Gazing at a statue made in her likeness evoked countless mories within his heart. mories of the precious days he had had with her from the very day she took him from a hospital in the Town of Hajin and back to the orphanage.
There were days when he would do everything to get it all back.
He smiled lancholically, gazing deeply at the statue one last ti before instantly reaching what was now the ancestral ho of the Quarrier Orphanage.
Much to his surprise, it hadn’t changed as much as he would have expected it to.
Despite being refurbished and reconstructed, it retained much of the the of the old Quarrier ho, so much so that the na board was exactly the sa as it had been in the past. It was as though soone had deliberately maintained it to remind them of what it looked like.
There was only one person who ca to mind.
"You haven’t changed at all."
Julian’s voice had grown a little more aged.
A little more tranquil and calr than he rembered it.
"I can’t say the sa to you," Rui turned with a smile to find himself face to face with Julian himself. The man wore a lab coat atop format attire, with a briefcase tucked by his side. He wore circular spectacles attached to a chain that he wore around his neck.
The edge of his hairline had begun to gain a tinge of gray.
The cool breeze of the night brushed past them as they beheld each other for the first ti in eleven years.
"Not everyone is immortal, my dear brother," his smile was half-tranquil and half-amused. "Potions rely heal the inevitable for , but I still age through ti nonetheless, even if much slower. You, on the other hand, have defied the mortality of life."
Rui shrugged. "It’s not that big of a deal."
Julian chuckled at those words, before reaching a hand out to Rui.
"It’s good to see you after so many years, Rui."
His tone was sincere.
His eyes reflected his joy at having finally t his younger brother after all eleven years in the Beast Domain.
Rui smiled lancholically.
"I’m glad that you’re here to greet , I don’t what I would have done if I didn’t have a single person left."
He shook Julian’s hand.
"I’m not the only one you have left, you know," Julian reminded him, gesturing him inside. "You have Max and Mana left. They’re Martial Masters now and they will virtually always be around with you."
Rui smiled, walking inside with Julian. "That’s true, but despite technically being older than , they still feel like kids to , you know?"
"You would be surprised," Julian shook his head. "You would be surprised at what raising a child can do to people in regards to their maturity."
Rui frowned. "What do you an?"
Max and Mana were twins.
Julian smiled with a hint of amusent. "Well, you’ll see. Co along."
CLACK
He opened the door with a key, switching on the light as he put a finger to his lip, gesturing to Rui to be quiet.
"The children are sleeping."
Rui nodded knowingly as he heaved a deep breath, walking the hallway of the orphanage ho. It inspired a gush of mories from deep within him as he recalled all the countless days he had spent here with the people that he truly considered his family.
"Is Alice...?" Rui’s voice faltered.
The air darkened, feeding into the darkness of the night.
"...She passed a few years after you went to the Beast Domain."
Julian’s tone was gentle.
lancholic, yet warm nonetheless.
Rui closed his eyes, heaving a deep breath.
"Sorry."
Julian shook his head gently.
"You don’t need to apologize. You couldn’t have known, and you haven’t had the opportunity to mourn."
Rui remained silent at those words even as the two of them sat opposite each other.
"Every last of the few of them passed away in the past eleven years," Julian gently inford him. "Now, you and I, along with Max and Mana are the only ones left from the second generation of the Quarrier Orphanage."
Rui heaved a deep breath.
"I knew this would happen."
He gazed at Julian who sat a couch opposite him across the living room.
"I knew this would happen from the very mont I signed up for being a Martial Artist, and yet..."
His tone darkened.
"I was not as prepared to deal with it as I always thought I would be."
A hint of sorrow and grief lingered in the depths of the pitch-black eyes.
Julian’s expression grew solemn.
"Neither was I, but..."
He stirred in thought. "Life moves on. And watching people you love die is an inevitable part of it."
His attention shifted to Rui. "You must find more people you love, lest you spend the coming centuries and millennia all alone. For you will outlive , as well as the twins."
Rui’s gaze shifted to Julian.
"Not if I make you guys immortal."
Julian smiled bittersweetly.
"I don’t know if I have it in to live forever."
Rui raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t you take a longevity potion? Don’t you have so desire to exceed mortal constraints?"
Julian fell into thought at the question. "Not for the sake of ridding myself of mortality, but... for the sake of living up to my potential. For the sake of being who I can be and giving to this world what I know I can."
Rui remained silent at those words.
The air grew heavy as Julian fell into an introspective mood.
"I always thought I had sothing to offer to human civilization, but..." Julian’s expression grew a little disappointed. "I have not been able to make any significant contribution to human civilization. At least... not yet."
His tone grew a little more confident.
"I believe that I have finally understood what I was born in this world to do."
Rui’s eyebrow rose at the bold, heavy statent that his brother made.
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