As if noticing the worry in the way the little fairy girl's shoulders slumped and the innocent sparkle in her eyes had dimmed, Hebi offered her one of the sweets from the table.

"You can eat, can't you?" he asked in a gentle voice. "I don't know much about fairies, so please forgive my ignorance."

"I... I can," Nivelle whispered.

She took a tiny bite of the offered sweet.

The moment the taste of sugar and fruit touched her tongue, her emerald-green eyes widened with a delight she hadn't felt in a very long time.

Rod and Kael had given Nivelle their full attention, watching her with curious eyes.

They were looking at what was perhaps one of the rarest races in the world.

Despite their young age, their adventures had led them to encounter many different peoples: arrogant Elves, bloodthirsty Vampires, savage Werewolves, and various half-humans...

But fairies were rarer than them all.

Especially in this day and age, after the betrayal of the Elves, they had all but vanished.

They had seen her during that brief time they tried to keep Cassian in his room, but they still hadn't grown accustomed to the sight and innocence of this tiny, delicate being.

Giving in to his curiosity, Rod spoke up.

"Nivelle... Cassian says you're his sister, and so do you. But, you know, how should I put this... the two of you look completely different."

Nivelle stopped eating the sweet and spoke in a panic. "Cassian is my brother! It's true!"

"We know, we know! You don't have to get upset," Rod said in a soothing tone. "Everyone here knows Cassian isn't 'normal.' He's... far from ordinary. But how can he and you be siblings? You know, fairies live for hundreds of years, and Cassian... he doesn't even look like he's 15. We're just asking because we're curious, you don't have to tell us."

"That's right, Nivelle, how old are you?" This time, the question came from Kael, with his usual tactlessness.

"You two idiots, stop bothering her!" Rose interjected. Her voice came out even harsher, likely due to the beers she'd been drinking.

No one expected her to answer, but Nivelle spoke shyly.

"I... I am 147 years old."

Stunned by the number he heard, Kael slammed his hands on the table and leaned closer to Nivelle.

"Whaaat? Really? So you're older than all of us! You might even be the oldest person in Veythral!"

"Idiot! You shouldn't talk to a lady about her age like that!" Rod gave Kael a playful smack on the head. Then he turned back to Nivelle. "So, Lady Nivelle... how is it that you and Cassian are siblings?"

"I don't know," Nivelle said, her voice trembling. "But Cassian is my older brother. I have no doubt about that. He... he has the soul of my brother."

"That... sounds a bit creepy," Kael said thoughtlessly. "You mean, like Cassian is some kind of monster who stole your brother's soul?"

"NO!" Nivelle shouted. Her eyes instantly filled with tears, her voice trembling. "Cassian is not a monster! He is my brother!"

She clung desperately to this one thought, the only thing that kept her going.

Rose shot Rod and Kael a glare that could have pierced them.

"When will you two idiots learn to hold your tongues?"

As always, Eric stepped in to diffuse the tense atmosphere. "Of course he is, little lady. Kael didn't mean it like that, he was just joking."

"We're sorry..." Rod and Kael mumbled towards Nivelle.

The night continued on like this. Occasional jokes, Rose's sullen mood casting a pall over the table, and the curious glances directed at Nivelle from the other patrons of the inn...

Suddenly, Nivelle's body went rigid.

She dropped the sweet she was holding.

She looked at Rose and spoke with excitement. "My brother... He's coming back! I can feel it!"

At this sudden news, everyone at the table instantly forgot their drunkenness and fatigue.

"Cassian's coming back?" Rose asked, skeptical. "Are you sure?"

"Yes! Like I said, our souls are connected. I can feel him! He's heading this way... he'll be here very soon!"

"Then we'd better go meet him," Eric said, standing up. "Nivelle, you'll show us the way."

Hebi got up to pay the bill. The others began to gather their things to leave the table. Just then, the wooden door of the inn burst open with a loud bang.

In the doorway stood a figure that looked as though it had stepped out of a nightmare.

His clothes were torn, stained with patches of blood and dried mud. Through the messy, long white hair that fell across his face, his blood-red eyes glowed, looking at only one person in the room: his little sister.

Everyone in the inn had fallen silent, their eyes fixed on the newcomer.

He looked like a small, wounded devil from a horror story. Whispers could even be heard from some tables, "That's a demon... What's it doing here?"

"Brother!"

Nivelle darted from Rose's shoulder and flew across the room, straight towards Cassian. She wrapped her arms tightly around his dirty and bloody neck. Cassian held her with one arm, gently patting her back with the fingers of his free hand.

"I missed you too, Nivelle."

He didn't even glance at the curious onlookers in the room or at Rose's group, who were watching him in shock from their table. Still holding Nivelle, he turned his back on everyone in the inn and headed for the door to leave as he had come.

"Where do you think you're disappearing to again?!"

Rose shot up from her chair and ran after him. She stepped in front of Cassian just as he was about to exit, angrily blocking his path. Her voice echoed like a scream in the silence of the night.

"Fredrinn is in this state because of you! You've been gone for a week, and now you're trying to disappear again without a single word!"

"Shut up," Cassian said. His voice was hoarse and weary. The exhaustion in his red eyes made it clear he had no intention of dealing with Rose.

"No, I won't shut up! You're not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell you've been doing for a week and where you're trying to go now!"

Cassian stopped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Since you're so desperate to know... I'll tell you," he said. "I'm going far away. Very far away... Away from everything and everyone. I want to live the rest of my life with my sister, just the way I want."

He tried to walk past Rose, but she blocked his way again.

"If I were you," Cassian said, his voice as cold as ice, "I'd be doing what you want to do instead of bothering me. Do you... want me to tell you how you die, Rose?"

Cassian stood directly in front of Rose. His red eyes locked onto her stunned gaze.

"Fredrinn managed to save Julian. But he made quite a sacrifice to do it. Try to guess what kind of sacrifices... Your lives. Most of you died in that final ruin to save Julian. But why? Weren't you the people Fredrinn cared about most? So why did he use you like pawns to save another friend?"

"Anyway... you survived until the end. You, Fredrinn, and Kael. If you can even call it 'surviving'."

"The person you were trying to save, Julian, was no longer Julian. He had already transformed into someone else, a dark entity. And as Julian slaughtered you one by one at the end of that ruin, what do you think Fredrinn did? Do you want to know?"

Cassian leaned in towards Rose's ear. His voice was a venomous whisper.

"He just watched him kill you. He did nothing. He died there himself, like a fool. A big, useless fool. While he so desperately wished to protect the people he loved, he couldn't save anyone and brought about his own pathetic end. Do you want to hear what happened after that?"

"One of those evil gods who was supposed to be dead, Nerath, managed to fully open his eyes in this world, in Julian's body. I don't think I need to tell you the rest. You can probably guess. The world was turned into a realm of pure chaos. You can't comprehend what it means for a primordial god to descend upon the mortal plane."

Cassian pulled back.

"So what are you doing right now, Rose? Who do you think you are? When even I feel helpless against those monsters, what can you possibly do? You... you're nothing more than a foolish side character, throwing her own life away for a hopeless love."

"I wanted to change this fate. I had my own reasons. But now... I no longer have those reasons."

Cassian walked past Rose, leaving her to stand alone in the darkness of the night, beneath the weight of those bitter, incomprehensible, and mysterious words.

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