Chapter Text
Kim Rok Soo isn’t sure what’s happening.
One moment he had fallen asleep while reading the fifth volume of ‘The Birth of a Hero’ and the next, he was in this infinite black space all alone.
It wasn’t like there was nothing all around him- he could feel the ground beneath him just fine. It was just that everything was black. From the floor to the walls to the ceiling, everything was black. And as much as he preferred that color over all the others, suddenly waking up in a room that was entirely black was bound to scare the wits out of any ordinary person.
‘A dream? A nightmare?’
Only years of experience being thrust into all sorts of situations could help him be as calm as he was right now.
‘Let’s observe for a bit.’
He pinched himself in the arm.
Nope. It’s not a dream. And it couldn’t possibly be the afterlife, either, so he’s not dead. But then what could it be?
He warily looked around him for a moment but it was at that moment that a bright light suddenly appeared in the middle of the room right in front of him, causing him to back away quickly. As the light dimmed and disappeared, however, Kim Rok Soo could only hold his breath at the person lying on the ground in front of him.
The first thing that caught his attention was the dried blood all over the man who seemed to be in his late 30s. The second thing he noticed, though-
He and the injured person locked eyes for a moment at that moment, he noticed that both he and the surprised stranger had the same eyes. He would have written it off as a pleasant coincidence if the man was not bloodied all over like he'd been from some kind of war.
“Y-you…? Are you…”
'Hm?' Kim Rok Soo tensed up as soon as the wide-eyed stranger opened his bloodied mouth upon seeing him, as if he had an idea who he was--which was impossible, no scratch that, too many impossible things had become possible for the past few decades now, so no, it could be possible but still what the hell?
Kim Rok Soo almost wanted to ask the guy how he knew him and why the hell does he look like he was buried underneath a pile of shit, but couldn't do so in the end.
Because exactly 60 seconds after he and that guy locked eyes, several flashes of light suddenly appeared all at once and more unfamiliar people dropped unto the black room one by one, with gasps, shrieks and swears, like babies delivered by the stork.
"Ugh...!"
"Paseton, are you alright?!"
"Hey, what about me?!?!"
"What in the--"
"Where the fuck is this????"
One by one, people appeared and stirred in agitation, confusion and sometimes fear--each addition to the crowd adding more layers to the noise of panic already ringing in Kim Rok Soo's ear, and that noise was only getting stronger. But still, the names--the names and the way people looked--
Kim Rok Soo felt a foreboding sense of danger as several things came to mind all at once.
And his suspicions were confirmed the moment the injured person in front of him gave out a horrified squeak at the sight of a confused black-haired black-eyed foreigner drenched in blood from very, very far away.
---
Clatter.
The bloodied sword made a loud noise as it fell on the floor but unfortunately all the strangers around it were louder.
'....Wh...what...?'
Choi Han felt himself sway on his feet, eyes unfocused as he struggled to pinpoint where he was right now. His body still felt hot with almost unhealthy amounts of adrenaline and his mind felt like it was burning, unpleasant images of dead bodies being seared into his head. Looking around, he found that he was in a black room, black from the ground up to the walls and ceilings, and all around him was noise. All around him were people. They were definitely not dead people, probably, no, he's probably not too far gone yet, right?
Earlier, he was slashing at the people who had hurt the ones who took him in. Blood had been shed in Harris village and so he shed some (a lot) of other people's blood in return in an almost blind frenzy.
That was earlier, and certainly by the looks of it, where he was earlier was certainly not where he was now.
His black eyes fell on the bloody shaky hand that had dropped the sword he had stolen from someone he killed during the massacre. He killed people for the first time- but those people killed his people too, but even so he still felt shaky. Everything feels unreal. He felt detached to everything around him. He knew it was noisy but he couldn’t feel a thing, couldn’t be bothered to think of everything going on around him right now.
Mind in chaos, he tried to open his mouth to speak but then he got pushed by some of the people who were starting to fight all around him due to the confusion and even though he was sure that he was stronger than this, he still fell to the ground, eyes fixed far, far away and unable to think properly for himself.
The people at Harris village died.
They died, all of them.
They-
His thoughts burned his insides and his fists as he stayed there on the ground on his fours, looking at the ground and yet looking at nothing at all. A little voice in his head, perhaps an echo of who he was before he got blood on his hands for the first time felt like it was telling him something. He wasn’t there when it happened- He could have stopped it, is what it said. A metallic tang entered his mouth as he bit his lips enough to draw blood, a vicious hateful look in his face, all emotions chaotically swirling within him and making it hard for him to breath as he remembered the bodies of the ones who passed and the bodies that he, himself, killed.
The former deserved more than just quick deaths.
He grit his teeth and clenched his fists, mind detached from the way everyone was actually literally starting to strangle each other.
“Ya. You, are you okay?”
His unruly thoughts abruptly stopped on their tracks.
That…
He whipped his head up, eyes wide, and when he met the gaze of a black-haired man crouching in front of him, the man he saw flinched and so did he.
Black hair. Brownish eyes.
Choi Han was at a loss of words. Almost everything that happened to him left his body due to the shock.
“You… you’re… you’re Korean?” He stammered.
