Days later…
The forest seemed endless. The group advanced along faint trails, heading toward the capital. The rain had stopped, but the sky remained overcast, as if the world refused to smile.
The boy walked in silence, a few steps behind the others.
Eyes fixed on the ground. Arms limp at his sides. His mother's broken dagger hung at his waist, wrapped in leather straps stained with dried blood.
He never spoke.
Never looked anyone in the eye.
But the group didn't give up.
— "Do you want some of my apple?" — Lyn asked one day, smiling gently.
He didn't answer. Didn't move.
— "I can teach you a few words if you'd like," Allan tried, trying to sound playful. "Like 'food', 'water'… or even 'I'm strong.'"
Nothing.
Kaellia just watched in silence, as if she knew rushing wouldn't help.
And Saphira... Saphira was the one who looked at him the most when he wasn't looking. As if trying to decipher what lay behind that soulless face.
But what no one saw... was what he felt.
The guilt. The resentment. The pain.
Bouros had left those emotions as a poisoned gift — and now they grew inside him like thorns, suffocating him.
It was as if every breath weighed tons.
As if every memory was a blade in his chest.
He didn't cry.
He didn't speak.
He couldn't express those feelings...
But inside… he screamed.
...
The group had stopped to rest near a clearing.
Allan sharpened his sword. Kaellia set up a protection circle. Lyn searched for herbs, and Saphira watched the boy, as she always did.
It happened too fast.
From the bushes, a creature leapt — a deformed beast, with multiple claws and eyes glowing like burning coals.
— "Back away!" — Kaellia shouted, raising her staff.
The group engaged in combat, focused on another creature flanking from the left.
That's when he was left alone.
The second beast charged straight at him.
Saphira saw it and screamed:
— "HEY! WATCH OUT!!"
She threw herself in front of him, raising the short dagger she carried. But it was useless. The creature was too big. Too strong.
He saw her there, in front of him. Protecting him.
And the world stopped.
A memory.
His mother.
"Run, my son. And don't look back."
Kael.
"Stay with Mom! I'm going with Dad!"
The blood. The sacrifice. The fragile smile of someone who loved too much.
It all exploded inside him.
— "N-no…" — he whispered, for the first time.
Saphira tried to strike, but was thrown aside like a leaf in the wind, her body slamming against a tree. She fell to her knees, coughing blood, unable to rise.
The creature growled and charged at the boy.
And he… didn't move.
The world slowed.
The sound disappeared.
The forest darkened, as if a sudden eclipse had devoured the daylight.
Saphira, staggering with pain, tried to run. — "WA—!"
Too late.
The blow came fast.
But it didn't hit.
A shadow appeared first.
Floating. Calm.
Her.
The woman with dark hair, eyes radiating an impossible love. The same smile...
The same smile she wore when she died.
Jin froze.
Time froze with him.
— "Mom...?"
The shadow hovered between him and the monster. With a silent gesture, she raised her arm. Black cords, almost invisible, cut through the air.
The monster twisted. Screamed. Imploded.
As if crushed by an invisible force.
It was dead.
But Jin felt no relief.
He felt an abyss open inside him.
Tears ran down his expressionless face.
— "Ma... mom..."
The shadow turned to him and smiled.
But now... it was a melancholy smile.
Sad.
Doomed.
And then she began to fade. Slowly.
Like dust blown into the wind.
— "N-no... don't go..." — Jin whispered. But there was no voice. Only the echo of desperate emptiness.
And then the darkness inside him spoke.
— Ah, now THAT is ART.
Bouros.
The voice echoed through Jin's soul like barbs piercing his veins.
— Look at you... crying. Begging. Clinging to an illusion.
— Controlling your mother's empty shell like a broken toy.
Jin tried to move, but his body felt like it was sinking in mud.
— You are what you always feared. A monster.
— A maestro of ashes, conducting the silence of the dead.
— You know what's missing?
— A little... tragedy.
— I told you I'd give your feelings back. I gave you guilt. Resentment.
— But now... now comes the best part.
— Living with your sadness is suffocating, boy!
And then he released it.
It wasn't a scream.
It wasn't a collapse.
It was silence.
The kind of silence that makes the air feel heavy — like it's about to crush everything.
The group stared at the boy, not understanding what had happened…
Jin dropped to his knees.
His eyes were vacant.
His face, frozen.
But the tears began to fall — heavy, dense, as if each one carried a lifetime of pain. And now… it truly hurt.
He didn't scream.
He didn't groan.
The sadness didn't come like a wave.
It came like drowning.
Every second, he sank deeper.
And deeper.
Sinking without a sound, like someone trapped beneath a frozen lake.
The air fled.
His chest tightened.
His hands trembled.
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Not a word.
His eyes turned red, not just from crying, but from pressure.
His body began to shake as if feverish.
As if dying inside… again.
And the group just... watched.
