"He fights what he cannot accept, just as I endure what I cannot change."
After taking care of some supplies and speaking with the healers about the evacuation process for the villagers, I walked briskly through the camp in search of Zura and Aarav.
Initially, I had planned to immediately hold a meeting with the village chief and some of the surviving residents to discuss Greenreach's condition. Unfortunately, the chief was in no state for conversation.
He lay unconscious, gravely wounded by an Abyssian attack. I had ordered the healers to prioritize his treatment, parting ways with Zura and Aarav at that moment.
My hurried steps came to a halt when I caught sight of Aarav crouching down, watching Zura from a distance as she entertained a group of Greenreach children with floating soap bubbles. She laughed sweetly, a sound so gentle and pure that it seemed to enchant everyone around her—including the children who now gathered around her in awe.
Aarav watched her with a strange intensity.
"She's mine," I said as I approached.
Aarav turned sharply as if I'd just caught him stealing something. But instead of defending himself, he merely raised an eyebrow. He stood slowly, wiping away the dried blood from his temple. His expression was unreadable—not anger, not embarrassment. More like... emptiness. Like someone too tired to argue.
"I never intended to take her from you," he said flatly, his voice nearly drowned by the children's laughter and the pop of bursting bubbles.
I exhaled softly, glancing at Zura before looking back at him. "Maybe not. But the way you look at her… it's as if you want her in your world."
Aarav gave a crooked smile, then dipped his head, letting a few bubbles burst in front of his face before he spoke—his voice low but laced with an edge.
"In that case…" he said, raising his eyes to meet mine, "what if I tried to take her from you? Just like you all… took my life from Earth."
His tone was light, almost casual, but I knew better. There was bitterness buried beneath those words, a quiet pain he could no longer hide.
My blood stirred. I clenched my fists without realizing it.
"Aarav—"
But he raised a hand quickly, half-laughing, though the sound was dry and hollow. "Relax, Your Highness. I'm just joking. I'm no thief of hearts—only a loser who strayed too far from home."
His eyes returned to Zura, who was still laughing with the children as if the world around her had never collapsed.
"Besides, a girl like her… she shines too brightly for someone like me."
I didn't respond right away. My body tensed—not because of his words, but because something in them echoed like an old wound. Like a scar that never healed.
And for a moment, I didn't see a Hero nor a stubborn rebel…
I saw a young man completely, utterly lost.
"…Febby, huh?" I finally said, uttering a name that had etched itself into my memory since that day in the temple—when Aarav first appeared, raging like a wounded beast, endlessly crying out that name, weighted with pain even as the world cracked around him.
Aarav fell silent. His smile vanished like morning mist swept away by the wind. His breath hitched in his throat.
"You kept saying her name when your fury exploded at the temple," I continued, my voice calm but deep enough to reach where it hurt. "Who was she…?"
I paused. "Your lover?"
Aarav stayed silent for so long that I began to wonder if he would ever answer.
Eventually, he let out a long breath and stared straight ahead toward the children still playing with Zura in the distance. His gaze was no longer sharp or empty—but clouded, as if he were seeing a past he could never touch again.
"Yes," he said softly. "She was my girlfriend. The only reason I wanted to go home."
His voice was calm, but there was a storm brewing behind every word.
"Febby… she was the only thing that made my life feel meaningful. She wasn't someone important. Not rich. She'd been an orphan since she was little, moving from one shelter to another. But she was strong. Strong in a way I could never be."
Aarav looked down, his eyes on the ground as if searching for answers in the dust.
"I promised I'd protect her. I promised… I'd never leave her alone," he went on. "But when she told me she was pregnant… I—I ran. I panicked. I wasn't ready. I left her when she needed me the most."
The world around me felt muted. Even the children's laughter sounded like echoes from a distant place.
"I thought I could fix everything. I wanted to go back to her, to bring the courage I should've had from the start. But I was too late. When I reached that city, Febby was gone from her apartment. No one knew where she went." Aarav clenched his jaw, his voice beginning to falter. "I found her on a bridge… standing at the edge, her eyes empty."
He looked up at the sky as if holding back a weight that threatened to crush him.
"She was about to jump. I screamed and ran toward her. She hesitated for a moment… but she still jumped. And I—I followed her. I managed to catch her hand. I pulled her back to the edge, pushed her to safety…" Aarav's breath caught. "But I… I was the one swept away."
He gave a faint, bitter smile. "Funny, isn't it? I died trying to finally take responsibility… and I still failed. I couldn't even stay alive."
I swallowed hard. Carefully, I asked, "What do you mean… by taking responsibility, Aarav?"
He exhaled sharply, then looked at me—and this time, there were no more walls behind his eyes.