The man wearing a black button-up shirt with long sleeves looked at him with what looked like a nervous expression but Choi Han was far too focused on the fact that this man just talked to him in Korean, a language he thought he’d never hear from anyone other than himself, to even realize the uneasiness in the man’s movements.
“…Am I not supposed to be?” The man said, carefully.
Choi Han felt an unexplainable feeling swell within him as he felt tears stinging his eyes and the man flinched again but Choi Han could not stop himself.
What is with the world?
He felt his brain slowly cooling down as he started to realize that this was not an interaction that he would ever have been able to hear if he was still in the world he’d been dropped on, but he’s sure that he didn’t die.
Did something happen to him again? Was he sent in some other place again? It’s hard to not believe such things when you’ve already experienced being transmigrated like that.
While he was thinking like this, there was someone else whose mind was running at almost the same, if not at an even more impressive, level.
‘…Fuck, I don’t want to die, yet!’
---
Kim Rok Soo was already doubting reality a little even before he recognized the blood red hair of the man who had first appeared injured in front of him.
Imagine the existential crisis he got when one by one people started appearing with flashes of light, and all of them had weird-colored hair or were wearing weird medieval-style clothing that could only come from a standard fantasy world.
This was weird. Too weird.
“HUH?! WHERE AM I?!”
A blood-soaked man with wild hair resembling a lion’s mane demanded as soon as he snapped out of the daze of the transportation. Behind him was a relatively clean man with a harmless-looking face looking around warily while sticking close.
“O-oppa!”
A blonde woman with a sword had immediately cried out before launching herself between a blonde man who looked a lot like her and everyone else in the room who had started to murmur in confusion. The blonde man looked startled but could only look around.
“Where is this? What is this place?”
A dark-skinned woman holding a spear muttered to herself as she looked around skeptically, hyperaware of the fact that she’d been brought to this place all alone. Not far from her, there was a man with princely features in a similar situation, looking around for his subordinates in panicked silence.
Almost everyone in the room were confused in their own unique way, just like how their appearances were unique as well.
They were like characters from a book.
Which Kim Rok Soo is starting to think they might actually be as he tensed up where he was standing.
Many things happened at once.
An old man had come running towards the bloodied redhead in front of him but he didn’t even hear it coming. A guy similar in age as Kim Rok Soo followed after, holding what seems to be a kitchen knife, and a whole family of people could be seen chasing after them.
Feeling an ominous fear creeping up his neck after that, Kim Rok Soo knew he had to flee.
If his guess about the identity of the bloodied redhead is on-point, then that old man should be an assassin capable of twisting his neck or gutting him on the spot no matter how sturdy his body was.
Without even thinking, he ran away without looking back.
Nope, nope, nope-
His mind raced as he ran for the nearest wall to steady himself and put some distance between his perfectly normal self and all these crazy characters that could only come from one place.
‘The Birth of a Hero’
Just a few feet beside him, a man with blue hair squawked ridiculously as he fell in mid-air after a flash of light only to be followed by a purple-haired person who sounded very horrified to crash land on the blue-haired guy but Kim Rok soo couldn’t care less.
These people all around him- It pains him to say that he can recognize a lot of them.
Records were playing in front of Kim Rok Soo’s very eyes as he remembered every single word regarding every single character and found himself leaning unto a wall with bated breath.
Rosalyn. Lock. Beacrox. Whale Queen Witira.
Many names flashed by his mind as he tried to calm his breath.
If he was in any other situation, he would have had the luxury to be able to be calm immediately but this was just too shocking.
Obviously, it couldn’t be cosplay, neither could it be a dream since he’s already checked that one out.
Something was in play here and he has no idea what that is.
“YOU! YOU’RE STRONG!”
Oh fuck, it’s Toonka.
Kim Rok Soo whipped his head to the side in time to see the barbarian, soaked in blood that was not his, picking a fight with one of the calmer people in the group, an elf with golden hair and golden eyes, and Kim Rok Soo felt his breathe leave his body.
He doesn’t know who that is but only incredibly strong people could maintain a face as aloof as that in this situation.
“FIGHT ME!”
“Are you crazy?!” A spectacled young man with grey hair ended up blurting out in fear at the sidelines and Kim Rok Soo can’t help but mentally agree.
They’ve been brought to who knows where and this stupid, stupid idiot was already trying to fight others.
This was the worst thing you can do in such a scenario.
Behind the gray-haired young master, two others seemed to be sticking close to him as if they knew him well, and even further behind him were two people who were relatively calm despite the concerned looks on their faces. One was a woman with short black hair and the other was a gentle-looking young man who was, for some reason, on a wheelchair.
Taylor Stan, Kim Rok Soo quickly realizes. There was only ever one cripple in this story.
“What the fucking-”
The loud cursing of a woman with a dog in one corner of the ordeal drew a lot of people’s attention.
“YOU! YOU’RE DOG IS ALSO STRONG!”
“Fucking shit- Get away from my dog, you barbarian! Do you want your fucking head to blow up?!”
This was very concerning. Everyone was starting to be agitated.
At this rate, with all these obviously strong people gathered in one spot, Kim Rok Soo is sure that if they all end up in a fight then he won’t be able to survive. He was going to die like a shrimp in a battle of multiple whales.
“Huh. This is interesting.”
Kim Rok Soo registered what seemed to be a man with purple eyes and whitish hair eyeing the scuffle that was about to brew with amusement, and could only shoot the man a look of incredulity.
