Record of a Thousand Lives

Content Advisory: This chapter contains depictions of suicidal ideation.

Princess Kisifran and her bodyguards entered the emperor’s bedchambers. The room where the emperor slept was just through the door in front of them. The trio dropped their act as soon as the coast was clear, however.

“My wrist hurts. It was so hard hiding my wrist device like that,” Yu Si-Do complained as he took out the wrist device from his sleeve. A Traveler could not take their wrist device off, which was why they had to forcefully hide theirs under their sleeves.

“I feel sorry for Kisifran,” Iris said, gripping the ends of her clothes. The princess’ outfit was simple but luxurious.

“We gave her your clothes in exchange, so don’t worry about keeping those,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Can I really?” Iris asked in response.

“Of course! Although we did gag her and tie her up,” Yu Si-Do said, snickering.

They had bound Princess Kisifran and hidden her somewhere in the corner of the greenhouse, as they would immediately be executed if they were ever found by the royal guards.

“We just have to not get caught. It’s a relief the princess didn’t see our faces,” Yu Si-Do said as he took off the angel mask.

Kang Yoon-Soo quietly kept his mask on as he moved slowly toward the room in front of him. He saw the emperor fast asleep on the bed in front of him once he entered the room. The emperor had a bed befitting his title as the highest authority on the continent.

“The emperor is fast asleep. How do you plan to feed him the poison?” Yu Si-Do asked in a whisper.

Kang Yoon-Soo shook his head in response and said, “This man isn’t the emperor.”

“What?” Yu Si-Do exclaimed in surprise.

“He’s just a body double,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

Yu Si-Do stared intently at the old man with gray hair. Although the man appeared to be breathing while fast asleep, he seemed awkward for some reason. The sleeping emperor did not have a shadow.

“Isn’t this an illusion?” Yu Si-Do exclaimed in surprise.

“It’s a security spell that will activate if it’s touched,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Yu Si-Do seemed disgruntled by the fact that he had been fooled by it. He grumbled and chewed on his middle finger.

“To think that he would set up a body double in his bedchambers. What kind of an emperor is he?” Yu Si-Do complained.

“It’s because we’re not the only assassins after the emperor’s life,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Yu Si-Do seemed surprised for a moment before he asked, “Then where is the real emperor?”

“Here,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, pointing at a fancy closet.

The other two tilted their heads in confusion as Kang Yoon-Soo walked toward the fancy closet and opened it. It was filled with various debonair suits and official outfits.

“That’s a lot of clothes. Don’t tell me there’s a hidden compartment behind this closet or something…?” Yu Si-Do asked with a grimace.

“That’s right,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

“Damn it… This is so corny. What is this? The Chronicles of Narnia?” Yu Si-Do grumbled once again, sounding annoyed.

Kang Yoon-Soo found a small indentation between the piles of clothes—it was a keyhole.

“If it’s lock picking, I’m the best! Hehe!” Yu Si-Do excitedly pulled his sleeves and walked toward the keyhole.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo shook his head and said, “We need the blood of a royal to open this.”

“What? Then we can’t open it?” Yu Si-Do asked, sounding disappointed. Kang Yoon-Soo pointed at Iris with his chin. Yu Si-Do snapped his fingers as he came to a realization and exclaimed, “So that was it!”

Yu Si-Do pulled up his sleeve and bit the blood-red jewel embedded in his arm. His hair suddenly turned white and his teeth turned into fangs. He grabbed Iris’ wrist and sank his fangs into it, muttering, “Mmm… You taste good.”

Iris looked at Yu Si-Do, her eyes wide with surprise, and said, “I see Yu Si-Do can change races at will.”

“That’s my class specialty. I can embed special jewels into my body and copy the traits of the races in the jewels. Ah, the blood of a beauty is really delicious!” Yu Si-Do explained, although he lost his train of thought toward the end.

“How long are you planning to drink my blood?” Iris asked.

“Hngaah… Until my erection subsides?” Yu Si-do replied with a moan.

“What is that?” Iris asked innocently.

“Ah you don’t know? An erection is…” Yu Si-Do began.

Suddenly…

Kwachik!

Yu Si-do was smacked in the face, and he felt his fangs were in danger of being broken in half.

Iris covered her face, which was bright red with embarrassment and said, “…oh my, that is really, really embarrassing. My face is getting so hot that I cannot raise my head anymore.”

“Hehe, just because of that much?” Yu Si-Do said.

“Stop it,” Kang Yoon-Soo interrupted..

Iris extended her wrist that had blood flowing out of it and asked, “Kang Yoon-Soo, what should I do now?”

