Five years had passed since the night he ran into the storm.
The world didn't become kinder.He just learned how to survive in it.
Xesre had grown leaner, faster, sharper. His magic control had improved through necessity, not guidance. He wandered from forests to ruined towns, living in the quiet corners of the world where no one cared to look.
The Saints searched for him for years, but they never found him. He made sure of that.
He didn't trust anyone.He didn't want to.
People were dangerous.And he was even more dangerous.
The afternoon sun painted the dirt road gold. Merchants passed by with their wagons, travelers chatted about festivals, children laughed in nearby fields.
And in the middle of it all, a seven-year-old boy with a black cloak sat alone on a roadside stone, staring at the sky.
He looked harmless.Most ignored him.Except one.
"Hey—what are you doing out here by yourself?"
The voice was bright, confident, and annoyingly warm.
He turned his head slowly. Standing behind him was a girl around his age—though clearly more well-kept. Snow-white hair gleamed in the sunlight, and her golden eyes shimmered like polished metal. She wore a saintess trainee's robes, clean and pristine, and walked with the kind of careless grace only someone loved by the world could have.
"...Who are you?" he muttered.
"Sakura Mizuki," she said with a proud smile, hands on her hips. "Future Saintess, obviously!"
She said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Xesre didn't answer. He turned his gaze back to the sky.
Sakura frowned slightly and stepped closer, lowering herself to his level. Her special eyes—untrained but already potent—caught something strange.
On his left hand, faint but unmistakable, was a black ring.
Her heart skipped.
Black ring…?That's supposed to be a myth. A symbol of the "cursed but blessed." No one's seen one in centuries…
Curiosity overwhelmed her. She pointed at his hand.
"Hey—where did you get that?"
He blinked slowly, looked at his hand… and shrugged.
"I don't know."
And that was the truth. He'd had it since awakening in this world, but he never understood its meaning.
Sakura's eyes narrowed. She wasn't convinced.
"Do you even know what that means?""No," he replied flatly."Then why do you have it?!"
"...Why do you care?"
Her mouth opened—but no answer came.
She didn't understand it herself. Maybe it was her training, maybe it was destiny. Or maybe it was because the black ring was something she'd only ever heard in bedtime stories whispered in the holy halls.
Before she could ask more, a distant bell rang.
"Oh no—training session!" She hopped to her feet, brushing off her robes.
She looked back at him one last time. He didn't smile. He didn't wave. He just watched her walk away with quiet, unreadable eyes.
And for some reason she didn't fully understand, Sakura Mizuki couldn't stop thinking about him after that day.
Years Later
The Saints erased her memories of the black ring.They had their reasons.
But curiosity, once sparked, never truly dies.
And somewhere in the world, Xesre kept walking.Growing. Changing. Breaking.
The next time they'd meet, neither of them would be children anymore.