Emerging from the tunnel, Adin's feet instinctively carried him toward a single destination.

  It was the place where he once dwelled, where a pitiful soul he could not bring himself to rescue remained tethered.

  Crossing through the humid, stagnant air of Ebony, he reached the house. It was more dilapidated than he remembered, reeking of a foul, nauseating stench.

  Holding his breath, Adin slipped through the back window, evading the man's sight.

  There, in the dark corner of the room, he saw Sori—the frail Auri, leaning against the mold-ridden wallpaper.

  Heh... hugh...

  "So... ri..."

  Adin sobbed, his voice breaking with grief.

  Sori was in a wretched state. Sori was so emaciated that bones protruded sharply, but what truly tore Adin's heart to shreds were Sori's ears—cruelly mutilated once again.

  The dried blood smeared over the unhealed wounds bore silent witness to the living hell this small creature had endured.

  Sori's hollow eyes stared into the void, devoid of any will to resist. They were the opaque eyes of one who had surrendered their soul to repeated violence, someone who had sought to forget and erase their own existence.

  "...Sori."

  Adin called the name, his voice trembling. Sori's head, which had remained motionless, turned with agonizing slowness.

  As Adin's face was revealed under the faint, misty light, a flicker of life shuddered through Sori's dead eyes.

  "Ugh... uuuu..."

  Sori began to moan and whimper.

  With a body so weak it was barely possible to move a finger, Sori instinctively shifted toward Adin. Sori remembered the warmth—not that of a stranger, but the only person who had ever held Sori.

  Adin pulled Sori into his embrace. The sensation of Sori's skeletal ribs against his fingertips made his throat burn with searing heat.

  Before grief could take hold, a wave of profound self-loathing and rage washed over him.

  I was intoxicated by the clamor of Ivory, living my life while I forgot you, while this small life was being torn apart.

  How long was the hell you endured while I spent my time averting my eyes from your pain? Though a heart-wrenching agony surged within him, Adin did not wail. Instead, he channeled that pain into a bone-deep resolve, gently cradling Sori's head.

  "I'm sorry... I'm so late... I am so, so sorry."

  Adin's voice, now low and heavy, no longer carried the fragility of a boy. It bore the weight of a man determined to take responsibility for his own bystander's silence.

  Just then, the heavy thud of footsteps approached from outside the door, accompanied by the revolting stench of alcohol.

  "I wondered what kind of rat sneaked in... and it's you?"

  The man stood leaning against the doorframe. His eyes, sunken deeper than before, and his unfocused gaze showed he was still drowned in liquor and madness.

  Yet, his voice was unexpectedly low and calm. It wasn't the rambling of a drunkard; it was the chilling thrill of a predator who had found its prey.

  "That thing? Throw it away. I was about to toss it out anyway; it's a waste of food. If you want it, take it now."

  Initially, the man spoke as if he were shedding an annoying burden, but then his gaze settled on the back of Adin's hand.

  Adin's fingers, clutching Sori, were trembling ever so slightly. In that fleeting moment, the man accurately read Adin's Achilles' heel. A vile smirk crept onto the man's lips.

  "No, wait a second. Looking at you, I guess this thing wasn't just 'garbage' after all? Especially if you crawled back to this hellhole for it."

  The man stepped slowly into the room and buried himself in a worn-out chair. He stared intensely at Adin, opening his mouth as if savoring the boy's very soul.

  "It can't be free. Think of the effort I put into keeping this thing alive. Did you bring money? Or did you steal something precious from that fancy Ivory?"

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  "What do you want? Name it."

  Adin's voice was as cold and sharp as ice. But the man was relishing the desperation hidden behind Adin's forced composure.

  "Hmm. Money? No, on second thought, money is too boring. Since you cherish this thing so much... I've thought of something far more entertaining."

  The man slammed his bottle onto the floor with a sharp thud. A sadistic glee, transcending mere greed, flickered in his eyes.

  "Now that I look at it, I've grown quite fond of this thing myself. Especially that terrified look in its eyes. So, let's share it fairly."

  "Since there's only one, why don't we cut it beautifully in half? One side for you, one side for me. It'd be quite the picture—you clutching exactly half of what you hold so dear to your chest."

  The man knew exactly how bizarre and cruel his proposal was. He seemed to feel a genuine ecstasy as he admired Adin's face, which began to contort with shock and fury.

  "What, you don't like it? If you want the whole thing, you have to pay the price. Watching you suffer makes me feel more intoxicated than the liquor. Let's see how long that noble 'purity' of yours can hold out."

  The man shouldered his laughter, basking in the sense of power he felt while tormenting Adin. Adin pulled the trembling Sori even closer.

