Nicole squatted by the stream. After cleaning the blood off the dagger and her hands, she splashed her face with the icy water.

The cool temperature of the stream gradually helped her calm down.

In just a few days, too much had happened to her.

She thought she had finally found her battle pet, only for it to transform into a werewolf in front of everyone at the trial tournament. She thought she was about to earn her qualification as a beast tamer, only to be accused of cheating and kicked out of the guild. She thought she could finally accept this reality peacefully, only to be teased in various ways by her former pet, now in human form, the next day.

[This... This is the one thing I absolutely cannot tolerate!]

"That jerk... I will find a way to deal with him," Nicole vowed, wiping the water off her face.

"Jerk? Are you talking about me?"

A voice suddenly sounded beside her, startling Nicole.

She then noticed a black panther sitting on a stone slab next to her.

"You scared me! You walk so silently!"

"Have you ever seen a cat walk loudly?"

"Aren't you a werewolf? You have 'wolf' in your blood too. Please respect your heritage!"

The panther gave her a speechless look and didn't respond. It lowered its head, elegantly drank a few sips of the stream water, and then swaggered back towards the cabin.

Nicole watched its swaying tail in frustration, growing increasingly impatient. She stood up and demanded, "Who exactly are you? Whenever I ask, you never give me a straight answer. You once lied and said you were my father. What's next? What other stories are you going to make up? You really..."

Before Nicole could finish, the panther stopped in its tracks. In an instant, it transformed back into the black-haired, purple-eyed man.

He stood a short distance away, gazing at Nicole with a resigned smile. "See, no matter what I say—truth or lies—you'll think I'm making up stories. If you don't remember everything yourself, nothing I say will matter."

He paused briefly, a hint of bitterness mixed with that resigned smile. "Because if I hadn't seen what happened that day with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it either."

"Are you talking about the attack on Acorn Town by demons?" Nicole asked.

Kuro blinked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "You remember?"

"No, I heard people talking about it in the tavern."

Kuro's expression dimmed. "I see."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"That happened fifteen years ago, around the time I was born. Tell me, was I born in Acorn Town?"

"You were born in Acorn Town and grew up there. You spent twenty-nine years there with me."

Kuro's calm tone stirred a storm of emotions within Nicole.

"What are you talking about?! What do you mean by twenty-nine years?"

"You said you've seen what I looked like when I was young. Have you seen what you looked like then? Did you see yourself back then?"

Like a thunderbolt, Nicole froze in place. Compelled by some force, she looked at her reflection in the stream.

The flowing water, like a thousand invisible scissors, cut her face into pieces and then reassembled it into a visage both familiar and strange.

In an instant, Nicole felt her blood turn cold and heavy.

Fragments of memories surged in her mind...

In front of a dressing mirror was a woman about thirty years old.

In the lake's reflection, beside the boy, sat a woman about twenty-five years old...

They all had the same deep brown hair as Nicole, the same delicate and petite face, the same bright and intelligent eyes. However, these faces had noticeable age differences.

"This can't be!"

Nicole couldn't help but take two steps back, away from her reflection in the stream.

"If I were her... if we knew each other so long ago, then why do I look like this now? Explain to me, how could time reverse like that be possible?"

Kuro couldn't answer her questions; he just watched her silently, saying nothing for a long time.

The afternoon sunlight filtered through the layers of leaves, casting dappled, shifting shadows. Half of Kuro's body was hidden in the shadows, the other half exposed to the light, his indifferent face shrouded in a thin veil of light.

"The answer might be in Acorn Town. Returning there might help you remember more. But if you do, you must face many sad, even despairing memories. Even so, do you still want to go?"

His tone seemed to be probing something.

"I want to go." Nicole's answer was without hesitation.

"Alright, I'll go with you."

Kuro turned and headed towards the cabin. As he stepped onto the gravel path, his entire body was swallowed by the shadows of the trees. He took a deep breath, his face tense, as if he were worried about something.

But he didn't want Nicole to notice his nervousness. With his back to her, he simply said, "Let's go. I know a shortcut."

Nicole quickly followed him.

***

Nicole rode on an elk through the silent depths of the forest. The surrounding quiet was eerie.

She knew that ahead of her lay a perilous and unknown path. Yet she had no choice but to venture deeper along it. She had to do this; she had to face those shattered memories, the buried past, and the uncertain future.

In his elk form, Kuro carried her through the forest. She watched as the trees on either side grew shorter and more withered, as if some terrible force had drained their life. When the first deformed dead tree appeared before them, Kuro slowed his pace.

"We're here." The elk turned its head and asked, "Are you sure you want to continue?"

In front of them lay a charred trench. Its sunken shape resembled the painful claw marks of a giant beast on the ground.

Shadows clung to the blackened earth like an inescapable skin. Even the hottest afternoon sun couldn't bring a glimmer of light here. The putrid stench, like countless invisible hands, wrapped around Nicole, making her shiver.

Nicole couldn't help but tremble.

But she had no intention of turning back.

Her gaze went beyond the trench, taking in the collapsed brick walls, shattered gravel, withered trees, ghostly drifting white mist, and an endless sea of cross-shaped gravestones.

"Nicole?" Kuro asked again, seeing that she remained silent.

Nicole seemed not to hear Kuro's voice. She gazed at the broken, weathered, and crooked cross-shaped gravestones, faintly hearing a distant, ancient voice carried by the chilling wind.

"—A lengthy journey lies ahead, tread carefully. Shadows lurk all around you."

Nicole jumped down from the elk's back, landing directly on a weathered white bone. The sound of the bone breaking shattered the silence of the ruins.

Her heart tightened, and she instinctively gripped the short sword in her hand.

Fear and courage ran parallel in her heart, finally merging into a strong heartbeat.

"Let's go."

She took a determined step and strode over the trench.