Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue
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I stared blankly at my left arm, which had been brutally torn off.
I had managed to roughly staunch the bleeding, but there was no way to recover the shredded limb.
Besides that, I was covered in far more severe injuries.
My right leg was gone from the knee down, and a large sword was embedded in my abdomen.
They were grievous wounds, yet I felt little pain.
A greater agony, one that transcended physical torment, dominated my mind.
‘How in the world did it come to this?’
Leaning against the rubble of a collapsed building, I slowly surveyed my surroundings.
The Riverune family, rulers of the continent's southeast for a thousand years, was engulfed in crimson flames.
As the young lord of this great family, I had ended up in this state fighting against foreign invaders.
"Filthy, cheap bastards. I'm at a loss for words. Sons of bitches."
Though ostracized for wielding both magic and swordsmanship, Riverune had proudly proven its worth.
We had overwhelmed other factions with sheer skill.
That was how we came to stand as the head of the continent's five great families.
But as they say, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
Felton, the continent's greatest sword family.
Everfilt, the finest family of mages.
Rantzverger, the veiled assassination guild.
All but Ties, the other three families, had invaded with the intent to annihilate Riverune.
‘A stab in the back at a summit for harmony? To hell with alliances.’
The five great families of the continent held regular summits for harmony.
Absurdly, the disaster began right there.
My father fell in battle, ambushed by the three family heads.
Though we lost our leader in an instant, Riverune remained steadfast.
The elders immediately appointed me as the acting head, striving to repel our enemies.
But it was not enough to thwart their plans.
"Cough."
As I tried to force my body to move, the sword piercing my abdomen churned my insides.
I violently vomited something hot that surged up from within.
What poured out with a cloud of white steam was a dark red clot of blood mixed with stomach acid.
Afterward, my stomach felt somewhat settled.
Leaning my head against the cold stone ruins, I looked up at the night sky.
Perhaps because of the flames engulfing everything, the clusters of stars that once shimmered like pearl dust were no longer visible.
‘Pathetic. Dammit.’
In my current state, I couldn't fight back.
I couldn't even take a single step, let alone fight.
The reverence I received for possessing talent that surpassed the founding head had now become an empty boast.
Due to my lazy nature, I had always neglected my training.
Even so, I had managed to acquire skills that far surpassed others.
You could call me a hidden dragon, so to speak…
No, my conscience won't let me claim that title.
Let's just go with, ‘My kid is smart, but he just doesn't apply himself.’
"Now I finally feel some regret. It's too little, too late."
If I had known it would come to this, I would have endured bone-grinding training day after day.
Of course, there was no guarantee that training diligently would have prevented this tragedy.
Still, I couldn't help but think it might have helped a little.
Letting out a self-deprecating laugh, I dipped my fingertip into the pool of blood on the ground.
Then, I began to draw a symbol on my chest.
Stroke. Smear.
‘But it's not over until the very end. Those bastards from the allied families would never have known I had a move like this.’
What I drew was the seal of Deinox.
A magic circle to summon the founding head, Deinox—the one who transcended human limits to become a god.
Having always prioritized learning all sorts of miscellaneous arts over training, I had found the Deinox summoning circle in the family's treasury.
Honestly, I never dreamed I would use such a bizarre technique.
This magic circle required a human life as a sacrifice.
‘Since my own life is the collateral, this feels incredibly unsettling.’
But if I could save the family by burning away my fading life, wouldn't that be a worthy trade?
Thinking as positively as I could, I infused it with mana.
It was my last resort, all I had left.
But even though all the conditions were met, the magic circle showed no reaction.
"Heh heh! Now it's my turn to stab you bastards in the back… Ah, why isn't it working? This thing."
I waited with a puzzled expression, but only a cold silence lingered around me.
Crackle. Crackle. Crash!
Only the occasional sound of completely burnt-out building debris crumbling could be heard.
At this rate, my life, the sacrifice, was going to end before the summoning could even begin.
‘Hey, you bastard founding head. Weren't you supposed to become a guardian deity and protect the family? Was that all just bullshit?’
It seemed this forbidden art was a lie from the very beginning.
Swallowing my bitter feelings, I let my head fall.
I no longer had the strength to even hold it up.
But just as I was crawling toward death, a faint voice reached my ears.
—If you were given a chance, what would you do?
‘I would achieve both revenge and the restoration of my family.’
—You dream big.
‘On my deathbed, shouldn't my plans at least be grand?’
As I exchanged a few words with the unidentifiable voice, my consciousness began to sink.
—Remember your origins, but do not reject reality. If you are blinded by revenge, you may not see the truth.
‘Crazy… what are you saying? Speak so I can understand…’
Just as the final voice echoed in my mind, a line was drawn across the pitch-black sky.
Simultaneously, a bright starlight flashed into existence.
As the great star of Riverune fell, a new star was born in the house of Rantzverger.
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: The Crow's Return
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On a pitch-black night, a figure clad in night attire landed like a cat on the roof of a mansion.
Softly.
The man moved like a ghost.
He made not a single sound, yet his movements were incredibly swift.
Before long, the man had crossed the garden and entered an outer staircase connected to the main room.
Then he paused, waiting for a moment without the slightest movement.
Clank. Clank. Clank!
"Time for the shift change."
"Ah, good work. I'll make one more round before heading in."
