"Ahhhh!" shouted Zenith with a hint of glum in his tone.
Zenith had woken up to see his precious clothes missing from his possession. He began to panic at this unprecedented occurrence, and his breath grew heavy and his mind fumbled for an answer. He frantically lifted every blanket and looked threw every crevice of the room, yet the result demoralized him.
Soon sad and depressing thoughts flooded Zenith's head, and It didn't take long for them to wash away his wishful thinking. From these wretched thoughts rosed anger: he had already specifically told Lady Liliana not to wash these clothes, but why would she have taken his clothes away without informing him?
Zenith felt incredibly indignant, but he knew he shouldn't express it outright as Lady Liliana was selflessly taking him in with kindness.
While turning his head to leave the nursery, Zenith's heart skipped a beat when he saw the clothing within Sirius's crib. His face immediately bloomed into an uncontrollable smile.
Sirius was holding the clothing loosely with one hand while sleeping soundly like a log.
It was unclear to Zenith how it ended up in Sirius's crib, but he felt it was related to the beautiful dream that turned into a dreadful nightmare. He could vaguely remember how it started with the lovely presence of Alice, but her presence slowly faded like dandelion seeds in the drifting winds. Then immediately out of nowhere, a woman with a similar appearance to Alice grasped his throat and snapped his neck.
'I must have accidentally thrown it into the crib after awakening from the nightmare.' thought Zenith guiltily as he sucked in a breath threw his gritted teeth.
Retrieving the clothing from Sirius's hand, Zenith didn't hesitate to hug it and inhale the scent. However, he quickly realized there was an issue: his clothes reeked of sweat instead of the delightful fragrance of Alice.
In an instant, Zenith's blissful smile changed into a look of disbelief as his mouth opened agape in consternation. He felt even more depressed than before, as he had just gained happiness only to lose it moments later.
Zenith could only stare blankly at his messy clothes with a dumbfounded expression. It was exactly as he had dreamt, Alice's presence had completely faded away as if a mysterious force is distancing them.
....
Five years later, on planet Eris of the 5th planetary system.
Sirius has had no significant changes in appearance, he still has his jet black short hair and dull gloomy eyes that give the impression of looking down an abyss.
However, this can not be said for the other members of the orphanage. A lot had changed within this humble orphanage in the five-year period.
Lady Liliana had gotten taller and her body naturally matured with a more curvaceous look that would easily arouse every man around her. She also changed her usual blonde ponytail hairstyle into a long wavey hairstyle with multiple layers consisting of different lengths. Despite this change in appearance, Lady Liliana was still the warmhearted and innocent caretaker of the orphanage.
Oliver and Lily on the other hand had separated from their childish relationship ever since they were enrolled in different middle schools. They rarely talk to each other as if the other party were mere acquaintances.
As for Zenith, he had picked up a brotherly relationship with Oliver since they had not only gone to the same middle school but also had the same classes. Zenith also grew out of his delinquent-like manner, even though there are still some traces of it, and developed an entirely new personality. This personality sprang forth from the kindness of the orphanage and his ever-great desire to see the girl in pure white hair named Alice. Now, he is more resolute and more sympathetic at heart; He was the type of person Oliver looked up to.
Emily too had quite a significant change both in appearance and personality. Her chestnut hair had grown long and curly, reaching all the way to her stomach. Emily stubbornly refused and begged Liliana not to cut her lush hair because she loved the feeling of how her hair flowed on the ground when she sat down to read her books. In addition to her appearance, Emily slowly moved out of her introverted shell and tried interacting with the rest of the orphans, especially Sirius. However, Sirius held no interest, so she was usually ignored by him even though she had a wishful belief that he was listening all along.
As for Emily's interactions with the rest of the orphans, it was just mere small talk. Nobody took Emily seriously, which resulted in only short childish conversations. Thus, the only two people she could rely on were Liliana and Andra. Since Liliana was always busy, Emily would always visit Andra and asked her questions regarding her adventures beyond the settlement's boundaries.
Though Emily's constant questioning annoyed Andra to some extent, Andra was unable to stop her. Her thirst for knowledge was apparent, and Andra soon grew fond of her curiosity. Emily was treated as a half-disciple, and Andra passed on as much knowledge as she could recall without much regard to whether Emily would be able to memorize it.
These interactions with Emily were a form of killing time for Andra, something she is currently running out.
During the five years, Andra hadn't changed one bit in her appearance and still possessed her senile qualities. Despite her seemingly unchanged appearance, Andra's physical and mental strength had greatly faltered: she could no longer lift furniture with ease and she could barely keep an eye on the orphans without accidentally falling asleep. Age is slowly eroding her once prided strength and body. Furthermore, the gene enhancements that she had taken during her prime are beginning to lose their effects and started baring their fangs. The older model of gene enhancement granted its users immense strength that is much stronger than the current mass-produced versions. However, unlike the mass-produced versions, it had a severe drawback: the effects of aging cells are multiplied. Essentially, people who took the older model of gene enhancement would both age faster and experience more severe conditions of aging. Because of this severe drawback, many planetary systems came up with a consensus to stop its production and look for a way to remove the drawback.
