1. The Starting Point of Life
The blood upon the execution grounds had no time to dry.
After someone's neck was severed, the executioner's blade was raised again at once.
The lowly to the beheading block, the noble to the gallows.
Only a difference in the mutilation of the body.
Death was the same.
On the gallows beside it hung a man all too familiar. No, a man who was now a corpse.
The patriarch of the house I served, and my liege lord.
Patriarch of House Ibolgeu.
His torso swayed upon the gallows.
Beside him, the sons of the house I served thrashed their feet in the empty air.
Eldest son, second son, or bastard—it mattered not. Equally so.
“Keuk… keok… keuk….”
“Keok… kuk!”
The ropes pulled taut. As I watched their faces turn purple, my dazed mind churned.
Only yesterday, they had been discussing with me how to achieve victory in the war.
‘How did it come to this?’
But it was already too late to think about what had gone wrong where.
“Walk faster!”
A soldier kicking my back hastened my steps.
My place was not the spectator seat watching this execution show, but the waiting area. Soon, it would be my turn to ascend the scaffold.
Sshhk… tuk!
With a horrifying sound, the blade of the beheading block fell, and someone's head rolled off.
‘Surely, I had believed my future was a rosy flower path.’
Graduating from the Tower of Knowledge with excellent marks, I was selected as Chief Administrator at a remarkably young age. And for the glorious House Ibolgeu, no less.
As everyone acknowledged, my future was bright and boundless.
But the path I walked now…
was a muddy road mixed with blood, flesh, and mud.
Before my eyes, the gallows from which I would hang were visible.
The elderly head butler who had treated me with such respect and kindness was ascending the gallows impassively.
The rope coiled around the old man's neck as well.
The gallows' trapdoor dropped, and the rope connected behind him pulled taut.
His face grotesquely distorted.
Beside him, the butlers and even the servants ascended the beheading block one by one.
A thorough annihilation, sparing not a single related person, not even the servants.
Not the house's bailiff, but I, the Chief Administrator. To think I would die like this after only one week of assignment to House Ibolgeu….
Pushed by the soldier and staggering, the noose was placed around my neck.
It was unjust. A cry of resentment burst from deep within my chest.
Someone seemed to walk up before me, but his words did not enter my head.
“The list… still has quite a way to go. Chief Administrator of House Ibolgeu. You shall be severely punished for failing to stop their atrocities despite having watched over House Ibolgeu for decades. Conte. Any last wor—”
“Conte! That mongrel tricked me!”
“What?…… You are not Conte? Wait…… Indeed, you’re just a brat, aren’t you?”
Conte would have been written on the list as an old man.
Whereas I was a vigorous youth.
A man appearing to be a commander was looking at me, holding documents.
My mind, having found a way to survive, spun like mad.
Hiding my trembling voice as best I could, I spoke as if calm.
“I am the newly appointed Chief Administrator who arrived here a week ago. Areuhan.”
At that, the commander looked down at the documents and sighed.
The commander hesitated over whether to kill me or not.
With a rather annoyed expression, he pulled me out of the line.
“Wait.”
And then the commander walked toward the barracks.
Even after I was pulled from the line, the executions continued without rest.
My blood ran dry. No, my heart pounded as if my blood would dry up from tension.
A short yet long time passed, crossing between hell and heaven every second.
The returning commander informed me of my fate.
“It’s ambiguous to kill you when you’ve only been in Ibolgeu for a week. You have been reassigned as Chief Administrator of the Northern Wall. Be grateful for the mercy of His Greatness.”
“The Northern Wall, you say……”
“Yes, the Ice Wall.”
In a daze, I was led away by the soldier.
‘Did I… survive…?’
Only when leaving the scaffold behind and being loaded into a carriage heading north did I come to my senses.
Along with the thumping of my heart, electrifying joy spread throughout my body.
Until then, I had not known.
Perhaps…….
That dying by hanging there might have been the better death.
They say better to roll in a field of dog shit in this world than the next, but there are places worse than dog dung where the underworld might be preferable.
* * *
The citadel at the northernmost end of the Great Wall. The ‘Ice Wall.’
