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[It contains both the past and the future.]

[From the oldest foundations, splendor can be glimpsed.]

[The castle soaring high into the sky depicts our longing dreams.]

[It gives us the teachings of the past, becoming a parent so we may draw the canvas of the future.]

[Ambar, the city that tells of the past and shows the future.]

[This city, a symbol of destiny, I swear will become a lighthouse for the continent shrouded in darkness.]

『Feanor, the First Prophet, leaving behind the ultimate prophecy, “The Story”』

The stars taught the navigators how to read the stars.

Thus, he found the continent in the vast ocean.

The stars taught the farmers about time.

Thus, they were able to farm.

The stars taught how to engrave stars upon the soul.

Thus, they could feel the flow of destiny.

Destiny does not engulf us like a rough ocean current.

Just as one feels the flow of water in a shallow stream barely covering the soles of one’s feet, it guides us through the unconscious realm, providing direction to navigate this difficult world and leading us to the desired answer.

In this difficult and perplexing world, we find our answers in such a way.

They began building civilization after finding the continent, and the foundation of civilization grew more robust with time.

This robustness created the golden age of the continent, and to their arrogance, the stars taught humility.

After one downfall, they once again read destiny.

The stars etched into each individual’s soul, with their individual directions and answers combined, once again forged a brilliant civilization.

The stars are both the parents who birthed us and our strict teachers.

Therefore, no matter what difficulties arise, we look to the stars and rise again.

But I, and those of us trapped in this cursed city, do not know how to see the stars.

We were born without the ability to see the stars, the only light that would illuminate a world full of darkness, nor the ability to engrave them upon our souls.

The way to embrace the stars, something humans naturally know how to do, was also denied to us, born cursed.

The stars taught me nothing.

If they taught me anything, it was only the emotion of despair.

***

“Uh, Mom…? Where are you going…?”

Thud-

Suddenly, Mom, who had been walking hand-in-hand with me, stopped in her tracks and stared blankly into space, unmoving even when I called her.

Her face was gaunt from not having eaten anything for two days, and especially her eyes, after Mom had gone ‘somewhere’ two days ago, were even more lifeless.

They were empty, as if she wanted to let go of everything.

Even my young eyes could see it, so I knew without being told how profound that sense of resignation was.

It was the first time I had seen Mom like this in my life.

At this unfamiliar sight of Mom, who always smiled despite difficulties, tears welled up in my eyes without my knowing.

Drip. Drip.

“Uh, Mom…?”

Suddenly, I remembered what had happened to David’s family a while ago.

The story of how they sold their younger sibling into slavery to get money to feed their older sibling. Back then, it was shocking, but it was someone else’s story, so I didn’t really engrave it deeply in my mind while listening…

Drip. Drip.

For some reason, that story struck my head intensely now.

“…….”

“Mo-mom…. *Hiccup*….”

Perhaps because of that, I burst into big, fat tears watching my mother stumble.

“Mo- *hiccup*…m, please, don’t, *hiccup*…sell me, *hiccup*…away….”

“…….”

“I’ll eat less, *hiccup*…and I’ll be good, so please don’t, *hiccup*…abandon me….”

“…….”

Squeeze.

Hearing my words, Mom gripped my hand that she was holding tightly.

A tremor ran through Mom’s hand, which had changed color as if scorched black by the ‘city’s curse’.

Mom’s tight grip hurt so much I felt like crying again, but I tried hard to hold it back. If I cried and hurt more here, Mom might really sell me.

So….

“*Hiccup*….”

I looked at the pleasure district and slave traders in the distance, desperately holding back my tears.

Desperately, thinking that if I showed even a disgraceful crying face, Mom might sell me.

Just then.

Step, step, thud-

Mom turned to me and knelt down.

Hug-

She hugged me tightly.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“Mom…?”

“……Agapé…….”

Mom was crying.

And then, into my tightly embraced arms.

Clink-

She placed a heavy money pouch, and then, with a sobbing voice, she said:

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…Mom couldn’t protect you…I’m sorry…!”

Squeeze-

Mom hugged me even tighter with trembling arms.

As a young child, I felt suffocated, but I couldn’t show it. Instead, I also put strength into my arms and hugged Mom even tighter.

No matter how young and ignorant of the world I was.

I felt like I knew why Mom was acting this way now.

As the heavy money pouch entered my arms, as an amount of money that Mom would never be able to touch even if she worked her whole life came into my hands, I couldn’t help but know, even if I didn’t want to.

“I’m sorry…!”

Mom repeated those words with a tearful voice. And as I listened to her words.

“*Hiccup*…Mom, don’t go….”

I just wept bitterly.

I wanted to say something more, to hug her even tighter with all my strength so she couldn’t leave forever, but.

Mom hugged me tightly one last time, and then.

Dash-

Patter- patter- patter- patter-

She ran forward without looking back.