Thankfully, that person never turned towards his direction and thus never saw the utter disrespect in the Korean’s face.
He quickly looked around the area to take note of everyone all around him- at least, the ones he could recognize.
There were two people with flowing blue hair akin to the ocean huddled together with their weapons out, an additional person with white hair positioned at the forefront, baring his teeth at all the humans around them that were fighting.
In contrast, there was a group of people at the near edge of the room who looked either calm or annoyed- the emotions on their face devoid of any kind of panic about the situation. This included a pink-haired boy who was curiously looking around albeit with some wariness in his eyes, a beige-haired woman wearing farm clothes and a man with a buzz cut wearing his pajamas.
Kim Rok Soo could guess who were part of the first group with just one look at the water whip on the woman’s hand and the white-haired gangster-looking guy at the forefront, but he has no idea who the ones at the latter group were.
He cursed under his breath but then remembered something important.
Right, if this place has the heroes from ‘Birth of a Hero’ then surely, that person should be here too. In fact, he must have been nearby earlier based on the reaction of the injured redhead from earlier.
The most dangerous and unstable person here.
“Hey, hey, break it up!”
A woman with hair as red as the sun got in between Toonka and the woman with the dog before blood could be shed but Kim Rok Soo’s tension rose even more because he knew that this woman’s interference could be a huge mistake.
Rosalyn of the Breck kingdom.
She was a genius mage and right now, she was face-to-face with Toonka, the mage-slayer.
The woman with the dog who was now right behind Rosalyn shot the barbarian a vicious look as she held her dog in her arms and though Kim Rok Soo has no idea who she was, he already fears her. That is not the face of an ordinary dog owner.
On the other hand, Toonka, this idiot, didn’t see the woman’s face as he was preoccupied gauging Rosalyn’s strength level in the most barbaric way ever.
He was sniffing her.
Rosalyn looked absolutely flustered.
After some thorough sniffing, Toonka retreated and gave her an unimpressed look, “Meh.”
Ouch.
This… to have a dog’s strength be more interesting than yours…
Though Kim Rok Soo was sure that Rosalyn was strategically concealing her strength from the barbarian, it still doesn’t help that he knows that the prideful Rosalyn must have gotten a hit to her pride. She was smart enough to read between the lines, after all, even if the other party doesn’t think much of their words.
Toonka casually shoved her aside to get to the woman with the dog, making her land on the floor with an “Ack?!” and while doing so, he also accidentally pushed another person to the floor.
Kim Rok Soo’s eyes widened as he saw the black hair and the general black-colored clothing the man wore.
Crazy-
The idiot Toonka shoved the protagonist, Choi Han, to the ground…!
This was bad. Very, very, very bad.
Kim Rok Soo felt himself sweating profusely as he sneakily slipped his way around the crowd of confused people just to get a better look at the man’s condition, and all this sweat turned cold the moment he saw the cold murderous look on the man’s eyes as he looked down at the floor.
Choi Han, the protagonist of ‘Birth of a Hero’, was covered in blood and staring at the floor like it had personally offended him.
No, that was a shallow way of putting things.
This punk looked like he had lost everything and Kim Rok Soo fears that his description might be literally what had happened to the guy.
Two words: Harris Village.
‘…there’s no way…’
There’s no way that this Choi Han had just lost Harris Village, right?
Kim Rok Soo saw the guy clench his fists and he knew that what he was thinking was just wishful thinking. With the state of this guy and the despair on his face, obviously Harris village was already gone and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
The worst-case scenario was that this guy would go berserk and try to pick a fight with everybody here.
And that was bad.
Bad for Choi Han because if this is him immediately after the tragic massacre, then he’s not nearly strong enough to fight a lot of the people here, and bad for Kim Rok Soo because he was a shrimp in this ocean of munchkin characters and ridiculously strong strangers with colorful hair and he has no way to defend himself.
It’s at moments as unexpected as this that <Record> and <Instant> can’t help him at all.
Mind racing, trying to come up with an idea to keep Choi Han from going rogue on everybody here, Kim Rok Soo thought of one thing but felt unsure.
He has no idea if this would work and he fears that it might even backfire.
Normally, Choi Han was a good person but right now his personality was a little twisted. What if he grabs him by the chin and just crushes his jaw on the spot or picks up his sword and slices him up at a moment of irrationality?
But the thing is that it could actually work-
Because Kim Rok Soo was Korean and Choi Han was a character who was abruptly spirited away from his home land, Korea, and was isolated for years.
Steeling himself, he figured he has no other choice but to try this.
“Hey you…”
He was crouching in front of the guy who had just frantically murdered a lot of people before being transported here, and he tried his best not to let his fear show in his voice as he asked in the language that probably only he and this guy can understand in this room.
“Are you okay?”
The punk visibly froze after hearing Korean words enter his ear.
He looked up so fast that Kim Rok Soo had to flinch. Big wide eyes that had not yet dimmed were looking at him in open-mouthed shock.
That… well at least he doesn’t look like he’s thinking of killing Kim Rok Soo right now.
“You… you’re… you’re Korean?”
Choi Han stammered out his words with a tremor that would have brought any other person who knew his story to tears. Unfortunately, Kim Rok Soo is not easy to drive to tears. Crying doesn’t come naturally to people like him.
