He didn't know what to do.
There was no place to run, no way to escape, so he just stood there, covering his ears as if that could shut everything out. The screams, the noise, the chaos they crashed into him from every direction, overlapping until none of it made sense anymore.
Then, all at once, it stopped.
No sound.No screams.Nothing.
When Voren opened his eyes, there was nothing in front of him.
No figures. No blood. No world.
It felt like he had been thrown back into the void.
But something was different this time.
He could feel it not clearly, not completely but enough to know it was there. A sense of weight. Of position. Of existence. As if he finally had something to move, even though he didn't understand what it was yet.
Then a voice broke the silence.
No several voices.
Laughter echoed somewhere nearby. Not mocking, not cruel. It sounded… happy. A group of people talking over one another, their voices full of energy, as if they were celebrating something.
Voren froze.
The sound felt wrong.
After all that silence, all that emptiness, hearing joy of all things made his thoughts stall. It didn't belong in the void. It didn't belong after what he had just seen.
Yet the noise kept coming, growing clearer with every passing moment.
For the first time, he wasn't alone.
Voren opened his eyes, following the strange feeling he had been sensing.
The first thing he saw was a group of men and women standing around him. They were staring no, smiling wide, relieved smiles, as if they had been waiting for this moment. Voren didn't understand what was happening. His mind felt slow, heavy, unable to catch up.
Then his gaze shifted upward.
A woman was holding him.
Her arms were wrapped around him carefully, protectively. The warmth of her hands seeped into him, and for reasons he couldn't explain, his restless thoughts began to calm. It wasn't the comfort of memory it was something more instinctive.
Something his consciousness recognized before his mind did.
When Voren tried to lift the hand he could feel, it moved.
The hand that rose into his view was small. Too small. Soft fingers that clearly didn't belong to the body he remembered. He stared at it for a moment, watching as it curled and uncurled under his control.
Yet, strangely, he wasn't shocked.
There was no panic. No confusion. It felt… expected. As if some part of him had already accepted this outcome before it happened.
Rebirth.
The thought didn't frighten him. It didn't comfort him either. It simply settled into his mind, quiet and heavy, like a truth he had known all along.
His gaze drifted left and right. Everywhere he looked, people were smiling—laughing, celebrating, enjoying the moment as if nothing in the world could go wrong.
Suddenly, a scream cut through the air. One voice turned into many, and panic spread among the people. The men rushed outside, trying to see what had happened.
What they saw made the smiles vanish.
Knights of the kingdom rode in on horseback, their armor stained and dented. Behind them, two lifeless bodies were being dragged across the ground, blood smearing the earth as if their deaths meant nothing.
The knights dismounted from their horses, laughing loudly.
"Hahaha… looks like something good is happening here," one of them said. "Everyone seems so happy. What a shame."
He kicked one of the bodies with his boot. "These two tried to stop us at the village entrance. Look how that turned out."
A sharp cry broke through the crowd.
A young girl—no older than seven—fell to her knees. Her face twisted in horror as she stared at the bodies.
They weren't strangers.
One was her older brother.
The other… was her father.
One of the knights smirked.
"Oh? Oh… don't cry, little girl," he said mockingly. "Come here. We'll send you to the same place your brother and father just went."
He lifted a hand lazily. "Bring her."
At his order, one of the knights stepped forward, reaching for the trembling child.
The knight approached her first, crouching slightly.
"What's your name, little girl?" he asked.
"L-Lina…" she whispered, her body trembling.
The knight smiled. "Lina. That's a nice name. Come with me now."
As he reached out to grab her hand, a sharp sound cut through the air.
Slap.
A man stepped forward, striking the knight's hand away. He stood there silently, staring at him with eyes filled with raw bloodlust.
The knight roared in anger.
"What the f— are you doing?!"
He never finished the sentence.
The man's fist slammed into his helmet with brutal force. Metal cracked loudly, the impact snapping the knight's head to the side as his body staggered.
The men of the village grabbed whatever they could use as weapons—sticks, tools, broken wood. Anything.
The knights drew their swords in response, steel flashing in the light.
Just as the clash seemed inevitable, a sharp horn echoed through the air.
The knights froze.
A signal from the kingdom.
They were being summoned back.
One of the knights spat on the ground.
"Tch… looks like we have to leave," he said. "But don't start celebrating just yet, you filthy villagers."
His grin twisted. "I'll make sure your beloved women end up wiping the kingdom's floors with their lives."
Just like that, the knights mounted their horses and rode back toward the kingdom, their laughter fading into the distance.
The villagers let out quiet sighs of relief, the tension finally loosening from their bodies. Some lowered their weapons. Others simply stood there, exhausted.
But one sound didn't fade.
The young girl's crying continued, raw and unbroken.
She had no mother. Only her father and her older brother.
And now, they were gone too.
Lina cried loudly, her small body shaking as the reality finally caught up to her.
The man who had crushed the knight's helmet knelt down in front of her. His expression softened as he gently placed a hand on her head.
"Don't cry, Lina," he said quietly. "I know you're broken right now. We all are. Your brother and your father meant a lot to this village."
He paused, then continued, his voice firm but kind. "From now on, I'll protect you. No matter what happens, no matter what problem comes your way, I'll be there. I can't replace him… but I'll stand as your father. Is that okay?"
At that moment, a woman stepped out of the house, holding Voren in her arms. She had seen everything—the bodies, the knights, the fear. Slowly, she walked toward Lina.
She knelt beside the man and smiled gently.
"Yes, Lina," she said. "He'll be like your father. And I'll be like your mother."
She looked down at Voren and lifted him slightly. "From today onward, we'll raise you together. We promise you a life where you don't have to be afraid anymore."
Lina hesitated, then looked at the baby in the woman's arms. She stared at Voren for a few seconds.
Slowly, her sobbing eased.
For the first time since the knights arrived, her shoulders relaxed—even if just a little.
....
"Riven? Riven, where are you, my child? It's breakfast time—where did you run off to?"
"Coming, Mom!" Riven's small voice called out from the back of the house.
Hmm… this is my rebirth in this world.
This world… it felt strange, completely different from the one I came from. My name now is Riven Valeris, and I live in a small village called Eldewood. The village itself lies within the borders of a sprawling kingdom known as Aranthia.
I live here with my parents - Lyra Valeris, my mother, and Kaiden Valeris, my father. And there's my big sister, Lina Valeris. She isn't my blood sister. Her father and older brother were killed seven years ago by the kingdom's knights. My parents took her in, and she's lived with us ever since.
I didn't know what would happen next. How this life would unfold, or what twists awaited me—I had no idea. All I could do was wait and see what the future held.
"Riven! Are you coming or not? Or should I give all your breakfast to your big sister?" Lyra shouted from kitchen.
"Coming, Mom," Riven said, his voice carrying from the back of the house.
Let's see what unfolds in the future… but I don't know why, I still remember that void. There's so much mystery hidden there, and it feels… unfinished.