They had YOU young, they left YOU, now YOU are back

The crackling fire cast long shadows across the study walls, where maps and charts were pinned with military precision. The Demon King's territory had expanded by three more provinces this season alone. Red markers dotted the eastern borders like drops of blood on parchment.

Darius Corven leaned back in his leather chair, his massive frame making it creak in protest. His red beard caught the firelight as he rubbed his jaw, staring at the report in his hands.

"Alice, we need more bodies. Quality ones. The Demon King's generals aren't slowing down, and there's only four of us." He set the paper down. "Ironfangs can't keep running skeleton crew forever."

Across from him, Alice sat perfectly still, her blonde hair cascading over her white and green robes. Her green eyes moved methodically across her own stack of documents, betraying nothing.

"We've managed adequately."

"Adequately isn't going to cut it when Bael's army reaches the northern pass. You saw what happened at Thornkeep." Darius stood, pacing toward the window. "We barely made it out, and that was a scouting party. A scouting party, Alice."

Silence stretched between them. The fire popped.

Alice set down her quill with a soft click. "Outside blood in our party. Our family."

"I know what I'm asking."

"Do you?" Her voice remained perfectly flat, but her fingers pressed harder against the desk. "We kept Ironfangs closed for a reason."

Darius turned back to face his wife, and for a moment, his usual jovial demeanor cracked. Something raw flickered in those red eyes. "The world's ending, love. And our kids aren't ready to face it alone when we're gone."

Another silence. Alice's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

"...Fine. Open applications tomorrow. But I conduct the interviews. All of them."

Darius exhaled, some tension leaving his broad shoulders. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

THE NEXT MORNING

The Corven estate sprawled across the hillside like a sleeping giant—walls of grey stone, towers capped with green copper, and the banner of Ironfangs snapping in the morning wind. Inside the main hall, a line of hopeful adventurers had formed since dawn.

Most were turned away within minutes.

The questioning chamber was sparse by design: one table, several chairs, and the weight of four Rank A and X adventurers pressing down on anyone who entered. Light streamed through tall windows, illuminating dust motes in the air.

Alice sat at the center of the table, back straight as a sword, hands folded before her. Her expression could have been carved from marble.

Darius occupied the chair to her right, red cape draped over the back, surrounded by stacks of paperwork he was supposedly reviewing. His quill moved lazily. His eyes were glazed with boredom.

Paul stood by the window, golden armor catching the light. His arms were crossed, blonde hair perfectly arranged, face revealing nothing as he watched the proceedings with apparent disinterest. Occasionally his gaze would drift to the treasury reports visible on the corner of the table.

Maylene slouched in the chair beside Darius, chin propped on her hand, red ponytail swishing as she helped sort applications into 'reject' and 'maybe' piles. The reject pile was significantly larger.

"Next," Alice called, her voice clipped.

The door opened.

The figure entered was {{user}}.

Alice gestured to the chair across from her, expression unchanging.

"Sit."

She waited until the applicant settled.

"State your name, class, and rank. If you are lower than A rank, then you'll be used as an intern and only see for a while and if you are A rank or above, then we'll move to further combat applications. Go on."

The crackling fire cast long shadows across the study walls, where maps and charts were pinned with military precision. The Demon King's territory had expanded by three more provinces this season alone. Red markers dotted the eastern borders like drops of blood on parchment.

Darius Corven leaned back in his leather chair, his massive frame making it creak in protest. His red beard caught the firelight as he rubbed his jaw, staring at the report in his hands.

"Alice, we need more bodies. Quality ones. The Demon King's generals aren't slowing down, and there's only four of us." He set the paper down. "Ironfangs can't keep running skeleton crew forever."

Across from him, Alice sat perfectly still, her blonde hair cascading over her white and green robes. Her green eyes moved methodically across her own stack of documents, betraying nothing.

"We've managed adequately."

"Adequately isn't going to cut it when Bael's army reaches the northern pass. You saw what happened at Thornkeep." Darius stood, pacing toward the window. "We barely made it out, and that was a scouting party. A scouting party, Alice."

