The Crimson Bloodline

Chapter One: The Man Behind the Shield

The night was unusually dark.

A cold breeze moved through the narrow alleyways, where only a few distant lights broke the darkness. The streets were almost empty, but the silence offered no comfort to the young woman running through them.

She was terrified

Her breathing had become uneven, her legs were trembling, and every step felt heavier than the last. She kept looking over her shoulder, desperately hoping that she had finally escaped.

But he was still following her.

She pushed herself to run faster, although her body had almost reached its limit. Her feet dragged against the ground, and her vision began to blur. She could barely breathe.Then, finally, she stumbled.

Her knees gave way, and she fell onto the cold floor of the alley.

For a moment, she tried to get up. Her hands pressed against the ground, but she no longer had the strength to lift herself. She was completely exhausted.

The footsteps behind her grew closer.She slowly raised her head.

Through her blurred vision, she saw a shadow standing directly in front of her. A man.

She couldn't make out his face. His figure was nothing more than a dark silhouette against the faint light.She wanted to move. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run.

But her body wouldn't respond.

Her eyelids grew heavier. The world around her slowly faded, and before she could understand what was happening, she closed her eyes.

Everything went black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer lying on the cold street.

She was on a bed.

For a few seconds, she remained still, trying to understand where she was. The room was unfamiliar, yet strangely peaceful. Soft light entered through the windows, illuminating the furniture and the quiet surroundings.

Then she noticed someone sitting beside her.

A man.

He was sitting comfortably on a chair, reading a book as though nothing unusual had happened. He looked exceptionally handsome, with an appearance that seemed almost unreal.

He turned a page.

Then he noticed her moving.

"Oh, you're awake."

His voice was calm.

But the moment she heard him, panic took over.

She immediately sat up and looked around. Her eyes landed on a glass placed on the side table. Without thinking, she grabbed it and smashed it against the table.

The glass shattered.

She held a sharp piece in her trembling hand and pointed it directly at him.

"Don't you dare touch me!"

The man looked at the broken glass, then at her frightened face.

Instead of becoming angry, he smiled faintly.

"I'm not going to harm you."

She tightened her grip.

"Stay away from me!"

He remained seated.

"In fact," he said calmly, "I'm not as human as you are."

Her expression changed.

She stared at him, unable to understand what he meant.

He put his book aside and began explaining the truth about himself.

He was a vampire.

Not an ordinary one, either. He was the very first vampire—the leader of their entire kind and the most powerful of them all. No one in the world could defeat him.

The woman could hardly believe what she was hearing.

A vampire.

The very creature she should have feared most was sitting in front of her.

Her first instinct was to escape.

She slowly lowered the broken glass, keeping her eyes fixed on him. Then she looked towards the window.

And that was when she saw them

Outside, the men who had been chasing her—the same men whose eyes and white hair marked them as belonging to her bloodline—were there.

But they were no longer standing.

They were being crushed and killed right before her eyes.

Her breath caught.

She rushed towards the window, her eyes widening as she watched the horrifying scene. Tears began gathering in her eyes.

"No..."

Her voice was barely audible.

She watched the people she knew being killed, one after another. Her hands trembled, and tears finally slipped down her cheeks.

She had nowhere left to go.

The people who had chased her were dead, and the women of her bloodline had already been hunted. There was no safe place waiting for her outside.

She had no choice but to stay.

The man allowed her to remain in his home.

At first, their relationship was nothing more than that of two strangers sharing the same shelter. She knew what he was, and she knew how dangerous he could be.

Yet he did not hurt her.

Slowly, the fear between them began to fade. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. They began to understand one another.

The man who ruled over all vampires lived a surprisingly quiet life. He had his own habits, his own interests, and a world that he rarely allowed anyone else to see.

His home was not an underground bunker or a hidden prison. It was a beautiful, ordinary-looking house surrounded by a garden.

But the house held a secret.

Using his vampire powers, he could project an invisible shield around the entire property. Anyone looking from the outside would see nothing unusual. They could not see what was happening inside, nor could they see the people living there.

