Shoujo Hater-Chapter 14 - 12 : The Forgotten One
On a cold, stone floor, Lin awakened.
Every breath he took felt like trying to drink from ashes.
His exhale turned into a pale mist that dissolved into suffocating air...
Air that carried no life, only creeping shadows.
No walls.
No sky.
Just an endless black void, stretching without boundaries, as if existence itself had shrunk into a single moment of oblivion.
And in the center of that emptiness...
A faint point of light pulsed from a lone being.
A man sat upon a stone throne. He did not move. He did not breathe.
His long black hair flowed like a river of dense night, and his crimson eyes shone with absolute stillness, like two moons imprisoned in a sky without dawn.
The aura around him was not merely energy...
It was living shapes that twisted and whispered, devouring light and preserving only darkness.
His presence alone made the air heavy.
Time slowed.
Lin’s heart clenched, as if his heartbeat had turned into muffled screams.
His body convulsed, his bones trembled, and a strangled sound escaped his throat:
“Please... just let me go... I did nothing...”
His voice bounced through the emptiness, fractured, like a child whispering inside the tomb of a king.
The being did not move.
He did not answer.
He did not need to.
The darkness spoke for him.
And the abyss whispered his name.
He remained silent, but he was not absent.
His eyes pierced through Lin as if peeling him apart layer by layer.
Fear.
Guilt.
Doubt.
Everything Lin had ever hidden in his life... was exposed now.
Then came a voice.
Hollow.
Distant.
Like an echo vibrating from a place untouched by time:
“The system has been destroyed.”
The void trembled.
A second voice followed, calm and quiet:
“And I am the one who stopped the Curse of the Dreaded One... only for a short while.”
Without movement, the distance between them disappeared.
Suddenly, he was standing right in front of Lin.
His eyes were so close that Lin felt as if they were devouring him alive.
He gasped, breathless, words caught in his throat like thorns:
“W-who are you?”
A faint smile appeared on the being’s face.
It was not warm. It was not human.
“You are still unqualified, Jin.”
“But you may call me the Forgotten One.”
Lin froze.
“J... Jin?
How do you know my name?”
The voice returned without any motion of lips, ringing directly inside his skull:
“I know you better than you know yourself.”
Lin snapped awake, as if torn out of a nightmare... or a curse.
He lay on the icy floor of the Frost Cell, his skin stuck to the frozen stone, and the air still and deadly, carrying only the whispers of frost.
Cold sweat drenched him, and blackened blood had partly dried across his clothes and skin.
Its scent was like burnt ash.
His heart pounded wildly, his chest rising and falling as if he had escaped drowning in a sea of ice.
When he tried to stand, he felt as though time itself had shattered around him.
Had minutes passed?
Or years?
He did not know.
Everything inside that accursed void had swallowed the very concept of time.
He looked at his reflection in the frost.
His face... was unfamiliar.
His dirty hair clung to his head, long and tangled, as if it had not been washed in months.
Then... he looked into his eyes.
Eyes that once carried a spark had lost every trace of light.
They had turned completely black, with a terrifying depth...
As though layers of darkness had gathered inside his pupils until they devoured whatever light remained.
He collapsed to the ground, staring into nothingness.
He no longer saw Lin...
But something else forming.
Even crying was no longer possible.
In that moment, he was empty from the inside.
He finally whispered, barely audible:
“System...”
But the system did not answer.
Only then did he understand.
The words of the Forgotten One were not a prophecy.
They were the truth.
All the obedience, the missions, the commands... had led to nothing.
He had returned to zero.
A bitter moment of relief washed over him.
He had finally been freed from the parasitic system.
But one thought remained gnawing at his mind:
Even the system... could not save him from that curse.
He crawled toward the cell door.
Despite the frozen corpses, his was not among them.
He had returned from hell itself.
He knocked weakly on the door.
It opened...
And Mother Camellia and Camellia stood waiting for him.
The mother rushed to him, pulling him into a tight embrace, weeping:
“My son... what happened to you?”
Camellia asked, her voice trembling with worry:
“What did you do to anger the Matriarch?”
But Lin was not hearing any of it.
He was lost inside a maze where only the voice of the Forgotten One existed.
At the far end... Frostita stood.
Her eyes carried grief.
Seeing him in ripped clothes, with blackened blood covering his skin, shattered something inside her.
She wanted to hold him.
But she stepped back instead.
A guard appeared, his voice dry:
“It is time for you to meet the Matriarch.”
“I understand. I will change my clothes first.”
—
Before the Matriarch’s chamber.
Lin bowed respectfully, his body lowered, yet his eyes steady.
The Matriarch spoke in her composed tone:
“How was the cell?”
Silence.
She continued with a calm smile:
“It seems your appearance has changed... You look more handsome now, but there is a strange aura emanating from you.”
“It was only a small lesson... for you to learn.”
She took a step closer and said:
“What reward do you wish for, Lin?”
“I would like permission to enter the family’s private library, my lady.”
She raised a brow, then answered:
“Very well.”
She then added, with a tone that carried an unrefusable command:
“Prepare yourself for my daughter’s knighthood contract.”
Lin looked at her for a moment, then replied:
“I believe I am not yet worthy... to become Lady Frostita’s personal knight.”
Her smile vanished.
“Did you not win the tournament?
I watched your training for the entire month.
I know you are stronger than Luna. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
I can sense an immense amount of mana within you, Lin.”
“It is not that, my lady.
I only ask for some time.
After I complete my exploration journey, I will return and make the vow.
I want to prove my worth... and avoid causing any unrest within the family.”
“And who would dare oppose my decision, the decision of the Matriarch?”
“Of course no one, my lady.
Your word is absolute.
I only wish to improve my reputation, so no one dares speak behind your back.
And so that I may truly deserve to be her knight.”
The Matriarch fell silent for a moment, then said:
“Very well... you may go.”
She added in a firm voice:
“And one more thing.
Stay away from those two filth.”
“Understood, my lady.”
“They are now my enemies from this moment onward.”
Lin turned to leave and said calmly:
“I will take my leave now... to visit the library.”
