[Dawn of Departure: Shadows Behind Shadows]
The night mission concluded at four in the morning. "Draka" was drowning in a viscous, grey fog, and the metallic stench of blood still clung to my black cloak. I was exhausted, feeling the weight of my bones as if they were cast from lead, but sleep was the furthest thing from my mind. There was another pulse calling out to me, far away from the clamor and coldness of the headquarters.
Near the exit of the headquarters, Jenna stood leaning her back against the stone wall, coldly twirling her dagger. She looked at me with piercing eyes that exhaustion had failed to dull. "Where to, Ray?" she asked in a quiet voice tinged with suspicion. "The mission is over, and everyone is seeking their pillows... yet you look like a walking corpse."
I paused for a moment without looking at her. "Going to train... as I do every dawn."
"Training daily?" she said, raising a disapproving eyebrow. "Don't you ever tire, giant? Your body will betray you one day if you don't grant it the right to rest."
"My body only betrays me if I stop dreaming of vengeance," I answered curtly, then set off, leaving her drowning in her questions.
[The Abandoned Market: Bread That Buys Loyalty]
I walked through the alleys of the deserted public market. The stalls were just beginning to lazily open their doors. The aroma of freshly baked bread wafting from "Old Marwan's" oven was the only thing capable of restoring a fraction of my humanity in that moment. I bought steaming loaves, a large wedge of salted cheese, and some of the fruit that Ryu loved.
I placed the food in my leather satchel and headed toward the forbidden forest. The wind whispered through the trees, but I sensed something unnatural. My instincts, forged in torture chambers and on battlefields, told me I wasn't alone. There was a "breath" tracking me—light as a breeze, but undeniably present.
[The Lethal Blade: Unmasking the Cat]
I approached the perimeter of the wooden cabin, where the trees grew dense. I didn't turn around, nor did I stop. Suddenly, in a lightning-fast motion that took less than a fraction of a second, I drew "Sin" from its sheath on my back. I didn't swing it; instead, I hurled it with explosive force toward an ancient oak tree situated slightly behind me.
BOOOOOM! The black blade entirely pierced the massive trunk, bursting out the other side to embed itself deep into the rock behind it.
Jenna tumbled from behind that tree, trembling in a way I had never seen before. The blade had passed her neck by a margin no wider than a strand of hair. Her eyes were blown wide in terrifying disbelief, her hand clutching her chest as she gasped for air.
"It... it almost took my head off!" she screamed, her voice cracking as she struggled to stand.
I approached her, rage sparking from my red eye: "Why are you here? Why are you stalking me like a starving shadow?"
Brushing tree dust from her face, she said nervously: "I only... I just wanted to know what kind of training makes you sneak out every dawn with such secrecy! I thought you were betraying Sycoro, or hoarding some hidden treasure!"
Both my shouting and hers were interrupted by a single phrase from afar, words enough to entirely alter my facial expression. "Mister Ray! Mister Ray! Did you bring the bread?"
It was Ryu. In the blink of an eye, Jenna vaulted and concealed herself behind thick bushes, while I stood straight, burying my anger beneath a smile I tried to make warm for Ryu, who was running toward me, his body already showing signs of hardening. I signaled Jenna with a subtle hand gesture behind my back to stay put and not breathe.
[The Misunderstanding: The Bitter Truth]
After giving the food to Ryu and his mother, and ensuring their safety, I withdrew to a distant spot deep in the forest where Jenna was waiting. She dropped down from a high branch, looking at me with an expression I couldn't immediately grasp... a look of pity mixed with sheer astonishment.
"I... I'm sorry, Ray," she said in a low voice. "I didn't know you had a wife and son hidden out here in this isolated place."
I stopped walking and stared at her in utter bewilderment, before bursting into a muffled, sarcastic laugh: "My wife and son? Have you lost your mind, Jenna? I am not married, and that child is not mine."
She knitted her brows, asking suspiciously: "Then... are they your family?" "No, they are not my family," I replied coldly. She asked with deadly seriousness: "Then... are they your hostages? Are you holding them captive to force someone's hand?"
Anger flared in my chest once again. I stepped into her space until she could feel my hot breath: "Hostages? Do I look like the kind of scum who abducts women and children?"
Then I sat heavily on a boulder and told her everything. I told her about Arthur, the rightful King, treacherously murdered by his brother Baron. I explained how he was dragged from his chambers and tossed into the sea, and how his wife miraculously survived, carrying within her womb the true heir to the throne of Draka... Ryu.
