Chapter 1
I Remembered
“That’s him! That’s him!”
The nobles, who were gathered at the banquet, were horrified by the appearance of a boy. Young-ae, a young noblewoman, could not help but be bewildered by the horrified atmosphere of the banquet.
“It’s Lucion Cronia, the son of the Cronian family I’m talking about.”
Next to Young-ae, a noble young man holding a glass of red wine, sneaked up and pointed with his finger at Lucion. It was rude to point a finger at someone in noble etiquette, but pointing at Lucion was fine as if he were an exception.
Young-ae was curious about Lucion’s appearance. Lucion was wearing a black hoodie and the hoodie covered his face. Of course, he stood out as hoodies were not suitable for a noble banquet.
“Why is he…?”, Young-ae asked slowly.
Young-ae didn’t know much, but she knew that the Cronian family was the one who protected the border. So, the question was – Why did the Cronian family make such an appearance like that when they had the same power as a Marquis?
“He’s crazy.”
The young nobleman beside Young-ae answered without any hesitation.“Yeah”, Young-ae answered and hurriedly covered her mouth.
“If you think he’s not crazy enough, then listen to this and you might change your opinion about him. He killed his mother ”
“What?! Really?!”
Young-ae seemed scared and the plate in her open hand started shaking lighty.
“Oh, you didn’t know? It’s quite a famous story”, looking at her reaction, the young nobleman beside her laughed.
“There’s rumor that the Count’s wife, who could not accept her son’s madness, committed suicide”
Young-ae’s gaze again changed and fell upon Lucion. She didn’t know which Count it was, but she got to know that the case of Countess of Chronian committed suicide was quite famous.
Well, Young-ae just heard for the first time in the social circle.
Young-ae then asked in a low voice, “Then… Why did he do that?”
“Even the Count himself doesn’t seem to know why. Otherwise, how else would they have to go to a banquet like that?”
The young nobleman approached Young-ae more and spoke boldly. It was interesting, but it was time to move on.
“I’m personally more interested in you, Young-Ae, than the reason why the countess suicided”, The young nobleman said with a sly smile plastered on his face.
“Why don’t we go somewhere else, Young-ae?”
“…Okay”, Young-ae didn’t seem to hate the idea either.
The two quietly left the center of the banquet hall and headed to the corner where the door was, when suddenly…
Bam!
From nowhere, a bottle struck the young nobleman’s head. While the young noble stumbled and couldn’t come to his senses, a shrill voice struck the ear of the young nobleman.
“Even if you’re a nobleman, don’t think you will be able to go far.”
The sound of the bottle breaking stopped the music that was being played in the banquet hall and everyone’s eyes were fixated on Lucion, again.
The footsteps of someone walking to the noble young man were heard very loudly.
“…it’s Lucion.”
At that moment, Lucion’s gaze was at the nobleman who mentioned him and the nobleman turned his head in a hurry.
“Arg! I made eye contact. The curse will spread! The curse…!”
Hearing the noble’s nonsense, Lucion laughed.
Soon, when they looked into each other’s eyes, Lucion suddenly started hearing the sound of a curse, a disease, from everywhere. Lucion ignored it and looked again at the young nobleman with a bottle of liquor in his hand.
“Are you trying to seduce a woman by mentioning other people’s family history? Even a dog in a rut won’t do that, you son of a bitch!”, after saying that, Lucion smashed the liquor bottle on the head of the nobleman.
Bam!
When the hood came off slightly, the people at the banquet stopped breathing. It really was Lucion Cronia. Although he is called by various names, such as the madman and the cursed one, Lucion Cronia was the most used one.
He’s a tough bastard. Once he bites, there is no way he would let you go.
Ttak!
When Lucion threw the bottle of liquor, he kicked the nobleman, who had already collapsed and moaned in pain. But, Lucion was merciless and continued kicking the young nobleman.
“I!”
Bam!
“Do you like talking about other people’s family history?”
Bam!
“Do you like to flirt with girls?”
Bam!
“Do you like it?”
The sudden violence in the banquet brought the count’s guards into the banquet hall. The guards were speechless when they saw what Lucion was doing. In their eyes, Lucion forgot the dignity of the aristocrat and is still beating his already fallen opponent with his feet.
“Sir, if you continue to do this….”
“Don’t stop me! I will kill that son of a bitch today!” Lucion screamed suddenly.
Who is Lucion talking to? The surrounding nobles, as well as the guards, started to whisper.
