Hai Na walked home, and the sun over Eagle Cape Village had yet to reach its zenith.
By now, she had not returned home for four whole years.
Over those four years, the restaurant closest to the school entrance had changed hands three times, opening and closing again and again.
She had also gone from a country girl who knew nothing when she first arrived on Glass Island, constantly anxious and uneasy, to the Grand Arbitrator's personal disciple and a friend of the Founding Family and the future queen... At the very least, she had become familiar enough with them.
But her hometown had not changed.
The air around her, the height of the trees in the mountains, the depth of the dirt road worn down by footsteps... No matter what it was, nothing here had changed in the slightest.
It was as though time had frozen here.
The hourglass had stopped turning, and the sun and moon had ceased to move. The cooking smoke in the distance still rose just as it had during her childhood.
At that moment, Hai Na experienced an illusion.
It was as though she lived inside a false painting, and had now once again become a figure within it.
Suddenly, Hai Na stopped walking.
She noticed a small tree protruding beside the road.
It stood alone by the roadside, some distance from the woods. Because of that, Hai Na recognized it almost immediately.
She went over and found the scar on its bark.
Hai Na held out her hand horizontally and measured it for a moment, then struck the heel of her hand against her soft chest.
She smiled helplessly, reached out, and gently touched and caressed the scar on the tree.
She still remembered it.
This was the mark she had left when