Record of a Thousand Lives

“Han Se-Hyun!” Yu Si-Do screamed his lungs out toward the man.

Han Se-Hyun crossed his arms over his chest and coldly said, “You don’t have to remind me what my name is.”

Yu Si-Do gritted his teeth as he charged toward the stage, and the moment he swung his hand, four daggers flew from between his fingers toward Han Se-Hyun. However, Han Se-Hyun did not move an inch from his spot as he continued, “Did you really think I wouldn’t make any preparations before charging into your headquarters?”

The ragged woman who was beside Han Se-Hyun suddenly moved. She muttered a spell, and the shackle around her neck fell down. “May the shackles of the Goddess bind this insignificant creature,” the woman muttered. Her shackles glowed brightly before binding up Yu Si-Do’s arms and legs. The brightly shining shackles completely bound up Yu Si-Do, but the man just laughed out loud as if he had gone crazy.

“Hahaha! Is this what you have prepared?” Yu Si-Do exclaimed, beginning to use his strength. The shackles helplessly split in half, tearing through his clothes in the places where they had bound him up, and blood flowed from his open wounds. However, Yu Si-Do did not seem to be fazed at all.

“Thank you for coming to me! I’ll grant you a peaceful death, since you so desperately wish to die!” Yu Si-Do exclaimed as he charged toward Han Se-Hyun. He threw four daggers toward Han Se-Hyun as soon as he drew close to the other man. Han Se-Hyun ducked to avoid the daggers, but Yu Si-Do suddenly drew his sword and aimed for Han Se-Hyun’s now wide open flank.

Clang!

Han Se-Hyun blocked the sword with his bare hand, but no blood flowed from it. Rather, sparks flew when his hand met the blade, as if two swords had collided against each other.

It felt as if a strong pressure were weighing down on the atmosphere as the two formidable forces clashed against each other. The two who were staring at each other could be said to be the two strongest Travelers at present.

“Shall we see who gets to drink whose blood?” Han Se-Hyun taunted.

“I’m sure you know how foolish it is to talk about sucking blood in front of me, my friend,” Yu Si-Do replied, rolling up his sleeves and biting down on a red jewel embedded in his arm. Foul-tasting blood filled his mouth; his eyes turned red, his skin and hair turned white, and his fangs grew longer and thicker.

Afterward, the two laughed as they looked at each other, as if they were good friends casually sharing a conversation.

“Finally, you’ve turned into a vampire. Then were you a homunculus just then? You won’t be able to regenerate your body now; is that alright?” Han Se-Hyun casually remarked.

“Hahaha! Why don’t you worry about your neck when you have the time to worry about me?” Yu Si-Do replied with a grin.

The two men clashed with each other as soon as they finished talking, and an immense pressure descended on the area once again. Yu Si-Do charged viciously toward Han Se-Hyun; his speed was visibly faster than it had been, and he had more destructive power.

Kwachik!

The stage split in half because of Yu Si-Do’s destructive force, and multiple blades flew toward Han Se-Hyun in a matter of seconds. However, Han Se-Hyun blocked all of the incoming blades with his bare hand and jumped back.

“I admire your crazy combat style, but you always fail to think ahead, Yu Si-Do,” Han Se-Hyun said. He ducked after avoiding Yu Si-Do’s sword and threw a fork he had picked up from the floor.

Yu Si-Do easily avoided the fork by moving his head to one side and replied, “You’re the crazy one. You changed into a class that can’t even use a weapon.”

“It’s because I can win against someone like you even without a weapon,” Han Se-Hyun mockingly replied.

Suddenly, the fork Yu Si-Do had avoided hit a window behind him, having continued flying through the air.

Crack! Kwachik!

The window broke and bright sunlight shone down on Yu Si-Do’s body. He screamed out in pain. “Aahk!”

“Maria!” Han Se-Hyun shouted.

The woman called Maria started to mutter another spell. “May the shackles of the Goddess bind this insignificant creature.”

The shackles that had been split in half suddenly reformed, once more binding up Yu Si-Do’s arms and legs. With the sunlight shining down on him, Yu Si-Do could not resist the way he had a few moments before. The shackles imbued with intense divine power completely restricted his movements.

“K…Heok…!” Vampires were weak to sunlight and divine power. Yu Si-Do felt dizzy and collapsed soon after.