The only emotion Kim Rok Soo could feel right now was fear.
“…Am I not supposed to be?”
He carefully crafted his reply and observed the scary Korean character’s facial expression for any hints that he should start running as soon as possible but saw none. Instead, the guy’s eyes became hazy as though he was going to cry, and that made Kim Rok Soo flinch once again.
Holy shit, that gave him a heart attack.
Choi Han, the protagonist of the paperback novel he’d read on his day-off, was suddenly in the verge of tears right to his face.
Kim Rok Soo feels like the world has officially done it.
This world has officially broken his brain.
‘…Fuck. I don’t want to die, yet!’
Not even because of shock! That’s a lame way to die!
Calming his scared confused heart screaming that everything doesn’t make sense and that everything is very weird right now, Kim Rok Soo strained to maintain his polite yet confused face as he took the opportunity to get to the protagonist’s good side.
“I’m Kim Rok Soo.”
At his introduction, the punk who looked like he was about to cry finally came out of his thoughts and introduced himself as well.
“Choi Han. My name is… Choi Han.”
‘I know.’
Kim Rok Soo internally sighed.
Amongst everyone here, he must be the only one who knows Choi Han’s name right now. The Choi Han in front of him has not become a hero yet. He’s still just some swordsman seeking revenge and to everyone here, he is probably nobody worth paying attention to.
“Hey, listen, this might not be the best place to chat.”
Kim Rok Soo started as he calmly gestured towards Toonka who was now being restrained by some fighters and some mana and was cursing out a cloud of swear words at the presence of magic-users.
Choi Han deadpanned at the chaos, probably only seeing it for the first time.
“Would you mind if we move to a more secluded location or… will you be helping them restrain that?”
Choi Han turned to look at Kim Rok Soo who was admittedly too calm-looking for a situation like this where a hunk of a man chained down by mana chains was roaring and bellowing like some kind of underground beast of ancient times that hasn’t eaten in a thousand years, but trust Kim Rok Soo when he says that he’s beyond calm.
He was actually scared as fuck.
But there’s no use letting that show right now.
Choi Han contemplated for a bit, looking like he was slowly recovering and returning to using normal and innocent reactions at an impressive speed, before eyeing Toonka who won’t shut up and saying:
“I will help for a bit but I will come back to you.”
Kim Rok Soo tried his best not to be frightened by the way he said he was going to come back to him after helping the others out. It was a hard endeavor but he didn’t fail.
Choi Han stared at him, looking him up and down and probably gauging his strength, before speaking.
“Please stay over here. It is dangerous.”
So basically, he just gave him one look and knew immediately that he was weak.
Kim Rok Soo is fine with that. He’s going to stay very still and not move away from here for as long as it takes for the protagonist to finish what he’s going to do.
Which was apparently not long.
Not even five minutes after Choi Han left him where he was now squatting on the floor, Toonka had been sent flying to the other side of the room, knocked out unconscious by Choi Han’s bare hands.
Kim Rok Soo felt the hair all around his sleeved arms stand up at the magnificent and terrifying scene that occurred and he was not alone in this. There were several other jaws dropped on the floor as the whole thing happened. Even the calmer ones in the room found their eyes widening in surprise at the inhuman strength that was shown.
‘…this guy… what is he planning to do by announcing his presence like this to the room?!’
While he was still rooted to where he was, stupefied by the unconscious Toonka who was being attended to by a frantic guy who must be chief Harol, the half-mage, Choi Han had already wiped his hands clean with his dark robes, picked up and sheathed his sword, and then returned to him with a serious determined look on his face, like he didn’t just beat up a barbarian known throughout the western continent as a crazy strong slayer.
“Okay, it’s done. Let’s go.”
“…Yes.”
Kim Rok Soo tried not to think too much about it even as several eyes were now staring at the both of them, the two men with black hair, thanks to Choi Han’s flashy stunt.
He led Choi Han to one corner that was relatively empty, occasionally having one or two people moving to make way for them deliberately, mind blank and feigning ignorance to the outrageous thing that just happened.
“Toonka- General Toonka! Wake up!”
Yeah, no, it will take some time before he wakes up, Harol.
Surprisingly however, Kim Rok Soo can spy that there were some people who were undisturbed by what happened just now as it seems that their attention was directed to something else. He saw a glimpse of blood red hair and found himself looking away immediately.
That guy… Cale Henituse.
If he was in such a bloodied state, could it be that he was transported here in the middle of getting beaten up by Choi Han?
He sneaked a glance at Choi Han who was shooting dangerous glares telling everyone to back off.
…Or was it that he was scanning the crowd to look for the trashy young master, Cale Henituse, to finish his score?
“Are you looking for someone?”
Choi Han blinked and then looked towards Kim Rok Soo. He shook his head, “No. I don’t think there will be anyone I know from here. I…”
His voice trailed off as his eyes darkened and Kim Rok Soo internally cursed.
He had stepped on a mine.
“I see. I don’t think I know anyone from here as well. It’s weird that I can understand these people’s words but I’m glad I’m not the only Korean here.” Kim Rok Soo hurried to change the subject.
Choi Han’s face quickly lost its dark cloud as he gave him a thoughtful look.
“You can understand their language? Immediately?”
