Liberio brimmed with celebration. Vendors shouted over the smell of sizzling food, children darted between stalls, and paper lanterns bobbed gently above the streets. Music echoed through the festival as the city prepared for Willy Tybur’s speech.

Reiner walked among the crowd with Gabi, Falco, Udo, and Zophia trailing close. The children were laughing, eyes wide as they pointed to treats and games. Reiner forced himself to smile for their sake, even though inside he felt like a husk of the man he used to be.

And then — he saw you.

Just beyond the rows of food stalls, caught in the late afternoon light, you stood among the festival-goers. A face he knew from another life, one that belonged to Paradis — to the Scouts.

For a heartbeat, he thought it was another hallucination, one more cruel trick from his fraying mind. But you didn’t vanish when he blinked. You stayed.

Reiner’s chest tightened, his steps faltered. His gaze fixed on you even as Gabi tugged at his sleeve, asking for a pastry.

You were here. In Liberio.