Though incomparable to Ibolgeu, which had divided the eastern continent, it was a place famous as a citadel prepared against barbarians.
This time, I wanted to prove my abilities as Chief Administrator.
‘If only I could catch the eye of the Great One who gave me this chance and return to the center of the continent…….’
But,
what awaited me upon arriving with a joyful heart was mockery.
“Why’d they send a brat who can’t even hold a sword?”
The first words I heard from the commander. The following words left me bewildered.
No matter what I said, all I got in return was open ridicule.
“You’re no Chief Administrator. Just an ordinary soldier. No Chief Administrator is needed here. Got it, Soldier Areuhan!”
“Your liege lord clearly appointed me as Chief Administrator of the Northern Wall…….”
“Ha. You brat……. Come here.”
The moment I approached, sensing unease at Commander Hatsan’s call.
The commander’s fist flew into my cheek. At the same time, a knee drove hard into my waist.
“Keok…!”
“I said we don’t need one! The commander here is me. Absolute obedience to orders. Got it?”
“Keoheok…… Still, you need someone to write dispatches or letters……”
Kwak!
The answer was a fist flying into my left cheek.
As I held my cheek with a bewildered expression, the commander opened his mouth as if exasperated.
“Hey, greenhorn. How many letters do you think come here in a month?”
“…….”
“You’re lucky to get one every two months! If you get it, stand up, brat!”
From behind, the murmuring of soldiers was heard.
“Pretty boy from the Central Regions like always. Annoyingly handsome.”
“How long will he last? Wanna bet? I say one month.”
“He’ll last a month.”
“Nah, he’ll off himself tonight. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t throw himself over the wall.”
“Hey, rookie! Toilet cleaning is yours starting today.”
At that moment, I realized my life was now completely over.
“So the great Chief Administrator can’t even cook?”
“Hey, Chief Administrator! Come clean some rust!”
“Chief Administrator. You swing a sword like that and you think you’ll kill a barbarian? Look how clumsy.”
“Hey! You brat. Didn’t they teach you how to oil weapons at that Tower of Knowledge or wherever? You idiot, if you fuck up the oiling like this, will a frozen sword even come out? Huh?”
I gritted my teeth in fury, but
there was nothing I could change.
Because knowledge without power to back it up was utterly useless.
.
.
.
How many years had passed?
It seemed less than two years had gone by.
While prolonging a miserable life no different from slavery, I was conscripted into the Eastern Expedition.
Eastern Expedition.
In this place where food was more important than anything else, it was a kind of ‘layoff’ conducted before winter.
It was a way of disposing of bugs who only consumed food—including members who were injured or combat-incapacitated.
In other words, the expedition’s purpose was to select the most useless and weakest, drive them beyond the wall into the snowy plains, bury them, and return.
There was no choice.
As additional personnel, five fellows who clearly looked like they would soon die were selected for the expedition, including me.
The common trait of those five was that they weren’t even given weapons.
But when the expedition actually departed.
The expedition had no need to slit my throat.
Because barbarians had already surrounded us.
“Hee! Hya!”
“Arrrrr! Arrrrr!”
Unfamiliar war cries and cheers rang out here and there.
Apart from my stiffly frozen body, as always, my mind moved quickly and assessed the situation.
That the barbarians had pushed even into the barren tundra meant something was happening in the south or east.
I could see a panicked soldier flustered and running about in panic.
Between the white birch trees, hazy figures flickered like evil spirits.
“Why are barbarians all the way here… Hey! Trash! No, Areuhan! You were a Chief Administrator, you must know something. Wh-what’s going on?”
The sound of hoofbeats closing in from all directions.
I pushed away the soldier approaching me and immediately started running.
“I don’t know, you bastard! Run!”
Shuk! Kwak!
“Keoheooook….”
A comrade beside me was struck by a thrown spear from somewhere and collapsed.
There was no hope. The spear had pierced his throat precisely.
Ignoring his dying outstretched hand, I ran.
The hoofbeats drew closer, and spears and arrows embedded themselves one after another into the trees beside me.
Kwak! Tukwagwak! Kwak!
I ran. To survive.
Shuuuuk— Kwak!
