“Tak, Tak, Tak.” Alhen ascended the spiral staircase to the upper level.

  As he did, his heart raced, because he would break one important promise, the only one Catherine cared about.

  It had been some time since he talked with Alaran. Right after he left, Alhen fell asleep again and woke up a few hours later.

  At this time of the cycle, Catherine was always in her secret little fun room.

  Alhen walked up to it and took a deep breath, hearing sounds from inside the walls.

  Without thinking about it further, he opened the wall and entered, being greeted by the usual darkness.

  This time, however, he could control his essence and Benedictio Lunae more easily.

  He took the energy from his essence and spread it on his body before accumulating it in his eyes, which allowed him to see better in the dark, albeit barely, because he still had little control.

  This was something that Edith told him could be done, but he required further training if he wanted to master all of the aspects of his essence.

  Catherine came into view; she was sitting, looking straight at him, having sensed him since before he opened the door.

  In front of her lay another dead human, which she was eating with gusto, but now appeared more shy than anything.

  “Alhen! I told you not to come here at this time! What are you doing?” she asked.

  After discovering that Alhen didn't like seeing her eat humans, she didn't want him to see her in the act of doing it.

  This time, however, he couldn’t stop himself from coming at this time since he had to leave as soon as possible.

  Alhen kept silent as he walked forward. When he arrived right in front of her, that’s when he talked.

  “Catherine, there is something important that I have to tell you, but you have to promise me not to get mad first and wait until I explain,” he began.

  Catherine looked at him strangely but ultimately ended up promising that she wouldn’t get mad.

  “Tell me quick,” she urged.

  “Very well, I am going to be leaving the cabin and returning to the kingdom. There’s—”

  "You are doing what!? We did not agree on this! Alhen, you promised to take me with you. Why not wait!?” Catherine exclaimed.

  Alhen sighed heavily, already expecting this reaction. He at least hoped that she would let him finish first, but that seemed not to be the case.

  “Catherine, I have to go back to the kingdom to fight in a war. I am sure that your mother would not like you in a war.”

  “If I took you with me, I would be the one to blame if anything happened to you.”

  “Even if you are stronger than me, that doesn’t mean that it will be the case in that war, where there will be a lot of powerful people," he reasoned.

  “This does not make sense! Why would you be going to war now? And even yet, how do you know that there will be a war in the first place? Where did you hear that from? There is probably no war; you have no idea!” she shouted.

  “Catherine, you promised not to get mad,” he reminded her.

  “And you promised to take me to the kingdom,” she shot back, and Alhen winced at that, because she was painfully correct.

  “Very well, Catherine, I really have to go back. This doesn’t mean that I will be there forever. When the war is finished, I’ll come again and see you.”

  “And then that time, we can go to the kingdom together, where there’s not going to be a war, so it will be a safer and more enjoyable experience,” he said.

  Having said the words "safe" and "more enjoyable experience” in the same sentence brought him a sense of disgust.

  He knew that it was not true, but he had to reassure Catherine somehow, and he couldn't do it by being brutally realistic.

  Despite all of his attempts to make her not want to go, there was no stopping her.

  What he said to her this cycle must have been quite the shock to her, and he could see tears slowly starting to form in her eyes.

  “You promised,” was all she managed to say.

  Alhen bit his lips with strength and said, “Where is Edith? I have to tell her before I leave.”

  “Out” was the only word that left her mouth.

  Alhen understood that Catherine must have been going through some internal processes, digesting the information he had thrown at her out of nowhere, and couldn’t help but feel like an idiot.

  He opened his mouth to say some words of reassurance, but nothing came out.

  At the end of the cycle, he didn’t know whether he would live or die.

  He was going to participate in a war, and even if there was no war, Alhen was almost certain that he would be tortured for disobeying and disappearing for a long time.

  Father Vincent wanted him alive, so he was certain that he wouldn’t be killed by his hands, but anything else apart from that could be done to him, and he knew that very well.

  Turning around, he left through the door, leaving Catherine behind and going down the stairs and out of the cabin.

  He had all of his set with him and his thuls and artifact.

  His red glasses hugged his face, and his hunter clothes were fixed from the damage they received long ago.

  “So, Edith is outside. If I am not wrong, she should still be in the lake,” Alhent thought.

  This was the place Edith had told him she liked to go at the beginning of each cycle. She didn’t tell him why, but he was almost certain that he would find her there.

  Without wasting a second longer, he walked forward into the distance and into the lake area.

  It was only when he was halfway on the path that he realized that without Edith’s aura keeping wihts at bay, he would have to be extra careful when walking in the forest.

