A Quiet Life Denied

The whistle blew, a shrill blast that ricocheted off the cavernous gym walls. The sound seemed to rattle the steel beams overhead, vibrating through the floodlights and down into the sweat-slick floor. Sneakers hammered against concrete, scattering dust like powder smoke from a cannon blast.

Franz did not move at first. He stood in the center of the chaos, motionless, his breathing measured. Inhale. Exhale. The hood of his sweatshirt draped low, shadowing most of his face, but steam still curled from his lips in the cold air. His chest rose and fell in a deliberate rhythm—controlled, steady, the calm of a warhorse before the charge.

For the span of a heartbeat, maybe two, the girls around him faltered. Their chatter cut short, their steps stuttered, their gazes pulled toward him as though drawn by some gravity. Even Serena, so quick to fill the air with her sharp voice, said nothing. Her lips parted, but no words escaped. Her eyes lingered on him—not with irritation this time, not with that usual scorn—but with something sharper. A spark, almost recognition, almost unease.

The scoreboard above the arena flickered, humming, then blazed to life in harsh neon light. Numbers carved themselves into the gloom like a brand searing flesh.

Blue Team—Victory!

The announcement echoed through the gym, tinny yet absolute. Cheers flared from the sidelines. The girls whooped and clapped, sneakers squealing as they hopped in place, while the other team groaned in disbelief. The air felt thick with victory, but Franz stood apart from it, strangely detached from the noise, as though his body were here but his mind was elsewhere entirely.

Franz dragged a rough hand down his face, exhaling hard. The words slipped from him like smoke.

"…What the fuck just happened?" he muttered under his breath, though no one seemed close enough to hear.

But he remembered.

Just a few movements before…

Franz had rolled his eyes, muttering darkly as his teammates squabbled. "Shut the fuck up, retards. Let's win this thing. You're always saying I didn't ask—fine. This time, let's see how the hell you can actually help me win."

<Arcadia: Oh? A direct request? Very well. No problem at all.>

[Quiet Life System: Yeah, it'll be a piece of cake.]

'Don't act so coy,' Franz had shot back inside his head, his tone steeped in familiar cynicism. 'I don't remember either of you being useful for anything besides endless tutorials.'

The whistle had blown then, its sharp cry slicing the air, and the match surged into motion.

Team Red stormed into offense, scattering like hounds loosed from a chain. The girls fanned outward, each chasing after bonus items just as Serena had ordered in her self-appointed role as commander. Their sudden absence left a gaping hole around the base, a glaring weakness anyone could see.

Franz found himself face-to-face with the team's flag-bearer—the queen piece in their flimsy little strategy. He stepped closer, voice dipped in mock courtesy. "My lady, this humble servant requests you please don't get caught."

Serena turned on him, voice sharp enough to flay. "I overlooked your disrespect once, but I won't allow you to cross that line again."

"Oh, don't be such a hardass, princess," Franz had waved her off, his posture deliberately loose, his voice flat with disinterest.

Her tirade had followed—long, winding, angry. The kind of noise that could drown a weaker man. But for him, it was the perfect veil, the perfect cover.

'So, how are you two going to help me, huh?' he asked inwardly.

<Arcadia: You don't need both of us for this. Quiet Life System, may I have the honor?>

[Quiet Life System: Yes, with pleasure.]

'Oh, look at you two, acting all fancy.'

<Arcadia: Now, you just have to follow my instructions. You can do that, right?>

And then—

A key. Turning in a lock he never knew existed. A lock rusted shut with blood and time.

The world cracked apart.

The roar of the crowd, the sterile blaze of arena lights, Serena's furious face—everything smeared into a watercolor wash of gray and brown, bleeding into nothing. The scent of sweat and dust dissolved into something older, heavier: the reek of wet earth, iron, and storm.

He was Adrian again.

