The door opened before the second knock landed.
"Where is my sister?"
He stood in the doorway like something that had walked too far to turn back. Travel dust coated his cloak. Old blood had darkened the seams near his shoulder.
His voice was calm.
Not gentle.
Not loud.
Calm.
The kind that forms after something irreversible.
His parents froze.
His mother spoke first, barely above a whisper.
"She's… gone now."
His father stared as if at a ghost. "We were told you died. The notice came with a royal seal. They said no one survived."
"I was reassigned," he replied evenly. "Direct authority."
He did not say whose.
He did not need to.
"They required silence."
A pause.
"So they buried my name instead."
The room felt smaller.
"Where is she buried?" he asked.
His mother's fingers twisted into her dress.
"You should wash first. You've been gone for years. Sit. Eat. Rest."
The table splintered beneath his hand.
Not from force.
From restraint cracking.
"Where."
The word did not rise.
It fell.
His father finally spoke.
"She wasn't… right anymore."
Silence.
"What does that mean."
"She stopped speaking," his mother said quickly. "Stopped responding. The healers said her pulse was steady but her Viora was… wrong. Distorted."
The man's breathing slowed.
"What did you do."
"We couldn't keep her," his father whispered. "People talk. The Guild refused involvement. They told us to distance ourselves."
A beat.
"So we left her. Beyond the outer paths. Somewhere near the bamboo forest."
The air changed.
Not loudly.
Just enough.
"You left her," he repeated.
"We thought she was already gone," his mother cried. "What were we supposed to do?"
He looked at them for a long moment.
Something inside him closed.
"I didn't come back for you," he said quietly.
"My parents died while I was away."
The door shut behind him.
This time—
He did not hesitate.
And he did not return to the city.
He walked toward the forest.
Beneath Six Crowns
Far below the Colosseum, the rulers gathered.
Six thrones.
No banners.
No audience.
"Monster routes are shifting," one ruler said. "They avoid direct confrontation."
"They're bypassing borders without tripping wards," another added.
"They're hiding," a Queen murmured. "That is new."
Silence followed.
Then—
"Night Fangs."
The name carried no official recognition.
Yet no one questioned it.
"They've reported increased underground movement," Yun Shi said calmly. "Black markets relocating. Smuggling lanes collapsing and reappearing. Information disappearing before Guild retrieval."
"Children missing," another ruler added quietly.
Empress Rose's expression did not change.
But her fingers stilled.
"Night Fangs will continue operating without restriction," she said.
A ruler frowned. "Across all Kingdoms?"
"Yes."
Yun Shi studied her.
"You anticipate escalation."
Rose's gaze lifted.
"I anticipate consequences."
Their eyes held.
Measured.
Controlled.
No warmth.
No softness.
Just calculation.
"Agreed," Yun Shi said at last.
The decision sealed.
Above them, banners moved in artificial wind.
The Colosseum would begin in days.
The world believed it was gathering for glory.
It was not.
It was gathering while something unseen adjusted its position in the dark.
Outer Roads — Night
The man walked alone.
No emblem marked his cloak now.
No kingdom claimed him.
Beyond the outer paths.
Near the bamboo forest.
If she still breathed—
He would find her.
If someone had taken her—
He would not ask permission.
The Colosseum lights shimmered faintly in the distance.
Eight days of spectacle.
Eight days where the world looked upward.
He continued walking the opposite direction.
Toward silence.
Toward bamboo.
Toward whatever had survived.