"You! Y-you don't understand what you're throwing away!" Arthur yelled. In truth, he, too, did not know what Noah was throwing away. "Your future, y-you! Our! Our purpose…" His words faded in the drizzle.
Noah's eyes darkened.
These words…
She had finally started to understand.
This was what Petra often talked about, wasn't it? These hypocritical people, these unreasonable words…! To force a fate upon another! There was no greater sin in her eyes! For the first time, Noah felt the weight of these words, and it was a disgusting thing, like a worm writhing in one's stomach.
Noah clenched her fists.
She never thought she would hear these words from Merlin…
The way her stomach twisted into a knot, the way her body instinctively wanted to agree! What was this disgusting feeling! What was this noose! Was this what she (Petra) always felt!?
Was this what was called fate!?
Noah's eyes darkened.
Something stirred in his—her heart…
After a while—
"My purpose isn't yours to decide!" Noah roared!
Merlin jolted back.
"No! This isn't you talking, this-this!" he stuttered. "This is her! Isn't it! She said something to you, didn't she! She's tricking you! Arthur warned me—"
Noah took a step back—
Merlin reached out!
Woosh! He grabbed Noah's wrist. The moment his fingers closed—
Noah moved on instinct—
And it was fast!
Swoosh!! There was a sharp crack of air as Noah twisted on her heel, pivoted, and drove her bare foot into Merlin's chest with a devastating strike!
Bang!
The motion was clean, efficient, and terrifyingly condensed.
To those who could 'see', there was the shadow of a true monster hidden within this kick.
Merlin hit the ground hard!
Air exploded from his lungs as he skidded through wet grass, instantly soaking his body. When he eventually stopped, he lay there, stunned, and stared up at the rain-smeared sky.
Why did the world seem just a little bit darker…?
Noah stood over him, breathing heavily. "Don't touch me," she said in a cold voice.
Merlin's mind reeled.
It took him a moment to reconnect to reality.
What—
Just happened?
Was he hit…?
That shouldn't have been possible!
He pushed himself up with an elbow, disbelief filling his face. "You—you're…. You were never fast before! You were never—"
His eyes widened.
"How…!"
Noah didn't answer him…
She just looked down with cold eyes…
* * *
The clock turns back a bit…
-
The western region, in a small and unnamed village—
It was far from any of the major settlements, cut off from all the main roads, and isolated in a small corner of the continent. This was a small village. Its scale was too insignificant to record, and its history was nonexistent. Its outer fences had collapsed years ago, and its roofs sagged under the weight of repeated repairs that had never held. Smoke no longer rose from its broken chimneys, and even when it did, it often signified a calamity or a death.
The wind was dry, and the sun was bleak.
This place was desolate and unnerving, quiet to an unsettling degree.
At this point, most of the adults were gone…
Some had died to beasts, others to hunger, and some simply walked away and never returned. This was the 'fate' of this unnamed village, to simply dissipate as kindling for the future.
Perhaps, 'in this loop', it would no longer appear, but once, in a time already forgotten and far in the future from now, there was a famous Sage who was once quoted—
'That which drives the future is not always born from luxury. Treasures, fame, fortune, these are irrelevant. Human emotions, human greed, human determination, these are things that 'pull' us, but they are not the 'fuel that propels' us. We do not have control over the direction we face, but we do have control over the cost we pay. Even a god can be born from the sacrifice of the smallest timber when faced with an unending perseverance!'
Those who remained in this village were hollow-eyed and slow, moving through their day with a numbed efficiency, like soulless puppets who no longer anticipated tomorrow.
And so, with the older generation gone, it was the children who gathered.
Nearly twenty of them remained—
They slept in a shared space, ate from the same pot, and learned very quickly that complaining wasted energy, so if something needed to be done, it was they who had to do it! Self-reliance, self-improvement, self-education, and self-satisfaction were all born from one's own efforts.
Those who couldn't keep up were left to die.
These twenty children, now sixteen, grew up fast, far too fast…
They scavenged the failing fields, checked traps that were always older than they were, and learned to ration everything down to the smallest possible potato slice.
They survived…
They survived the wild beasts!
They survived the cannibalistic neighbors!
They survived the soul-shredding atmosphere!
And as they survived, at the center of these survivors, stood a boy with dark red hair and sharp eyes…
This was—
Noah!
