Several Years Ago.
The weather was cold, and snow was falling heavily. The trees were bare, yet they had turned white beneath the accumulated snow, while the sound of fierce winds filled the surroundings.
The camp was relatively quiet. The only sounds heard within it were the crackling flames as they devoured the firewood. The soldiers sat around the fire, warming themselves before the start of another battle.
Adrian arrived alongside the army commander at the front-line unit, and the two entered Camp No. 5.
The soldiers turned their attention toward the army commander and Adrian, then stood up to offer their formal salute.
Adrian stood silently, looking down. His face was flushed from the cold, and his hands were so frozen that he could no longer move them. Snow clung to his clothes and hair, making him look as though he had been sitting in the snow for hours.
The army commander spoke in a commanding tone. "Starting today, a new person will be joining you. The Emperor has ordered that the First Prince, Adrian Jonathan, be assigned to the front lines."
The soldiers' faces filled with astonishment and confusion. How could a prince possibly be in a place like this? A place where families abandoned their children, where men embraced death every day. How could the Emperor allow his own child to be sent here?
It made no sense to any of them, but the orders were clear.
After finishing his announcement, the army commander departed, leaving Adrian alone in a strange world.
Adrian remained standing silently for some time, until one of the soldiers [Sam] stepped forward and said mockingly, "Are you really the prince? I see your eye are red... So the rumors about you being a demon are true."
Another soldier [Adam] continued, taunting him. "Look at how small he is... How old is he now?"
Another [Noah] laughed mockingly. "How are we supposed to know, man? We're cut off from the world, so we have no idea. Hahaha!"
[Vitus], who had been sitting and staring at his book, intervened. "I think he's ten years old, or perhaps eleven. I'm not entirely sure."
Sam asked in surprise, "How do you know that?!"
Vitus replied as he closed his book. "Well, as you all know, this prince was born on—"
Adam interrupted him. "We know... It's the day you confessed to your girlfriend and got rejected in the most humiliating way possible."
The soldiers continued their conversation as Adrian approached the fire and held out his hands to warm them a little. He felt his body go numb as the heat touched him, and his frozen body slowly began to regain its sensation. His skin stung as though he were being electrocuted, and his heart clenched with suffocating pain.
The cold offered no mercy, and neither did the warmth.
Amid the noise around him, his mind and heart were somewhere else entirely. He was thinking about Diana, wondering if she was alright. But that fragile moment of peace did not last.
The soldiers gathered around him, their eyes gleaming with malice and their faces wearing wicked smiles.
One of them stepped forward and said mockingly, "Heh, you foolish prince... You know your father has abandoned you, don't you? That makes you nothing more than an ordinary child... A child from Sector Zero."
Another laughed and added contemptuously, "Hahaha, perhaps you should submit to us, then."
Adrian stared at them coldly. He made no attempt to look intimidating... yet he was.
His red eye—the demon's eye.
Some of the soldiers instinctively stepped back, before one of them laughed nervously. "Hahaha... Guys, I think we've gone a little too far. After all, he's just a child... There's no need to be that cruel."
The others reluctantly nodded, then dispersed and returned to their places, talking and laughing as though nothing had happened. Adrian remained alone, standing before the fire... and the cold that had never left his heart.
As the snowstorm subsided, the hours of rest came to an end, and the brutal reality of life on the front lines returned.
A heavy silence settled over the camp... Then came the thunderous sound of footsteps shaking the ground beneath them.
The soldiers rose all at once, gripped their weapons, and rushed out of the camp, preparing to fight once more.
Adrian grasped his sword and slowly stood up. As the battle cries began to grow louder, he too stepped outside. He walked through the chaos with an eerie calm, watching the blood spraying through the air and the monsters tearing apart the soldiers around him.
He had no idea how to fight, how to survive, or even what kind of place he had been sent to.
He raised his sword and stood silently, waiting for the attack that would come his way.
One of the monsters charged toward him with a roar that tore through the air. It had a massive body covered in black fur, and its sharp fangs gleamed beneath the pale light.
Adrian did not move. Everything around him seemed to slow down. His eyes widened in shock, and before he could even move his hand, the monster's claws pierced his right shoulder.
Blood sprayed through the air, staining the white snow around him. His pupils trembled as he watched the monster open its mouth to devour his head... Adrian's heart clenched, and the air caught in his chest. He did not feel the pain immediately... Instead, a strange warmth spread from his shoulder throughout his body.
Just before the monster's fangs could close around his head, his soul froze, and his body moved involuntarily.
It was neither anger... nor fear... but a pure instinct to survive. In an instant, his sword moved on its own. He neither saw nor understood how he had done it. His body had moved by itself.
The blade sank into the monster's neck. It was not a fatal strike, but it was enough to stop it. The monster's blood splattered across Adrian's face, and it staggered before collapsing heavily onto the snow.
Adrian stood there, panting, with a hidden terror in his breath. His pupils were still trembling from the shock, and his fingers were shaking. The pain had finally begun to reach his nerves.
He clutched his injured shoulder, his teeth clenched tightly as he tried to suppress his groan.
He whispered deep within himself, "So... this is the front line..."
Before long, he spotted another monster watching him through the fog, its eyes glowing with hunger. Beneath the gray sky, Adrian understood just one truth.
The weak... have no choice but to die.
The battle was over... but it was nothing more than a brief respite. Such was life on the front lines: death repeated endlessly, and peace that never lasted.
The once-pristine white snow had been stained with dark blood. The corpses of monsters and soldiers were scattered everywhere. Torn bodies, severed limbs, and frozen faces that held no trace of life. Some soldiers had been reduced to nothing more than an arm or a leg, while others had vanished entirely after being devoured by the monsters along with their final screams.
The groans of the wounded mingled with the sound of the cold wind. The soldiers who were still alive walked with pale faces and empty eyes, as though they had left their souls behind on the battlefield.
The wounded were hurriedly carried into the camp, where the smell of blood mingled with that of medicine and the burning fire used for warmth. Adrian was among them... His body was covered in blood, and his injured shoulder was still bleeding. By the time the battle ended, he had slowly lost consciousness, collapsing somewhere between life and death.
Silence descended upon the camp, as though the battle had been nothing more than a merciless nightmare.
The doctor who had treated Adrian spoke with pity. "This child... will most likely die."
The soldier standing nearby turned toward him in surprise, prompting the doctor to continue. "This was his first battle, and he suffered such a severe injury. What will happen if he faces an even worse battle?"
The soldier interrupted him sharply. "There's no room for pity here, Doctor. Have you forgotten where we are? All of us will die in some battle or another. No one will survive." He then walked away.
The doctor stared silently at Adrian before turning to treat the others.
Meanwhile, deep within his dream, Adrian lay down, gazing at the endless white void surrounding him.
He whispered in an exhausted voice, "Where... am I?"
He tried to move, but he couldn't, as though he no longer had control over his own body.
Then he heard that voice...
A soft, warm voice that slipped into his ears like a gentle breeze.
"Smile... smile, little one."