"Who's there?!" The patrolling soldier's shout cut through the night when a stone—kicked by Kai—clanged against a half-filled metal wash pot.
All four guards snapped their attention toward the sound, but saw only a fleeting shadow slip past the gate's edge.
"These shadows keep making us go nuts," the patrolling soldier said, feeling disheartened.
Kai pressed his back against the cold outer wall of the barracks, heart hammering, breath coming in short, sharp clouds in the chill air.
Above, the sky was an embroidery of unfamiliar star patterns, some shimmering with hints of alien color.
He waited, listening until the receding footsteps faded. Peering around the corner, he stepped back into the deserted street, searching for refuge before dawn broke.
He found a discarded wooden crate that seemed to have once been a cabbage cart.
He squeezed himself inside, pulled his bag to his chest, and closed his eyes, letting the city's distant hum lull him into a shallow, watchful sleep.
…
The creaking wagon wheels, shouting vendors, and a barking dog jolted Kai awake.
A dirty street dog sniffed at the crate, then barked. Kai scrambled out, slipping away before it could give chase, and returned to the imposing black wall with the crossed swords.
He ducked into a narrow alley between two leaning buildings, a sliver of space where the sun hadn't yet reached.
There, he swiftly changed out of his stained, torn clothes and into the only clean set from his bag—simple, dark fabric that made him look less like a vagrant and more like a city rascal.
Emerging, he saw a soldier stumble out of the barracks entrance, yawning and stretching.
Kai watched as the man strolled to a nearby door marked with a simple male figure and disappeared inside.
"Three guards left," Kai murmured to himself. He took a steadying breath and walked toward the entrance.
The remaining soldiers exchanged glances as the small, oddly composed boy approached.
The patrolling soldier whom Kai had seen the night before blocked his path by the same wash pot.
"Lost, kid? You looking for your parents?" the soldier asked, his tone carrying a mixture of boredom and mild concern.
Kai met his gaze without blinking. "I came for the recruitment."
"Eh… what? Came for what?" The soldier leaned in, thinking he'd misheard. Behind him, the other two guards burst into loud, mocking laughter.
"You hear that? Hahaha! The runt says he's here for recruitment!" They clutched each other's shoulders, their laughter echoing in the stone corridor.
The soldier in front of Kai studied him more closely, his eyes lingering on the boy's bizarre, dual-colored irises.
He saw no joke in them, only an unsettling seriousness. "Little one, vamoose. Your parents will be worried. This isn't a game. Come back when you're fifteen." He moved to usher Kai away with a firm hand on his shoulder. "Let me take you to your pare—"
The words died in his throat. Kai hadn't budged. Not even an inch. The soldier pushed harder, then tried to physically turn him.
In a blur, his own wrist was captured in a small, iron-strong grip. A shocking, immense pressure forced him down, one knee hitting the cobblestones with a painful crack.
"I'm here for the recruitment. I know I can join. Don't push me." Kai's voice was calm, devoid of anger or effort.
Humiliation and rage flushed the soldier's face. He was a third-in-command, brought to his knees by a child in front of juniors! He surged up, arm rising to strike—
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
A deep and commanding voice, like a landslide, froze everyone. Kai turned. From the direction of the inner barracks, a man stepped out of a sleek black vehicle and strode toward them.
The laughing soldiers snapped to rigid attention. The kneeling one scrambled to his feet, hastily brushing grit from his uniform, his face pale.
"Lieutenant Gray!" the three barked in unison, bowing sharply.
The man ignored them. His dark-blue eyes, sharp as flint, fixed on Kai with keen interest.
He was tall, impeccably groomed, with long, smooth blue hair that fell to his shoulders—the most refined and imposing person Kai had ever seen.
"Little one," Lieutenant Gray said, his arms crossed in a relaxed yet authoritative stance. "Do you possess the strength and the mind to become a soldier?"
Kai didn't hesitate. "Yes. I'm stronger than you think. Test me if you want." His gaze flickered to the humiliated soldier.
The lieutenant let out a short, rough laugh that echoed in the courtyard. "Interesting. I admire misplaced courage. What's your name? How old are you?"
"Kai. I'm five years old."
Lieutenant Gray's eyebrows rose. He assessed the boy's height, his bearing, and finally, those impossible eyes.
'Where did this creature come from? To overpower a trained guard without breaking a sweat… and not a flicker of fear. Only cold confidence.'
"Why," Gray asked, his voice dropping, "would a child throw away the sweetness of life to become a soldier?"