With the severe drawback and her apparent old age, Andra had to admit that she could no longer be of help to the orphanage.
Luckily, most of the orphans already possess an adult-like mindset and don't require anyone to look after them. This was especially true for Lucy, who is now 17 years old. She kept her sharp and cute bob-cut hairstyle that only reached her neck. Furthermore, her loving and hardworking attitude was unwavering throughout these 5 years despite the obvious increasing difficulties. Although Lucy held on to many characteristics, her body was definitely not one of them. Her slender body matured with the growth of bigger breasts and hips, which didn't match her tomboyish and boisterous attitude. Lucy was dissatisfied with her body growth as she thought it would hinder her passion to be an elite scout for the expedition army.
While on the other, Oliver would say otherwise, he had been utterly love-struck with Lucy's appearance and made multiple attempts to express his feelings. Unfortunately, Lucy would always believe that Oliver was just fooling around. These rejections had torn Oliver's confidence and left him unable to sleep for many days. He was left disheartened and dejected as he remained unresponsive with a dull expression almost the same as Sirius. Fortunately, Zenith caught wind of his unusual behavior and quickly got the gist of the situation after convincing Oliver to share his story.
After hearing the story, Zenith couldn't help but sympathize with Oliver. He too had been love-struck by a girl who indirectly rejected him, and he too experience the bleak feelings of life.
Within these 5 years, Zenith was fully committed to the search for Alice, searching the lower southern district with every chance he had. However, regardless of how hard he tried, every search ended in vain. Zenith had been pushed to the limits from these searches, he came up with various ways to separate the language barrier of the foreign refugees and establish a friendly presence around them. Yet, no one from the abandoned part of town had ever heard of or seen a young girl with pure white hair.
'It was like she had disappeared from the face of this planet.' Zenith thought.
He always had a small dreary thought lingering in the back of his head. Nevertheless, he never paid attention to this thought, since his wishful thinking suppressed it. But as the searches kept coming back with fruitless results, it was inevitable for this thought to resurface.
'She probably left and will never come back.'
Upon allowing this thought to fully sink in, Zenith was devastated. Several emotions soon flooded his mind: depression, anger, and acceptance. The regret he felt for not knowing her better back then made him angry at his lack of courage. After he finally calmed down, depression soon set in. He thought of how she'll disappear from his life and he'll completely forget about her once this emotional ordeal ended. Unfortunately, he was correct, acceptance came slowly but surely. Along with acceptance came a more refined Zenith and fading hope for Alice.
Thus, for Oliver to not experience what he had felt, Zenith encouraged him to pursue her to the end of the world. In the days that followed, Oliver's aura visibility changed as a result of Zenith's constant encouragement; Oliver's dejected expression was eventually replaced with a naive but resolute face.
This renewed determination proved effective despite Lucy laughing off Oliver's repeated confessions. It allowed Oliver to easily spark conversations with Lucy even though she finds it annoying at times. Oliver's persistence soon granted him an awkward but acceptable place in Lucy's heart: someone who was annoying yet thought-provoking.
Although the positive changes were indeed impactful, it could also be said with the many adversities and predicaments that accompanied them.
Just a few months ago, Lady Liliana's orphanage had lost its funding, adding more pressure on Liliana with the already weakening Andra in need of care. The expenses of the orphanage were drastically cut, which caused a major reduction in both necessities and luxuries. Meal rations decreased along with the lighting and water usage. Furthermore, hand-me-downs were increasingly prevalent. Despite the difficulties, no one complained.
The headquarters felt there was no benefit to continuing funding since Sirius had shown no changes over the past five years, which suggested that he wasn't processing any magic essence. Furthermore, they reasoned that the settlement's economy is taking a big hit with continued planetary conflict with the mysterious phenomenon and that Lucy was already old enough to take a job.
The lack of funding forced the younger orphans to scrap up ways to earn cash. In the end, they agreed on taking part-time jobs despite Liliana's obvious false reassurance that everything is still manageable.
Unfortunately, entry-level jobs were as rare as stars on a foggy night. Due to the continued non-stop conflict with the vicious celestial phenomenon, many refugees were dumped into this god-forsaken settlement even with the desperate rejection from the headquarters. However, the headquarters were obligated to accept the request as they didn't want to offend any planetary governments.
And thus, the settlement was soon flooded with people of all races competing for even the most mundane and low-paying jobs. With this spontaneous growth in population on a low-income planetary system, the economy started wavering.
Consequently, the settlement's unruly environment has become ten times more chaotic.