At the Death Squad’s camp.

It was night, and the moon hung bright and full in the sky, lending the darkness a quiet kind of beauty. The chirping of crickets rose from the jungle on either side of the camp, layering a gentle stillness over everything — the tents, the trees, the air itself.

Six members sat around the fire in silence, none of them speaking. The mood among them was heavy in a way that had nothing to do with the hour.

These were most of the Death Squad’s elite members, along with their leader: Lysandra, Evelyne, Malrik, Darius, Kael, and Elias.

The only one missing was Claria, whose whereabouts were currently unknown to the group.

"Two days now, and still no sign of him waking up," Kael said, breaking the quiet. He was perched on a tree stump, running a whetstone along the edge of one of his short daggers.

"Sir Karius called in every elite physician from the city and beyond," Malrik said, his eyes drifting to the medical care tent. "Every single one of them agreed that there’s nothing physically wrong with him. Whatever state he’s in, they have no explanation for it."

"And Claria volunteered to tend to him with her healing spells the entire time," Darius added, frowning. "But she hasn’t noticed any change either."

"You couldn’t look after one of our own members for a few hours while I was gone — what kind of teammates are you?" Evelyne said, her tone carrying a blame that left no room for interpretation.

"Evelyne," Elias said patiently, not moving from where he lay on the grass beside his shield and sword, "how many times do we have to tell you — he was with Sir Karius. Do you really think our being there would have made any difference?"

"Tsk." Evelyne clicked her tongue, clearly the angriest of all of them about what had happened to Ravian, and she had not stopped laying blame on them since she returned and learned the news.

"Can you all stop talking? I already have a headache," Lysandra said suddenly. She was standing apart from the group, eyes fixed on the fire, not lifting them once.

"Does none of this bother you at all, Lysandra?" Evelyne stood up, voice full of a frustration she was no longer bothering to contain.

"First they drag a boy the age of my little brother into camp the moment he wakes up, then he gets targeted for assassination inside our own commander’s tent while the commander was away."

"And that’s not all — the man they call the city’s hero, our own company commander, sent him out to fight the monster wave the second he regained consciousness, then took him to headquarters, and now he’s sent him back to us just like that — in this state."

She took two steps closer to Lysandra until she was standing right in front of her.

"Did none of that move anything in you, Lysandra?"

"Evelyne..." Kael tried to ease the tension between them, though even he was bothered by what had happened to Ravian — and even more so by Lysandra’s cold indifference.

Lysandra looked at Evelyne for a few seconds without responding.

"Then what exactly do you want me to do?" she said finally.

"Hah?" Evelyne had not expected her to answer at all.

"Do you want me to cry? To lose control of my emotions the way you’re doing right now?" Lysandra said, her tone unchanged — flat and distant.

"If he dies, it’s because of his own weakness," she added, still not meeting Evelyne’s eyes. "Nothing more."

"You—!" Evelyne’s voice cracked with shock.

"Lysandra, you..." Kael stared at her, genuinely thrown. Lysandra was known for her coldness, her pride, her ambition — but he had not expected her to say something like that about Ravian. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"She’s right."

A calm voice, quiet and smooth as the stillness of night, cut through the campfire suddenly.

Every head turned at once, eyes wide.

Two figures stood at the edge of the firelight — a white-haired young man with crimson eyes, looking strangely different from before in a way that was hard to place, and beside him a girl with a warm, gentle presence, who was at that moment staring at Lysandra with an expression of pure shock at what she had just heard.

Ravian and Claria.

"...R-Ravian?" Lysandra’s voice faltered the moment she caught his expression — which did not match what had just left his mouth at all.

"It’s fine, Lysandra. You didn’t say anything wrong. My weakness is what caused what happened to me." Ravian nodded calmly, though Lysandra noticed that his eyes were no longer looking at her the same way they once had.

"Ravian... I didn’t mean it like that." Lysandra did not know why she was suddenly trying to explain herself, but she felt the need to do it right now regardless of the cost.

"Then what did you mean?" Ravian asked, and his eyes were bright but carried something slightly hollow in them as he looked at her.

"I meant..." Lysandra tried to speak but did not know what to say. She needed to say something — anything — but the words were not there.

Ravian shook his head with a faint, dry smile.

"You know, Lysandra... I wasn’t actually that bothered when I heard you talking just now. But that is..." he said quietly, and then his crimson eyes lit with their soft, steady glow.

"— pitiful," Ravian said, and the last word landed wrapped in equal parts pride and contempt.

Everyone present was caught off guard by the shift in Ravian’s expression — he had seemed perfectly fine mere moments ago, and then the moment Lysandra tried to justify herself, something had changed in him entirely.

"Ravian — thank God you’re alright," Kael said, crossing to him and pulling him into a firm, brotherly embrace.

"Thank God you’re alright, you crazy rookie!" Darius and Elias followed the moment they caught what Kael was doing, moving in without hesitation.

"Ugh — a nickname related to insanity again," Ravian said, catching all of them with a smile despite himself.

"What do you mean ’again’?" Malrik laughed, joining the group and giving Ravian an unselfconscious pat on the back.

"I’m still half in a dream — don’t read too much into it," Ravian said, leaning slightly away from Malrik’s enthusiastic thumping.

Meanwhile, Evelyne stood a little apart, beside Lysandra, watching the others joke and laugh among themselves.

"I’m sorry," Evelyne said quietly, glancing at Lysandra, whose face was unreadable right now — just a beautifully composed expression looking toward something without quite seeing it.

"I really didn’t see him coming out of the tent. If I had, I never would have said what I said." She was doing her best to comfort the person closest to her, and she understood, now that she thought about it, exactly what had just happened to the relationship between Lysandra and Ravian — and that it would not be the same as before.

"It’s not your fault," Lysandra said, simply and plainly, her thoughts still clearly drifting somewhere else — somewhere in the words Ravian had left behind.

"I’ll be right back," Evelyne said, and went over to check on Ravian herself.

"Take your time," Lysandra replied, and turned her gaze toward the massive fortress looming behind the camp.

Then she turned and walked toward her tent. Claria followed quietly after her.

"Thank God you’re alright, Ravian — and wait, am I imagining things or did you actually get more handsome?" Evelyne said as she came to stand in front of him, smiling brightly enough to light up the area around her.

"Thank you for the compliment, Miss Evelyne — and thank you for looking after me while I was unconscious," Ravian said, matching her smile with one of his own.

"That wasn’t a compliment. And stop with the ’Miss’ this and ’Miss’ that — my name is Evelyne. Call me Evelyne. Or big sister Evelyne," she said, jabbing him in the shoulder to punctuate her point.

"Alright, Evelyne — thank you for looking after me during my coma," Ravian repeated, dropping the title this time and going along with her.

"Good," Evelyne said, nodding with satisfaction.

"Well then, Evelyne — don’t you have somewhere to be right now? We want some time just us guys," Kael said, already steering Evelyne gently in the direction of Lysandra’s tent.

"Don’t push, you ridiculous assassin," Evelyne muttered, sidestepping his hand with a glare.

"Alright, alright — don’t go too hard on Ravian. Let the man rest for a bit," she said, giving Ravian a playful wink before heading off to check on her closest friend.

"Phew — finally," Kael said, wiping imaginary sweat from his forehead with theatrical relief.

"Now... shall we?"

"Let’s go," Ravian said, and he meant it. He wanted to check his status window as soon as possible — he had noticed several changes in his body and had no idea what they meant yet. And he had not forgotten for a single moment about the corpse Karius had told him Antonius would leave in his tent, which he was equally eager to check on.