Chapter 1: Prologue

The ceiling shook, and gray dust fell. I closed my eyes. I had expected this, and I wanted it to happen this way.

“Hey.”

I called out to someone outside.

As expected, there was no answer. Even the person who had been watching day and night had left.

But could I escape with my body tied up like this? No, I couldn’t.

I tried pulling each of my unfamiliar arms and legs forward once. The clinking sound echoed.

Strong Gumok were bound to the walls and my limbs.

Gradually, the smell of something burning and thick smoke began to seep in from outside. My weak body, weaker than an ordinary person, was already gasping for breath.

Flash!

The end of the staircase I had to climb brightened in an instant. I squinted my eyes.

“What is this place? Feels like a prison.”

“Looks like it.”

I thought I heard faint voices outside, and before I knew it, they were right in front of me.

“Hey, what’s this?”

There were three of them—one woman dressed in a martial arts uniform, standing confidently in the center, flanked by two men.

Amazing. This must be what they call martial arts. I had never seen martial arts before.

Since my earliest memories, I had been confined in such a dark, cramped space.

As I stared at them in wonder, the man on the right took a bundle of papers from his chest and looked them over.

How could he read in such a dark place? Perhaps that too was some sort of supernatural ability.

“According to the Intelligence Department, this person might be a Jirang of the Hwanggeum Family.”

“Are there places that treat a Jirang like this?”

Ignoring me, the man and woman continued talking.

“Based on confirmed information from Mujung, the Elder of the Hwanggeum Family has been coming here daily. The Intelligence Department also has opinions that after entering and leaving here, something about the Hwanggeum Family’s actions changes. We thought it was some secret Elderly Council meeting, but turns out there’s someone like this.”

Is that so? Hey.

Only then did the woman finally speak to me. For the first time, I could clearly see her face.

I hadn’t seen many women, so I couldn’t tell if she was pretty or not.

“Why?”

When I asked, she seemed a bit at a loss for words. Maybe she didn’t know what to ask.

I found this interesting. The one who torments me like this couldn’t say a word if I didn’t speak first.

“You’re curious about my identity, aren’t you?”

“…Um, yeah. That’s probably the first thing. I was startled to see someone looking like this.”

“Prove your identity first. Then I’ll tell you.”

The woman smiled faintly. In an instant, a knife was pressed to my throat.

“This isn’t the time for childish mind games. Your life’s in our hands.”

“This isn’t a game. It’s basic. I’m not curious about you, but you’re curious about me. I have no reason to run away.”

“Is your life not enough?”

“That’s the most trivial bargaining chip I have. Look at me now.”

The woman looked at me—limbs dangling from the Gumok, blood pooling in my arms and legs, blue bruises all over, and oozing yellow pus from the sores. If she had eyes, she’d know I wasn’t lying.

“Right. I’m Myung Jaehee, Leader of the Inyeong Group in the Murim Alliance. Who are you?”

“I’m Gold-necked Hwan of the Hwanggeum Family.”

Their eyes widened at my words. I guessed the reason. I had been declared dead on the outside.

“Unbelievable. The Young Master of the Hwanggeum Family, thought dead, looks like this?”

“Sometimes I find it hard to believe myself.”

“Are you really the Jirang of the Hwanggeum Family?”

I nodded. Myung Jaehee frowned.

“Do you know how many died trying to root out the Hwanggeum Family because of you? You even designed the Gate Formation, didn’t you?”

“That’s true, but listen. I had no choice. I brought along someone who could use Quick Pleasure every day.”

Myung Jaehee glared at me, probably trying to confirm the truth. But she wouldn’t find anything in my expression—I’d long lost my emotions.

“Then I need to ask this first. If you’re the son of the Hwanggeum Family, why are you in a place like this? That’s the hardest to understand.”

“This is what happens when you lose a leader’s fight. You suffer a miserable fate like this.”

“Did your brothers leave you like this?”

“Even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand.”

Because of Myung Jaehee, I recalled memories I didn’t want to think about after a long time.

The Second Brother, whose position as Head was confirmed, with that inscrutable look in his eyes.

The Elders who looked at me with righteous eyes.

The day everyone in the family turned their backs on me.

Even the Second Brother probably wasn’t at ease. That day was basically the day the Elders took the real power of the Hwanggeum Family.

After that, I just wanted to leave the family and live an ordinary life. But even that was naive of me. The bloodline that created gold had long been reversed—gold flowed instead of blood, and money took priority over loyalty and honor in the Hwanggeum Family.

I was punished by having my hands and feet cut off just because I had the sharpest mind in the family and was thrown into the underground basement.

“Did you tell them to make you a Secret Agent of the Majyo?”

“That’s not it.”

I shook my head at Myung Jaehee’s question. It was the Second Brother who decided to make me a spy for the Majyo.

I didn’t know exactly when the Second Brother started doing that. It seemed like he’d been watching me even before the headship battle, but that was just a guess.

“I think I roughly understand. But what now? The Murim Alliance ordered all those related to the Hwanggeum Family to be assassinated.”

Myung Jaehee said this without any hint of regret. I wasn’t hoping to live either. I was already a dead man walking.

Right now, the Poison Parasite was writhing and moving inside my brain.

That poison was cruelly linked to the Second Brother’s life. The mastermind spy Second Brother would surely die, and naturally, so would I.

Yeah, rather than having my brain eaten away by the Poison Parasite, I thought it better to die cleanly by that woman’s sword.

“Then kill me quickly. I was answering kindly thinking you’d spare me.”

“You don’t seem to have any will to live. Maybe that’s for the best?”

Myung Jaehee smiled. The two men on either side chuckled. Maybe they thought that since I spoke so calmly and powerlessly, that was the case. But it wasn’t.

“I don’t lack the will to live. I want to live more than anyone else. I just know I can’t.”

I looked at them. The large sword mounted on the shoulder was impressive, one glance. To them, I might have seemed like an obstacle.

At least my life was still mine. But there is nothing without regret. My will to live was stronger than anyone’s. Because I’d never truly lived.

“You misspoke. Sorry.”

Myung Jaehee bowed briefly, sensing my sincerity.

As much as she felt my true feelings, I decided to accept her heartfelt apology.

I closed my eyes.

If I could live again…

I would try living a proper life.