Morning did not bring rest.It brought order.The thirty were woken before sunrise, not by shouting or rough handling this time, but by something far more deliberate. A caretaker walked through the huts slowly, tapping the wooden support posts with a short iron rod. The sound was measured. Controlled. Each strike echoed just long enough to unsettle anyone still pretending to sleep.“Selected candidates. Courtyard. Immediately.”There were no insults. No threats. No barked commands.That alone made it serious.Andrew opened his eyes before the third strike reached his corner of the hut. He did not sit up immediately. He listened first — to the shifting bodies, to the hurried breathing, to the nervous energy spreading across the room like static.Across from him, the scarred boy was already awake.Watching him.Andrew held his gaze for a brief second, expression flat, unreadable. Then he looked away first — not out of submission, but out of dismissal.He rose unhurriedly.Eli was tying

The street did not immediately return to normal after the gang dragged the girl away.The merchants resumed shouting prices. The buyers pretended to bargain. A woman picked up a basket that had fallen during the struggle and brushed dust off it like nothing had happened. The air carried the same scent of dried fish and roasted grain. Only the absence of the girl remained, like a gap in a sentence no one dared to complete.Andrew stepped out from the narrow corner where Eli had pulled him.Eli caught his sleeve again. “What are you doing?”Andrew looked down at the hand gripping him and raised a brow. “Walking.”“That’s the direction they went.”“Yes.”Eli stared at him as if he expected him to add something intelligent to that answer. When Andrew did not, Eli swallowed and lowered his voice. “You said we should just stroll and return early. This is not our fight.”Andrew took two slow steps forward before responding. “It’s not. I’m simply curious.”“You don’t look curious,” Eli mutter

The courtyard did not remain tense forever.After Ronan’s calm order brought the confrontation to a halt, the gang gradually stepped back. The leader held Andrew’s gaze for a few seconds longer, measuring him in silence, before finally turning away with a dismissive motion.“Let’s go,” he muttered to the others.The five followed him out of the courtyard one by one. Their confidence had not disappeared entirely, but something in their posture had changed. The easy laughter from earlier was gone.They left without another word.Ronan remained standing for a moment after they disappeared down the street. His attention shifted briefly to Andrew, then to Eli, and finally to the girl near the broken crate.“You should leave this district,” Ronan said quietly to her.She nodded quickly, still shaken.Then Ronan turned and walked away without waiting for a response.Eli watched him go with a deep frown.“I still don’t understand that guy,” he muttered.Andrew didn’t answer immediately. His br

The excitement from Eli’s victory did not disappear immediately.Even after Bram walked away in humiliation, muttering curses beneath his breath while avoiding eye contact with the others, the atmosphere inside the courtyard remained tense and alive. The candidates had finally seen something important—rankings were not absolute. Skill mattered, yes, but timing, judgment, and composure mattered just as much.Eli himself looked like he was struggling not to grin too widely.Andrew found it irritating.Not because Eli had won, but because he looked so proud of it.“You’re smiling too much,” Andrew muttered.Eli looked at him in disbelief. “I just survived elimination.”“You survived because your opponent had the patience of an angry goat.”“That still counts.”Andrew could not argue with that.Near the front of the courtyard, the woman in green slowly rose from her seat, immediately drawing everyone’s attention back toward the representatives. The conversations died down at once.“The ch

The courtyard slowly descended into noise after the final announcement.Some candidates looked relieved beyond words, others exhausted, while a few simply stood frozen as though their minds had not yet caught up with reality. The evaluations that had consumed Ashwake House for days were finally over.Thirteen remained.Only thirteen.Andrew stood quietly near the center of the courtyard while the defeated candidates began dispersing toward the outer sections of the orphanage under caretaker supervision. Some walked away with lowered heads, others with bitter expressions they could not hide no matter how hard they tried.One boy kicked dust angrily as he left.Another stared blankly at the ground as though he had forgotten where he was going.A younger girl from the lower tier quietly wiped her eyes while trying not to cry in front of everyone else.Andrew watched them in silence.Ashwake House had dangled freedom in front of all of them like bait.And now most of them were being force