Ever since Rei was born, he could only remember the world being a cold place – in both sense of the word.

A permanent winter permeated throughout the lands with the climate only seeming to vary between cold to freezing depending on the seasons and the location of where one was. And this cold seemed to affect the people too; huddling in their homes for warmth and safety, cautious to anyone unfamiliar and keeping mostly amongst themselves.

It wouldn’t be fair to solely blame the cold for affecting people’s demeanour to one other, after all; monsters lurked this cold world, hiding within the snow, and devouring the unprepared that dared to venture across the lands.

But, Rei lived in the small village of Pilut on the outskirts of this world, where monsters were few and the need to travel anywhere else simply did not arise at all. So safe and so self-contained was the village that Rei had thought he would live and die a perfectly content life in the village.

Until that day happened.

~x~

“Rei!”

His mother’s voice called out to him and he opened his eyes from his bed, staring up at the ceiling made of wooden logs.

“What is it, ma?” Rei called back as he climbed out of his bed, heading out of his bedroom to go downstairs to heed his mother’s call.

When he reached downstairs, he saw his parents standing by the kitchen table, a white ice-cream cake sitting on the table with candles perched atop the cake.

“Happy eleventh birthday, son.” His father grinned at him. A man with broad shoulders and wild brown hair, the second trait being passed on to Rei clearly.

“T, thanks…” Rei said, feeling sheepish from his father’s grin. It wasn’t often that his father would smile like that, most of the time his father was a stoic person with a face like a rock.

Rei’s mother was side-eyeing father with pursed lips, her neat brown hair falling past her shoulders, “I thought we agreed that we would say it together on the count of three.”

“Jeez, does it really matter?” Father sighed, shaking his head, “Are you really going to argue about that?”

Hearing father’s response, mother began launching a tirade at him, whilst father continued to shake his head and sigh.

Rei laughed, walking over to the kitchen table. Despite how it looked, arguing was just the way that father and mother communicated. None of it was ever said in a personal manner.

Just as sudden as mother had begun arguing, she stopped, and her eyes suddenly got teary.

“M, ma…?” Rei said, staring at mother.

“H, hey, you okay there?” Father said to mother.

“I, I’m sorry… it’s just… I’m just so emotional cause I’m so happy our son is finally eleven…!” Mother bursted into tears with her hands at her face. “It only feels like just yesterday I was teaching him how to walk and now he’s already eleven…!”

Rei and his father stared awkwardly at mother for a few seconds, neither knowing what to do, until father walked up to mother, pulling her into a warm embrace.

“There, there, you crazy woman…” Father sighed, patting mother on her head.

“S, soon Rei will be all grown up before I know it, and then he will say he wants to leave mother to live on his own…!” Mother cried into father’s chest, “I don’t know what I would do when that day happens…!”

“I won’t ever do that, mother…” Rei laughed weakly. “I will live with you here forever, mother…!”

“You say that now, but when you’re older, it’s going to be a different story!” Mother said, lifting her head from father’s chest to peer at Rei with teary eyes.

“Normally, parents would be happy when their children are finally able to look after themselves…” Father said, and mother turned an icy glare towards father.

“A, anyways, let’s just eat the damn cake, shall we!” Father quickly said, stepping away from mother to pull out some utensils from the kitchen cabinets for the cake, “We’re supposed to be celebrating Rei’s birthday here…”

Mother strolled over to Rei, hugging onto his shoulders and following behind Rei as he went up to the cake.

“Baby, it’s time for you to make a wish!” Mother said enthusiastically, and Rei laughed meekly. No matter how old Rei was, it seemed his mother was intent on sometimes calling him ‘Baby’, even in front of all his friends.

Closing his eyes in front of the cake, Rei whispered a wish to himself.

‘I wish I could live a peaceful life with mum and dad in the village here for the rest of my life.’

Then, he blew the candles, opening his eyes, and hearing his mother clap next to him.

“Waah, you did it, baby!” Mother cheered.

“Dammit, woman!” Father said from behind the kitchen counter, “Rei’s eleven years old now and you’re still calling him ‘baby’?!”

“Do you want me to throw this cake in your face that badly?” Mother replied.

Father and mother continued rambling on to each other, whilst Rei laughed, watching his parents from the sidelines.

~x~

In the dark of the night, Rei snapped awake, drenched in sweat and feeling smouldering heat all around him.

Clouds of black smoke was seeping through the gaps of his bedroom door and he hurriedly pulled his pillow sheet out, wrapping it around his mouth to filter out the smoke.

Then with shaky feet and a pounding heart, Rei stumbled over to the bedroom door, opening it and almost burning the skin of his palm on the door handle.

