Chapter 1
Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the same scene.
The day from one year ago.
“Why… why did this happen all of a sudden?”
A raging fire completely surrounded the mansion, consuming everything in its path.
Screams echoed from inside, and thick smoke rose into the night sky, clearly visible despite the darkness.
The flames were so fierce that the surroundings were as bright as daylight.
“What about the Werner family? Did no one make it out? We have to save the Baron at least! Hurry, bring more water!”
The people of Bern rushed over carrying buckets, desperately throwing water onto the fire.
But no matter how much water they poured, the flames showed no sign of dying down.
If anything, they seemed to grow even stronger.
Still, many continued trying to extinguish the blaze.
Others shook their heads.
It wasn’t because they didn’t want to save the people trapped inside.
“It’s useless. Give up.”
“Have you lost your mind? How can you say that after seeing this?”
“This is Karta’s work. Can’t you tell? He’s here!”
It was because of those words.
Though nothing more than speculation, people accepted it as fact.
One by one, they dropped their buckets in despair.
It wasn’t hard to understand why.
After all, a terrifying rumor had spread throughout the Kingdom of Enswiden.
“When Karta fixes his crimson gaze on something, it burns until nothing remains but ashes.”
For months, a series of arson attacks had thrown the kingdom into chaos.
And Karta—the infamous criminal whose name everyone knew—was believed to be behind them all.
“Even so, we can’t be certain it’s him just because there’s a fire. We should at least try.”
“Who else could create flames that won’t go out no matter how much water we throw on them? This is exactly his signature! If we push our luck, we’ll get caught up in it too!”
“So we’re just supposed to stand here and watch? You know what the Werner family meant to us! They’re the only nobles who never looked down on us!”
“Then what? You want us all to die together?”
As the townspeople argued helplessly while staring at the burning mansion—
She came running through the crowd.
A memory she had relived hundreds, thousands of times.
No matter how often she saw it, it felt like a knife twisting in her heart.
“Father! Mother! Jednian…!!!”
The girl running toward the flames looked absurdly out of place.
She wore a white dress layered with frills and lace, along with a beautifully decorated veil adorned with ostrich feathers.
She was still young, her baby fat not yet completely gone.
“Miss, it’s dangerous! Miss Ritzhaian! Someone stop her!”
Ignoring the scorching heat and drifting embers, she tore apart her own dress as she struggled toward the burning mansion.
But no matter how desperately she tried, she couldn’t get through.
People who recognized her blocked her path.
“Miss Ritzhaian is alive…! What are you all doing? Hold her back!”
“Move! Please move! I have to go! I have to see them! This can’t be happening!”
“Miss, you can’t go any farther! It’s too dangerous!”
“Why are you stopping me? Let me go! Everyone’s in there! They’re all… all of them…!!”
Ritzhaian fought desperately to break free.
But she was no match for the adults restraining her.
After a long struggle, her strength finally gave out.
She collapsed to the ground.
“What… what is happening…?”
“This is a dream, right? Please tell me it’s a dream…”
Her elegant makeup was ruined by tears.
Her dress was stained with soot, ash, and footprints.
“Waaah… Miss Ritz… what are we supposed to do now…?”
Ritzhaian Werner.
The eldest daughter of Baron Werner’s family.
That day had been her debut into high society.
The day she was supposed to celebrate the coming-of-age ceremony every noble young lady dreamed of.
But instead of enjoying her debutante ball, she was forced to face a reality far crueler than any nightmare.
Everything she had dreamed of vanished in an instant.
That day became the anniversary of death for everyone in her home.
“Please… someone tell me this isn’t real!!”
A fire had engulfed the Werner estate, the ruling family of the small city of Bern.
Only two people survived.
Ritzhaian.
And her maid, Tilda.
A year later.
“Tilda, there still hasn’t been any news today, has there?”
“No, Miss…”
“Unbelievable. They’ve taken all that money and accomplished nothing. We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of vas over the past year.”
“Look at those posters. Even the royal family is searching for him. I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.”
Yet despite an entire year passing since the fire, Karta had not committed another act of arson.
In fact, he hadn’t done anything at all.
It was as though he had vanished from the world.
Almost as if taking lives had never been his intention.
Almost as if the tragedy had been a mistake.
Yet his disappearance only strengthened people’s belief that Karta had been responsible for the destruction of the Werner estate.