Kim Rok Soo is sure that Choi Han already guessed that he was a Korean who came directly from Korea instead of someone like him, who was Korean but was thrown in a scary place to survive on his own for decades. Kim Rok Soo, unlike Choi Han, looked relatively clean and well-kept, but Choi Han would be surprised if he knew that Kim Rok Soo wasn’t from the Korea that Choi Han knew.
After all, the Korea that Kim Rok Soo came from was a destroyed place that was just starting a new.
They couldn’t even be called a state or anything of that sort anymore.
“Yeah. Weird, right? I had fallen asleep while reading a book on my day-off but then I found myself in this black room.”
Kim Rok Soo deliberately left those crumbs of information there.
He needed to appeal to Choi Han that he was weak, that he was just like him when he first got thrown into the fantasy world of ‘The Birth of a Hero’. Taken away from a normal life and spirited away to God-knows-where.
There was silence for a bit until they arrived to the corner that Kim Rok Soo was searching for and the two of them maintained that silence until they both sat down on the floor.
“…This might be presumptuous, but may I ask you a question?”
It was Kim Rok Soo who broke the silence.
Choi Han nodded, affirmatively and Kim Rok Soo made use of his question immediately before the punk could take it back.
“Can I ask why you have blood on you?”
“Ah.”
Ah, my ass. This punk, did he forget that he was covered in the blood of assassins?
The more Kim Rok Soo thinks about it, the more unlikely it seems that Choi Han had been brought here in the middle of beating up the minor villain, the trash of the Count’s family, Cale Henituse. He looked more and more like he had been directly plucked away from the battle in Harris village instead.
If he’d already met Cale, then he should have already washed the blood away but no.
This guy was practically parading himself as a murderer in front of everyone in this secluded black room.
Choi Han’s face turned sheepish.
‘Don’t go sheepish, you punk! Explain yourself!’
“Actually, I was brought here in… in the middle of fighting.”
“A war?”
“No.” Choi Han answered with a grim expression, “A one-sided massacre.”
Kim Rok Soo, who knew the details of the incident thanks to reading the novel that practically told the story of Choi Han’s life, nodded, glad at this confirmation, but the people around them with heightened senses that heard this all thought differently of the words of the guy who just blasted Toonka to the other side of the room.
Several wary stares were sent their way but at this point the Korean duo was already used to it.
What this did confirm however is the fact that the people all around them could also automatically understand what they were saying despite their conversation being almost completely Korean.
Kim Rok Soo just stayed quiet as he let it look like the information was still sinking in despite his nod.
Now he knows 3 things about the situation:
- He was the first one brought to this black room. He doesn’t know if that is in any way significant but he’s taking note of that.
- Choi Han was brought into the room in the middle of the fight against the people who massacred Harris village and has not met Cale Henituse yet, however, Cale Henituse, who arrived after Kim Rok Soo, was already heavily injured by the time he appeared here.
- He can understand the words of these people despite it obviously not being Korean and these people can also understand his words despite it being a language that none of them should know.
Whoever brought them here, whether it was a person a god or something like an event, it must be something big.
But the problem is that it looks like no one has an idea why they were brought here.
And that just makes Kim Rok Soo all the more anxious.
When enough time had passed, Kim Rok Soo decided that it was best to continue the conversation so he opened his mouth to speak but before he could do so, a projection appeared for everyone in the room to see, regardless of where they were in the black room.
Welcome.
“T-this???”
Various sounds of surprise, confusion and indignation spread across the people in the room as the words projected for everyone to see glitched and then changed in a blink of an eye.
It seems that an explanation is due.
Everyone in the room warily looked around and at their nearest companion, while the ones who were unfortunate enough to be all alone could only grit their teeth to handle the tension and not shrink away. First, they were abducted, imprisoned, and then now they were being forced to see things.
In the far corner of the room, a blue-eyed teenager with grey hair was staring at the projection appearing in front of him while clutching unto the ten or so children that were hugging him.
Kim Rok Soo stared at the projection that resembled a screen.
And then he stared at the person he saw beyond it.
Bloody red hair like the blood seeping through his injuries, the minor villain of the novel he was reading and the son of the wealthy Count Henituse had sat himself in one side of the room, his eyes that were weirdly the same color as Kim Rok Soo’s burning with an emotion that Kim Rok Soo couldn’t classify.
---
When Cale Henituse made a deal with the God of Death before the White Star could kill him, he included one more condition to his transfer.
‘I need insurance that everything will go well.’
He was dying and he was in no state to continue even if he survives. The Roan kingdom was gone- the Henituse family was gone- his family was gone, and he was one of the few people who were left in this destroyed battlefield.
If he was going to make this choice, he at least wants assurance.
He wants proof that the God of Death’s statement is true. That all he needs is to switch places with a man from another world with the name Kim Rok Soo and he’ll change many things. Though technically, the man named Kim Rok Soo is going to end up in his 18-year-old body and not this beat-up and scarred doll that was about to die.
Proof was what he wanted, yes, but he didn’t mean whatever the hell was happening right now when he said that.
“Y-you…? Are you…”
He stammered in surprise as soon as he caught sight of a black-haired man around the same age as him, albeit younger, looking at him from above with stoic cool reddish-brown eyes that were the same shade as his.
