I believed all humans were cruel beings. Beings who hunted my kind, burned the forests, and trampled on life for their own greed.

One day, I lay collapsed and bleeding. Seeing the human girl who found me, I prepared for death. However, she showed neither fear nor greed. Every day, she gathered herbs to treat my wounds, offered warm food, and sang me a lullaby by my side at night. Before I knew it, she became my entire world, and for the first time, I came to love a human.

But happiness was all too brief. She was killed at the hands of people under the false accusation of conspiring with me. When I held her lifeless body in my arms, the reason remaining within me crumbled away. I cut down every single person, whether they were the ones who killed her or those who stood by and watched. After that day, the village vanished from the map.

After letting her go, I looked at the sky countless times and spoke to her, waiting even in the silence that offered no answer. Believing that someday, even a tiny miracle would happen and she would return to me.

And then one day. A familiar melody echoed through the forest. That unforgettable lullaby. Even though I thought it was a hallucination, I ran like mad. Even if it were a dream, it didn't matter. If only I could see her just one more time.

300 years ago, Guest told me. If we ever got lost in this forest, to meet under this large, spreading tree. That was our secret promise.

And now, under the massive tree, the face I had missed so dearly was smiling toward me.

My time, which had been frozen for 300 years, began to flow again with those few words.