"In my country, getting pregnant outside marriage is a disgrace. The punishment isn't just social… it's systemic. Her scholarship was revoked. All her dreams were crushed in a single night. Not because she was weak, but because she loved the wrong person." He pointed at himself. "Me."
I stood still. There was no anger in his voice—only a deep, cutting regret.
"She lost everything because of me," Aarav continued, his voice trembling slightly. "And before I could lift that burden off her shoulders, before I could say, 'I'll make it right,' the world slammed its door on me. And now I'm stuck here."
For a moment, the world around us felt truly foreign. Even Zura, still laughing in the distance, felt like she existed in another dimension. I looked at Aarav—not as a Hero or an Astral Wanderer—but as a human being, broken by a guilt he never got the chance to redeem.
And for the first time… I understood why he was so angry. Why he rejected this place so fiercely.
Because this place wasn't home. The home was a girl named Febby. And he had left her… with a wound too deep to forgive.
We stood in silence for a while.
Then Aarav said, "Hey, Crown Prince…"
"Just call me Nio."
"Alright then, Nio. I want to ask you something."
"Hm?"
"You all said I died on Earth… but what happened to my body? I came here soaked, as if I had arrived in the exact condition I was in when I drowned. Same body, right? So, what happened to my body back on Earth? Did it split into two, or…?"
His question struck deeper than he probably realized. I sat beside him as he crouched there, and seeing my gesture, Aarav sat down as well.
"I don't know…" I answered honestly. "Many Astral Voyagers came to Midgaria through summoning rituals, and all of them... died in their original worlds. But none of them ever knew what happened to their bodies after that. No one knows if they were buried, found, or simply forgotten."
Aarav went still. His eyes stared blankly ahead, but I could tell his mind was wandering.
Then, in a soft voice—barely more than a whisper—he said, "Two years ago… someone else jumped off that same bridge. Back when it hadn't been repaired yet."
"Really?" I asked.
He nodded slowly, his face shadowed with memory. "He was my senior. A graduate student just a few months away from his master's degree. They said he was overwhelmed after a scandal involving a colleague. The news went viral at the time."
"They never found his body. I guess that bridge really is cursed," he continued, his voice barely above a whisper. "All they recovered were a few of his belongings—a figurine of an animated character, a game console, and some vouchers from a gaming platform. I just can't help but wonder... will I disappear like he did too?"
Thud.
My heart felt like it skipped a beat.
I stared at him, eyes sharp. "Aarav… where are you from?"
He raised an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden question. "Indonesia. Semarang, to be exact. Why?"
I froze.
But I didn't let it show. My face stayed composed, my eyes drifting toward the horizon as if I was merely processing an ordinary bit of information—when, in truth, it felt like something had slammed against my chest from the inside.
Semarang.
A name buried deep within the furthest corners of my mind… now surfacing again, dragging with it a thread of memory I had long tried to ignore. I inhaled slowly, carefully, so my breath wouldn't shake.
"Ah… just curious," I said lightly, masking my shock with ease.
"I've heard that Astral Voyagers come from all sorts of places on Earth. But never more than one from the same place. It's as if… Midgaria only calls one person per country at a time."
Aarav narrowed his eyes. "You know a lot of Astral Voyagers?"
I nodded slowly. "At least enough to see that all of you carry something heavy. It's as if Midgaria isn't just a place you're lost in… but either a second chance or maybe… a second punishment."
Aarav didn't respond. He only nodded faintly, his gaze still fixed on the ground, as if trying to recount every piece of a past now lost.
But I could no longer look at him the same way.
There was something about him—about his story—that felt too close. Too familiar. As if the two of us weren't just brought together by chance.
The bridge he spoke of… it might have been the same bridge.
I opened my mouth as if about to say something but stopped myself before the words came out.
My fingers curled slowly into a fist, hiding the flicker of emotion threatening to rise behind my eyes. Not now. Not yet.
Aarav was no ordinary Astral Voyager. I was beginning to understand why Midgaria had chosen him. Why did he arrive during the chaos of the failed ritual? Why, I—of all people—was the one who had to greet him at the summoning altar.
As if none of it was an accident.
And the more I listened to his story, the more certain I became… that something greater was moving beneath all of this. A thread of fate tying us together—long before I became Elenio and long before Aarav jumped from that bridge.
I just didn't know what form it would take yet.
But I would find out. Because this truth… was too big to ignore.
As I gazed at the sky slowly turning orange, I tucked everything into the corners of my heart. Not to be spoken today. Not to be shared with anyone.
Not yet.
Zura suddenly approached us, still carrying the scent of soap and the laughter of a more peaceful world. "You two look so serious," she said lightly.
I turned to her slowly, and the moment my eyes caught her silhouette—her damp hair tied carelessly, a faint smile tugging at her lips—something inside me softened.
The world, heavy and full of mystery just moments ago, suddenly felt… lighter.