At the same time however, dozens of flashes of light appeared one by one all around him accompanied by various noises of surprise and confusion, people he could recognize and some that he could not appearing out of nowhere all of a sudden.
Then, he caught sight of a very familiar young man clad in black who looks the exact same as he did that night two decades ago when he gave him one heck of a beating and he subconsciously squeaked- a habit he developed whenever he saw the man, years even after that incident, whether it be as he is taking a leisurely walk around or in a battlefield.
‘…C-Choi Han-!’
The scar he got from getting beat up by the otherworldly punk tingled unpleasantly at the sight of him.
“Young Master!”
Cale flinched out of his thoughts as he heard a familiar voice approaching him, footsteps inaudible to almost everyone in the room. He tore his gaze away from Choi Han at the face of an even greater shock, knowing all too well the voice of the man who had suddenly disappeared from his life like smoke two decades ago.
A benign old man had rushed to his side with a rare expression of surprise.
“…Ron.”
He felt complicated feelings grow as he saw the old servant who was like a second father to him, right here, attending to him after almost 20 years of nothingness after watching over him for all his life. He looked just like how he did the last time he saw him- he was still old and a tad bit scary. For a moment, Cale wondered if this was all just a hallucination and this was a sign that he was about to die.
The old man didn’t answer to the weak murmur he was able to croak out in his condition.
“Father.”
Another surprised voice appeared somewhere behind Cale but he didn’t have the strength to look back. It was probably Beacrox, he thought, knowing that Ron only ever had one child whom he disappeared with that time so many years ago.
The surroundings were in chaos. People of all races and of different status were gathered at the same place without being given an explanation. Cale wanted to curse the God of Death.
‘This wasn’t what I meant by proof at all…!’
He didn’t understand what was happening, at all. He’s sure he didn’t get a head injury during the battle so why is he seeing and hearing things like this? Is this just really that bastard god’s interpretation of the condition he added to their deal?
Cale looked up at Ron with searching eyes, trying to look through the illusion.
A vicious flash of hostility seemed to appear on the old man’s eyes as he saw the desperateness on the young master’s face and he glanced at the chaos of confused people all around.
With a swift motion, he took off his outer coat uniform, covered Cale in it and then scooped the boy up like he was a child who needed to get to a doctor immediately and then he ran stealthily away from the crowd to not draw their attention. His son obediently followed right behind him, a stiff face unable to look away from the condition the young master was in.
“Cale?!”
“H-Hyung-nim!”
“ORABUNI???”
Cale struggled to open his eyes after being momentarily lulled to sleep by the comfort of being in a parent’s arms, and he saw a group of four people running towards him amidst the chaos within the black room. Thankfully, the other people were loud enough and yelling at each other too much to pay attention to the panicked screams of these people.
He vaguely registered being laid down on the ground some place away from the noise of other people fighting each other in angry-confusion, and hearing the conversation that quickly followed afterwards.
“Ron, what happened to him?!”
“Is it okay to be moving him like this???”
“Count Deruth, Countess Violan, do not fret. I checked his injuries and he hasn’t broken a bone. He’s bleeding excessively but we can patch that up. Thankfully, though he may have many wounds, none of them are particularly fatal.”
The sound of cloth being torn apart echoed in Cale’s mind and he felt himself being manually moved.
“Excuse me.”
This was a weird dream, he concluded to himself. He hopes he doesn’t wake up at all.
“P-p-p-potion! We need to find a potion…!”
“Orabuni, w-wake up! Orabuni!”
“Both of you, quiet down and give your brother some space! It’s already loud enough!”
Cale felt funny hearing the voice of his stepmother here. She was right, it was already loud enough and his head really hurt. He felt regretful that he could never really call his stepmother “mother” back when she was still alive. He lost that opportunity when their territory was hit long ago.
“…Mother…”
“….!”
A hand grabbed his as he felt the area around his abdomen feeling a bit pressured as if something was being tied around it. The hand gave him a bit of a squeeze.
“I’m here, Cale. Mother is here. I…”
Cale fluttered his eyes open properly this time and managed to make out the image of his stepmother’s face looking down at him within the dark room, hair weirdly a bit disheveled and eyes a little red as she held unto his hand like he was going to disappear at any moment.
As if it wasn’t them that disappeared, 20 years ago.
“Why is he in this state? No, what happened? Where are we?”
“…I do not know.”
He could hear the conversation between Ron and his father, and at the same time he could hear that goddamn voice.
-I told you. Your choice will change many things.
This motherfucking God of Death.
Suddenly, Cale’s head became clear after hearing that.
This wasn’t a hallucination; he could tell that now. Neither was it an illusion nor was it a dream.
The deal was for him to occupy the body of a man named Kim Rok Soo while the original Kim Rok Soo occupies the body of his 18-year-old self. Here in this place, almost everyone around him looked exactly the same as they did back when he was 18-years-old and acting trashy while drinking around like a horse.
Except for that guy who had the same eyes as him.
‘That must have been Kim Rok Soo.’
He could clearly remember the face of the guy who was here before everyone else. A person who was specifically chosen by the God of Death to replace him and change the story of the world.
Looking at the guy’s calm eyes even in this situation and how he slipped away from the crowd as soon as everyone else were summoned into this space, he was definitely not an ordinary guy.
