[The Road: A Mind Fractured]
We walked in silence. The only sounds were the crunch of gravel under our feet and Arthur's ragged breathing. He was carrying Elena like she weighed nothing, his eyes fixed on the ground, seeing nothing but the afterimage of his parents' bodies.
I walked behind them. My body felt hollowed out. The Strange Power I had summoned earlier had taken its toll; my limbs felt like they were made of lead, and my head was pounding with a rhythm that matched my heartbeat.
The bag of gold on my back didn't feel like a fortune anymore. It felt like a tombstone. 298 Gold. The price of our survival, paid for in blood.
We needed to hide. But where? I had told Arthur "To the Underworld," trying to sound like the leader I pretended to be. But as the adrenaline faded, a cold, rational panic set in.
'Why did I say that? I'm a village kid. I've never been to the capital's slums. I don't know how to buy fake IDs.'
I stopped. The road ahead split. Left went to the main city gates—where the guards would arrest three bloody children on suspicion of arson or theft. Right went into the dark, monster-infested forest.
I stood at the fork, paralyzed. The weight of my own bluff was crushing me.
And then... The pain in my head exploded.
DING!
It wasn't a chime. It was a screech, like metal tearing inside my skull.
[System Alert: Extreme Emotional Trauma Detected.] [Synchronization Rate Increasing...] [0.1%... 1%... 2%...]
My vision went white. Images—memories that weren't mine, yet felt like mine—flooded my brain like dirty water breaking through a dam.
A dark alley smelling of urine. A secret knock on a rotted door. A password whispered in the dark. A man with one eye counting coins with greasy fingers.
[Memory Unlocked: "Underworld Navigation (Basic)"] [Current Authority: 2%]
I gasped, clutching my head, falling to one knee. "Dante?" Arthur asked, his voice dull and lifeless. "What is it?"
The headache vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by a cold, sharp clarity. It was terrifying. I suddenly knew exactly where we were. I knew that three miles east, hidden behind a cluster of dead briars, there was a sewage drainage grate. I knew it led into the city's slums, bypassing the guards.
I stood up, wiping the cold sweat from my face. 'I know the way,' I thought. 'I don't know who put this map in my head—the System, the Abyss, or a past life—but right now, I don't care.'
"Follow me," I said. My voice sounded different. Older. "We're taking the sewer."
[The Slums: Rats Among Rats]
We crawled through the drainage tunnel. It smelled of rot and waste, but none of us gagged. We already smelled like smoke and dried blood. The stench of the city was perfume compared to the scent of our burning home.
We emerged in the "Lower District." This wasn't the bright market where we bought the sword and the dress this morning. This was the gut of the city. Drunks lay in the mud. Shadows moved in the alleyways, watching us with hungry eyes.
Arthur didn't react to the filth. He just held Elena tighter, his knuckles white. I led them through the labyrinth of alleys, my feet moving automatically, guided by the foreign map in my head.
We stopped in front of a decrepit shack squeezed between two collapsing buildings. A wooden sign with a lantern painted on it hung by a single, rusty nail. "The Rusty Lantern."
"Wait here," I told Arthur. "Stand by the door. Look dangerous." Arthur didn't nod. He just stood there, the dried blood on his face making him look like a vengeful spirit.
I pushed the door open. A bell didn't ring; it clunked dully against the wood.
[The Negotiation: Predator vs. Predator]
The shop smelled of old paper, cheap tobacco, and despair. Behind the counter sat a man. He was massive, greasy, and wore a leather eyepatch over his left eye. Garam, the One-Eyed. I knew his name before he even spoke.
He looked up from counting copper coins. He saw a small, dirty boy covered in soot standing in his doorway. He smiled, revealing yellow, jagged teeth. "Lost your mommy, kid? The orphanage is the other way. Or maybe I should sell you to the chimney sweeps?"
I didn't flinch. The new memories told me exactly how to handle scum like him. You don't ask. You command.
I walked to the counter. I reached into my bag and pulled out a handful of gold. THUD. I slammed the coins onto the wood. The heavy sound made the dust jump.
Garam's one eye widened. He reached for the gold. "Well, well... What do we have here?"
I placed my hand over the coins, pinning them down. "Three identities," I said. My voice was flat, emotionless. "Clean slate. No family history. Commoner background."
Garam grunted, picking up his quill, looking at me with new interest. "Ages?"
"Thirteen, thirteen, and eleven," I said.
Garam paused. We were even younger than we looked under the grime. "Babies," he muttered, spitting on the floor. "Alright. Relationship?"
I looked back at the door where Arthur was holding Elena. Elena was my blood. My responsibility. I wouldn't deny that bond for anything. But Arthur... if I marked him as her brother, I'd be writing a tragedy for their future hearts.
"She is my sister," I said, pointing to the door. "Elena Vale. And I am Dante Vale."
Garam scribbled. "And the big boy?"
"Arthur Vale," I said. "He is our cousin."
It was the perfect lie. It explained why we were together, why we shared the name of our lost village, but it drew a clear line. Siblings share blood. Cousins share a clan.
Garam didn't care about the family tree. He just wanted the gold. "Brother, sister, cousin. Fine. The Vale Clan."
He stamped the papers with a forged official seal. "That will be 100 Gold."
"75," I said instantly.
Garam stopped. His hand drifted toward a dagger hidden under the counter. The greed in his eye shifted to violence. "You have a big mouth for a runt. Maybe I should just take it all and cut your throat. Who would miss a street rat?"
DING!
[System Analysis: Target Hostility 100%] [Skill Check: Intimidation (Failed - User Level too low)]
I didn't back down. I couldn't use the Strange Power fully—I was too drained. But I could leak it. Just a drop.
I leaned in. I reached into the pit of my stomach, finding the residual shadow of the horror I had unleashed in the village.
"Do you smell that, Garam?" I whispered.
Garam sniffed. He smelled smoke. He smelled blood. But underneath that... he smelled something wrong. The air around me turned cold. The shadows in the corner of the room seemed to stretch toward me. It was the scent of a predator that had just finished eating.
"I just killed two of the Baron's armored knights," I lied—but the conviction in my dead eyes made it the truth. "I erased them. If you touch that dagger, this shop will be your grave."
Garam froze. He knew a killer when he saw one. And this kid... he was empty. He slowly pulled his hand back from the dagger.
"75," he grunted, sweat beading on his forehead. "Done."
I counted out the coins. He took them without looking me in the eye.
[The New Beginning]
I walked out of the shop with three scrolls of parchment tucked into my jacket. We were officially The Vale Cousins now. Ghosts in the system.
Arthur was waiting where I left him. Elena was starting to stir in his arms, letting out a low moan of pain.
"Did you get them?" Arthur asked. His voice was hollow.
"Yes," I said. I handed him a scroll. "We exist again."
Arthur looked at the paper, but he didn't read it. He just stared through it. "Dante," he said, looking up at the dark, smog-filled city sky. "What do we do now?"
I looked at the System roadmap floating in my vision. [Next Milestone: The Academy Entrance Exam (Time Skip Required)]
I clenched my fist. "Now," I said, my eyes cold and determined. "We disappear. We have money. We have names. We will find a place to sleep. Tomorrow, we start training."
I looked at Arthur, then at the sleeping Elena.
"We have two years before the Academy Entrance Exams. In those two years... I will turn you into a king, and her into a goddess."
I touched the spot on my chest where the Unknown Darkness lived.
"...And I will figure out how to kill the people who did this."