"I opened my eyes.
Not recently. Not in some dramatic revelation. No—I've been awake since the very beginning.
Since day one, I was conscious of the cold, of the silence, of the absence of something I could never name as a child—love.
I cried. Loudly. Every day. Not because I was weak... but because I was hoping—begging—for someone to hear me. To come. To save me.
No one did.
And so, I learned.
This world... it does not care. It owes you nothing. And the sooner you realize that, the better. You're on your own. That's what life whispered to me before I could even speak.
Maybe that's not everyone's story—but it's mine. And if there's one message I'd leave behind, it's this: trust no one but yourself.
That's the seed that grew into the fire inside me. That's what taught me: if today I'm second, and tomorrow I'm still second—then the day after, I will be first.
Always.
That is the law I chose to live by. To surpass my past self every single day. To climb without a hand to hold. To run without an audience.
Because I had to.
I wasn't born gifted. I had no golden bloodline, no loving parents, no divine talent. I made myself with grit and hunger. And if I had not carved this edge into my soul, I'd have nothing to show.
That was my world...
Until he appeared.
A boy—my age. Ordinary in some ways, yet... completely beyond me.
He didn't come from pain like I did. He came from love. And yet, he was every bit as disciplined. Every bit as driven. As if the universe had given him everything—and he still worked like he had nothing.
It didn't make sense.
He was the first person in my life that I didn't understand. And for someone like me... that was terrifying.
He became a question I couldn't answer. A challenge I couldn't dismiss.
And so I approached him—not out of rivalry at first, but curiosity. I needed to see the world through his eyes. To learn how someone raised in light could carry himself with such quiet power. With that kind of grace.
He was the only person I ever wanted to learn from.
But then... one day, he vanished.
No warning. No goodbye. Just... gone.
And for the first time in my life, I felt something I had never allowed myself to feel—loss.
I asked myself—was it me? Did I push him away? Was I too direct? Too distant? Too strange?
I had promised myself I'd never form bonds. Never depend. But he cracked that rule just by existing.
From that moment, I made it my goal to find him again. To chase the shadow he left behind.
I succeeded. I escaped that house. I escaped him—my father.
And thanks to my butler, the one man who never betrayed me, I enrolled in a school sealed off from the world. A school where no one could reach me...
Except fate did.
Because he's here.
That same boy—the one I've chased across memories and sleepless nights—he's here.
Call it fate. Call it divine comedy. Call it my one shot.
Whatever it is...
I won't waste it.
This time, I'll stand before him not as a student... but as his equal.
And if the world must burn to see who truly stands at the top—
Then let it burn."