600 years ago, a great empire that stretched from the North to the South stood tall over civilization. The people of the kingdom smiled happily without fear, their leaders, the king and the nobles, respected every race and upheld justice.

Thanks to the hard work of humans, the gods and dragons blessed every land occupied by humans, giving happiness without anyone suffering.

Crops can grow all year round, be it spring or winter. Animals could be found everywhere, and monsters did not dare to come out from where they were.

All that remained in the kingdom was love and compassion.

But as beautiful as the land of heaven was, the bright, warm light was always followed by a dark, cold shadow. And so tragedy struck.

The figures hiding from the darkness began to emerge one by one. The happiness that was filled with smiles and love was instantly burned by fire. The ground began to crumble, trees burned, castles were destroyed and human corpses were scattered all over the country.

Heaven had become hell.

It was a test, a test from the almighty. Figures emerging from the darkness continue to destabilize the world and bring suffering with every step they take.

People began to stop smiling, all that was left was crying, anger and despair. As the chaos spread, the people of God Of White Dragon continued to question why they existed? Why did they commit all that evil? And why has the world been set on fire?

No one knows what they want, people only know that the figure from the darkness calls himself The Servant.

The Servant, a person who continues to refer to himself as a loyal servant of the Demon Spirit and the people of the God Of Darkness.

The world has been completely enveloped by darkness, and to further spread their bloody fangs, the ruthless Servant then created the seven evils of the World.

Snakes that are as long as rivers, turtles that are as big as mountains, birds that devour clouds, the seven evils of the world crawled right under The Servant's feet.

They have lost, mankind has fallen. But a hope and a miracle will not leave those who believe in the God Of White Dragon.

The prayers of those who believe in gods are now being answered.

The gods who still love humans then send their chosen ones to restore peace in the world. They, the White Knight order led by Sir Phoenix Van Reinland fought back against The Servant.

The sacred sword of the kingdom then chose Sir Phoenix as the hero. With the love and grace of the gods, Phoenix the hero defeated the three leaders of The Servant, the world is now free from darkness.

Meanwhile the frightened Servants fled to every corner of the world, but even though they had been destroyed, they were still hiding behind the crevices of darkness and might eat a child who did not sleep at night or a child who played until night.

And that's how it is in the storybook. A book that is clearly softened to be understood by young children.

With tiny little hands, Maric closed the storybook and put it under the bed.

He then looked at his sister who was currently sitting quietly on the bed. Tina who was still showing a flat face now turned her head doubtfully, as if she wanted to say something to Maric.

"Brother. Do you think the hero from the book can help us?"

Maric then smiled kindly and stroked his sister's hair to answer.

"Don't you trust me? You are the only family I have left. We don't need a fairy tale hero, all you have to do is trust me, I'll do my best."

'After all, what's in a fairy tale book is often far from the truth. In the past, I might have believed that someone who told me about dragons in the ocean was nothing more than a bunch of people who worshipped tornadoes during a storm. But even if there really are dragons and heroes in this world, it seems that the source of evil is not a demon king or anything like that, but a secret organization containing The Servants.'

As someone who has a bit of awareness and sometimes considers himself a rationalist, reading a child's story might provide some clues about something common.

For example, the story of the hero who saved the world forgot important details and was just a one-sided story. If people in the past weren't stupid enough, they would have applied the law of "history is always written by the victors" and given that 600 years have passed, the real story would have been forgotten or warped by time.

Or in other words, the only truth that can be confirmed is the existence of the characters and the destruction of the country.

After nodding quietly at Tina, Maric then grabbed a nearby blanket to ask his sister to sleep. Tina then shook her head as a sign of rejection, she wanted to ask again.

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"brother, should we go to church tomorrow? Why not do something else?"

"Tina, you're starting to forget what Mom always says."

"Miracles always come around the church, that's what mom always says. But why do you believe it too, haven't you seen everything that has happened to us until now?"

'Hmm.... This girl has grown up too fast. It's quite dangerous.'

What Tina said, it was not something a seven-year-old little girl should say, and even for adults there was not much to question about it. This was probably because Tina was Maric's sister and she had grown up with Maric since she was a baby so some indirect influence had filled her mind.

To prevent anything more complicated and confusing, Maric instantly had an answer ready.

"I believed what Mother said. You know why? It was because I was afraid that you and I might be eaten by the darkness, and who can fight the darkness? Don't you know that too?"

"God of white Dragon."

"Good, that's the answer."

After hearing that from Maric, Tina then grabbed the blanket and immediately lay down on the bed, she wanted to close her eyes immediately but her eyes were still open. Maric also knew that.

"What's wrong, is there something bothering you again?"

After a few moments of silence, Tina's eyes turned to Maric.

"Big brother. Can you play with that coin again?"

"Sure, whose destiny do you want to know?"

