Chapter 1
In a dark, decrepit room cloaked in silence, a young man lay motionless, breathless. From the paleness of his skin, it was clear he had been unconscious for a long time.
If nothing extraordinary happened, he would surely die here—alone and unnoticed in this forgotten place.
But then, something unexpected occurred. His eyelids trembled. Moments later, he gasped for air and coughed violently.
The young man kept wheezing in pain, as if he'd just been pulled from drowning.
It was only natural—his body had grown cold, deprived of the oxygen it so desperately needed.
No one knew how much time had passed until, finally, the skinny young man stopped gasping and opened his eyes.
But instead of relief or joy at having escaped death, he looked around with dazed confusion, like someone seeing a foreign world for the first time.
He looked shocked, struggling to speak. Yet whether from exhaustion or sheer disbelief, his mouth merely quivered without a sound.
At last, after a long pause, he managed to utter a weak, bewildered question:
"Where... am I?"
Looking around the tattered room, styled like something out of medieval Europe, Clayton began to doubt: was this some kind of cruel joke or an incredibly vivid dream?