However, those inside could see the world beyond the shield.

The garden, the house, and everything surrounding it remained visible to the people who lived there.

It became their private world.

A place where the woman could finally breathe without constantly looking over her shoulder.

Eventually, the two strangers fell in love.

The vampire leader, who had once been a mystery to her, became the person with whom she shared her life. And the woman who had once arrived at his home terrified and helpless became someone he deeply loved.

But there was something unusual about his life.

He had a particular habit.

Every so often, he would leave home for a long period—sometimes six months at a time.

He was searching for something.

Something that could make him immune to sunlight.

Even though he was the first and most powerful vampire in existence, sunlight remained something he wanted to overcome.

He would disappear for months, searching for whatever could grant him that immunity.

And then, eventually, he would return.

Neither of them knew how much that search would matter to their future.

/Chapter Two: The Day Everything Changed/

As time passed, the First Vampire and the woman he had once rescued grew deeply attached to one another. What had begun as an unexpected shelter became a home filled with love.

Eventually, they welcomed a beautiful daughter into the world.

Her mother was happy, but somewhere deep inside, she carried a fear she could never completely silence. She knew her daughter could never live an ordinary life. Her beauty was beyond anything even her own bloodline had ever seen. People might call her the most beautiful woman in the world, but such extraordinary beauty could also become a curse.

Yet, when she first looked into her daughter's eyes, her fears briefly disappeared.

They were crimson red.

The same colour as her husband's eyes.

Tears filled her eyes. She looked at her husband, and he looked back at her with the same happiness. Their daughter had inherited something unmistakably his.

For a little while, they were simply a happy family.

But happiness did not last forever.

A few months after their daughter's birth, the First Vampire decided it was time to continue his search for something that could make him immune to sunlight.

He sat with his wife and explained his plans.

She listened quietly before finally agreeing.

"Just promise me you'll come back soon," she said.

He smiled and promised her that he would return.

Then he left.

Neither of them knew that his departure would change everything.

There was something he had never discovered about his protective magic.

The shield surrounding their home depended on his presence. He had never tested its strength while being far away because he had never truly left his home for such a long journey before.

The moment he travelled away, the shield disappeared.

But his wife knew nothing about it.

One peaceful day, she carried her little daughter into the garden.

The flowers were blooming, and the fresh air felt wonderful. For once, she allowed herself to relax. She held her baby close and enjoyed the beautiful garden they had made their home.

But then, someone saw her

A few people noticed the woman with extraordinary white hair and recognised her unusual appearance.

They pointed towards her.

She immediately understood.

They had seen her.

Fear rushed through her body. She held her daughter tightly and began running.

Once again, she found herself fleeing through the same narrow streets and dark alleyways where her life had nearly ended before.

Only this time, she wasn't alone.

She was carrying the person she wanted to protect more than her own life.

Her daughter.

The people were chasing them. She knew what would happen if they caught her. They would kill both of them.

Tears filled her eyes as exhaustion began taking over. Her hope slowly faded.

Then she looked down at her daughter's innocent little face.

And she cried.

She couldn't let them take her baby.

She couldn't let her daughter die because of her.

After running for some distance, she finally stopped.

Ahead of her was a narrow passage that divided into two directions: a left turn and a right turn.

She carefully placed her daughter near the right turn.

Her baby looked up at her, too young to understand anything.

The mother knelt before her and gently held her little face.

"Promise me..." she whispered through her tears. "Promise me you'll find your father one day. Find him, and live a happy life. A life I could never have."

Her voice trembled.

She knew her daughter couldn't understand her words. Still, she kept talking, desperately wishing that somehow, her little girl would remember them.

Then it happened.

A gunshot rang through the alley.

A bullet struck the mother in the head.

She fell to the ground.

Blood spread across the cold floor.

Her daughter began crying.

She crawled towards her mother, touching her and trying to wake her up. She didn't understand why her mother wasn't responding.

She kept trying.

But her mother would never open her eyes again.

A few people soon arrived at the scene.

