After meeting the young prince, Toren was determined to believe that they were not the same person at all.
He went off to search for his own identity without really knowing where to go.
He was so fixated into his pursuit of discovery and began losing some of his own thoughts.
He thought the history books from the libraries and ancient archives – they must have had a bit of a record of him then. Among the billions of databases and documents that existed throughout history, he knew himself that he existed.
He tried to look and look for his name, but it was nowhere.
Airen did mention his background – that after getting adopted, they have forgotten his original name. Toren felt so lost.
Before even losing his memories, he did not have his true name, true family, and true origin.
He asked further what he knew about himself, but the question only ascended into the air like thick smokes eventually fading away along with the invisible ones. Toren could not stand it.
He was in the middle of a strange, cold island, completely alone and lonely.
With his own flesh as a burden itself and his nervous heart killing him, what else did he have? It was him against the world.
Something about it felt nostalgic and familiar. Like he had experienced the same thing before – just a bit less lonely and less extreme.
The people began passing through him.
He was not even a ghost now for his soul had been trapped in the void. He only has these significantly troublesome perceptions and the conscious mind that had been staying up till centuries ago, going round and round, reaching to nowhere.
He realized how much he had missed the order already.
He had gone past nature's mandate that no one else could relate and kindly stop for him.
Everyone else was entangled in the web of inevitable destiny, crossing paths with each other, intersecting and intertwining with roads, and finally getting next in line for some peace. Toren could never go back in that order any longer because he had eluded countless times the world's regulations.
When he returned to Coen's place, Toren saw his brother in a convenience store with a little boy.
The child's name was Eric.
That was the first time that Coen and the intelligent young boy named Eric met.
Somehow, Toren was quite jealous that despite receiving a curse for a soul bound in one's own flesh, his brother could still interact with the people inside that order and inside that web of destiny. He could play a part in the string of nexus and include himself with their realities.
Toren's curse felt far worse, far lonelier, and far hopeless.
He was bound to the idea of time.
After drinking the beverage which Coen offered to the kid, Eric slowly fainted. Coen carried up the boy naturally to prevent any suspicion until he could finally get him to his car.
He drove back to the laboratory and placed the kid in a private room.
That was how the experiment had set into motion.
After obtaining test subjects of children ranging from ages 7 to10, that was when their plan had begun. Toren was quite revolted at the idea, but what could he do but stare and observe?
He was completely powerless... yet again.
He would just roam around the laboratory with the children, observing them.