Do you know how much rage is buried in that forest?

***

One day.

The child was suffering from hunger.

There’s nothing to eat here.’

Looking here, looking there—nothing but weeds. The colors were pitch-dark, and no matter how hard the child looked, nothing seemed edible. The smell was strange. And even the soil those weeds had rooted in was a muddled color.

The clever child endured the hunger as best they could. If they ate something like this just because they were hungry, they’d immediately get sick. There was no medicine, no one to care for them. They didn’t want that.

But eventually, they reached their limit.

“...Ugh...”

Just one sip of water.

‘If I drink it just once, maybe it’ll be okay.’

They would sip it slowly, so they wouldn’t get indigestion. It would taste horrible, surely, but if they didn’t drink even this stagnant black water, they felt like they’d die right away. And they didn’t want that.

The child held their breath and walked to a small puddle. Trembling, they reached out. Tsssk—an unnatural sound came from their fingers as they touched it, not a sound normal water would make.

But there was no pain.

‘It’ll be okay.’

What could be scarier than dying right now?

‘Just wet my throat... just enough for that...!’

Gulp.

“...! Ugh, aaack...!!”

It burned their throat with pain.

Tears welled up. The child screamed in agony, unaware that monsters could hear them. They cried out ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) loud until they realized the monsters had noticed—then they ran. They clutched their throat and ran for a long time.

But it wasn’t enough. For some reason, their senses dulled more and more. Their vision turned red, black, and blue. Their ribs felt like they were being squeezed tight; they couldn’t breathe properly. It wasn’t until they collapsed that they saw themselves.

“.......”

Their body was rotting alive.

“...Ugh, uaaah... Aaaaaaah....”

Is this my hand? Is this my arm? What’s wrong with my legs? What’s going on with my feet? I’m not made of ice, so why am I melting? It hurts. It hurts so much. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts...!

“Mother... Mother! Huaaah...! I-It hurts so much...! Please save me! Father, big brother! Where are you! Dalia, I’m in pain! I’m scared! Help me...!!”

Their voice gradually became grotesque. Hating that sound, they scratched at their throat—and the sensation was wrong. Looking at their hand again, they saw revolting flesh squashed like cheese, wedged between their fingers.

‘This can’t be real.’

It must be a nightmare. This has to be a dream. Human skin couldn’t possibly be this fragile. I’ve scratched myself before when it itched, but nothing like this ever happened. Yeah, that’s right. I’ll wake up from this nightmare soon.

‘Then Dalia will come wake me up, right?’

I’ll get up from my soft bed and go see Mother and Father. I’ll hold onto my big brother and cry. I’ll tell him I had such a scary dream. I’ll cry and ask him to comfort me.

‘Yeah, that’s right, so...!’

Before they knew it, their vision darkened.

‘I’ll wake up soon.’

But they didn’t.

“.......”

The child lay for a long time on the rotting ground.

They couldn’t move their legs. Couldn’t lift their head. Couldn’t scream. Even twitching a finger was impossible. They could see nothing. Hear nothing.

All they could sense was their body slowly being torn apart or melted away.

“.......”

A monster must be eating me.

‘...Mother really did abandon me.’

Father too. Brother as well. Everyone in the family had abandoned them.

They’d known it from the start, since arriving here, but had tried to deny it. Now they had to admit it. There was no way their family would come to this place swarming with monsters. The child had to slowly rot here and be eaten alive.

‘Death wasn’t the scariest thing after all.’

They had no idea how much time had passed. The monsters took bites and then left. Was it because the body had melted? Please, someone, anyone—just kill me. May God take my breath away.

The fear of a child trapped in eternal emptiness soon turned into rage.

***

One day.

The child was unbearably lonely.

“...What time is it now, anyway....”

They looked up blankly at the sky, but they couldn’t tell the time.

Black sky. Black trees. Black monsters. Black flowers. Black weeds. Black earth. Black puddles. Everything was just black.

‘At this rate, will I turn black too?’

The child curled up as small as possible and held their breath. They’d learned how to avoid the monsters’ attention. Just stay still, like they were dead. But it was too lonely. There was no one to talk to, no one to look at them.

‘Did I really do something so horrible that I deserve to be punished like this?’

With wings adorned in rich feathers, the child wrapped their small body as tightly as they could. Their family had screamed when they saw those wings. They should’ve hidden them. Shouldn’t have boasted about having something cool.

‘I was stupid.’

No one likes the one thing they never wanted. That’s all their family had done, too. They felt regret. If only they’d hidden it well, maybe they could’ve stayed with their family. Now it was just a dream.

“Ugh...”

It was cold. It was hot. It was dry. It was humid. This forest, with its insane weather, had no normal life forms. Soon, the child would be the same. That thought made them so depressed they felt like losing their mind.

‘I don’t want to be alone.’

But the monsters were terrifying.

‘I want to feel sunlight. I want to see clouds. I want to see a starry sky.’

No—truthfully, anything would do as long as it wasn’t black.

‘I want to talk with friends from the village. If not them, then at least family members. Even the old folks who wander the streets when they’re bored would be fine.’

Really, anyone would do—as long as they were human.

‘There’s nothing here....’

It wasn’t just color or people that were missing. There was no time, no will. In this place, the child was rotting alive. Like milk forgotten in the back of a storage room. Like a broken item no one bothers to fix.

“.......”

The timid child hid for a very long time like that. Avoiding the monsters, in a place utterly silent, eating nothing, drinking nothing, slowly dying. And for a long time, they missed many things.

The longing of a forgotten child soon turned into rage.

***

One day.

The child wanted, more than anything, to survive.