Even the Royal Knights had issued a kingdom-wide warrant for his arrest.
Wanted posters littered the streets.
No one bothered to pick them up.
After all, no one had ever clearly seen his face.
The posters contained only a vague description:
A man with red eyes.
A figure more akin to an urban legend than a real person.
“Hmph. As if these things would help.”
For Ritzhaian, revenge had become the sole purpose of her existence.
She placed no faith in scraps of paper fluttering through the streets.
Stepping over the discarded posters, she and Tilda entered a ruined property.
Once, it had been her home.
The place felt unbearably empty.
The estate that had once been full of life was now little more than a graveyard.
Several modest gravestones stood side by side where the mansion had once stood.
Even then, the grounds had never been properly restored.
Blackened walls and collapsed ruins remained everywhere, preserving the memory of that terrible night.
They approached the gravestone at the center.
Kneeling before it, they laid down white flowers.
“One year… It’s already been one year…”
“M-Miss… Miss Ritzhaian… sob…”
Today marked the first anniversary of the day everything had burned away.
“Why was I the only one who survived…?”
“No matter how many times I ask myself, I never find an answer.”
“I wish they had taken me too… I wish I had gone with them…”
The guilt of being the sole survivor had nearly driven her to follow her family into death.
But one thing had stopped her.
One reason alone.
“I’ll find him.”
“No matter what it takes, I’ll find him and take my revenge.”
Karta.
The criminal who had burned her family to ashes and terrorized the Kingdom of Enswiden.
The desire to make him suffer the same loss she had endured was the only thing keeping her alive.
“The man with red eyes.”
“The one who killed them all.”
Before long, rain began to fall.
Neither Ritzhaian nor Tilda had prepared for the weather.
As they attempted to leave while holding back their grief—
“Miss. Over there…”
“What is it?”
“I think… someone’s collapsed.”
“And it looks like blood…!”
“…What?”
Near the entrance to the ruined estate, they found a man lying on the ground.
Heavy rain poured down around him.
Amid the scorched earth and ashes, he lay motionless.
“My goodness—there’s so much blood!”
Blood streamed from his forehead, mixing with the rainwater and staining the stone pavement crimson.
“Ugh… aaah…!”
Clutching his head, the man writhed in pain.
He looked dangerously close to death.
Yet at the same time, there was something dangerous about him.
“He’s still alive. Tilda, go get help.”
“Miss, I don’t think we should get involved. Why would someone like this be lying here? He looks suspicious. Honestly, he doesn’t seem like a good person at all…”
It was immediately obvious he wasn’t an ordinary man.
A pistol and a long smoking pipe lay beside him.
Those items alone couldn’t define who he was.
But ordinary people didn’t wander around carrying weapons for no reason.
He wore a black coat.
A black shirt underneath.
Black shoes.
Even his messy hair was jet black.
Scars covered his face and the patches of skin visible beneath his sleeves.
“He’s definitely not an ordinary person.”
Everything about him was black.
Like a piece of charred coal left behind after a fire.
No.
More like a man made from ashes.
Unaware that he was being watched, he let out occasional groans of pain.
The sight was unsettling.
Dangerous.
Fragile.
“Right?”
“Maybe.”
“But how am I supposed to ignore someone like this?”
“Miss…”
For some reason, Ritzhaian couldn’t turn away.
It was strange.
She wasn’t the kind of person who casually offered kindness to strangers.
Not anymore.
Was it pity?
No.
She could say with certainty that it wasn’t pity or sympathy.
The feeling drawing her toward him was unfamiliar even to herself.
She couldn’t quite describe it.
If she had to, it felt more like kinship.
Or gravity.
A force pulling her closer.
Perhaps it was because today was the anniversary of everyone’s death.
Perhaps she still couldn’t let go of those resting behind her.
Maybe.
Or maybe not.
“Someone who can still live…”
“Should be allowed to live.”
One thing was certain.
The pull she felt was overwhelming.
Impulsive.
Impossible to resist.
Like feeling nostalgia for someone she’d never met.
Like welcoming home a prodigal son.
Her own life had collapsed into ruins.
Yet she still wished that these hands could become a ray of sunlight for someone else.
Before she could decide whether saving him was right or wrong, her emotions overflowed like the rain itself.
They swept her away.
And so—
The downpour continued to fall without end.