He was only five or six, but he spoke when others did not, moved when others could not, and quickly became the spiritual leader of the surviving children! He decided when others froze, starved, and worked. He was cold and calculating. But when food ran low, he was the one who sacrificed his own.
The children listened to him, not because he was loud, no, because he never lied!
He could be trusted.
If he said that they were in danger, they were in danger…
If he said it was unlikely that they would survive, then they all understood…
But it he said that they would succeed, then they would succeed!
By his side was a blue-haired youth, Merlin! He was slightly thinner, quieter, and had a permanent expression of fear plastered across his small face.
Merlin possessed a terrifying memory, often remembering things Noah would forget. Where supplies were hidden, which paths were safer, and which adults might still trade with them. His mind was like a calculator, although they didn't know what that meant! If Noah was the one who walked forward, Merlin was the one who made sure there was a path ahead!
And—
They were not alone…
Trailing just behind them was a small girl with messy green hair.
This was 'Tulip', the trio's third wheel. If Merlin was Noah's left wing, then Tulip was Noah's right wing!
She carried a basket bigger than her body. She worked harder than anyone else, even when her hands bled, and her legs buckled. Whenever Noah spoke, her eyes followed with reverence, and whenever Merlin complained, she 'not so secretly' scowled.
She wanted to be better, to surpass Merlin…
And Merlin wanted to be better, to surpass Noah...
But Noah, in his ignorance, only wanted everyone to live…
Together, the three of them became the structural spine of the remaining children in this nameless village. They gathered firewood, watched the perimeter, scavenged for food, and repaired their broken shelter. At night, when the western region's harsh wind howled through the gaps in the house, they sat close together and talked about leaving—
About 'freedom—
They talked about a place where they could be safe, where they could grow and not starve! A place where they could live however they wanted! Unbound by this cursed world!
They believed in it! They had to—!
It was this very 'freedom', their dream, that allowed them to continue forward, day by day…
Then—
One night, the dogs started to bark…
It was a long, low echo, an ominous sign to those that understood. The sharp barks echoed through the darkness of the night, carrying the 'signal' of a trained animal. By the time Noah looked up—
The shadows were already moving. Noah, Merlin, and Tulip all felt their hearts drop…
* * *
Merlin sat up slowly, the rain still dripping from his wet hair. His bangs blocked his eyes, and his face was unreadable. A small strand of hair clung to his chin, and his mouth was in a deep frown.
A year…
It had only been a year—!
And yet—
"Damn it!!"
Merlin clenched his fist, then slammed it into the ground. Bam!
He had studied, he had trained, he had advanced at a terrifying speed, far above that of other geniuses! He had done exactly what he was supposed to! He had even surpassed Arthur in his speed of improvement! So—
Why did Noah feel… different!? Why was he so strong! So fast! What was this!? What was going on!
He shakily rose to his feet, furious.
"This isn't over," Merlin said, his voice low and restrained. You could tell that he was clenching his teeth. "You haven't seen it yet, but you will! She'll ruin you! She'll ruin us all!"
Noah met his gaze.
"Maybe," she said. "But at least it'll be 'my choice'."
Merlin fell into a heavy silence.
For a moment, he looked almost lost…
Just like Noah, he felt that he couldn't understand his childhood friend's unreasonable attitude! To the current him, it just didn't make sense!
Then—
He turned away, simply leaving. Rain swallowed his retreating figure as he disappeared down the path.
Noah remained where he was, watching the storm. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rolled…
* * *
Nighttime...
-
As the night of the second day arrived, the dying storm returned, and it returned with a vengeance!
Ka-Ka-Kacha-BOOM! Lightning flashed, filling the dark sky!
Rain slammed into the resort with a renewed wrath. The wind howled through wooden corridors, rattling the windows and doors, and bending trees until they creaked carelessly outside. The sky flashed with rolling thunder, which was close enough that its vibrations could even be felt through the floor, making the mountainside feel as if it was shaking in the storm.
Petra mumbled, then stirred. Her eyes fluttered open as her nose twitched.
Her head surfaced slowly from a warm, tangled pile of people. Limbs were thrown everywhere, fur was stuck to faces, and it all formed a field of soft breathing, filling the air. Someone had used her leg as a pillow, and someone else had blatantly stolen her blanket.
Petra blinked, then grumbled.
She wriggled free like a snake, slithering out with a pre-practiced precision, then crawled over a stack of sleeping girls without waking them up. After 'escaping', she did a little stretch, yawned, then trotted across the room to slide the door open just enough to slip into the hallway unnoticed.