“I heard that he was crazy but to think it was real…”
As many people started talking about him, their gaze toward Lucion grew sharper.
[Why are you dirtying your hands because of him?]
The man standing next to Lucion bent down and touched his face.
[Your father told you to just go and come back quietly], the man continued.
“I did it because he was noisy!”, Lucion shouted and glared at the man beside him.
Every noble’s eyes moved towards the direction to where Lucion was screaming at…but there was no one there. People started feeling creepy as Lucion continued to scream at the air.
[I am the one to blame. Please, forgive me.]
The man reproached himself and squeezed Lucion’s hair hard.
‘You idiot, Russell… Why did you make fun of him when you knew your student was like that?’
Russell saw fear in the eyes of those who looked at Lucion.
It was obvious why they had this reaction. It was because they can’t see themselves as ghosts, so they’re afraid of Lucion. Only those who can see ghosts are blessed with darkness. Lucion, his disciple, was blessed with the darkness.
[Lucion, that’s enough.]
Russell tried to stop Lucion again.
Before Lucion met him, he knew that Lucion had been haunted by ghosts in this way until a month ago. But things got too big today. Lucion looked at the guards who had come to him and said, “If you dare to grab my clothes, I will immediately cut your throats for disrespecting someone higher than your position!”
Exactly!
Suddenly, Russell flicked his finger at Lucion’s forehead, and the anger in Lucion’s eyes subsided a little.
[Calm down, Lucion. He’s not the ghost, he’s a human.]
For those blessed with darkness, darkness took its place instead of Mana. Darkness is heavily influenced by negative emotions. Negative actions such as ruthless violence and verbal abuse, even if not necessarily emotions, leads to corruption and makes that person a cruel and merciless warlock that people know.
[If you don’t want to be a fallen warlock, take a deep breath right now.], Russell glared bitterly at Lucion.
Lucion became a warlock yesterday, so Lucion was unstable at the moment.
Lucion breathed deeply to calm down, as Russell said.
Then Lucion felt some gazes focused on him at that moment. Lucion was aware of that gaze. It was the cold and disgusting look that ghosts always looked at when they harassed him.
“You can’t be happy. You can see us because God has listened to our desire to torment you, an aristocrat, to the death.”
“Now, let’s be as unhappy as we are when we lose our necks and hearts. Hurry up and be abandoned by society and people and die!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill! Die! Please die! Please!”
Lucion clenched his teeth unconsciously as the sounds of ghosts that were harassing him, reached him. Not a minute of freedom has been allowed for decades. Lucion had to fight not to lose himself in the voices of the ghosts who talked like that every time.
[…Lucion! Look forward!]
Puck!
A fist came from somewhere and hit Lucion in the face.
“How dare this son of a bitch…!”
With a keen eye, a nobleman suddenly grabbed Lucion’s collar. Lucion didn’t know where the hell it came from, but Lucion couldn’t resist the power of that man who was increasingly driving him to the wall.
‘What strength…!’
That nobleman seemed to be a knight, but it was a mistake the knight targeted Lucion.
“Who do you think you are?! My brother… Argh!”
Lucion bit the aristocrat’s ear at the perfect time. Lucion’s sudden attack only fueled the anger of a noble who had already lost his reason.
Kwaang!
The nobleman grabbed Lucion by the neck and hit him hard against the wall. One of the ornaments, that had been fixed to the wall, fell on Lucion’s head due to the vibration of the wall.
Bam! Bam!
There was a similar, but disparate sound in Lucion’s ear.
Crash! Crash!
In Lucion’s vision, he could see the rain falling like an afterimage.
‘Rain?… There’s no way it’s raining…’
‘Ugh.. I can’t get up.’
Right now, his knees were stuck to the floor helplessly, and the objects that fell nearby were never seen in the world.
Smartphones, credit cards, wallets,…
‘Oh…’, Suddenly, Lucion recalled.
Lee Haram.
That was the name he used before he was reborn Lucion.
Thud!
When Lucion collapsed, the banquet hall was engulfed in deep silence. There was trouble coming up. No matter how crazy Lucion says he is, he is still the son of Count Cronian.
In this banquet hall, no one has a higher position than Lucion.
*****
“…ugh!”
Lucion grabbed his throbbing head and opened his eyes.
‘It couldn’t be a problem during puberty, right?’
Lucion heard Russell’s usual sarcasm sounded different today. The scenery of his room, which he always saw, also felt strange.
