Vale lingered for a moment, studying Ayla's expression. Her violet hair swayed gently in the breeze, and her eyes stared into the distance, focused on something only she could see. Admiring it, perhaps. Or fearing it.
Now he understood why she had woken him.
She simply didn't want to be alone.
He had a tendency to assume the answer was always complex. After all, nothing in the Demon Realm was ever simple. But people? People were the simplest creatures.
His smile softened as he turned his gaze back to the distant mountains, towering like silent sentinels under the rising sun.
They sat together in silence, watching the light slowly spill over the horizon.
Eventually, the quiet broke—not from the wind or the earth, not even from a sudden ambush of monsters, but from the unmistakable voice of Dain, who was the first to wake up.
"Ahh, what a glorious morning!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the mountain. Loud enough to jolt everyone else awake.
