Kayden sat next to Adam and adopted a calm tone, as if reading from a holy scripture "Since I'm older than you... I will guide you."
Adam slowly turned to him and added in a threatening tone "Don't try to use the age difference. You're weak... and I could easily hit you."
Kayden replied without looking at him: "Coward." Kayden's eyebrows rose, and he continued "You're saying that... while you hid your toy like a war criminal?"
"What toy are you talking about?" Adam asked seriously, looking at Kayden as if he were being falsely accused.
Kayden pointed his finger toward the corner where Adam had hidden the cube. "You're lying inside the church. How tragic."
Kayden sighed loudly and added in an even more dramatic tone: "Adam... it seems you haven't learned any manners, have you? What a pity."
Adam replied boredly: "So, are you going to teach me manners? Or are you going to force me?"
Kayden froze for a moment, thinking, 'How can I guide anyone?' He had never guided anyone before, not in this life nor the previous one... He only had corrupt friends.
But suddenly, he remembered scenes from old TV dramas, where a drug dealer gets 'reformed' through unconventional methods. As he got lost in those memories, a strange, somewhat demonic smile appeared on his face.
Adam looked at him with genuine disgust. "Why are you smiling like that?! Stop smiling!"
"Nothing... I'm just planning to reform you," Kayden muttered, then continued: "What did you do to be punished like this?"
Adam looked up at the ceiling, then said: "Actually... there's a catastrophe moving right now. Ayrton was busy trying to control his powers... His power is unstable because he's too strong. He's even stronger than me, and he could explode at any moment. So he asked me to monitor the catastrophe instead of him. Ever since we returned from the cursed forest, I've been wandering the streets."
Kayden nodded understandingly, so Adam continued: "But this catastrophe... it belonged to a weird man. First, he went to bars to drink, then he started running through parks chasing women, and in the end... Ayrton and I were wandering, but the catastrophe entered a brothel. There, I was caught by one of the observers, and Ayrton escaped."
Kayden closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. "Now your reputation is worse... from a crazy pervert to a perverted degenerate... and then back to a crazy perverted degenerate."
Adam slowly shook his head, muttering through his teeth: "That stupid priest... I'll kill him."
"That's unprofessional," Kayden stopped him and stood up slowly.
He went to Father Chase and calmly explained the situation. Father Chase hurried back to Adam, saying: "Adam! This is the last time, understood? Next time, I won't forgive you!"
"You said that last time..." Adam muttered quietly, but luckily for him, Kayden's loud laughter covered his words. "Father, I am an excellent guide. The crisis is resolved," Kayden said proudly, as if he had won a holy war.
Father Chase couldn't bear the moral corruption seeping into the church walls, so he went off to pray.
Kayden turned back to Adam and spoke confidently: "You haven't been sleeping, have you?"
He took something from his coat pocket, fiddled with it for a moment, then handed it to Adam. "These are magical sleeping pills, made especially for me... but since I'm generous Kayden, I'll share them with you."
Without discussion, Kayden forced Adam to his feet and dragged him toward the family carriage. He gave the driver the address, closed the door on Adam, then waved with a proud smile as he watched the carriage drive away.
Adam sat inside the carriage, bewildered, not understanding anything that had just happened.
As for Kayden, he remained standing in place, waving with proud confidence. "Guidance... is so easy! Maybe I should have become a teacher!"
On the other side, Mafilda was watching what was happening as she distributed donations. She looked at Kayden, at his strange behavior, at the way he proudly talked to himself, then silently wondered: 'Has he... finally gone crazy?'
Adam returned home with slow steps, as if each step was weighed down by thoughts that found no place in his mind. He opened the door quietly and didn't turn on the lights. He looked at the medicine he had gotten from Kayden, turned it over in his hands, then opened it and took a double dose, ignoring the recommended amount.
"Finally, I will sleep," he muttered to himself in a faint voice before collapsing onto his bed without even changing his clothes. Drowsiness quickly crept into his body.
Elsewhere, the sky was still overcast. Tim and Mafilda had just finished distributing donations to the needy in front of the church. The atmosphere was saturated with calm, punctuated by the sound of passersby leaving, or the faint prayer of an old woman still whispering her words to the sky.
Mafilda wiped her hands and looked at Tim, who seemed absent-minded as he watched children playing with simple toys. Some were laughing, others watched from a distance in silence, as if afraid of joy.
"What are you thinking about?" Mafilda asked quietly, having noticed the distance in his eyes.
Tim sighed and answered without looking up: "That life isn't fair... Look at them. They have no fault in what they were born into, and we... we're not perfect, but at least we've never gone hungry."
Mafilda slowly nodded. "It's bad luck, nothing more... or perhaps a test."
Then she turned to look at Kayden, who seemed out of place.
"Are we going back now?" Kayden suddenly asked, having grown bored from the long wait.
But Mafilda shook her head without looking at him. "Do as you please... but come back before dinner. Don't be late."
"Where are you going?" Kayden asked curiously.
Mafilda was silent for a few seconds and looked at the grass beneath her feet, then said without raising her eyes: "I want to go to the orphanage."
Tim and Kayden exchanged glances, but Tim was the one who asked: "Why?"
Mafilda didn't answer. She simply started walking in silence, as if words were choking her or weren't fitting for the occasion. The orphanage wasn't far from the church, so Tim walked with Kayden behind her. In an attempt to fill the silence, the two exchanged small talk about random things: the weather, a fight they had witnessed, and even the quality of bread at the nearby bakery. The conversation was superficial, but it was enough to break the heavy silence. As for Mafilda, she quickened her pace.
She entered first through the iron gate of the orphanage, greeted by the noise of children like a breeze of nostalgia. She headed straight to the head matron, exchanged greetings and some side comments with her, then inspected the place with eyes full of scrutiny.