“Put your finger covered in blood into the keyhole,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Iris placed her bloody index finger into the keyhole. Cogs began audibly turning even though her finger did not fit the keyhole, and the back of the fancy closet opened up to reveal a new, wider space.

“It smells like old books,” Iris said.

That new space was a study. Various kinds of codices and books lay along the narrow passage. Yu Si-Do picked up one of the old books on the floor and asked, “Isn’t this a book related to the Rogue Master’s temple?”

[You have obtained clues related to the Temple of the First Rogue Master.]

[You may start the trials of the Rogue Master if you collect all of the 77 map pieces spread across the continent.]

[Your notoriety has exceeded 500 and you have satisfied the hidden condition to obtain additional rewards.]

“The books in this place aren’t ordinary. All of these contain rare and valuable information. There’s no better place to shake the entire foundation of the continent than here. Alright! Let’s burn it down!” Yu Si-Do cackled like a maniac.

The other two remained silent as they watched the maniacal theatrics put on by Yu Si-Do alone.

Kang Yoon-Soo went deep into the study where a dim light from a lamp was shining. However, someone asked tiredly, “There’s still time before the assembly; can’t you let me rest for even a bit?”

The light from the lamp brightened as Kang Yoon-Soo got closer. He saw an old man sitting at the desk going over some paperwork. The man looked exactly like the emperor’s body double that had been lying on the bed a while before. However, the dark circles that had formed under his eyes and his skinny cheeks made him look even more pitiful.

The old man glanced at Iris before returning to his paperwork. He remarked, “Kisifran, didn’t I ask you not to tire your old father any more? As I said, I cannot grant you what you want. Also, why did you bring along a servant wearing that funny mask?”

“Are you the emperor?” Yu Si-Do asked, his voice filled with curiosity.

The old man frowned and exclaimed, “What is with your way of speech? Show some respect.”

“Ranford Reorkan,” Kang Yoon-Soo said in a low voice and continued, “I’m not your subject.” He showed the old man his wrist device. The emperor glanced at the wrist device, and his hands stopped busily handling the paperwork.

“What business does a Traveler from another world have with me?” Emperor Ranford asked.

“I’ve come to kill you,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

***

Helkin and Lenox thoroughly inspected the area around the broken window. The two knight captains found a set of footprints and followed it until it stopped in front of a stone wall. They opened all of the doors in the vicinity, but they found no trace of the intruder anywhere.

“I checked the royal storage and even the vault, but I couldn’t find any traces. I don’t think they were after money or information,” Lenox said.

“Damn it, did these people dig a tunnel or something? Even a ghost would be impressed by them…” Helkin grumbled.

Unfortunately, the two knight captains fell short, and it was obvious that they would lose the intruder even if the other party passed by right in front of their eyes.

“Sir Helkin.” A long-haired man suddenly appeared beside Helkin and spoke.

“Rumier, what brings you here?” Helkin asked in a hostile tone. Every second counted in this situation, and Helkin did not wish to waste any time talking to the gloomy alchemist.

“I was on my way to my research facility, but you seemed to be quite busy. Are you looking for the ones who intruded into the royal palace?” Rumier asked.

“That’s right,” Helkin replied.

“Actually, I saw them,” Rumier said.

“Is that true?” Helkin asked in surprise.

Rumier nodded and said, “Follow me. It’s something even I couldn’t believe after seeing it with my own eyes.”

Rumier led the two knight captains to the wall where the footsteps had been cut off. He stood in front of the wall and kicked it twice with his feet, then tapped it five times with his palm. The secret passage suddenly opened up. He said, “They went in here.”

“Did you really just stand and watch all this happening?” Helkin asked with a grimace.

“What good would it be if lowly researchers like me got involved with intruders?” Rumier nonchalantly replied.

Helkin glared at Rumier, but Lenox suddenly spoke up, “Let’s hurry. We can now trace them again.”

“Alright,” Helkin replied.

Rumier stared at the backs of the two knight captains who had disappeared into the secret passage and muttered quietly, “I hope things go well… Really…”

***

Yu Si-Do could not hide his ecstasy as his eyes started spinning. He had never imagined that someone would threaten to kill the highest authority on the continent personally to his face! Kang Yoon-Soo was much crazier than he had imagined.

The emperor, Ranford Reorkan, bit his lips and asked, “…Is my daughter your hostage?”

“This woman isn’t your daughter. She’s a doppelganger,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The emperor sighed and scratched his temple with his pen, asking, “What is your reason for killing me? I doubt you are involved in the succession issues of the royal family.”

“You’ll turn senile once you turn sixty, and you’ll interfere with my plans. That’s why I have to kill you now,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

“What is the cause of death?” Ranford Reorkan asked.

