It was after a very long duration that I opened my eyes.

  When I opened my eyes, the inside of the carriage was in pitch darkness.

  “Uh?”


  ‘Hold on. This isn’t a carriage.’


  ‘Have I already arrived somewhere else and was placed in a room?’


  I woke up in a hurry to look around for some kind of clues, but everything was too dark for me to see.

  But……

  Something was cold.

  Along with the damp mood around, I groaned in the darkness.

  ‘What is this? A kind of bad feeling in me.’


  “Today’s weather is very good, right?”


  I suddenly turned my head shocked, at the voice which came from behind. I could see nothing, but right then, I managed to hear something or someone moving around, and something bright like a light hit me. I frowned and closed my eyes at the sudden light.

  Dazzling, blinding light.

  After a while, once my eyes got accustomed to the light, I managed to see my surroundings.

  That was the first time I saw something since I opened my eyes.

  A place I had never been to before.

  A familiar and straightforward structure that I saw throughout my trip. At that moment, a man approached me and spoke out.

  “Hello.”


  ‘Hello, he says.’


  ‘Who is he, that man?’


  I was nervous at the appearance of a man I had never seen before.

  Something felt wrong about him and the place.

  If I wasn’t wrong, the man seemed to be around thirty-nine years old or so. To be honest, it was an appearance that of a handsome young man full of energy; he appeared to be a middle-aged one with a young face, but for some reason, I hated the expression he had.

  Once my eyes got used to the light around me, I couldn’t take my eyes off the man’s hair anymore. The man’s hair was long enough, reaching his ears; it was dark crimson.

  If that were the only thing, I wouldn’t have been so concerned, but for some reason, the silvery-white look in his eyes engulfed me.

  I was at a loss for words.

  The man laughed as if he was making fun of me.

  “I am your eldest father.”


  It was all for love.

  When a searing pain spread across my body, a damp voice whispered in the ear.

  ‘Assisi, everyone is doing this to save you.’


  Salvation. Loved and robbed when he couldn’t even experience them, Assisi believed and followed everything his father would say, the only salvation in his life.

  An unsaved child.

  Never loved, even living seemed like a sin—a devil who would lead all his loved ones to their doom.

  He was always under the impression that he had to be hurt for his sins, all because he was born with a bruised body.

  ‘Since my dad loves me, he is doing it all for my sake.’


  A proof that he was loved.

  His mother wouldn’t return to the mansion. Mother, Lady Sicelia, a famous name, but Assisi never knew why she wouldn’t visit him. When he needed a mother’s affection, he would have a nanny beside him, and he lived in isolation in that lavish mansion where her father cut off all contacts from the outside world.

  Everything would have been fine if his mother returned. Everything would be sorted out.

  He would only get to see his mother once a month, but Assisi still felt good. It was very rarely that he ever got to meet his mother.

  “Assisi.”


  Assisi, just as a little child, yearned for his mother’s affection. However, when he occasionally held his mother, he hated her soft and sweet scent.

  Still, he used to let his mother hold him because his mom’s hugs were warm.

  “You look very similar to me.”


  He liked the subtle smile on her face.

  His father was an ever-frowning man with no emotions.

  “It would have been nice if you were a daughter.”


  His mother always seemed sad that her child was a son.

  “But you are my only child, so it doesn’t matter as long as you grow up well.”


  A sweet and calming voice ran in his ears.

  “The Zavaikal house is all yours.”