"Your destiny."

"....?"

Maric was silent for a moment before answering.

"Well..."

With that short answer, Maric then played with the coin again, he tossed the coin into the air and the first result showed a number, exactly what Tina got.

Playing once more, the second toss of the coin then showed the result of the king's head.

"See, my destiny might be the same as yours."

This was in accordance with what Maric predicted, good, now the last coin was now tossed.

The coin floats in the air as if the wind is playing with it, the coin then falls on the wooden table but due to the momentum of the fall, the coin then bounces several times in the air and then falls under the table.

Maric and Tina's necks and heads now followed the spinning coin on the floor.

The coin kept spinning and spinning without stopping for a while. When the coin stopped spinning, Maric's eyes grew wide with excitement.

'What is this? That's a ridiculous result.'

Tina, who saw the result of the coin, asked Maric for an answer.

"What does that mean? It doesn't show the king's head or a number."

Maric's eyes also followed what Tina meant. The coin on the floor was spinning a moment ago, but it had now stopped without showing any results. The coin stood upright in balance, as if fate had truly played its hand.

'I....I didn't prepare an answer for this kind of result. Why is this happening?'

He did not prepare any answers. If the result of the coin toss had been three numbers, Maric would have prepared an answer but who would have thought that the result of the last coin toss would be even. This shouldn't have happened.

And then, with a little sweat on his face, he quickly opened his mouth to explain the result.

"That, that means. A person who gets this kind of result has luck that is always followed by bad luck. Yes, I'm sure of it."

'Or it could also mean that I'm getting sick of all these jokes.'

While thinking that in his head, Maric then saw Tina's eyes start to close, the little girl seemed to know that Maric was just bragging.

....

In the darkness of the night, just when Maric had confirmed that Tina had fallen asleep, he quickly slipped out of bed and grabbed the spare key.

After wandering through every small street in the deserted town for a few hours and for some reason, he was currently lying on a cobblestone dirt road.

His entire body was trembling and he was on the verge of tears. The bright moonlight showed his the partial truth of what had actually happened.

Next to Maric's small ear, a sharp knife was stuck in the ground. With that small body, even though he had worked hard, there was always a physical limit that he could not cross, so naturally Maric's facial expression showed a kind of fear when the sharp knife was pointed right at his face.

"Give me that piece of bread."

The man who pointed the knife at Maric said that with his whole body trembling as well.

"Hurry up kid, give me that piece of bread or I'll kill you."

Maric then refused and replied with a trembling voice.

"No way, this bread is for my mom and dad who are sick."

The hand of the man holding the knife showed more hesitation, his eyes seemed to reject what he was currently doing.

The man seemed to have a broken mind so a small sound might disturb him. That sound, the sound of footsteps then approached Maric and the man.

"Stay there asshole!"

Instantly, a knight came towards Maric, the knight immediately grabbed the sword at his waist and slashed the left hand of the man in front of Maric.

The man's hand flew into the air with blood scattered on the slippery rocky ground.

While the man screamed at the loss of his hand, the knight immediately went towards Maric and grabbed his shoulder.

"Are you alright, boy? There are tons of rumors about people mysteriously disappearing, so never go out at night and stay indoors. That bastard might be planning to kidnap you."

The frightened Maric quickly stood up, only because of the slippery rocky path, Maric's balance wavered and he fell back down. The moment Maric's butt hit the ground, blood immediately dripped from nowhere onto his face. It was blood that was still warm and had a very pungent odor.

"Asshole! Who are you calling an asshole!"

The knight who was in front of Maric instantly fell down while showing the small knife that stabbed right into his back. The perpetrator or the man who lost his hand then shed tears, with a troubled expression he then fell and leaned against the wall of the building.

Fresh blood still oozed from the man's missing hand. Slowly his eyes began to close as he lowered his face as if looking at the red hues that adorned his feet and hands.

The man was now dead while showing a face of despair.

After a few minutes and having confirmed that both men were dead, Maric then got up from his current position. He then opened his mouth to comment softly.

"From the looks of it, the man who lost his hand was a former soldier who escaped from the battlefield. While that knight is just a new recruit who is still very young, he's even so innocent and reckless."

While standing upright and reaching for the loot, he found a key to the house of the man who lost an arm. He played with the key in his hand while trying to keep his sanity intact.

"If I were really an innocent little kid, I probably wouldn't mind this madness. But knowing and realizing that most of these situations were created by me, it makes me feel a little guilty."

Again, it's worth noting that an eight-year-old's body can't do much. Maric had tried before and found that he couldn't even break through the door of an empty house, hence the need for a key to enter the house, all in order to survive and get some food.

It was better to have plenty of food than none at all. That belief now made Maric have to open the door from the key in his hand and then after he finished getting what he wanted, he immediately went home and slept.