Surviving as the Emperor's Assassin

Chapter 1. I Killed the Emperor.

Huh? Did I doze off for a moment?

The surroundings were dark.

Only after blinking a few times did I start to see something.

Right in front of me, a man sat on a splendid chair.

His tacky clothes—red and yellow and covered in sparkling decorations—along with something like a crown on his head, suited the chair quite well.

But I couldn't bring myself to laugh.

Because a red liquid was trickling out from his limp body.

“Uh……?”

Blood?

A long sword was embedded in the man's stomach.

As my gaze followed the sword, I realized my hand was gripping its hilt.

What? A sword?

Anyone seeing this would misunderstand and think I had stabbed this man.

I looked around.

It was a room with a high ceiling.

There seemed to be many splendid decorations here and there, but without proper lighting, I couldn't see them clearly.

There were many fallen people.

Dressed in outfits just as ridiculous as the man in the chair, they were all bleeding.

“A dream…… right?”

A sight devoid of reality.

Looking down, I saw I was also wearing strange clothes.

This was definitely a dream.

The door burst open, and a crowd of furious people rushed in.

The sight of them holding swords or spears was chilling.

Moreover, they were all aimed at me.

Wow, what a strange dream this is.

A scene impossible in reality felt vividly real.

It was clearly a dream, but it didn't feel like one.

The faces surrounding me were terrifying.

“That bastard, His Majesty the Emperor……!”

“Subdue him!!”

The moment I registered the blades rushing toward me, my body moved before my mind could think.

When I came to my senses, I was already launching myself through a nearby window.

It was an instinctive act of evasion.

Crash!

The glass broke and scattered in all directions.

Feeling the nauseating sensation of my insides lifting up, I realized I was falling from a height easily exceeding 10 meters.

Reaching the ground took only a brief moment.

Thud.

Surprisingly, I landed stably.

Somehow, I felt like similar things had happened a few times before.

“Usually, if you fall in a dream, don't you wake up…….”

If this were an ordinary dream, this series of events should have startled me awake several times over, yet there was still no sign of waking.

Throb.

The moment I tried to take a step, a pain in my ankle made my body tilt.

Of course, falling from that height, there was bound to be an impact.

It was only natural.

If this were a real situation, that is.

“……Why does it hurt?”

It was strange.

For a dream, all my senses were too vivid.

No, it wasn't just similar to being awake; my senses felt even sharper.

The cuts from breaking the window and throwing myself out stung.

I could smell the trampled grass, and the faint taste of blood lingered in my mouth.

From afar, I heard shouting and the sound of footsteps running around, searching for me.

It was definitely a nightmare.

It had to be a nightmare.

* * *

“Hah. Ha……”

I was out of breath.

My heart beat like crazy.

It felt as if my body was whispering to me not to run away from reality.

‘If this is reality, what should I do?’

Amidst the confusion, the image of the dead man flickered.

No matter how I looked at it, it was clearly a murder scene.

Seeing everyone chasing me with such fervor, they must think I'm the murderer.

Since I'd run away, there was no chance of clearing up that misunderstanding.

Though honestly, even if I had tried to explain, I doubt they would have listened.

“This way!!”

“He couldn't have gone far!”

“Surround him!”

Hearing the voices nearby, I kicked off the ground.

One thing was certain: I had to escape now.

But this place was unfamiliar.

I didn't even know which direction to go.

I ran, trusting my instincts.

I ran into dead ends several times, and each time, the pursuers' footsteps grew louder, closer.

“He's the one who harmed His Majesty the Emperor!”

“Don't let him escape! We must catch him!”

From the pursuers' voices, the word ‘Emperor’ particularly stuck in my ears.

The Emperor?

That dead man?

It was absurd.

As a resident of a democratic republic, the only time I'd seen anything like an emperor was in world history textbooks, but I knew how serious an event the death of a head of state was.

‘What on earth is going on?’

The Emperor was dead.

And I was the prime suspect.

If caught, I probably wouldn't even die peacefully.

If this was a dream, it would end when I woke up. But what if it wasn't?

My thoughts grew increasingly tangled.

However, there was no time to think deeply.

‘How long do I have to keep this up……!?’

Forced to stop and start repeatedly due to pursuers closing in from all sides.

I was barely avoiding capture, but I didn't feel like I was escaping the pursuit.

Above all, with only the dim moonlight, the surroundings weren't clearly visible, so I couldn't even properly grasp which direction I was heading.

Just as I began to worry I was running in circles.

“A wall……?”

A massive wall, like something seen in ruins, blocked the path ahead.

Thinking positively, it was clear that I had at least gotten far from the building where I first opened my eyes.

And beyond the wall, there was a good chance the pursuit would lessen, even if only slightly.

‘If only I can get over the wall, that is.’

The wall's height was only about that of a 2 or 3-story building, but looking left and right, I couldn't see its end.

There might be stairs or a ladder leading up the wall, but unfortunately, none could be found nearby.

‘Is it better to look for another path?’

I unknowingly bit my lip.

Even now, people had to be chasing me.

Lingering in one spot trying to find a way over the wall was not a very good idea.

The problem was, there was no guarantee that I could find another path.

‘Damn it, I need to move quickly……!’

I wasted time, floundering, unable to decide, and the realization that I'd wasted precious moments made me even more frantic.