“We finally caught him this time,” Han Se-Hyun said, staring at the unconscious Yu Si-Do. It was around that time that the fighting around him subsided as well.

“Captain Han Se-Hyun! We have completely annihilated all of the Black Tiger Clan members in this place!”

“Our notoriety did not go up at all, which means all of them were wanted notorious criminals.”

“We did it!”

The hall was filled with cries of victory. Han Se-Hyun smiled and walked down the stage that had been split in half, but suddenly…

Maria suddenly approached him and said, “Forgive me just this once.”

“What?” Han Se-Hyun exclaimed in surprise.

Pak!

Maria slapped Han Se-Hyun’s face.

Han Se-Hyun and the rest of the White Lion Clan were frozen in shock. Maria said coldly, “I told you I would definitely pay you back for the shame you gave me.”

“I really like that our vice-captain is so tough. You even volunteered to be the bait since your face hadn’t been exposed yet, but did you really have to slap me in front of our subordinates?” Han Se-Hyun complained.

However, Maria just glared at Han Se-Hyun before swiping a hand imbued with healing power against his cheek.

“Captain’s acting had personal feelings in it. Touching my hair wasn’t in the script, was it? Also, you know I hate it when others touch my hair,” Maria grumbled.

“But I didn’t cut your hair, right? I would’ve shaved it all off if we went according to the script,” Han Se-Hyun said with a smirk.

“I’m very thankful for that,” Maria replied.

Han Se-Hyun shook his shoulders before coming down from the stage. He walked toward Kang Yoon-Soo with a huge smile on his face and exclaimed, “Yo! Long time no see. Have you been well?”

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Kang Yoon-Soo had gone through multiple strange events after meeting Han Se-Hyun at Hiledan. He had encountered the mysterious whispers and Iris, and the White Shadow had claimed this was his final life, which was why he could not answer that he was doing well.

“It’s an answer I’d expect from you. Oh, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen a woman as lovely as our vice-captain,” Han Se-Hyun remarked, looking at Shaneth.

It was not Shaneth’s first time meeting Han Se-Hyun, but she could not react to anything he said, as she was shocked by the monstrous power he had just displayed. She stuttered out, “Y-you were really someone amazing?”

“Well, people tell me that quite often,” Han Se-Hyun replied. He then turned around and gave his greetings to Henrick and Iris, whom he had just met for the first time.

“My name is Henrick. I’m just an insignificant Artisan and Puppeteer.”

“I am Iris. I am learning about the world from them.”

Han Se-Hyun extended his hand toward Henrick, offering a handshake, but Henrick stared at his hands and asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice, “Will your hand turn sharp like it did just a while ago?”

“Haha! Of course it won’t right now. Although, I do tend to do that to people I dislike,” Han Se-Hyun answered with a laugh. It was difficult to discern from his words whether he was joking or not.

Suddenly, the door opened from the outside. Someone entered and called out, “The convoy support team has arrived!”

Four large carriages were outside, along with seventy horses. The White Lion Clan members brought up stacks and stacks of documents from who knew where in the Black Tiger Clan’s headquarters, placing them in the carriages.

Han Se-Hyun looked at Kang Yoon-Soo’s party and asked, “Shall we move to our headquarters?”

***

Kang Yoon-Soo and his party sat in the second carriage from the front; it was the second-best carriage after the one Han Se-Hyun and Maria were riding in. The other White Lion Clan members who were in the same carriage as Kang Yoon-Soo and his party all looked at Kang Yoon-Soo with amazement.

“Excuse me, but which country did you come from?” one of the clan members asked.

“Korea,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Korea? That’s where our captain is from. It must be nice to meet your fellow countryman,” the clan member said with a hint of jealousy in his voice. His name was Chris, and he was a tall, well-built African man from the country of Gabon. He covered his face with his hand, exclaiming, “Ah! Damn it! Africa is so wide and vast, but why is it so hard to meet someone from where I came from?”

“Hey Chris, if we nitpick about the details, aren’t you from the United States?” a freckle-faced ginger woman said with a laugh. Her name was Amanda, and she was from Australia.

Chris retorted, “I was born in the USA, but my motherland is Africa! I was just born in Kansas because my mother worked for a trading company and she was there when she gave birth to me! I was raised in Gabon, Africa!”

“Stop! We’ve heard that story a hundred times now,” the coachman, an Indian man named Pashu, said while holding onto the reins.

