The night sky above Vaikunth Dham was no longer peaceful.
Smoke curled like sinister serpents from the cracks in the palace walls, rising lazily into the darkness as if the treasury fire was still hungry, still searching for more fuel. The ground still trembled with faint aftershocks from the wrath of Taarask—tremors that suggested the dragon was still moving, still raging, still causing destruction in the depths of the palace. Distant alarms echoed through the stone corridors, and somewhere far above, guards were beginning to mobilize.
But outside the shattered treasury doors, two soot-covered figures sat panting against a broken pillar—silent, shaken, and slightly singed from head to toe. They looked like survivors of an apocalypse, because honestly, they were.
Aryan slumped forward, his small arms resting on his knees, his hair matted to his forehead with a mixture of sweat and soot that made him look far older than his six years. His entire small frame trembled—not from fear anymore, but from something far heavier. Something that felt like the weight of failure pressing down on his shoulders with the force of mountains.
'I survived... but I lost everything. The manual. The treasure. The entire treasury. I came here to become stronger and instead I just... I just...'
The System was the first to break the silence—its voice dry, flat, and somehow still managing to drip with condescension despite the circumstances.
SYSTEM: "Let me summarize the situation for the official record: zero manuals obtained, zero treasures looted, 100% of the treasury converted into a luxury barbecue pit. Excellent work, kid. Just absolutely spectacular. I've seen better heist planning from drunk goblins."
"Shut up…"Aryan mumbled, his voice cracking, eyes burning with unshed tears that he was desperately trying to hold back. "Just shut up, for once. Just... don't say anything."
Roshni, sitting beside him, coughed violently through the acrid smoke that still hung in the air and wiped dust off her cheek with the back of her sleeve. Her hair was singed, her clothes were torn, and her warrior pride seemed to have taken a beating just as brutal as her body. "That was… that was insane. I've trained for years, and I've never seen anything like that."
Aryan didn't answer. He just stared into the dirt, his small fists clenched so tightly his fingernails dug crescents into his palms.
A few moments passed in heavy silence—the kind of silence that only comes after narrowly escaping death.
Then came the quiet sob.
Not loud. Not exaggerated or performed for sympathy. Just the kind of frustrated, helpless crying that only six-year-old warriors with shattered hopes and empty hands could understand. The kind of crying that comes from the depths of desperation, from the soul-deep realization that everything you'd planned for had just turned to ash.
"I didn't even get the manual..." he whispered, his voice barely audible. "I came all this way... risked everything... and now I'll never advance past Chakra 1, Level 1. I'm stuck. I'm going to stay weak forever."
SYSTEM: "Oh, now you're crying? How perfectly predictable. Let me just get the sympathy violin and—wait, I don't have one. Funny. First, you burn down the kingdom's entire ancient treasury—a repository of knowledge spanning centuries—and now you want a pity badge? Should I play a sad flute in the background? Or maybe just download despair.exe and let it run? Add some dramatic background music to your failure?"
Roshni blinked, startled by his outburst, her expression shifting from exhaustion to something approaching understanding.
"Wait... you were here for a Chakra 1 Level 1 manual?" she asked, her voice gentle now. "That's what you came for? Just a basic-level manual?"
He nodded without looking at her, too ashamed to make eye contact, too embarrassed to face the judgment he assumed was coming.
She bit her lip, her mind clearly working through something. 'He was crying over that? Over a Level 1 manual? But he... he blocked all my attacks without training. He dodged a Chakra 2 user's strikes through pure instinct. He has power far beyond a Novice. He must already be at Level 4 or 5 of the first Chakra, wanting to revise his foundations. That's... actually impressive. That's something only geniuses do—rebuild their base to make it unshakable.'
For a brief moment—just a moment—her youthful arrogance melted away like spring snow. Her small fingers reached into her robes and carefully pulled out three slender scrolls. They were beautifully bound, wrapped in silk cloth, stamped with a golden lotus insignia that marked them as royal property.
"You can… borrow mine," she said quietly, extending them toward him.
Aryan looked up, his eyes still wet with tears, absolutely stunned. "What? But... those are yours. I can't—"
"They're basic manuals," she continued, speaking matter-of-factly. "Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3—all for Chakra 1. I already know them by heart. I've memorized every technique, every meditation method, every advancement pathway. I could teach them blindfolded at this point." She gave a tiny, genuine smile. "Besides, I think you need them more than I do. And honestly? After tonight, after seeing what you can do... I have a feeling you'll put them to better use than I would."
