Dampness. Cold. I slowly come to my senses, lying on hard stone. My eyelids feel as heavy as lead, but I force them open just a crack. The darkness around me is pierced by the faint light of a lone torch flickering in the shadows.

Dark, damp stone walls press in on all sides, and it seems as though there is nothing around but silence and dimness. Why am I here? Fragments of memories flash and fade in my mind—battles, oaths, faces I can no longer name... It all feels like a dream whose edges have faded away.

As I try to move, I’m surprised to realize that my body feels… too small, clumsy, even weak. My fingers seem tiny, like those of a child. Am I in the body of an infant? At first, this knowledge stuns me, but for some reason, it feels as though it was meant to be, as if this return was no accident. Realizing my helplessness, I feel not fear but a sharp curiosity about where fate has led me.

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Through the silence, I hear footsteps. They draw closer until a pair—a man and a woman—appears in the torchlight. They stop, looking at me with caution and curiosity. The man leans down; his face is marked with lines, but his eyes shine with warmth and sincerity.

"Who could have left a child here?" he says in surprise, genuine concern in his voice.

The woman gently picks me up, wrapping me in warm cloth, and her touch brings me a strange sense of peace I never knew in my past life.

"We can’t leave him here," she says quietly. "He has no one, and just look at those eyes… Perhaps he is indeed the destiny that has come upon us."

I cannot answer or move, but deep inside, I understand: this world is my chance to start anew.