"Yes, sir."
Click!
Just then, knights were changing shifts in the hallway.
Silently.
Passing through the banquet hall toward the main room, the knights' security grew even tighter.
But once inside the room where the target slept, the suffocatingly dense surveillance vanished.
Even knights could not intrude upon their lord's private life, after all.
Click.
The intruder carefully closed the double-paned window and went straight to the bed.
There, a robust man lay asleep, holding a very young woman in his arms.
Shing.
Drawing a dagger from his robes, the intruder stabbed both of their necks in quick succession.
Stab!
"Gah!"
"Gurgle!"
The man waited until both of their hearts had stopped before repeatedly making rough cuts with the dagger used in the crime.
Stab! Thwack! Splat!
This was to hide the fact that a professional assassin had done the killing.
As if in a rage, he rained blows upon the woman, then drove the dagger into her spine and quickly retreated.
Despite the brutal butchery, almost no blood had spattered onto his night attire.
He had worked with such technical precision.
Finally, the man deliberately left traces of his entry at the window and swiftly departed from the mansion.
* * *
"Codename Crow. Mission complete."
"The young lord's dagger?"
"Wouldn't it be perfect? You know who handled it."
"What kind of report is that… Sigh! Fine. Rest for a day at the safe house, then return to the main house."
"Yeah, yeah."
I was speaking with a man of ordinary appearance.
The one who tossed me a wooden tablet while leaning against the wall was my superior, disguised as a back-alley thug.
But the supervisor couldn't reprimand me for my casual report.
It was because I had never made a single mistake.
Besides, there was a more fundamental reason he couldn't treat me carelessly.
Entering a secluded alley, I pushed my body into a wall.
I had entered the safe house through a narrow entrance concealed by a camouflage screen.
Following the passage for some time, I came upon several rooms lit by a faint glow.
‘E51.’
The room number was written on the wooden tablet I received from my superior.
When I found the room and turned the doorknob, a metallic sound accompanied a chill that washed over my body.
Inside, a bed barely large enough for one person and a bucket for relieving oneself came into view.
The conditions were appallingly poor.
Thud.
Lying down on the cot, I took out a small notebook and opened it.
It was a logbook of my accomplishments, recorded after each completed mission.
‘I've met the requirements for promotion.’
So far, my achievements included thirty Grade 2 VIP assassinations.
Despite being only eighteen, I had established a remarkable record.
Upon returning to the main house, I would surely be promoted to a Grade 1 agent.
Grade 1 agents were roughly 5th-tier in skill and often served as squad leaders in the combat division.
‘An assassin seems like the better path.’
Rantzverger's rules were strict, but they were quite liberal when it came to an agent's career choice.
To carry out my plans, being an intelligence agent—who is relatively safer and has frequent outside activities—would be more advantageous.
However, intelligence agents struggled to build a distinguished record, which limited their promotions.
It seemed best to continue as an assassin, just as I had been doing.
‘Deinox… Just why did you put me in this situation?’
As I lay there looking at my notebook, the incident from eighteen years ago suddenly surfaced and consumed my thoughts.
To my astonishment, the summoned Deinox had transferred my soul into the body of a newborn baby.
It wasn't the effect I had hoped for, but getting a new life was a decent outcome.
But the joy of resurrection was short-lived.
For I had been born as the fourth child of the Rantzverger family—my sworn enemies.
"In a way, this might be the best revenge. It's like planting a cancerous tumor inside my enemy's body."
From now on, I intended to climb the ranks step by step and stand at the pinnacle of the family.
Then, I would slaughter every last one of the bastards involved in the incident eighteen years ago, along with this detestable family.
I will show them just how terrifying a lazy genius can become when he actually tries.
With a chilling smile, I snapped the notebook shut.
‘But first, I need to escape this damn lifestyle. Even for a Grade 2 agent, a room like this is…’
I glanced around the musty little room with dissatisfaction and waited for time to pass.
* * *
The next day, I headed straight for Pailos Harbor.
To get to Black Scale Island, the home of the Rantzverger family, one had to take a boat.
The harbor was crowded with passenger ships and fishing boats.
I strolled leisurely along the docks, searching for a boat marked with the family crest.
Then, I began to ask the captain a seemingly random question.
"What's the price of blue marlin scales these days?"
"The large ones are 9 gelds and the small ones are 30 sells. Interested?"
"That's expensive. What about renting a fishing boat?"
"Just 5 sells."
I handed over five silver coins and hopped onto the boat.
When it reached 9:30, the captain began to row without a word.
Swoosh! Swoooosh!
The sea route from Pailos Harbor to Black Scale Island was extremely rough.
But the captain expertly navigated through safe waters.
After some time had passed, a massive island revealed its magnificent form.
Its outer walls resembled enormous, interlocking fish scales, shrouded in an endless sea fog.
This was the main residence of the Rantzverger family, Black Scale Island.
‘It's so impressive it's sickening.’
The entire island was constructed like a single castle, exuding an overwhelming aura.
As the boat reached the island's outskirts, I looked up and fixed my gaze on the tallest spire.
The sharp peak of the tower felt as if it could pierce right through my chest.
Standing at the boat's rail, I gazed endlessly up at Black Scale Island, which radiated a strange majesty.
As if meeting the rival of a lifetime.