".....Oh, the laughter that rings through the air, As they sing with joy without a care,

For in each other's company they find,The warmth of friendship, the ties that bind.

Yet amidst the mirth, a longing stirs,For the unknown, for what lies beyond the furze,

They yearn for adventure, for distant lands,Where destiny beckons with outstretched hands.

So they ride on through day and night,Chasing dreams bathed in golden light,

With hearts ablaze and spirits high,They seek the elusive, the unreachable sky."

A pleasant voice was heard in the room.

"Why do you always sing this lullaby everyday, mom?"

Leo asks Liya while he is covered with a blanket on the bed while Liya is seated at a table beside the bed calmly tapping Leo's head in order to make him sleep.

"Well, you see my cutie pie, this lullaby is actually a song which I heard from my mother during my childhood days, and this song gave me my first dream and has always inspired me to get through hard times."

Liya answers Leo's question while still patting his head.

".... what was your dream, mom? Was it fulfilled?"

Leo asks Liya curiously while he slowly starts to get sleepy.

"While listening to this song, I developed my first and only wish during childhood, which was to go on long adventures and see this still mysterious world with my own eyes, experience its mysteries and meet various other people throughout the whole journey,"

She continued with a slight melancholy, "While as I grew I came to know about the dangers in this world and I gave up upon my dreams. But you don't have to worry, my child, I have gained a more precious dream in my small world…..which is to see you grow and live long enough to see my grandchildren."

Liya answers Leo while slightly teasing Leo at the end and giving him a mischievous smile.

"Argh! Enough jokes for today, mom! Ok, tell me about your family and village," Leo huffed at his mother and asked another question while his eyes were dropping more by every second.

"Okay, okay, no more jokes for today. Let me tell you an interesting fact about my family's lineage." she said.

"What is it, mom?" Leo asked.

She started to say, "Well, you see, the girls born in my family's lineage always inherit dark black hair like me, but this is not the case with boys, but we don't know why and also my village is located in t..."

As Leo was listening to Liya, he drifted into dreamland.

.

[Gasp!!]

"Where am I?"

A figure in a hospital patient's gown gasps loudly while fully covered in bandages from head to toes and the only exception were the figure's hands, which were still free.

He moves his gaze to see his surroundings.

Which was a treatment room outfitted with medical equipment, examination tables, and supplies necessary for assessing injuries, administering treatments, and monitoring patients' vital signs.

"Oh, you are awake! Wait for a moment. I will instantly call the head doctor, okay?" A lady in a nurse outfit came from the front door and asked Leo for his confirmation, to which Leo just nodded without being able to comprehend his current situation.

'At least tell me where I am?' Leo wanted to ask the nurse, but he was just too tired to try to stop her.

As the lady went to call the head doctor, Leo looked around the room vigilantly and moved out of his bed towards the bathroom, in search of windows in case for emergency escape.

As he opened the bathroom door, Leo's gaze moved towards a figure in front of him who was covered fully in bandages from head to toes except his hands.

He starts to walk toward the figure and after he came in front of the figure just in an arm's length distance,

The quiet in the bathroom was heavy, pressing down on him like a weight as he stared at his reflection.

He could hardly recognize the person looking back at him. A gaunt, scarred, and hollow-eyed.

The face in the mirror was of a stranger's, twisted by fresh red marks that stood out starkly against his hand's pale skin.

His hands, still smooth and untouched, didn't match the damage everywhere else. It all felt foreign, like he was wearing someone else's skin.

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For a moment, he ran his fingers over the bandages on his face, peeling them back slowly to see what they hid.

As he revealed more of his injuries, it felt as though he were uncovering pieces of someone else's story, a story full of pain and loss that didn't fully sink in.

He kept pulling until the bandages fell away entirely, exposing the extent of the damage. He knew, logically, that this was his face, but the reflection seemed detached, distant.

He wanted to feel something, a surge of anger, maybe even shock, but all he felt was a hollow ache, a numbness that dulled his every emotion until they all blurred together.

Yes, it was his own reflection on the mirror which was showing a disfigured figure, but at that moment he felt.... Nothing.

But somewhere inside, beneath all that numbness was a weight pressing against him, his memories slipped through his mind one after the other.

He remembered the warm, familiar tone of Liya's voice, humming a lullaby as she patted his head and smiled at him, soft and gentle.

He remembered Ron's quiet, protective presence, always nearby, always vigilant.

..Now, those moments felt like fragments, faint echoes fading away, unreachable.

Was his current predicament a result of his own weakness?

What was the reason his parents were killed while he had been captured, tortured, and subjected to experimentation like a lab rat?

What could he have done as a child with a three-year body?

Nothing….. but his instincts were telling that it was his own fault.

However, what truly repulsed him was the damage caused by his shortcomings.

Ron and Liya had paid a heavy price because of him…..

Whether they would have died later was another matter, but during the assault, he was the sole reason for Ron's and Liya's demise.