When I finished, a long silence prevailed. Jenna stared at the ground, processing the crushing weight of the secret I had just placed in her hands. "So... this child carries the pure blood," she whispered. "He is the true King."
"Yes," I said as I finally sheathed my sword. "And for that reason, if anyone learns of his existence, this forest will turn into a graveyard."
[Ten Days of Dark Magic]
This routine continued for ten days. Jenna no longer stalked me in secret; she became my partner in this dawn pilgrimage. We would finish our nocturnal assassinations, then walk together toward the forest. But Jenna refused to reveal herself to them; she contented herself with observing from the canopy, watching Ryu train and watching me teach him how to use his body weight in his strikes.
She saw him grow day by day, smiling when he fell and then rose with a determination that reminded her of herself. During those days, I evolved as well. The blade of 'Sin' obeyed me as effortlessly as a shadow obeys its master. I had erased many heads this month, and my speed defied imagination; I struck before the enemy's vision could even catch up.
[Ryu vs. The Cat]
On the eleventh day, the illusion of stealth shattered. Jenna was lurking on a slanted branch, trying to get a better view of the "Planted Foot" technique I was teaching Ryu. Suddenly, due to the damp morning dew, the branch snapped with a sharp wooden shriek. Jenna plummeted directly into the middle of the dirt courtyard, landing right in front of an astounded Ryu!
The boy didn't hesitate for a second. Before Jenna could even open her eyes from the shock of the fall, Ryu lunged at maximum speed. He straddled her chest and locked his small, iron grip around her throat, crushing her windpipe in a fierce defensive posture I had taught him for suicidal, close-quarters situations.
"Who are you?! And why were you watching us from above?!" Ryu roared, his eyes glinting with a strange golden brilliance—the spark of royal blood beginning to awaken.
Jenna, who had slaughtered hundreds, shrieked in comical helplessness: "Ray! Save him from me! No.. save ME from HIM! This child is actually going to choke me to death!"
I laughed from the depths of my heart, a roaring laugh that shook the trees of the forest. "Let her go, Ryu... she is a friend."
Ryu slowly loosened his grip and helped her to her feet with a look of wonder. From that moment on, the final barrier was broken.
[The Monster's Birthday: Eight Years of Embers]
The month concluded. Thirty days of eerie stillness in Draka, yet thirty days of profound building within the forest. Today was Ryu's eighth birthday.
We held a celebration the forest had never seen before. Jenna, the cold-blooded assassin, went to the market and brought back a cake decorated with fruit, along with a black silk shirt that resembled my own clothing. Ryu was no longer that tiny child; his height had shot up, and his muscles had become like braided steel cables. His combat reaction times rivaled professionals, and his innate strength was detonating to the point where I was forced to use 10% of my power during our sparring sessions.
At one point during the party, I saw Jenna smiling at Ryu with a gentleness I had never witnessed on her face. She wiped cake crumbs from his cheek and told him: "You have to be strong, Ryu, because the outside world isn't nearly as nice as your sister Jenna."
Jenna would come on the days when missions delayed me, bringing them breakfast and playing with Ryu. He lovingly began calling her "Big Sister." In this cabin, we had found something that "Baron" had stolen from all of us: a family.
The month of stillness passed, but monsters do not sleep forever; they merely lurk in the dark to sharpen their claws. I looked at Ryu, that cub growing in my shadow, carrying the blood of wronged kings in his veins, and at Jenna, who had become the guardian of this heavy secret. The scales had tipped. I was no longer just an assassin seeking survival; I had become the shield of the only heir who would uproot Baron's throne from its very foundations.
I stood in the middle of the forest, wrapped in the cold, pitch-black night. I looked toward the distant lights of Draka, the city that believed its true king had been swallowed by the sea, entirely unaware that his blood still pulsed right here, in this forgotten cabin.
As for Dan... I could feel him. Despite his suspicious absence, his shadow haunted my thoughts. We were all pieces on a bloody chessboard, and the coming confrontation would not be just a fleeting war, but the reckoning delayed for years. Fate had begun to weave its threads around us.
I tightened my grip on the hilt of "Sin," feeling its purple pulse quiet down in preparation for the eruption. The question was no longer "When?", but had become "How?"... How will this world end when the Sins finally collide?
I sheathed my sword while staring at the horizon... I am in no rush. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Hell only opens its gates for those who truly deserve it.