The door of the old car opened with a metallic creak. A boy of only ten stepped out with difficulty, limping, his face dirty and an open cut at the corner of his mouth. His scraped knees and the bruises hidden under his clothes said more than any words.
The man behind the wheel, a cold and impatient-looking guy, handed a crumpled stack of bills to someone outside.
"He did well today."
Said the man, taking a cigarette between his teeth.
"Earned more than expected."
Saul, the boy, looked up as he saw his father approaching. The man took the money with a cold but satisfied look and placed his heavy hand on the boy's shoulder.
"You worked hard. Your mother will be happy with this."
The boy smiled, despite the pain. A pure smile, still innocent.
They entered the small house with worn-out walls and dim light. In the back room, a pale and thin woman waited for them lying in bed, her eyes sunken and a scarf wrapped around her head. Saul's father went to the table to count the money, and Saul ran to sit beside his mother's bed, gently holding her hand.
"I did well today, mom."
The woman smiled. A smile that seemed fake, almost a mask of calm. At the time, Saul didn't notice. To him, that was the most beautiful smile in the world.
"That's good, my love… With this, we'll have a bit more money this month…"
Saul just nodded, his heart warm for having helped. Back then, he knew… He knew what he was doing was wrong, but...
"I'd do anything for her."
And then, like a wave of reality crashing into the tide of memories, Enrico's eyes suddenly opened.
The infirmary light blinded him for a moment, and the pain in his body from the fire cancer still lingered a bit.
He took a deep breath, trying to understand where he was. When his eyes focused, he saw a girl with pink hair beside him. She had a worried but serene expression, her hand resting on his forehead. Her touch was gentle.
He didn't know why, but it gave him a strange feeling of comfort, so he looked up at the ceiling.
'Too innocent… I was too innocent.'
Enrico sat up a bit, and the girl called the nurse, who came in and began checking Enrico's condition.
"Aren't you the girl who bumped into Serenya that day?"
She seemed surprised.
"You remember?"
"Hard not to when you're the only one with pink hair and eyes in this academy."
The girl figured that made sense and sat down. The nurse asked a few questions and sighed a bit sadly.
"I'd like to ask you to keep my fire cancer a secret."
The two were surprised, and the door opened with Elaris appearing.
"Afraid of worrying your friends? Don't worry, at most only the headmaster will know besides the people here. Also, he's already repaired your room."
Enrico noticed Angela drinking tea on the other side. 'Damn, I wanted no one to know. Now it'll be hard to come up with an excu—no, wait, it won't be.'
"The headmaster said he'd send you home for a week to rest. Your parents are probably the best to take care of this."
Enrico looked at her with his excuse already prepared.
"No, they won't know, because they never watched me grow up. The person who raised me as a child already passed away."
He was telling the truth; his parents didn't care about him after learning he had no potential, so they made the maid care for him since he was a baby. They only called Enrico to meetings because they were forced by the family rule to bring all dependents, which led to them constantly comparing him to Lan.
Enrico noticed everyone looking at him oddly. The look was pity. 'Damn, now they see me as a victim.'
"Don't look at me like that. I don't like it."
Everyone looked away, and Enrico sighed as Angela stood from her chair.
"I'll inform the headmaster that you've woken up."
"No need. I'm already here."
The headmaster was right beside them, looking at the mark on Enrico's back, which startled everyone to see Hao there.
"I have to say, boy, your life is hard. Having this since birth and resisting this long should be a miracle."
Seeing the size of the mark, Hao was genuinely surprised. He had only seen people beginning to develop fire cancer at age seven, so this was the first time he saw a mark at this level.
"But since you've resisted until now, at least you should endure until you're twenty. But I have a question — why didn't this happen in previous months?"
Hao looked seriously at him, and Enrico looked back, unshaken.
"I always manage to endure. What happened is that this one was very hard."
The atmosphere was heavy, and Hao let out a smile and looked more closely at his back, intrigued. He was always like this — a trait from his older brother who only helped the school in the future out of curiosity. Enrico looked at the girl with pink hair.
"And what's your name?"
She answered quickly, as if she had been waiting for it.
"Seraphina Liris."
"Nice name."
She scratched her cheek, embarrassed.
"Thank you. And… thank you very much for saving me that time."
Enrico nodded with a smile and looked at the headmaster.
"About staying away for a week, I accept, headmaster."
Hao looked at Enrico and nodded, then started speaking through a stone to someone to escort Enrico carefully.
"How long was I unconscious?"
"Ten hours."
Elaris answered, which made Enrico think about what to do regarding the professors of Class A. Had Professor Virelle already taken over the class?
"No need to worry. We already informed the teachers, and they gave their approval. They wanted to know why, but we said it was a personal matter of yours."
Enrico nodded in gratitude, and then he began talking with Seraphina upon seeing the rank on her academy uniform and wanting to know how she had evolved so fast. She became excited and began talking about the day Enrico helped her with Serenya, Elian, and Caelan, and since that day she had been training a lot.
Elaris calmly watched this situation and thought about her kingdom, which needed strong people to regain part of the power it had lost, and how Enrico was a perfect candidate for that — and how much potential would be wasted because of this disease.
'I'll help him, as much as I can.'
Meanwhile, Angela had sent the information to Virelle, as she was loyal only to Virelle.
In the teachers lounge, Virelle received the information and clenched her teeth, beginning to think of a way to make him reach the eighth circle before turning twenty.