Chapter 9 – The Stranger at the Gate
She had been given three days.
But inside Saloni, it was as if the decision had already been made that very first day.
That night, while all the girls were in their rooms, talking softly, some worrying about the new rules, some scared of losing their bodyguards, some anxious about their future rank… Saloni was sitting on her mat, staring up at the ceiling.
"Why should I stay here?"
For the first time, her mind asked the question clearly.
Cold academy walls, harsh stares, rules, hits, taunts… and on top of that, this new rule that now she would have to fight as a student instead of a bodyguard.
Sometimes she felt, it wasn't all bad; maybe this was what she wanted—that people would stop seeing her as just a "servant."
But then another voice inside would say, *I don't belong here. I am from the orphanage streets… my place is there.*
That night, before sleeping, Priya had come to her.
"Saloni… if you're not here, then I…"
She couldn't even finish the sentence, her eyes had filled with tears.
Saloni had forced a smile and said,
"We still have three days. We'll see. Just… don't cry."
But both of them knew it was a fake comfort.
The dream that came that night was strange too.
She felt like she was standing at the base of a tall mountain, with a dark shadow hanging above, and a voice kept repeating only one thing—
"Strength… or running away. Which will you choose?"
Even in her sleep, Saloni had clenched her fists.
The next morning she didn't argue, didn't create any drama.
On the first of the three days, she quietly watched how the girls talked to their bodyguards, how some tried to stop them from leaving, some counted money, some ended up in arguments.
The second day, registration started. Two or three bodyguards gathered courage and filled the form.
By the time the third morning came, something inside Saloni felt tired.
"I don't belong here… and these people are not mine," she decided.
Priya was still sleeping when Saloni picked up her thin little bag.
There wasn't much inside—two sets of clothes she had brought from the orphanage, and one crumpled old photograph where she was small, standing with the other kids.
Soft sunlight was slipping into the room through the window.
Priya's breathing was slow and calm, as if she had no idea that when she opened her eyes, the bed across from her would be empty.
Saloni stood there for a few moments, just looking at her.
"Should I tell her? Wake her up? Or just leave without saying anything?"
The heart said, *Wake her. Don't hide anything.*
The mind said, *Don't wake her. If you do, these feet won't move.*
In the end, she did what she always did—took the pain and kept it inside.
She turned towards the door, walked slowly, opened the latch with care, and stepped out of the room.
It was morning inside the academy. The corridors were not that crowded yet.
Somewhere she could hear water running, somewhere laughter, somewhere the scraping sound of a broom on the floor.
For the first and last time, Saloni tried to see this place like a home… but to her, it was only a cold building where warmth had never really reached her share.
While walking down the stairs, she was thinking—
"The smell of mud in the orphanage… that small courtyard… it might be broken and ugly but at least it was mine.
Here… everything shines, but nothing is mine."
She knew the way to the main gate very well. On the first day, when they had brought everyone inside, everything had felt new and strange.
Today, she was walking on that same path alone—no one holding her hand.
When she came up from the underground area, she felt the sharp touch of sunlight on her skin after many days.
On normal days there were two guards at the gate, and today too they were there, standing a bit lazily, as if no one had really been allowed to leave yet.
Saloni stopped when she saw them from a distance.
"If I say I want to go, will they stop me? Or will they just write my name and let me walk out?"
She tried to steady her heartbeat and moved forward.
As she got closer to the gate, she felt something strange—
Right outside, on the other side of the metal bars, someone was standing.
At first, she thought it must be some guardian who had come to visit, or maybe some delivery person.
But the more she walked, the more she felt a light pressure on her chest—as if the air had suddenly become heavier.
The guards were also looking straight out, their eyes a little alert, a little hesitant.
Saloni came to stand right in front of the gate and looked outside—and that's when she saw him for the first time.
A young man was standing on the road outside the gate.
Plain black coat, light fabric underneath, hands clasped behind his back.
His face was so clear and well-cut that at first glance, it felt like some prince from an old storybook had stepped out and was now standing on the road.
But the most striking thing about him wasn't his face—it was his presence.
