It was early summer that day. It happened while Astor was running across the hotel’s lobby after a little thief snatched the Adamantium bracelet his father gifted him for his birthday.

He almost caught him when he heard the sound similar to that of a fabric being ripped then it happened before he could realize it.

A space fabric explosion rocked the world as the city's subspace defense array collapsed!

The air pressure sent him flying along with everyone around as a void gate opened right on top of the avenue where his grandmother was supposed to be giving a speech.

Astor only remembered fragments of this incident after that.

Random scenes of how buildings collapsed and escaping people screamed in a storm of blood and smoke.

How a giant three-eyed black demon dragon descended from the sky and how his grandmother stood in midair heroically to face it. Using a golden sword to defend against the black flames that rained on the streets below!

After that, the world around him turned into an inferno of black smoke causing him to faint!

When he woke up back then he was in a hospital, suffering third-degree burns from head to toe and without an idea who he was as he suffered from amnesia… He miraculously survived and spent a full 5 weeks at the hospital until he was able to walk.

Without anyone asking about him and no clue about his identity, he was sent to an orphanage in the countryside. One of many that the government opened to house the children who lost their parents in the surprise demonic skirmish.

Astor remembered this period.

Without his memories and with an ugly burnt face, he was subjected to a lot of bullying from the other orphans who believed he was a demon and wanted to see him suffer… Kids can be really cruel sometimes, especially when many of them lost their parents when the demon attack happened.

Unlike previous demon attacks that happened infrequently at random locations, this one was very massive in scale and it targeted major cities after some demonic agents succeeded in disabling the space defense systems.

Thankfully, the demons were repelled by the awakened heroes who used their powers to save the day again, but this time the casualties were high leading to many orphans who needed something to vent on!

This bullying lasted for a year or so and ended up saving his life when the children locked him inside the orphanage’s abandoned well one night after tricking him away from the dormitory where the headmaster would scold them if they went overboard.

This proved to be the luckiest thing that happened to him since the incident as that same night the entire orphanage burnt to the ground. No one survived, not even the corpses.

Back then Astor who was huddled in the damp well was barely able to survive thanks to the kids closing the well’s mouth with a big plank of wood.

It was the next morning that he was helped out by the fighter fighters who were cursing at the demons for cutting the road to this place, delaying their arrival.

They promised Astor to find him a new orphanage, something that he didn’t want, so he used an opportunity when everyone was not looking to escape, totally unaware that this saved his life for the second time.

The flames were not an accident. It was all an attempt to kill him silently.

Astor didn’t realize it back then… He didn’t realize it for years and years to come until he regained his memories due to a lucky encounter.

His real name was Astor Noir. The descendant of the Noir family, one of the 4 awakened families who ruled the world.

Sadly he was not the one officially carrying that name at the moment.

Seemingly after the demon’s attack, the injured were hospitalized. The little thief who stole his bracelet and also suffered many burns was mistaken for him and was sent to the family’s private hospital where he was healed using the world's most advanced technology to reconstruct his body and skin!

Astor believed that this was an honest mistake. At first at the very least when that thief was still sedated. But it would have been impossible to keep this misunderstanding after that, especially with the expensive healing potions they had and could easily restore his face in a few months… Someone must have realized the mistake and decided to aid the fake kid in taking Astor's position while using the truth to keep a leash on him!

That guy must have been the one behind burning the orphanage! They intended to silently remove the real heir.

Thankfully, Astor, who was scared to be with other children after what he suffered, chose to run away, escaping that guy's radar.

He lived a few years in the street where he became stronger, learning to survive by begging and stealing.

Those were harsh days that ended when he was caught by some traffickers who sold him to be trained as a slave!

BANG!

The sound of a sudden explosion forced Astor to slowly open his eyes.

He was still in the hall and it was morning now… Outside, through the little window, he could hear the sound of a few helicopters flying above accompanied by a rain of bullets.

Renya who was beside him seemed to have woken up before him and moved away, sitting on the other side of the hall.

“That wall is facing the dormitories… You better stay away from it in case some explosion happens…” Astor causally commented, making the terrified girl quickly move to his side. Still staying away from him.

The other two boys who didn’t dare to move throughout the night began to move too as the sounds of the fighting outside got stronger and stronger.

People were screaming and dying outside, but Astor didn’t care as he thought for a moment then slowly walked toward the door and crouched near it as the sound of fighting died down.

