The rain had stopped.
Gray clouds still hung low across the sky, and thin trails of smoke drifted upward from the burned remains of the settlement into the cold morning air.
The refugee camp had become nothing but ruins.
Charred wood, Mud soaked with rain. And bodies that would never move again.
Among the wreckage stood a white-haired boy.
His red eyes stared at the ground, empty of emotion.
Soft footsteps approached from behind.
A girl with short blonde pixie-cut hair stopped a few steps away from him.
Her voice trembled.
"White…"
The boy did not answer right away.
The girl nervously clenched the hem of her clothes.
"What… are we supposed to do now?"
A few seconds passed before White finally spoke.
"I… don't know."
He turned his head slightly.
"Alyssa."
The blonde girl lowered her head when he said her name.
Meanwhile, other surviving children slowly emerged from the ruins. One by one, they gathered around White without even realizing it.
A boy with short black hair clenched his fists tightly.
His face burned with anger.
"Those imperial bastards…"
He ground his teeth.
"They killed everyone!"
A brown-haired boy standing beside him nodded firmly.
"Ionis was right."
White looked at the two of them.
" Ego…"
The brown-haired boy turned slightly.
At that moment, a girl with garnet hair stepped forward.
Her eyes were sharp despite the dirt on her face and the dried tear marks on her cheeks.
"White."
She stared straight at the white-haired boy.
"What should we do?"
Her voice shook.
"You're the only one who can decide."
She lowered her gaze briefly.
"Our lives… depend on it now."
White studied her face for several seconds.
"Dahlia."
Suddenly Alyssa grabbed the edge of White's clothes tightly.
Her hands were trembling.
White looked around at all the children standing near him.
Their faces were dirty.
Some were crying.
Some stood silently, unable to say anything.
He counted them quietly in his head.
"…Twenties."
His voice was low.
"Out of all the refugees… only about twenty children survived."
In another corner, a small girl was sobbing.
"M… mom…"
A silver-haired girl beside her gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"It's okay, Sandra… it's okay…"
Claudia slowly rubbed her back.
But Sandra kept crying.
White bit his lip hard.
His eyes widened slightly.
Fragments of memory began surfacing in his mind.
—
"Kill the white-haired child first!"
"Mother…?"
"Why are you just standing there?!"
"Father…?"
"Mother… she's not breathing!"
—
White clenched his teeth.
—
"The supply route was cut off by the Count…"
"Damn it… how are we supposed to survive another week?"
—
"What?! The elder was killed?!"
"Yes… his body was already cold when they found him in the war camp…"
"We only wanted to ask for protection…"
—
"The Emperor's battalions destroyed every refugee settlement."
"Is that true?"
"It is… only this settlement and Maya City are still left."
"As long as the war continues, they wouldn't dare touch neutral territory…"
—
"White."
Dean voice echoed through his memories.
"Look at this."
A small pendant.
"Inside it is information that could bring down the Aurelthia Empire."
"Why do I have something like that?"
Dean chuckled softly.
"You forgot?"
"I'm the leader of the rebel faction."
—
"White!"
Someone's voice pulled him back to reality.
White flinched.
An eastern girl stood beside him.
"Your lip is bleeding."
White touched his mouth.
A thin line of blood had begun to drip where he had bitten too hard.
The other children looked shocked.
"White!"
He shook his head slowly.
"…I'm fine."
He looked at the girlm
"Thank you… Hua Yan."
Then he lifted his head and looked at everyone.
Silence fell over them.
White took a slow breath.
"We're going back to our homelands."
Several children reacted immediately.
"What?!"
"That's insane!"
"The journey is way too far!"
Fear spread across their faces.
But Dahlia slowly nodded.
"White is right."
She looked at the others.
"There's no safe place left out here."
"We have to return to our own territories."
Ionis raised his hand.
"Ego and I… we're from the Kingdom of Mycoria."
He scratched his head.
"That's really far from here."
A small girl with a strange symbol on her lip spoke softly.
"The Osmund's Empire is far too…"
She looked down uncertainly.
"I don't know if we can make it back safely…"
Claudia patted her shoulder.
"We'll try, Karen."
She gave a small smile.
"Aqua and I are going home too."
Claudia glanced toward the bright blue-haired girl standing across from them.
Aqua simply nodded.
On the other side, a boy whispered to the girl beside him.
"Do you really think this is the best choice, Piona?"
The girl thought for a moment.
"White and Dahlia agree on it."
She looked at White.
"They're the only ones thinking clearly right now."
She turned back to the boy.
"Don't forget that, Damian."
Quiet conversations began spreading among the children.
Doubt.
Fear.
Fragile hope.
Alyssa looked at White again.
"…Then…"
Her voice was barely audible.
"If everyone goes back home…"
She tightened her grip on his clothes.
"…where will the two of us go?"
White fell silent.
His eyes drifted toward the ground.
For a long moment, he didn't answer.
Then he spoke softly.
"…Right."
He raised his head.
"Alyssa and I…"
His voice was almost a whisper.
"…don't have a home to return to."
A cold wind passed through the ruined settlement.
Silent
The silence finally broke when a girl with eastern features stepped forward.
Her black hair fell straight to her shoulders.
"White…"
She looked at him uncertainly.
"If we separate… will we ever meet again?"
Every quiet conversation stopped.
All eyes turned to the same person.
White.
White looked at her.
"Xiu Yi."
He paused for a moment before answering calmly.
"We will meet again."
The answer was simple.