Kaellia took a step forward, then stopped.
Allan gripped his sword tighter, but didn't raise it.
Lyn placed a hand over her heart, trying to understand what she felt, but didn't approach.
Saphira remained still.
Her hand halfway outstretched.
She didn't know his name.
And now… she wasn't sure he was still a boy.
They all felt it.
But none knew how to act.
Because what they saw there…
wasn't just pain.
It was a soul being crushed in silence.
And before that...
no words seemed enough.
The soul screamed. But the mouth did not.
Jin was on his knees, sinking into the damp forest floor.
His hands clutched the earth as if trying to hold onto something — anything to stop the fall into himself.
But there was nothing.
Nothing.
> "They're gone."
"Mom… Kael… Dad..."
"I killed them. I let them..."
"If I were stronger..."
"If I had died instead..."
"Why am I alive?"
His mind was a torrent. Images overlapped without logic:
His mother's smiling face.
The blood on his hands.
His brother's confident grin.
His eyes losing their light.
His father's proud look in his final breath.
Bouros' demonic laughter.
The heat of fire.
The smell of burning flesh.
The broken dagger in his hands.
The absence of his voice.
Jin's chest hurt. Not like a stab.
It was as if a void was being filled with shards of glass.
He curled over, arms around his own stomach.
Air wouldn't come properly.
His throat closed, choking back a sob that never escaped.
And then —
he vomited.
Harsh coughs shattered the silence.
Bile and blood mixed on the ground, a raw reflection of the pain that no longer fit inside him.
— "His body won't hold out!" — Lyn cried in panic, running to him with her hands already glowing light green.
— "Wait," — Kaellia murmured, unmoving, eyes wide, sensing something she couldn't explain.
But Lyn didn't stop.
She knelt beside Jin, her trembling hands touching his back.
— "It's okay… it's okay…" — she whispered with a broken voice, activating a minor body-healing spell.
The healing energy tried to reach the boy.
But something in him repelled it.
It was like trying to heal a wound carved into the soul.
His body bled, yes.
But what made him suffer… was deeper.
Jin felt the touch, but it was like he was distant.
Floating inside his own pain.
> "They shouldn't have died."
"I shouldn't feel this."
"I can't stop. I can't stop."
The tears fell endlessly.
But now, they came mixed with blood, with vomit, with soil, with shame.
He wasn't crying by choice anymore.
It was as if his body was trying to survive his own sadness.
And they all…
they all just watched.
No one had words.
No one had answers.
Just an elf, with emerald green eyes, kneeling beside a boy who vomited and cried — voiceless, faceless, nameless.
Trying, with all she had, to reach something far… beyond healing.
---
Three days had passed since that night.
Three long, silent days.
After Jin's collapse, no one dared force words.
There were no smiles. No conversations.
Only the sound of footsteps on soil, of sheathed swords, of wind through the leaves…
And silence.
Silence around the boy with empty eyes and a shattered soul.
Lyn tried to approach from time to time, but he never responded.
Kaellia stayed watchful, but never pushed.
Allan, harsh as he was, lowered his gaze every time it met Jin's.
And Saphira… just watched him.
No name. No past.
Just… him.
On the third day, the gates of Bravant Capital appeared between the trees.
Massive, with heavily armed guards and golden banners fluttering above.
The city was surrounded by living stone walls, and just past the entrance, a small outpost welcomed adventurers, caravans, and official missions.
The group passed easily — Kaellia was known there, respected.
They were taken to an inn near the city's western district. A simple but comfortable place where they'd rest before being summoned by the Golden Guild.
Each was given a room.
Except Jin.
Jin simply… climbed the stairs, entered the last room at the end of the hall, and locked the door.
He said nothing.
Looked at no one.
Didn't even take a deep breath.
And didn't come out again.
...
First night.
The plate of food left at the door remained untouched.
Second night.
Lyn tried knocking again, whispering:
— "It's okay… you need to eat… to take care of yourself..."
Nothing.
Not a step.
Not a sound.
Third night.
Saphira approached, stopped in front of the door, and pressed her forehead to the wood.
— "Why do you lock yourself away? Why does it feel like you carry the world alone?"
She waited.
Waited…
But from the other side —
only silence.
...
Inside, Jin sat in the dark.
His mother's dagger in hand.
Cracked. Worn. Dirty.
But unique.
And deep in his lifeless eyes, a memory returned every night:
> His mother's shadow, with that sad face… fading in the forest.
Bouros' laughter echoing like a curse in his chest.
Jin didn't eat.
Didn't sleep.
Didn't cry anymore.
But he felt.
> "Living with your sadness is suffocating, boy..."
The words still pierced him.
Bouros.
The screams.
The tears.
The blood.
And now… the guilt of still being alive.
He locked himself away not just out of shame…
But because he feared looking outside and seeing the world go on.
People laughing, living, dreaming.
While inside him, there were only ruins.