“—Die, all of you!!”

“What are you waiting for, throw it in already!”

“You think you’ll be fine after this?! Cowards, hypocrites! You worshipped me once and now you dare treat me like garbage?!”

“We have to throw it into the Black Forest if we want to live...!”

“A curse upon all of you, all of you!!”

The child struggled not to be dragged into the Black Forest. But it was useless. The adults were much bigger and stronger than the child. The heavy, sturdy gates around the forest closed shut. The child was abandoned.

“May God bring judgment down on you, you wretched demons!!”

Fuming, the child cursed those who had forsaken them. But no one on the other side of the wall responded. Now, the only place left for the child was deeper into the forest. The child gnashed their teeth.

“...I’ll never die like this....”

They were afraid. Their body trembled with betrayal, and the hopelessness made their vision spin. But they didn’t want to die quietly. They wanted to live. To do that, they had to become strong. They had to be brave.

The child desperately built strength. Learned skills, gained wisdom. Sometimes they became a swift fox and ran. Sometimes they became a bird and flew to escape monsters. It was a rare ability—what had made humans abandon them.

Through that, the child discovered a small truth.

“Yeah, you bastards! I was the son of God sent to save you all!!”

A cruel truth that only made them angrier.

“If God has any conscience, he’ll bring punishment to this world...!”

So they decided to grow up inside the Black Forest. The child worked diligently. In a world where everything wanted them dead, they scraped and clawed to survive. To live was to grow stronger. It was something to be proud of.

But in the end, the child met death.

“...Ugh, kuhk....”

The reason wasn’t anything special.

“...Ngh... urgh... bleeegh....”

While sleeping, they inhaled spores from a poisonous mushroom.

They woke in a panic, but it was already too late. The child wept tears of blood from sheer unfairness. After everything they had endured to get here—what a meaningless death. They hated it. Hated it so much it twisted their guts.

But death crept closer, slowly.

“Huuuuh... aaaaaaaaang, huaaaaaaaang...!!”

The child sobbed, overcome by unbearable sadness.

They had tried so hard. They had worked so hard—but no one had recognized them. They’d just be discarded, forgotten in history like a speck of dust. It was unreasonably tragic.

The child prayed to God.

“Please save me, I beg you. My noble father...! Please, save me...!!”

And during that prayer, the child died.

As always, the desperation of a faithful child turned into rage.

***

“.......”

A good child. A bad child.

“.......”

Some children loved their families, and some didn’t. Sometimes the child was a boy. Sometimes a girl. Some were hungry, some lonely, some angry...

Some never even had the chance to scream before being eaten by monsters. Some were crushed to death while tiptoeing away. Some felt deep betrayal. Some felt only despair.

“.......”

Some gave up on life. Some didn’t.

“...Ah....”

But in the end, the result was always the same.

They died, hating humans and filled with rage toward the world.

“That must’ve been scary.”

“...Yeah, it must’ve hurt a lot.”

“They look really young.”

“We’re pretty young too, aren’t we...?”

“But we chose this.”

“That’s true.”

Silhouettes shining like pure white moons each added their thoughts. There weren’t that many of them. These young or youthful figures gently stroked the memories of the crimson dragons.

They were inside a giant library built of silver and marble.

“I hope our juniors don’t end up like this.”

“Honestly, me too....”

“...This wasn’t what we meant to see.”

They—once saints of the Moon Sect—gathered the little dragons’ memories. They understood, remembered, and analyzed them in their own way, then etched them onto hard white paper.

“So let us remember.”

This wasn’t pity.

“We can be of help to one another.”

“Our juniors will learn so much from the rage, sorrow, and pain of those children.”

“And those of us here inside this place will walk even more carefully and attentively.”

“So not a single letter, not a single second must be recorded incorrectly.”

“That’s our courtesy to the little dragons who gave us their lessons.”

“And our thank-you.”

One by one, pure white books were made. It was the noble record of their library, bound with moonlight. The saints of the Moon Sect placed them on the Moon’s shelf to preserve the memories. The vast bookshelf quickly filled.

The little moons spoke in unison.

“We’ll remember you.”

“You remember us too.”

“Let’s talk about what the right path is.”

“We can always do that...”

One of the moons hugged a pure white book tightly.

“...See? It’s warm.”

“Oh, it really is.”

“Because it’s a dragon?”

Someone laughed.

“With so many dragons, the moon’s bound to get warm fast, right?”

Their library was cold and lonely. But it was filled with all the knowledge and wisdom they loved. The saints of the moon loved their teacher—the Moon. Such a pitiable and lovely being.

“Of course. Our junior is hugging the moon right now.”

“I hope they hug it tighter.”

“They will, eventually.”

“They seemed much smarter and kinder than us.”

“Let’s believe in Aram.”

The small white silhouettes leaned against the dragons’ bookshelf in a row. The shelf, when touched, was warm—so much so it radiated heat. A faint, hard-to-detect vibration pulsed from within.

“...It really feels like a living animal.”

“Oh... was it like this?”

“I forgot everything, so I’m not sure...”

“But yeah, I think hugging a cat or something felt like this.”

“Let’s each hug one of these kids.”

“That’s a great idea.”

The saints smiled softly and gathered around the books.

“Ah... it’s warm...”

“It really is.”

They stroked the books.

“Thank you.”

For helping us.

***

The emotion that comes after rage varies greatly.

So not every ending can be a happy one—but those who belong to nature and fate instinctively know how to accept the end. Even the smallest and most foolish beings in the universe.

At last, the little dragons quietly closed their eyes.

“.......”

Among the dragons that had become earth, Aram simply kept silent.