Time: "Unknown."
Place: "Strangely familiar."
Amid darkness, where rays of sunlight slowly began to pierce the narrow room.
On a simple bed,
a boy with black hair lay shifting slightly as the threads of light touched his eyelids.
When he finally opened his eyes, still half-asleep,
he yawned for a moment, then broke into a wide smile. He jumped up quickly, ran to the door of his room, burst out of it, and rushed toward another door before leaping onto a large bed while shouting:
"Wake up! It's morning!"
His laughter filled the room like the ringing of a bell, carrying something that most people lose as time passes—childhood innocence.
A woman with slightly messy black hair sat up, smiling at him before pulling him into a tight hug.
"Heeey~ good morning, my dear. You're so energetic."
Her voice and scent always made him feel safe.
"Good morning, Mom! Come on, come on, wake up! Let's make breakfast together!"
The boy felt something burning inside his small chest—something he didn't understand, yet it filled him with energy and made him feel alive.
His mother gently patted his head and spoke with warmth.
"Alright, alright. Your wishes are commands, my little king."
She kissed his forehead, then rose from the bed, stretching her body.
Afterward, she lifted the boy onto her shoulders and began running with him as he laughed and grabbed her face and hair to keep himself from falling.
"Anas! You're hurting me, you little rascal!"
Anas had unknowingly pulled on his mother's face and hair too hard.
The moment he heard her playful cry, he let go, which made him fall onto his back.
His mother turned toward him with a soft gasp and quickly bent down, worry filling her face as she examined his small body.
"Are you alright?! Did you get hurt?!"
"Hehe. Stop, Mom! That tickles. Heh. I'm fine. It's my fault for grabbing your face so hard."
He held her face between his hands.
"Are you alright too?"
His mother smiled at him gently while helping him stand.
"I'm fine. Shall we go make breakfast?"
Anas began jumping excitedly while pulling his mother's hand, shouting as if he had never heard of calmness.
His mother watched him for a moment before saying softly:
"I love you, my little one."
At that moment…
it was as if those words opened the gates of hell inside his mind.
A headache tore through Anas' head.
A pain so fierce it felt like his skull would explode.
Flashes of red light burst through his vision before settling on a familiar image.
The room had disappeared.
Anas now stood amid ruins. His mother sat atop a horse beside a blonde woman, while his father led the horse forward.
"Don't die, my little one," his mother said in a gentle, faint voice.
Anas' mind struggled to comprehend what was happening when a voice pierced his head while he watched his mother leaving.
"Why didn't you go with her? Why did you leave her? Don't you love her? You are the son of a fool… and an idiot."
Before he could find any rest, the scene changed again.
This time Anas stood before the shelter's door at the moment Lily had left him there.
Once again the whispers began inside his mind.
"You didn't even look back at your mother. How low can you be? Do you even consider yourself her son?"
Although Anas felt and heard the voice inside his mind, it was as though he could not change anything… or perhaps he simply did not want to.
Once again the world dissolved.
Rapid flashes stormed his vision before finally stopping.
Now Anas, ten years old, stood watching his friends from a distance.
Something was missing from his expression. Something incomplete.
He seemed absent-minded.
It seems no one needs me. My presence or absence… doesn't matter. They only look for me to fill empty space. How ironic. I used to think friendship truly existed.
The whisper returned again, closer this time.
"Everyone hates you. No one loves you. It would be better if you disappeared."
Without warning, the headache pierced his skull again—this time far worse.
He clutched his head tightly as if whoever was doing this took pleasure in tormenting him.
When the pain finally stopped, Anas looked slightly older.
He had grown taller, yet his gaze had dimmed, as if only his body remained here.
Clouds filled the sky, and cold pierced his body, yet he seemed not to feel it.
He stood before a group of people.
A few steps away, a woman with black hair wrapped herself in a dirty white robe while crying and begging a man dressed in white velvet with blond hair and dark green eyes.
"Please… please, sir… I'm pregnant with your child. Will you throw me into the streets now? I ask for nothing more than to stay near you."
She grabbed the man's leg.
"I'll do anything. Just don't abandon me… I beg you."
People had gathered around the scene.
The man stared at her for a moment before shaking her off with his leg. Then he raised his hand and slapped her hard.
Slap.
The sound echoed despite the murmuring crowd.
The woman stumbled backward, still clutching the robe to shield herself from the cold.
She slowly raised her hand, disbelieving, and touched the reddening mark on her cheek.
"Heh. Do you think I would touch filth like you? Get out of my way before I kill you, you madwoman."
