The Third Life's Memory
The world spun violently as a splitting headache slammed into my skull. My vision went black. The dingy wooden ceiling of the Belheim inn, along with the voices of Isilia, Kaina, and Silphid growling around me in a circle, all dissolved like smoke. My senses plunged into an endless abyss. And from the bottom of that deep darkness, brutally vivid memories of my past life began to resurface, drenched in the stench of blood.
It was a day when torrential rain poured down through storm clouds that swallowed the sky. Cold raindrops mercilessly soaked through the gaps in my leather armor. That place was the sanctuary of assassins who ruled the underworld of the continent—a graveyard where countless ghosts lay buried. In that life, I had been the one who reigned over the continent’s greatest assassination organization, known as the King of Assassins. A reaper who blended into the shadows, leaving not even a breath behind as I severed my targets’ windpipes. The number of high nobles and renowned heroes who had died by my blade was beyond counting, and in the world of the night, my name was an absolute law that could not be defied.
But even for someone like me, there had been one fatal exception throughout my entire life.
‘Silphid.’
The woman with short dark-purple hair who would always stand behind me, offering an awkward but warm smile. My wife, who would slip into my arms every night, entrust her delicate body to me completely, and whisper that she wanted to spend her life with me. In the midst of the organization’s strict rules and blood-soaked daily life, Silphid had been my only sanctuary and my final tether to the world. I loved her so deeply that I would have gladly stepped down from the throne of the King of Assassins for her sake.
Yet all of it had been nothing more than a meticulously orchestrated, cruel play designed to destroy me.
……Haha, hah! What kind of state is this, oh King of Assassins?
The rough, vulgar mocking voice slapping against my ears snapped me back to consciousness. My body felt heavy.
“What the hell is this place…”
My limbs were as heavy as if weighed down by lead. My entire body’s mana had been completely sealed, and specially processed orichalcum chains bound me from head to toe. Forced to my knees on the cold marble floor, I barely managed to lift my head and stare straight ahead.
There, the leaders of the rival faction and their assassins had me surrounded, wearing vile smiles. And at their center, holding the other end of the chains that restrained me, stood none other than my wife, Silphid.
The usual warm, affectionate smile was nowhere to be seen. Her purple eyes, chilled by the moonlight, held no emotion whatsoever—they were those of the perfect assassin. The small snake tattoo on the back of her neck writhed grotesquely.
“…Silphid.”
“Why are you here…”
My low voice scattered into the sound of rain. A feeling like my heart was being torn apart surged through me, but instead of resenting her, I looked straight into her emotionless eyes.
Silphid walked over silently and stopped in front of me. Between her slender fingers was a small glass vial swirling with a bizarre black liquid. The assassins surrounding us began whispering all at once, wearing cruel smiles.
“That arrogant king actually fell for a mere woman and walked right into the trap!”
“Kuhahaha! To think he’d give his heart to Silphid, a tool who was supposed to live and die without emotions—how touching, what a tragic romance!”
“Silphid is an assassin who lived only to kill you.”
Even amid the enemies’ jeers, Silphid silently held out the glass vial like a machine. Unlike the noise around her, her inner world was eerily quiet. As if they didn’t care about me at all, they began to speak.
They said Silphid had been an assassin whose emotions were removed from birth. She had never learned how to feel joy, sadness, or anger at the sight of someone. To her, life was nothing more than carrying out orders and cutting the throats of her targets. She had believed she was fated to live as a cold tool without ever feeling any emotion, then die without a trace.
Even her marriage to me had been a perfect disguise according to orders. The command had been to act as my wife for several years in order to completely lower the King of Assassins’ guard. Silphid had simply carried out that order faithfully.
She knelt before me, met my eyes, and whispered in a voice as cold as a machine.
“Aren. From the beginning, I approached you to kill you.”
“Every moment we shared, every conversation, every bit of warmth—it was all a lie.”
“……”
“The organization wants to tear you apart in the most painful way possible.”