Something was clearly very wrong.

‘Was it a fire? But there was already so much smoke! I need to hurry up and wake mum and dad up!’ Rei thought, as he ran out of his bedroom to go to his parent’s bedroom.

The door to his parent’s bedroom was open, but there was no one inside.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Mum…! Dad…!!” Rei yelled, his voice muffled by the pillow sheet he was holding to his mouth.

He ran down the stairs of the house, then froze mid-way down, his heart stopping.

On the floor of the living room were the unmoving bodies of his mother and father. Blood was everywhere on the floor, and he glanced shakily at the open wound on his mother’s chest where her heart was. Her eyes were lifeless, no longer holding the usual spark and energy from mere moments earlier when they had been celebrating Rei’s birthday together.

Rei’s teeth clenched, fighting back tears, as he threw himself down the stairs, tossing aside the pillow sheet and falling down on his knees next to his mother, “MAAAAA!!” Rei screamed.

He held his mother up from the ground, feeling her warm blood dripping down from his hands that were on her back.

He didn’t know what to do, shaking her lightly, as tears now fell uncontrollably from his eyes.

“Maa…!” Rei choked, his vision blurring, “P, please… please wake up… I, I beg you…”

Her pale face remained still, lips purple, and her eyes stayed closed.

“Ma…!” Rei spluttered, squeezing his eyes closed, hardly feeling the black smoke beginning to clog up his throat.

“Rei…”

He opened his eyes. It wasn’t his mother’s voice. It was his father’s.

He turned his head quickly over to his father’s body and saw him lying there, his eyes half-opened and gazing at Rei.

Lowering his mother’s body to the ground, Rei quickly crawled over to his father’s body, his breath stopping when he saw the huge gash penetrating the centre of his father’s abdomen.

“Rei…” His father called out weakly to him and Rei stared down at his father’s face, feeling his whole body trembling.

“P, pa…” Rei replied, “I’m here… it’s me, pa… I, I’ll get you out and then we can get help--”

“Listen to me, Rei,” His father breathed out, his voice serious as he stared up into Rei’s eyes, “I’m dying. There’s nothing that can help me. But I need to talk to you, Rei...”

“Y, you’re still alive… we can still…”

“I need you to be a man now, Rei.” Father said sternly, mustering all of his strength to speak to Rei. “Mother is… she’s gone too. And once I’m gone, it’ll just be you, Rei.”

“N, no…!” Rei felt his shoulder shaking, tears welling up.

“Please, Rei, listen…!” Father said, “I know. You’re still young. But you need to listen to me, you need to get out of here, Rei. You need to stay alive.”

Rei took a deep breath, trying his best to hold back the hiccups, then nodded.

“There’s a secret compartment underneath the kitchen cabinet, inside you will find a sword there.” Father said, “It’s my sword. I’m giving it to you now, Rei. Use it to protect yourself and those you love.”

Rei nodded, having no idea why his father had a sword. Swords were usually only carried by knights, warriors or travellers, and for his whole life, he had never seen his father even leave the village.

“Take the sword, Rei, then get away from the village, run as far as you can.” Father said. “The bandits could still be here, and they’re no ordinary bandits. If they catch you, you will die, Rei, do you understand?”

Again, Rei nodded.

“Good boy…” Father gave him a weak smile, “Mother’s going to kill me in the afterlife if you die, Rei. So do me a solid and don’t die.”

Rei chuckled shakily for a second at his father’s joke.

“Be strong, Rei…” Father muttered, his weary eyes gradually closing. “Stay alive, my son…”

“Pa…?” Rei said, then upon hearing no response, shook his father lightly, “Pa…!”

His father was gone, his weary eyes had finally gone to rest.

Weeping quietly to himself, Rei picked himself up from the ground, heading over to the kitchen cabinet as his father had said.

He had to be quick, as he was now coughing, his lungs filling up with the black smoke. It appeared the house was burning from the outside, cracks beginning to sound from the structure becoming unsteady.

Opening the kitchen cabinet, Rei found the usual kitchen items, rummaging around for the sword that his father had spoken of but found nothing.

‘Father said there was a secret compartment under the cabinet…’ Rei thought.

Seeing a hammer hidden at the side of the cabinet, Rei pulled it out, then used it to smash the wood underneath the cabinet, breaking the bottom to reveal the compartment that his father had been talking about.

Just like his father had said, there was a sword inside.

Rei’s eyes widened, staring at the giant sword that was as tall as a male adult, its appearance looking like a thick slab of steel moreso than a sword. Rough cuts and wear were visible across the blade of the sword, indicating that whomever had used it had used it frequently.