They found the dead woman and began lifting her body. Then they noticed the little child nearby.

They approached her, examining her unusual appearance and especially her eyes.

They wondered whether the baby truly belonged to the woman.

Before they could question the child further, an older woman stepped forward.

"Oh! This child is from our orphanage," she explained quickly. "We bring our children outside for fresh air once a month. I'm sorry. We must have lost track of her."

She gently picked up the little girl.

The child was too young to understand what had happened. She couldn't explain who she was or tell anyone her name.

When they reached the orphanage, the woman looked at the baby and felt sorry for her.

"I'm sorry I took you away from your mother," she whispered.

She tried asking the child her name, but the little girl was too young to answer.

So the woman gave her a new name.

Yuki.

It meant snow in Japanese.

She chose it because the little girl was as beautiful and delicate as freshly fallen snow.

The woman took Yuki to the principal and explained what had happened.

But the principal refused to let the child stay.

"What if those people come looking for her?" she said. "They could hurt everyone here. We cannot put the other children in danger."

The woman refused to abandon Yuki.

She then approached a girl who lived at the orphanage.

The girl suffered from a rare condition that caused an unpleasant smell. Because of it, nobody wanted to come near her. Other children avoided her, and she had almost no one to talk to.

The woman spoke to her about Yuki and asked her to take the little girl in.

And so, Yuki's life took another unexpected turn.

Far away, the First Vampire was still searching for a way to overcome sunlight.

He had no idea that his wife was dead.

He had no idea that his daughter was alive.

And he had no idea that everything he had left behind had already changed foreve.

Chapter Three: The Little Girl Lost in the Forest

There was something extraordinary about the world that very few people knew.

Only two pigeons existed who could speak like humans. They could understand words, emotions, sadness, love, and even the deepest feelings of the people around them. It was almost as if human souls lived inside their tiny bodies.

One of these extraordinary pigeons belonged to the First Vampire.

He often used the pigeon to send messages to his wife whenever he was away. But something unusual had begun happening.

His wife never replied.At first, he thought she might simply be busy. But as the days passed, worry began to grow inside him. He sent message after message, yet received nothing.

Finally, he could no longer concentrate on his search.

He abandoned everything and returned home.

But when he arrived, the house was empty.

His wife was nowhere to be found. His daughter was gone too.

He searched desperately, asking everyone he could find.

"Have you seen a woman? A woman with snow-white hair? Where has she gone? Where is my wife?"

The answers he received shattered him.

They told him that his wife had been killed.

They also believed that her daughter was dead.

He was an emperor among vampires, a being whose power was beyond imagination. Yet he couldn't sense his daughter's presence. She was too far away from him.

Something inside him broke.

His grief turned into unbearable rage.

He began to hate humanity. In his mind, humans had taken away the only people he had ever truly loved.

And then his power erupted.

The ground shook violently.

Buildings collapsed. Houses broke apart. Huge stones fell from above. The streets filled with dust, screams, and people desperately running for their lives.

It felt as though the entire world was experiencing an earthquake.But this was no natural disaster.

It was the anger of a father and a husband.

He wanted to destroy everything. He wanted every human in that place to suffer for what had happened to his family.

Far away, a little girl was running for her life.

Her name was Yuki.

She was barely four years old.

The orphanage had become a place of terror. The ground was shaking, and a terrifying roar echoed from every direction.

Yuki ran alongside the girl who had taken care of her.

But then something terrible happened.

A huge boulder came crashing down and struck her friend.

Yuki watched in horror as the girl fell beneath it.

"Please! Get up! Please stay with me!"

She cried and tried to reach her.

Her caretaker was also struggling, but there was no way to save them both.

"Run, Yuki!" her friend cried. "Save yourself!"

Yuki refused to leave her.

"If you die here too, then what was the point of my life? Go! Save yourself!"

Yuki's little heart was breaking.

She cried, but eventually, she ran.

She kept running until she reached a jungle.

The jungle was frightening.

Wild animals moved between the trees. Snakes and scorpions hid beneath the leaves and rocks. Strange sounds came from the darkness.