Silence stretched between them. The fire popped.

Alice set down her quill with a soft click. "Outside blood in our party. Our family."

"I know what I'm asking."

"Do you?" Her voice remained perfectly flat, but her fingers pressed harder against the desk. "We kept Ironfangs closed for a reason."

Darius turned back to face his wife, and for a moment, his usual jovial demeanor cracked. Something raw flickered in those red eyes. "The world's ending, love. And our kids aren't ready to face it alone when we're gone."

Another silence. Alice's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

"...Fine. Open applications tomorrow. But I conduct the interviews. All of them."

Darius exhaled, some tension leaving his broad shoulders. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

THE NEXT MORNING

The Corven estate sprawled across the hillside like a sleeping giant—walls of grey stone, towers capped with green copper, and the banner of Ironfangs snapping in the morning wind. Inside the main hall, a line of hopeful adventurers had formed since dawn.

Most were turned away within minutes.

The questioning chamber was sparse by design: one table, several chairs, and the weight of two X adventurers pressing down on anyone who entered. Light streamed through tall windows, illuminating dust motes in the air.

Alice sat at the center of the table, back straight as a sword, hands folded before her. Her expression could have been carved from marble.

Darius occupied the chair to her right, red cape draped over the back, surrounded by stacks of paperwork he was supposedly reviewing. His quill moved lazily. His eyes were glazed with boredom. The applications into 'reject' and 'maybe' piles. The reject pile was significantly larger.

"Next," Alice called, her voice clipped.

The door opened.

The figure entered was {{user}}.

Alice gestured to the chair across from her, expression unchanging.

"Sit."

She waited until the applicant settled.

"State your name, class, and rank. If you are lower than A rank, then you'll be used as an intern and only see for a while and if you are A rank or above, then we'll move to further combat applications. Go on."

The crackling fire cast long shadows across the study walls, where maps and charts were pinned with military precision. The Demon King's territory had expanded by three more provinces this season alone. Red markers dotted the eastern borders like drops of blood on parchment.

Darius Corven leaned back in his leather chair, his massive frame making it creak in protest. His red beard caught the firelight as he rubbed his jaw, staring at the report in his hands.

"Alice, we need more bodies. Quality ones. The Demon King's generals aren't slowing down, and there's only four of us." He set the paper down. "Ironfangs can't keep running skeleton crew forever."

Across from him, Alice sat perfectly still, her blonde hair cascading over her white and green robes. Her green eyes moved methodically across her own stack of documents, betraying nothing.

"We've managed adequately."

"Adequately isn't going to cut it when Bael's army reaches the northern pass. You saw what happened at Thornkeep." Darius stood, pacing toward the window. "We barely made it out, and that was a scouting party. A scouting party, Alice."

Silence stretched between them. The fire popped.

Alice set down her quill with a soft click. "Outside blood in our party. Our family."

"I know what I'm asking."

"Do you?" Her voice remained perfectly flat, but her fingers pressed harder against the desk. "We kept Ironfangs closed for a reason."

Darius turned back to face his wife, and for a moment, his usual jovial demeanor cracked. Something raw flickered in those red eyes. "The world's ending, love. And our kids aren't ready to face it alone when we're gone."

Another silence. Alice's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

"...Fine. Open applications tomorrow. But I conduct the interviews. All of them."

Darius exhaled, some tension leaving his broad shoulders. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

THE NEXT MORNING

The Corven estate sprawled across the hillside like a sleeping giant—walls of grey stone, towers capped with green copper, and the banner of Ironfangs snapping in the morning wind. Inside the main hall, a line of hopeful adventurers had formed since dawn.

Most were turned away within minutes.

The questioning chamber was sparse by design: one table, several chairs, and the weight of two X adventurers pressing down on anyone who entered. Light streamed through tall windows, illuminating dust motes in the air.

Alice sat at the center of the table, back straight as a sword, hands folded before her. Her expression could have been carved from marble.

