My life, Lee Siyoon’s life, could hardly be called fortunate.
At 22, just after completing my mandatory military service and finally ready to spread my wings, I was caught in a fire accident.
Though I clung desperately to consciousness in the ambulance, I couldn’t hold on and eventually closed my eyes for the last time.
Not long after, when I felt strength return to my eyelids, I found myself in a place I had never seen before.
A shady back alley somewhere in Europe, the kind of place where illegal dealings might be rampant.
Wracked with pain as though every bone in my body had been twisted, I managed to push myself upright.
However, my perspective seemed unusually low compared to normal.
It wasn’t until I saw my reflection in a puddle of dirty water nearby that I realized it:
I had died and come to another world!
It was disappointing to start not as a newborn but as a boy living in a slum.
Judging by the bruises and scars covering my body, it seemed my soul had taken over someone who had been beaten to death.
At first, I thought he might have been caught stealing food out of hunger, but that wasn’t the case.
“Hey! Isn’t that the black-haired beast?”
“What the hell? Wasn’t it dead just a moment ago?”
“Maybe it got lucky and came back to life.”
“So what? It’s good for us. We can have fun with it again.”
In this place, black hair was a symbol of rejection.
As an orphan living in the slums, I should have caught on sooner.
While being granted a new life was fortunate, it was anything but smooth.
I had to escape the village, cross the nearby forest, and live in the mountains to survive.
My first meal in this new world was nothing more than tree roots and underground larvae.
Fueled by a determination to live meaningfully this time, I endured day by day.
Five years passed like that, and finally, luck smiled on me.
By chance, a mysterious figure stumbled upon my hideout.
A woman exuding an extraordinary aura looked at me with interest.
Gripping a club I used to hunt animals, I prepared to defend myself.
I was determined not to repeat the mistakes of my previous life, where I had died so helplessly.
“Kid, you’ve got quite the sharp eyes.”
“Huh?”
“To think you’ve got the kind of gaze that only someone who’s seen the battlefield can have, at such a young age. You must’ve lived a miserable life.”
“Well, that’s…”
“No need to be so wary. It’s a compliment. I like you. So, how about it? Want to learn the sword from me?”
This was my first meeting with my only teacher, a former Royal Knight Commander.
“Haha! Who would’ve thought you had a talent for the sword? This is great, kid!”
That’s what my teacher said to me while training in swordsmanship.
At first, I thought it was just flattery to boost my confidence.
But as I continued sparring with her, I instinctively realized it was true.
I really did have talent with the sword!
I couldn’t suppress the joy and the grin spreading across my face.
To find my worth even before reaching adulthood—it was exhilarating.
From that moment, I absorbed my teacher’s swordsmanship like a sponge.
Even innate talent fades without effort, and I spared no effort.
As a result, I managed to manifest aura at the age of 15, achieving the minimum qualifications to become a knight.
“Kid… no, I guess I can’t call you that anymore. My student, the only thing you lack now is real-world experience. Go out there and amaze the world!”
“Thank you for everything, Teacher!”
With outstanding talent, an excellent teacher, and relentless effort,
I, who was once as insignificant as a lost duckling, had become a swan, proudly joining the Knights of the Kaem Empire.
Naturally, I was mocked and ridiculed at first, but I paid no mind.
Skill silences ridicule.
I became the youngest knight in history and was immediately sent to the battlefield.
The Emperor of the Empire was a war-crazed tyrant, unashamedly ambitious about conquering neighboring nations.
To him, a promising young knight capable of wielding aura was merely a sharpened blade to be used.
“Sir Siyoon, we have a special directive from the higher-ups.”
“What is it?”
“You’re to travel to the territory of Ludenberg and assassinate Count Benar.”
“Benar? As in the famous knightly family from the Kingdom of Lyor?”
“That’s correct.”
“An assassination, not a siege…”
Knights are supposed to live and die by honor, but the Empire’s knights were different.
The Emperor of the Kaem Empire treated tools of war as mere extensions of his will, and tools had no right to refuse.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, sir.”
On a night shrouded in darkness, I infiltrated Count Benar’s mansion with my subordinates.
After assigning them to guard the perimeter, I sought a one-on-one confrontation with Count Benar himself.
As a knight, I wanted to resolve this through a duel rather than an assassination.
I challenged Count Benar honorably and narrowly emerged victorious.
“Cough… Cough… It’s your victory.”
“It was a good fight.”
“You’re surprisingly polite for someone from the Empire. One might expect arrogance from someone so young, defeating me.”
“It’s thanks to my upright teacher’s guidance.”
“I see… It’s a shame, truly a shame. If only you were a knight of the kingdom, I might’ve entrusted my one and only treasure to you…”
With a bitter smile, Count Benar breathed his last.
As I left the room, carrying the pride of an honorable victory, I was greeted not by applause but by a raging inferno.
Flames engulfed the entire mansion, a reckless act orchestrated by my subordinates.
Annoyed by their unnecessary actions, I focused on escaping.
As I dashed through the corridors, preparing to leap through a window, a piercing scream stopped me in my tracks.
Turning toward the source, I saw a young maid about to be consumed by the flames.
Though she was a citizen of the kingdom and saving her was unnecessary, the sight of her trembling in fear triggered memories of my past life.
“Ah!”
Just as the ceiling was about to collapse, I slashed through the roaring flames with my sword.
Wrapping the girl quickly in my cloak before the fire grew stronger, I shattered the window and leapt outside.
Absorbing the impact to protect the girl, I set her down safely.