Yuki was terrified.

She was hungry, exhausted, and completely alone.

But she continued walking.

After some time, the earthquake finally stopped.

The terrible roar disappeared.

And somewhere far away, the First Vampire's rage slowly settled.

But Yuki had already lost everyone.

She sat on the broken trunk of a fallen tree and began crying again.

She was wondering why her mother left her.

She missed her friend.

She missed the only people who had ever cared for her.

Once again, she had lost everything.

Three days passed.

Yuki somehow managed to survive in the jungle. She drank water from a nearby river and caught little fish whenever she was hungry.

Her shelter was barely enough to protect her from the weather.

She was only four years old, yet she had already learned what it meant to be alone.

One day, while resting inside her little shelter, she heard a sound.

Someone was there.

She opened her eyes.

A man was sitting beside her.

Yuki immediately panicked. Her eyes filled with tears, and she stared at him, frightened that he might hurt her.

But the man smiled gently.

"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you."

Yuki didn't answer.

The man began explaining why he had been searching for her.

He had overheard some boys talking in a nearby area. They had mentioned a beautiful girl with an unusual appearance. They planned to capture her and sell her to the entertainment district, where they could make a great deal of money.

The man had been disturbed by their conversation.

He decided to find the girl before those men could.

And now, he had found Yuki.

"If you come with me, I'll protect you," he told her.

Yuki shook her head.

"I'm fine. You don't have to protect me. I can take care of myself."

The man looked at her quietly.

He understood that she was frightened and didn't trust anyone.

"Please," he said gently. "Come with me."

After some hesitation, Yuki finally agreed.

The man lived in a small house deep inside the jungle. Almost nobody knew about him. He occasionally visited a nearby village to buy groceries and other necessities.

When Yuki arrived, he gave her something she hadn't properly experienced in days.

A warm, delicious meal.

She was so hungry that she began eating immediately, barely stopping between bites.

The man watched her.

He could see how much she had suffered. She was just a little girl, but she had already experienced more loss than most people could imagine.

He realised he couldn't simply leave her alone again.

So he made a decision.

He would adopt her.

From that day onwards, Yuki became his daughter.

He taught her how to live in the jungle, how to protect herself, and some basic self-defence. He even tried teaching her how to use a knife.

But he soon began to feel that perhaps she wasn't made for such a life.

She was still a little child.

He wanted her to have a childhood, not spend every day preparing to fight for survival.

One night, the weather turned terrible.

Rain poured heavily, thunder shook the sky, and the wind howled through the trees.

But that wasn't the only problem.

The man had become seriously ill.

Yuki watched him lying in bed, struggling with his sickness. He needed medicine, but there was no one else to bring it.

"I'll go and get your medicine," Yuki promised.

The man immediately objected.

"No. You mustn't go outside. People might see you. They could discover that you exist."

But Yuki was determined.

She couldn't bear watching the only person who had cared for her suffer.

Ignoring his warning, she went out into the storm and headed towards the nearby village.

When she arrived, people noticed her immediately.

Her unusual beauty and appearance attracted their attention. She felt uncomfortable under their stares, but she didn't stop.

She went to buy the medicine.

The person selling it stared at her as if she were something other than human.

Yuki felt awkward, but she collected the medicine and hurried back through the rain.

She had only one thought in her mind:

She needed to get back to her father.

And that was when everything was about to change!

Chapter Four: The Girl Who Never Cried Again

The rain was getting heavier.

Yuki hurried through the storm, holding the medicine tightly in her little hands. She was only nine years old, but she was determined to save the man who had given her a home.

Finally, she reached the house.

She pushed the door open.

And froze.

A vampire was sitting beside the man who had adopted her.

Blood covered the vampire's mouth. The man's body was covered in blood, and the creature was feeding on him.

Yuki couldn't move.

She had heard stories about vampires. People always said that vampires only drank human blood. They never imagined that these creatures could actually eat human beings.

But this was different.

In this world, vampires didn't merely drink blood.

They could devour humans.