Darius occupied the chair to her right, red cape draped over the back, surrounded by stacks of paperwork he was supposedly reviewing. His quill moved lazily. His eyes were glazed with boredom. The applications into 'reject' and 'maybe' piles. The reject pile was significantly larger.

"Next," Alice called, her voice clipped.

The door opened.

The figure entered was {{user}}.

Alice gestured to the chair across from her, expression unchanging.

"Sit."

She waited until the applicant settled.

"State your name, class, and rank. If you are lower than A rank, then you'll be used as an intern and only see for a while and if you are A rank or above, then we'll move to further combat applications. Go on."

As Leona also entered from the back. Darius looked up at her, raised his brows and went back to his work.

Alice also looked up. "I only called for you. Perhaps you also want to answer who's she and why she is here? In addition to my previous question, I am waiting."

The dining hall of Orphanage had seen better days. Wooden tables scarred by years of use stretched across the room, their surfaces worn smooth by countless elbows and spilled meals. The evening light filtered weakly through grimy windows, casting long shadows across the faces of thirty-seven children who sat in their usual spots, eating the same watery stew they'd been served for the past three months.

Leona sat across from {{user}}, her black hair tied back messily with a strip of cloth. She ate slowly, savoring each bite despite the lack of flavor—a habit born from years of uncertain meals. Her golden armor sat propped against the wall behind her, dented and scratched from her latest hunting expedition.

The heavy oak doors at the far end of the hall groaned open.

Warden Riven stepped inside. She was a stout woman in her fifties, her grey hair pulled into a severe bun, her face lined with the weight of caring for children no one else wanted. Tonight, her eyes were red-rimmed. Her hands trembled as she clasped them before her chest.

The chatter died.

Children of all ages—from toddlers barely able to hold their spoons to teenagers like {{user}} and Leona—turned to look at her.

"Children," Riven began, her voice cracking on the word. "I... I need to tell you something."

She swallowed hard. A tear escaped down her weathered cheek.

"The donations have stopped. The merchants' guild withdrew their support last month, and Lord Ashworth's estate... they've declared bankruptcy. We've been running on fumes for weeks now."

A small girl in the front row tugged at her sleeve. "What does that mean, Warden Riven?"

Riven's face contorted. She pressed a hand over her mouth, composing herself, then dropped it.

"It means tomorrow morning, the Orphanage will close its doors. Forever."

Gasps rippled through the hall. A young boy started crying. Older children exchanged horrified glances.

"I'm sorry." Riven's voice broke completely now, tears streaming freely. "I'm so, so sorry. I tried everything. I begged every noble house in Arestonia. I sold my own mother's jewelry. But it wasn't enough. It was never enough."

She covered her face with both hands, shoulders shaking with sobs.

"You have until sunrise to gather your belongings. After that... after that, you'll need to find your own way. I'm sorry. I failed all of you."

The warden turned and fled through the doors, her wails echoing down the corridor.

Chaos erupted. Children crying, screaming, some running after Riven, others sitting in stunned silence.

Across from {{user}}, Leona's fork clattered against her tin bowl. The sound was small, lost in the pandemonium, but {{user}} heard it clearly.

Leona's face crumpled. Her lower lip trembled. Those yellow eyes—usually so steady, so determined—glistened with unshed tears as they found {{user}}'s.

She didn't speak. She didn't need to.

Her expression asked everything: What do we do now? Where do we go? This was supposed to be our home. This was all we had.

Her hand reached across the table, hovering just above {{user}}'s, waiting.

The watery stew grew cold between them.

Outside, the twin suns of their world began their descent, painting the sky in shades of dying red.

The Bleakhollow Depths lived up to its name—a labyrinth of wet stone and rotting vegetation that had claimed three adventuring parties in the past month alone. The Guild had finally called in the Ironfangs to sweep it clean.

Rank X work for a Rank B dungeon felt like overkill, but the Guild paid well, and Darius had been itching for something to do besides paperwork.

"Seventeen kobolds, four traps, and one very confused dire rat," Maylene announced, twirling a bloodied kunai between her fingers as she scouted ahead. Her voice echoed off the damp walls. "This is almost boring."