“Poison,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied, taking out a vial with a purple flower in it.

The emperor let out a bitter smile and said, “What a sick hobby you have. To think that it would be the flower of madness, of all things.”

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly said something unexpected. “Don’t take it if you don’t want to.”

“What do you mean?” Ranford Reorkan asked in response.

“As I said, don’t take it if you don’t want to die. The choice is yours,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

Yu Si-Do’s eyes opened wide in surprise and he asked, “What are you talking about? You have to force-feed him if necessary, if you plan to kill him. Don’t tell me you feel sorry for this old man after coming all the way here?”

However, Kang Yoon-Soo just stared silently at the emperor. The emperor took the vial with the purple flower and looked alternately between the vial and Kang Yoon-Soo. He let out a sigh and asked, “What do you think the life of an emperor is like? I mean a life where you can sit above everyone from the start.”

Yu Si-Do mockingly answered, “Well, no matter how much they complain, I’ve never seen a person born with a golden spoon in their mouth go hungry.”

“Is it because you are a Traveler? Your words are difficult to understand. Of course, my laments would sound like the troubles of the rich to you,” Emperor Ranford said as he wiped his face with both of his hands. He continued with a trembling voice filled with an emperor’s lamentation, “I had a dream of wonderfully leading the empire, but do you know how much mental fortitude it took just to protect the throne from those nobles’ lies and deceit? However, the result I obtained for protecting the throne was a disaster. All of my efforts have been for naught, and I am now tired.”

The emperor’s voice trembled, and his eyes shook as if he were afraid of someone who was not visible. “I am not the one who controls the royal palace anymore. All of the authority within the royal palace is now in someone else’s hands. I know not since when, but I was just a puppet doing his bidding; and now, it is too late to turn things around.” He carefully opened the vial, and took out the purple flower from it.

“A person’s death needs a reason behind it. Who knows? Perhaps I have been waiting for this justification for quite a long time. No, I am no longer sure… I am unsure whether I have to be thankful to you, or if I have to hate you for this…” Ranford Reorkan said as he ate the purple flower from the vial.

The emperor’s body spasmed for a moment, before he started laughing like a maniac.

The emperor laughed.

He kept laughing.

And he continued laughing.

Was he laughing because of the flower?

Or did he want to laugh at his reality?

It was a laughter that was difficult to understand.

The emperor who laughed until the end finally collapsed on the spot.

***

“What the hell happened just now…?” Yu Si-Do asked. He could not believe what had just happened in front of his eyes.

The highest authority on the continent had just committed suicide.

“What the? What kind of an emperor commits suicide? He should’ve at least resisted or something. Does it make sense that he died so anticlimactically?” Yu Si-Do complained.

“The emperor felt an intense urge to commit suicide in the first place,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

Kang Yoon-Soo was aware of that fact because of his hundreds of regressions. Ranford Reorkan had weighed himself down with a heavy burden, and he had pushed himself into a corner because of his self-inflicted expectations. He had carried that hysteria with him all the way till he was old and he became senile.

All Kang Yoon-Soo had done was to give the emperor’s piled up frustrations a slight push.

“Is he really dead?” Yu Si-Do asked. He could not believe what just happened, so he checked the emperor’s pulse, but the emperor was really dead.

Yu Si-Do looked at Kang Yoon-Soo as if he were already fed up with him and asked, “Hmm… So are telling me you coaxed the emperor to commit suicide?”

“I just suggested it to him,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“And the emperor fell for your suggestion?” Yu Si-Do asked.

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

Yu Si-Do exclaimed as if this were his first time hearing something so unbelievable, “It’s my first time seeing an assassination like this! Where the hell in the world would you find an assassin who used such a method that’s so unheard of?!”

“Here,” Kang Yoon-Soo confidently said as he raised his hand. The emperor was dead as he had planned, and it was now time to find the alchemist who had created Iris. He walked out of the study.

It was at that moment that Kang Yoon-Soo walked out of the study that a ferocious blade struck toward him.

Slash!

The blade narrowly missed Kang Yoon-Soo by a hair and sliced the air in front of him. He would have been split in half if he had not moved backward just in time.

Kang Yoon-Soo placed his hand on his blade, thinking inwardly, ‘What was that?’

The one who had appeared from the darkness was an old knight. He frowned like a demon when he saw the emperor lying on the ground as he shouted ferociously, “You! Are you out of your mind?!”

Helkin glared with murderous intent as he swung his sword, and Kang Yoon-Soo instinctively drew his sword.

The swords of the two men clashed.

Clang!