‘Damn it!’
Lucion closed his eyes tightly. It wasn’t the same, crappy routine as usual.
‘Lee Haram…’
The moment Lucion was hit in the head, he had a ridiculous experience.
A memory of spending 29 years as a Korean Lee Ha-ram passed by like a flashlight. Lucion couldn’t tell if it was really his or someone’s illusion, but it was because the memory was too clear.
‘If it’s true…….’, muttering to himself, Lucion frowned.
‘Then what am I?’
Lucion looked at his hand with a confused emotion.
This place was similar to the world of the novel, ‘The Grasp of Darkness’, that Lee Ha-ram had read. From setting up a worldview that worships light and disposes of darkness to his own Tesla empire, his own family, The Count of Cronia. And myself, Lucion Cronia.
All of this was mentioned in the novel.
[…Lucion?]
Russell looked at Lucion with a worried look at Lucion’s unusual reaction. He had some bleeding because the ornaments were pretty hard, but the doctor said it would be okay.
[You don’t happen to know who I am, do you?], Russell asked cautiously.
Lucion looked at Russell.
Russell returned back at Lucion’s gaze, which was different from usual. It was full of confusion instead of sharpness.
[What’s wrong? Are you sick?]
‘Am I… a villain?’, Lucion smiled bitterly.
Lucion Chronia, a warlock who has lost his only friend and teacher, Russell. He himself appeared as an intermediate boss in the novel. His brother Carson and the main character concealed his identity to kill himself. His life ended miserably.
‘Why me?’
In the novel, Lucion was falsely accused.
‘Why do I have to be miserable in the novel?’
He didn’t see a ghost because he wanted to. It was learned that when a person dies, they can never be a ghost to go to the God of Light. So I didn’t know it was a ghost and just asked who he was. And that question changed his life.
People mocked him for being crazy, and the ghosts who died to the nobles resolved the grudge through him.
‘Do you think I’m gonna live like that?’
Lucion had been feeling what daily life was like for the first time in more than a decade because Russell kicked out the ghost. It was only because of Russell, Lucion could live a decent life now.
Lucion breathed in.
‘This is an opportunity I’ve given myself. A chance not to repeat that life!’
Chiji!
At that moment, an unpleasant sound resounded and Lucion stopped breathing.
<<You recognized that you are an intermediate boss, ‘Lucion Chronia’>>
Suddenly, some letters in the air and Lucion quietly rolled his eyes. The world stopped.
Thump thump.
Lucion’s heart was beating so loudly that even he could hear it.
<<Would you resist your fate?>>
‘Resistance…?’
<<Or do you want to comply?>>
Two choices were given to Lucion. After that no other options came and Lucion could somehow hear a clock ticking, waiting for his answer.
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
The more Lucion heard the ticking of the clock, the more letters vanished from Lucion’s vision.
“I am..”
Determination entered Lucion’s eyes and answered without hesitation.
Lucion was finally feeling happy. He didn’t want to be taken away. To no one and by no one.
“I’ll resist!”
The moment Lucion said those words, numerous red threads coiled around Lucion.
<<You chose to resist.>>
The letters finally came back and appeared in front of Lucion.
<<Find and cut off all the red threads that are tied to you.>>
“…Red thread?”
<<The various fates you will experience will appear in red and blue threads. The red thread is the fate you must cut off to resist fate. Blue thread means a relatively low-importance fate.>>
“So?”
<<Just as small things change one by one, it’s always important for you to find the red thread if you cut the blue thread.>>
Even before Lucion asked, the letters created a new sentence.
<<You are caught by fate. If you resist fate, fate itself will lose its strength and be cut off. Well, good luck!>>
“Come on, wait….”
[Lucion…?]
Lucion looked around with astonished eyes at Russell’s impatient voice. The time, which had stopped, continued. The threads that were wrapped around Lucion, had also disappeared.
‘Resist fate? You mean, don’t follow the story?’, Lucion thought.
That’s good. Lucion never had the intention of living as an intermediate boss.
‘My happiness is in my hands.’
Lucion took his breath and calmly called Russell.
“…Teacher.”
Ting!
Maybe it’s because I’ve done something I haven’t done before. There was a blue thread that followed Russell and Lucion themselves.
‘First of all…’
Lucion was convinced that he could cut the thread in a tight pull.
“I’ll learn black magic”
The first step that I didn’t try, probably different from the novel.
Crisp.
A thread is cut off.