Finally, one day, the tipping point of the Anointed One's life has come. He has just submitted a rough draft of the war plan to the commanding officer that Gerald reported to. After an intense thought processing, Alexei was treating the Anointed One with some free time to relieve any stress that may have accumulated.
"Alexei…" Gerald called with a distressed voice. "Come here…"
Alexei recognized that tone of Gerald; it was a distressful tone and told the Anointed One to wait in the room. After closing a door behind him, Alexei asked. "Gerald, what happened? I don't like the tone of your voice."
"The thing is…" Gerald sighed, hesitant to tell the truth.
"What is it, Gerald? Please tell me!"
"The order has come to terminate the Anointed One. The super soldier you've created is favored more by the commanding officer. Her code name is the Devouring One."
There was a moment of silence, before Alexei raised his voice. "This can't be! He's only five years old! I couldn't possibly do that!"
From the raised voice, the Anointed One became concerned. He put his ear to the door and listened.
"The Anointed One has failed the test. The commanding officer deemed his draft as 'suicidal at best, and traitorously bad at worst.' As soon as he saw that it took more than one nurses at her full strength to keep the Devouring One under control when she was throwing a tantrum, his face told me that she is their prized soldier now. The order now is to replace the Anointed One with the Devouring One."
"That's outrageous! There's still time for the Anointed One to learn! Few years, I tell you! Does he expect me to now get rid of the Anointed One who I took care like a son?!"
"The Anointed One has been deemed to be a failure for the large amount of resources invested into him, Alexei. In all honesty, I debated to myself whether I should tell you that when I was trying to teach the Anointed One, it all went nowhere."
After hearing those words, the Anointed One had an intense wave of fear, sorrow, and guilt, and went to his bed to weep.
Alexei grabbed both of Gerald's shoulders. "Come on, Gerald! Please tell them that he needs more time! Tell them that since there's still time before war, the Anointed One can think of a good war plan with the combination of the Devouring One!"
"I'm very sorry, Gerald… If he orders, there's nothing I can do… From time to time, I could subtly tell that the commanding officer regrets putting in so much resources in the Anointed One, and now that the Devouring One, who needs very little feeding, is here, his mood has never been the same…"
"All I wanted was to use my talent for this country, and this is the treatment I get?! Does the military have no compassion even for the child?! Is this what being a soldier is like?! To be pawns of the higher authority?!"
"I don't like this situation either, Gerald…All I can ask from you is your forgiveness from pushing you towards this due to my greedy ambition to serve the country…The order still stands though…The Anointed One is gone, or we are gone altogether."
"I can't do this, Gerald! This is unacceptable! I don't have the heart to kill a child that I took care of!"
"Alexei." Gerald whispered. "We only need to 'get rid of him.'"
"What do you mean?"
"It may not atone for my wrong against you, but this is the best I can do. The commanding officer only needs to think that the Anointed One is gone. But if they ever find out that we never got rid of the Anointed One, we will risk all our lives for disobedience. His life will be constantly in danger if he stays in the Empire, and no one is likely to adopt him when he needs so many resources in this scarce land. We need to act fast; we must have someone escorting the Anointed One to somewhere else that's not the Galdarik Empire. If someone is willing to accept him, there is hope for the Anointed One."
"But what if nobody accepts him?"
"It's better than killing him at this point, Alexei. We have no other option."
After some pause, Alexei finally spoke. "I hate how powerless I am in this situation, but the Anointed One does not deserve to die. It breaks my heart, but it's for the best."
"Then go, tell the Anointed One the situation. We must hurry. I'm getting Angela now."
Upon returning, Alexei found the Anointed One crying intensely in his bed. "I'm a failure! Master, I failed!" said the Anointed One. "Now I'm gonna die! I just can't fulfill my purpose!"
Alexei hugged him. "You must have overheard. Listen to me, Anointed One. You won't die. I'll make sure you get out alive and fulfill your purpose. There's still a lot of potential and time left for you; don't think that you're a failure. That's a promise."
"But, I failed and didn't make the big man happy-"
"I'm not letting you die, Anointed One. Not when I treasured you so much."
"I don't understand…Why do you do this? Haven't I failed?"
