Chapter 0
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Episode 0 - Triad of the Night
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"You traitorous bastard... How dare you betray the organization after being our Monarch? Speak up, you son of a bitch! Why don't you say anything, Park Chan-woo?"
I didn't respond immediately.
My body was immobile, with seven swords stuck deep in me, each one representing the betrayal of those who now surrounded me. I could barely keep my eyes open, but my mind was still clear. I knew that my current state was deplorable, worse even than theirs, though none of the seven were in any better shape.
"This is the right thing to do... comrades,"
"The right thing to do...? You fucking asshole...! Ugh..."
Their hate-filled voices mingled with the sound of the rain beginning to fall. I looked up at them, my former allies, now enemies, with eyes that showed neither anger nor sadness.
I had spent two decades as a puppet, with no real purpose, following orders I never questioned. Day after day, I killed, led and strengthened this organisation. But now, on the brink of death, I understood: I had wasted my life.
That was regret.
It was like experiencing an emotion for the first time.
Emotions, something that others considered natural, were completely alien to me. In my life as a killer, I had lost them all. But I was more than just an assassin; I had become empty, unable to feel even the pain of the wounds that now tore at my body.
"You guys feel pain, don't you... mates?" I asked, looking at them with some envy.
"This bastard...! You still have the nerve to speak? I don't understand how the previous Monarch could leave our organisation, the one we kept standing for centuries, to you."
"Heh... It makes sense. That's why it must go," I replied, with a bitter smile.
They looked at me with fury, their bodies trembling, their hands clutching their weapons, their breaths heavy. Their emotions were running high: anger, despair, perhaps even fear. They felt things I could never understand, and for the first time, I felt jealous of them.
As I looked at the mountain of corpses rising beneath my feet. Thousands of killers, the best in the world, dead by my hands. All of them had come to kill me, but none of them succeeded.
Now, only they were left.
The seven seats of the Triad of the Night, the strongest after me. But even they were in a deplorable state. And I knew it would be the end of them.
"It is time to die, comrades. If we fall, this world will live in peace for a long time."
My words fell heavy in the air, and the fury in his eyes intensified.
"You still dare to talk shit! Listen well, even if we are going to die, we will take you with us."
"Ha, ha... Of course. That is precisely my idea. That's my purpose now: to die together, comrades. Let's die so that boys, girls, teenagers, adults and the elderly will never again have to worry about us as a threat to their lives."
Without another word, they charged at me. I saw the swords being pulled out of my body, one after the other, and I felt my blood gushing out in torrents. My body trembled, but I didn't back down.
"I won't die here, you bastard," one of them shouted, lunging with his sword.
"I'm sorry... But we all must die," I muttered as I dodged a blow and counterattacked with what little strength I had left. "I just don't want anyone else to go through what I went through in this damn life."
One by one, all seven fell. As I watched their bodies collapse, my strength finally left me.
I fell to my knees, looking up at the cloudy night sky. The rain fell slowly, mixing with the blood that soaked the ground.
My eyes slowly closed as a small smile formed on my lips.
For the first time, I felt something: joy. I wasn't sure if it was for having fulfilled my last wish or for the simple fact of dying. But it didn't matter.
Finally, I had found some peace in this cursed life.