  He had almost forgotten that the sole reason why he considered this forest safe in the first place was because of her presence.

  His body got tense, and he walked with more caution, looking around him all the time in case some powerful wiht decided to show up.

  In the distance, he could see some blurry figures that he knew were wihts, but they were far away.

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  In the end, he didn’t find any near him and managed to get to the lake safely, but on the way back, he would have to be extra careful not to repeat the same mistake of being inattentive.

  In front of him stood Edith, looking at the lake and further into it.

  The scene here was magical, especially without the glasses he wore, but unfortunately, he couldn’t take them off for obvious reasons.

  “What are you doing here, Alhen?” Edith said without turning back.

  As Alhen went ahead to speak, the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth, wondering what her reaction might be.

  He knew that she had some trust issues, but he hoped that she would let him go without trouble.

  Even though he could have left without saying anything, he wanted to keep up appearances and a good relationship; she was his second mentor after all.

  Ultimately, he managed to let out the words, “I have to leave.”

  This caught her attention. She broke her gaze from looking into the distance and looked at Alhen with a calculating expression.

  Her eyes scanned him in ways that he didn’t know were possible, and at the end, she said, “Very well, I give you permission.”

  Alhen was dumbfounded. “Just like that? You will let me leave?” he asked.

  Edith nodded her head without saying much more and continued staring into the distance.

  ‘How can this be? Does she really trust me enough with this? I could go back and tell everyone where she lives and disturb her daily life easily.’

  ‘Thankfully, she doesn’t see it that way. I will have to leave now,’ he thought.

  “I will definitely come back when I resolve some unfinished business back in the kingdom. Please trust me when I say that going back is very important and I cannot avoid it,” he said.

  Edith nodded without much care, and Alhen sighed.

  He looked at her one last time before leaving the lake and going back through where he came from and into the cabin.

  When he arrived, he saw Catherine outside looking at him; she had been waiting, he could see.

  “I just wanted to see you one last time before you leave. We might not be seeing each other again,” Catherine said.

  Alhen gave her a small smile and said, “I promise that I will return.”

  Catherine didn’t believe him, scoffing at his words.

  “You are gaining quite the reputation of being someone who can’t keep a promise. I would feel more reassured if you promised not to return; then at least I can have some hope to see you back,” she said.

  “Hahaha!” That had caught him off guard.

  Looking at Catherine one last time, now for real, he waved at her before going back to the kingdom.

  During the two months that he had stayed here, Catherine had spilled the knowledge of the route back to the kingdom and even managed to teach him the basics of orientation.

  He went ahead without looking back. Throughout these two months, he had been in this part of the forest a lot and fought many wihts.

  Most of them didn’t exceed his level by a lot and were still killable, which gave him the confidence to go through it alone.

  When he started training with Edith, all of them posed a considerable threat to him as he was still inexperienced.

  He had spent more time running away from wihts than fighting them back when he was still in the kingdom. Being here made him gain more experience under the supervision of Edith.

  His bullets had run out long ago, forcing him to get good with his axe and familiarize himself with the mechanics of it.

  At first, it had been quite a hard thing to do, considering that he lacked an arm and training, but with the help of his artifact and some pointers, getting a feel for it had been good.

  He could tell that Edith didn’t know how to teach him much with the axe, knowing only the basics, contrasting with his mentor, who seemed to be great with any sort of weapon.

  The real growth had been on his energy side, making him stronger and more capable of utilizing his energy more efficiently.

  Traversing through the forest wasn’t a big deal; it was only when he found the wall that things would get more dangerous.

  The whole reason why Edith hadn’t been discovered by anyone is that this area was fairly unknown, and no one went into white forests due to their unexpected and dangerous nature.

  Even those with the knowledge that it exists don’t want to come here because it’s not worth it.

  They could get more benefits from other areas, and they didn't want to climb down a cliff or walk for cycles without end to reach this place.

  Alhen had been lucky when Sierra pushed him off the edge of the cliff.

  The body of water where he landed was full of sharp rocks, and coincidentally, he landed in the only spot with few of them.

  Catherine had shown him and told him it was a miracle that he was alive, considering his previous injuries and the hypothermia that he was experiencing at that moment.

  He eventually reached his destination, the place where he was saved.

  The cliff was huge; he had to twist his neck all the way up to even hope to see the top. The wide trees blocking his view were also a factor, the most important one, in fact.

  Thankfully, Alhen’s small frame allowed him to be a better climber, but the problem was that he only had one arm.