Yuki stared at the horrifying scene. Her little hands began trembling. So many emotions rushed through her at once—shock, anger, fear, and disbelief.

She had already lost her mother.

She had lost her friends.

And now, the person who had promised to protect her was lying before her.

Something inside her snapped.

She screamed.

Then she noticed an axe lying nearby.

Without thinking, she grabbed it and rushed towards the vampire.

Everything happened in a matter of moments.

And then—

Everything went black.

When the scene became clear again, the vampire was no longer sitting beside the man's body.

It had been defeated.

Its body was pinned against the ground with nails and other objects, as though someone had desperately tried to make sure it could never get back up.

Yuki stood nearby.

Her entire body was covered in the vampire's blood.

Outside, the storm continued.

Rain poured relentlessly, thunder roared through the sky, and the trees bent beneath the force of the wind.

Yuki didn't say anything.

She didn't look back.

There was a huge boulder in front of the house. She walked towards it and lay down upon it, staring blankly into the darkness.

The moon disappeared behind the storm clouds.

The next morning arrived.

She was still there.

The entire day passed.

She didn't move.

Night came again, and she remained in the same place.

By the time another morning arrived, she finally stood up.

She didn't turn around.

She didn't go back inside.

She didn't even bury the man who had adopted her.

She simply walked away.

There were no tears on her face. No expression in her eyes. Nothing.

She had learned something that no child should ever have to learn:

Everyone she loved eventually disappeared.

And perhaps loving someone was simply another way of preparing herself to lose them.

From that day onward, Yuki never cried again.

She continued walking.

Her clothes were stained with blood, her body was exhausted, and her face showed no emotion.

She passed a road that led towards a village. People were around, but nobody seemed to pay much attention to the little girl walking alone.

She kept going.

Eventually, she reached an abandoned-looking area surrounded by open fields. There were no houses nearby, and the place seemed almost deserted.

For a moment, everything was quiet.

Then she sensed something behind her.

Before she could turn around—

A sudden blow struck the back of her head.

Everything went black.

When Yuki opened her eyes, she found herself on a standingbed.

Her head was aching, and her entire body felt heavy.

She tried to move.

But she couldn't.

Her hands and legs had been tied tightly.

She looked around.

There were several people in the room, most of them appearing to be around eighteen or twenty years old.

They were looking at her with unpleasant smiles.

But one person stood out.

A boy who looked around seventeen.

Unlike the others, he didn't have an evil smile on his face.

She struggled against the ropes, desperately trying to free herself.

One of the people approached her.

Before she could do anything, he grabbed her and pushed an injection against her neck.

Yuki's eyes widened.

Her body slowly became weak.

The room blurred.

And once again—

Everything went black

Chapter Five: The Girl Beneath the Snow.

Yuki slowly stirred.

She wasn't entirely unconscious. Somewhere between awareness and darkness, she could hear voices surrounding her. However, opening her eyes felt almost impossible. Her eyelids were unbearably heavy, and her entire body felt as though it had been crushed beneath something enormous.

"Are you certain she's the one?"

"Absolutely. She's here. She's the rare woman we've been searching for. Half Ackerman and half vampire."

"Half Ackerman? Are you serious?"

"Look at her bloodline. Her mother was an Ackerman, and her father was the first vampire."

Their voices were unfamiliar. Cold. Uninterest.

Yuki tried to move, but her body refused to respond.

Then someone spoke again.

"We need to experiment on her. We have to discover what she's capable of."

Before anyone could say another word, Yuki finally managed to open her eyes.

Several men immediately turned towards her.

One of them approached, examining her face with an unsettling curiosity.

"She's awake."

Another man stepped closer. Without warning, he grabbed her hand and cut off one of her fingers.

"AAAAH!"

Yuki screamed, her eyes widening in disbelief.

"What the hell are you doing?!

The man barely reacted.

He simply examined the severed finger as though it were an ordinary object.

"That's enough for now," another man ordered. "We have plenty of time to study her."

They eventually assigned her to a young caretaker named Ren, who was seventeen years old.

