Dante’s shattered dream.

Dante wonders why the machine isn't making any noise. He looks up towards Elric confused. "Hmm, try again." Elric says as he cranks up the machines sensitivity. "Is something wrong?" Dante asks. Elric shakes his head, as Dante steps through again. The machine lets out a small silent beep. "It would seem you have an underdeveloped, affinity for magic. You may never be able to harness it." Elric delivers news crushing Dante. 

Elric pitifully kneels down to Dante. "What do you wanna be once you get older?" Elric asks. Dante perks back up. "I wanna be an adventurer, one like a hero!" Dante yells. Kenta chuckles in the back. "Kid you'd be lucky being a D rankers sidekick!" He says as the entire auditorium begins to laugh at poor Dante. 

The voices echo in Dante's head, all of the laughing. "I suggest you pack your dreams and be a janitor!" Kenta says as Elric hits him in his chest. Everyone burst out laughing while pointing at Dante. His legs begin shaking as he looks towards Dennis for help, but his friend is even joining the laughter. 

"Dennis." Dante calls out to him. A lump in his throat, Begging for the safety of his friend. Kenta smiles. "Kid someone like you has no business being friends with someone like him." Kenta says. Dennis looks at Dante without a hint of remorse in his eye and turns his back to him. Dante's whole world seems to be falling apart and before he breaks down, Lilah grabs his hand. 

Kenta seems to have notices her. "That's why the kid looked so dang familiar he's Lilah's brat!" He shouts. Kenta then laughs. "No wonder the kid sucks he's just like his old man." Kenta mocks. Lilah clenches her fist. "Don't you dare mention him!" She yells at Kenta. 

Kenta smirks almost like he's holding in more laughter. "Or what?" He says. Lilah as much as she wants to, knows she cannot fight Kenta and win. So she regrettably turns and walks away with Dante. Kenta laughs as she walks away. "Good, leave with your useless brat, ya failure of a family!" Kenta mocks. 

Tips, in this world if you are unable to use magic your uses to the empire are automatically low. So your future would be grim without its use. The only hope for someone who cannot land good jobs, or that were born into wealth is to be married off so they may have a future.

Lilah and Dante arrive home, the weight of the world pressing down on them. Dante, usually so full of energy, is crushed, shoulders heavy, his eyes distant. Lilah notices the shift in him, his silence louder than any words. She kneels down, her heart breaking for him. She places a hand gently on his cheek, trying to meet his eyes.

"It's okay, hijo," she says softly, her voice trembling. "Don't listen to anything they said."

Dante doesn't answer. His eyes remain fixed on the floor, distant and hollow, as if the world has shifted beneath him.

Dante steps over to the small, carefully placed urn on the mantle, his fingers brushing against it like he's afraid it will disappear. He stares at it, then at Lilah, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Mom... what was Dad like?" He tugs nervously at the bottom of his shirt, the simple gesture betraying the storm inside him. "Kenta.. he seemed to know so much about him…"

Lilah's heart aches, a rush of memories flooding her. She crouches down to be eye-level with Dante, her hand trembling as she places it on his.

"Your father… he was a great man, Dante. A good man," she says, her voice breaking but firm. "He wasn't a failure." The words come with a weight that seems too heavy for them both to carry. Dante doesn't meet her gaze. His eyes flicker over to the TV, where the travels of his favorite adventurers are playing out.

"Mom…" Dante calls softly, his voice hesitant, as if testing the waters of a question he's too afraid to ask.

Lilah looks him in the eyes, the depth of his unspoken pain pulling at her. Then he asks it, the question that breaks something deep inside her.

"Do you think... I could still be an adventurer?" Dante's voice cracks, his words barely escaping. "Could I still follow my dream?"

He clutches her shirt, his small body trembling in her arms, the weight of his dream pressing down on him like a heavy stone. Tears spill down his cheeks, the pain of everything he's been told, of everything he fears, flowing out.

Lilah's chest tightens. She sees it in his eyes, he's searching, begging for her to say yes. For her to tell him that despite everything, he could still chase his dream. That he could still be the person he wanted to be. That he could still have the future he envisioned, even if the world seemed to have shattered all around him.

But the words refuse to come. She opens her mouth, but they won't form. How could she lie to him? How could she promise him something she couldn't guarantee?

Tears start to blur her vision as she pulls him close, her own sobs rising in her throat. "I'm so sorry, hijo," she whispers, her voice thick with grief. "I'm so sorry."

Her answer.... her silence... says everything. Dante realizes the truth in that moment. The crushing weight of the world falls over him, and he, too, starts to cry, his small sobs muffled in his mother's embrace. And for the first time, the dream he had so fiercely clung to seems unreachable, slipping through his fingers as his heart shatters.