“But… as the smallest mercy for the time I spent as your wife, I’ll give you a choice.”
Silphid brought the black glass vial close to my lips. Rainwater beaded on its surface and trickled down like tears.
“Aren!! If you truly love Silphid, prove it by drinking this poison!”
They mocked and laughed at me. Her voice was soaked in the rain.
“It’s a poison that paralyzes the heart painlessly in an instant.”
“It’s giving you the chance to end your own life before they butcher you.”
The leaders watching from behind cackled and egged me on.
“Hahaha! You think the King of Assassins would die for someone he loves?”
“It’s obvious he’ll refuse, so let’s just chop his limbs off!”
“I can still feel the pain from when that bastard cut off my left arm.”
Silphid’s purple eyes coldly pierced my chest. In truth, she was certain of it too.
‘This man will never drink the poison.’
He stood at the pinnacle of the night world. She believed everything he had given her had been for the sake of his own status and honor. Even if he had truly loved her… no matter how blinded by love he was, it was human nature to struggle against the chains in betrayal and hatred upon realizing he had been deceived by his wife, or to curse her and spit in her face.
The surrounding assassins also snickered as they waited for my reaction.
“Drink it! Go on and drink, King of Assassins! Meet your end at the hands of the wife you cherished!”
“Why wait around? Just kill him already.”
But I couldn’t hear their mockery or Silphid’s cold venom. All I could see was my frail wife, wearing a cold and expressionless face while hiding terrible emptiness and loneliness behind it.
Even if everything had begun as an elaborate lie, the happiness I had felt while touching her skin had been undeniably real. And I wanted to carve what true love was into this poor woman who had lived her whole life as a tool deprived of emotions—like a brand upon her soul.
“……Silphid.”
I let out a small chuckle. It wasn’t the hollow laugh of someone betrayed, nor one mixed with resentment. It was the endlessly tender, deep smile I had always given her every night as I looked at her.
“Do I love you?”
“……?”
“If proving that is as simple as drinking this pathetic poison, I’ll swallow it as many times as you want.”
Clang—!
The orichalcum chains rattled loudly. Without even a second of hesitation or the slightest wavering, I lowered my head toward the glass vial Silphid was holding. I took the vial—still touched by her fingers—into my mouth and gulped down the black poison in one go.
Gulp— Gulp.
In that instant, a massive silence fell over the space, so profound it seemed to erase even the sound of the pouring rain. The sneering laughter of the rival faction’s assassins cut off sharply. They stared with wide eyes, as if they had witnessed something their common sense could not comprehend. They had believed no human could possibly swallow poison without a shred of doubt in front of the traitor who had led him into this trap.
And the one who received the greatest shock of all was Silphid herself.
Kwaaaaaaaa——
The deadly poison surged through my veins, viciously tearing at my heart. Blood rushed backward and black blood poured from my mouth, but even as my vision blurred, I never stopped smiling at her.
At that moment, something violently shattered inside Silphid’s chest, which had been frozen her entire life.
Thump—! Thump.
A massive impact she had never once felt since birth struck her heart. It was shock, astonishment, terrible sorrow—and finally, true emotion had come to her world.
‘Why……? Why did he swallow it without hesitation?’
‘Why isn’t he blaming me?’
‘Why doesn’t he hate me?’
Her purple eyes shook wildly. Hot tears instantly welled up in eyes that had been coldly sunken. The body of a tool whose emotions had been stripped away completely collapsed before the overwhelming devotion and love that Aren had offered.
The emotions that had been suppressed inside her began to burst forth.
“Ah…… Aren?! Why…… why did you really drink it?! Why on earth……!!”
“Hey, what’s wrong with that bitch all of a sudden?”
“Silphid, step aside! It’s a shame he’s been neutralized by the poison, but I have to repay him personally for what he did to me……”
Silphid collapsed onto the marble floor, clutching my blood-soaked chest and screaming. Toward the assassins who were approaching to celebrate their victory, she swung her dagger like a madwoman and roared.