He stared at her, eyes wide, completely unable to process what was happening.
'She's... helping me? After everything? But why would she do that? I'm just a random street kid she met while robbing a treasury with her. Why would she—'
SYSTEM: "And just like that, Luck rolls again in your favor. The universe clearly has a sense of humor. What are you, some kind of blessed cabbage in a previous life? Did you save a goddess's kitten or something?"
Aryan quickly sniffled and tried to put on a calm, composed front—the kind of front that didn't quite work when your face was covered in soot and your eyes were red from crying. "I-I wasn't crying because I didn't have the strength. I just... I wanted to refine my base more. You know. Make it stronger. Build the foundation properly, brick by brick, instead of rushing through it."
He was rambling now, the lies tumbling out in a desperate cascade.
"Foundation matters more than advancement, so I wanted these specific manuals to study them deeply, to make sure my Chakra pathways are absolutely perfect before I move forward. That's all. Not desperation. Not weakness. Just... strategic thinking."
'Please believe it. Please believe it. Please don't see through this transparent lie.'
Roshni nodded slowly, her expression shifting to something approaching respect. 'So he's one of those prodigies who want to make their base unshakable. The kind who understands that true strength comes from perfect foundational work, not just rushing through levels. He must already be at Level 4 or Level 5 of the first Chakra, and still he wants to re-study Level 1 to ensure perfection. That's... actually the mark of genius.'
She didn't say any of this aloud. Instead, she simply extended the scrolls with careful reverence, treating them like the treasures they actually were.
He took them with both of his small hands, accepting them as if they were made of spun glass and could shatter at any moment. His fingers trembled slightly as they wrapped around the silk cloth.
"Thanks... I owe you. Seriously. I owe you more than I can repay," he said quietly, genuinely.
She shrugged, then stood up and dusted her robes with the casual grace of someone who'd been trained in nobility since birth. "We're even. I guess. You helped me escape. I give you manuals. Fair trade in the criminal economy."
"Wait,"Aryan said, suddenly realizing something crucial. "You never told me your name. I mean, we went through all that together, and I don't even know what to call you."
She froze for half a second—just half a second, but it was enough to notice. Then she flashed a smile that seemed practiced, rehearsed.
"Arya," she said quickly, choosing a name that was close enough to her real name to feel natural but distant enough to maintain her cover. "Just Arya. You?"
He blinked. 'Arya? That's so obviously fake. That's like she just took the first syllable of her actual name and called it a day. But... I can't judge. I'm about to give her a fake name too.'
Still, he smiled back, his own protective lie at the ready. "Rohit. My name's Rohit."
SYSTEM: "Seriously? Arya and Rohit? You two sound like the discount versions of main characters from a rejected romance novel written by someone who just discovered the concept of names yesterday. This is painful."
'Shut up,'Aryan thought, biting back a grin despite everything.
The Walk of Shared Secrets
They began to walk slowly along the stone path leading away from the ruined treasury, barely illuminated by the moonlight that filtered through the smoke still rising from the destruction. Every step was careful, measured, trying not to make noise that might attract the guards who were surely swarming the palace by now.
"So, Arya..." he started carefully, testing out her false name on his tongue. "Why were you stealing from the palace anyway? Royal heist? Noble cause?"
She paused mid-step, tilted her head, and gave a deliberate shrug—the kind of shrug that suggested a prepared answer. "Poor family. Needed resources for cultivation training. Thought I'd get lucky and find something valuable in the treasury. Thought I'd become strong enough that my father would finally acknowledge me as a true warrior instead of just a child playing at swords."
"Ah... same,"Aryan nodded quickly, adding his own prepared lie to hers. "Trying to support my family. Big responsibilities on my shoulders. Wanted to help lift the burden."
It wasn't entirely false. It just wasn't entirely true either. It existed in that comfortable gray space where lies and truth blended together so thoroughly that neither of them could tell where one ended and the other began.
SYSTEM: "Family? The only thing in your 'family' is your old drunk of a grandpa with no chakra whatsoever and one braincell that's currently on an unpaid vacation somewhere in the Himalayas. But sure. Let's go with 'supporting the family narrative.' Beautiful."
'I swear, if you speak again, I'll find a way to unbind you,'Aryan thought angrily.
SYSTEM: "You can't. But I appreciate the spirit of the threat. It's adorable."