The corridor was dim, the exhausted lanterns swaying gently with the ambient vibrations of the wind.
Petra stopped at a window that had been slightly cracked open.
Her groggy eyes looked outside…
-
Outside, the storm had turned violent—
Rain poured across the mountainside in a series of relentless sheets, while water rushed down the stone and earth, forming temporary trenches. Streams swelled and burst from their banks, the hot spring spilling out from the valley in a surging cascade of water that merged into broad rivers, flowing all the way towards the eastern sea. Whenever the hot water met the cold rain, steam erupted and coiled upwards, until the entire landscape was shrouded in a twisting veil of mist, half-hiding it within a sea of fog, drowning the distance and turning the resort into a spectral fairyland.
-
For a moment, Petra just stared at the unyielding storm outside.
Then—
She yawned.
"...Mm," she muttered something under her breath, then turned away and continued down the hall.
After a moment more, that was when she finally heard the 'footsteps'…
Her eyes flickered with interest as she approached. Petra was curious who was awake so late at night.
Just ahead, in the depths of the darkness—
Fast, panicked, and appearing as a spectral pale blur, 'it' streaked past the far end of the corridor, followed immediately by Jillian, 'desperately' screaming after it!
Petra blinked repeatedly.
What was going on…?
She suddenly felt much more awake, so she followed the quiet chaos…
"Come back here!" Jillian shouted, her eyes shining with an intense light. "You can't just 'exist' and not be studied! Stop running! Stop!"
The blur, no, the ghost girl, er… the 'Ghost Clan' youth—
Screamed in absolute terror as the black-haired elf bulldozed towards her with the momentum of a berserk beast! She never would have guessed that this place was hiding such a terrifying woman!
How unlucky, the ghost girl thought to herself!
This strange ghost had a half-transparent humanoid figure with flowing long white hair and softly glowing green eyes. From the tips of her ears trailed two 'long' black 'streamers' of negative energy, the iconic trait of the 'Ghost Clan'. These streamers were the manifestations of lingering resentment and unfulfilled desires, as well as the anchors that bound a ghost to the physical world after death.
A boring, 'low-level' ghost might only possess something minor, like a single leaf-sized 'wisp' that fluttered from the forehead, but, on the other hand, a truly malicious spirit would be wrapped in so many black streamers that its original, pale, ethereal form vanished entirely, swallowed by a writhing darkness and an evil aura!
Mm, 'Ghosts' or the 'Ghost Clan' were different from 'Souls'...
But in this case, this ghost girl was neither; she was an extremely abnormal mix of a 'Soul Body' and a 'Ghost Body!' That was why Jillian was so interested in her!
She bore two streamers, each at the tips of her ears, but they were long and heavy, flowing like long black threads in the air. These 'tethers' marked her as someone with few regrets, yet burdened by two overwhelming obsessions, each powerful enough to keep her alive long after death!
She fled down the hallway like her life—afterlife depended on it, passing straight through a wall, then reappeared on the other side, only to jump right through the ceiling, then bolt towards the hills, and disappear into the night.
This little ghost and her acrobatic antics, it was quite a comical sight…
"I just want to put you in a jar!" Jillian yelled after her, her voice dissipated by the storm. "Temporarily! Temporarily!! I'm a good person! You can trust me! Please come back! Come back!!"
She didn't come back…
And Jillian could not be trusted…
Petra stared at this unusual scene. She was suddenly reminded of the gloomy girl with pale purple hair that they had met on their way to the south. She had screamed something about 'all of ghost kind' or something… Petra was unsure of how common ghosts were in this world. This was technically her first time seeing a real one!
Petra suddenly wondered how that gloomy girl was doing.
Back then, she seemed kinda crazy…
Petra shook her head and threw away that thought. She looked forward, returning her attention to the strange sight before her.
Her eye twitched.
Ghost aside, where did this 'hardworking' elf even find a member of the ever-elusive ghost clan??
Also—
She was too fucking loud!
Petra bent down, grabbed the nearest precariously placed pillow, and hurled it! Swoosh! Bang! The pillow struck Jillian square in the face, like a rock, and with a dull thump, she collapsed onto the ground.
Petra snorted.
She trotted over, grabbed the tall elf's leg, and forcefully dragged her back to her room! Jillian was tossed into the far corner of the room, the door sliding shut behind her!
Petra turned around, walked back to her room, and then also crawled back into bed.
She closed her eyes…