After returning home.
Sabo did not receive his mother's embrace.
Instead, he found a neatly dressed little boy with a fake smile.
"Sabo, big brother."
The little boy stood in the middle of the lavish living room and politely bowed.
His mother stood beside him, her tone gentle.
"This is Stelly."
"From now on, he will be this family's adopted son."
Sabo looked at the child, then at his mother.
He suddenly found it rather laughable.
He had been forcibly brought back, his face still bruised and his clothes unchanged.
Yet the first thing his mother said when she saw him was not to ask whether he was hurt, but to introduce a new adopted son.
Stelly smiled obediently.
But the moment his mother turned away, he immediately leaned close to Sabo's ear and lowered his voice, unable to hide his smugness.
"You're finished."
"Father said you're useless now."
Sabo's eyes turned cold, but Stelly's smile grew even brighter.
"I also know that after tomorrow night, Gray Terminal will be burned down."
Sabo suddenly looked up at those words.
"What did you say?"
Stelly admired the change in his expression, his voice airy and casual.
"Everyone in High Town knows."
"The nobles are preparing to welcome the Celestial Dragons, so they have to burn away all that filthy stuff."
"Gray Terminal."
"The drifters."
"And all the things nobody wants."
He said it lightly, as if he were talking about a pile of unsightly dust, but Sabo's pupils trembled violently.
Gray Terminal.
It was filthy, chaotic, and dangerous, but it had freedom, laughter, and brothers.
It felt more like a place where people belonged than this clean, luxurious house covered in carpets and lies.
That night, Sabo climbed out through the window. Avoiding the patrolling soldiers, he slipped into a noble's