The hallway smelled faintly of bread.
Someone downstairs had woken early.
Derek paused outside the boys' door and stared at it like it had personally offended him.
He knocked twice.
A beat passed.
Then-
A thud.
"Ow."
"Bruce, you rolled into me."
"That's because you took the whole blanket!"
"It's called self-preservation."
Derek closed his eyes briefly.
"Five minutes," he said through the door.
"We're conscious!" Bruce called back.
"You're loud," Vernon corrected.
"That counts as proof you know?"
Derek walked away before the argument escalated into furniture damage.
They met him downstairs looking partially awake.
Bruce had his collar slightly crooked. Vernon's hair looked like it had tried to escape during the night.
Derek inspected them both.
Bruce squinted at him. "What? Is it crooked?"
"Yes."
Bruce fixed it immediately. "Why didn't you say so?"
"I just did."
"Oh."
Vernon hid a smile.
They stepped outside.
The morning air was cool, not unpleasant. Clouds stretched lazily across the sky, still undecided about becoming rain.
Bruce inhaled deeply. "Smells like travel."
"That's manure," Vernon said.
Bruce nodded thoughtfully. "Ah. Adventure."
Derek almost smiled.
Almost.
The streets were busier than expected for that hour.
More guards too.
Bruce noticed it first surprisingly.
"Did the city suddenly become important while we were asleep?"
Vernon followed his gaze. "That's not border armour."
"huh, i guess not." Bruce agreed. "well it is shinier. And i don't trust it."
Derek walked ahead of them covered by his cloak and mask.
"The world doesn't revolve around you two," he said.
Bruce scoffed. "Bold assumption."
At the transport yard, Liralic was already waiting.
He waved cheerfully when he spotted them.
"You're early!"
"we did say we would be here at dawn," Vernon replied.
"Yes, but people interpret dawn creatively."
Bruce looked around. "Why are there so many guards?"
Liralic followed his gaze, then smiled easily. "they said its for security rotation."
"Maybe its for us?" Bruce asked hopefully.
"Probably for everyone," Liralic replied.
Bruce leaned toward Vernon. "I liked my version better."
Liralic reached into his coat and pulled out a small velvet pouch.
"I finished them."
Vernon's eyes lit up instantly.
Inside were two silver pieces - delicate, feather-etched, faintly glowing.
"My best work yet, id like to admit," Liralic explained, slipping naturally into lecture mode.
"The mana infused into the pieces share the same origin.
Because it is divided from a single source, it retains a natural affinity for itself.
Mana recognizes its own signature - and through that shared origin, the three items remain connected.
Communication isn't created from nothing; it travels along a channel that already exists between them."
Bruce blinked.
"...So."
"Yes?"
"They're like magic letters that make sound?."
Liralic stared at him astounded.
"...If that phrasing brings you peace."
Bruce nodded sagely. "It does."
Vernon was already turning the earpiece in the light. "So I channel mana into this?"
"Precisely."
Bruce squinted at the ring he'd been given. "Does this mean I outrank him now?"
"It means," Liralic said dryly, "you should try not to lose it."
"I have never lost anything important."
Vernon and Derek both looked at him.
Bruce hesitated. "Recently."
The boarding call rang out across the yard.
Liralic's smile softened slightly. "Safe travels."
"We'll visit," Vernon promised.
Bruce nodded. "Bring pastries next time."
"That was not part of the deal," Liralic said.
Derek spoke only once before they boarded.
"If something happens," he said quietly, "you run."
Bruce frowned. "You always say that like you expect something to happen."
Derek held his gaze.
Bruce looked away first.
"...Noted."
Derek vanished probably going towards the treeline to a safe distance so he can observe.
"..Efficient as always right Vernon?" Bruce looked into the distance.
"Yeah." Vernon responded as he took out his research notes.
And so the wagon ride began smoothly.
Bruce sprawled dramatically across the bench within minutes.
"If I die of boredom, tell people I went heroically."
"No one would believe that," Vernon replied.
They passed through the gates.
Guards flanked the convoy.
Bruce counted under his breath.
"Why are there more of them than passengers?"
Vernon peeked through the curtain slit.
"Maybe we're very valuable," he suggested.
Bruce perked up. "hmm~, I like that interpretation."
Day One passed easily.
Too easily.
The landscape rolled by in gentle waves of grass and distant trees.
Bruce attempted to nap.
Failed.
Tried again.
Failed louder.
"Stop thinking so loudly," he muttered at Vernon.
"I'm not thinking loudly."
"You are."
By Day Two, the guards had rotated twice.
Bruce noticed.
He also noticed the other wagons were... quiet.
Unusually quiet.
"Have you heard anyone else?" he asked.
Vernon paused.
"...No."
Bruce leaned toward the curtain again and lifted it just a fraction.
The wagon behind them was empty.
Curtains drawn.
No silhouettes.
No movement.
He lowered it slowly.
"That's odd."
"What is?"
"...Nothing."
He didn't want to say it yet.
Day Three.
Bruce stepped outside during a stop to stretch.
He walked past the other wagons.
Looked in.
Came back slower.
Closed the door carefully.
Vernon immediately straightened. "What."
Bruce exhaled once.
"It's just us."
"...What do you mean just us?"
"All the wagons are empty."
The wheels began moving again.
Outside, boots shifted in synchronized formation.
Not escorting.
Containing.
Vernon swallowed.
"...That's not ideal."
"No," Bruce agreed quietly. "It's not."
Miles behind them-
The wind died first.
Derek noticed because it had been steady until that exact second.
Not a gradual quieting.
A stop.
He slowed.
Didn't turn.
"Still listening to the world before it speaks?" a voice called gently.
He closed his eyes once.
"..."
She stepped out from between two blackened trunks as if she had always been standing there.
