There had been many times when I was afraid to take a step.
Because I could not know whether this path led in the right direction. Would anyone not feel the same? No one can see the future. That is why so many people advance wherever others point them.
Because they lack certainty.
But no one can walk a safe road forever. The world can be cruel, and one day the moment comes when a person must choose alone. A moment when they must shoulder every burden themselves.
The ‘me’ from the future could not have been an exception.
He must have been afraid.
That was why these were ‘Steps.’ The seven steps taken in succession were each the very essence of anguish and pain. How many agonizing memories had that man walked through before reaching this answer?
In the end, he failed.
But did that make this path the wrong answer?
Nor was it only him. A single person’s life had been infused into each step of ‘Seven Steps, Seven Severances.’ The lives of those who had failed to surmount the wall called ‘fate’ and had been…