Chapter 122: A Promise Never Signed
Silas woke after eight hours.
The first thing he felt was cold water surrounding his body. His eyes snapped open, and he shot to his feet, daggers already in hand as he scanned the room in vigilance. The last thing he remembered was fleeing from the dragon.
"...The shuttle?"
Recognition slowly replaced caution. He touched the bathtub beneath him and immediately realised it was the same one he had used while drafting the plan. Lowering his daggers, he slipped them back into his belt before stepping out, his clothes dripping with water.
"What brought me in here?"
His confusion lasted only a moment before loud cheers erupted from the front of the shuttle.
The moment he appeared, everyone rushed toward him.
Darius wrapped him in a crushing hug. Lara’s eyes filled with tears as she smiled in relief. Cher stood a short distance away, saying nothing, yet the warmth in her smile was unlike anything he had ever seen on her face. Alfred, meanwhile, simply punched his shoulders and chest several times, as though trying to convince himself Silas was truly alive and unharmed.
It did not take long for them to explain everything that had happened. Once the excitement had settled, Silas sat with the others while they waited for him to speak.
"So..." His gaze swept across the group before stopping on Cher. "You put me in the bathtub because you thought it would help me recover?"
Cher stiffened slightly.
She knew nothing about the bathtub or the strange meditation method he practised inside it, but she was certain of one thing.
"It worked, didn’t it?"
She gestured toward him, silently presenting his recovery as proof, which made Silas chuckle.
"That was a bold decision," he admitted, smiling. "Fortunately, it did help."
A collective sigh of relief escaped the group. None of them had realized how tense they had remained since bringing him back. They had seen how lifeless he looked when they found him.
"So we’re waiting for the academy’s rescue teams to deal with the monster tide and save the trapped students?"
His eyes shifted toward the tactical map, and everyone nodded.
"They’ve been sending us constant updates and instructions," Darius said. "They asked whether we could assist, but we all agreed we weren’t setting foot in that place again."
"We’re waiting just outside the mine," Cher added firmly. "Far from my father’s reach."
Silas did not look at her. He understood better than anyone how difficult it was for her to remain anywhere under Chaz’s authority.
"Then we’ll wait."
He offered no objections and quietly took his seat.
Strangely, the celebration everyone expected after his awakening never came. Instead, the excitement gradually faded until silence settled over the shuttle.
An hour passed without anyone speaking.
At first, they simply waited for Silas to say something. Then, without realising it, his silence spread to everyone else. One after another, they drifted into their own thoughts until the cabin became completely still.
’Trust your companions.’
’What a strange piece of advice.’
Silas quietly looked at each of them.
These were the companions Gaia had told him to trust. Trusting them had changed something inside him, yet what affected him even more was realising how completely they had trusted him in return.
Without noticing it, his gaze wandered through the thick oval window beside his seat. Beyond the glass, his thoughts drifted far into the past, returning to a memory he had believed long buried.
He was six years old, still trying to understand the world he had been born into.
When he thought of the orphanage, the first memories that surfaced were cold corridors, narrow rooms, and endless crowds of children that somehow made the place feel even lonelier. He could not remember warmth, laughter, or fun days.
The building itself was not particularly gloomy, yet something about it pressed heavily against every child’s heart, leaving little room for affection or belonging.
At the time, a quiet obsession had spread through the orphanage. Everyone wanted to be adopted.
Every child dreamed of escaping that place, of living in a real home with parents, siblings, and a family of their own.
He remembered the small office where he would occasionally be summoned.
Each time, he stood silently in a corner with his head lowered, too afraid to look up despite his curiosity. The caretakers had repeated the same warning countless times: Don’t leave a bad first impression, not if you wanted someone to choose you.
That day, however, he had not been called in alone. Another boy stood beside him.
He looked much like Silas himself, thin, malnourished, with dark circles beneath dull, lifeless eyes. It was an ordinary sight in that orphanage, where children grew up without warmth, comfort, or anything resembling a normal childhood.
