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**\<Episode 6>**
“…Beautiful.”
The boy’s eyes were filled with awe, as if he had just seen something truly amazing.
Before I knew it, my cheeks turned red.
Kyle pulled at my necklace and examined it carefully.
‘So it wasn’t me—it was the necklace.’
Of course.
I forced my pounding heart to calm down.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Kyle turned his body and started walking.
“Kyle, not that way!”
Why does he always walk ahead without even knowing the path?
I ended up laughing again because Kyle was just too cute.
—
Kyle sat on the roof of the orphanage, staring toward the temple.
The waterways all around were filled with water, glimmering under the light.
The white marble temple of Sanitas shone brightly in the darkness, lit up by countless torches, looking like a perfect piece of art.
Kyle rubbed his eyes with his hand.
His eyes, which should have been purple, were now darkened, swallowed by shadows.
The world he saw was no longer the same.
All the colors had disappeared.
What he saw was only black and white—
a world of light and shadow.
“I thought the prophecy was wrong.”
Recalling old memories, the boy wore a gloomy expression far too heavy for his age.
—
At the center of the continent stood the Novovitch Empire.
Kyle had once been the Empire’s rightful crown prince.
But five years ago, a rebellion took everything from him.
Or rather, his parents didn’t just die—they suffered something far more horrifying.
Kyle had seen it with his own eyes.
The men in black robes.
That night of rebellion.
The Imperial Palace was filled with screams.
Ten-year-old Kyle, bound tightly, was dragged in front of the throne.
The once-splendid throne room, so beautiful and pure, was now soaked in blood and scattered corpses.
*Ugh.*
He felt like throwing up.
*Thud.*
He was thrown harshly to the ground.
“Kyle!”
A desperate voice cried out.
‘Mother!’
Kyle twisted against the ropes gagging his mouth.
His noble and beautiful mother’s dress was drenched in blood.
Beside her lay his father, the Emperor, unconscious with a sword stabbed into his back.
“Is everything ready?”
A chilling, low voice spoke.
The men in black hoods stepped back from around his parents.
Kyle saw a black summoning circle drawn beneath them.
‘What are they doing!’
He wanted to scream. He knew something terrible was about to happen.
“Mmm! Mmmph!”
“Be quiet, boy.”
One of the men sneered.
“This curse is for you.”
The sorcerers all raised their hands at once and chanted an unknown spell.
“No! Kyle! You must run!”
Tears ran down his mother’s cheeks.
At a signal from the man, someone struck her down unconscious.
“Watch closely, Prince Kyle.”
Trembling, Kyle glared at him.
Beneath the mask, the man’s red eyes glowed.
“From the sacrifice of the ones who love you most… comes the world’s smallest prison.”
From the summoning circle, black mist slithered out like tentacles.
They wrapped around the Emperor and Empress, pulling something out of their bodies.
『You vile creatures!』
『How dare servants of demons touch the bloodline of the gods!』
『No! Please, spare only our Kyle…』
Kyle’s eyes widened.
What was dragged from their bodies was their very souls.
『Are you not afraid of the prophecy!』
The Emperor’s furious voice echoed in the air.
‘No! No!’
Kyle watched in horror as his parents’ bodies withered, their souls being forced out.
Soon their drained bodies began to crumble into dust.
Blood-tears streamed from Kyle’s eyes.
The man shouted boldly in excitement.
“To hell with the prophecy!”
He laughed mockingly.
His parents’ souls were sucked into bracelets the sorcerers held.
『Kyle!』
His mother’s faint voice echoed as the curse ended.
Kyle trembled violently, staring at the two bracelets that devoured his parents’ souls.
The sorcerers wore them on their wrists.
When they pulled back their hoods, Kyle’s breath stopped.
“Isn’t it amazing?”
The sorcerers now looked exactly like the Emperor and Empress.
They smiled at each other in triumph.
His parents’ souls had become nothing more than their masks.
Even as a child, Kyle understood.
What had happened to his parents’ souls was worse than death.
‘Why… why did this happen?’
As Kyle shook in terror, one of the men bowed to the leader.
“The prophecy for the prince has been erased. Congratulations.”
“To think this brat was destined to be the hero of the continent.”
The man laughed with satisfaction.
“Prophecy, destiny… all it takes is to twist them.”
Prophecy.
Only then did young Kyle understand.
The problem was his very existence—the child blessed specially by the gods at birth.
The man’s red eyes gleamed with madness.
Kyle thrashed in fury.
But the ropes held tight.
He banged his head against the floor.
*Thud. Thud. Thud.*
Blood trickled down.
Just ten years old.
There was nothing he could do.
Nothing but suffer.
He wished it was all just a dream.
The black mist from the circle wrapped around him.
‘Aaaaah!’
His gagged mouth couldn’t scream.
His eyes burned like fire.
Something dug into his mind through his eye sockets.
Kyle fainted.
When he woke days later, his eyes had lost all color.
The young prince was locked in an underground prison.
The last sky he saw while being dragged down was a dark gray sky, with a pale sun shining eerily like it had been drained of life.
—
Time passed. Kyle didn’t know how long.
*Chik, chik.*
Rats scurried.
*Snap.*
He caught one in his hand.
It writhed, trying to escape.
*Crunch.*
Kyle bit into it raw.
‘I have to live.’
He couldn’t trust the food brought into his cell.
At first, even the thought of rats was disgusting.
But hunger changed everything.
One day, he saw another prisoner eat the food and die vomiting blood.
