It was a quiet night at the outskirts, weeks before the fire.
The squad camped in the ruins of an old watchtower, sheltering from a cold, biting wind. Kael and Vera were asleep, their snores harmonizing in their tents. Olin was meditating near the entrance; a projected scroll opened in front of him.
Regius sat by the embers, polishing his sword with a rhythmic, meditative scrape of whetstone on steel. Milo was on watch, sitting on a crumbling wall, staring at a dark forest.
"You awake, Boss?" Milo asked.
"Always."
He hopped down and walked to the bonfire. He didn't have his usual comedic grin. The firelight caught the lines of exhaustion etched around his eyes.
"Hey, uhm. I need a favor. If that's okay with you." Milo poked the embers with a stick. Sparks spiraled up into the night.
"Spit it out."
"If… if I don't make it in this assignment."
Regius sighed, lowering the whetstone. "Milo, don't start this. We're just clearing a Rank 1 monster nest tomorrow. You'll be fine."
"Just listen," Milo said. "This life, we gamble it every day. I'm not like you, Boss. I'm not a son of a powerful noble or a wealthy businessman. I'm just a guy with a cute black cat, a loving wife and son, and a mortgage."
He looked Regius in the eye.
"If I punch out. Promise me you'll look after them. Sarra and Tavus."
"You know I would. You don't need me to promise that; we'll all do it."
"Not the others. You, Boss. You have the means…"
"I promise," Regius said.
Milo nodded, satisfied. Then he frowned, looking back at the darkness of the woods.
"And Tavus… he talks about joining the War Camp a lot lately. He wants to be a hero, like you."
"He has potential. I see it in his eyes."
"He has a soft heart," Milo said. "He's not built for the war machine. I've seen things out here... things I don't want in his head. I don't want him to wake up screaming like I do."
Milo looked back at Regius, his expression pleading.
"If I'm gone... don't let him become a soldier just to honor a ghost. If he wants to be a scholar, or a bakery chef, or a damn musician... you make sure he knows he has a choice. Promise me you won't let him throw his life away trying to be me."
Regius looked at the man. A father who just wanted his son to be safe and have a future.
"I promise. He will have a choice."
———
The memory faded, dissolved by the scent of burning timber and blood.
Regius stood in the backyard of the ruined house. The silence was deafening. The bodies of the mercenaries lay strewn across the grass like broken toys, their armor destroyed by starlight and gravity.
The shock of the battle was wearing off, replaced by the jagged edge of adrenaline and grief.
"Why?"
The word cracked like a whip. Kael turned on Regius. His sword was dropped, but his fists were clenched so tight his gauntlets creaked.
"Why did you hide it?!" Kael asked. "We spent two years bleeding in the mud. We took contracts that nearly killed us!"
"Kael…" Vera warned, stepping forward.
"No!" Kael shouted, pointing at the carnage around them. "Look at this! He cleared a small army in like ten minutes! He deleted Rank 3 summoners like they were nothing! We were fighting for our lives, worrying every single day that one wrong step would end us, and he was... what? Playing pretend?"
"It… it wasn't a game," Regius said, his face turning pale.
"Then what was it?" Olin stepped up beside Kael. The mage was shaking. "You told us you wanted to train your body, to not rely on your overpowered summon. You said you needed to learn the basics. It was all bullshit, wasn't it?"
"I was protecting you!" Regius yelled back. The control he had maintained for so long shattered. "Do you think I wanted to hide? Do you think I enjoyed watching you bleed?"
He gestured to his own chest, to the place where the Star Mark lay hidden.
"If the royals knew what I was... if the crown finds out... the execution squads wouldn't just come for me. They would come for everyone I ever spoke to. They would burn this entire town to ensure the secret died."
Regius was trembling. The tears he had suppressed during the fight finally spilled over.
"I kept the secret to keep you safe. And because I—I hesitated... because I tried to keep the mask on for one second too long... Milo... Milo is dead."
"That's right," Kael spat. "He's dead. Because of—."
SMACK.
The sound of flesh hitting flesh rang out. Kael's head snapped to the side.
Vera stood there, her hand raised. She turned and slapped Olin across the face, knocking his glasses aside.
