Bad day

Aoi looked at him for a moment, then gave a small smile. "I think I understand a bit more now why so many people chose to be on your side, Johan. You're stubborn, but you have a clear purpose. Maybe if we'd all listened to you more back then, things would've turned out differently."

Johan shrugged. "We're all just trying to survive, Aoi. Sometimes, those choices don't look right to everyone else. But what matters is that we keep moving forward, no matter what."

Silence settled over them again, the peaceful atmosphere of the druid village at night bringing a calm that allowed them to drift into their own thoughts. Beneath the starlight, there was a faint hope that, perhaps, they could bury the past and look toward the future with a new perspective.

---