Nightmare
Darkness.
Am I dead?
I couldn't see a thing. I couldn't move my body.
All I could hear…
"Hyeonwoo!"
"Young Master!"
…were the voices of those goddamn women who'd drowned me, calling my name.
!
@#$@$#@!!
%#$%#%#%!!
What the hell are you saying, you lunatics.
Shut up. I don't want to hear it.
!!
*&^**&^!!
^%$^%$@#~~♡
Hah…
…Goddamn bitches.
The life-flash of this particular death was especially miserable. At least the last time I died, scenes from my childhood had played before my eyes. This time, all I got was a chorus of insane women screaming my name.
"Hyeonwoo! Hyeonwoo!"
And of course, the voice I hated most of all came through the loudest.
Then—
Ssshhh…
In that pitch-black void where nothing should have been visible, something began to take shape. Blurry at first. Faint.
Is this… the front gate of High School?
I'd been reincarnated for so long that I no longer remembered every detail of my previous life. But the day I died—the exact moment of my death—I remembered with perfect clarity, every single time.
The blur sharpened. The image solidified.
No doubt about it.
This was the place I'd first died. The front gate of High School.
And the scene unfolding before me now…
"We're finally graduating, Hyeonwoo-kun! Junam-kun!"
"Hell yeah, you damn otaku! We're free of this hellhole at last!"
My two idiot ball-friends—the same pair I'd spent my entire school life with—were celebrating on graduation day.
"Ugh, why are you two making such a racket, you morons. Tsk tsk."
"Choi Hyeonwoo's playing it cool again~"
"We all know you're excited too, Hyeonwoo-kun!"
"Yeah, no~ Cut the crap~"
Ah. Now I could see myself, hanging out with those idiots. So this really was that day.
The three of us had probably blown off the rest of the ceremony and were about to head straight to a PC bang for a round of LoL.
But then—
"Hey, Choi Hyeonwoo! And the rest of you idiots, where do you think you're going!!"
"Whoa, Class Prez, that's harsh! 'The rest of us'?!"
"Junam-kun! It can't be helped. They're childhood friends, after all!"
"Yeah, yeah! Childhood friends or whatever—I already got my diploma, so I'm out of here~"
I said I was leaving, but the class president had spotted us, and that was that. We weren't going anywhere. Even on the very last day of school, those idiots still insisted on tying me to the class president.
Looking back on it now… I could almost understand why people kept pairing us together.
The cursed bond that started in kindergarten when we were five years old had stretched all the way through high school. We'd even been planning to go to the same university.
But that was only ever a plan. Nothing more.
"Still, we should at least take a group photo before we go!"
"Ugh… what a pain…"
"Hyeonwoo-kun, how can you be this socially oblivious!"
"Hey, you damn otaku, this is Korea! Drop the character already!"
"And Hyeonwoo, taking a photo before we leave does seem like the polite thing to do."
"See? Junam-kun agrees! Let's go!"
"Fine… whatever."
"Hurry up, you idiots!"
We followed the class president over to where the rest of our classmates had gathered.
"Ah. Guys, hang on a second."
"Huh?"
"What is it, Hyeonwoo-kun?"
But then—
I made a choice I could never take back.
A catastrophically wrong choice.
"Someone's missing."
"Who…? Ah!"
"Hye-yeong isn't here."
I hadn't even counted heads. I just… saw it. One person was gone. She was gone.
"Just wait a sec, I'll go find her real quick! Huh? Class Prez, what's wrong?"
"…Nothing. Just bring her back fast."
"Ugh… clueless bastard."
"As expected of Hyeonwoo-kun—a classic protagonist!"
"What the hell are you talking about. I'll be right back, just wait!"
It wasn't just the decision to go looking for her that I regretted.
"Oh, found you. Lee Hye-yeong!"
…
Why did I keep…
Why did I stick my nose into her business?
I should have just ignored her, the way my friends always said.
"What are you doing here? Come on, let's go."
"Liar…"
I should never have gotten involved.
"Huh? What did you—"
"LIAR!!!"
Shunk!!
"Ghk—!!"
"Kyaaaaaah!!"
"M-Murder!!!"
Haha. What a pathetic bastard.
Looking back on it… I was walking straight to my own death.
And after that—
Shunk! Shunk! Shunk!
Yeah. That's how brutally I died.
I lost count of how many times the knife punched through my gut. She kept stabbing even after I was already dead… that crazy bitch…
And still—why did no one around us try to stop her? Why didn't anyone even call for help?
Those bastards…
The scene playing out was identical to my memory, down to the last detail. Showing me the end of my first life… what a bizarre death-flash this was.
"Hy-Hyeonwoo!?"
"Huh?"
A different woman's voice. Not the lunatic's.
What the hell…
"Ah. It's you."
"Hey! Lee Hye-yeong! Did you do this!?"
The class president. My childhood friend… Kim Soo-young…
"Call a hospital—no, the police!"
Yeah. You're the normal one, at least.
The crazy bitch who killed me would end up in prison after this… wait?
The lunatic was walking toward Kim Soo-young, who still had her phone in her hand.
"W-Wait!"
"Hey! Hey! Don't come any closer!"
"No!"
"Y-You're not seriously—!?"
"I'm enough! Just me!"
"Don't—!!"
Shunk!!
"Kyaaaaaah!!"
"Kyahahahaha!!"
