Cold air filled her lungs.
Anna woke with a sharp gasp, her body jerking upright as if she had been drowning.
For a moment, she didn’t move.
Didn’t think.
Didn’t remember.
She lay on rough grass beneath a pale dawn sky, her head throbbing and her limbs heavy, as though she had fallen from somewhere impossibly high.
The world felt… wrong.
Too quiet.
Too soft.
No roaring flames. No towering obsidian walls. No echo of power humming beneath her skin.
Just wind.
Just silence.
Anna slowly pushed herself up, her fingers digging into the damp earth. Her body trembled—not from weakness, but from something deeper.
Something missing.
“…Anna.”
The name slipped from her lips without thought.
She froze.
That was all she had.
No past.
No memories.
No idea who—or what—she was.
Only a name that felt like both a truth and a question.
Anna stood unsteadily, brushing dirt from her torn clothes. The crimson fabric clung to her like a shadow of something important… something she couldn’t quite grasp.
She looked around.
Rolling green hills stretched endlessly, dotted with small wooden houses and thin trails of smoke rising into the sky. In the distance, she could hear voices—human voices.
The word came to her instinctively.
Human.
She didn’t know how she knew.
She just did.
Anna narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Great,” she muttered. “Dropped somewhere unfamiliar with no explanation. This is already annoying.”
Despite everything—despite the emptiness in her mind—her tone carried sharp irritation rather than fear.
That, at least, hadn’t been taken from her.
She began walking.
The village fell silent when she entered.
Children stopped playing.
Women paused mid-conversation.
Men turned slowly, their gazes wary.
Anna ignored them.
She walked straight down the center path as if she belonged there.
As if she had never belonged anywhere else.
A man finally stepped forward, gripping a farming tool like a weapon.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
Anna stopped.
Considered the question.
Then answered honestly.
“I don’t know.”
The villagers exchanged uneasy glances.
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be,” she replied flatly.
The man frowned.
His gaze dropped briefly—then snapped back up in alarm.
“Your eyes…”
Anna blinked.
“My eyes what?”
“They’re red.”
She sighed.
“And that’s a problem because…?”
No one answered.
But they all took a step back.
Anna noticed.
Of course she did.
Her lips curved slightly—not in kindness, but in quiet understanding.
“They’re afraid of me,” she realized.
The strange thing was… she wasn’t surprised.
She didn’t know why.
But it felt familiar.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
Anna didn’t leave.
Despite their fear, the villagers didn’t drive her away either—though they kept their distance, watching her like she might suddenly turn into something monstrous.
Anna didn’t care.
She built a place for herself at the edge of the village using abandoned wood and stubborn determination.
No help.
No permission.
No apologies.
When someone tried to question her presence, she simply stared at them until they walked away.
It worked surprisingly well.
She learned quickly.
Too quickly.
Hunting.
Tracking.
Fighting.
Skills surfaced in her body without explanation, like echoes of a life she couldn’t remember.
One evening, a wild beast charged from the forest toward the village gates.
The guards panicked.
Anna didn’t.
She stepped forward, grabbed a broken spear, and took the creature down with precise, brutal efficiency.
The entire village watched in stunned silence.
Anna wiped the blood from her cheek.
“What?” she said. “Were you planning to let it eat you?”
No one answered.
But something changed that day.
They still feared her.
But now… they respected her too.
“Anna!”
She turned as a small child ran toward her.
Unlike the others, the boy didn’t hesitate.
He stopped in front of her, grinning.
“You’re coming to the market today, right?”
Anna raised an eyebrow.
“Do I look like someone who enjoys crowds?”
The boy laughed.
“You always say that, but you still come.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Don’t get used to it.”
But she went anyway.
Because despite everything…
Despite the emptiness inside her…
She refused to disappear.
That night, Anna stood outside her small home, staring up at the sky.
The moon hung high above—pale, distant.
For a moment, something twisted inside her chest.
A feeling she couldn’t name.
A memory just out of reach.
Fire.
Chains.
A voice calling her name.
Anna’s head throbbed sharply.
She clenched her jaw.
“Not helpful,” she muttered.
The fragments vanished.
Leaving only silence once again.
Anna exhaled slowly.
Then her expression hardened.
“Fine,” she said quietly. “If I don’t have a past… I’ll make my own.”
Her crimson eyes glinted in the darkness.
Sharp.
Unyielding.
Uncontrolled.
Whatever she had been before—princess, monster, or something worse—
it didn’t matter.
Because even without her memories…
Anna was still Anna.
And that alone made her dangerous.
***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***
Updated 16 Episodes
Download
Like this story? Download the app to keep your reading history.
Comments