Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 1 - Prologue

Prologue

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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[The Confucius did not speak of strange phenomena, brute strength, rebellion, or spirits.]

From the Analects, Shu Er

-Fwoosh!

The heat was scorching.

A building was burning before my eyes.

Inside and outside the building was utter hell itself.

“Aaaagh!”

“Save me!”

People ran wild, burning in the fierce inferno.

In my hand as I watched them was a sickle damp with something wet.

The sight of a sickle meant for cutting herbs soaked in blood was eerie beyond words.

“Aaaaargh.”

“H-help me!”

Those who ran out from the building engulfed in flames rolled frantically across the ground to put out the fire on their bodies.

But there was no way the flames already covering their entire bodies would go out easily.

They died in the agony of their flesh burning away.

Even though it was a horrific sight, I did not feel the slightest guilt.

No.

I do not even know what guilt is.

[Cough, cough… Promise me.]

[What do you mean?]

[That you will never… reveal… your true nature…]

[… Grandfather.]

[Is that how this old man taught you!]

[… I understand.]

The promise I made with Grandfather before he died kept circling in my head.

But that promise was not kept.

No, it would be more accurate to say it was a promise that could not be kept.

‘I am sorry, Grandfather.’

Until I find that bastard who made Grandfather like that, I cannot stop this.

Even if the end of it is the reality Grandfather feared.

The more blood I see, the harder it is to control myself.

What kind of expression am I wearing right now?

Even as I watched this gruesome sight of burning flesh and flying blood, I could tell the corners of my mouth were twitching.

This was unmistakably the emotion called pleasure.

‘True nature…’

Is evil my true nature after all?

At the very least, I feel freer like this than I ever did as the person Grandfather tried to teach me to be.

It felt like being freed from shackles.

“Hoo.”

It does not matter either way.

The smell of blood makes me feel refreshed, and I am getting closer to a clue about that bastard.

Now I just have to finish off all the survivors and leave.

Holding the sickle, I moved toward the few people who had survived.

As I took one step, then another, they looked at me with eyes full of fear.

That fear did not feel bad.

-If anything, it only made my killing intent itch even more.

Step.

When I took another step, one of the terrified survivors shouted at me.

“Th-the Sickle-Killing Ghost!”

The Sickle-Killing Ghost…

It was the nickname I earned while chasing the traces of that bastard.

If I thought someone was connected to him even a little, I killed them all, and before I knew it, people were calling me the Sickle-Killing Ghost.

They said they called me that because of the sickle marks left on the corpses, and it seemed my infamous name had spread without my realizing it.

In barely a month.

It must have been because, unlike mountain hamlets, I had started touching somewhat larger villages.

Thanks to that, I learned a useful lesson.

‘I should burn everything.’

So that no unnecessary traces are left on the corpses.

No.

Would it be better not to use a sickle at all?

-Whatever.

I can think about that later.

For now, I will kill them all first.

Whish!

I raised my sickle toward a survivor crawling on the ground.

-“Hiiik!”

The survivor shrank back with a pale face.

Regardless, I swung the sickle,

Thud!

“Urk!”

Something struck my abdomen and my body was thrown backward by tremendous force.

-Even after rolling over the ground several times, the force did not fade.

Only after rolling for quite a while did I finally stop, and then I vomited violently because of the strange force churning through my insides.

“Blergh.”

“Waaaaaaah!”

While I was retching, I heard cheers.

It seemed to be the shouts of the survivors who had been frightened.

My stomach still felt sick and strength still would not properly enter my whole body, but I forced my head up.

‘What in the…?’

As I looked on in confusion, I saw someone raising a hand.

That man was responding to the crowd’s cheers as if he were some kind of hero.

Then he boldly shouted,

“As expected of the Sickle-Killing Ghost. To endure my three-star internal force.”

‘Three-star internal force?’

What in the world is he talking about?

The only thing in what he said that I understood was the title Sickle-Killing Ghost.

“Cough… cough…”

I forcibly suppressed the urge to vomit.

I did not know who this man was, but one thing was certain.

He was dangerous.

I tried to force myself up, but no strength entered my legs.

“Your evil deeds end here, Sickle-Killing Ghost!”

-That man slowly walked toward me.

‘Dangerous.’

I gritted my teeth.

If I cannot move, my life may be in danger…

Srrk.

‘!?’

What?

He seemed to be walking slowly, but before I knew it, he was already standing in front of me.

‘Fast.’

How can a person move this quickly?

It was absurd.

“Hm.”

The middle-aged man let out a low sound.

I had not noticed from a distance, but he had a long scar above his left eyebrow.

In his right hand was a sword black as though it had been burned, and its sharpness was far from ordinary.

‘I need to get away.’

All of my senses were warning me.

No matter how much I struggle, I cannot do anything to this man.

At that moment, the middle-aged man said in a low voice with a cold expression utterly unlike before,

“I wondered what sort of bastard had been digging into my trail, and to think it was just some teen brat who still reeks of milk.”

-He felt like a completely different person.

But another part of what he said struck my ears.

‘Digging into his trail?’

Then this man is…

Grip!

“Ghk!”

Before I could even think further, the man seized my throat.

Even at seventeen, my body was no smaller than that of an average adult man.

Yet he held me up far too easily.

I looked at the back of his hand and his wrist, but there was no change in his muscles.

Then how is he lifting me like I weigh nothing?

As I was wondering that, the man frowned.

“You… have not learned martial arts.”

“Martial… arts?”

“You do not even know what martial arts are? Ha!”

-The man sounded astonished.

Just what are martial arts for him to react like that?

“Interesting. A brat who has not even learned martial arts, yet survived one of my palm strikes…”

“Ghk, ghk, what are you even saying…?”

Stab.

“Gah!”

-My abdomen burned.

At some point, his black blade had pierced straight through my abdomen.

The man smiled darkly and said in a murderous voice,

“It would be safer to kill you now and leave no trouble behind.”

Shhk! Stab!

“Urk!”

The moment he pulled the sword from my abdomen, he stabbed into the left side of my chest.

As the sword pierced through my chest, blood surged up my throat together with terrible pain.

“You should have lived quietly. Why go around stirring things up and hastening your death?”

“Hah… hah…”

The man threw me to the ground as I mouthed wordlessly.

Then he turned his back, raised the black sword high, and shouted,

“The evil deeds of the Sickle-Killing Ghost end here. Everyone, put your minds at ease!”

He was acting like a hero again.

The survivors, who did not know his true face, cried out in joyful cheers.

The wound through my chest hurt, but what enraged me more was that hypocritical act of his.

After all that, I had finally found someone who might be my enemy, only to be defeated this meaninglessly.

I was never a match for him from the beginning.

‘Grandfather…’

Little by little, my vision blurred.

Am I going to your side without even taking revenge?

If I broke our promise, your scolding will be no joke…

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