By the time Team Seven returned to the Academy, the sun had already fallen behind the mountains.

  The village was behind them.

  The demon was gone.

  But the feeling it left… stayed like a bruise under the skin.

  They walked through the outer gates in silence.

  The training yards were quieter at night, but even the calm couldn’t wash away what had happened. The way the demon’s armor cracked. The way black flames hissed. The way its voice changed when it looked at Nexil—

  “It’s you.”

  “You survived the war.”

  No one said those words out loud.

  Not yet.

  Amber marched ahead like nothing could touch her, her blade still strapped at her side, her steps sharp and fast—as if speed could erase mistakes.

  Finally, she stopped under the lantern light near the practice hall and turned.

  Her eyes were fire.

  “What happened today,” she said coldly, “does not happen again.”

  The catwoman leaned back against a pillar, stretching like she’d just finished a fun game.

  “That was exciting though,” she said with a grin.

  Amber ignored her completely.

  “We were assigned a task,” Amber continued. “Observe. Confirm. Report.”

  Her gaze cut through the group until it landed on Nexil.

  “And you—”

  Nexil didn’t flinch. He didn’t bow his head. He just looked at her with that same calm, almost playful face… the one that made it hard to tell when he was serious.

  “I saved a mother and her child,” he said simply.

  Amber’s jaw tightened.

  “You broke orders,” she snapped. “You made us visible. You forced a fight.”

  “Then why did you finish it?” Nexil asked.

  The words landed sharper than a sword.

  The catwoman’s smile faded a little. The air changed.

  Amber’s eyes narrowed.

  “What did you say?”

  Nexil stepped forward half a pace, his voice still light, but his eyes no longer laughing.

  “You cut it in half,” he said. “Fast. Clean. Like you were proving a point.”

  Amber’s hand twitched near her weapon.

  Nexil didn’t back down.

  “If you’d held your ground,” he said, “we could’ve learned more.”

  Amber scoffed.

  “My priority was ending the threat.”

  “And we ended it,” Nexil replied. “But we lost something with it.”

  Amber’s gaze sharpened. “And what exactly did we lose?”

  Nexil’s smile returned, but it was thinner now—like a mask.

  “We lost answers.”

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  Silence.

  Even the lantern flame seemed to hold still.

  Then, calmly, Nexil spoke the words everyone had been avoiding.

  “He said something before he died,” Nexil said. “Something weird.”

  Amber’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes focused like a commander listening for danger.

  The catwoman tilted her head.

  “What did he say?” she asked, curious now.

  Nexil shrugged, pretending it didn’t matter… but the fact he mentioned it at all proved it did.

  “He looked at me,” Nexil said, “and he said…”

  Nexil’s voice lowered slightly.

  “You survived the war.”

  For a moment, no one breathed.

  Amber’s face tightened—not with fear, but with irritation, like the words were a poison she didn’t want in her mouth.

  The catwoman blinked. “The war?”

  Nexil gave a small laugh, like it was a joke that didn’t land.

  “I don’t know what he meant,” he said. “Maybe he was insane. Maybe he mistook me for someone else.”

  Amber stared at him, searching for something—truth, weakness, guilt.

  “You’re saying a low-level demon spoke about the Great War… to you.”

  Nexil lifted a shoulder again.

  “It’s just words.”

  But the mage hadn’t moved once.

  She stood slightly apart, her eyes focused, her thoughts deep. She hadn’t been laughing. She hadn’t been angry.

  She had been listening.

  And now, she finally spoke.

  “…It might not be ‘just words.’”

  Everyone turned to her.

  Even Amber.

  The mage’s voice stayed quiet, but steady—like someone reading from a memory she hadn’t wanted to open.

  “The Great War ended about twenty years ago,” she said. “And most people only know the surface story.”

  Amber’s eyebrows lowered. “What are you implying?”

  The mage met her gaze without flinching.

  “I’m not implying anything,” she said carefully. “I’m saying there are rumors.”

