After a full year of back-to-back missions, Nevalis finally found himself returning to the city of Heras alongside his squad. It hadn't been an easy year—filled with battles, relentless pursuits, and countless nights spent in the wilderness without any real rest. But now, at long last, they were heading back to the city… to a place they could call "home," even if only temporarily.
At the city gates, the squad members showed their identification to the guards, who opened the path without hesitation. The moment Nevalis stepped onto the ground inside Heras' walls, he paused, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, spreading his arms as if embracing the air around him.
"Ahh... after a whole year of nonstop missions, I finally set foot in a real city!"
A brief silence followed—then the entire squad burst into laughter.
"Ha! Look at him, like a farmer returning to his village after years abroad!"
"No, no, he's more like a vagrant who finally found a warm place to sleep!"
"I bet he's gonna hug the ground any second now!"
Nevalis stood there for a moment, eyes cold, then simply turned away without a word. He smirked faintly and kept walking toward the mercenary base. But before he could get far, a familiar voice called out behind him.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going, kid? Don't make us search for a lost child!"
It was Felix, throwing an arm over Nevalis' shoulder with his usual mischievous grin.
Nevalis gave him a cold side glance—that usual mix of apathy and irritation, as if he'd long accepted Felix's endless teasing. It was clear Felix's jabs no longer had the same effect on him.
He responded flatly, ignoring the mockery:
"The obvious destination... the mercenary base."
Felix raised an eyebrow, looking at him as if he were some kind of weirdo.
"And who said we're going there?"
Nevalis stopped and stared at him, confused.
"Huh? Then... where are we going, if not the base?"
Felix chuckled and patted him on the head like a clueless child.
"We'll head there later, of course. But first, we're visiting the captain's home. She hasn't seen her kid in almost a year."
With that, he turned and walked off, leaving Nevalis frozen in place, his eyes wide with shock.
"Wait… the captain has a child?! Is she even married?!"
---
Nevalis quickly caught up, walking beside Felix as a stream of questions poured from his mouth.
"When did she get married? Who's the father? Why didn't any of you mention this before?"
But Felix didn't answer. He just kept walking with that wide, mysterious grin, acting like he heard nothing.
Nevalis raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "You're ignoring me, aren't you?"
Felix's grin only widened.
Nevalis stopped walking and took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly through clenched teeth. "I'm calm... I'm calm… I won't kill him in public."
Felix kept walking, still not looking back. Grumbling, Nevalis followed.
They eventually reached the central market—filled with the chatter of merchants and the scent of food—when Nevalis frowned in confusion.
"Why are we here? Didn't you say we're going to the captain's house?"
Felix sighed dramatically and shook his head, as if tired of teaching a toddler.
"Oh, dear Nevalis… how long must I educate you?"
Nevalis clenched his fist, barely restraining himself. "You bastard, don't imitate the captain! And second—she doesn't even talk like that!"
Felix ignored him entirely, turned to face him, and placed a hand on his shoulder with a mock-wise tone.
"Listen to me, my child. When you visit someone you haven't seen in a while, you bring a gift. Don't be uncultured."
This time, Nevalis couldn't help himself—he grabbed Felix's hair and yanked it hard, teeth clenched in fury.
"Shut up, bastard! The captain doesn't talk like that, and don't ever call me 'uncultured' again!"
Felix yelled, struggling to free his head: "He's lost it! Nevalis has gone feral from too much time in the wild!"
Nevalis finally let go of his hair with a long sigh and asked in a neutral tone:
"Alright… back to the point. Who's the captain's husband?"
Felix, still fixing his now-messy hair, froze mid-motion. The question seemed to hit him like a wave of unwelcome memories. For the first time, he didn't reply with sarcasm or a cheeky comment. He was silent.
Then he turned to Nevalis, and for once, his eyes carried a weight Nevalis had never seen before—something heavy, almost sacred.
"Nevalis… don't ever ask the captain that question."
Nevalis blinked in surprise. He had expected another joke, a smirk, maybe even a slap on the back. But Felix's voice… was different.
He assumed Felix was just playing a trick, so he scoffed:
"Felix, I swear, if you're messing with me again, I'll roast you and serve you to her kid for dinner."
But Felix didn't flinch. He didn't laugh. He didn't even smile. He stood there, shoulders tense, staring into nothing—as if his soul had been pulled back to a time he wasn't ready to revisit.
This wasn't the Felix Nevalis knew.
The smirk on Nevalis' face slowly faded, replaced by suspicion and unease. He stepped closer, his voice softer now, filled with doubt.
"Did something happen to him?"
Felix let out a long, shaky breath. For a moment, it looked like he might not say anything. But then, in a voice barely above a whisper, he replied:
"The captain's husband… was the strongest and bravest man I've ever met."
He paused, like the memory had washed over him all at once, then continued, his tone low but full of tangled emotions:
"He was the one who brought me to the mercenary base when I was just a
homeless kid… after I lost my family. No—not lost. They were stolen from me. Killed right before my eyes. I was just a scared little boy with nowhere to go, no idea how to survive."
He gave a brief smile, though it carried no warmth—just the ghost of a joy long gone.
"Then he appeared... in the middle of all that chaos and hopelessness. He reached out to me. He didn't ask who I was, or what I'd done. He just said, 'Come with me. You'll be safe now.' Those words… they felt like magic. For the first time in forever, I felt like someone cared."
Felix closed his eyes for a moment, as if the memory alone could pull him back into it.
"He wasn't just strong. He wasn't just a skilled mercenary. He was more than that. He was like a sun in my darkness. He taught me how to wield a weapon, how to defend myself, how to live. But more than that—he was the family I never had."
He paused again, swallowing hard. And when he spoke next, his voice trembled ever so slightly.
"But the world always finds a way to take the ones we love most… doesn't it?"
He inhaled deeply, trying to steady the shaking in his voice, but it didn't fully work.
"One day, he was sent on a mission to investigate a mysterious anomaly in the kingdom. Something… unnatural. He felt something was wrong. But he went anyway—brave, as always. Confident."
Felix stopped, his throat tight, then forced the next words out:
"He never came back."
The silence that followed wasn't empty. It was heavy—filled with grief, memories, and a loss that never fully healed.
Nevalis looked at Felix, and for the first time… he didn't see the cheerful troublemaker who always made his life difficult. He saw a man carrying a wound deep within him, a scar carved by the absence of someone who had once meant everything.
And who was now… gone.