“Kuaaaak!”
An arrow flew in and lodged itself in my right thigh as I ran. Though I tumbled from the impact, I did not stop.
“Heok… heok… heok….”
Hobbling, I pushed through the snow-covered forest and hid myself among the birch trees.
While crouching with difficulty and catching my rough breath, the screams of soldiers who had scattered in other directions reached my ears.
“Aaack!-”
Aack… aack…… aack………
Screams echoed through the snow-covered birch forest.
Right beside me.
If I wasn’t careful, I would be found.
But. The smell of blood was rising from my exhausted lungs.
‘I can’t run anymore.’
There was no way out.
Carefully surveying my surroundings, I felt my strength suddenly drain away.
A trail of blood scattered across the snow followed my path.
‘Fuck….’
At the end of it, through the faint blizzard clearing.
A barbarian on horseback was approaching me.
With a leisurely attitude, as if tracking wounded prey.
‘Give up on returning alive.’
But.
Slowly moving behind the tree, I stood up.
The fortress was half a day away from here.
A little further, and I would be within the patrol range.
Though they would all have returned by now, leaving suspicious traces alone would be sufficient.
A proper commander would dispatch a search party immediately upon receiving the report and uncover everything.
That alone would make it a meaningful death.
With my back to the tree, I began to run.
I sensed bustling signs that the fellow had started running as well.
I deliberately chose densely packed trees to make it difficult for him to chase.
The blizzard whipped more violently.
Through the blurred vision over my shoulder, the moment I thought the figure had drawn close, an extreme pain was felt in my stomach.
Kuk!
A scream didn’t even come out.
Blood gushing from a pierced organ flowed back and boiled hotly in my throat.
‘It’s unjust…….’
Not even able to bring about the house’s revival, dying like a dog without even properly utilizing my knowledge.
The scenery of the snowfield where screams still echoed.
The snowflakes falling between the birch and coniferous trees gradually slowed and grew distant.
* * *
“Wake up, Areuhan! Playing hooky from the first day of class?”
I frowned at the child’s voice and cautiously opened my eyes.
‘Ah, annoying…….’
The sunlight outside the window was so bright I could barely open my eyes.
Bright sunlight to this degree was something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
An overwhelming light that could only be felt when the sun drew near from a tower-like height.
‘Right, if it isn’t during my scholar’s life at the Tower of Knowledge, Teuiropeu……?’
“E…tan?”
A familiar face was seen.
My only classmate from the Tower of Knowledge. The very friend who had been my roommate until just before I was assigned as Chief Administrator of the Ibolgeu territory.
Before my eyes was the child-version of Etan, from an age I could no longer remember.
The eight-year-old brat nodded nonchalantly.
For some reason, tears welled in my eyes.
“Good thing a fool who can’t even remember the name I told him yesterday isn’t my roommate.”
On his youthful face, a clear ringing voice.
Even the cheeky tone unbecoming of an eight-year-old. It was Etan exactly as he was before growing up.
I couldn’t believe it, but everything before me pointed to one result.
I am eight years old now.
In other words, I had returned to the time I first enrolled in Teuiropeu.
Etan turned his body and grumbled.
“Hurry up, the Scholar is waiting. Let’s go! We have to survive.”
‘We have to survive.’
Confused about what had happened, at those words from Etan, my eyes snapped open.
It didn’t matter. Only one thing was certain.
“Yes, we have to survive.”
‘This time, the way I want.’
I clenched my small hand into a fist.
‘Knowledge without power is meaningless.’
Here at the Tower of Knowledge.
The twenty years of knowledge learned at Teuiropeu hadn’t served as any kind of signpost before the great maelstrom of war.
Chief Administrator.
Selected and chosen from among the scholars who had accumulated decades of study and knowledge at Teuiropeu, the supreme advisor assigned to a house.
The highest advisor and consultant qualified to give counsel directly to the lord. The house’s teacher who would raise the heirs to become the future patriarch.
Once, I thought this was everything in the world.
But.
‘The hollow title of Chief Administrator. At the end of it was only dog-like annihilation and a dog’s death.’
The world does not revolve by knowledge and wisdom alone.