“I’m sorry, but Count Benar has passed. No one will harm you now, so run far away.”
The girl widened her eyes in disbelief, covering her mouth with her hands.
I shook my head and placed a pendant in her delicate hands.
It wasn’t worth much, but I didn’t want her to die of hunger after surviving this ordeal.
“Sell this, even if it’s not worth much, and survive. No matter how hard life gets, a day will come when you find light again.”
Gripping the pendant with trembling hands, the girl fled into the forest behind the mansion.
Watching her vanish into the distance, I completed my first mission.
However…
“How dare you disobey my orders! Arrest him!”
“Your Majesty! This is unfair!”
The enemy wasn’t external—it was internal.
My mission wasn’t just to assassinate Count Benar but to annihilate his entire family.
My subordinates had misrepresented the orders, and while I dueled with the Count, they set the mansion ablaze, even attempting to kill me in the process.
Jealous and resentful of me from the start, they plotted to eliminate me on my first mission.
I was furious but couldn’t deny the consequences of saving the girl from the Benar mansion.
Though my success in defeating Count Benar spared me from execution, I lost my left arm.
Even though it wasn’t my dominant arm, losing it disrupted my balance—a fatal disadvantage for a swordsman.
With my skills diminished, any dreams of becoming a knight commander or even serving in the Imperial Guard were dashed.
“Lee Siyoon, I appoint you as Princess Ariel’s bodyguard.”
As if unwilling to let me live in peace, a new assignment was thrust upon me.
While being removed from the battlefield seemed like a reprieve, it only led to another warzone.
Being a princess’s bodyguard might seem like a stable position, but it was anything but.
The Emperor had two children: Crown Prince Armin and Princess Ariel.
Prince Armin was arrogant, incompetent, and consumed by ambition, while Princess Ariel, though proud, was unmatched in beauty and talent.
This made the Crown Prince view her as a rival and a threat, perpetually scheming to eliminate her.
Through his loyal supporters, he launched countless assassination attempts on the princess.
“An assassin! Protect the princess!”
The annual assassination attempts on Princess Ariel numbered a staggering 100.
The task of thwarting the princess’s assassination attempts naturally fell entirely to me.
Blocking the countless methods of assassination took a toll on my body.
Though I put my life on the line to protect her, Princess Ariel never once acknowledged my efforts.
“Sir Siyoon, isn’t it natural for my bodyguard to protect me?”
“Pardon?”
“If I’ve said something wrong, feel free to argue.”
“…No, you are absolutely right.”
“Hmph!”
And so, I lived nearly ten years as Princess Ariel’s bodyguard.
In those ten years—a span neither short nor long—the world underwent many changes.
First, the kingdoms, tired of the Kaem Empire’s invasions, united to resist.
Individually, they were disorganized and weak, but together, they posed a significant threat to the Empire.
To make matters worse, a hero of unparalleled skill emerged in the Kingdom of Lyor, shifting the tides of war completely.
As the Empire began to falter, the Emperor’s health also declined.
Doctors declared he wouldn’t survive the year, bringing the succession issue to the forefront.
Crown Prince Armin intensified his attempts to assassinate Princess Ariel.
The frequency and variety of methods increased alarmingly.
At one point, he even manipulated royal orders to send Princess Ariel to the front lines under the guise of encouraging imperial soldiers.
Not content with that, he leaked information to foreign forces, resulting in an ambush on the way to the front lines.
“Princess, I will hold them off here! Escape to the capital!”
“Sir Siyoon!”
Though I managed to protect Princess Ariel and ensure her escape, I was ultimately captured.
And so, here I am now.
Sitting in the Kingdom of Rior’s underground prison, reflecting bitterly on my life.
Aside from meeting my teacher, my life had been a relentless series of misfortunes.
“It’s so dark… both for me and the Empire’s future…”
The Kingdom of Lyor, having suffered greatly at the hands of the Empire, harbored intense hatred for anything connected to it.
Rumors suggested that torture was routine, and corpses were thrown to wild animals as food.
If ordinary soldiers were treated this way, what would they do to an imperial knight?
The outcome would undoubtedly be far worse.
“Should I bite my tongue and end it before the torture starts?”
As I agonized in my cell, the sound of the iron bars creaking open interrupted my thoughts.
A guard entered silently and placed a blindfold over my eyes.
“Don’t resist. Just follow quietly.”
So, it’s finally happening.
I was certain they were escorting me to be tortured or executed.
When they placed me in a carriage, I realized they intended to make it a public execution in the town square.
Not wanting to disgrace myself, I didn’t resist.
Having already experienced death once, a second time didn’t frighten me.
I only hoped for a happier life in my next reincarnation.
The journey felt interminably long, but eventually, the guard guided me out of the carriage.
As the blindfold was removed, I squinted against the sudden brightness and looked ahead.
To my surprise, I wasn’t in a public square.
There were no gathered crowds or execution devices.
Instead, standing boldly before me was a single woman.
Her commanding presence and piercing gaze made my entire body tremble.
She was none other than Lyor’s hero, Letia Heter.
“I greet the light of the kingdom!”
“You’ve done well with the handover. You may return now.”
“Yes, ma’am! I will report back immediately!”
The guard shouted with deafening vigor, shoving me forward until I was standing directly in front of Letia.
After saluting crisply, the guard departed.
Meanwhile, Letia, with a cold and sharp gaze, grabbed the ropes binding me.
“From this moment onward, you are under my custody. Understood?”
What?!
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