Rain fell in knives, cold and sharp, needling his face, tracing lines with tears he could not hold back. He stood in a field of churned mud, somewhere nameless, a place eaten alive by war. The sky hung low, swollen with endless rain, weeping gray.

Two soldiers gripped a third man before him. The prisoner struggled, choking on terror, his face twisted in pleading that cut deeper than the weather ever could.

Leo.

A friend. A crooked smile. Bad jokes that still landed. Nights whispering half-remembered stories of home in the black trenches. A promise—when it was over, one drink, just one, no matter what.

The instructor towered above them all, a colossus cut from stone, veins thick with iron. His voice bellowed through the storm, every word striking Adrian's chest like a hammer. His eyes were voids, merciless, burned clean of anything human.

"You must obey, Adrian!" His roar cracked like a whip. "Weakness is disease! One trembling heart can drag down an army! You think you are different? You are not! The man who cannot kill when told is no man at all—he is a corpse waiting to be buried!"

He jabbed a thick, shaking finger at Leo. Rage poured from him, a current too powerful to be contained. "This one tried to flee! This one is rot in the ranks! You will cut him out before the infection spreads! Steel yourself! The nation does not weep for cowards—it crushes them underfoot!"

Leo's face split, the pleading spilling from him raw, jagged. "No, no, no! Adrian—we're brothers, damn it! Don't listen to him! We said we'd walk out of this hell together!"

The instructor roared louder, words rolling like thunder across the field."Compassion is treason! Mercy is betrayal! A soldier does not feel—he executes! The world belongs to the strong, and the weak must feed the soil! Do you understand?! DO IT!"

Adrian's body moved. He was no longer his own. A marionette, dragged by strings of command. His rifle felt impossibly heavy, yet it rose, inevitable as the storm.

The other soldiers threw Leo into the mud. He fell hard, knees breaking the surface, filth and rain washing across his face. He looked up—eyes wide, skin streaked with grime, soul stripped bare.

"Adrian… please…"

The rifle rose higher. The bayonet gleamed. A silver fang in the stormlight, hungry, thirsty.

Stab.

Steel slid into Leo's chest, a sickening rupture of flesh and bone. The sound was wet, final, a thunderclap too close to the ear. Adrian felt it echo in his own ribs, a hollow crack splitting his core.

Blood poured, scalding-hot against the frozen rain, soaking his hands, his wrists, until he could no longer tell where he ended and Leo began.

Leo's eyes locked on his. Disbelief first. Then something worse—sorrow. A grief that condemned more deeply than words. His lips quivered, shaping one final word, cracked and breathless, a whisper that carved itself into Adrian's skull.

A word that would coil forever through his dreams.

—

<Arcadia: INSTRUCTION: RIGHT HAND, GRASP HER WAIST. LEFT HAND, BACK OF HER NECK. PULL HER TOWARDS YOU, NOW!>

The voice cut like a blade, clean and merciless. The mud, the storm, the blood—all of it shattered, gone.

The world snapped back, cruel and jarring. Gym walls, scoreboard glow, Serena's voice still ringing.

Without a millisecond of thought, Franz's body obeyed.

He lunged. A blur of motion. His right arm clamped around Serena's waist, iron-tight. His left hand caught the back of her neck, tangling in her perfect hair. He yanked her in, spinning her into the hard wall of his chest.

A dark shadow sliced past them, fast and silent, a hand grasping at the empty air where her head had just been. An opponent, stealthy and precise, thwarted by a heartbeat.

Serena gasped. Her body went rigid, locked against him. Her face pressed into his hoodie, breath filling with soap and cold steel. Her hands lifted as if to shove him away, to spit another venomous retort—but froze.

Because when she looked up, the words died.

The blue eyes staring down at her were not the ones she knew. Not the ones that mocked, teased, played with disdain.

These eyes were hollow. Cold. Deep as a winter grave.

A/N

Hello readers! I'm back, and this time I'll be posting chapters more regularly. You can expect many more updates from here on, so stay tuned—this is just the beginning

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