Prologue

A man asked,

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Lee Gwak.”

The eyes of the man were cold like a snake, as his gaze ran across my body.

It was a look that was both eerie and terrifying. Even though it was midsummer, goosebumps crawled on my skin. I suddenly felt cold.

Still, I tried to look at the man straight in the eyes. I was scared, but I didn’t want to be discouraged. 

A cold smile flashed on the man’s lips.

“Such powerful eyes you possess!”

I’ve heard that a lot.

As a person who lost both of my parents, if I want to survive in a harsh world, I need to be spiteful. So I lived with my eyes wide open. That was my last pride.

Perhaps the man liked my eyes so he turned around with a smirk. But it didn’t take long for me to realize it was an illusion.

The man said to the men who were by his side,

“That young man seems to have quite a lot of spite and guts for an orphan who’s wandering the world… But he doesn’t need anything like that here. So throw them all away!”

I didn’t know then.

Just how scary the true meaning of those words were… 

I wonder how I looked back then to others? 

That time when I was chopped into pieces.