Time, as always, asked for no permission.
It moved. It eroded. It shaped.
And now,
The same carriage moved once more.
But its passengers… were no longer children.
Cillianas White leaned back in his seat, one leg crossed casually. His silver-white hair was slightly longer now. His dull red eyes remained the same, calm, deep, and… quietly dangerous.
A lit cigarette burned slowly between his fingers.
Across from him sat Alyssa.
Elegant.
Her cream-gold hair was neatly arranged, her sapphire-purple eyes absorbing light with a cold refinement. Her folding fan was half-open, concealing an expression she never fully revealed.
The carriage swayed gently.
And for a moment… the world felt like it was repeating itself.
"Do you remember this trip?" Alyssa spoke.
Cillian didn't answer immediately.
"…Yeah."
Alyssa smiled faintly.
"We used to ask why we didn't just teleport."
Cillian exhaled a thin stream of smoke toward the window.
"Now I get it. This world really likes wasting time on things that don't matter."
Alyssa looked at him.
"and yet you still play along with it."
Cillian gave a faint smirk.
"Because this game… decides who survives."
Silence returned again.
But this time… it wasn't awkward.
It was the silence of two people who had been through too much together.
Alyssa slowly closed her fan.
"Ten years… felt fast."
Cillian didn't argue.
"Felt long," he replied.
Alyssa raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Contradictory."
Alyssa looked at him a little longer.
"Cillian."
She rarely called his name without reason.
Cillian glanced at her.
"What?"
Alyssa exhaled softly.
"We really left everything behind."
Magnus.
The mansion.
Their childhood.
Cillian stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"No," he said quietly.
"We just… stopped going back."
Alyssa caught the scent of smoke filling the space.
She frowned.
"Don't smoke around me."
Cillian didn't put it out.
"Habit."
Alyssa looked at him sharply.
"A bad one."
Cillian gave a faint grin and extinguished it.
Alyssa closed her fan with a soft snap.
"You've changed."
Cillian looked back at her.
"You haven't."
Alyssa smiled slightly.
"Is that a compliment… or an insult?"
Cillian shrugged.
"Depends- on what you need."
The carriage began to slow.
In the distance, the towers of Aurelthia Academy came into view, rising like a marker of a fate that could not be avoided.
Alyssa looked outside.
Cillian put out his cigarette completely.
Alyssa was still looking at him with a faint smile.
"Sometimes… I still remember the days in the refugee camp," she said softly.
Her voice was calm, but there was a subtle tremor she couldn't completely hide.
Across from her, the man now known as Cillian Magnus took a slow breath, then gave a small nod.
"Me too."
Brief. But enough.
The carriage continued forward.
Outside, the landscape of Aurelthia gradually changed, from rough stone roads to paths that were cleaner, more structured… more civilized.
Alyssa turned toward the window.
"We used to run away from the capital," she continued. "I can still feel that fear. We didn't know where we were going… we just ran."
Cillian rested his head against the glass.
"Yeah. You were being hunted. I… left my own family."
Alyssa gave a faint, crooked smiles.
"Hunted by the Empire. That sounds dramatic."
"It was."
"And stupid."
Cillian glanced at her.
"But we're still alive."
Alyssa didn't argue.
"I don't even remember how many times we almost died," she murmured.
"Not almost," Cillian replied flatly. "We should've died."
Alyssa let out a soft laugh behind her fan.
"Such delightful optimism."
"Reality."
Cillian continued, his tone light, though his eyes remained cold.
"We wandered into forests without direction. Crossed frozen rivers. Survived for days without food."
Alyssa glanced at him.
"The one who was starving was you."
Cillian raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I didn't know back then—"
Alyssa snapped her fan shut just a bit tighter.
"That's enough."
Her tone was gentle… but firm.
Some things… were better left unsaid.
"In the end, we reached that refugee camp," Cillian continued.
His voice shifted slightly, hower, heavier.
Alyssa nodded slowly.
"They looked at us like we were a threat."
"Two children with no origin. Makes sense."
"But for the first time… we stopped running."
Silence lingered.
The carriage swayed lightly.
"I remember we shared food," Alyssa said again. "Even though it was never enough."
Cillian exhaled softly.
"Ionis almost ate an old shoe."
Alyssa let out a small laugh.
"And Piona told him to try it."
"For research," Cillian replied flatly.
Then—
the atmosphere changed.
No signal.
No warning.
Just… a shift.
"What I remember the most," Cillian said slowly, "is that day."
Alyssa didn't move.
"I can still hear their screams. The fire. The smell of blood."
His eyes were empty.
"And we couldn't do anything."
Alyssa closed her fan completely.
"And we hid."
"Like cowards."
"Like children who wanted to live," Alyssa cut in sharply.
Cillian didn't respond immediately.
A few seconds passed.
"We're still alive," Alyssa continued, calmer now. "And now… we don't have to hide anymore."
Cillian shifted his gaze to the reflection in the window.
The face he saw,
was no longer that of a refugee child.
That name was dead.
"White" was nothing more than a shadow never recorded in history.
Now—
he was Cillian Magnus.
The adopted son of a legend.
A legitimate name.
A recognized identity.
And… protection strong enough to deceive the world.
"Ten years," he murmured.
"Long enough for people to forget," Alyssa replied.
"And long enough to rewrite the story," Cillian added.
Alyssa smiled faintly.
"The world isn't looking for lost children anymore. They're looking for new threats."
"Good," Cillian said. "Let them keep being wrong."
Alyssa looked at him directly.
"We used to be victims."
Cillian met her gaze.
"And now?"
Alyssa slowly opened her fan.
"Now we're part of the problem."
The corner of Cillian's lips lifted slightly.
"I prefer that."
"The Academy," Alyssa said.
Cillian nodded.
"Our first stage."
"The place where all eyes begin to watch."
"And where all mistakes begin," Cillian added lightly.
Alyssa let out a quiet chuckle.
"We're no longer children running from death."
Cillian leaned back casually.
"Now… death has to chase us."
In the distance, the towers of the Aurelthia Academy came into view.
Untouchable… for the weak.
But not for them.
Silence fell again.
But this time,
it wasn't born from wounds.
It came from certainty.
Their past had not disappeared.
It had simply… taken on a new name.
And soon the world would come to know it.