Surviving in a Romance Fantasy Novel

“It’s cold.”

He was a relentless bastard.

He was such a tenacious one that the words just came out on their own.

Even amidst the chaos that had engulfed the palace, he had always carried an odd air of nonchalance, but joking around while having his legs severed in the middle of this field of demonic spirits….that was anything but normal.

“Han-ah.”

“To think the last faces I’d see would be yours… what a twisted life I’ve lived.”

As the stunned Yeon Ri and I approached him, he let out a crooked smile before spitting up bright red blood.

Yeon Ri quickly tied off the fabric below his thigh where the blood was pouring out, trying to stop the bleeding, but before long, her frantic hands began to slow.

It wasn’t hard to tell.

Even if we carried Wang Han on our backs and somehow broke back through the Great Star Gate to bring him to a physician, with that much blood loss, it was doubtful he could survive.

Even if, by some miracle, we managed to save him, it would only be a waste of precious time at a moment when the Plague Demonic Spirit was tearing the world apart.

When he saw my hardened expression looking down at him, Wang Han spoke with a face that was quickly losing warmth.

“Han-ah. For now, at least, inside the Ministry building—”

“Don’t talk nonsense. We’ve known each other too long for that. I can see it for what it is.”

The idea of carrying Wang Han through this field of demonic spirits and returning to the Great Star Gate was sheer nonsense.

And yet, simply leaving him behind while pretending not to know anything wasn’t easy either.

I considered, even if just briefly, whether I should hide Wang Han somewhere slightly safer before leaving… but instead, he let out a hollow laugh.

He was telling me not to waste time.

The way he said it so casually… it was a response that could only come from Wang Han.

“The situation looks urgent, so I won’t bother prying. The things you do, Tae Pyeong, are always too vast to explain anyway.”

“……”

“Just looking at the blood loss, I know best that I don’t have long. So, Tae Pyeong, do what you can. Don’t waste time on pointless inner conflict over something that doesn’t suit you.”

Suddenly, a memory surfaced. Those days at the White Immortal Palace when we served the White Immortal Elder together.

After the elder passed away, Yeon Ri, Wang Han, and I each went our separate ways, choosing different fields… but in the end, we were still within the walls of Cheongdo Palace.

The fact that we weren’t all that far apart, that we could always reach out for help when needed. I had forgotten all of that.

But Wang Han and I were fundamentally different kinds of people, from our roots to our fields of activity.

Wang Han who had entered the Ministry of Justice as its chief secretary and aimed to become a high-ranking civil official was someone too valuable to die here.

He was someone who could have risen much higher.

He always went around saying he’d become the Minister of Justice one day, and I had always assumed that eventually, he’d reach the top tier of officials and help determine the country’s future.

But life. No one knows when it might come to an end.

And no one understood that more than Yeon Ri.

“….…”

As I bit my lower lip and turned toward her, I saw that Yeon Ri had already bowed her head, suppressing her emotions.

To her, anyone within Cheongdo Palace was someone who could die at any moment.

She had lived through countless reincarnations, watching people die in every imaginable way, so even Wang Han’s death likely wasn’t anything particularly special.

And yet.

Even so.

She kept her head down in silence.

To her, and to me as well, Wang Han had been like a reliable guardian figure. Someone who had always been there during our childhood years at the White Immortal Palace.

A man who, one day, would become Minister of Justice, then rise even higher perhaps to become the Chief Councilor, the Central Councilor, or the Under Councilor. None of it would have been surprising.

A man who, once this cycle of reincarnation ended and Cheongdo Empire returned to its rightful path, might have stood at the pinnacle of the civil government and pursued his own ideals.

All of that was just a story for “someday”, but it was a future that could have come true at any time. We both knew that.

As I silently bit my lower lip, Wang Han took a key out from within his robes and placed it down.

“…That’s….”

“It’s the key to the Imperial Tomb. The demonic spirits were desperately searching for this thing, almost unnaturally so. It seemed important, so I just snatched it and ran.”

“….…”

“Maybe if I’d stayed hidden, I could’ve survived a little longer, but you know me. I’ve always had a ridiculously big sense of responsibility.”

The key to the Imperial Tomb, which the demonic spirits had been hell-bent on seizing.

The Imperial Tomb was a secret tomb located deep within the imperial ancestral shrine. It was a place where the Empire buried its most loyal subjects whose names could never be made public.