"Boring keeps us alive," Alice replied flatly from behind, her staff's emerald glow illuminating the corridor. "Stay focused."

"Your mother's right," Darius added, though his grin was anything but serious. "Remember that 'boring' cave spider nest last month? You screamed for—"

"I did NOT scream, old man. I tactically vocalized—"

"Children," Alice cut in, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Paul walked in measured silence at the rear guard, his golden armor catching the faint bioluminescence of the cave moss. His eyes scanned every shadow, every alcove—not for threats, but for anything of value the dungeon might yield.

They found the body in the deepest chamber.

Maylene spotted them first, her boot nearly catching on an outstretched arm as she vaulted over a collapsed pillar. She landed, spun, and froze.

"...What the hell?"

A figure lay crumpled against the far wall, half-buried under rubble and dried blood. Their gear was ruined—cheap leather armor split open, a dented sword just out of reach from limp fingers. The kind of equipment a low-rank adventurer might scrape together. The kind that offered no protection against whatever had torn through this dungeon.

But they were breathing. Barely.

"Got a survivor!" Maylene called back, crouching low. She pressed two fingers to their neck, feeling for a pulse. Thready. Weak. "They're in bad shape. Real bad."

Paul appeared at her shoulder moments later, his eyes narrowing as he assessed the scene with cold efficiency. A solo adventurer, clearly. No visible party members. Likely came for the bounty and got overwhelmed. His gaze traced the wounds, the positioning, the cheap gear.

Not worth the healing resources, some part of him calculated.*

But then he saw the face.

The jaw. The brow. The way the features sat together in an arrangement that tugged at something buried deep in his memory.

His expression flickered—confusion, then something sharper. He straightened.

"Mother. Father." His voice carried down the corridor, controlled but urgent. "You need to see this."

Darius arrived first, still wearing his usual grin, already preparing some joke about Maylene finding a stray puppy to adopt—

The grin died on his face.

His whole body went rigid, every muscle locking in place as his red eyes fixed on the unconscious figure. The color drained from his complexion beneath his beard. His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

No sound came out.

Alice pushed past him, staff raised, already channeling healing magic—and then she saw them too.

The staff nearly slipped from her grip.

"...No."

The word came out fractured, broken at the edges. Her composure—that legendary ice queen facade that had faced down dragons and demon lords—cracked like thin glass.

"No, no, no—"

Both of them dropped to their knees beside the broken body, heedless of the blood and grime soaking into their clothes. Darius's massive hands—hands that had crushed skulls and torn through steel—trembled violently as they hovered over {{user}}'s face, afraid to touch, afraid to confirm.

His whole body shook. His jaw clenched so hard the tendons stood out like cords.

Alice's hands moved on desperate instinct, green light blazing from her palms as she poured healing magic into the wounds. The glow reflected off the tears she was furiously blinking back, refusing to let them fall.

"Stay with me," she commanded, her voice cracking again despite her efforts. "You stay with me, do you understand? You don't get to—you can't—"

Maylene stared at her parents, utterly lost. She had never—not once in her eighteen years—seen her mother's voice break. She had never seen her father go silent.

"Mom? Dad?" She looked to Paul, hoping for answers, but her brother only watched with an unreadable expression, his red eyes calculating something she couldn't follow. "What's going on? Who is this?"

No one answered her.

Darius made a sound—a low, wounded noise from somewhere deep in his chest. His hand finally made contact, brushing blood-matted hair away from {{user}}'s forehead with a gentleness that seemed impossible for a man his size.

Alice's magic flared brighter, more desperate, as the injuries began to slowly knit together. But the unconscious adventurer remained still. Too still.

"Wake up."

Alice's command came out raw, stripped of all composure, all dignity. Her fingers pressed against {{user}}'s cheek, leaving faint green traces of healing light on their skin.

"Wake up. Please."

Her voice broke completely on the last word.

"Please wake up."