"I'm sorry, Anointed One, but this, you will have to figure out in your next journey. Now, this is a plan…"
Angela has consented to the plan, voicing her distress to the Anointed One's situation as well. Alexei has decided that although Leidenschaftlich was soon to be an enemy, the Anointed One would have the best chance there with their abundance of resources. Alexei quickly scribbled some documentations and letters for the possible adopter of the Anointed One, while Gerald quickly provided some money and travel essentials to Angela. Gerald knew of the patrol schedule around the university and had arranged a time and place for Angela to depart. She promised to keep everything that has happened confidential and will make sure to mask the true intent behind this plan.
The group were outside out of the patrols' sight, and it was time to go. The Anointed One and Alexei hugged each other for the last time. "I'm scared, master. I-I don't want to go…I need you…I can't do it without you…"
Tearing up, Alexei responded. "It breaks my heart to do this, but we have no choice. Forgive me, for all of this and the time I wasn't there for you. Live your life, Anointed One. May you be given a new name for your new life."
"It's now, or never, Dr. Magellan. I must go before the patrols arrive and students fully leave their classroom." Angela said.
Alexei let go, and the Anointed One was put in a large sack to be concealed, and Angela wore the sack as if she was a student. When Angela hurried towards groups of students that were being dismissed, both Alexei and the Anointed One began to silently sob, both knowing they may never see each other again. Their silent sobbing was suppressed within noisy chatter between students on the campus.
After they were out of sight of the campus, Angela let the Anointed One out of the sack. She first took him to a quiet open space to give him some time to calm down and get over the separation from his master. Afterwards, she took him with her to a nearby train station, pretending to be a mother and obtained tickets for Leidenschaftlich.
On the train towards Leidenschaftlich, the Anointed One was looking out through a window for most of the time. Angela merely watched him deeply admiring the passing scenes of various terrains such as mountains, thick forests, farmlands, and lakes. Once again, she was pleasantly surprised that the same boy who was intensely mourning from separation could instantly change his mood to deep admiration of natural scenes he has never seen before outside of campus.
After some time, Angela finally broke the silence. "Do you like what you're seeing out there?"
The Anointed One turned around. "Um, how long was I staring out for?"
"For quite a while. For some reason, it filled me with some peace and happiness seeing you like that, especially with you being separated."
"D-did I let my emotion take over again? I'm sorry, I-"
"Nothing to say sorry for, Anointed One." Angela said with a smile. "For once, I want to let you embrace the pleasant emotion you have."
"Hasn't master always instructed me to keep my emotion in check?"
After thinking, Angela replied. "After all that you went through, it is cruel to deprive you from enjoying such good emotion. I would never do this to a child."
"Is this one of the ethics thing? I don't understand. It contradicts master's instructions."
"I'm sorry that I can't give you straight-forward answer now. It will be something you must comprehend at your heart as you live your life among other people."
"Heart's function is not to-"
"You're doing it again. But don't fret; I'm sure you'll understand everything that me and Dr. Magellan tried to teach you about."
Puzzled by the lack of tangible answer from Angela, Anointed One sat through the train trip until arriving at Leidenschaftlich.
After arriving at the country of Leidenschaftlich, Angela used the funds from Gerald to stay at some inn and proactively searched for some candidates for the Anointed One. She first tried her luck at the orphanage, this time pretending to have found the Anointed One without his parents. Now Alexei has instructed Angela and the Anointed One to read the candidates some documentation about the Anointed One. Upon hearing who the Anointed One is, all orphanage have declined to take him in, fearful of his potential, the hassle to accommodate for his body, and for lack of capability to keep him occupied.
Few days have passed without progress of finding someone willing to adopt the Anointed One. Angela counted her remaining money and sighed knowing the time was running out. Then the Anointed One noticed a man walking by who dressed similarly to Alexei; a man with glasses and business casual attire who was discussing some intellectual topic with another man.
"I found a worthy person!" the Anointed One then ran to catch up to the man.
"Hey, wait! Don't run off like that!"
The man turned a corner, and the Anointed One was already busy pulling out documentation to present to him. "Sir, I have been assigned a duty of-"
Upon seeing the other side of corner, another man riding a bike was coming. The Anointed One processed the situation and had a sudden fear of death. The man on bike became startled and braked, but it couldn't avoid a collision with the Anointed One. He fell backwards, something that was to be avoided even with his spine protective augment. At first, an intense pain he had never experienced before overtook him. His scream of pain was cut off by his fainting from the intense pain and his sensitive spinal cord connected to brain caused a loss of consciousness from the impact.