Kayden sat on one of the old wooden chairs and began watching the children.
Mafilda returned and sat beside him. She had donated a not-insignificant amount of her own money. She didn't speak, only contented herself with watching the children.
"Do you come here often?" Kayden asked her.
She answered after a moment of silence: "Sometimes."
"Why would you come here?" Kayden asked curiously.
She answered in a calm tone that carried a shadow of nostalgia: "I wanted to reclaim an old memory."
Tim noticed her silence mixed with something mysterious, so he turned to listen without interrupting.
But Kayden didn't ask another question, which irritated Tim, as a wild desire ignited inside him to know more about that memory. He stared at Mafilda in silence, hoping his looks would say what he couldn't.
Mafilda noticed that, so she sighed lightly and said: "Tim, don't look at me like that… I'll tell you both."
She exhaled slowly. "I was married once, and I gave birth to a beautiful child who bore my features: his eyes, his smile… He resembled me greatly. But war came like a bulldozer, uprooting everything beautiful without discrimination. I may look young, but I am much older than Lady Isabel… The essence granted me this youth, and gave it to my husband as well, so we thought we were safe from annihilation."
She cast a warm glance at Kayden, and found him listening with a focus she had never seen in his eyes before. She continued: "I used to work under the banner of Lord Ron Feng. At that time, Arthur's name was sweeping through the lands, like an irresistible storm… I didn't want to face him or fight him, for his mystery alone was enough to instill dread. Then suddenly, his name disappeared from the scene as if it had never existed. Later, weapons bearing the seal of Bryce began to spread. I suspected from the beginning that they were made by Lord Arthur, but the terrifying truth wasn't in the weapons… it was in my husband's death during the fighting."
She paused for a moment, then added in a tone tinged with both pride and sorrow "He died a noble death, standing on his feet. He didn't flee, nor did he beg for mercy… but I didn't just lose a husband, I lost my only companion, the one who knew me when I was without a mask, without a role to play. He gave me a reason… then he disappeared. He left me alone in a moment as if everything… was pure nonsense."
Kayden's eyes widened slightly, as he imagined the scene as if seeing it before him. Silence fell for a few moments.
"After that, I had enough of blood. I fled, distanced myself from everything that reminded me of war. I ran in every direction, just to protect my child. I fought for him. But there is one thing I never understood…"
"What is it?" asked Kayden, in a hoarse voice barely audible.
Mafilda hesitated, as if searching for words, then said slowly: "I was… all along the way, running with a dead child. He died before the war ended, and I refused to believe it. Or rather, I didn't notice because I was busy running and fighting. In the end, I buried him in the family cemetery here, where everything began and ended."
Silence prevailed. Kayden found nothing to say, while Tim's face paled.
"I'm really sorry…" Tim muttered in a broken voice.
Mafilda raised her eyebrow in genuine surprise and said in a somewhat sarcastic tone: "And why do you feel sorry?"
Tim put his hand over his mouth, trying to collect himself, but he found no answer, only muttered "I don't know…"
Mafilda laughed bitterly, a laugh devoid of life: "I don't understand either."
As for Kayden, he felt that something was missing from this whole picture, so he suddenly asked "Am I not enough for you?"
Mafilda was stunned, her whisper hesitating before she uttered it "What?"
But Kayden heard her clearly, and repeated in a more steady voice "You raised me… Am I not enough for you?"
Mafilda paused for a moment, then looked at him. In her eyes was a rare, warm gleam. She said in a voice full of the tenderness she had long buried "More than enough…"
Kayden smiled quietly, approached her, and patted her back with silent tenderness, as if his words were no longer enough, and as if his touch alone could console that deep scar in her heart.
"In the end, I was saved by your mother…" Mafilda said, her voice mixed with something of deep gratitude. "Then I felt as if I had seen the sun for the first time after years of walking in darkness… Since that day, I have never left the Lord nor the Lady."
Mafilda felt some reassurance as she shared this part of the past with them. Her words had lifted some weight from her chest, and it seemed that Kayden was beginning to understand her more… and Tim as well. Yet, she couldn't shake a slight feeling of emptiness, something still missing.
Tim looked at her for a long moment, then said with rare seriousness:
"You can have another child, you know?"
Mafilda stood up suddenly and smiled a cunning smile: "But I won't marry you."
'…But he didn't say anything after,' Kayden thought wearily, then sighed silently as he waited for the conversation to continue.
"Why not?" asked Tim, and continued in a tone free of hesitation:
"I'm serious."
Mafilda shook her head understandingly, while Kayden slowly rose from his place. He watched Tim with curiosity as she returned an unexpected question to him: "So, do you want to marry me?"
Kayden paused for a moment and stared at them both. Then he thought as he watched the situation: 'She's acting like the man in this relationship… Hasn't Tim noticed that?'
But Tim showed no embarrassment whatsoever; he answered calmly: "Why not?"
Kayden felt the world turning upside down. 'He hasn't even noticed… He's been completely sidelined. She's slowly taking the man's role; she's the one who will lead this relationship. I don't understand who waits for the woman to make the first move… She has stolen her right to enjoy the feeling of being proposed to. Is she going to work and is he going to stay at home? He's a failure.'
Kayden drowned in his thoughts as the dialogue continued before him, as if he weren't part of it.
Mafilda said, in a voice carrying something of rare frankness and honesty: "I'll think about it… Actually, I don't mind."
Tim was surprised by her response, and a wide, uncontrollable smile appeared on his face.
Kayden silently looked Tim up and down. He didn't utter a word, but he carried a lot of criticism in his eyes.
"Shall we go visit the child's grave?" Tim suggested