Whatever the God of Death was doing, putting all these people in here with him and that guy, he’s sure it must have something to do with proving that everything will go well in the future if he leaves it to that guy and Cale doesn’t know what to feel about that.
“O-orabuni, are you okay?”
Cale inclined his head lightly from where he belatedly realizes that he was lying on a makeshift blanket that combined Ron's and his father’s outer coats and he sees his young half-sister, barely a teenager but still tall, her bluish gray eyes showing the same concern as her mother’s.
It was hard to look at the face of the young Lily who would have been past her 20s already if she had not died during the attack on the Henituse Territory.
‘Orabuni, RUN!’
He couldn’t help but see the overlap between the look of sharp alarm that his little sister, who was both stronger and nobler than him, gave as she yelled the moment the wyverns descended and the look of concern that his same little sister was giving him now.
Cale couldn’t look at them right now. He needed to breathe for a bit before he does.
“Potion! I have a p-potion!”
Just in time, a ginger-head in a butler uniform and one of the Henituse knights frantically came running to join the Henituse company at one corner of the big black room.
They practically doused it all over their young master in their panic, but thankfully they had more than one high-grade potion in hand and the ones who applied the next few bottles was the old and trusty Ron. In an instant, the wounds started to heal on the spot. It goes to show how amazing magic truly was.
But after the wounds had healed and the blood had been wiped away by the meticulous family members who insisted on contributing something to the situation, all these people who were brought here out of nowhere with no explanation were faced with something far more baffling.
“…You…”
Deruth was the first to speak up as everyone else, including the subordinates, could only be silent as they stared at the young master in front of them that had been treated and cleaned.
“…You look older…”
Cale gave a sorrowful smile at that and his family members felt their heart clench as they dreaded what exactly was going on to them.
“Yeah. It’s nice to see you again, Father. Mother. Basen and Lily, too.”
He looked towards the subordinates, starting from the ones he wasn’t really close to until Ron and his son, who’s been with him since practically the day he was born.
“…It’s been around 20 years since I last saw you. All of you still look the same.”
There were several sharp intakes of breath.
The family members could piece together what he meant and what he looks like from that alone.
Last night, all of them clearly saw Cale drinking a concerning amount of alcohol and parading himself around the territory as usual. He wore flashy clothes and had a flashy red-faced shit-eating grin and he was definitely, definitely, younger than he was right now.
Wounded and clad in tattered clothes, not only did the current young master in front of them look more worn out and roughed up than any of them have possibly imagined, he also looked way older.
Violan gripped her son’s hand tightly to anchor herself within this sea of uncertainty and confusion. She knows she shouldn’t be doing this. She doesn’t even know if Cale sees her as a mother knowing that he has a different mother still engraved in his heart.
But she still asks, because he was her son now, even if he never acknowledges her as his mother.
“Cale… Cale, can you please explain what’s going on right now?”
They just needed a little explanation. That’s all they want.
‘Please. Please let it not be what I think it is.’
She desperately pleaded in her heart, as her mind pieced together the things he’s said so far and the condition of his body.
Cale stared at her in silence for a minute, still lying on the ground.
In truth, he has no idea what exactly is going on as well- but he’s probably the one with the most information about how they ended up here, among this sea of people.
But when he decides to open his mouth and explain, a screen suddenly flashed in the air at the center of the room, startling everyone and turning everyone’s eyes.
Welcome.
A single word floated in the air for everybody to see, no matter where they were on the space where they’d been brought into.
Not even a minute later, however, this same word glitches and changes in the blink of an eye.
It seems that an explanation is due.
Cale abruptly sat up, causing his family members to try to stop him immediately, but he could not lay down any longer after hearing that goddamn voice in his head once again.
-You’re going to have to explain half of your experiences to all these people before I show you proof.
‘This motherfucking god of-’
Cale’s eyes burned with resolve to bring down the heavens at the outrageous thing that this so-called deity was telling him to do. If this guy was going to pull something like this, he should have just done this on his own rather than dragged him to do shit.
Looking around, he could recognize the younger versions of various big shots staring at the projection with varying degrees of bafflement.
How can a god half-ass explaining to these people???
Biting his lip, Cale called out to his trusty servant with a grave expression on his face, “Ron.”
“Yes, young master-nim.”
The way Ron naturally came to his side made Cale’s heart twist knowing the future, but he couldn’t let himself be swayed by his reminiscing right now. A fight seems to have already broke while he was out of it, seeing that Toonka, that barbaric man that doomed the Whipper Kingdom, was just waking up from passing out.
“Help me up.”
“…!”
“Orabuni, no! Stay still, we’ll handle everythi—”
“No, I need to stand up. The bastard god needs me to explain some things for him.”
At Cale’s matter-of-fact words, the people around him stared at him in shock.
First of all, god?
Second of all, bastard god?
Those two questions were written all over their faces. Cale just sighed.
Standing up to his feet with Ron’s aid, Cale ignored the twinge of pain in his body as he gave the projection an intense stare.
Like it could read Cale’s thoughts, the projection changed again.
Cale Henituse, if you would please.
All eyes fell on the direction of the injured redhead who was barely standing with his old servant’s help and Cale internally swore the god so much that if that guy’s church knew, they’d have already tried to stuff his mouth with their lousy scriptures.