The man walked away arrogantly, speaking to the man beside him.
"Clearly she sleeps with so many people that she imagined a noble like me would touch her. Hahaha. Foolish commoners."
The woman gasped as she heard his words and began to cry.
Tears poured down her face endlessly, even as she wiped them away violently with her hands.
She struggled to stand when people began throwing stones, tomatoes, and whatever else they could find at her.
Murmurs filled the street.
"What a whore."
"How dare she claim she's pregnant with Count Edmund's child?"
"People like her should die!"
"I heard she used to be a noble before her family fell."
"This is what she deserves."
The woman bit her lip so hard that a thin line of blood appeared.
Yet despite everything, her hand instinctively slipped to her stomach…
as if protecting something there from the objects and words hurled at her.
Something that had not chosen to come into this world—yet would come nonetheless.
Amid all that chaos, Anas merely watched without emotion.
What do I expect from trash like them? Even dogs are better. Can't they see how much she's suffering? What if they were in her place?
He remembered reading in a book titled "Hidden Truths That Are Not Hidden" that when nobles entered the villages of a noble family that had fallen in war, they raped more than three thousand women in a single night to celebrate their victory.
No one blamed them.
Because they were the victors.
That night produced thousands of children without fathers.
A tight pain twisted inside Anas' chest…
as if his heart itself was aching.
As usual, the whisper returned.
But this time it was quieter, extremely close—like someone whispering in the center of his skull.
"You see? Instead of helping that woman… you just stand here watching. You won't even give her any of your money because you think you need it more. You are nothing but a bastard."
The headache struck again.
But this time Anas showed no reaction.
Even as the pain tore through his mind, he simply stood there.
The pain in his chest…
was worse than the pain in his head.
When the pain faded, he found himself in a dark alley.
A huge man punched him in the face, yet Anas showed no pain.
He spat blood onto the ground and stared at the man coldly.
Carotid artery. Joints. The moment he attacks. His jaw. His nerves. His throat…
Anas' mind filled with hundreds of ways to kill this man.
"You are just a villain," the whisper said.
But Anas' face remained emotionless.
Suddenly the scene shifted in a flash.
The smell of blood pierced his nose.
Heavy breathing echoed beside him.
He was moving, tearing into the side of a beast.
Before the beast struck him with its tail, the whisper said,
"Dodge his attack. You know what he will do."
But Anas did not dodge.
He allowed the attack to hit him just as it had before.
He was thrown backward and slammed into a wall.
Suddenly…
darkness began devouring the colors of the world from his vision.
The world disappeared in an instant.
No—less than an instant.
He found himself in a sea of darkness.
"Aren't you regretful? Don't you want to change your actions? The future will become better."
Layered voices whispered to him from different places within the void.
Anas opened his eyes but saw nothing.
He raised his hand…
yet he could neither see nor feel it.
Still…
something inside his chest tightened, burning with something he could not understand yet clearly felt.
It was a mixture of everything—
the result of all his experiences until now.
Without thinking, he opened his mouth and spoke.
"Why would I regret?"
The whispers stopped suddenly, as if shocked.
Then a few uncertain words escaped them.
"You are not regretful? …There is no one who feels no regret. Don't you want to change yourself for the better? Avoid mistakes… become perfect?"
For a moment Anas remembered his entire life—its sweetness and bitterness.
He remembered his parents.
How he once laughed.
How that light slowly vanished from his eyes.
How he began to see the world in its filth, so different from the rosy dreams he once believed.
How he began to hate the nobles.
How he became silent.
How he wanted to change the world but realized he had no influence over it.
How he started choosing his words carefully until he spoke harsh truths casually, as if describing the weather.
How he simply began doing whatever he wanted.
"Stop joking with me. If perfection truly existed, then why would we live? Every choice we make leads to regret—only the degree changes.
If I changed anything in my life, what I've become would change.
Everything—everything. Even the things I didn't like, what hurt me, what harmed me, what pleased me, what I loved… all of it made me what I am now.
And I have no desire to change who I am.
I accept myself as I am—with my flaws and my virtues.
That doesn't mean I'll stop improving myself. But I have no desire to become someone else.
Even my mistakes—if I hadn't made them, I would never have known my weaknesses to fix them or cover them.
Only a fool refuses to accept himself."
A heavy silence followed his words.
The whispers vanished as if they had never existed.
Then Anas felt that familiar sensation again.
As if he were sinking into darkness.
Then he heard another whisper.
But this time it was familiar.
A feminine whisper.
"You have passed the test. Your debt has been repaid… and now you will receive a reward for your performance…"