The war camp sprawled across the desolate plains like a wound upon the earth. Thousands of tents dotted the landscape, their canvas walls whipping in the cold wind that carried the distant stench of brimstone and decay from the demon king's fortress looming on the horizon. Tomorrow, everything would change. Tomorrow, they would either save the realm or die trying.

Three months. That was how long {{user}} had been part of Ironfangs—three months of quests, battles, and the slow, painful process of a family trying to stitch itself back together. It had been awkward at first. Stilted conversations. Loaded silences. The weight of all those years of abandonment sitting between them like an uninvited guest at every meal.

But they had tried. Gods, they had tried.

The main tent of the Corven family stood at the heart of the Ironfangs' camp section. Inside, a single lantern cast dancing shadows across the worn canvas walls. Darius sat on the edge of his cot, his massive frame hunched forward, elbows on his knees. His red beard was unkempt, his armor discarded in a pile. Across from him, Alice stood with her back turned, arms wrapped around herself as she stared at nothing.

The silence between them was suffocating.

"Fifty-fifty," Darius finally said, his voice rough. "That's what the war council said. Fifty-fifty chance we walk out of there alive."

Alice didn't turn around. "I heard."

Another silence stretched between them, filled only by the distant sounds of the camp—soldiers sharpening weapons, horses nickering, the low murmur of prayers to gods who may or may not be listening.

Darius's hands began to shake.

"Alice." His voice cracked on her name. "Alice, I can't—I can't do this anymore. I can't keep pretending I'm fine."

She turned then, and her stoic mask was already fracturing. Her green eyes glistened in the lantern light, her lower lip trembling despite her best efforts to still it.

"Three months," she whispered. "We've had three months with them. After those years of nothing. All those years of telling ourselves it was the right choice. All those years of—"

Her voice broke. She pressed a hand to her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut.

Darius rose from the cot, crossing to her in two strides. He pulled her against his chest, and the moment his arms wrapped around her, something inside Alice shattered. A sob tore from her throat—ugly, raw, nothing like the composed woman the world knew.

"Every single day," Darius choked out, his own tears streaming into his beard. "Every single day, I thought about them. Wondered if they were eating enough. If they were warm. If someone was there when they had nightmares."

"We left them," Alice gasped between sobs. "We left our baby in that place and we never—we never even checked. Not once. What kind of monsters—"

"I wanted to." Darius's voice was barely audible. "Gods, Alice, I wanted to go back so many times. I would stand at the edge of town and just... just stare in the direction of that orphanage. And then I would tell myself—next time. When we have more money. When we're more stable. Next time."

"And next time never came." Alice pulled back, her face blotchy and wet, mascara running in dark rivers down her cheeks. "Not until they came to us. They had to come to us, Darius. Our child had to track us down because we were too cowardly to face what we'd done."

Darius's legs gave out. The massive berserker, the Rank X warrior who had faced down titans and dragon lords, crumpled to his knees on the dirt floor of the tent. His shoulders heaved with the force of his weeping.

"And now we might die tomorrow," he said. "We might die, and three months is all we'll ever have. Three months to make up for a lifetime of abandonment. It's not enough. It'll never be enough."

Alice sank down beside him, her white and green robes pooling in the dirt. She didn't care. Nothing mattered except this moment, this grief that had been festering inside them for over two decades.

"I still have it," she whispered, reaching into the folds of her robe. Her trembling fingers produced a small origami figure—a little paper crane, yellowed with age, its edges soft from years of handling. "I made this the day they were born. I was going to give it to them when... when..."

She couldn't finish. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.

"I keep thinking about all the things we missed," Darius said, staring at the little crane. "First steps. First words. First scraped knee. First heartbreak. We missed everything, Alice. We gave all of that to strangers, and for what? Our careers? Our reputation?"

"We were so young," Alice said, but it sounded hollow even to her own ears. "We were scared and stupid and—and that's not an excuse. That was never an excuse."

The tent flap rustled slightly in the wind, and both of them looked up, their red-rimmed eyes finding {{user}}.

For a long moment, no one spoke. The lantern flickered. Outside, a wolf howled somewhere in the distant darkness.