Yet for some reason, his words silenced everyone.
Not far away, three girls who had always stayed together lowered their heads.
One of them, a girl with bright blue hair, let tears fall quietly.
"Widya…"
The long-haired girl beside her gently held her hand.
"There's no need to worry."
Widya wiped her eyes.
The third girl beside them spoke with quiet certainty.
"We'll meet again. I know it."
Widya looked at both of them.
"Alicia… Aira…"
The three of them nodded slowly to each other.
Ionis stepped forward again, pulling everyone's attention back.
"That's not the real problem."
He crossed his arms.
"If we actually return home… and we travel on foot…"
His gaze swept across the group.
"The chances of surviving the journey are almost zero."
Several children immediately went pale.
Dahlia nodded.
"That's true."
But she continued in a calm, objective tone.
"However, the war is over."
She looked at all of them.
"The Second Imperial War has ended."
"The territories that were battlefields will begin stabilizing."
She drew a quiet breath.
"That means traveling between regions is far safer now than before."
A boy with bright green hair nervously raised his hand.
"Um…"
Everyone turned toward him.
"If… everyone goes back home…"
He swallowed.
"How will we send news to each other?"
White looked at him.
In his heart, he admitted one thing.
Marvis was right.
But before he could answer, a red-haired boy suddenly interrupted.
"Then we make a promise."
He looked at everyone.
"A promise to meet again. Right now."
A girl with curly hair frowned.
"Who knows if we'll still remember that promise years from now, Aeser."
Ego turned toward her.
"So you're saying…"
He narrowed his eyes.
"The promise should be sooner?"
"That's what you mean, Dhea?"
Dhea nodded.
At that moment, a calm-faced girl spoke softly.
"What about five years?"
Several children seemed to consider it.
But a boy with stitches across his mouth immediately shook his head.
"That's too soon, Serena."
Serena turned to him.
"Then how long do you think, Hougt?"
The boy gave a faint smile.
"Ten years."
Geofreyy snorted.
"Ten years?"
He glanced at him with mild disdain.
"That sounds like a childish promise."
Aqua awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"Aren't… we children?" she muttered quietly.
Then—
"Listen."
White's voice cut through their discussion.
Everyone immediately turned toward him.
White looked at each of their faces one by one.
Inside his heart, he had already made his decision.
He didn't want them to forget today.
He didn't want them to forget who destroyed their lives.
White spoke slowly.
"Don't you feel… betrayed?"
No one answered.
But one by one, heads began to nod.
White continued.
"Dean… and his group fought against the Aurelthia Empire."
Geofreyy frowned.
"What are you getting at?"
White raised his head.
His red eyes had grown sharper.
"We will continue their path."
His teeth clenched faintly.
"We will make the Aurelthia Empire feel… what we felt today."
Silence fell like a stone.
Some of the children looked shocked.
Others looked afraid.
Damian swallowed.
Are we really going to do this…?
Stand against an empire as vast as Aurelthia…?
But before doubt could spread—
Ego stepped forward.
"I'm in."
Everyone turned toward him.
Ego looked at White with a serious expression.
"From the moment I first came to this settlement…"
A small grin formed on his face.
"I already said it, didn't I?"
"I'll follow your ambition."
He continued.
"What White says is true. Have you already forgotten those memories?"
One by one, the children began to remember.
Old memories surfaced in their minds.
—
Alyssa
Mother… killed by an imperial knight in our own home.
I… could only watch through the crack of a door.
—
Ionis
That knight's sword… pierced straight through my brother.
Just because he tried to protect me.
—
Claudia
Sandra's cries last night…
I couldn't even stop them.
—
Dahlia
To them, we were nothing more than prey.
—
Slowly, one by one, the children raised their heads.
"I'm in."
"Me too."
"If that's what we're doing… then I won't back down."
Their voices began to merge.
White looked at them.
For the first time since the night of the massacre—
a faint smile appeared on his face.
He knew.
His friends would not abandon him.
White nodded slowly.
"I knew you would all think the same."
He looked at each of them.
"And I'm glad… no one rejected this ambition."
Alyssa stepped beside him.
"We'll carry on Dean's ambition."
White lifted the small pendant hanging from his neck.
The metal glinted faintly under the pale morning light.
"Dean left this behind."
He opened its small clasp.
"Inside is information about the weaknesses of the Aurelthia Empire."
Every child stared at it.
White closed the pendant again.
"We will separate."
"We will grow stronger in our own lands."
"And one day, we will build our own organization."
Hua Yan suddenly murmured softly.
"…Gods Laws."
White glanced at her.
A faint smile touched his lips.
He raised his head.
"In fifteen years…"
"We will meet here again."
Among the ruins of this refugee settlement.
In Maya City.
The place they destroyed.
White looked at them with a sharp gaze.
"Until that day…"
"Become the strongest."
He spoke without hesitation.
"The weak deserve to be scorned."
His eyes fell briefly to his own hands.
"Even… myself."
Those words ignited something inside their hearts.
Some children clenched their fists.
Others lifted their heads with newfound resolve.
Dahlia looked at White.
And in her heart she thought:
If I follow him…
Even a road filled with thorns would be worth walking.
Even if we must grow those thorns ourselves.
Ionis looked around at the other children.
He laughed quietly.
"Seriously…"
His eyes returned to White.
"Not only are your hair and eyes strange…"
"Your ambition is strange too."
He grinned.
"But maybe that's exactly why…"
His fist tightened.
"I'll follow you."