ALL NOVEL Chapter 0 - Prologue
Prologue
“I heard you’ve been searching for a place to die.”
It wasn’t wrong.
I wanted to die on the battlefield.
Fortunately, today seems to be that day.
“Is that why you always jump into the most dangerous battlefields and charge recklessly? Death? Do you seek rest?”
“You talk too much. Just kill me.”
“Death is too good for you.”
I looked up.
Red eyes glowed menacingly inside the helmet.
“Who are you?”
I wanted to know the identity of the person who would kill me.
But instead, he said something else.
“It’s because of you.”
“What?”
“It’s all because of you.”
Then he swung his fist.
Lying collapsed on the ground, I pondered his words.
What on earth is he talking about…?
“Because of you, the kingdom was destroyed.”
Finally, I came to my senses.
“Who are you, really?”
“The third prince of Briol, Yuri.”
My eyes widened.
There should be no one who knows my past.
Because they were all dead.
But who the hell is this guy?
“You ruined everything.”
The guilt that always festered in my heart squeezed my chest.
I just wanted to die; I didn’t want to be questioned about my past sins now.
My sins, my mistakes, were so unbearable that I wandered looking for death.
I wanted to be forgotten, like a gust of wind that rises and falls, evading the ghost of the past.
“You thought that by punishing yourself as a mercenary, your sins would disappear? You’re selfish to the end.”
“Shut up. Reveal your identity, you bastard.”
“Me?”
He lifted his helmet.
I saw eyes, stained red, and veins, darkened and lifeless.
He didn’t look human, but I could recall someone from that bizarre figure.
“Laurent?”
The leader of the Rose Knights.
That guy, who always acted prim and proper.
He was definitely dead.
On the day the kingdom fell, Laurent perished bravely at the vanguard.
So, what is this appearance now?
Why has a dead man come back to accuse me of my sins?
“It’s all because of you”
He raised his sword.
“Laurent!”
There was so much I wanted to ask.
How could he be alive after being stabbed in the heart?
Why did he look like that?
And, above all else—
Why was he standing on the side of the Empire, the ones who brought down our kingdom?
But before I could ask anything, his crimson aura slashed across my neck.
“It’s all because of you.”
The world spun around me.
I saw my own body, slumped to the ground.
Does consciousness not fade instantly when the head and body are separated?
Amid the pouring blood, something sparkled.
A memento from my mother.
A necklace.
It was shining with a white light.
I thought dying would be a relief.
I believed I would forget everything and be at peace.
But it wasn’t so.
Death was agonizing, and my regrets did not vanish; they crushed my soul even further.
If only I could go back—
I wouldn’t make the same mistakes.
My vision faded to darkness.
In that void, the necklace’s faint shimmer remained.
Echoes of past conversations brushed against my ears like fleeting memories.
‘Son, remember this. The descendants of Briol will never abandon their honor. Even if it means death.’
Yes, that’s right.
The honorable Briol.
Even in death, we do not sully our honor.
Yet here I am, dying disgracefully for failing to uphold that honor.
‘Are you going to answer or not?’
Huh?
“Not going to answer?”
Someone knocked me on the head.
“Huh?”
What’s going on?
“What do you mean, ‘Huh,’ son?”
My father was standing before me.