  Nexil’s smile faded slightly. Elyon’s eyes sharpened.

  The mage continued.

  “Some books. Some old stories. Some whispered histories,” she said. “They say the war didn’t begin because of land… or pride… or power.”

  She paused, choosing each word like it could cut.

  “They say it began because of a child.”

  The catwoman’s ears twitched. “A child?”

  The mage nodded slowly.

  “A being,” she corrected. “A prophecy. Something powerful enough that people feared it would destroy the balance of the world.”

  Amber’s voice came out hard.

  “You’re talking about myths.”

  “Maybe,” the mage said. “But myths don’t survive for no reason.”

  Then she looked at Nexil again.

  Not accusing.

  Not declaring.

  Just… observing.

  “And that demon,” she said, “looked at you like he recognized something.”

  Nexil let out a breath through his nose.

  “You think I’m some ancient war monster?” he asked, half amused, half annoyed. “I grew up in a Valtarian village. With my brother. With my mother. I’ve never fought in any war.”

  The mage didn’t argue.

  She only said what mattered.

  “I didn’t say you did,” she replied. “I said the words are strange.”

  Amber’s eyes narrowed.

  “And why are you so interested in ‘strange words’?”

  The mage’s face stayed calm.

  “Because you don’t survive a war,” she said softly, “unless you were meant to be in it.”

  Nexil smirked again, forcing humor back into the air like a shield.

  “Then I guess I’m just that lucky,” he said. “I survive everything.”

  Amber stepped forward, voice cutting.

  “You are not here to chase mysteries,” she said. “You are here to follow orders.”

  Nexil’s eyes flickered.

  “And if following orders means watching mothers die?”

  Amber’s expression tightened like steel.

  “That is not what I said.”

  Nexil nodded slowly, like he accepted that—but the question still hung in the air anyway.

  Then—quietly—Elyon finally spoke.

  His voice wasn’t loud.

  It didn’t need to be.

  “We report,” Elyon said calmly. “Exactly what happened. Exactly what was said.”

  Everyone turned toward him.

  Elyon’s gaze was fixed on nothing and everything at once, like he was already organizing the future in his mind.

  “And then,” Elyon continued, “we stay careful.”

  Amber’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn’t argue.

  The mage looked at Elyon, as if marking him for the first time—not just as Nexil’s brother, but as someone who understood the weight of silence.

  The catwoman broke the tension with a lazy grin.

  “So we’re famous now?” she said. “A demon recognized him. That’s kind of cool.”

  No one laughed.

  Nexil did smile—but his smile was distant now.

  Amber turned sharply.

  “This conversation ends here,” she said. “We will speak to staff tomorrow.”

  Then, as she walked away, she added without looking back—

  “And Nexil…”

  Nexil looked up.

  Amber’s voice was quiet, dangerous.

  “Next time you act without command… I won’t care if your heart was right.”

  Nexil watched her go, his expression unreadable.

  The catwoman followed, still humming like it was all a game.

  The mage lingered only a second longer, her eyes lingering on Nexil as if she was trying to read the shape of his shadow.

  Then she left too.

  Only Nexil and Elyon remained.

  The night was cold.

  Finally, Nexil exhaled.

  “She thinks I did something wrong.”

  Elyon didn’t answer immediately.

  Then, calmly, he said—

  “Today, you did what you couldn’t stop yourself from doing.”

  Nexil’s smile returned a little.

  “And you?”

  Elyon’s eyes lifted toward the dark sky.

  “I watched,” he said. “And I remembered.”

  Nexil’s expression softened, just for a moment.

  Then he looked away.

  The demon’s words returned like a whisper in his ear.

  “You survived.”

  And even though Nexil laughed it off in front of everyone…

  Deep down, something inside him didn’t laugh at all.

  It listened.

  Author Note

  From here on, knowledge becomes as dangerous as power.

  Your thoughts and theories are always welcome.