"Yes."
His answer hit me like a spark to dry leaves, as it dragged up the memory of her smirk. That same sharp little curl of the lips that tore through Arthur's soul in the courtroom.
Marcella Luminaries.
My hands tightened before I noticed, nails cutting into skin until warm blood slipped between my fingers. The strange part was the rush that followed. She's alive. She's still breathing.
Good.
Because knowing she's out there doesn't calm me. It twists something in my head, makes the whole world feel crooked. I won't feel steady again until I'm the one who ends her.
The blood on my hands was already drying when I forced myself to breathe. Rage was one thing, but without awakening my soul weapon, all of it was just noise. I had a trump card tucked deep inside me, but it was useless until I awaken my soul weapon, allowing me to wield mana to it's fullest extent.
So I looked at him, steadying my voice.
"There's something else I need to know. The soul awakening… how does someone take part in it? What does it demand?"
With a nod, Elijah quickly answered.
"The awakening trial… it's meant for people between seventeen and nineteen. You don't look anywhere near that age," he began. "It's a yearly rite held by the Church of the Reverend Soul. They move it around the capitals of different kingdoms, and each one sets its own price."
He then paused, and quickly continued, "Most kingdoms charge an application fee. They say it's to support the church, but it's really just another way to make money. The kingdoms that don't charge… well, those trials are only for their own citizens."
He paused, then added, "The cheapest one you'll find is in the Kingdom of Starhollow… and even that's too much for most normal people. So most folks don't bother. They just… accept what they are."
His fingers twitched, like he wanted to gesture but didn't dare.
"And the trial itself isn't gentle. It's combat intensive. Stage after stage, pushing you to the edge. If you can't fight, you won't make it to the end. Your soul weapon only answers when you endure every part of it."
I let his words settle for a moment. Seventeen to nineteen. A yearly trial. Fees. Restrictions. Combat. All of it sounded like a wall meant to keep people exactly where they were born.
"So that's what it takes," I said quietly. "A trial built to break people… and a price tag to make sure most never even get to try."
I looked out toward the grasslands, thinking it through. "Doesn't matter. If that's the path, I'll walk it."
With a sigh, I headed back into the cottage, but surprisingly, Elijah placed a hand on my shoulder and called me back.
"Leon."
I didn't turn back, but I gave him the attention that anyone deserved.
He first hesitated before speaking, like he had to lift the words out of something heavy inside him.
"My failures… there are too many to count," he said quietly. "The Wyrm venom was supposed to change everything. I was promised its value would buy me the one truth I needed. The Duchess of this duchy swore she would give me the exact location of the Empresses, of Isodle. The woman in the tale I told you. The reason Arakai even exists."
'That figures,' I thought. 'Of course he was doing everything for her.'
He swallowed, jaw trembling for a moment, "She promised me her location in exchange for a single drop. And I knew I wasn't strong enough to kill that monster. I knew it. But I went anyway. I chose betrayal. I hid the truth from Arakai and walked into the Minnelet Woods, knowing well that Serphrina would follow me."
His hand shook as he reached into his clothes and revealed the small white pearl, the same bead that spawned his soul weapon he used against the Gross Wyrm.
"This pearl belonged to the one who saved me when I was ready to quit the world. They gave me this artifact. The Inverted Bead Realm. A pocket world where time doesn't exist. Gravity pulls in strange ways. Every breath, every step… it makes your body fight for itself."
He then curled his fingers around the pearl, voice thinning, "I trained inside it for years, and the sword finally made sense to me. But all of that—every cut, every bruise, every second I spent breaking myself—was supposed to lead me back to her."
"You killed the Wyrm with a mana domain at your age. I saw it. Anyone who can do that… in just a year inside the bead, after your soul awakens… you'd be strong enough. Strong enough to bring her back. I don't care what happens to me. I don't care what people call me. I just—"
He then stopped short, unable to force the word out.
I smirked at everything that just unfolded. This novel was taking a turn I never expected.
The male lead was asking me to help him get his female lead.
Pathetic.
Everything about him just is pathetic.
Fate wanted me dead when that gross Wyrm attacked, but thanks to the Gravity Domain the system gave me, I escaped her clutches.
And this is what she plays next?
Foolish.
Removing his hands from my shoulders, I said, "I wouldn't be helping you. This may be the last time we ever cross paths. Tomorrow I would be leaving for the Kingdom of Starhollow."
"They are coming," Elijah said suddenly.
"The duchess, she was in cahoots with the Emperor. The agreement we made was a trap. She believed I would die in the Minnelet Woods, but when she saw me alive a high-level mage attacked me and I barely escaped."
That explains the injuries, I thought.
He gestured his arm around the grassland: "This cottage, she gave it to me as a hiding spot from the Valorians—a way to make the deal seem legit. I'm sure Valorian troops are heading here any moment."
Then I turned my gaze to him, and my eyes—I knew he could read them—showed that nothing he could say could change my mind about joining him.
"So I can't change your mind," Elijah said with a sad smirk. "Take this."
He quickly tossed the Inverted Bead Realm to me, which I slowly caught.
"At least this can help you on your way forward. The path you have chosen."
My way forward.
"Thanks," I said. "Keep fighting; one day you will be able to have her back."
Because in stories like this, they always get what they want, the male leads. But for me, an extra, my path is carved against fate.