Compared to that, rats were safer.
Then one day—
A light shone into the darkness.
Kyle squinted, unable to see.
Through the wavering light, a man appeared.
“Your Highness, Prince.”
The man knelt before the collapsed boy.
“I am your servant, Preben.”
Kyle had no strength to speak. He was starving, thirsty, exhausted.
Preben gently covered his eyes with black cloth.
“Don’t open your eyes outside yet, or they will be harmed.”
Moments later, Kyle felt himself lifted into the air.
Relief washed over him, and he fainted.
‘My eyes are already ruined.’
But Preben didn’t hear those words.
—
It took a month for Kyle to slowly recover his sight.
Preben was the illegitimate son of the Milessent family, once the Emperor’s right hand.
“Our family will serve you, Prince, until the very last one of us dies.”
On the day Kyle sat up again, Preben knelt and swore loyalty.
Only later did Kyle learn his entire family had been executed—Preben alone survived.
“Why did you save me?”
“Because you will save this continent, Your Highness.”
Demon worship had spread across the land like poison.
“You are the light and hope of the people.”
Forbidden acts were rotting morality.
“All of this is foreseen by prophecy. Please, preserve your life.”
Kyle’s shoulders felt unbearably heavy.
‘To hell with prophecy!’
‘All it takes is to twist it. Prophecy, destiny—nothing more.’
In his dreams, the man with red eyes laughed.
His words pierced Kyle’s heart like a blade.
But he couldn’t tell his loyal followers.
That the prophecy was wrong.
That something had already gone terribly astray.
That he wasn’t the savior they believed him to be.
The boy was in pain.
—
“Impossible!”
Noise erupted outside.
“What’s happening?”
Even calm Preben, who had rescued him, looked shaken.
“Your Highness…”
Something was terribly wrong.
“The temple is under attack.”
The enemy—demon worshippers.
The one place they could never touch was the holy grounds: temples of other gods.
“This doesn’t make sense…”
Kyle placed a hand on Preben’s trembling shoulder.
“We must escape.”
At last, Preben nodded and pulled Kyle into a hidden passage beneath the floor.
After crawling for what felt like forever, they emerged on a mountainside behind the temple.
“Ah…”
Preben groaned in despair.
The sacred temple of Horas, goddess of time and fate, was in flames.
“Your Highness. The prophecy will surely come true.”
Kyle stared at the burning temple.
It should have been red, but to his eyes it was still black and white.
“Go to the Sanitas Temple. There, the blessed one will regain what was lost.”
Preben removed his glasses, wiping tears.
“This was the last prophecy given by the Horas Temple.”
That was all the prophecy said.
They set out for Snidel.
Many times, they nearly died.
They were captured by sorcerers in black, escaped again.
Preben risked his life to save Kyle.
After that, Kyle was alone.
‘Did Preben survive?’
Life was too heavy for him.
But he kept moving forward.
Because if he gave up, he’d feel guilty toward those who died for him.
Kyle no longer believed in prophecy.
If it were true, why did his parents and loyal servants have to die?
\[“A hero is born to bring eternal light to the Empire.”]
That was the prophecy of Creatio, god of creation, when Kyle was born.
But his life was only darkness.
‘Enough…’
He wanted to let go.
He had spent a third of his life in prison.
He despised his own weakness.
Collapsed, Kyle closed his eyes.
He had no strength left to open them again.
—
Kyle slowly opened his eyes.
Through blurry vision, he saw white curtains, plain wooden furniture—
and a girl with pink-blonde hair and amber eyes.
“Are you awake, patient?”
“Can you tell me your name?”
Kyle wanted to open his eyes wider.
‘Colors… I can see them.’
Her hair, her eyes.
Her healthy skin, flushed cheeks.
Her pink eyelashes fluttered each time she blinked.
His eyes, starved of color for years, drank her in greedily.
In a dazed voice, he answered her question.
After she gave him medicine, the girl stood up.
‘Don’t go.’
The moment she moved away, he realized it.
He still couldn’t see colors in the world.
Only that girl shone with color in his black-and-white world.
It had been five years.
For the first time since losing his parents and the light, Kyle saw color again.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“Suella.”
He whispered her name over and over, as if engraving it in his soul.
—
It was a blessing to be hidden inside the Sanitas Temple.
Children naturally radiated pure energy.
Kyle knew how the demon worshippers tracked him—
From his body spread a dark cursed aura only they could see.
But ever since meeting Suella, the attacks stopped.
‘Something is blocking the curse.’
The curse placed on him at the cost of his parents’ lives bound his soul.
It suppressed the prophecy tied to him, crushed his future.
Kyle knew that was why he couldn’t grow properly.
With Preben gone, he didn’t know how to interpret the prophecy, or how to break the curse.
“Now I understand.”
He felt certain.
Meeting Suella was fate.
In the Snidel marketplace, he had felt it—the breath of the divine moving toward Suella.
As someone cursed by demons, he could sense holy power faster than anyone.
“When the gods descend, they always need a vessel.”
And that vessel was usually chosen for their good deeds—
A heart that wanted to help others.
A will to sacrifice for someone else.
An act of kindness done without calculation.
Gods chose them as their own, and their stories became legends.
“The God of Healing.”
Sanitas was the God of Healing.
Kyle now let himself be carried along by prophecy.
Because Suella was here.
He gazed at the temple.
Waiting for the miracle that would guide his destiny.
“Ah… as expected.”
In the darkness, Kyle’s eyes glowed.
The wait wouldn’t be long.