Chris seemed to be discontent, but he kept his mouth shut. Amanda snickered at the upset Chris before turning to look at Kang Yoon-Soo. She said, “Everyone is paying attention to you. Our captain is always cold to everyone, and it is quite rare to see him open up like that.”

“Are you saying the captain warmed up to him? I think he was just being polite since he met a fellow countryman,” Pashu said mockingly.

Amanda laughed out loud before whispering to Kang Yoon-Soo, “Pashu is just jealous because the captain treated you warmly.”

Kang Yoon-Soo did not say anything and just stared out the window.

‘Korea…’

His memories about his homeland were hazy, as he had lived for over 20,000 years in this world.

‘It’s notas ifI haven’t been there…’

He had experienced going back to his own world after researching for a thousand years in his previous lives, and he had been able to break down the dimensional walls with a treasure called the ‘Dimensional Mirror’.

‘Although I never tried to go back after I was murdered by the Demon Lord at Gwanghwamun Square.’

The Dimensional Mirror was a mysterious artifact that allowed the user to cross between dimensions to wherever the user wanted to go. However, it had taken him twenty years just to collect the materials and create that artifact.

Shaneth carefully asked, “Are all of you Travelers?”

“Yes. It is not only us; everyone in the carriages is a Traveler. Our White Lion Clan is only made up of Travelers,” Amanda kindly explained.

Henrick stuck his head out of the carriage, looked around, and asked, “Where is that guy, the leader of the Black Tiger Clan, Yu Si-Do?”

“He is currently being transported in the last carriage, but you can relax since he is bound by shackles imbued with divine power. I heard he was still unconscious even now,” Amanda explained.

“I’m still feeling nervous though,” Chris said with an uneasy expression. He added, “It’s the first time our ambush has been such a great success, but we haven’t annihilated all of the Black Tiger Clan yet, right? We don’t know how many there are left, and Yu Si-Do is also a scary man who can stand toe to toe against our captain.”

“I know. That’s why we waited for him to turn into a vampire, right?” Amanda replied.

“Still… Something’s not right. Don’t you think things worked out too smoothly? We caught that guy too easily…” Chris said, unable to get rid of his unease.

“Hey, look here, Chris. Stop worrying so much. Something always happens whenever somebody says something like that,” Amanda complained.

“Well, you’re right. It’s not as if we can kill him either, because of the quest from the royal palace…” Chris said with a grimace.

Shaneth blinked a few times and asked, “A quest from the royal palace?”

Amanda elbowed Chris in the chest. Chris rubbed his chest with a sad expression unbefitting of his size. Shaneth could not help but find their reactions strange, but she did not pay much attention to them.

“There seems to be bad blood between the White Lion Clan and the Black Tiger Clan, right?” Shaneth asked.

“Of course. You can tell just by the names, right? A white lion and a black tiger! How could even the clan names match so well?” Amanda exclaimed.

Time passed quickly as they talked about various things. Pashu finally stopped the carriage and said, “We’ve arrived at our headquarters.”

As soon as they disembarked from the carriage, in front of them was a large building with the sun setting behind it. The White Lion painted on the building’s large gates left quite the impression.

Henrick raised his brow and rubbed his chin, remarking, “The design seems out of place for the capital. Was this designed by a greenhorn?”

“Ho. You have a good eye. Actually, Pashu was the one who designed our headquarters. He graduated at the top of his architectural class from an Indian Ivy League university—even though he looks like that,” Amanda explained.

“Ivy League university?” Henrick asked, tilting his head at the unfamiliar word.

Chris’ shoulders shook as he suppressed his laughter. It was an obvious act of looking down on Henrick. Henrick just furrowed his brow, but decided against confronting Chris, as he did not want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

“Iris unni?” Shaneth called, noticing that Iris had not gotten off the carriage. Iris was leaning on the corner of the carriage, fast asleep.

Han Se-Hyun laughed at the sight of Iris sleeping; he patted Kang Yoon-Soo’s shoulder and said, “It’s getting dark. Why don’t you sleep at our headquarters for today?” He added, “I was thinking of hosting a party to refresh us from the long, tiring day we had.”

Kang Yoon-Soo stared at Han Se-Hyun without saying anything. Han Se-Hyun furrowed his brow and added in dissatisfaction, “There’s a lot of booze.”

Kang Yoon-Soo replied, “Good.”