Crow. Leader of the Black Claw. His life had always been, quite literally, intimately close to death.
Teetering on the precarious edge where the thread of life could snap at any moment, he had thrashed desperately every single day to survive.
At the age of five, when he first began to comprehend everything and understand the world—
He had to witness, in vivid detail, the gruesome deaths of his parents right before his eyes.
The stench of blood, the screams, and the sight of his parents collapsing helplessly...
That alone was a shock too overwhelming for a young soul to bear.
But what was even more horrific and incomprehensible was the final look in his parents' eyes that he saw then.
It wasn't a gaze twisted in agony.
Instead, it carried an inexplicable light of relief. Why? Why feel relief in such a hellish moment?
The young Crow couldn't understand.
And the one word his parents mouthed with their last ounce of strength.
'Crow... you must... survive.'
That inexplicable gaze of relief and the dying wish to survive.
That was all that remained in the ashen world of five-year-old Crow, stripped forcibly of all its beauty and hope.
From that day on, the young Crow struggled desperately to survive in the brutal slums by any means necessary.
With a frail body, possessing nothing, relying solely on instinct to endure each day.
But at just five years old, what could a child possibly do?
Death stalked him at every turn, the world cold and cruel. He fell countless times, was trampled, and faced mortal peril repeatedly.
Then one day, while wandering on death's doorstep, fate played its cruel joke—a chance arrived.
The enemy who had killed his parents discovered him and took him in.
It wasn't that Crow had infiltrated to seek revenge. The enemy didn't even recognize him as the son of the parents he'd slain with his own hands.
He took him in indifferently, as if picking up a somewhat useful orphan from the streets.
Crow now lived right beside the enemy he hated.
Every moment, he wanted to throttle his neck, to rip out his heart.
But... it was impossible in reality.
A mere child like him had not even the slightest power to stand against the man who killed his parents. Rage boiled within, but reality was merciless.
Just as his parents' final words demanded, to survive, he had to shelve his seething thirst for revenge and endure this hellish reality.
The moment he realized he couldn't escape the enemy's grasp, Crow resolved himself.
He would survive—and exact revenge without fail.
From then on, Crow began his perfect masquerade.
On the surface, he served the enemy as his "master," pretending utter submission down to his bones.
He smiled falsely in his presence, obeyed his filthy commands. But deep inside, his vengeful hatred grew like poisonous weeds—no, like a vengeful demon.
He learned how to survive right under the enemy and how to cultivate the power to one day kill him.
Fortunately, Crow had talent.
Innate genius for combat and building strength.
Unaware that the blade honing itself would one day target his own throat, the enemy helped Crow grow with all his might.
Crow absorbed everything the enemy taught and grew insanely strong.
In that process, he maximized his innate ability, Shadow Sense.
He dodged dangers signaled by Shadow Sense, predicted opponents' movements, and created advantageous situations. All for survival, strength, and revenge.
And finally, the long-awaited moment arrived.
Right before the enemy. Now old and frail, with no strength left to resist him.
The monster who had trampled him and stolen his parents was no more.
In its place remained only a weak being for Crow to point his blade of vengeance at.
Crow gripped his sword tightly.
His heart pounded wildly, veins swelling as if about to burst.
At that moment, sensing his own death, the enemy stared at Crow in disbelief, stammering.
"Y-you... how could you... to me... Crow! After I... I raised you... how...!"
It was a cry mixed with shock and fury at betrayal from the child he'd saved and raised, his final desperate outburst.
In that instant, a venomous smile curled on Crow's lips.
"Heh heh heh... You raised me? No. You gave me nothing."
Crow raised his voice.
A scream laced with pain, rage, and liberation.
"You—you took everything from me! My whole world...!!!"
The fury in his voice seemed to vomit out the bloody memories of that day.
The indelible scar etched into a five-year-old soul. His parents' final moments. The hellish days under the enemy. All that pain exploded in those words.
"You—who killed my parents... my parents...!!!"
With the enemy's scream as the finale, he advanced toward the pinnacle with madness-filled eyes, having completed his revenge.
With his ability Shadow Sense, he finally ascended to the throne of the slums' king, boss of the Black Claw.
But now, as boss of the Black Claw, his Shadow Sense was screaming wildly.
The instinct that had led him here for revenge and survival sent its first-ever, intensely fierce warning.
Who the hell... who is this guy...?
A man he'd never seen before in Cheongam Fortress.
Wait... no way...?
Then, words from the white-masked man flashed in his mind.
"No special info, Boss Crow. Haha. All we got is... he's an outsider, not from Haven, and... human. That's it."
Crow's entire body trembled.
Overwhelmed by the survival instinct's warning of sheer presence, his knees buckled involuntarily.
"I greet the exalted one..."
Exalted one. Yes, that was exactly what he was.
A being who could dictate his past, present, and future in an instant. The apex of all order in Cheongam Fortress. The true king.
Crow, who had crawled from the rotten mud of the slums to carve out his domain and play petty king, steeped in madness—
Finally bowed his head deeply before the real king.
"What do you think is the reason I came here personally to see you?"
At the indifferent, icy voice, Crow's heart froze solid.
The king himself coming to this dump for him? The atmosphere suggested nothing good.
No way... Dust Rose really had ties to the new captain...?
The boy who had escaped, standing behind the captain. It was enough to turn Crow's suspicions into certainty.
"I have committed a grave sin, Captain."
Crow's gaze fixed on the ground, awaiting the captain's response.
"A grave sin...? Explain."
"I attacked Dust Rose and took the lives of innocent children. Not only that... I even took pleasure in their pained, despairing faces. I have committed an unforgivable sin."
Crow confessed his wrongs without hesitation.
His instinct told him this was the best way to survive.
Rion, Mari, and Dante watched him in stunned disbelief.
"Wrong."
"...?"
Crow faltered at the captain denying his sin.
What? If not ties to Dust Rose... drugs? Human trafficking?
His mind reeled in confusion.
Drugs? Trafficking? Or another sin? The crimes he'd committed running Black Claw were legion.
Which of those countless evils had so offended this great being? Terror mingled with baffling doubt, shaking him to the core.
"Your head doesn't seem to be working, so I'll tell you."
Crow focused every nerve on the captain's words.
"Your sin isn't killing children or attacking Dust Rose. It's the insolence of making noise without knowing your place on the meaningful day I arrived at Cheongam Fortress. That is no different from an insult to me."
Ah...
He should have watched and waited. Even if he'd stuck to the original plan and attacked the next day, this disaster might have been avoided.
Changing plans and rushing because of that white-masked fool's words had led to this catastrophe.
"Haha... what happens to me now?"
Realizing his sin, Crow asked in resignation.
His instinct no longer warned of survival paths. It was simply silent.
"The Black Claw that insulted me today vanishes from Cheongam Fortress..."
Vanish. Not mere execution—a decree to erase their very existence.
For the first and last time, Crow dared lift his head to gaze not at a false king like himself, but at the true king before him.
This... this is a true king...
An oppressive pressure like a thousand invisible swords aimed at his throat simultaneously.
It wasn't power gained through effort. It was the innate presence of an absolute being, imprinted from birth, from the core of existence.
Crow had never been fated to become king.
There was no longer reason to hesitate or way to evade.
"I shall obey the command."
Crow smiled weakly, gazing one last time at the sword in his hand.
The very blade that had taken countless lives, protected him, and slain his enemy.
Without hesitation, he drove it into his heart.
Thus, Crow—the tragic vengeful ghost of the slums, boss of the Black Claw, king of the slums—ended his own life at the command of Cheongam Fortress's new king.
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