"Shut up," Vera snarled. "Both of you."
Kael touched his cheek, stunned. "Vera?"
"Look at him!" Vera screamed, pointing at Regius.
Regius had fallen to his knees. He was curled in on himself, clutching his hair, sobbing into the dirt. He didn't look like a monster. He looked like a seventeen-year-old boy who had just watched his world end.
"He's a kid for fuck's sake," Vera said, her voice breaking. "We were the ones hired to protect him, remember? The High Lord gave us that order. 'Guard my son.' And what did we do? We let him carry the weight of the entire world for two years while we patted ourselves on the back."
She walked over to Regius. She dropped to her knees in the mud, ignoring the blood that soaked her trousers.
"I killed him," Regius choked out. "It's my fault."
Vera wrapped her massive arms around him. She pulled him into her chest, rocking him like a child.
"No," Vera whispered. "You didn't."
"I-I hesitated..."
"Milo made a choice," Vera said, staring Kael down over Regius's shoulder. "He saw his wife in danger. He saw his son. He didn't think about you or your secret. That was his sacrifice, Regius. Don't steal that from him by making it about your guilt."
Kael stared at them. The anger drained out of him, leaving him hollow. He looked at Milo's body, then at the boy weeping in Vera's arms.
He realized the truth. Regius hadn't been mocking them. He was just terrified. He had lived in a cage of his own making, terrified that opening the door would kill the people he loved.
And he was right.
"I'm sorry." Kael walked over and knelt beside them. He placed a heavy hand on Regius's back. "Regius... I'm sorry. I was scared. Seeing you like that... it terrified me."
"Me too," Olin joined the huddle. "We were out of line, Boss. We're just... we're just hurting."
Regius looked up. His eyes were red, his face streaked with grime. But he saw them. They weren't looking at him with fear anymore. They were looking at him with grief, and pity, and love.
"We're a family," Vera said. "Broken or not, we stay together."
Regius nodded, leaning into their support. For several moments, the crushing weight of the Celestial Order lifted. He was just Regius.
"Did you kill them?"
The voice was small but hard as iron.
The squad broke apart. Regius wiped his face and turned.
Tavus stood on the porch. His cheeks were marred with his tears. He was clutching the iron dagger Regius had bought him, his knuckles white. Beside him, Sarra sat on the steps, staring at the burning house with the thousand-yard stare of a war widow.
"Did you kill them?" Tavus repeated. "All of them?"
Regius stood up. "Yes."
Tavus nodded. A cold resolve settled in his eyes, a look that didn't belong on the face of a fourteen-year-old.
"Good."
Regius felt a chill. He remembered the promise. 'Don't let him become a soldier.' But looking at Tavus now, seeing the way the boy gripped the dagger, Regius knew the promise was already broken. Milo's death had drafted him.
Sarra looked up. She wiped her face, smearing soot across her cheek. She had the clarity of someone who had lost everything and realized she had nothing left to lose.
"Regius," she said. Her voice was eerily steady. "What is the plan?"
Regius looked at her. He looked at the squad waiting for his order. He looked at the carnage in the street, the wreckage of the home, and the collateral damage of a game played by men in high towers who thought the borderlands were just lines on a map.
He realized then that "The Iron Swords" could not fix this. A Hunter squad could not fight a Noble House. They could kill assassins, yes, but they couldn't kill the money that sent them.
To win this, he needed something more.
"Our mission is done," Regius said.
He reached into his Sigil Link, keying a sequence into his smart band, and a heavy mana-encrypted communication crystal appeared on his hand. It was a device he hadn't used in two years, a direct line to a power he had hidden himself from.
He activated it. Silence lingered as the crystal rang.
The crystal hummed. A holographic crest projected into the night air—a vertical silver sword pointing upward on a field of midnight blue, topped by a golden star.
The Zenith Blade.
The image flickered, then resolved into the face of a man who looked like an older, harder version of Regius.
High Lord Magnus Aethel.
The squad's eyes widened seeing the projection. They fell to one knee.
The High Lord looked at the projection. He saw the blood on his son's face.
"Regius?" Magnus's voice was tight with immediate alarm. "What happened?"
Regius looked at his father.
"They've gone too far, Father."