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Chapter 3 - "Memories in the frost
(Kai's POV )
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Kai's POV
The room was quiet.
The kind of silence that seeps into your bones and forces you to face your soul.
Outside the grand windows of the Gremory Mansion, snow fell gently onto the dark gardens, each flake catching the moonlight like a shard of forgotten memories.
I sat there, wrapped in that silence, staring into the endless white.
Even now... even in this new body... the past refused to let go.
Slowly, inevitably, I closed my eyes.
And I remembered.
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My first life...
I wasn't born into luxury.
I wasn't born into a loving family.
I was born into nothing.
An abandoned child, tossed onto the cold streets of a city that chewed up and spit out the weak without hesitation.
Rain-soaked alleys became my home.
Rotten food from trash bins became my meals.
Whispers of hatred, fear, and disgust — they were my lullabies.
No one reached out a hand.
No one offered warmth.
Not even once.
I had only myself.
So I fought.
Every day was a battle.
A battle for a crumb of bread.
A battle for a warm corner to sleep without getting beaten.
A battle to stay human in a world that treated me like a disease.
I became hard.
Silent.
Unbreakable.
I told myself: If no one will save me, then I'll carve my own path with my own two hands.
And for a while... it worked.
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Until that night.
I was sixteen.
A storm raged overhead, lightning splitting the black sky.
I had just stolen a loaf of bread from a corrupt merchant — a man who cheated others without a second thought — thinking it would be enough to survive another few days.
But I was caught.
Cornered.
Alone against men twice my size, carrying iron pipes and cruel smiles.
I fought.
Of course I fought.
Like a wounded wolf snapping at the jaws closing in.
Blow after blow rained down.
Pain blurred into numbness.
Blood ran into my eyes, blinding me.
But I never begged.
Not once.
Even as I collapsed into the mud, my ribs shattered, my strength spent,
I never begged.
My final breath was a ragged laugh.
A laugh of defiance.
A laugh that said:
You couldn't break me.
As the world went black, the storm drowned out their curses.
All I felt was cold rain against my broken body.
And then... nothing.
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Now...
I opened my eyes again.
Back in this new world.
This strange, magical land of devils and dragons.
My hand gripped the windowsill tightly, so hard the wood creaked under my fingers.
I had been given another chance.
Not as a broken boy.
But as something more.
Someone who mattered.
Someone chosen.
Rias Gremory had reached into the void and pulled me back —
not out of pity, but out of faith.
Faith that I could be something greater.
The ice inside my soul, frozen so long, cracked slightly under the warmth of that memory.
But it didn't melt.
No... it hardened sharper.
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I pushed open the window.
The cold wind rushed in, biting against my skin, stealing my breath.
But I welcomed it.
Standing there, under the endless black sky of the Underworld,
I lifted my head high.
The stars glittered like swords drawn from invisible sheaths, ready for battle.
And I made a vow.
"Never again," I whispered fiercely.
"Never again will I be powerless."
"Never again will I kneel."
"This life... this power... this soul... I claim it all as my own."
The snowstorm answered with a howl.
Far away, in the depths of my being, something ancient rumbled — the first true heartbeat of the Frost King awakening.
A faint shimmer appeared in the air around me — a soft swirl of icy mist that danced at my fingertips.
I closed my hand into a fist, feeling the power coil tightly inside.
I would become strong enough to tear down fate itself.
Strong enough to protect whatever I chose to hold dear.
Strong enough that no god, no devil, no king could ever again look down on me.
This was not just a second life.
This was the beginning of an empire.
And I would build it with ice, will, and fire.
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