NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Starting as a Baby in "Dead or Alive"
The sky was like a canvas of high-quality velvet, dark and expansive.
Unadorned, it was beautifully colored by countless twinkling stars.
The white full moon floated among them, emitting a particularly divine glow.
In the face of such natural artistry, humans seemed like fragile, insignificant beings.
“The stars are so beautiful…” the child thought suddenly.
Deep in a dense forest, no sign of human presence.
Here, the sounds of nature played in harmony, creating a serene symphony of silence.
Perhaps a stream was nearby, its gentle babble mingling with the chirping of insects.
Despite the comforting sounds, the child wore an expression of deep disappointment.
“Why has it come to this…?”
“Well, the cause… is me, but still…”
“But still, you know…?”
No parent seemed to be around the vocally expressive child.
It was an abnormal situation, a child alone in the woods.
The child was, in common terms, an abandoned child.
Aware of this fact, despite its recent birth, its round eyes lacked vitality and constantly sighed. The child had sighed deeply more than 15 times already.
“Seriously, this is ridiculous!”
“This is clear child abandonment and abuse!”
“I could win if I took this to child services!”
The child’s voice, lacking clear articulation due to its undeveloped vocal cords, continued to leak frustration.
“Why has it come to this?” the child lamented its current state.
Of course, no one knew the root of the issue better than the child itself, so it couldn’t fully blame its biological parents.
Born with memories of a past life, this was a rare but not unheard-of phenomenon.
Miraculously, inheriting these memories allowed the child to achieve remarkable mental growth.
So, while appearing to be a mere newborn, its mind was fully matured.
“If only I hadn’t done that.” the child regretted with all seriousness.
Unable to express its own will as a newborn, the child was taken care of by its parents, who were fully aware of this limitation.
The child tried to minimize the burden on its parents as much as possible.
Mutual understanding might have made their time together smoother.
However, being a child, how could it convey this truth? The child had intentions but lacked the means to articulate them to the adults around.
“The child’s smile is so unnatural,” “It’s like it understands what we’re thinking…”
“Could it be a cursed child?” “I’m somehow scared of this child…”
The perception of the child by its parents and those around it was far from positive.
As the number of people who found the child eerie increased, so did the sense of distrust and unease.
The adults’ negative emotions exploded when the child was just over two months old.
Before the child knew it, it had found itself in an unfamiliar forest, leading to its current predicament.
“Ah… I should have acted more like a child.”
“It’s too late to realize this now.”
Regrets are always after the fact. The child should have behaved more like a child.
In the middle of the woods, a child could do nothing.
In a few more hours, it would likely die of weakness.
But time wasn’t the only issue. There were other dangers for the child.
And right now, one of those dangers had appeared before it.
“Oh… this is bad.”
The golden eyes staring down at the child shone brightly even in the darkness.
Its fangs, straight and sharp like sabers, seemed capable of shattering rocks.
In the forest, a wild beast was eyeing the child as its prey.
To it, the child was just another source of food.
A perfect prey, defenseless and vulnerable.
Unfortunately, the beast targeting the child was extremely hungry.
The beast would notice the feast before its eyes.
The child, with no way out, felt the disgust of the beast’s drooling saliva.
Aware of the imminent danger, the child cursed its fate.
“No, I don’t want this…”
“I don’t want to die here, not yet!”
“Anyone, please help me…”
As the fear of death slowly approached, a tear finally fell from the child’s round eyes.
“Au-oo,” cried the child.
But there was no one to respond to its desperate cry for life.
The nearest village was several kilometers from the forest, known as the “Forest of No Return.”
Once you enter, you never come back—that was the belief. Consequently, few people passed through, making it an ideal place to abandon a child.
No matter how much it cried, the outcome wouldn’t change.
It was destined to be devoured.
As despair crept in, and sharp fangs were about to pierce the child…
Suddenly, there was a roar, and the atmosphere hummed.
“What’s happening…?”
Suddenly, the beast’s head exploded.
It was not a metaphor or exaggeration—it was a literal fact.
Caught off guard, the child was utterly confused.
The strong, iron-like smell from the blood splashed all over jolted the child.
Footsteps… someone was approaching.
“Did I… get saved?” the child wondered in utter confusion.
Alive. The moment it realized this, a sigh of relief escaped the child’s lips.
“I got saved… I was really scared, seriously.”
Despite the child’s limited vocabulary due to fear, it strongly felt alive.
Saved, after all.
Even if it couldn’t speak, it could express gratitude through its actions.
The child waited for the sound’s source, its face suddenly contorting.
The savior who peered into the basket was nothing like the child had imagined.
“A beast targeting something… Ah, I see. This is quite an interesting development.”
The child reacted with a twitch of its cheek at the sight of the figure smiling wryly.
Dressed impeccably in a butler’s outfit, the man exuded elegance in his speech and demeanor, perfectly fitting the gentleman’s description. However, his face was distinctly non-human, resembling an owl’s face—a detail not recalled from the child’s past life memories.
A demon, the word momentarily crossed the child’s mind.