“Henituse?”
“Isn’t that the eldest of the Count?”
“Cale Henituse? Who’s that?”
Murmurs spread across the room but Cale pretended he couldn’t hear them.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to put a little bit of trust in the God of death’s work rather than the God of death himself.
He wouldn’t have saved him only to let him die here, when he’s trying to persuade him.
“My name is Cale Henituse. In your world, I’m supposed to be still 18 but I am from a time 20 years after that, as you can see from the difference in my look.”
He started, trying his best to ignore the looks that his family members were giving him as he spoke.
“I came from a time 20 years later where my home, the kingdom of Roan and several other countries both in the eastern and western continent have been razed to the ground.”
A hidden person in the crowd flinched at this statement at the same time everyone else reacted violently to the information they were provided with.
“WHAT?!”
Cale plainly ignored the outburst of a blue-haired guy with glasses in the crowd.
“A few years from now, a secret organization hit each and every country openly and discreetly one by one, and slowly destroyed all of us. In the end, the remains of most countries banded together in a last-ditch effort to defeat the man behind all this. I, the sole survivor of the Henituse family whose territory was the first to be attacked, enlisted myself to this movement, but in the end… we had fought in vain.”
Silence enveloped the crowd now.
The shock on his family’s faces at the mention of ‘sole survivor’ is something that he does not want to see.
“We were defeated but I managed to survive, albeit barely, because I’d been stuck under the corpses of my allies.”
Cale continued and this time, pitying looks were sent his way. He closed his eyes to acknowledge this as he can still feel the pressure from the bodies of the dead piled up on him. In the end, that horrifying experience was the only thing that kept him alive enough to get this opportunity.
“That was when I witnessed the true defeat of our allies when our best bet against the White Star, who was the mastermind behind it all, was held by the neck in front of a decimated battlefield in Puzzle city.”
The words that came out of his mouth next came smoothly and naturally.
“When the White Star found me and sent a blast to kill me, the God of Death interfered to make a deal.”
Some people in the crowd perked up at the mention of a god.
Meanwhile, a certain woman in the crowd standing just behind a man on a wheelchair scowled.
“The offer was to allow me to regress back to when I was 18 years old, the time where you all live in right now, to reverse and completely erase the severe damages, but in exchange, I have to switch bodies with a man named Kim Rok Soo.”
“Kim Rok Soo?”
“Who?”
“What kind of name is Kim Rok Soo?”
Another individual far away from the crowd flinched as a certain black-haired black-eyed swordsman turned to stare at him with very wide eyes.
“However, I did not want to make a decision in vain and asked the God of Death to give me an assurance. Some proof that if I follow as he says then the world I live in and my family will not succumb to the same fate that they did during my time.”
The ends of Cale’s lips twitched upwards.
“…Truthfully, I had no idea what I was hoping to get when I asked that. Whatever the heck that bastard god does is his thing and his thing alone. I don’t really understand why he had to drag all of you people here.”
A pair of blue eyes hidden in the crowd of people curiously listened to his last words.
“But I would like to hope that whatever that bastard shows us while in this place, there must be a reason why you were brought along. So, I hope we can all cooperate and not send each other flying to the other side of the room.”
Knowing glances went towards the black-haired duo that were sitting in one corner.
‘Ah, so that’s where that Kim Rok Soo guy was.’
Cale’s grin grew as he locked eyes with the man that he would have become if he hadn’t asked for this little condition to the negotiations, apart from seeing his mother.
Then, he beamed as he tossed the ball straight back at the God of Death.
“Anyway, that’s all I know! Ask the bastard instead if you have more questions because I didn’t even know that I would see my family and the people of my household alive before I go.”
“Hyung-nim…”
“Young master…”
At that moment, the projection that had disappeared had flashed into existence once again.
As the regressor says, 20 years in the future, a great war happens. One which leaves the world desolate and in the mercy of someone that could break the sky.
The people who still couldn’t come to terms with what’s been said held their breath.
But all of you can be provided a new opportunity thanks to his decision.
Eyes shining with gratitude were thrown at a certain direction and the certain redhead who happens to be in that direction shuddered, feeling goosebumps all over his body.
I have gathered all of you here today to show you the proof of that.
The words glitched and changed quickly to a very long message that looked more like a guideline rather than a message in itself.
While in this room, time has stopped in the real world. Your bodies can get injured however you cannot die while in this place, and you can naturally recover as you stay. There is no need to eat or drink, no need to sleep. Your forms in this room have been manipulated to be like that.
Cale gripped his injury a bit harder.
Chief Harol let out a sigh of relief from behind a dazed Toonka who still doesn’t understand what’s going on but is trying anyway.
The things I will show you are the things that would happen if the deal between me and the human who was born as Cale Henituse goes smoothly.
Choi Han’s hand around the hilt of his sword became tighter.
Meanwhile, the look on the man who’s supposed to be Kim Rok Soo became odd.
Cale can understand the feeling.
Shit, this bastard god just knows how to press the wrong buttons with his words.
The story of a world that could be will now begin.
“Huh?”
Everyone, including Cale, had to blink.
Wait.
“Now???” The redhead sputtered but unfortunately, he was a beat too late.
At that moment, whatever light was making every single person in the room visible to each other-
It went out.
And everything became covered in darkness.