  However, due to him unlocking his essence and fusing it with Benedictio Lunae, he was able to hold on for longer without running out of lunar energy because of his sign’s increased efficiency.

  Taking a deep breath, he activated his blessing, got ready, and started the ascent. The climb was painfully slow, literally.

  Almost all crevices and places where he could get his hand on were sharp, causing him to cut himself. It was only a few minutes into the climb that he realized he was being an idiot.

  ‘Damn it! I forgot that I can use my essence for these kinds of things,’ he thought.

  As soon as he had that thought, he channeled his energy and moved it to the palm of his hand, causing it to be imbued with a thin layer of energy capable of not being pierced by the stones.

  He smiled widely at this and realized the usefulness of the new ability he had developed.

  The problem was that controlling it took a huge amount of concentration on his part, and if it slipped for even a second, it could prove fatal in certain types of situations.

  He started sweating with the concentration he was putting into the energy. It was such that he wasn’t completely aware of his surroundings, nor where he was climbing.

  Thankfully, nothing happened until he reached the top.

  Being back and looking at the red forest in front of him seemed surreal after spending multiple months down.

  He looked down and saw the beautiful white forest before turning back and going forward.

  It wasn’t the time to be distracted; he had to go back and make sense of what had happened in his absence to the Kingdom of Yhia.

  Walking down the path, he managed to find the place where he was last with the siblings.

  Just thinking about them made a frown take over his features, so he let that memory go for now and focused on the path ahead.

  Walking back to the kingdom was a walk in the park.

  No wiht that came close to him was capable of doing anything against him, but he knew better than to let down his guard.

  He knew that he could find many strange and powerful wihts through these parts, so it would be better if he was careful all the way until reaching the kingdom.

  He arrived at the outskirts of the kingdom and approached the gates, being stopped immediately by the guards surrounding the place.

  The defense was more robust than before, and it certainly gave a feeling that the king took matters into his own hands to drive away the enemy if they came.

  Tensions were high; the guards were nervous and cautious of anyone approaching.

  They surrounded him from all sides, and the person who seemed to be the leader began talking.

  “What business do you have in the Kingdom of Yhia? State your answer quickly, or we will kill you on the spot!” He shouted.

  One of the guards, however, recognized him.

  “Wait, he is that boy who escorted the princess from the Kingdom of Levex into the castle. I believe that he can be trusted,” the guard said.

  The guards began looking at each other with side eyes before looking back at Alhen, waiting for him to do or say anything.

  “I have come peacefully. I was traveling the country before deciding to return to my beloved kingdom. Please let me enter; I am here to participate in the war,” Alhen declared.

  The guards seemed confused. This nine-year-old boy was going to participate in the war?

  It must be a joke, and a bad one at that, but there was one of the guards who took what he said seriously and didn’t treat him as a jokester.

  It was the same guard who had recognized him.

  “Let him enter; if he was given the mission to escort the princess, then it is obvious that he is not weak. Just because he is younger than any of us is not necessarily a bad thing.”

  The guards still looked at each other with doubt, but after a few seconds of deliberation, they decided to finally agree.

  “Very well, you will follow us into the kingdom and into the castle so you can speak to our general,” the commander said.

  Alhen, however, shook his head and said, “I first want to visit the Kovesh, my father. Then I will go to the castle.”

  As soon as that name was thrown around, there was a noticeable shift in their expressions and the way they saw the boy in front of them.

  Just being the child of The Kovesh was big news, and they realized that they were standing in front of someone with a big influence.

  “Very well, we will take you to the Church of Orgurd. Sorry for the way we treated you earlier, an esteemed person such as yourself. Open the gates!” the leader shouted.

  The guards opened the massive door, and without a word, he managed to pass, and they took him to the church.

  As they walked, the tensions were high.

  No one dared to say a word, afraid that if they said the wrong thing, they would gain the ire of The Kovesh, although the boy in front of them couldn’t be underestimated as well.

  It wasn’t long before he arrived outside the church, and he still hated it with the same passion as when he left.

  Nothing had changed; it was almost as if those two months he had spent away from it all were not real, just a complex illusion.

  “Here we are. We will give you privacy inside and will be waiting until you exit,” the commander said, but Alhen shook his head.

  “That will not be necessary. I have to speak with my father about a very important thing that I found during my travels. I will go to the castle by myself later."

  The guards didn’t dare question him, saluting him and leaving his sight in an instant.

  Having the words “father” come out of his mouth was always unpleasant, but he didn’t pay it any attention after a second.

  He shook his head and set those thoughts aside, taking one step forward and entering the church, ready to deal with whatever Father Vincent had planned for him.

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