In the middle of the grimly cold winter night.

Deep in the heart of the Iharana great forest.

A red flesh cocoon was lying on the ground next to a large tree.

Movements were discernible from within the cocoon, much like a butterfly attempting to emerge from its chrysalis.

As time progressed, they became more aggressive, even stretching to rip the cocoon from its insides.

Then, from within, something pierced through.

From within the cocoon emerged a small hand covered with viscous fluids.

Slowly, the owner of the hand emerged from within the cocoon in a fetal position, dripping with the same sticky substance as his hand.

White and pale would be the perfect combination of words to describe the being who came out of the cocoon.

He was missing one of the four limbs they generally have and was smaller than the adult of their kind but it was indeed a human.

Two small needles, one the length of a dagger and the girth of a small pipe, were lodged in his body, one on his chest and the other in his ribs.

Upon reaching the outside, the first thing he did was reach out, trembling, with his only remaining hand, to the needles buried within his rib and pull it out with a determined yet desperate move.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

There was no blood coming from the wound, but one could tell from the soul-tearing screeching he let out that the removal of the spike was excruciatingly painful.

Without further ado, he grasped the second needle that was impaling his body and extracted it from his chest.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The removal of the spike, just like earlier, caused no bleeding, but it undoubtedly caused as much, if not more, pain than the first removal.

A few after the last spike being removed, the boy’s body began to convulse frantically as if finally noticing the cold and unfriendly environment he was in.

He slowly rises on his two feet, just clumsily to clumsily fall on his knee.

Then looked up at the sky and finally opened his eyes, which had been closed since the beginning, revealing a pair of red, empty, and lifeless eyes.

After a few minutes of staring blankly at the sky, he began to let out a laugh, one totally devoid of joy, that it felt more like a desperate cry.

He continued to stare blankly at the sky for a moment, then let out a frantic laugh that was so devoid of joy that it sounded more like a desperate cry.

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Despite the winter, the nightly sky was clear and full of stars, but for the boy, there was no sky, no stars, just darkness shrouded by a blurry fog.

“I am… alive…”

I could smell an odor that I could only describe as forestine.

I’m hungry.

I am exhausted.

My entire body was completely shivering from the cold.

Having removed the two needs that impaled my body, I began to slowly retrieve my sense: hearing, smell, touch, taste, …

From the weather, I could tell that I wasn’t asleep for long, but long enough for me to lose them.

My eyes, my sight.

They are gone.

They couldn’t perceive anything anymore.

With my left hand, I tried to grab onto where my right hand but it was missing, as I thought.

It was missing.

Everything from my elbow was gone.

There was no miracle.

“What am I suppose to accomplish like this?”

I felt like crying, but it was a laugh that came out instead.

They will get away unpunished after all they did.

I was afraid of dying without accomplishing anything and here I am living without accomplishing anything and here I am alive but completely powerless.

My memory of what happened that night is still hazy, but I recall us riding in the carriage, the priest's attack, the cousin's arrival,... Then there was Syrus' sacrifice... All I remember from here is a hazy recollection...

But I remember fighting... that old man, and then twelve other people appeared out of nowhere, one by one, and began to collectively attack me... One of them introduced himself as...

I tried to retrieve my pendant, the library key from my neck, but it no longer was on there.

It was him, the man who called himself Armand Aubrecht who took it from me.

It was them.

They took everything from me.

Being outnumbered and overpowered, I had no choice but to flee to the only place I could think of: the Iharana Great Forest.

But even the forest stopped them from hunting me down if it wasn’t for that swarm of monsters that attacked us, I think I would’ve never survived.

That being said, I wasn’t spared by those monsters either, the two needles in my ribs were their doing.

Those monsters were Magical beasts referred to in the Encyclopedia as -

An ominous detail about the monsters who attacked me traverses me.

This is bad.

I can’t tarry here any longer.

That flesh cocoon I was in is called nofo, which as it is called serves as a pantry for the monster who attacked us.

The two needles that were lodged on my rib and on my chest were the only thing that kept me alive inside the cocoon, They certainly did, but they also severed my connection to all of my senses, leaving me in a dreamlike and helpless state.

I’m totally sure that my vision loss was caused by the fact that I had stayed inside for too long.

Nothing would dare to attack that monster pantry. When torn, however, the nofo will emit a stench that will attract monsters and, most likely, monster brethren.

I was about to depart when my body reminded me two things, that I neither knew where to go nor had the strength nor the capability to go anywhere.

I was hungry and exhausted; I felt as if I hadn't eaten in years because I had removed them from my body; and, most importantly, I couldn't see anything; I had no idea where to run or escape.

I survived so far, After all Vicar Serana, Syrus did, I refuse and I can’t permit myself to die here.

I turned back to where the cocoon was supposed to be and did the grotesque thing I had to do in order to satiate my hunger.

It took me a lot of effort to ingurgitate the thing, but once I did, I mustered all the strength I had and rose up on my feet.

It’s not like I had miraculously retrieved my strength, but I was still somehow able to gather enough strength to walk.

I must keep going on... I must keep going… No matter, where it will bring me … I must keep going on if I don’t all I have done so far wi- No it was all people has done for me so far will be in vain.

“This is why I must keep going on.”