Chapter 1 — Last Thought

“Rheaaa...”

That was the last thing I heard before everything began to fall apart. I was out with my friends.

It was supposed to be a normal day. Nothing special. Just laughter and small talk.

Then..

Sen came from behind.

I didn’t even have time to react before the knife was already buried deep inside me.

My body froze.

My friends were shouting my name, their voices shaking, panicked, but everything sounded far away, like I was already drifting somewhere else.

Strangely...

My mind didn’t go to Sen.

Not even for a second.

I didn’t ask why.

I didn’t have the time.

Instead...

It went to him.

My Master.

My online Master. My teacher. The one who spent two years guiding me in a game, yet taught me so much about real life.

I adored him.

He was my favorite person.

Even as everything faded...

I kept thinking about him.

Only him.

I miss him...

—

Cold.

That was the first thing I felt.

So cold.

My body trembled. The warmth was gone. The pain was gone.

There was nothing left.

Just cold, and silence.

White.

Endless white.

My thoughts felt slow, heavy.

“Am I in heaven?”

It had to be, right?

Heaven should be white.

Hell wouldn’t be this quiet.

...right?

—

No.

Something was wrong. I looked down and froze. These weren’t hands. They were paws. Small. Covered in soft fur.

My breath turned uneven.

“No... this has to be a dream..."

I stumbled back, my whole body shaking.

A nearby window caught my attention. I rushed toward it and forced myself to look.

A small puppy stared back at me.

Tiny.

Fragile.

Not human.

“...No.”

My chest tightened.

“That’s not me....”

But it was.

I could feel it.

The ground under my paws. The strange balance of this tiny body. The way my ears reacted to every little sound.

“I’m...a puppy...?”

Panic hit all at once.

I turned and ran.

“I need to wake up...I need to wake up...”

I tried to scream,

But only a weak, broken sound came out.

I kept running until my legs gave out.

Snow covered everything.

Cold. Endless. Unforgiving.

“I’m...tired...”

My body trembled as I curled slightly, trying to hold onto what little warmth I had left.

Then, it hit me.

I died.

Sen stabbed me from behind.

And now...

I was reborn as a puppy.

“...Why...?”

My thoughts struggled, but slowly... a memory surfaced.

That day.

When Sen kept threatening me, I talked to him.

To my Master.

“Master... if one day something happens to me... and I die...”

I remembered laughing softly back then.

“I want to be something near you... maybe a puppy. A small, cute puppy. I can stay by your side...”

I said it playfully. But I meant it.

I never thought it would actually happen.

I still remember his reply.

Firm. Immediate.

“No. I don’t have a pet, and I won’t get one.”

A short pause.

“Don’t joke about dying.”

—

“...You really said that...”

A weak sound left my throat.

“Then what am I supposed to do now?”

My vision blurred.

The cold seeped deeper into my tiny body.

“Master...”

I couldn’t say the words.

Only a faint, trembling sound came out.

“I just wanted...to be near you...”

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