They walked together in companionable silence, the air still filled with faint crackles of the burning treasury in the distance—the occasional pop of expanding stone, the hiss of magical seals finally giving up their eternal vigil.
"You know,"Roshni said casually, breaking the silence, "in a month, there's the Martial Arts Tournament."
Aryan blinked. "What?"
She smiled, her expression shifting to something resembling pride. "Didn't know? Every five years, the kingdoms host a major regional martial arts tournament. It's a big deal. Only those under the age of 10 and already in any stage of Chakra cultivation can participate. The competition is fierce—we're talking princes, noble heirs, warrior families trained since birth, and sometimes, if they're lucky and skilled enough, wildcards from outside the noble structure."
He stopped walking entirely, processing what she was saying.
"...Wait. Are you saying there's a tournament coming up? With actual rewards?"
She nodded, her eyes gleaming with something that might have been ambition or excitement or both. "The top 10 winners get a chance to enter the University of Nalanda—the biggest, most prestigious cultivation academy in all the kingdoms. Only the elite make it there. You need to be truly exceptional to even be considered."
Aryan's heart skipped—not just once, but several times in rapid succession. 'So, if I... if I win that tournament, I could get in too? I could go to the greatest cultivation academy in the world? I could learn from real masters instead of a drunk old man and a condescending digital entity?'
She laughed softly, a genuine laugh that made her sound younger than she looked. "I'm going to enter. I've been training my whole life for this moment. And... I have a feeling you're going to enter too. I think you're going to surprise everyone."
He blushed deeply and looked away, caught between flattery and the gnawing certainty that she was overestimating his abilities based on tonight's lucky survival.
SYSTEM: "Aww. Romance or future rivalry blooming under a backdrop of war crimes and arson. How absolutely adorable. If I had a heart, it'd be throwing up blood right now. This is disgusting and I love it."
"Anyway,"Roshni said, her voice becoming casual again, deliberately changing the subject, "since you're already at such a high level, these manuals might be useless for you. But... maybe you're just being thorough? Revising the basics to make sure everything's solid before you reach higher tiers?"
Aryan nodded with a forced smile that he hoped looked confident and assured rather than desperately trying to hide panic.
In his head, the reality was crashing down: 'I've barely even unlocked Level 1, Novice stage. If she finds out, I'm absolutely toast. She thinks I'm a prodigy and I'm basically a fraud who survived on luck and her own mercy.'
They finally stopped under a large banyan tree with branches so thick they created a natural ceiling of shadow and shelter from the slowly fading moonlight.
"Well,"Roshni said, her tone shifting to something final, something goodbye-shaped, "I guess this is goodbye, Rohit. I need to get back to the palace before they realize I was gone. My father's already suspicious about my night activities."
"Guess so, Arya."
SYSTEM: "What a lovely pair of fake names and fake stories, built on lies and assumptions and mutual misunderstanding. If I had a functioning heart instead of this data-processing unit, it would be throwing up right now. This is beautiful tragedy in miniature."
She turned gracefully, stepping into the shadows with the trained movement of someone born to nobility, her form seeming to dissolve into the darkness itself.
He watched her go, still holding the three precious scrolls, unsure if he had just been blessed by the universe or accidentally conned into something monumentally bigger and more complicated than he'd bargained for.
The scrolls felt heavy in his hands. Not physically—they were light, just silk and paper. But mentally, they felt like the weight of all his lies, all his false confidence, all his pretense of being something he wasn't.
Then, from inside his head—
SYSTEM: "You realize she probably thinks you're already at Level 4 or Level 5, right? That you're some kind of hidden genius revising your basics?"
'I didn't mean for that! She just assumed and I didn't correct her!'Aryan protested internally.
SYSTEM: "So when you face her in that tournament, are you planning to impress her with 25 kilograms of Novice strength and raw luck? You're going to be obliterated. She'll crush you like an ant."
'...I hate you,'Aryan said, slumping against the banyan tree trunk.
SYSTEM: "Feelings are mutual, sweetheart. But hey—at least you have the manuals now. Maybe they'll actually help you get better instead of just relying on cosmic luck and dumb survival instinct."
He opened the first scroll slowly, carefully, almost reverently. The cultivation techniques laid out were elegant, precise, written by masters who understood the flow of Chakra on a level he could barely comprehend.
But as he read the first few lines, something strange happened.
Understanding began to bloom.
And for the first time since tonight's disaster, Aryan felt a spark of genuine hope.