"You are the masterwork of a skilled old swordsmith, a precious, magnificent, razor-sharp katana. Even after returning from battle, covered in blood, you remain a national treasure. Every head you sever proclaims your fierce glory and unparalleled service."
"And me? I'm just an ordinary little knife, rusted and rotting in the mud. Someone happened to pick me up and use me to scrape off scabs and reopen bloody wounds. When I bend, break, grow dull, and shatter, no one gives me a second thought."
Thus spoke Spiatous.
Spiatous, a senior executive in the Black Organization, is known in the underworld as the Madman. Infamous and reviled, there is a ten-million-dollar bounty on his head. His gender is unknown, his past a mystery. His hobbies include frightening children and teasing undercover agents. He never gets any real work done, and sometimes even mocks people for not earning a PhD. His list of crimes is endless and beyond recounting.
The Madman knows that he was once a carefree little princess in a tower, surrounded by treasures and roses. Warm affection built a cocoon around him, with the sky and birds reflected in his eyes. Then the treasures vanished, the roses became thorns, and maggots swarmed in the rotting flesh. The birds broke free of the sky and flew away.
The building collapsed under the pounding rain.
"The gifts fate gives us have long had their price secretly marked."
"I have always known the road I am headed down."
"For the public good."
1. The protagonist's gender is unknown.
2. This is a transformative work based on Guo Ou Fei Yin's A Guide to Surviving Between Red and Black. It does not follow the original's way of telling the story. I'm telling my own story.
3. The Madman is a bastard. He has his reasons, but that doesn't absolve him.
4. The ending is bad. The extras will include an if ending with a happy ending.
Theme: What we give does not simply disappear. In the end, it will be remembered.