He remembered the magical words from back then.
The two adults sitting across the office had said they wanted him. They had also mentioned that if he refused, the other kid would be just as acceptable.
He still remembered how he had felt that day. Excitement had drowned out everything else. The head of the orphanage had spoken for a long time, but none of her words reached him.
All he could think about was leaving that place behind and moving into a warm home with two parents who genuinely wanted him, parents who would shower him with love, care, affection, and attention.
He had been too excited to sleep that night.
The other children stared at him with naked envy, yet he did not care. Until that very afternoon, he had been the one sitting on those same beds, watching other children get adopted with the same longing in his eyes.
"The lady asked me to give you this."
As he lay awake in the middle of the night, the other child who had been beside him in the office approached, carrying a folded sheet of paper and a small bottle of ink.
"She needs your signature."
Silas frowned.
"We’re just kids. We can’t sign, can we?"
The memory remained vivid.
He had been standing outside the sleeping dormitory, hidden in one of its quiet corners. The lanterns barely illuminated the corridor, while the smell of food drifted from the distant kitchen, making his empty stomach twist.
The cooks were already preparing breakfast.
For children who rarely ate more than two meals a day, and often survived on only one, breakfast was something sacred.
Yet even hunger couldn’t distract him. He accepted the paper with eager curiosity.
"You can read?"
The other boy shook his head.
"She pointed here."
He stepped closer and pointed at the blank space beneath the strange lines of writing.
"Just dip your finger in the ink, press it here, and it’ll be done."
Silas looked from the bottle to the paper before meeting the boy’s eyes.
"Trust me."
The boy spoke quietly.
"Trust the lady."
There had been something strange in his voice, a trace of hesitation, a faint unease. Yet, Silas had been far too excited to notice it.
Without another thought, he pressed his ink-covered finger onto the paper.
The other boy smiled and congratulated him, saying it was the document that would take him to his new home.
Eventually, Silas learned that it was the document that made sure he never would.
The next morning, he stood frozen as the family arrived, walked past him, took the other boy instead, and left.
When he asked the orphanage lady what had happened, she placed the same paper before him.
"You declined the adoption."
She looked at him with open disbelief.
"A truly questionable decision indeed."
"Why would you do that?"
At first, Silas thought it was some cruel joke. Then she read the document aloud. Every word was clear as it declared that he had voluntarily refused the adoption.
The woman was no longer merely confused, she became furious with him.
After that day, she never invited him to another adoption meeting. By the time he was old enough, no families came looking for children his age anymore.
***
’Trust your companions...’
His thoughts returned to Gaia’s words. He knew trust had never been easy. Part of him never wanted to trust anyone again.
His gaze drifted across his companions. Even surrounded by them, he felt strangely distant, as though an invisible wall still separated him from everyone else.
’Will they hand me another paper one day?’
He didn’t know.
Then the memories of the mine surfaced one after another.
He remembered how they had entrusted everything to him because of a single promise, that he would come up with a plan and somehow make it work.
He remembered Cher breaking down before him, Lara venturing deep into the swamp to find the right babies, Alfred appearing at the perfect moment to shield him from Rachel’s blade, and Darius standing beside him from the very first day they met, offering advice, support, and unwavering faith.
One memory followed another. And somehow, among them all, he remembered the boy handing him that piece of paper.
’Even if one day they hand me another paper...’
’They’re the first people who trusted me with their lives.’
’They’re also the first people I’ve trusted since becoming an Enhancer... and they’ve never betrayed me.’
Without realising it, a quiet warmth spread through his chest.
’Perhaps... life was never meant to be lived alone.’
’Nor without trust.’
Silas lifted his gaze toward the world beyond the shuttle’s window.
’I just hope... you’ll stay by my side... Forever.’
’Please...’
’Don’t change.’