Several years ago.
The weather was cold, and heavy snow was falling.
The trees were bare, but they had turned white beneath the layers of accumulated snow, while the sound of the fierce winds filled the surroundings.
The camp was almost quiet. The only sounds that could be heard from within were the crackling flames as they devoured the firewood.
The soldiers sat around the fire, warming their bodies before the start of another battle.
Adrian arrived alongside the army commander at the frontline unit, and the two entered Camp No. 5.
The soldiers' eyes turned toward the army commander and Adrian, and they rose to offer their formal salute.
Adrian kept his gaze lowered in silence.
His face was red from the cold, and his hands were so frozen that he could no longer move them.
Snow clung to his clothes and hair, making him look as though he had been sitting in the snow for hours.
The army commander spoke in a commanding tone:
"Starting today, a new person will be joining you. By order of the Emperor, the First Prince, Adrian Jonathan, is to be assigned to the front lines."
The soldiers' faces filled with astonishment and confusion.
How could a prince be in a place like this?
A place where families abandoned their children, where men embraced death every day.
So how could the Emperor allow his child to be sent here?
It made no sense to any of them, but the orders were clear.
After the army commander finished speaking, he left, leaving Adrian alone in a strange world.
Adrian remained standing silently in his place for a while, until one of the soldiers [Sam] stepped forward and said mockingly:
"So you're really the prince? I see your eyes are red... Then the rumors about you being a demon are true."
Another [Adam] continued, deliberately provoking him:
"Look at him. He looks so young... How old is he now?"
Another [Noah] laughed mockingly:
"How would we know, man? We're cut off from the world, so we don't know. Haha!"
[Vitus], who was sitting and staring at his book, interrupted:
"I think he's ten years old, or perhaps eleven. I'm not entirely sure."
Sam asked in surprise:
"How did you know that?!"
Vitus answered as he closed his book:
"Well, as you all know, this prince was born on—"
Adam cut him off:
"We know... It's the day you confessed to your girlfriend and got humiliatingly rejected."
The soldiers continued their conversation as Adrian approached the fire and held out his hands to warm them a little.
He felt his body grow numb as the heat touched him, his frozen body slowly beginning to regain sensation.
His skin stung as though he were being shocked by electricity, and his heart clenched with suffocating pain.
The cold was no mercy, and neither was the warmth.
Amid the noise of the present, his mind and heart were somewhere else entirely.
He was thinking of Diana, wondering if she was all right.
But that fragile moment of peace did not last.
The soldiers gathered around him, their eyes gleaming with malice and their faces twisted into wicked smiles.
One of them stepped forward and said mockingly:
"Haah, you foolish prince...
You know your father has abandoned you, don't you?
And that makes you nothing more than an ordinary child... a child from Section Zero."
Another laughed and added contemptuously:
"Haha, perhaps you should submit to us, then."
Adrian stared at them coldly.
He did not try to look intimidating... but he was.
His red eye—the Demon's Eye.
Some of the soldiers instinctively stepped back, before one of them laughed nervously:
"Haha... guys, I feel like we went a little too far.
In the end, he's just a child... there's no need to be this cruel."
The others reluctantly nodded, then dispersed and returned to their places, talking and laughing as though nothing had happened.
And Adrian remained alone, before the fire...
And the cold that had never left his heart.
As the snowstorm subsided, the hours of rest came to an end, and the harsh reality of the front lines returned.
A heavy silence fell...
Then came the sound of footsteps that shook the ground beneath them.
The soldiers rose all at once, gripped their weapons, and rushed out of the camp, preparing to fight once more.
Adrian grasped his sword and slowly rose to his feet.
And as the cries of battle began to rise, he followed them out.
He walked through the chaos with an eerie calm, watching the blood splatter and the monsters tear apart the soldiers around him.
He did not know how he would fight...
Nor how he would survive...
Nor even the truth about the place he had been sent to.
He raised his sword.
And stood in silence,
waiting for the attack that would come his way.
One of the monsters lunged toward him with a roar that tore through the air.
A massive body covered in black fur, its sharp fangs gleaming beneath the pale light.
Adrian did not move.
Everything around him slowed down.
His eyes widened in shock, and before he could move his hand, the monster's claws pierced his right shoulder.
Blood sprayed through the air, staining the white snow around him.
His pupils trembled as he watched the monster open its mouth to devour his head...
Adrian's heart clenched, and the air caught in his chest.
He did not feel the pain immediately... but rather, a strange heat spreading from his shoulder throughout the rest of his body.
And before the monster's fangs could close around his head,
his soul froze, and his body moved in an involuntary motion.
It was not anger... nor fear...
It was pure survival instinct.
In an instant, his sword moved.
He did not see how he had done it. He did not feel it...
His body had moved on its own.
The blade sank into the monster's neck.
It was not a fatal strike, but it was enough to stop it.
The monster's blood exploded across Adrian's face,
and it staggered before collapsing onto the snow with a terrifying weight.
Adrian stood there, gasping, a hidden terror gripping him.
His pupils were still trembling from the shock, and his fingers shook uncontrollably.
And the pain... had finally begun to reach his nerves.
He clutched his injured shoulder, his teeth clenched tightly as he tried to suppress a groan.
He whispered deep within himself:
"So... this is the front line..."
He had barely finished when he caught sight of another monster watching him through the mist, its eyes glowing with hunger.
Beneath the gray sky,
Adrian understood only one truth:
"The weak... have no choice but to die."
---
The battle was over... but it was nothing more than a brief respite, for that was life on the front lines;
death repeating itself, and peace that never lasted.
The snow that had once been pure white was stained with dark blood.
The bodies of monsters and soldiers were scattered everywhere.
Torn bodies, severed limbs, and rigid faces from which every trace of life had vanished.
Some soldiers had been reduced to nothing more than an arm or a leg,
while others had disappeared completely, devoured by the monsters along with their final screams.
The groans of the wounded mingled with the sound of the cold wind,
while the soldiers who were still alive walked with pale faces and hollow eyes,
as though they had left their souls behind on the battlefield.
The wounded were hurriedly carried back to the camp,
where the smell of blood mingled with that of medicine and the blazing fire meant to keep them warm.
Adrian was among them...
His body was covered in blood, and his injured shoulder was still bleeding.
When the battle ended,
his consciousness quietly faded,
and he fell somewhere between life and death.
Silence descended upon the camp, as though the battle had been nothing more than a merciless nightmare.
The doctor who treated Adrian spoke in a sympathetic tone:
"This child... will most likely die."
Sam, who was nearby, turned toward him in surprise, prompting the doctor to continue:
"This is his first battle, and he has already suffered an injury this severe. What will happen if he faces an even worse battle?"
Sam cut him off sharply:
"There is no room for pity here, Doctor. Have you forgotten where we are? We will all die in some battle... no one survives."
He then walked away.
The doctor stared silently at Adrian before turning to treat the others.
Meanwhile, deep within his dream, Adrian was lying there, gazing at the white emptiness surrounding him.
He whispered in a tired voice:
"Where... am I?"
He tried to move, but he could not, as though he no longer had control over his own body.
Then he heard that voice...
A soft, warm voice that slipped into his ears like a gentle breeze.
"Smile... smile, little one."