——A long, long time ago.

In the house of a village head, a boy was born.

But that boy—he was so hideous that everyone turned their eyes away.

His hair was white as snow, and his eyes were mismatched, one red and one silver. And the right side of his face, from his forehead to his cheek, was covered in skin that looked just like scales.

"How creepy." "Is he really a child of that house?" "Is it safe to keep a thing like that in the village?"

Not only the family of the head but all the villagers feared and loathed the boy.

Even though the boy had done nothing wrong. Simply because he had looked that way since the moment he was born.

Still, the boy could not give up on the hope of being loved.

He wondered if someday, someone would appear who would accept him. He wondered if a day would come when this loneliness would finally disappear.

——But that wish was never granted.

One day, when the boy turned sixteen.

The villagers took him to an old shrine deep in the woods.

It was a shrine that stood quietly in the heart of a dense forest, a place where even the villagers rarely ventured.

"If you stay here, no one will have to look at you anymore."

With those words, they locked the boy inside the shrine and sealed him away.

The sound of the door closing echoed through the silent forest.

In the dark shrine, the boy was left all alone.

He could no longer hear anyone's voice.

In exchange for not being hated by anyone—he could no longer meet anyone.

The boy hugged his knees and whispered softly.

"If... the day ever comes when I can leave this place..."

After a short pause, he smiled sadly.

"At that time... will someone... stay by my side...?"

There was no one to answer him.

Still, the boy closed his eyes, clutching a tiny spark of hope in his chest.

——Someday.

Praying that someday, someone would find him.

And then, the boy fell into a deep sleep.

Since then, a long, long time has passed.

Eras shifted, the village changed its form, and the lives of people transformed greatly.

And now—the present day.

The forest shrine where the boy was once sealed remained there, never demolished.

Deep in the heart of the woods.

Unknown to anyone, as if forgotten by time.

The old shrine stood just as it did that day—lonely and still.

Keeping the boy who slept within imprisoned for all those long years.