Faded walls.
Cold white light leaking from lifeless ceiling lamps.
A machine's hum… grinding time itself into slow, unbearable fragments.
I try to move.
Nothing responds.
Not paralysis—
But the sensation of unseen ropes tightening around my limbs, sinking me into a frozen weight.
And then—that face.
A black-haired boy.
His features are blurred, out of reach,
Yet the feeling that strikes my chest the moment I see him
is sharper than any memory I possess.
As if I know him.
From another time… another life.
He stands behind thick glass.
His eyes look like a night that hasn't slept in years,
But…
his smile is warm.
Warm in a way that hurts.
I try calling out to him,
but my mouth is stone—
no sound escapes.
I am nothing but a pair of eyes watching him
until the darkness pulls me under once more.
Sometimes his voice cuts through the void,
torn and distant—
words I cannot understand…
but my heart remembers them anyway,
as if they were engraved into my soul before I was born.
"I won't abandon you… even if it kills me."
Who is he?
And why is it that every time I fall back into the dark…
he follows?
Was any of this real?
Or was that place—that room—
just a memory from a life I no longer dare to recall?
---
—Rumble
A violent sound shattered the foggy scene.
I opened my eyes slowly as the scent of wet earth flooded my senses before anything else.
Cold humidity clung to my skin,
mud stuck to my clothes,
and a throbbing pain pulsed through my skull.
I tried to move, but my arm felt heavy—
only then did I realize I was holding someone.
Athena.
Her face rested near my shoulder,
her breaths slow but steady.
Strands of her soaked black hair sprawled across the muddy ground.
At least she didn't seem seriously hurt.
That alone was a relief.
Right—
this was not the time or place to be lying around.
"Athena… wake up."
I shook her lightly until her eyes finally fluttered open.
"Hm… huh?"
The moment she regained awareness, she sat up quickly, instinctively sensing that something was wrong.
"Brother Gil… how long was I out?"
"I'm not sure. I woke up just moments ago myself.
More importantly—you're not badly hurt, right?"
"Ah… I'm fine. What about yo—"
Her gaze shifted to me,
and her expression instantly drained of color.
She froze as if she had just seen a ghost.
Before I could ask, she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the blood dripping down the side of my head.
"You're bleeding a lot… why didn't you tell me you were hurt? Why do you always act like it's nothing?"
Right.
So that warmth I felt earlier was from my head injury…
I was careless. I shouldn't have let her see me like this again.
"I'm not in pain. I think the bleeding stopped. There's no need to—"
Before I finished, she grabbed me by the collar and shook me.
"Why do you keep acting so recklessly? You shouldn't have shielded me with your body in that condition! Take care of yourself for once, you idiot!"
"I get it, I get it—stop shaking me… I'm getting dizzy."
"A–ah, sorry! Are you okay?"
She finally let go and stepped back.
Whenever Athena panics, she forgets everything else—
including the fact that I'm already injured.
Even though she'd calmed down a little, her expression still carried tension.
She took a breath, her tone turning serious.
"What matters now is that we shouldn't stay here any longer. As you can see…"
We looked around.
A storm-dark sky thick with rain clouds,
lightning flashing across the shadowed forest,
wind howling through branches like a low, haunting moan.
Raindrops hammered the muddy ground around the shattered remains of our overturned carriage.
The bodies of the horses lay beside it—
a sight no one could mistake for a simple accident.
Worst of all, the driver was gone.
That bastard… I should have checked on him earlier. His behavior had been suspicious from the start.
No—thinking about it now is pointless.
Images flashed through my mind:
the muddy road, the carriage suddenly veering off the path,
the brief look Athena and I shared as we realized what was happening—
too late.
The panicked horses, the fall from the cliff,
the crash into the trees below,
and then darkness.
This wasn't an accident.
It was a clear assassination attempt.
I pointed toward the broken tree line above.
"If we follow the road up there, we should reach the forest's edge."
"Right… I remember seeing a village nearby when we passed earlier. Its lights were visible."
Athena brushed mud off her dark clothes and damp hair, then sighed as she glanced back at the ruined carriage.
The look on her face said everything—
walking through the freezing storm toward an unfamiliar place was the last thing she wanted,
but we had no choice.
I pushed aside my thoughts and focused on what mattered.
"Let's go. Staying here is the worst thing we could do."
Athena nodded.
She approached the destroyed carriage, searched through the debris, and managed to retrieve our bags.
"Thankfully, they're not damaged. Shall we?"
Her tension eased a little.
I gave a faint smile, took my bag in my left hand, and gripped my sword's sheath with the other.
Even though we'd survived the fall,
we were far from safe.
We were lucky nothing attacked us while we were unconscious—
but that luck wouldn't last forever.
Whatever happened here…
was only the beginning.