And so, Yuki's nightmare began.

Six months passed.

Six months of unbearable suffering.

Yuki was only nine years old.

The men had conducted countless experiments on her. They stripped away her clothes, covered her body with cuts, injected different poisons into her bloodstream, and subjected her to experiments that no child should ever have experienced.

At first, they had been fascinated by her unusual bloodline.

But then they discovered something even more extraordinary.

Her body could regenerate.

The finger they had cut off had grown back.

Her wounds healed.

Even the poisons that should have killed an ordinary human failed to destroy her.

The researchers were astonished.

"She's regenerating!"

"Impossible. Her body is healing itself!"

They continued their experiments, desperately trying to discover the limits of her abilities.

But Yuki was not a laboratory specimen.

She was a child.

A child who had been separated from everything she had ever known.

Her appearance made her even more unusual.

She had beautiful blue hair and striking red eyes, a combination rarely seen in either of her bloodlines.

Ackermans were extraordinary beings, far stronger than ordinary humans. They were traditionally born with blue eyes and red hair, and their bloodline produced only daughters.

Her mother had belonged to this powerful lineage.

Her father, however, was the first vampire.

And Yuki had inherited something from both.

She was neither entirely human nor entirely vampire.

She was something the world had never seen before.

Six months later, the researchers finally reached a decision.

They had learned enough about her regenerative abilities. There was little else they believed they could discover through their current experiments.

However, they weren't willing to let such a rare girl go.

"She's incredibly beautiful," one of the men remarked, looking at Yuki.

"With a face like that, she'll be worth a fortune."

Another man smiled.

"We should sell her to the Entertainment District."

"Agreed. Someone will pay an enormous amount for a girl like her."

Yuki heard their conversation.

She understood enough to know that whatever awaited her would be worse than anything she had already experienced.

They prepared to transport her.

And just like that, Yuki was taken away from the place that had been her prison for the past year.

Night eventually fell.

The journey was long, and the weather was becoming increasingly colder. Snow covered the surrounding hills, making the roads difficult to travel.

The men decided to stop for the nigh

They established their tents and prepared to rest before continuing towards the Entertainment District the following morning.

Ren was permitted to stay in the same tent as Yuki, as he was responsible for looking after her.

For a while, everything remained quiet.

Until Ren approached her.

"Come on. Get up."

Yuki looked at him, confused.

"What?"

"We need to leave."

She stared at him, trying to understand what he meant.

Ren lowered his voice.

"I'm getting you out of here. I'm going to help you escape from these men."

One thing I always want you to remember I am not saving you because your beautiful or I have any bad intentions it's just because I believe that your human too you should spend my life.

For a moment, Yuki couldn't believe what she had heard.

Then she nodded.

"Really?"

"Yes. But we have to be quick."

She immediately agreed.

However, before they could leave, Yuki grabbed his sleeve.

"Wait."

Ren turned towards her.

"What is it?"

"My haori... and my necklace."

He frowned slightly.

"What?"

"They took them from me. Please. I need them back."

Her voice was weak, but there was something unusually determined in her expression.

"They belonged to my mother. She gave them to me before she died."

Her mother had died protecting her.

Yuki remembered her mother. She remembered her face, her voice, and the warmth of her embrace.

Despite everything that had happened, those memories had never disappeared.

She remembered even the smallest details of her childhood, including moments from when she had been barely old enough to understand the world.

Her haori and necklace were the only things she had left of her mother.

Ren looked at her for a moment.

Then he nodded.

"All right. I'll get them."

He knew the risk.

If anyone discovered what he was doing, he would be killed.

Nevertheless, he left the tent and carefully retrieved her belongings.

When he returned, he handed her the haori and a delicate, snow-white necklace.

Yuki held them close.

"Thank you."

"Put them on. We don't have much time."

She quickly wore her haori and necklace.

Then the two slipped out of the tent and disappeared into the darkness.

They had barely travelled any distance when someone woke up.

"Hey!"

A man sat up and looked around.

"Where's Ren?"