After that, for the next 20 minutes, the children could hear some sounds of random bullets, but that’s it… Then there was the sound of metal locks sliding… Someone was opening the door.

Bam!

The door was blasted open as three men in imperial-style camo uniforms walked in and scanned the children using the lights on their rifles, including Astor who was beside the door and was forced to use his hands to cover his eyes due to the strong light.

“CLEAR!”

“CLEAR…”

“CLEAR… ALL CLEAR!”

“DAWN THREE REPORTING, THE AWAKENING HALL IS CLEAR... Just some kids .." one soldier nodded, then said in his communication device before looking at Renya and adding one sentence in a hurry after checking her looks against the photo pasted on his sleeve two times to make sure. “THE TARGET IS HERE, SHE IS SAFE AND SECURE!” he added as he sighed in relief, glancing at the five corpses that were left untouched all night and were beginning to rot.

“ROGER… “ the replay came quickly.  

Moments later through the door, a fat man in a cameo uniform ran inside toward Ranya who frowned as if trying hard to remember who this familiar guy was, and then quickly stood up letting him hug her.

“DADDY…… I AM SORRY!” the girl said then exploded into a crying fit.

“It is ok…It is ok… Daddy is here…” the fat man said in a soft voice as he hugged his frightened daughter tighter. The soldiers around him started to investigate the hall, trying hard not to look at their usually stern commander.

“Who killed those guys?” one soldier asked, facing one of the children, making the commander who was hugging his daughter turn and look back, noticing the dead bodies for the first time.

“It was him!” one of the children said, pointing toward the door… There was no one there… “Where is he?” the boy asked, making the soldiers quickly start to look around.

The boy who was near the door moments ago had vanished.

Astor didn't vanish, of course, he didn't have the spare energy to pull such a skill yet … He just ducked to the ground and used the commotion to escape as he didn’t want to get tangled with Renya and her father for now. That man would surely kill him if he realized what he did to his daughter, no… He would question him first and then kill him in a very brutal way. That’s why Astor, who didn’t want to explain many things, chose to sneak out.

Astor removed the cloth that covered his mouth then quickly used a hidden path he knew from his past life and headed toward a small square where the rest of the children were being gathered. He quickly found a place among them without drawing attention.

“Hey, you!” a soldier who happened to turn at the right moment and saw him moving suddenly yelled at him. “Sit down and don’t try anything funny!”

Astor nodded nervously then sat on the hard ground with the others, carefully wiping some soot from his robes on his hand to avoid others noticing that he lacked a brand. Then he began to inspect the situation around him.

The children were sitting in shock, unable to comprehend what just happened as the soldiers worked all around them, searching the camp and piling the charred corpses of the guards.

Astor hoped that the bald man didn’t die easily. That bastard was on his list after all. Astor could still remember his depraved punishments when he was getting trained here to this day.

Still, his supposed boss, the prince, was alive. It seemed like the rescue arrived before him, causing him to turn and run when he noticed the mess here, not wanting anything to do with this.

Regardless, Astor planned to get him later.

After a while, Astor noticed that the general left the hall with his daughter. They slowly headed toward the square where the children were sitting.

Renya was looking around, clearly searching for him, but during the past day, he made sure to always keep in the shadows and hide his face. They were not able to recognize him among the many children.

“I… I can’t find him…” she said apologetically.

“It is ok dear… This is not important…” the general said softly, giving the shocked children one last look before leaving.

The children spent the rest of the day outside where the soldiers fixed them something to eat.

So with nothing to do, they watched as the entire awakening hall was demolished to extract the precious metal used to build it and the celestial copper rod at its center.

After that, the soldiers began to transfer their loot and the freshly written files about the kids they found inside the administrative building to the transporter helicopters that began to arrive sequentially, showing the strength and resources the imperial army had.

Soon it was dawn and a middle-aged woman approached the children.

“Listen up…” the woman said. “Soon some helicopters will arrive, I will want you to ride them in an orderly manner… Don’t worry, we will take care of you!” she said to the children who didn’t know what to think.

Astor sighed…

In his past life, the children were taken to another facility that was much better than this shit-hole.

Still, it was only a better prison. Those guys would have never left them free.

He quickly shook his head. The past is the past, but to avoid repeating it, he needed to plot his moves carefully.

He knew that he had to escape before those guys reviewed the kid's numbers and discovered that by not having one, he was the one in the hall.

He needed to leave before they reached the other base!