Grabbing the handle of the sword and pulling it out of the cabinet, Rei almost fell down to the ground, feeling the heavy weight of the sword against him. However, Rei was a large boy for an eleven-year-old, having performed a lot of manual labour for the house alongside his father.

Mustering all of his strength, Rei carried the sword and stumbled towards the door of the house. However, debris fell from the ceiling, falling down onto Rei and he fell down screaming in pain as he was suddenly set aflame by the debris.

Crashing through the door of the house and falling face-first into the snow, Rei heard the roar of fire raging all around him and his house crumbling behind him just as he had gotten out.

“Ma… Pa….” Rei whimpered to the snow at his face, feeling the flames on his body began to dissipate from the snow.

Then he glanced up blankly, seeing the village that he had lived in his whole life set ablaze in wild flames, sending black smoke up into the cold night.

~x~

“Hey cap’n, there’s a survivor!”

“A boy’s trying to escape!”

Rei heard voices shouting around him in the distance, his body covered in terrible burns all over and aching with agonising pain but he had to get himself away from the village just as his father had instructed. His father’s sword that he was towing behind him with both hands was slowing him down, but he refused to let go despite the blisters on his hands.

‘I have to get away…!’ Rei thought to himself wearily.

But the voices grew louder and before he knew it, he was surrounded by a group of at least fifty rough looking men, dressed in feral traveller’s clothing.

Bandits.

“Just a boy? And he’s half-dead at that.” A man at the centre of the bandits emerged, atop a horse. This man was different to the rest, wearing red plated armour that was heavily armed. The man glared down icily at Rei with eyes as sharp as a hawk, then turned his horse around, “I’ll leave this to you lot, we need to move out of here quickly.”

“Aye aye, cap’n,” The men said, and the man in the red plated armour they referred to as captain rode away swiftly on his horse, leaving with around ten of the bandits.

There were still forty bandits surrounding Rei, but he was staring darkly at the back of the man in the red plated armour.

“Y, you!!” Rei let out a yell, calling at the captain, “You killed my family!! I’ll never forget you…!!”

But the captain didn’t even glance back as he disappeared into the distance.

Rei roared in anger, picking up his sword to chase after the captain, but ran into several of the bandits that pushed him back with ease, shoving him down to the snow.

“Where you going, little boy?” The bandits taunted, their laughs echoing around Rei.

“The boy’s sword is even bigger than himself, and he thinks he can swing it?”

“Let’s just hurry and slaughter this boy so we can take the goods we took from this village and get out of here.”

The burns on Rei’s body was causing him too much pain to even think now, and all he could hold on to was the seething rage inside his mind, keeping him from falling unconscious.

He glanced up at the bandits that surrounded him, seeing one of them towering over him with a sword in hand, preparing to stab it down into Rei’s chest with a snide grin on his rugged and unkempt face.

Then, something white fell from the sky, hitting Rei on his face gently, and he raised a weak hand touching it, feeling icy cold on his fingertips.

‘Snow…?’ Rei thought tiredly to himself, watching snow begin to fall.

Suddenly, the bandit towering over him let out a terrible scream, and blood erupted from his torso, sending his body falling down stiffly to the ground.

“W, wha--?!”

The bandits stopped, glancing around in panic and confusion, and a white figure jumped down from above, slicing at the bandits, darting from one bandit to the other with such speed and grace that Rei’s eyes couldn’t even follow.

“What is tha--”

“Kill hi--”

“Help! I can’t—"

It was as though the figure was dancing in the air, cutting the bandits down with ease before they could even react, whilst blood exploded out of their bodies, their agonising screams filling the night air.

Soon the night was silent and the bodies of the forty bandits laid unmoving on the snow that was tainted in thick red blood, a lone figure standing amidst the scene, dressed completely in white, patches of dark red blood staining their clothing just like the snow.

Despite the gruesomeness of the scene, Rei stared in awe at the figure and couldn’t help but to think the word:

‘Beautiful...’ Rei thought.

Long flowing silver hair that almost seemed translucent against the snow, an unblemished face with pale white skin, a slender nose, petite pink lips appearing feather-soft, and scarlet red eyes that glowed distinctly like the blood around her amidst the whiteness.

A girl that appeared no older than her late teens stood at the centre of the violence, dressed in a white flowing outfit, long fabric brisking gently against the cool wind, her hands holding onto twin silver blades that were stained with blood.

Her vivid scarlet eyes were staring at Rei from where he laid on the snow, before his vision began to blur and he blanked out.