-KWAME-

“WHERE IS MERCY?”

In a village that once made a living from livestock, there lived a man named Kwame. He had lost his family in a fire when he was a child. Apart from this sentence, no one had heard anything from him for years: "Where is my mother?" Because of this, he was known as the "madman" in the village. He never harmed anyone, just roamed around, and if someone offered help, he would accept food and water. People were wary of Kwame and did not love him.

Whenever a problem arose in the village, they would always blame this innocent madman. Kwame couldn't defend himself because he lacked the mental capacity to do so. However, he understood people's anger towards him, so tears welled up in his eyes as people accused him, and he cried. This only made the villagers consider him even more guilty. In reality, Kwame was harmless.

On a cold night, as he shivered under a tree in the village square while trying to sleep, he began to walk to find some warmth. He noticed that the door of a barn was not fully closed and entered. He huddled in a corner and tried to sleep. However, in the early hours, he woke up to a sound coming from the door and saw two masked robbers entering with torches in their hands. Kwame, filled with fear, quietly waited in the corner. The robbers didn't notice Kwame. One of the robbers caught a sheep and slaughtered it. In fear, Kwame leaped at the robber. The robbers, confused, tried to subdue Kwame, inadvertently starting a fire. They quickly fled, leaving the door tightly shut. Despite Kwame's attempts to extinguish the fire, the chaos among the sheep worsened the blaze. In the end, only a few surviving sheep and Kwame, who relived his childhood trauma, were rescued.

But once again, like in previous incidents, Kwame was declared guilty. Following this disaster, involving one of the influential people in the village, it was decided that Kwame should be exiled from the village. Some in the village couldn't come to terms with this decision, but no one wanted to stand against the village because of a madman. They took him into the depths of the forest, tied him to a tree, and left him to never return. Tied to the tree and struggling to break free, Kwame gave up. In that moment, a sentence came out of his mouth after many years: "Where is mercy?" Kwame became a victim of wild animals.

A winter passed without Kwame, and when the next winter came, his spirit returned to the village. Every night, he entered the village barns and coops, driving animals mad and turning them into monsters. He fed his spirit by taking pieces from all the animals he killed or caused to be killed. Due to this horrifying situation, many people left the village. Those who remained began to see Kwame's ghost wandering in the village square at night and had to live with it. Many couldn't bear this and lost their sanity. The village madman Kwame no longer sought his family or mercy.