“Mom…! Mooooom…!”

Seeing that, I slumped onto the ground, reaching out my hand towards Mom, but I couldn’t hold onto her.

I was too weak to hold onto Mom, too scared, and too young to control my sorrow.

I wanted to grab Mom as she ran, but the tears flowing like a flood obscured my vision, and the sorrow echoing in my head made my legs give out, preventing me from holding onto her.

In that moment, my body felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and though I called out for Mom until my voice was hoarse and cried for help, no one came to my aid.

Passersby would glance at me and turn away, or repeatedly cast greedy gazes at the money pouch Mom had given me.

That day, I earned an amount of money that I might or might not have been able to touch even if I worked my whole life in this city.

But in exchange, I lost a precious person who could not be replaced by anything.

And in the continent’s most cursed city, I was left alone.

***

Was Mother’s death a valuable death?

Ever since I was left alone in this city, I had constantly repeated that question to myself.

Despite asking countless questions, I couldn’t find an answer.

I had found plausible answers many times, but eventually, with time, I would only realize that those answers were wrong.

Fourteen years had passed since the city was cursed and sealed off.

Order collapsed five years ago, and chaos arrived four years ago, tormenting us.

But famine had tormented us from the moment we were isolated.

No matter how abundant the city might have been, the amount of resources that could be provided within a sealed city was limited, and a city where millions lived transformed into a land overflowing with famine in an instant.

Food prices began to skyrocket, and water also reached the point where one had to buy it to drink.

Gradually, the value of food began to surpass that of money.

However, at least back then, the concept of currency was still in use.

Even though the city was sealed, thanks to the majority of people who held onto the hope that freedom would someday be regained, the value of currency did not fall strangely, maintaining its worth to some extent.

Thanks to that, the arrival of chaos in the city could be delayed.

But, that instead led to Mother’s death.

Mother sold herself for money.

Four years ago, she sacrificed herself, placing a large sum of money into my hands.

And a few days later, the value of currency collapsed.

The money in my hand instantly became useless scraps of metal, and the slave market where Mother was located became a slaughterhouse.

Men were murdered, starving psychopaths ate humans, and women were raped and died amidst the chaos.

Our Mother was among those women.

Ultimately, Mother’s death was a futile death.

I ask myself once again.

Was Mother’s death truly a valuable death?

Was Mother’s sacrifice for me, Mother’s life, used in a meaningful way?

Every time I ceaselessly repeat the question to myself, I come to this conclusion, which I believe is the answer:

-Mother’s death was in vain-

But because I couldn’t bring myself to accept that Mother’s sacrifice for me was in vain…

Even at this moment, engulfed by the trauma of Mother’s death, I was correcting, correcting, and correcting the answer again.

Because of nothing else but that, I was slowly going mad in this city.

“Gasp…!”

Thrust━━━!!

As the rebar plunged into its eye, the bony, emaciated orc screamed.

“Gaaah, AAAAAAAAAAAAH━━!”

The rebar, rusted enough to cause tetanus with just one prick.

The boy clutched that rebar tightly in his left hand, which was drenched in the orc’s blood, and pushed it deeper with renewed force.

Squish- squish…!

Creeeak……!!

As the horrifying sound of flesh being crushed was heard, the orc’s screams grew even more violent.

How much time passed like that?

“Aaaaaaaaaah, aaaah…….”

Thud-!

Overcome by pain, the orc lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot.

The eye where the rebar was impaled was hideously distorted, and the orc, dripping blood from it, looked worse than a corpse despite still breathing.

Since a rusted rebar had been driven into its eye, it was clear that even if the orc miraculously survived, it would soon die from tetanus.

Thwack-!

The boy, who had clung to the emaciated orc’s body like a leech, finally detached himself from the orc.

Other men who had gathered to kill the boy looked at him as if he were a monster, breathing fearfully, but.

Crunch-! Squish-! Snap-!!

The boy, unconcerned, pulled the rebar out of the orc’s eye, merely glancing at those who looked at him like a monster.

Splat-!

Then, he wiped the blood and bits of flesh clinging to the rebar with a piece of cloth the orc was wearing, and looked around.

“Ah…”

“Aaaaaaaah……!”

Scamper-!

The boys, who seemed to have just reached adulthood, couldn’t overcome their fear and ran away from the young boy.

Agapé.

That was the boy’s name.

“…Idiots.”

Agapé, muttering lowly as he watched them, took the money pouch and a piece of hard bread from the orc’s possession — an orc that would soon breathe its last, or perhaps already had — and put the bread in his mouth.

And with his hand, scorched black as if burned by the curse, holding the rebar straight.

Step. Step. Step.

He walked among the corpses, dead for various reasons, inhaling the stench of rotting bodies and foul waste, returning to his dwelling.

He was fourteen years old this year.