"Hah…! Hah…! Ah… Hyeonwoo…"
"No… no!! St-Stop it, you crazy bitch!!"
Shunk! Shunk! Shunk!!
"It's your fault Hyeonwoo—!"
"Hye… on… woo… khrrk…!"
Shuuuunk!!
"If it weren't for you—!"
…
The childhood friend who'd been by my side since we were little was butchered without mercy.
Was she blaming me?
Even as the lunatic's knife kept driving into her, right up until her last breath—she called my name.
I'm sorry. I should have just done what you said. Taken the photo with everyone and gone home.
But the horror didn't end there.
Next—
Shunk! Shunk! Shunk!!
"Aaaaaagh!!"
"Somebody stop her!! Ghk—!!"
"Just one person—!! Aaaaagh!!"
The bystanders who'd done nothing but watch were slaughtered one by one.
Th-This can't be…
This is impossible!
That crazy bitch killed all those people by herself?
This isn't a fantasy world. So why the hell can't anyone stop a high school girl swinging a knife—no, a woman who'd just become an adult!!
"Choi Hyeonwoo! Class Prez! What hap— wait, shit! Aaaaagh!!"
"Junam-ku— what! No, please, spare me! Please, aaaaagh!!"
Shunk! Shunk!
"No!"
The lunatic's knife turned on my ball-friends too.
What the hell is going on!
Teachers and security guards who'd finally noticed the chaos came running to stop her—
Shunk! Shunk!
"Aaaaaagh!!"
Ha! Haha…
Is this for real?
No. It can't be real.
Yeah. It's a dream.
But you goddamn bitch.
Killing just me wasn't enough for you?
Even if it was only a dream—every time another victim fell to that lunatic's knife, rage and grief tore through me.
Even if it was just a dream…
No… what if it wasn't?
Sh-Shut the fuck up!!
It's a dream.
A nightmare.
Not some life-flash.
I'm not dead!
"You fucking bitch, stop it!!"
"E-Ed!?"
"Hah…! Hah…! N-Noona?"
"Yes, Ed! It's your big sister!"
Huh…?
I could hear my own voice.
And right in front of me, staring at the version of me who'd just bolted upright screaming, was my sister Lilith.
"A-Are you okay!? Ed!"
"Haha…"
Was it really just a dream?
I still couldn't tell whether this moment was real.
Bang!
"Young Master!"
"G-Grace…?"
"Yes! It's me! Grace, your escort knight. Forgive me—this is my failure…"
"Ah…"
Watching Grace burst through the door in a rush, my senses slowly started coming back.
"A-Are you all right, Young Master!?"
"Ah… Doctor…"
"Is Ed okay!?"
"If you'll pardon the intrusion, I'll examine him briefly. Everything appears normal, but…"
The moment the doctor's hand touched my arm for the examination, I finally believed it. This was reality.
"Haha… sniff…"
Tears came.
Thank god… really…
Soo-young, Junam, Simdeok… you're okay, right?
No—you have to be okay… please…
"E-Ed? Don't cry! You had a nightmare, didn't you!"
"A… nightmare?… Yes… I think I had a nightmare."
Yeah. It was just a dream. A nightmare.
Something that cruel could never actually happen.
Haha…
"It's because of that crazy bitch!"
"Crazy bitch…?"
"Ah… not a crazy bitch… the Hero!"
"Ah… that crazy bitch…"
Yeah. That lunatic was exactly why I'd had a nightmare like that. Even if it wasn't real—even as a dream—it had been utterly, thoroughly goddamn awful.
"Fucking bitch…"
"E-Ed… you should use nicer language…"
She'd dropped a full string of curses at the banquet hall herself, and she was still swearing now—and she was telling me not to curse?
Then again… it was the first time I'd ever seen Lilith swear. And it was probably the first time she'd ever heard me do it either.
Maybe we were both seeing sides of each other we'd never known before.
I opened my mouth to ask what had happened while I was out—
"What happened whi—"
CRASH!!
BOOOOM!!
WEEE-OOO-WEEE-OOO!!
Before I could finish the sentence, the sound of something shattering and the blare of an alarm tore through the air.
The alarm was probably coming from the magical barrier installed around the mansion.
Why did I feel so uneasy?
No—my instincts were screaming it at me.
Something goddamn awful was happening again. I tried to get out of bed to look out the window and figure out what was going on.
Thud.
But my legs gave out. I could barely stand.
"Ed! You shouldn't get up!"
"You mustn't rise just yet, Young Master! You've only just woken—you need to rest!"
"She's right! Young Master, I'll go find out what's happening!"
Everyone who saw me tried to stop me. But I didn't have time to sit still.
BOOOOM!!
Another explosion from outside.
I was terrified.
If I just stayed here, I felt like I was going to lose something precious.
And so—
"Ah… that's her doing for sure!"
"Ed?"
"Out of the way! I already know what it is! That fucking bitch!"
I forced myself upright, made it to the window, and looked down.
"Ha! This fucking bitch…!"
My gut feeling had been right.
The lunatic had a knife pressed to the throat of my airheaded personal maid.
Had it been a prophetic dream?
You crazy bitch. Don't you dare.
In this life, I would not let a nightmare like that become reality. I would not lose the people I cared about.
With every ounce of strength I had left, I roared—
"You goddamn bitch! Get your hands off her!!"