✦ Chapter Three — The Shadow of the Man Who Returned from Ruin ✦
Ethan… a young man forced to mature before his time, his soul shaped between the fangs of the ages, as though the years themselves were nothing but knives carving his heart rather than his body.
He sat within his luxurious room—a chamber designed to be a miniature paradise: a lavish bed, warm lighting, furnishings worthy of imperial nobility.
But warmth? Tranquility? Safety?
These were not things crafted from wood and gold… they were forged by the presence of people.
And Ethan had lived for twenty years without that presence.
He possessed everything… except the one thing he truly needed.
He stared at the walls as though they were closing in on his breath. He knew the world was far too complex, far too cruel to be understood by someone who had lived only a single life—so what of him, who had lived two, both of them hell?
He felt as though he were trying to climb hell without hands.
He had no allies. No support. Not even the right to choose his own path.
He was nothing more than a pawn on the Time King's board—a piece that moved not by will, but because a power beyond humanity pushed it forward.
He asked himself in a voice heard only by his heart:
Why am I here?
Why must I protect them?
These people who… in his previous life abandoned him to die, and in his current one see him as nothing more than a guard dog.
Any one of them could discard him without a moment's hesitation.
So why did he continue to bear this burden?
Could he not flee this planet? Could he not leave it to those who wished to rule it?
Why was he always the one standing between two blades: the blade of the enemy, and the blade of fate?
His heart was like river water muddied by the silt of stagnant years—emotions from two lives colliding within him, memories from two worlds struggling to swallow him whole.
He had lived through hell… and now he was trying to pull others out of it before saving himself.
Yet… with every passing minute, he understood something new:
By shouldering this responsibility, he was beginning to transform—from a small pawn into an empty vessel, filled with thoughts that were not his own… emotions that were not his own… as though the world itself were trying to reshape him against his will.
He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.
Then he remembered something important—something crucial:
He had to visit that planet.
Only there might he find an answer that could ease some of the conflict devouring his heart.
Only there… might he encounter the one person capable of resolving his inner crisis.
For thought… was his first weapon against himself before it was ever a weapon against his enemies.
And for the first time in a long while…
he felt that the path he would choose from this moment onward might mark his true beginning.