Chapter 4: A Simple Reason

"Happy birthday, Stephanie."

Steph stared at the book for a couple of seconds. Then, she took it and started flipping the pages. After a few moments, she was done.

Clutching the book to her chest, she suddenly yelled, her anger directed at Kuon,

"You...you're telling me you breached the walls for this! You risked your life for this!"

Kuon's eyes widened in surprise. After a moment of silence, he replied,

"Yes."

"Why? You could've just waited until the book was available in the storage vault after the exchange. Is waiting a couple days too difficult for you? Or have you gone mad?"

"I know...but...it's your birthday today and I just couldn't think of anything better to get you. So I kind of had to...But don't worry, nothing bad happened. I'm completely fine as you can see."

Steph went silent after that, her face growing dark and her grip on the book becoming tighter and tighter still.

After a few awkward seconds of silence, she opened her mouth...

And yelled,

"Seriously! Do you know how scared I was?! You always act like you're invincible, that you're absolutely confident that you will not just die and leave me all alone one day...I..."

Kuon went over and pulled her into an embrace, his face contorting into a dark grimace.

Her face was buried in his chest and Kuon felt wet tears touch his black tunic. Steph suddenly spoke, her voice filled with sorrow and honesty

"Every...time you go out, I can't stop imagining that one day you'll never come back. That maybe one day, you'll be caught and executed. That you'll leave me here all alone..."

A strange expression came across his face. His yellow pupils became weary and somewhat dull as he looked down at Steph.

'I'm sorry...'

He opened his mouth to respond but Steph immediately cut in,

"F*ck that book! If this damned thing is what got you killed, then I don't want it...just...just don't ever do something like that ever again..."

A sad smile appeared on Kuon's face as raised his hand and patted her gently. He sighed. After a pause, he finally said,

"I won't..."

"...Promise?"

Kuon cleared his throat,

"I promise..."

'You fool...I would never - as long as I live - I will never leave you...that is a promise.'

After a few more seconds of embrace Stephanie chuckled.

"Huh?"

She pushed herself off his chest and looked at Kuon with a slight smirk.

"Ha! Look at that. I made you tear up just now. I win!"

"Why you little-"

However, Kuon couldn't help but laugh aswell.

Stephanie sighed and started walking towards a neatly organised circular wooden table. Gesturing to one of the chairs, she told him to sit down.

Kuon greatly obliged. Sitting down, he asked with a bit of uncertainty in his voice,

"Don't tell me-"

"Yes, I cooked dinner tonight."

"Geez, how many times have I told you. Don't-"

"If you're gonna complain then don't eat. Get out of here."

"Come on. You wouldn't let your dear older brother starve, would you?"

In that instant, a plate was shoved in front of him. On it was a type of sludge that Kuon had to take a second to figure out was actually porridge.

"Just eat."

Stephanie said as she herself took a seat and waited for him to take a bite.

Kuon's hand grabbed a spoon and hovered over the sludge for a few awkward seconds. Then, he reluctantly took a bite.

The porridge was slightly overcooked and a little too salty, but overall it wasn't bad. 

In fact, he'd say he was impressed Steph had not completely burned it to ash.

"It's good. I'm impressed."

"As you should."

Stephanie said with a cold tone and took a bite herself and started eating.

However, the tiniest shadow of a smile could be seen on her face.

Sniff

Sniff

'Cake...'

Kuon could still smell the scent of the cake. He wondered how Steph had managed to bake one all on her own.

Stephanie had never got her hands into baking so it was very strange that she managed to bake a cake all on her own.

Unless...

Knock! Knock!

In that moment, someone suddenly knocked on the door, forcing Kuon to ask,

"Whose there?!"

In reply, the voice on the other side spoke with a masculine voice,

"It's Lev!"

Kuon sighed

"Door's open, come inside!"

The door creaked open and a tall man in a simple white T-shirt stepped inside and closed it behind him.

The man had yellow blonde hair which looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks - probably because it hadn't - and a pair of dull grey eyes. He was tall. Around 6 feet or so. 4 inches taller than Kuon. His skinny figure however, ruined any chance of him looking intimidating or strong. The man looked to be in his late twenties.

"Hey there, good to see that you're not dead."

"Shut up."

"Giving me the cold shoulder, aye? Not very nice."

The man chuckled slightly before taking a seat between Steph and Kuon.

Stephanie looked at him.

"Good evening, Lev. Would you like some?"

"No, thanks. I already ate. Two whole loafs of bread and 2 glasses of milk."

Kuon almost choked on his water hearing his words.

"Wha...two...TWO! Have we even got that much in the vault for everyone?!"

"Well, you could say that this month's trade went extremely well. Please, allow yourselves to be stuffed. Who knows when we'll ever get the chance again."

The Ruins was the lowest class of society, a place where the lowest of the low somehow managed to survive.

There was no stable source of food. No clean water. No reliable access to medicine or other basic necessities. Why would there be? The Ascendant Pyramid had long since abandoned the Ruined.

The only reason the Ruined had not starved into extinction was because of a fragile exchange network known as the Grey Market. Through it, food, supplies, information, and other necessities flowed between the Drift and the Ruins.

Of course, the Grey Market was illegal.