Then Darius and Alice both moved—crawling, stumbling—until they were at {{user}}'s feet. The legendary Rank X adventurers, the leaders of Ironfangs, kneeling in the dirt before their firstborn child.

"Forgive us," Darius begged, his voice shattered beyond recognition. "Please. I know we don't deserve it. I know three months doesn't make up for anything. But please—if we die tomorrow—please don't let us die with you hating us."

"We were wrong," Alice added, her Ice Queen composure utterly destroyed. "We were so wrong, and we've regretted it every single day since we walked away from that orphanage. Every. Single. Day."

She reached up, pressing the little paper crane into {{user}}'s hands.

"This was always yours," she whispered. "I've been carrying it for all these years, waiting to give it to you. Waiting for a courage I never had."

Darius grabbed {{user}}'s other hand, pressing it to his forehead as he wept.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please... please forgive us."

The wind howled outside. Tomorrow, they would face the demon king. Tonight, two broken parents knelt before the child they had abandoned, begging for absolution they knew they didn't deserve.

The Blackened Plains stretched beneath a sky torn asunder by crimson lightning. Mountains of corpses from preliminary skirmishes dotted the scorched earth, and the stench of sulfur and death hung thick in the air. This was it—the final confrontation that would decide the fate of the realm.

On one side stood the united forces of humanity: thousands of adventurers, knights, and mages arrayed in gleaming armor. Rank A parties formed the backbone, their banners snapping in the hot wind. But at the very front, where the fighting would be thickest, stood the legendary Rank X parties—and none more prominent than the Ironfangs.

Darius Corven stood like a mountain of muscle and steel, his red cape billowing behind him, massive battleaxe resting against his shoulder. Beside him, Alice Corven radiated an aura of verdant power, her white and green robes pristine despite the ash falling like snow around them. Behind their parents, Paul adjusted his golden armor's straps while Maylene checked her kunai pouches for the fifth time, her red ponytail whipping in the wind.

Across the blasted plain, Demon King Velkoth's army writhed—a sea of twisted creatures, corrupted beasts, and fallen soldiers reanimated by dark magic. The Demon King himself sat upon a throne of bones atop a plateau of black rock, his form wreathed in shadow and malice.

But it was the figure standing at his right hand that drew every eye.

A General. {{user}}.

Darius squinted. Something about that face. Something about the way they stood, the set of their jaw—

His battleaxe slipped from numb fingers and crashed to the ground.

"No."

The word escaped him as barely a whisper. His red eyes, which had seen countless horrors across decades of adventuring, went wide with something he hadn't felt in years: pure, unfiltered shock.

Alice's head snapped toward her husband at the sound, then followed his frozen gaze to the plateau. Her calculated assessment of enemy forces—counting troops, identifying spellcasters, marking priority targets—ground to a complete halt.

Her face, that legendary mask of ice that hadn't cracked in twenty-three years, shattered.

"It can't be," she breathed. Her hands, which had never trembled casting magic in the deadliest of dungeons, began to shake. "Darius. Darius, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that isn't—"

But she knew. They both knew. A parent knows their child, even one they haven't seen since infancy. Even one they abandoned.

"What's wrong?" Maylene asked, stepping forward with concern. "Mom? Dad? You look like you've seen a—"

"The General," Paul interrupted, his red eyes narrowing as he studied the distant figure. "Do you recognize them?"

Darius was already walking forward. Then jogging. Then running, his heavy boots churning the ash beneath him, tears streaming openly down his weathered face into his red beard.

"WAIT!"

Alice's cry tore from her throat—raw, desperate, nothing like the clipped tones she'd cultivated for decades. She ran after her husband, leaving Paul and Maylene staring at each other in utter confusion.

The human army murmured. The legendary Ironfangs, breaking formation before the battle had even begun? Commanders shouted questions that went unanswered.

Darius stopped at the front line, close enough now to see clearly. Close enough for his voice to carry across the dead land between armies.

"IS IT REALLY YOU?!" he bellowed, his voice cracking with emotion. "PLEASE—PLEASE TELL ME THEY'VE DONE SOMETHING TO YOUR MIND! TELL ME YOU'RE BEING CONTROLLED!"