Kai gave an answer that was blunt and stripped of pretense. "To become strong and unstoppable. Soldiers here eat well, train, and command respect. It's the fastest path to being who I need to be."
The lieutenant looked at him with a flicker of disgust, but beneath it simmered a recognition.
"Alright. You've convinced me enough to humor you. You may join this year's recruitment," Gray said, a strange smile playing on his lips.
The three soldiers stared, jaws slack. "But you will have to prove you are fit to be more than just a gate guard."
Kai saw it then—a deep, black aura swirling around Lieutenant Gray, vibrating with a cold, ambitious energy that was utterly different from the dull gray auras of the stunned guards.
"Come. Follow me, and show me you're not just talk." Gray turned on his heel and walked into the heart of the barracks.
Kai followed without a backward glance, passing the soldiers who stared after him, a cocktail of shock and dawning fear on their faces.
"This is insane," one junior guard whispered. "That thirteen-year-old giant got turned away last week!"
"If that brat gets shredded in the trials, it'll be a scandal for the whole city garrison," another muttered.
The humiliated senior soldier silenced them with a venomous hiss. "Shut up! You didn't feel it. That wasn't a child's strength… it was something else. Did you see his eyes? That's a little monster."
A cold dread settled in his gut. He knew, with chilling certainty, that any further struggle would have ended his career in disgrace.
…
Kai followed Gray through a maze of stark military buildings, some adorned with instructional images of combat stances and weapons, until they emerged into a vast rectangular courtyard paved with stone.
The ground was marked with numerous white lines and diagrams—some fresh and stark, others faded by the sun.
"The recruitment begins in three hours, when the other candidates arrive," Gray said, stopping by a set of freshly painted lines. "Wait here."
Without another word, he strode away and vanished into a multi-story building.
Kai watched him go, then shrugged off his bag. He pulled out the last withered piece of mango from his village and devoured it.
Then, he sat cross-legged on the stone, closed his eyes, and willed himself into a state of restful alertness.
High above, from behind a large, polished window on the third floor, Lieutenant Gray watched. 'Let's see if you have the discipline to wait in one spot for three hours, or if you'll wander like the child you appear to be.'
A faint, intrigued smile touched his lips.
In Kai's eerie calm, Gray saw a dark reflection of his own younger self—a weapon waiting to be forged.
…
One hour later, the candidates began to arrive. They streamed through the gate in nervous clusters, were lined up by stern guards, and funneled into the courtyard.
Over two hours, their number swelled to one hundred and ten. Most were males aged fifteen to seventeen, their bodies ranging from soft to wiry.
A smaller contingent were older, almost up to twenty-five, their faces etched with the hardness of labor.
A handful of young women stood among them, their expressions often steelier and more resolved than half the men around them.
They were a spectrum of the city's levels: some wore fine, embroidered clothes that spoke of wealthy families buying prestige; others wore patched, coarse fabric stained with the grime of workshops and fields.
For twenty minutes, a tense silence held, broken only by shuffling feet.
Then, a spicy odor erupted from somewhere in the ranks—the release of nervous bile or worse. A seventeen-year-old gagged, shattering the silence.
Whispers spread like fire, with one primary subject: the small, motionless figure seated at the very front of the assembly area.
"Why is that child sitting in the candidates' row?" a young woman with shimmering white hair and a fine silk skirt asked her companion.
"I didn't even see him until you pointed him out. He hasn't moved. It's like he's part of the stone," the other replied, uneasy.
A youth in expensive black shades behind them added, "He must be an officer's son. Has to be. No other way a kid gets onto the grounds. Probably here to watch."
The explanation, though logical, didn't fully quell the uneasy curiosity that rippled through the ranks.
Kai, who had awoken thirty minutes prior, listened not with his ears, but with his skin.
He felt the vibrations of their fidgeting, their whispers, their fear and arrogance flowing through the stone and into his bones.
He could group them by the pitch of their anxiety without ever opening his eyes.
Then, the vibrations shifted. A new, dominant frequency that was sharp and authoritative entered the courtyard.
Kai opened his eyes.
Lieutenant Gray had returned, walking with a slow, deliberate pace that commanded the space.
Behind him, flanking him in perfect formation, were six elite soldiers, each one holding a different weapon: katana, spear, sickle, and dagger—tools meant for death.
Their collective aura was a wall of disciplined menace in Kai's bones.
The murmuring died instantly, replaced by a silence so profound Kai could hear the rustle of Gray's uniform against his legs.
All one hundred and ten candidates held their breath, their attention nailed to the man who held their fates in his hands.
Kai simply watched, his dual-colored eyes absorbing everything, waiting for the game to begin.