Ray didn't move.
A beast's footsteps padded quietly nearby.
He closed his eyes.
'Maybe this time…'
The creature sniffed the air, low growl vibrating through the roots of the ground.
Ray didn't reach for the dagger.
Didn't brace.
But the creature didn't lunge right away. It simply watched from the dark, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Then it suddenly ran away after sensing an even more power creature behind the boy.
Just a look from shimmering golden eyes... made the Feralkin Ranked beast ran with its tail between it's legs.
'This is the second time I saved this idiot.'
'No mana. No armor. Just a dagger in hand and a blank look on his face—he's walking into a forest swarming with magical beasts! Has he gone mad? Or is he possessed?' Gaela wondered behind her vail. As she gazed at the pathetic fool in front of her...
That night, beneath a sky thick with stars, Ray looked up at the heavens.
A bit disappointed.
"What now?"
The wind had no answer.
His breath fogged in the cold. He pulled his knees to his chest, curling into himself, small and tired.
'Guess I should go deeper into the forest... If I don't end up as a beast's snack..., this dagger will do just fine.' He thought as he slowly rubbed its sharp edge.
He didn't know it yet—but this night, this silence, this broken moment… would ripple across time...
He had no idea that he would live past this day.
And one day, far from now, from these roots of ruin, a child would be born.
Not to save the world.
But to end it.