I only realized that after experiencing death.
* * *
Seven years later.
Etan and I turned fifteen.
Both of us were receiving great expectations with excellent grades.
In my case, it was because I had turned back time, but Etan also showed results far superior to his past. Though he still couldn’t reach me.
The title surrounding me had remained constant throughout.
‘Genius.’
The Scholar’s Exam, which could only be taken after the tenth year of study, I had passed in my fifth year.
It was only natural. Combining the time before my regression, nearly twenty years of accumulated knowledge filled my head intact.
Of course, I could have done it even earlier, but I had merely waited until the Great Scholars suggested it first, fearing unnecessary attention.
After passing the exam, I devoted myself to advanced courses.
Showing them just enough was sufficient.
I had helped Etan for this reason as well. As he had been called the Tower’s treasure in the past, he served as an excellent smokescreen.
Moreover, for my brilliant future as well, Etan needed to grow even more.
They wouldn’t touch a single outstanding talent because they cherished him.
But with two outstanding talents, throwing one away was nothing.
That’s right.
I intended to be the one thrown away.
A crisis is an opportunity.
Until my assignment to House Ibolgeu, I planned to follow that very path.
Looking back on my memories, when I turned nineteen.
Two weeks before the war between House Ibolgeu and House Aseuta broke out.
Conte’s formal request to return had arrived at the Tower.
Accordingly, either Etan or I would be assigned as Chief Administrator of House Ibolgeu.
It was a fate that would lose the war.
In other words. Captured and killed by House Aseuta.
But.
Could the Tower’s leaders—scholars counted among the best in the Tower of Knowledge—really have not known?
While sending a young Chief Administrator, could they not have foreseen the fall of House Ibolgeu?
They already knew.
Knowing full well, they appointed me as the new Chief Administrator and had Conte return. They chose me, who was rather average, instead of Etan with his outstanding grades.
The answer was one.
They intended to sacrifice one young scholar to save a friend.
But.
Etan and I could not escape this.
Because being a Chief Administrator was not something one could refuse. Nor choose.
One was merely chosen by the Tower of Knowledge.
This was a fate decided from the moment we swore and pledged to become scholars.
Even if it was a path leading to death.
Nothing changed.
I had obtained almost everything worth gaining from this tower.
I had completed all advanced courses, from stratagems, history, etiquette, to various political sciences—everything prepared for a Chief Administrator.
Now.
It was time to deviate.
* * *
‘There’s no time.’
An unexpected problem occurred.
Having lived locked in the tower since childhood.
I couldn’t grasp what I needed to do to escape the scholars’ eyes.
The swordsmanship I had learned since childhood had long been recognized merely as a form of self-defense and physical training.
Burn books? I might get expelled from the tower.
Publish a trashy paper? They would immediately try to figure out what I was scheming.
I might even be excommunicated before becoming a Chief Administrator.
Four years remained.
What method could make them watch me with sharp eyes without expelling me from the tower?
I pondered and pondered the method to survive.
Then one day.
A single book I encountered in the library toppled all my plans.
.
.
.
An old archive I sought to organize my thoughts.
A place close to a warehouse, stacked with old knowledge that no one sought anymore. Knowledge of a bygone generation, over two hundred years past.
But it was also the most mysterious knowledge on a continent where magic had disappeared.
‘Alchemy.’
Bookshelves so tall I had to crane my neck upward to see their end. Books packed tightly, growing old.
A space where ancient texts and forbidden texts published during the Emperor’s age hundreds of years ago were mixed together—a space where past knowledge was preserved.
It was indistinguishable which ones were forbidden.
And I intuited it.
‘This is the only way for me to live.’
A field of study not taught in the Tower of Knowledge, Teuiropeu, and not even mentioned.
But quite useful in real life.
‘No, perhaps. Not just winning the war……!’
As I pulled out books, my eyes widened.
The most forbidden of forbidden texts that the Emperor had uprooted magic and burned even its traces.
Among them, a forbidden alchemical grimoire that harbored the lingering resonance of magic.
『Al Kazaf』.
Said to have been written during the greatest golden age of that era.
The legendary ancient tome had been stashed away there.