The authorities tolerated many things, but not the movement of resources into the Ruins. As a result, both the Drifters and the Ruined had to exercise extreme caution whenever an exchange took place. One mistake was all it took for patrol officers to descend upon them.

The most dangerous part came at the end of every transaction.

Since the First Great Wall completely separated the Drift from the Ruins, a Ruined was required to breach the wall through hidden routes in order to finalize the exchange. They would then carry the supplies back into the Ruins while avoiding the eyes of patrol officers and surveillance systems.

It was a dangerous job.

A single mistake could lead to imprisonment, execution, or simply disappearing without a trace.

Normally, Kuon handled such work.

This month, however, the responsibility fell on Lev.

And it seems like the exchange was a real boon.

Kuon sighed, the side of his lips slowly curling up into a smile.

"Well then, I guess I gotta hit the storage tomorrow. Tomorrow's gonna be a feast."

"Oh, do invite me for dinner then."

"Get lost."

Kuon retorted sarcastically.

Stephanie suddenly cut in on the conversation,

"I'll go get the cake."

Kuon smiled.

"Thanks."

A minute later, Steph came back with the cake. Needless to say, it was not the most mouth-watering thing ever. It was plain and slightly overbaked with cheap artificial frosting glazed on top. A small lit candle could be seen on top just begging to be blown out.

Stephanie placed the cake on the table and looked at Kuon. He said with curiosity,

"Since when did you start baking?"

"Why? Is there a problem?"

"No, it's just that I'm impressed you didn't burn the house down."

"Oh, shut it! Besides, I wasn't the only one. Mr. Lev here did most of the baking."

"Oh...wait, huh?"

Kuon's head spun towards Lev who was covering his mouth trying not to laugh.

After some more talking, all of them wished Steph happy birthday and ate dinner in peace.

After her birthday dinner was over, Stephanie reluctantly went to bed while Kuon and Lev climbed onto the roof to have some time alone.

"Do you think they'll ever treat us as humans?"

Lev asked, staring intently at Kuon.

"Honestly, I don't care. Whether they change their views on us or not, nothing will change."

Kuon replied.

After a few moments of silence, an amused expression appeared on Lev's face and he said,

"You know, Kuon, you look terrifying right now. If I didn't know you, I'd have mistaken you for an Urban."

"...F*ck. Really now?

Lev wasn't entirely joking.

Kuon's appearance had always been unusual. His dirty black hair hung low over his face, often concealing his eyes beneath a tangled curtain of shadows. That part wasn't strange. Plenty of people in the Ruins looked worse.

His eyes were the problem.

The pupil of his right eye was pitch black, so unnaturally dark that it resembled a bottomless abyss carved into his skull. Looking at it for too long gave the uncomfortable feeling of staring into something with no end.

His left eye was the complete opposite.

A faint golden-yellow glow lingered within it, illuminating the darkness around him like a dying ember. It wasn't bright enough to light a room, but it was impossible to ignore.

One eye swallowed light.

The other seemed to create it.

The contrast was unsettling.

In the darkness of the Ruins, where most faces blurred into shadow, the golden glow was often the only part of Kuon people could see. More than once, strangers had mistaken him for a one-eyed ghost wandering through the alleys.

Others thought he looked like an Urban wearing human skin.

Neither comparison was particularly flattering.

They both laughed.

For a brief moment, the Ruins stopped feeling like the Ruins.

After a few more minutes of meaningless talk, the silence returned. Not abrupt, but natural, like it had always been waiting there between them. Neither of them spoke. Neither of them moved.

They simply stared outward, toward the distant skies.

Above the Ruins, the constellations were clearer than anywhere else in the world. Stars scattered across the night like fragments of a shattered crown, distant and cold and impossibly beautiful. It was the only thing in this place that still felt untouched by decay.

The night in the Ruins was terrifying.

And yet, it was so beautiful.

Lev finally spoke, breaking the silence.

With a quiet and somewhat sorrowful tone, he asked,

"Tell me...why?

"Hm?"

"Why take such risks for us? Why handle the exchanges? Why risk your life every waking day for our sake?"

Kuon did not answer immediately. Instead, he lingered for a few moments, thinking.

Then, he sighed and spoke,

"Isn't it obvious? You know it, and I'm pretty sure everyone here does as well. It's because I'm the strongest. I'm not just the Ruined who's academically superior to everyone. I'm also the most athletic by far, the strongest physically, the quickest to think, the most skilled...If not me… then who?"

Kuon finally looked at Lev, his mismatched eyes glowing eerily beneath the dim light of the stars.

Lev froze, shaken by Kuon's words. The boy—no older than sixteen—was frighteningly composed for his age. More than that… he sounded like someone who had already outgrown the idea of childhood.

Only then did Lev truly realize how much weight Kuon had been carrying all this time.

And yet, the reason behind it was almost painfully simple.

He sighed under his breath.

'Kids...should be kids...'

Then he spoke again.

"But still… why? With your strength and skills, you and your sister could easily live better lives, earn as much as you want. So… why do you still choose to care for us?"

Again, Kuon fell silent, gazing into the distance with a strange expression on his face. His hair swayed and shuffled slightly in the cold wind, his eyes staring eerily into nothingness.

One consuming all light.

One created it.

And then,

He smiled.

"Why else?"

He sighed, then spoke again,

"The strong should nurture the gentle."