It was mostly used to bury ghost hands who had operated in complete secrecy or high-ranking officials from various branches.

It was the final honor they could offer those who had dedicated their lives to Cheongdo Empire and died without ever being able to reveal their names.

“They were looking for this key…?”

The Imperial Tomb was the most top-secret location within the Ministry of Rites. It was so heavily restricted that even high officials couldn’t go near it without special authorization.

It was located at the outermost edge of the Imperial Garden, which appeared quickly if one followed the path branching north from the Main Palace.

At the very back of the imperial ancestral shrine. So deeply concealed by countless layers of spiritual power that not even a Taoist at the level of the White Immortal could easily dispel it.

A tomb.

As that word filled my mind, it didn’t take long to figure out why.

“The physical body of the Plague Demonic Spirit… it’s sealed inside the Imperial Tomb.”

“Well, whatever guesses you make, they’re probably all spot on.”

“Han-ah. You…”

“There was some meaning to it, right? You know I’ve always had a good sense for this kind of thing.”

As Yeon Ri lowered her head and looked down at the wounded chief secretary, Wang Han raised his voice with a laugh, as if he found the whole situation ridiculous.

“There’s no point in going back to the Main Palace. It’s already been swallowed up by the demonic spirits. You don’t have time to waste, right?”

I picked up the bloodstained key and sank into deep contemplation.

The key to the Imperial Tomb was certainly something kept under the strictest control.

In any normal situation, not even a great official of the country could approach it without drawing suspicion.

They had turned the palace upside down and, behind the scenes, used Taoist magic to hunt down the key that would release the Plague Demonic Spirit’s physical body.

“Tae Pyeong-ah.”

When I clenched my teeth, Wang Han spoke in a casual tone, as if he understood how I felt.

“I won’t go on and on sentimentally. It’s not in my nature.”

“….…”

“Stay alive. Got it?”

There must have been so much he wanted to say, given the bond we shared since the days of the White Immortal Palace.

And yet, even as he faced the end, Wang Han never once spoke in sentimental phrases.

With eyes gradually losing their light, he looked at me quietly and gave a faint smile.

“….…”

I lowered myself and gently closed his eyelids, now completely devoid of life.

All around us, in the heart of the battlefield, the shrieks of the demonic spirits echoed.

I closed my eyes for a moment, turned my head, and stood up.

It was a time to put grief on hold.

***

The difficult question: where was Seol Lee Moon’s corpse?

And in my hand. The key to the tomb known as the Imperial Tomb.

The connection between the two wasn’t hard to make, even without thinking too deeply.

“The Imperial Tomb is the deepest tomb maintained for generations by the Taoist arts of White Immortal-level Taoist masters. If a physical body is buried in such a place, getting it out would be almost impossible. Unless the entire Cheongdo Palace was swallowed whole.”

As we exited the Ministry building, Yeon Ri finally forced open the mouth she had kept shut tight.

“If you run away with the key, the Plague Demonic Spirit probably won’t be able to resurrect right away. It’ll take a long time.”

The alley behind the Main Palace was drenched in the blood of the demonic spirits.

Yeon Ri spoke quietly to me as I stood gripping my sword.

There would be no more reincarnations.

This was the final one.

The power of the Heavenly Dragon could no longer be used to rewind time and create new chances.

It meant that from now on, every move had to be made with utmost care.

And so, Yeon Ri spoke.

“Tae Pyeong-ah. If we just run away like this, at the very least, we can delay the resurrection of the Plague Demonic Spirit. The demonic spirits will go rampant around the Great Star Gate and the Main Palace, but if the Emperor and the mistresses of the Four Great Palaces can regroup and rebuild their forces… maybe one day, we’ll be able to reclaim it.”

“….…”

“I don’t know how many years it will take, but maybe one day, we can take back Cheongdo Palace. So… turning back here might be an option too.”

Yeon Ri’s voice had grown noticeably quieter.

It felt as though she was leaving the choice up to me.

It was kind of her to say she would respect whatever decision I made, but choices themselves often came with a heavy burden.

In the end, all choices were mine to make. If I chose not to fight, no one would be in a position to say otherwise.

However, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how many people would die if we retreated here.

Cheongdo Palace would become a breeding ground for demonic spirits, and the people of the capital would be slaughtered by the resurrected demonic forces.

