In this world…
truth is not measured by what happened…
but by what people are willing to believe.
Voices are buried…
blades are raised in the name of honor…
and the innocent are killed…
while the crowd applauds.
Here…
injustice is not a crime…
it is a habit.
But…
what if there existed someone who cannot see?
One who does not see faces…
nor hears lies the way others do…
but instead… sees what cannot be seen.
Only then…
judgment would no longer be what you are used to.
Chapter Two: The Whisper Grows Louder
After several years had passed since his mother's death, and through all the suffering Elia endured with his father, he had become a young man. Yet nothing had changed. His father's treatment remained the same—beating him over the smallest mistakes.
Elia endured…
But the whispers… grew louder each day.
"Let them taste suffering…
Show them their truth…"
Elia did not understand the source of these voices, yet they echoed constantly within his mind.
Every day, he would leave the house… wandering aimlessly.
Children would chase him… throwing stones at him.
And still… he endured.
He would go… to his mother's grave.
He would sit beside it… and speak:
"Mother… how much I miss you.
I miss your embrace…
If only you knew what became of me after you left…
The dream has been slaughtered…
Hope… severed."
(The roses no longer drink from the river…
They wither… even beside the water.)
At that moment… tears would fall from his eyes… without permission.
He did not scream…
But his heart… burned.
He blamed himself… for not protecting her.
Yet there was no escape from pain.
For in this life…
It is pain that rules.
Pain gives birth to suffering…
And suffering gives birth to sacrifices…
Not because humans choose it…
But because it is forced upon them.
A chain… that never breaks…
No matter how hard you try…
It always drags you back…
To the beginning…
To pain.
When Elia returned home…
"Where were you?"
A sudden slap.
He fell to the ground.
Then—
The whisper rose…
"Deliver your judgment…"
Elia stood up…
He held his violin.
And began to murmur…
(Requiem of Return: The Bow and the Blade)
[A single note begins… stretched… dry… like the wind of a desert]
Step by step…
Death was drawing near
And the child within me…
Was drifting away in fear
"Father, please…"
Was never just a plea
It was the final cry of light…
Before darkness consumed me
You drove the blade…
And the place drank from your sin
And now…
The silence of my violin… drinks from your blood within
[The melody shifts… heavier… as if the strings groan under pressure]
That laughter…
Which once echoed with blood
Has now become a wail…
Flooding this void
You took my eyes…
So I wouldn't see the filth of faces
But I saw your soul instead…
Lost in endless, hollow places
I do not play… for comfort
Nor do I seek peace's hand
I play…
To take back everything…
You stole from me… long ago in this land
[The music turns into judgment—sharp, cold, final]
Listen… to the pulse of the string
It counts your final breath
Listen… to the darkness
As it tears down what you protect
You are no longer my father…
And I am no longer that child
I am the court itself…
And you… the crime… defiled
The music of my judgment…
Knows neither mercy nor grace
I have come…
To harvest…
What your hands once embraced
[The violin falls silent… only Elia's heavy breathing remains]
...
...
...
Guilty.
Elia returned to his room… to sleep.
In the middle of the night—
A horrifying scream.
He rushed out…
He entered his father's room.
"Father…? Father…?"
No answer.
The whisper spoke:
"Judgment has been carried out…
Death… for what was done."
Inside Elia's heart…
There was both joy… and sorrow.
Joy—
Because justice had finally come.
And sorrow—
Because she was not there… to witness it.
Elia made his decision…
To leave.
To wander…
Between cities… and forgotten lands.
...
...
To be continued
The body fell…
but the sin… did not.
The voice faded…
yet the silence spoke louder than any scream.
That was not an ending…
it was the first judgment… spoken without words.
On that night…
vengeance was not born…
something else was.
Something that needs no reason.
It does not question…
does not hesitate…
does not show mercy.
It does not see people as they are…
but as they deserve to be.
It does not weigh actions…
it erases their roots.
And from that moment…
there was no path back.
Because what awakened…
was not human…
was not a judge…
it was…
Judgment itself.