Saloni genuinely felt like she was standing in front of a mountain.
Tall, calm, but if it moved, everything around would move.
His gaze slipped through the iron bars straight into Saloni's eyes and stayed there.
No smile, no anger—just a quiet, cold curiosity.
One of the guards asked in a formal tone, "Who do you want to meet?"
The man's eyes didn't leave Saloni. He simply said,
"The one who wants to walk out from inside… I'm here for them."
The guard looked at him, then at Saloni, a little stunned.
"Who? Give a name—"
Saloni suddenly spoke,
"I… I want to go out."
Both guards turned to her.
"Where?" one of them asked.
"Back to the orphanage," Saloni answered in a plain tone, like it was an old, fixed truth.
"My work here is finished."
The guard thought for a moment, then said,
"The final lists aren't out yet. But if you want to give up your bodyguard post, then… we'll need approval from above—"
The man outside the gate spoke in a low but clear voice,
"Let her go. She will come back."
The voice was simple, but the strange certainty in his tone sounded like he had already seen the future.
The guards looked at each other. Maybe they recognized him, or maybe his presence alone told them he wasn't someone ordinary.
The older one opened the gate latch just enough for Saloni to walk out.
Saloni hesitated for a moment, then stepped across the gate.
As soon as she breathed in the air outside, she felt a strange lightness… and at the same time, a strange fear.
The internal noise of the academy faded behind her, and ahead there was only the open sky and a long road.
She had planned to walk past the man, leaving some space between them, but somehow her feet chose the wrong direction—they carried her right to a stop in front of him.
He looked her up and down once, then asked,
"So you're the one. But where are you going? You're not running away, are you?"
Saloni frowned.
"No, I'm not running. I'm just going back to where I came from."
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Name?"
"Saloni," she answered shortly. "And who are you?"
Instead of replying directly, he glanced a little to the side and said,
"More important than a name is the effect a person has on the world around them. What will my name give you?"
Saloni got irritated.
"I don't need anything. I just want to leave this place. Will you move from the way?"
She tried to step to the side, but the man didn't move.
He stood there like a stone planted in the road that wouldn't be shifted easily.
"You really think," he said in a calm voice,
"that by going outside, you'll change your life?"
Saloni answered quickly,
"At least that place won't remind me every second that I'm weaker than everyone else."
A small spark appeared in his eyes.
"Weak… or different?"
Saloni pressed her lips together.
"When everyone calls you weak, what difference does it make what you really are?"
For a few moments, both stayed silent.
The air was a little cold, somewhere a bird called, and from inside the academy, a bell rang—some class was starting.
The man asked again,
"What will you gain at the orphanage?"
"People who are mine," Saloni replied without thinking.
"Two meals a day. Kids who know me. And my own childhood memories."
"And there," he said in a low voice, "you'll never become stronger than anyone.
You'll just be a girl… who is alive. That's all."
Saloni cut in,
"Being alive is enough. Not everyone has to become great in battles."
For the first time, he looked straight into her eyes and said,
"But you're not 'like everyone else'. And if you weren't the Saloni you are right now, if you were the Saloni I am thinking of… your punch yesterday would have blown that senior girl to pieces.
If you were that instead of 'ordinary', you wouldn't just feel suffocated standing near me like you do now.
You have no idea yet, how much more is inside you."
Saloni's heart trembled slightly.
"What… what do you know about me?"
He gave a small smile.
"Enough that you can't even imagine. But not enough that I should tell you everything right now."
Looking at him with a mix of anger and fear, Saloni said,
"Are you a teacher here? Or some inspector?
If you're saying all this just to scare me, it won't work. I'm leaving."
He shook his head.
"No, I didn't come to scare you. I came to show you the truth."
He stepped a bit closer, just enough that his eyes were clearly visible—there was a strange calm in them, and a depth that made her slightly uneasy.
"If you walk away today," he said slowly, breaking each word,
"it's possible you will never find out what you could have become—or who you really are. And if you go now, you'll return to a world where you will always live by rules made by others.
Here… you have a chance to learn to make your own."
Saloni looked away.
"And if I stay here?
