The copper tang of fresh blood always tasted the same.

Rain poured from a fractured, violet sky, washing the crimson stains from the stone tiles of the courtyard. All around, the world was a painting rendered entirely in monochrome grey. Grey stones. Grey sky. Grey, lifeless eyes staring blankly into the storm from the corpses littered across the ground.

In the center of the carnage stood a boy. He didn't look at the bodies. He only looked at his hands, watching the rainwater diluting the blood pooling in his palms.

A sharp hum of volatile magic crackled directly against his ear. The comms-sigil flared to life, its cold resonance piercing the steady drumming of the rain.

"Mission accomplished. Target neutralized. Come back, Number Four."

The boy didn't answer. He didn't have the words for it anyway. With a completely hollow, expressionless face, he slid his twin daggers back into their leather sheaths. The metallic shick of the blades was the only punctuation to another ended life.

Then, the loop continued.

Kill a target. Sleep a fitful, dreamless sleep. Eat just enough tasteless rations to sustain the muscle. Repeat.

Days bled into weeks, and weeks dissolved into months. It was a relentless, crushing wheel that grinds a soul into dust. Deep inside the quiet corners of his mind, the walls were cracking. The repetition was driving him insane. Sometimes, when he stared into the dark corners of his barracks, he would see hallucinations of himself—shadowy reflections of Number Four, whispering with a dozen distorted voices.

Nothing changes, the whispers mocked, slithering through his mind like smoke. Just more bodies. Just more targets. They aren't people, Number Four. Just insects. Just food.

"Number Four."

The sharp voice shattered the hallucinations instantly. The boy blinked, his cold expression locking back into place like a iron mask. He was standing inside the grand, obsidian-pillared office of the high command.

Behind the massive desk sat Commander Serafina Faust. Known across the realm as 'The Sword,' she was a woman whose very presence commanded absolute obedience. She cleared her throat, a slight cough escaping her before her sharp eyes pinned him down.

"Number Four... no, better yet," Serafina corrected herself, her tone shifting into something heavier. "The Shadow. You are being assigned to a new detail: guard duty. The Lilum Clan has requested our aid. It seems the clan leader's son is currently being targeted by a faction of high-tier assassins. You will be deployed as his personal, full-time bodyguard."

"Understood," Number Four replied. There was zero hesitation in his voice.

In the dark recesses of his thoughts, the shadowy hallucinations laughed again. Just another protection job. More bodies to stack. More targets to cut down.

Serafina watched him closely, noting the dead stillness in his posture. "Other than the mission parameters, you will be operating under a completely new identification for the duration of this assignment. From this moment on, you will be named Kael. It fits you."

"Kael," the boy tested the syllables in his mind. It felt foreign on his tongue. "Isn't this just the same old job with a different label?"

"Not quite," Serafina murmured, a subtle, knowing smirk playing at the edge of her lips. She snapped her fingers twice, the sharp sound echoing off the stone walls. "Bring them in."

The heavy double doors of the office swung open. A contingent of heavily guarded, important figures dressed in lavish, flowing silken robes walked into the room. But Kael didn't notice the guards, nor did he care about the clan elders.

His eyes locked onto the last person to step through the threshold.

Suddenly, the grey world shattered.

It was as if a burst of brilliant, blinding light had suddenly flooded the dark, gloomy room. The person walking toward the desk possessed a breathtaking, ethereal beauty unlike anything Kael had ever witnessed in his entire existence. Soft, vibrant hair framed a delicate face with features so strikingly elegant and pretty that he looked almost entirely like a young woman. Even the air around him seemed to shimmer with a warm, iridescent magic.

As the entourage took their seats, Kael found himself completely frozen, his mind struggling to process the sudden explosion of color in his vision. He looked around the room, totally disoriented.

"Where is the person I am supposed to protect?" Kael asked, his voice cracking ever so slightly.

Serafina’s smirk widened. "The person you seek is sitting right in front of you."

Kael’s eyes snapped back to the beautiful youth.

"Kael, meet Rin," the Commander introduced smoothly. "He is the one you will be keeping alive."

Before the elders could even speak, Rin suddenly jumped up from his chair, leaning across the space between them. He tilted his head, his wide, expressive eyes scanning Kael’s stunned face with intense curiosity.

"Hey," Rin piped up, his voice light and melodic. "What’s wrong with you? You look exactly like a fish out of water."

For a fraction of a second, the heavy, emotionless shell around Kael's heart cracked. A faint spark of genuine confusion and awareness broke through his dead eyes.

Serafina didn't miss it. She leaned back in her chair, satisfied. "Now that the introductions are out of the way... please accomplish this mission successfully. Number Four... no. Kael."

"Sure," Kael muttered, his gaze still helplessly anchored to the radiant boy standing before him. "Will do."

As the group filed out of the office, Rin casting one more playful glance back over his shoulder, Kael followed a step behind him, enveloped by the faint scent of silk and clean air.

Commander Serafina Faust stood up and walked over to the grand arched window, watching their figures retreat across the courtyard below. Her expression softened into a look of deep, sorrowful pity.

"Number Four," she whispered into the empty room. "Even when you were just a child, you never fussed. You never cried. You just accepted every horrific mission without a single shred of emotion."

She leaned her forehead against the cool glass, a small, hopeful smile touching her lips as she watched the distant shimmer of Rin's magic walking alongside the dark shadow of her top assassin.

"I truly hope you can find your humanity again during this mission... because for the first time in ten years, I finally saw a little bit of hope in those dead eyes of yours."