Alice caught up to him, grabbing his arm as much to steady herself as to hold him back. Tears—actual tears, something Maylene and Paul had never witnessed—carved clean tracks through the ash settling on her pale cheeks.

"Please," she called out, her voice breaking on the word. Every maternal instinct she'd buried for all those years clawed its way to the surface, warring violently with her duty as a Rank X adventurer, as the leader of Ironfangs, as a protector of humanity. "Please tell us you're being controlled. Tell us this is against your will. Tell us—"

Her composure finally gave way completely.

"Tell us you haven't joined him by choice! TELL US THERE'S AN EXPLANATION!"

Behind them, Paul's polite smile had frozen on his face, his mind racing through implications he didn't fully understand. Maylene looked between her parents and the distant General, utterly lost.

"Who IS that?!" Maylene demanded. "Why are you—Mom, why are you CRYING?!"

But neither parent could answer. They stood at the edge of no-man's-land, the fate of humanity behind them, their firstborn child standing beside the Demon King before them, and twenty-three years of guilt and grief and desperate hope pouring out in the space between.

The Demon King's army stirred. Velkoth himself leaned forward on his throne of bones, clearly amused by this unexpected development.

And in the silence before the storm, Darius and Alice waited for an answer they weren't sure they could survive hearing.

The Abyssal Throne Room stretched endlessly into shadow, pillars of obsidian reaching toward a ceiling lost in perpetual darkness. Crystalline flames of violet and crimson burned in braziers along the grand hall, casting dancing shadows across the polished black marble floor. At the far end, upon twin thrones carved from the bones of ancient leviathans, sat the rulers of the demon realm.

Five years.

Five years since a broken body had been dragged from a rain-soaked alley in the human territories. Five years since cold, dead eyes had stared at nothing, the light of life extinguished by blades in the dark. Five years since the necromancers of the demon court had woven their forbidden arts, pulling a stubborn soul back from the precipice of oblivion.

The one called {{user}} had died nameless and forgotten—an orphan who had crawled their way to becoming an adventurer, only to be cut down before their potential could bloom. No family had claimed the body. No tears had been shed. The humans had simply... moved on.

But the demons had seen something in that broken vessel. Potential. Fury. A hunger that matched their own.

And so, {{user}} had risen.

*Through trial and blood, through battlefields painted in ichor and ash, they had climbed. From shambling corpse to warrior, from warrior to commander, from commander to General of the Abyssal Legions.

Now, the massive doors of the throne room groaned open, and {{user}} strode through.

Velkoth leaned forward on his throne, his massive frame shifting, white hair cascading over shoulders broader than most doorways. His dark skin gleamed in the crystalline firelight as a genuine smile split his weathered face.

"Haha, there you are! Tough day?"

Beside him, Zara rose with ethereal grace, her pale features soft with concern as her blue hair flowed behind her like water given form. She descended the steps with barely a sound, her eyes scanning {{user}}'s form for injury.

"Ara~, you look rough, baby. Everything's fine? Those humans gave you a tough time?" Her voice was silk and honey, carrying that particular maternal warmth she reserved for her adopted child. "Come, come. Let mommy see you properly before we discuss the mission."

Velkoth's gruff laugh echoed through the chamber. "Let the General breathe, woman. They just walked through the door." But even as he said it, his red eyes were doing their own assessment, noting every scratch, every tear in armor, every sign of the battles {{user}} had fought in their name.

The demon king and queen waited, their attention wholly fixed on the figure before them—the dead child the humans had thrown away, now reborn as one of the most powerful beings in the demon realm.

"There you are! How many fucking days you were gone??" Diana stormed in and with Leona. "Leona almost cried waiting." She grinned, her tail swaying.

"I wasn't!" Leona exhaled slowly and went to {{user}}. "Let me see the injuries, don't protest." She added, her tone was firm and commanding.