What then? Just daily training, taunts, fights, falling and getting up… and maybe, in the end, losing anyway?"
He laughed quietly, a laugh with more warmth than mockery.
"The first sign of someone who can become strong is that even while being afraid of losing, they still don't leave the battlefield.
It's good that you're scared.
Standing in front of your fear is even better. And if you manage to stand firm in front of it, then believe me—you'll become far stronger than I am."
Saloni glared at him.
"Why do you even care? Whether I stay or leave?"
There was hurt in her question—she was really asking, "No one cared until now, why suddenly you?"
He stayed quiet for a few moments.
Then in a very soft tone, he said,
"Because this academy cannot afford to lose someone like you.
And because someone like you… is born very rarely."
Saloni narrowed her eyes.
"You don't even know me."
"To know someone, you don't always need to see their childhood," he answered.
"Sometimes one faint glimpse, or one small sequence of battle, is enough."
Saloni stared at him, shocked.
"You… you were there yesterday?"
He didn't answer directly.
He only said,
"Not just the academy, but in many places—any movement in the right direction… does not escape my eyes."
There was something in his words that didn't feel like a lie.
Two voices started fighting inside Saloni again.
One said, "These are just sweet words to stop you."
The other whispered slowly, "What if… this is the chance?"
The man suddenly asked,
"If I tell you that here you will not just be a bodyguard, but get a chance to become a real warrior…
will you still want to walk away?"
Saloni thought for a while, then said,
"If I become a student, my life won't be easy."
"Yes," he replied at once.
"It won't be easy at all. Probably harder than it is now.
You will fall, get hurt, be alone, and many times feel like you can't take it anymore."
"Then…" Saloni gave a small, tired laugh, "you're scaring me more than leaving ever did."
He smiled.
"I'm only telling you the truth.
But this is also the truth—that if you stay here and become a student…
people won't know you as 'that orphanage girl' or 'that bodyguard'.
They'll know you by your name."
"And if I leave?" she asked in a low voice.
He took a deep breath.
"Then nothing will happen.
The world will go on as usual, new students will come to the academy…
and one name that could have been written in history will never appear."
Something stuck in Saloni's throat.
For the first time, she didn't feel pity for herself—she felt anger.
"Why do I always think about running away? Why?"
She asked softly,
"If I… agree with you,
then what will you do for me?
Or will I still have to do everything alone?"
He watched her for a moment, then said,
"You will have to learn to fight on your own—that's the rule.
But showing someone the path is not against any rule.
All I can promise is that if you genuinely work hard, and if you manage to reach the Royal Academy one day, you will get the chance to ask me everything I know about you."
Saloni closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The picture of the orphanage came in front of her—the muddy courtyard, children's voices, an old cot, the matron's harsh face.
Then the academy—long corridors, the training ground, the library full of books, that one punch that had pushed a senior girl back.
"If I go back… all this will remain just a dream.
And if I stay here… maybe this dream will become my reality, and I might even find out who I am."
Finally, she opened her eyes.
"Fine," she said in a low but clear voice.
"I won't run.
I… will become a student."
No big change showed on the man's face, but there was a slight light in his eyes.
"Good decision," he said.
"Now go back inside the gate.
Go to the reception and say you want to switch from bodyguard to student registration.
The rest… will happen on its own."
Saloni looked one last time at the road—the one that could have taken her back to the orphanage.
The guards opened the gate again without saying anything.
She walked inside, and it felt like she wasn't entering a prison, but stepping back into a huge battlefield.
After a few steps, she gathered the courage to look back.
The man was still standing there, in the same calm pose.
Like the shadow of a mountain that never feels the need to change its place.
He gave a slight nod and said,
"Welcome back, Saloni."
Saloni didn't say anything.
But as she walked in, for the first time her own mind whispered to her—
"Alright… now let's see exactly how far this world can push me.
And how many times I can stand up again."
The sound of her footsteps inside the academy had changed.
The path that had never really felt like hers, now looked like a challenge laid out in front of her.
And for the first time, as she walked back into the academy, she wasn't running away from herself…
she was walking toward her real life.