  The being before him was not merely a drunken man. He was malice itself—viler than the shadows of Ebony—feeding on the pain of others to fill his own void.

  The silence in Adin's eyes grew deeper. The resolve he had forged outside the tunnel was transforming into a sharp, lethal intent within the air thick with the man's mockery.

  Adin threw a cold, metallic coin at the man's feet.

  Behind the man, who greedily scrambled to pick it up, Sori's tiny, shivering frame was visible. The impulse to snap the man's neck felt as if it would tear through his very nerves, but Adin clenched his fists, suppressing the murderous intent.

  If he provoked this madman now, Sori's safety could not be guaranteed.

  Adin met Sori's eyes for a brief moment, pouring his entire heart into the gaze. Leaving behind not tears, but a silent promise, Adin stepped into the mists of Ebony without a single backward glance.

  ...

  ..

  Dr. O's consultation room was still filled with mechanical hums and the pale glow of monitors.

  Dr. O looked up from reviewing a stack of medical records. He felt the weight of the air shift the moment the door opened. He set his papers down and gazed silently at Adin's face before letting out a low, soft chuckle.

  "Ho ho... look who it is."

  It wasn't a simple question, but an exclamation of surprise and welcome for the Adin who had returned after undergoing a massive transformation in such a short time.

  The Adin standing before him was no longer the precarious boy who had left. His shoulders had broadened, and more than anything, his deep gray eyes—which seemed to have swallowed both the comforts of Ivory and the despairs of Ebony—overwhelmed the room.

  Adin calmly explained Sori's condition and sought advice. Dr. O furrowed his brow, seemingly lost in deep thought, before speaking heavily.

  "Adin, you now carry the responsibility of bringing about a great change between Ebony and Ivory. And yet, you would waste your time to save a single Auri caught by a common drunkard?"

  "If you wish to see the great ocean, you must become indifferent to a single grain of sand at your feet getting wet."

  Adin slowly placed his hand on Dr. O's desk. His hand did not shake.

  "Doctor, I was there—in the place where those grains of sand were screaming. I saw what kind of monster is born from an order established by ignoring the smallest of screams."

  "Saving that child is not a matter of choice for me. That child is my world. If I cannot achieve this, I will not bear any 'greater cause' you speak of."

  Dr. O saw the chilling resolve embedded in Adin's eyes. It was the will of a man seeking to prove his own worth. After a short sigh, Dr. O pulled a small, black, stone-like crystal from beneath his desk with a serious gaze.

  "Very well. If your will is that set, I shall help. Within the damp air of Ebony, the screams of the past linger like dust. This 'Black Crystal' is a catalyst that awakens the memories of those stagnant sounds."

  "Place this in the darkest corner of that house, where fear is most deeply ingrained. Then, the pain remembered by that space will begin to hunt the perpetrator directly."

  ..

  ...

  In the dead of night, Adin sneaked back into the house where Sori was held.

  The man was snoring, slumped in a drunken stupor. Recognizing him, Sori reached out a tiny, trembling hand.

  Adin gently covered Sori's eyes to reassure Sori, then pushed the Black Crystal deep into the blood-stained corner where the man had mutilated Sori's ears.

  At that moment, the air in the house grew eerily heavy.

  The sleeping man suddenly thrashed and screamed. An auditory hallucination of 'snip, snip' echoed in his ears—the bone-chilling sound made when shears sink into flesh.

  "Who's there! Who's there!"

  The man stood up, shouting like a madman. But there was no one.

  Instead, invisible flames began to flicker in the darkness. The cruel insults the man had spat at Sori began to manifest as letters in the air, flying toward him and searing into his body like red-hot brands.

  "Aaargh! Ack... ack. Gurgle... It's hot! Save me!"

  Words like 'A waste of food' and 'I'll cut you in half' became crimson brands on his arms and chest, scorching his skin.

  The sensation of invisible shears slicing through his flesh swept over his body, and all the physical pain he had inflicted on Sori returned to him with ten thousand times the weight, shredding his nervous system.

  Blood seeped through the horrific burn marks on the man's skin. Every time he screamed, the sounds of Sori's weeping that had stagnated in the room turned into flames, scorching his throat.

  He tried to claw off the agonizing sentences of guilt being etched into his body until his fingernails fell off, but the pain only carved deeper into his bones.

  It was Sori's prison—where the perpetrator's own words devoured his flesh.

  Adin lifted Sori up. The frail breath of Sori in his arms was so light, yet the weight of the life Sori emitted pressed against Adin's chest more heavily than any responsibility.

  As Adin and Sori departed, only the man's screams of repentance—half-maddened—were left to seep into the rotting wallpaper of that house.

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