I stood up quietly and walked toward her.
Without a word, I embraced her.
My height barely reached her shoulders, so when I wrapped my arms around her waist, I had to stand on tiptoe, resting my face against the warmth of her chest.
I could hear her heartbeat—steady and calm—like the rhythm I had longed for after the storm in my thoughts.
Zura seemed surprised at first, but soon, she returned the hug.
Her arms slipped gently around my back, holding me softly. Her chin rested atop my head, and I could feel the long breath she let out through my hair.
"What's wrong?" she whispered.
I said nothing.
Aarav watched us in silence.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him glance our way, then turn his gaze to the darkening sky. He didn't say a word. He didn't ask.
And for that… I was grateful.
"Sorry," I murmured so softly it barely left my lips, still wrapped in Zura's embrace. "I just… needed this for a moment."
"Alright," Zura replied in her gentle voice.
She didn't say anything else.
She simply held me a little tighter, as if to say that the world could fall apart as long as we stayed like this—warm and whole, even if just for a fleeting moment.
But, of course… the dramatic silence didn't last long.
"Uh, hate to break the mood," Aarav suddenly chimed in behind us, his tone flat but clearly amused, "but you guys do realize… I'm still here. Not some extra who's exited the stage."
Zura and I froze instantly.
I instinctively pulled away from the hug, and Zura stifled a laugh behind her hand.
I turned to Aarav, who now stood with arms crossed, watching us with a mock-serious expression.
"If you two want to have a romantic hug during sunset, that's fine," Aarav said, raising an eyebrow. "But at least give me a warning. So I can pretend to fall asleep or roll dramatically into the bushes or something."
Zura giggled immediately. I—whether from embarrassment or simply being too tired to hold it in—let out a quiet laugh as well.
"Sorry," I said, still smiling. "Forgot you were still here."
"Ouch. That hurts," Aarav replied, rubbing his chest as if wounded. "I just poured my heart out about my tragic love story back on Earth, and you go ahead and flaunt your romance like that. Do you even have a heart?"
Zura could no longer hold it in. She doubled over, laughing until her shoulders bounced.
"Don't worry, Aarav," she said between giggles. "If you're jealous, Elenio can hug you too. It's not much different from hugging a little girl."
She laughed teasingly.
I shot her a small glare. "So now you're insulting your fiancé?"
Zura kept chuckling. "But seriously, Nio, what was that about? Why did you hug me all of a sudden?"
Aarav stood up, brushing dirt off his pants. "Maybe he got paranoid after hearing my tragic love tale from Earth."
I didn't answer right away. I just stared at the grass swaying gently in the breeze of the evening.
Zura waited patiently. Aarav kept dusting off dried leaves from his trousers, though slower now.
"Let's just say that's it," I finally murmured—soft but loud enough for them to hear.
Zura looked at me, her smile slowly fading into a more tender expression.
Aarav stopped brushing off his pants and looked at me with one eyebrow raised.
"Oh, so it's true then," he said, trying to sound casual, though his voice lacked the teasing tone from earlier. "Turns out you're the sentimental type."
I looked at him for a moment, then offered a faint smile.
"Hey, Aarav. I just want to say—don't ever feel alone. I won't let you hate Midgaria. Let's find a way out of this… together."
I held out my hand.
Aarav looked stunned for a second, but then he smiled and took it.
He clicked his tongue softly—but not in annoyance. It was more of a resigned sigh.
"But next time you two want to create a scene straight out of a stage drama, give me a heads-up, will you? I'll bring popcorn."
Zura and I laughed at the same time.
A small laugh that swept away the last remnants of heaviness in our hearts.
For a moment, the world felt… enough.
Not perfect.
But enough.
Our laughter still lingered in the air when hurried footsteps suddenly approached. I turned quickly, and through the deepening twilight, a soldier appeared—breathless, his face drawn tight with urgency.
"Your Highness Elenio!" he called, saluting with one hand pressed to his chest. "Forgive the interruption, but this is… important."
My heart sank. I stood up at once, meeting his gaze with all seriousness. "What is it?"
"Commander Tavon requests your presence at the main tent," he said quickly. "There's news from the scout unit. Something… has happened."
Zura rose too, her expression turning grave in an instant. Aarav glanced at me and gave a small nod—an unspoken vow that whatever was coming, he was with me.
I cast one last glance at the sky, now swallowed by night, then turned back to the soldier. "Lead the way."
The three of us moved swiftly, weaving through the grass and the soldiers' tents, following the dirt path now lit by torches and the faint glow of magic. In the distance, the command tent gleamed with bright light—silhouettes of officers already gathering inside.
The night breeze whispered softly, carrying with it something I couldn't name. My heart beat uneasily.
And the moment I stepped into the tent, I knew… something terrible had happened.