As I lost my composure, my mind froze, making it harder to think clearly.

It was a vicious cycle.

However, knowing that fact didn't provide a way to escape it.

“So here you were.”

Just then, a clear voice suddenly sounded from behind me.

My heart sank.

I barely suppressed the scream trying to burst out.

No one here was on my side.

Making a loud noise was a suicidal act.

“Who… are you……?”

Turning my head, I saw an old man with a kindly appearance approaching me.

His wrinkled face and snow-white beard were distinctive.

“You don't even recognize your master's face, disciple?”

“Pardon?”

Master...?

* * *

From elementary school to university, a total of 16 years, there were many teachers who taught me.

Honestly, I'm bad at remembering faces, so there aren't many people I remember.

But at least, I could assert that this old man was not one of my former teachers.

The reason was simple.

In my life, I've experienced both good teachers and bad teachers, but I've never been taught by a ‘teacher holding a sword’.

“How about we talk after you put down that menacing weapon? I think you've mistaken me for someone else……”

In the old man's hand was a sword with a blade easily over a meter long.

An old man who looked like he should be leaning on a cane, ailing, holding such a large sword—it was just bizarre.

“Disciple. My beloved disciple. Why did you kill the Emperor?”

The old man looked at me with sad eyes and aimed the sword.

Regardless of his nonsensical talk about being my master, I felt an undeniable aura from the old man.

“Just a moment. I am not your disciple. I've never killed anyone either.”

I tried to persuade the old man while backing away.

“If you have even a shred of pride left as my disciple, accept the end with dignity.”

“I'm really being framed! If you just listen to me, you'll surely understand……!”

“As your master's final mercy, I will send you off painlessly.”

“Aren't you listening to me?!”

It wasn't just that persuasion wasn't working.

He wasn't listening to me at all.

Not at all, not even a little bit.

Every step I took back, the old man took one forward.

The distance didn't widen at all.

Thump.

My back hit the wall.

Now, I couldn't retreat any further.

“Luke. You were my best disciple, and my worst disciple.”

Somehow, this old man seemed to be confusing me with a person named ‘Luke’.

The old man stepped forward and swung the sword.

The sword slid through space.

Splitting the briefest moment, it came aiming for my neck.

It looked like it was moving in slow motion.

“……!”

I reflexively lowered my head.

Swish.

A sound too light to be a sword cutting the wind tickled my ear.

The sword that brushed past above my head.

Goosebumps prickled my skin at the thought that my head would have been lopped off if I hadn't moved.

And then.

Crunch.

The old man's sword split the wall.

Stone fragments rained down from above.

“Splitting a wall with a sword……?”

I couldn't come to my senses at the unbelievable sight.

Wasn't it a wall made by stacking stones?

In terms of hardness, it wouldn't be much different from rock.

Swinging a sword with ordinary force would be lucky to even leave a scratch.

I thought he was just an old man nearing his end, but he was a monster.

“Don't dodge.”

“Then I'll die!”

“Yes. I'm telling you to die.”

The old man attacked relentlessly.

The deadly sword blade glinted, reflecting the moonlight.

“Damn it, this crazy old geezer. He's really trying to kill me……!”

I didn't even have time to complain properly.

My body moved instinctively, somehow dodging, but I still received a few shallow cuts on my arms and legs.

Before long, I completely lost balance and ended up rolling on the dirt ground.

“Hyeok. Hek……”

Sweat poured down like rain.

My heart felt like it would leap out of my body.

I really couldn't take this anymore.

What sin had I possibly committed to deserve this torment?

Faced with this stream of absurdities, curses welled up in my throat.

Suddenly, I realized the old man had stopped attacking.

With no strength left to stand, I lay flat on the ground, only managing to lift my eyes to look at him.

“Who are you?”

The old man's gaze changed.

The gaze that, until a moment ago, was complexly mixed with affection, anger, and sadness, was now filled with straightforward hostility.

“Pardon?”

“You are not my disciple!”

The old man shouted at me.

Thanks to him stopping the sword immediately, I managed to preserve my life, but the situation hadn't improved.

“Have you really gone senile……”

Still, the sword was held in the old man's hand, and there was no sign of fatigue at all.

He could run me through whenever he chose.

I was in no state to dodge anymore.

“That body belongs to my disciple! Get out immediately!”

“What are you talking about now? Can't you speak so I can understand?”

What about the body?

It was, how should I put it, a line a shaman would say to a possessed person.

Was the old man hallucinating now?

“Foolish fellow. So you didn't even know what state you were in.”

The old man looked down at me as if I were pathetic.

It was an unpleasant gaze, but all I could do was look up at the old man with defiant eyes.

“See for yourself.”

After a moment's thought, the old man thrust the sword into the ground before me.

My reflection appeared on the side of the well-maintained sword, shining like a mirror.

“What on earth am I supposed to see……”

It was the face of a young man I had never seen before in my life.

Pale blond hair and deep blue eyes.

As I moved parts of my face, the face reflected in the sword followed exactly.

“Ahaha. What, it seems it really was a dream after all. Aha. Hahahah……”

At some point, the laughter died.

Actually, I had known for a while that this wasn't a dream.

What I was doing now was mere denial.

“……Damn it.”

Things seemed to have gone seriously wrong.