If we spent months or even years reclaiming Cheongdo Palace… all that would remain afterward would be a mountain of corpses.

And even if we did win in the end, could that truly be called a victory?

If the story that Heavenly Maiden Ah Hyun had clung to—rewinding time again and again through countless cycles—ended in a mountain of corpses piled high throughout the capital, could I ever accept that?

But then again, even if I go, there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to cut down the Plague Demonic Spirit.

After all, I’ve already fallen to it more than dozens of times within Heavenly Maiden Ah Hyun’s cycles of reincarnation.

She said that those countless cycles tempered my soul, forging me into a stronger Sword Master… But surely the same is true for the Plague Demonic Spirit.

As far as I’ve come, the Plague Demonic Spirit has come just as far.

Will I be able to strike it down this time?

It felt as though the White Immortal Mountain, who had already passed on from this world, was asking me that question.

And the answer is… I don’t know.

They said my soul had been tempered, but I had no memory of any reincarnation to begin with.

So wasn’t it a matter I couldn’t judge?

In that case, I had no choice but to turn my head.

I looked back and saw a young girl standing atop a field of corpses.

She, who had walked through just as many corpse-laden fields as I had, was already covered head to toe in blood.

The towers of corpses stacked through countless cycles of reincarnation had worn her down more and more, yet she never allowed herself to sink into the mire of despair.

Even in sorrow, she never once lost her innocent smile, and perhaps she was the strongest-hearted person in all of Cheongdo.

She was also the one who had continued to watch both the Plague Demonic Spirit and me through every turn of reincarnation.

So in the end, it was only natural that I found myself wanting to leave the judgment to her.

“Yeon Ri.”

“What.”

She was a fool who seemed carefree and thoughtless.

But once, she had ruled the Heavenly Dragon Hall with sharp eyes and a fierce temper, commanding it with an iron grip. It was said it was because she had grown detached from life after so many repeated cycles of reincarnation, but even so, there had to be limits to how much a person could change. It was simply absurd.

Yes, she was the former Heavenly Maiden Ah Hyun.

It was said that when she was first dethroned, left sobbing in the middle of a dark forest at night… it was a young swordsman who had approached her.

To the girl who had nowhere to return to and had lost everything she had built up over a lifetime, that swordsman quietly sat beside her.

After running and running with all her might as the mistress of the Heavenly Dragon Hall, only to be handed such a cruel fate in the end, her heart had been gnawed away by grief.

And perhaps that was why she had been so deeply grateful that the young swordsman had stayed by her side.

Solitude was the deadliest poison.

The mere fact that one was not standing alone in a world plunged into chaos was enough to feel as though one had been saved.

Even if the road was stained with blood, knowing that someone had stayed by your side until the end of that journey and understood it brought a sense of comfort, like having an army of a thousand at your back.

The person who had fully understood Seol Tae Pyeong’s journey had been that girl, Yeon Ri. And if the one who would see its end was also her…

Then how would she wish for this journey to conclude?

“What do you want me to do?”

Yeon Ri smiled broadly at those words.

“Do you really call that a question?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

***

Once again, soldiers had begun to gather around the Great Star Gate.

Faced with the towering wall of that monstrous beast, the soldiers had all fallen into fear.

And the girl standing at the front of them was now the mistress of the Vermilion Bird Palace.

Crises might drive people into a corner, but at times, they also became the very force that pushed them toward the next step.

People grew stronger in the face of crisis.

Humanity had always moved forward in times of peril.

As if to prove that truth, a bluish energy of the Heavenly Dragon had begun to rise in the girl’s eyes.

Vermilion Princess Seol Ran was destined to one day sit upon the seat of the Heavenly Maiden.

The only one who had known that truth had been her younger brother Seol Tae Pyeong….but not anymore.

The girl had to become strong. Now that she had a reason, she focused her entire spirit on that energy.

With eyes wide open, she looked up at the huge Great Star Gate.

Crackle, crackle.

Inside the ancestral shrine in the Imperial Garden, a lone Sword Master was quietly walking in.

Into that Imperial Tomb, shrouded year-round in mysterious mist, the son of a traitor walked slowly inside.

Only at the end of that path did the entrance to the huge Imperial Tomb come into view.

The grand brick tomb was covered with a wooden door plastered with layers of talismans.

The boy had already become as strong as he could be. There had been a reason he had to.

Now it was time to bring everything to an end.