“Don’t come near!! If you get any closer, I’ll kill you all!!”
For the first time, she was screaming not as a tool, but as a human being. Silphid, who had turned the blade of terrible revenge against the faction leaders who had used her as a tool, slaughtered everyone present. Then she took my half-conscious body into her arms and fled into the darkness.
“Huff… huff…”
That night, right up until the poison completely stopped my heart, Silphid clung to my chest and offered an apology that seemed to tear her own heart apart.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
That was the memory of that cruel yet passionate final scene from my past life.
“Hic… I love you… Aren.”
“I realized it too late… I’m sorry…”
Huff… haa…
I woke with a gasp, eyes snapping open. Cold sweat trickled down my back. The headache that felt like it was splitting my skull had subsided, but the terrible bloody stench from my past life and the sound of Silphid’s sobs still echoed in my ears like tinnitus.
I staggered upright, and a familiar yet strange sight unfolded before me. On the bed in the Belheim inn. The three women had laid me in the center of the bed and were wrapped around me in a circle. Isilia with her golden hair scattered, tightly hugging my left arm. Kaina with her head buried on my thigh, her tail twitching occasionally. And—Silphid, holding my right hand carefully between both of hers, looking at me with tear tracks clearly visible on her face.
When Silphid saw that I had fully regained consciousness, her purple eyes shook violently.
“Aren……! Are you awake? Did your… memories return?”
She asked as if hoping for it, but her expression showed she was worried I might hate her. Her voice was not the cold voice of an assassin I had heard in the memory just now. It wasn’t the voice sobbing and saying she was sorry. It was the lovely voice of a wife who looked only at me.
Kaina and Isilia, who had been sleeping heavily, also rubbed their eyes and sat up in a hurry at my movement.
“Master! Are you okay?! You didn’t wake up longer than last time, so I was so scared!”
“Aren! Your head? Does your head not hurt??”
The two of them clung to me with faces full of worry. I gave a bitter yet gentle smile at the wave of relief, and gently stroked Silphid’s cheek as she tightly held my right hand.
“Yeah, I remembered everything. Silphid.”
At my single sentence, Silphid’s lips trembled. She couldn’t hold back any longer and threw herself into my arms. Her chest pressed hard against mine, but right now, the sound of her heart pounding as if it would burst rang out louder than that sensation.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Aren… In my past life, I made you drink that poison…”
“I was such an idiot who didn’t even know what emotions were, and I trampled on your heart…”
Silphid buried her face in my shoulder and began sobbing like a child. Seeing this, Isilia and Kaina seemed to have roughly guessed the situation. Instead of growling as usual, they quietly closed their mouths. Kaina closed her eyes as if she understood, and Isilia drooped her pointed ears and gently patted Silphid’s slender back.
“Hey, assassin. Don’t torment my master too much over things that are already in the past. He’s perfectly alive right now and has become my man, after all.”
“That’s right, Silphid… Aren is the kind of person who would hurt more seeing you cry right now than from any wound from his past life.”
“Wait, hold on—Kaina, what do you mean ‘my man’… Aren is my husband!”
At the two wives’ unexpected comfort, Silphid lifted her tear-filled face. She roughly wiped her tears with her sleeve, then soon gave me a bashful smile with reddened cheeks.
“You two are right. The atonement for my past life… I can repay it in this life by offering my body and soul completely to Aren.”
Silphid gracefully climbed on top of me and straddled my body. The white skin and slim yet voluptuous curves revealed between her clothes filled my vision. She wrapped her arms around my neck, leaned close to my ear, and whispered in a deeply lowered, seductive voice.
“Darling, before those interrupters butt in… you’ll accept my atonement with your whole body, right?”
“Hey! We just comforted you and now what are you doing?!”
“Master! This time it’s really my turn first!”
Isilia and Kaina shrieked as they pounced on us. The night in the inn room where the three wives tangled together began to burn hotter and more fiercely than the cold rain from that past life could ever compare to.