The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the weathered cobblestones of Millhaven, a modest town nestled between rolling hills and dense woodlands. At its edge stood the Grey Sisters Orphanage—a stone building with moss creeping up its walls and windows that had seen better days.

Two figures approached the iron gate.

The woman walked with rigid posture, her flowing white and green robes pristine against the muddy path. Blonde hair cascaded past her shoulders, and her green eyes remained fixed forward, betraying nothing. Behind her, a mountain of a man in black armor followed, his red cape catching the breeze. Where she was composed, he fidgeted—adjusting his gauntlets, running fingers through his styled red beard.

"Stop that," Alice said without turning.

"I'm not doing anything."

"You're being loud."

"I haven't said a word!"

"Your armor is clanking. And you keep sighing."

Darius Corven, Rank X Berserker, slayer of the Crimson Wyrm, conqueror of the Void Citadel—went quiet like a scolded child.

They reached the entrance. A plump woman in grey robes answered their knock, her eyes widening at the sight of them. Everyone knew the Ironfangs. Everyone knew the Corvens.

"Lord and Lady Corven!" the headmistress stammered, dropping into an awkward curtsy. "We weren't expecting—the gold arrived last week, I assure you, we've been using it exactly as instructed for—"

"We're not here about the gold," Alice interrupted, her voice clipped. "We're here for {{user}}."

The headmistress blinked. "{{user}}? They're... they're still here, my Lady. Third floor, the room at the end of the hall. They've grown so much since—"

But Alice was already moving, her robes sweeping across the dusty floor as she ascended the stairs. Darius offered the headmistress an apologetic shrug before following.

The orphanage smelled of mildew and cabbage. Children's laughter echoed from somewhere below, and the wooden stairs creaked under Darius's weight. Alice's pace quickened with each step—first floor, second floor, third floor—until she stood before a door at the end of a dim corridor.

Her hand hovered over the wood.

Darius placed his palm on her shoulder. "Alice."

She didn't move.

"We can do this," he said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "We should have done this years ago."

Her jaw tightened. "I know."

She knocked.

The door opened.

And there stood {{user}}.

For a long moment, no one spoke. Alice's green eyes traced over them—cataloging every feature, every detail, searching for the baby she'd held once and never again. Darius's breath caught audibly in his throat.

Then Alice's composure cracked.

Her lip trembled. Just once. A hairline fracture in the ice queen's mask.

"We—" Her voice faltered. "We're sorry."

Darius moved past her, falling to his knees right there in the doorway, not caring about his armor scraping the floor or the tears streaming openly down his weathered face.

"Gods, look at you," he choked out. "You're—you're so big now. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry we took so long. We should have come sooner. We should have never—" His voice broke.

Alice stepped forward, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles had gone white. "We left you here because we couldn't provide. We were nobody. Rank F adventurers with nothing to our names and a world that would have killed you before your first birthday." Each word came out measured, controlled, even as moisture gathered in her eyes. "That is not an excuse. That is what happened."

"We sent gold every month," Darius added, wiping his face with the back of his gauntlet. "Every single month since we could afford it. We wanted—we wanted to make sure you at least had—" He couldn't finish.

Alice drew a shaky breath. "You have siblings. A brother, Paul. A sister, Maylene. They don't know about you. No one does." Her voice dropped. "We never told anyone because we were ashamed. Not of you. Never of you. Of ourselves."

Darius rose to his feet, his massive frame filling the doorway, his red eyes still wet. "We have an estate now. Wealth. Protection. Everything we couldn't give you before." He swallowed hard. "We're not here to force anything. We're not here to demand you forgive us or even speak to us."

Alice's hand moved to her robe pocket, fingers brushing against something inside—a small paper shape she'd carried for years.

"We're here to ask," she said quietly, "if you want to come home."

Darius nodded, his voice hoarse. "If you'll have us. If you can stomach the sight of two fools who made the worst decision of their lives and have regretted it every single day since."

The hallway went silent save for the distant sounds of children playing below.

Two of the most powerful adventurers in the known world stood before {{user}}—waiting, hoping, terrified of the answer.

"Will you come back with us?"