Older.
More lines around the eyes.
Less hesitation in her posture.
"You remember.. Don't you?"
"...Ploare."
A faint smile touched her mouth.
"That's flattering."
Derek studied her Qi.
It flickered unevenly.
Not unstable.
Burning.
"You're not strong enough to stop me," he said calmly.
"I know."
No defensiveness.
No anger.
Just certainty.
That was wrong.
His gaze sharpened.
"..Just let me pass and I'll be gone."
She walked closer - but not into range.
"Do you ever wonder," she asked lightly, "how many people kept looking for you?"
"I stopped caring."
"That's not true."
He didn't answer.
The frost began forming quietly at his boots.
Thin. Controlled. Ready.
"You were fifteen," she continued. "Do you know what I was?"
"It was never my choice."
She laughed softly at that.
"Do you really believe that?."
Silence stretched between them.
Then she inhaled slowly.
"You vanished. We buried no body. We wrote no report. Just rumors. The Frost Prodigy. The Sovereign of Zero. A ghost."
"Is that why you're here? To confirm the story?"
"No. I've seen it with my own eyes after all."
Her Qi shifted.
Not condensing.
Not preparing to strike.
Expanding.
Outward.
Derek felt it immediately.
That wasn't attack posture.
That was broadcast posture.
His eyes narrowed.
"Don't do it."
She tilted her head slightly.
"I told you."
The sigil beneath her collarbone began to glow.
Not bright.
Just enough.
Recognition hit him like cold steel.
Warbound relay.
「Warbound Relay - A sigil engraved upon elite operatives during wartime. When activated through life - force sacrifice, it transmits the bearer's final ten minutes - including sight, sound, spoken words, and mana signatures - to designated recipients.
Each regional branch maintains three officials marked with WarInBound Sigils, designed to receive and archive these transmissions. The relay is irreversible. Once triggered, it consumes the remaining lifespan of the user and broadcasts their last moments in full.
It was created to ensure that no battlefield death went unwitnessed.」
"You wouldn't," he said quietly.
She smiled at that.
"Wouldn't what?"
"Sacrifice yourself."
Her voice softened.
"You sacrificed thirty-two of mine."
The frost around Derek's feet thickened instantly.
He moved.
She didn't retreat.
The blade formed in his hand like breath turning to ice.
One step.
Two.
She whispered something under her breath.
He thrusted.
The blade pierced clean through her chest.
Perfect angle.
Precise.
Her body jerked once.
The frost spread from the wound outward, crystal veins crawling across her uniform.
Their faces were inches apart now.
Her breath came shallow.
But she was smiling.
"You're still... efficient."
"Stop it," he ordered.
But the sigil was already flaring.
Her remaining Qi didn't resist the frost.
It fed the mark.
Violently.
He felt it surge outward.
Encoded.
Structured.
"This isn't about killing you," she whispered.
The column of light erupted upward through the canopy.
White and red.
Blinding.
A signal too clear to mistake.
Derek stepped back as the shockwave rippled through the forest.
He looked up.
And waited.
It took less than five seconds.
A red flare rose in the far distance.
Then another.
Opposite direction.
Then two more.
Branches.
Relays.
Confirmation signals.
His jaw tightened.
"You wanted to be forgotten," she rasped.
He looked down at her.
"You should have stayed gone."
Her body slackened.
The frost claimed her fully.
But the sky was already answering.
More flares ignited along the horizon.
Each one a witness.
Each one a hunter.
Derek stood alone in the clearing.
Breathing steady.
Hands relaxed.
But something in his eyes had changed.
Not fear.
Calculation.
The convoy.
If they traced his signature-
The boys weren't hidden.
They were exposed.
The temperature around him dropped several degrees.
Winter expanded outward in a slow, controlled ring.
"I told them to run if something felt wrong," he murmured quietly,
"hopefully the flare showing it self was enough."
A senior looking dressed man responded to the sudden flare first, "All personnel move towards the location of the flare now!"
The murmur among the unit was loud and unorganized.
"Isnt a red flare created by sacrificing your life force?"
"Who would sacrifice themselves?"
"Where is my sword?!"
The formation broke into noise.
Urgency without structure.
"Huh? weren't there two kids in this carriage?"
By the time that question fully registered, Vernon and Bruce had already made it half way towards the next forest.
They weren't sprinting wildly.
They didn't run blindly. They flowed like water. Roots avoided their steps. Branches lowered just enough to obscure them. As the forest swallowed them whole, it did so protectively. Not even a seasoned tracker would find where they vanished.
Bruce looked at Vernon whilst running, "Vernon?"
"Yes?" Vernon responded without looking back at him.
"You think that was dad?"
Vernon inhaled.
The air still carried it.
Chaos.
"All i smell is trouble right now," he replied quickly. "Plus dad told us if something were to happen out of place we should run."
Bruce swallowed, with a cold sweat following behind.
"Dad probably predicted this."
Vernon paused for a second, "..Probably."
"That white and red coloured flare felt ominous." Bruce said quietly.
Vernon turned to him.
"Bruce, we have other things to worry about."
"Dad basically never used his Qi in the forest but.."
"I know he's stronger than anyone else, so lets focus on our situation first."
Vernon slowed down, almost making Bruce run into him.
Bruce frowned, "At least tell me before you just start slowing down in front of me!"
"Yeah yeah." Vernon scoffed.
They ran until they reached a "comfortable" distance.
"Okay lets rest." Vernon said whilst stretching.
Bruce yawned, "I'll gather some fruits, find some stable - strong tree branches."
"I'm already on it don't worry." Vernon waved his hand dismissively.
They gathered some fruits and decided to sleep on the branches for the night.
They were unsure if they were being hunted but decided to play it safe anyway.
That's better than risking it.