Ishiki stood in front of Kenji's house for a long jarring moment. His brows furrowed.

The metal gate had a design in which the metal was twisted into intricate, thorny vines—it was meant to be elegant, but which only succeeded in looking agonizing.

'Is this the correct house?' He tried to remember the description, Kenji had given him some time ago.

But all he remembered was to look for a house with weird iron gate in the locality, that was left from the Plaza of the Three Heroes.

'Hmm... was weird a part of it?'

He shook his head and shrugged. Not that it mattered, it was weird anyways.

Dressed in a simple grey shirt and black trousers, a nondescript coat draped over his frame to hide the lack of noble finery, Ishiki walked up to the door and knocked.

Rat-a-tat-tat.

He waited for some time in silence. But there was no reply... or even a movement.

He knocked again, harder this time.

After about a minute more in silence, finally the door creaked open just a crack and a single dark eye peeked out from the gloom of the hallway.

"Who is it?" the voice rasped.

"It's me. Ishiki," he said softly.

The next moment... the door opened wider, revealing a man who looked more of a beggar than an actual one. His blonde hair that were, usually kept in a neat cut, were long and disheveled, hanging loosely around his face. Deep and purple, dark circles bruised the skin under his eyes.

He wore a loose kimono, and his posture was slumped, as though the weight of the air itself was too much to bear.

Ishiki blinked, looking at him with narrowed eyes. The man standing there was undoubtedly Kenji, but he looked like a shadow of the person Ishiki remembered.

"Ishiki," Kenji said, a flicker of life entering his dull eyes. "I didn't expect... come in."

He stepped aside, gesturing vaguely to the dark interior. "Consider it yours. It's not like anyone else lives here."

Ishiki slowly stepped inside the house and into the corridor. It was clean, disturbingly so. It felt empty and devoid of personal touches.

He changed his shoes in silence and followed Kenji down the hall. Watching the man's back, Ishiki struggled to reconcile this broken figure with the optimistic youth he had befriended months ago. The last time he met Him was for a brief moment and then too Kenji hadn't spoken much.

They both entered a small living room. It was dull and lifeless, the curtains were drawn, blocking out the harsh light of the artificial sun.

Kenji moved to a small table in the corner. "Tea?"

"Sure," Ishiki said, settling onto a cushion. He glanced around the barren room. "Uh... don't you have coffee?"

Kenji paused, looking back over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "Coffee? Have you seen a single coffee bean in this entire city, Ishiki? I haven't. That's why I shifted to tea."

Ishiki looked at him with disappointment. "I mean... I actually thought that you would have coffee and the real... plant based one. But looks like, the secondary ring also has no coffee, just like the outer ring."

Kenji chuckled forcefully. "Maybe you will find some in the inner ring."

"Hopefully..." Ishiki replied with a small, crooked smile.

Kenji busied himself with the pot. his movements were forced and mechanical.

Ishiki watched him with a pang of pity piercing his own cynicism.

It wouldn't be wrong saying that, of all of them, Kenji had grown the most. Not only in status, but Ishiki was sure also in power.

He was a Captain in Aethelburg's Army now. He had access and resources to more things that Ishiki and Yuki. It wouldn't have been easy for him... actually, it was not less of a miracle that he was alive.

Back in the clearing, Ishiki had thought that Kenji might have died, that was because of the fact... that he didn't have a combat based skill. And as it happens to be, Kenji was even not among the lucky ones who had directly gotten here.

Sure, Kaori was lucky. But Kenji had to fight his way here from another one of the five deadly regions surrounding Aethelburg.

He was transported to The Gluttonous meadows.

Ishiki didn't knew the specifics of that hellscape, and frankly, looking at the man in front of him, he didn't want to know. Whatever had happened in those fields of endless hunger had stripped Kenji of his innocence and replaced it with steel and trauma.

As for Kenji, there was one thing Ishiki was certain about. He was more determined than anyone to clear the Scenario.

But looking at him now—at the trembling of his hands as he poured the tea and at the hollow look in his eyes. Ishiki couldn't help but think if this... is the cost of that determination.

He looked like a man who had stared into the abyss and realized the abyss wasn't looking back—it was laughing.

He looked like he was breaking. Piece by piece, day by day.

Soon, he pushed a steaming cup in front of Ishiki and sat down opposite him, staring into his own reflection in the dark liquid.

"So," Kenji whispered, his voice barely audible in the quiet room. "What brings you here, today?"

Ishiki blew on his tea, the steam curling up around his face. He shook his head. "Nothing specific. I just... wanted to visit a friend. It's been a while."

Kenji looked up. A weak, tired smile touched his lips. "A friend. Yeah. I guess we are friends, aren't we?"

"I mean... yeah, you were the one who said that... back then." Ishiki replied, but he didn't say the next part.

He absolutely didn't wanna remind him about the ring or Akari... somewhere he knew, that was the root of his determination and his despair.

"It feels like a lifetime ago," Kenji murmured and took a sip of his own tea. "How is everyone? It's been some time since I met anyone."

"Kaori is fine," Ishiki replied, taking his first sip. "Oh! You have the talent for making tea. Anyways... she mostly just trains and complains about the food."

Kenji chuckled dryly. "That sounds like her. Still, who knows what she is thinking... she is too sharp and deceptive. You know that."

"I bet she is cooking up some vicious plan as we speak," Ishiki replied, a trace of sarcasm in his voice. "Probably figuring out how to use us all to eliminate the Emperor without lifting a figure."

"And Yuki?"

"More or less the same," Ishiki said. "Yuki has been trying to move towards completing the objective too. She tried to give me a motivational speech about the fate of humanity just a few hours ago."

Kenji's smile faded slightly, replaced by a look of nostalgic sorrow. He nodded slowly. "That's the Princess for you. She carries the weight of the world because she thinks she has to. I used to admire that about her, actually."

He put down his cup, the liquid rippling from the impact. "I used to think I could be like that, too."

Silence stretched between them, but it wasn't uncomfortable this time. It was just quiet between two survivors sitting in a dark room in a city that they didn't belong to.

"By the way," Ishiki said, setting his cup down too. "Did you see the change? The Scenario rewards have updated."

Kenji paused, and shifted slightly. He didn't look up immediately.

"Changed?" he asked softly. "What do you mean changed?"

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