A cold wind howled across the jagged cliffs, whipping through sparse tufts of grass and whistling between stone cracks like a mourning spirit.
'Hey, Bowling Nuts is here! Run, or he'll roll his balls over you!'
'Lardass, get the fuck out of our way.'
The sky above was a roiling canvas of gray, with thick clouds shifting like restless titans in a slow, eternal war.
Salt hung heavy in the air, stinging a young man's eyes and soaking the skin in a clinging chill. Below, the sea frothed and thundered, smashing into the cliffside with bone-breaking rage, its dark waters rising and crashing.
'Hey, you ball of meat. Why don't you roll down these stairs? Adios~'
'NOO!'
Every wave that broke below seemed to echo upward, rumbling through the stone like the roar of some great, submerged beast.
And there, at the very edge of it all, stood a young man who had just turned eighteen, but decided he had finished living his life.
'Once I jump, it will be over.'
'I'll get freedom from this accursed body and world.'
His boots rested inches from the drop, where the cliff crumbled slightly with the weight of time.
The wind tore at his clothes, an old, half-buttoned shirt and trousers stained by travel, and tousled his dark hair until it flared like a shadow behind him.
The young man's height was only 4'9 at his current age of 18.
His belly hung out.
A rotund big ass jiggled as he trembled from the cold.
His arms were thick, and his legs like lard.
He was like a creature from horror because his face was ugly, too. His nose was thick, his cheeks chubby, and his facial shape was slightly disoriented, giving him a weird look.
Because of a genetic disorder since birth, this young man with a heart of gold and eyes colored like sweet honey grew up with the looks of an ugly villain from a dark fantasy.
And there was nothing he could do about it except for fat and skin operations, which he couldn't afford. But even if he could afford them, the doctors didn't want to do that because of the trouble and dangers it posed.
As fate would have it, his parents abandoned him because of this genetic disorder right after his birth, putting him in an orphanage.
But this young man wished for a happy future and worked for it.
He studied hard and ranked high. In his class, he graduated with a top score, and he chose to become a doctor. A plastic surgeon.
Naturally, his disordered body wasn't something a simple plastic surgery could fix easily.
Alas, the scholarship that was supposed to be his was given to someone else. The chance to move forward in his life was gone because he didn't have the money to study further without a scholarship.
"SHUT UP!" the young man shouted as he turned his head to the side. "Stop calling me lardass!"
However, he saw that no one was standing behind him. A second later, he sighed, his back hunched.
"Again this…" the young man looked ahead in frustration, his eyes bleak, devoid of all hope.
'Hey, fatass. Move!'
'Haha, lardass, your photo reached a million views, you know? Everyone wants to know who this guy with big balls is!'
'Ey, who is he?! Hahaha.'
'Lardy, you can get rich if you livestream naked. Your body is a piece of art.'
"A piece of horror, you mean?! Pff…."
'Hey, stop it, Danny. If he shows his little stick stuck between his big balls outside, people will die… of laughter! Hahahah…'
"SHUT UP!" the young man shouted at the top of his lungs as his throat broke.
'Please… let it stop.'
Looking below, the young man lifted his foot.
'Give me peace… nothing else. I want nothing else, really…'
Peace? Love? He only knew the definitions of those words. All he had received from others was pity, fear, disgust, mockery, hate, and pain.
Even ugly dogs get love.
But he felt like a carrier of a curse.
A fire was burning him, harsher and more painful as days passed. In this world of humans, he felt like an alien.
He wanted nothing more than to escape this fire.
And so, he stepped forward.
For him, this was a step forward in his life. He already felt it the moment he made his move.
The peace.
The wind hit him rapidly, but his eyes were closed as he awaited freedom from this body.
But suddenly, he felt his fall stopping and opened his eyes.
The young man blinked. A beautiful girl with long lapis blue hair and a beautiful goddess dress with a sash and long frock adorned with embroidery floated in front of him.
"Are you a goddess? Did I already die?"
The girl smiled. "Of course not, dummy."
The young man frowned. Indeed. The ocean behind her was the same.
He turned around and saw that he was also next to the cliff wall.
Below, he was still tens of meters away from the bottom.
How was he floating?!
"W-What is going on? Who are you?"
The girl's bright yellow eyes squinted as she grinned. "Let me see… so your name is Rudrean Zen Shishsmith. Nice name."
Rudrean's cheeks flushed. He made his own name and surname. It was one of the subjects people used to mock him, though it didn't bother him. What bothered him was unceasing bullying, beating, and abuse offline and online, both of which escalated this year, as if turning eighteen years old gave free rein to people to abuse him.
"I am Aelira Vinz. Nice to meet you." She extended her hand toward Rudrean as her cheeks burned, turning a shade red.
Rudrean dazedly extended his hand. 'I must be dreaming after death. Let's go along with it.'
However, the touch he felt was too real!
Suddenly, he saw the girl leaning forward quickly while pulling him by the hand she held, and planting her soft, beautiful lips on his fat lips.
Rudrean's mind blanked as an utterly strange yet pleasant sensation assaulted him.
After two seconds, Aelira created some distance as she smiled and licked her lips.
"Darling, we are officially married now~."
Rudrean was dumbfounded, feeling as if he was having a fever dream.
And then he also felt hot.
Painfully hot.
"Arghh… W-What is this?!" Rudrean looked at his arms and legs as they began turning darker while releasing black particles.
Aelira giggled. "You are just transforming into your true appearance since my kiss unsealed your energy nodes."
"C'mere, let me alleviate the pain." Aelira hugged Rudrean, not caring about getting her clothes dirty. As for the intense heat, that didn't bother her.
Rudrean froze as he was hugged by this beauty after getting kissed.
But the pain was subsiding, and he felt cool, and then dazed.
However, the process in his body was still ongoing.
"You must have suffered a lot, right? Sigh, you were born in the wrong place. You accumulated crazy energy since birth, but since your energy nodes were not unlocked, the energy redirected itself toward your body to be contained, making it look like this. But don't worry, darling~ You're all good now. From now on, your life will be different." Aelira giggled. "Our life, I mean~."