Chapter:-1(The Eyes That Knew Me)

Those eyes flickered for a brief moment, as if weighing time itself before a final decision.

​The roar of the crowd began to swell—insults, screams, and a hunger for death. My ears had gone numb, but my heart heard everything. With every breath, the burning in my chest intensified. It felt as though even breathing required someone else’s permission. The weight of the chains was now felt more in my soul than on my hands. The iron was cold, yet its sting was searing. Blood dripped from my fingers, hitting the ground.

​For a moment, I looked straight ahead...!

​Amidst the mob, my gaze suddenly locked onto that one pair of eyes. For a second, time seemed to freeze. Those eyes were staring right at me. From some corner of my heart, a strange thought emerged—as if I had seen those eyes somewhere before.

​In the middle of this crowd, one thing was crystal clear: everyone here was possessed by the singular urge to kill me.

​But...

​Those eyes were saying something else entirely. There was no anger in them, no hatred. Only a confusion, a... secret. And perhaps, the greatest turning point of my story.

​My breath had started to betray me. A strange heaviness grew inside my chest, as if every breath were my last. Air entered my lungs, but it didn't feel like enough to keep me alive.

​Then... those eyes behind the crowd suddenly turned toward the left—swift, restless, for reasons unknown. And in the next heartbeat... they vanished.

​Everything stopped for a few moments.

​Suddenly, a thick white mist began to spread. It was so dense that the line between earth and sky dissolved. There was only a cold silence. My eyes began to sting, and I didn't even realize when they grew damp. Perhaps it was fear... or perhaps it was hope, stubbornly insisting on staying alive.

​In the midst of it all, I felt a hand reaching out toward me.

​At first, I thought it was a hallucination—a part of the mist—but then I felt the touch of fingers. They weren't cold; they were trembling... as if the fear wasn't just mine, but belonged to them too.

​Slowly, that hand reached my chains. There was the faint clink of metal, and then... one by one, the chains began to loosen. With every falling link, the weight on my chest lightened. I tried to lift my head to see the face, but the mist still guarded their identity.

​"Who are you...?"

​My own voice sounded like a stranger to me.

​They didn't answer. They simply leaned toward me and spoke in a very low whisper...

​"Don't ask questions for now"

​In that instant, I understood. They hadn't just come to save me. They wanted to take me away from here.

​But why?

​Through the mist, their eyes shined. In that glint, there was no fear—only a firm, unwavering resolve.

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