The memorial was small.
Just a torch lit at the edge of the Guild courtyard. No body. No grave. Just smoke curling into the grey sky, trying to reach a soul that never made it home.
Ariel stood still, her eyes fixed on the flame.
A single tear traced her cheek—but she didn't move to wipe it away.
People gathered in clumps, murmuring half-hearted prayers, giving Ron awkward nods. No one met her eyes.
And then she heard it.
"He always rushed into things, that kid. Thought a wooden sword and guts would keep him alive forever."
"I thought he was going to slay the Demon king...hahaha ..what a fool!.."
"Hahah..a fool indeed "
"Honestly, I'm surprised he lasted that long. Some people just aren't cut out for the life."
"Heard he dragged the other boy into it too. Damn fool,what was he thinking explore newly opened ruins ."
Each word was a dagger. She clenched her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms.
But she didn't speak.
She didn't cry.
Not here.
---
Ariel sat alone with Aron's old training sword across her knees. She remembered the first time she saw Aron: ridiculous, clumsy, charging into a crowd with a wooden blade and too much heart.
He wasn't supposed to die.
He wasn't supposed to be just another name, shrugged off and forgotten.
Her voice was quiet.
"I won't let them remember him like that."
Ron sat nearby, nursing a bandaged arm. "Ariel…"
"I'm going to join the Guild the second I turn fifteen," she said firmly. "Not for revenge. Not to prove anything. But because we made a promise. The three of us."
She looked to the sky, where the last rays of sunlight pierced the clouds.
"I'll keep walking the path we started. I'll protect people. I'll protect you. I'll become the adventurer he believed I could be."
And somewhere, she imagined Aron's dumb, beaming smile.
"A mighty force indeed."