Ron's focus had wavered because of his actions, he was dashing towards them.

He had also diverted Liya's attention toward him in that situation.

Because of him, Ron wasn't able to concentrate while dodging the bullets.

He just stared at his reflection in the mirror for a few minutes…..

He wanted to yell, to blame someone, to push this burden onto anything else, but it circled back to him.

The ache in his chest grew sharper, harder to ignore. It was like a wound that hadn't healed, and every memory felt like salt rubbed in, making it burn all over again.

"...It should have been me," he muttered, voice barely a whisper, rough and raw.

His gaze dropped, his fists tightening until his knuckles turned white. "Not them."

The anger swelled, sudden and fierce. It had nowhere to go but into his own reflection.

With a burst of frustration, he swung his fist at the mirror, watching the glass shatter beneath his hand, the pieces falling to the ground in jagged shards.

DRIPP

His knuckles split open on impact, but he barely felt it. All he could think about was the relentless, accusing voice in his mind.

His fists met the glass again, then again, each hit harder, as if he could somehow shatter the guilt with the mirror.

Unable to calm his rage, he smashed the mirror without caring about his arms.

...…..

[Head Doctor's office]

"Mam the patient which was brought into the medical facility two days ago has awakened." The nurse said to the head doctor of the Revolutionary Army's medical facility,

She still doesn't know why the head doctor had personally treated that child.

"Let's go, and did you check the patient's vitals before, as I have instructed earlier?"

The Head doctor abruptly halted her work and inquired of the nurse as she hastened towards the patient's designated room.

The child, admitted two days prior, presented with alarming symptoms, appearing malnourished and emaciated.

To the head doctor's horror, the child's condition was exacerbated by the utilisation of Revolutionary Army medical equipment, indicating their involvement.

The fact that the child remained alive despite being injected with danger beast's blood was a baffling enigma to her.

With limited options available, the head doctor administered nutrients to the child and applied external dressings using medicinal herbs.

Approaching the patient's bed, the head doctor was taken aback to find it empty. Turning to the nurse, she urgently inquired about the child's whereabouts.

To which the nurse only replied that she had told the boy to stay at the bed and she didn't know where the patient went.

As the head doctor made her way to seek assistance from the soldiers in locating the missing child, she paused upon hearing the sounds of cracking and impact emanating from the bathroom nearby.

Swiftly opening the door, she was met with a horrifying sight, the child she had been searching for relentlessly pummeling the mirror with his bare hands.

...

"Why didn't I do anything?" Leo muttered, his voice breaking, though he hardly noticed. "Why didn't I…?"

His words trailed off, but his fists kept connecting with the glass, even as blood began to drip down his hand.

Smack!

He felt every hit, felt the dull sting as shards embedded into his skin, but it wasn't enough.

The physical pain was easier to handle, something clear and immediate, something he could manage.

In a moment of clarity, his voice dropped to a whisper, choked with a mix of anger and grief. "It should've been me," he repeated. "Not them."

Caught in the cycle, he didn't notice the figure standing in the doorway until a firm hand gripped his arm, pulling him back into the room, away from the shattered mirror and his own thoughts.

He looked up, blinking, trying to clear the haze from his vision.

The head doctor's face was calm, her expression unreadable as she looked at him. He heard her voice, distant, saying something he couldn't quite process.

He was too drained, too exhausted, to fight her as she moved closer, a syringe in her hand. He felt a slight prick at his neck, the dull burn of the sedative as it began to work.

Even as his eyelids grew heavy, he fought to stay awake, clinging to the remnants of his anger, the only thing that felt real. "I'll make them pay," he murmured, voice low.

The head doctor's expression softened just slightly as he spoke, but her grip remained firm, holding him steady until his body finally gave in, slipping into unconsciousness.

As Leo's form sagged, she watched him closely, her face a mixture of surprise and something else she couldn't quite name.

There was an intensity about him, a resolve that didn't match his age, that left her uneasy.

With Leo finally still, she turned to the nurse who stood nearby, her face pale, hands fidgeting nervously. "Prepare the dressing," the head doctor said quietly. "He's injured his hands, and we'll need to monitor him closely."

The nurse nodded, moving quickly to gather supplies. But as she approached, she froze, eyes widening as she looked down at Leo's hands.

SIZZLE!

Slowly, almost unbelievably, his knuckles began to heal, the glass fragments working their way out of his skin as the wounds closed, leaving behind smooth, unblemished flesh.

Both the nurse and the head doctor watched in stunned silence as his hands returned to their original state unscathed.

The head doctor's face hardened, her jaw clenched as she took in the sight.

She knew then that this boy was no ordinary patient, and whatever had happened to him ran far deeper than she'd initially thought.

Holding back the lingering chill in her spine, she turned, making her way toward her office.

She would have to report this to the Revolutionary Army higher-ups. This child, so young and scarred, …whatever had happened to him wasn't over.