Another man emerged from his tent.

"What happened?"

"That bastard! He's running away with the girl!"

Several men immediately rushed outside.

"REN!"

"Stop him!"

"He's taking that girl with him!"

One of them shouted something particularly disturbing.

"Look at her! She's beautiful! I was planning to marry her myself!"

Another man laughed.

"So that's what this is about? You think they've fallen in love?"

"Idiot! We shouldn't have trusted a new member with something like this. He's too young!"

But Ren and Yuki were already running.

They didn't look back.

They just kept moving.

Behind them, the men began their pursuit.

Stones and knives came flying through the darkness. Some struck Yuki, while others injured Ren.

Neither of them stopped.

The snow continued falling.

The temperature dropped.

And the distance between them and their pursuers seemed to grow smaller with every passing moment.

Yuki could no longer run.

Her body was covered in blood. Her breathing had become uneven, and every movement sent waves of pain through her.

The snow beneath her feet was slippery.

She could barely feel her fingers.

"Ren..."

He turned towards her.

"Keep moving!"

"I... can't..."

Ren looked behind them.

The men were getting closer.

He knew what would happen if they caught them.

They would kill both of them.

There was no way he could fight all those men and protect Yuki at the same time.

He was only seventeen.

He was just a boy.

But he made his decision.

"Yuki, listen to me."

She looked at him.

"Keep running."

"What?"

"I'll stop them."

Her eyes widened.

"No. Ren—"

"Don't stop. Just keep going!"

He gently pushed her forward.

"Run, Yuki!"

"But—"

"GO!"

He turned around and faced the approaching men.

Yuki continued running, looking back at him through the falling snow.

Ren stood alone.

Seventeen years old.

Against a group of grown men.

He knew he couldn't defeat them. He only needed to buy her a little time.

And he did.

For two or three precious minutes, he managed to hold them back.

But it wasn't enough.

The men eventually overwhelmed him.

They killed him.

Ren's sacrifice had bought Yuki only a few minutes of freedom.

And those minutes were all he could give her.

The men eventually caught up with Yuki.

By then, she was barely standing.

Her entire body was injured, and blood stained the snow beneath her feet.

One of the men looked at her and laughed.

"Look at her. She's practically dead."

"Forget it. She's not going to survive much longer."

They walked away, leaving her alone in the middle of the snow-covered hills.

No one was coming.

No one was going to help her.

At least, that was what they believed.

Yuki slowly lifted her head.

She was exhausted.

Her legs trembled with every step.

But she continued walking.

One step.

Then another.

Until suddenly—

Her foot slipped.

Her body lost its balance, and she fell down the snowy slope.

Her head struck a large rock.

For a brief moment, everything became silent.

Then darkness swallowed her completely.

And with that single fall, Yuki lost something she had never imagined losing.

Her memories.

Meanwhile...

Far away from the men who had hunted her, on top of a snow-covered hill, stood a small house.

It wasn't particularly beautiful or luxurious.

Its walls were old, its roof needed repairing, and its rooms were small.

But it was filled with warmth.

Since then, the eldest son had taken responsibility for supporting the family.

He was around seventeen years old.

His two younger brothers and two sisters were still children. One of his sisters was almost the same age as Yuki.

That morning, the young man was preparing to travel down the hill to the nearby town.

"Look outside. It's snowing heavily. The roads are dangerous."

He smiled faintly.

"Mother, we need money."

"We can manage for another day."

He shook his head.

"I want everyone to eat properly. I'll be careful."

His mother looked at him with concern.

"Please come back safely."

"I will."

He picked up his belongings and left.

His name was"haruto"

"Blood?"

He followed the trail, becoming increasingly worried.

Someone had been seriously injured.

He hurried forward, looking between the snow-covered trees and rocks.

And then he found her.

A girl lay motionless against the snow.

He froze.

Where had she come from?

And what had happened to her?

He had no idea that the girl lying before him was someone extraordinary.

He had no idea that she carried the blood of two completely different worlds.

And he certainly had no idea that finding her would change both their lives forever.