I stared at the girl reflected in the sword.
Long, flowing white hair.
Eyes crimson red—like rubies soaked in dusk.
How strange…
"Just who the hell… are you?"
Before any of this happened, as far as I remember, I was an ordinary office worker.
Slaving away day after day, just to survive. Any misfortune you can imagine—I've probably lived through worse.
My memories of my parents… well, my mother—are fleeting at best. And just like that, the government handed me over to the so-called "convenience" of the system.
A rotting, corrupted orphanage.
Where hope goes to die.
My time there… was nothing short of hell.
The so-called orphanage was nothing more than a painted coffin—built to look pure, almost divine from the outside… but inside, it reeked of rot.
They didn't raise children. They raised currency.
We were tools nothing more than numbers for funding and sympathy.
At eighteen, we lost our worth.
I left the moment I could and rebuilt myself from nothing, clawing through life just to survive.
But happiness…?
The moment I even dared to feel a sliver of it, the world made sure to crush it.
Simply put…
My existence felt like a curse.
Ragged breaths tore through me. Soreness surged across my body like fire under the skin. As much as I want to look around, my head is pounding—an aching, hollow throb—and a faint ringing drowns everything else. The world is a blur of shattered shapes and fading light.
Then… fragments tried to resurface.
"…RUN! Ἄστ—"
'Hah… I don't even know what you're saying.'
Nothing is clear. But one thing is certain—I was running for my life. And now… here I am.
"Ahh—!"
'Damn it.'
That smell… it's gut-wrenching. Metallic. Heavy. Wrong.
I couldn't see clearly, but I knew
I was in the middle of a battlefield.
Clashing steel.
Distant screams.
"Beast!"
"Damn you monsters!"
'Monsters…'
My vision threatened to fade completely, but then
A faint string of light.
Energy? Something like it.
And something inside me whispered no, commanded to follow it if I wanted to survive.
Without hesitation, I gambled everything on that so-called light.
And found myself hiding inside a wrecked carriage.
My consciousness slipped away.
'…Just where the hell am I'