Death that begins from the boundary of life and death, qualitatively different from the darkness that Sin deals with. Along with someone’s voice, it swallowed up vitality, and skeletal hands rose beyond the surging death.

Skeletal hands?

“……?!”

Instinctively getting goosebumps, I found myself taking a step back without realizing it.

“Who are you, you bastard!”

The woman who had also retreated at the chilling scent of death shouted.

A place where darkness flows out, one who lives with a dead body embracing death.

A man with an excessively thin and pale impression was suddenly watching both of us.

This feels bad!

I found myself attacking him without even realizing it.

“Uh, uwaah. Wh-why, why me. W-we’re on the same side……”

What is that? How is it moving? It’s a corpse, it’s already dead, so how can it move like that!

“Wait, wait a momennnnt-!”

Sin was also darkness, but it was different from that guy. That was death itself.

So, it’s like this. I clearly knew that person’s face, but I was so scared that it was hard to even recall that fact. So I frantically fired off every attack I could.

He, who received my attack, cried out with a tearful face.

“Stop, s-stop! I, I am…!”

My head was spinning. What should I do? I can’t see a way to defeat that thing. There’s no way I can stand against death. To escape from here…

“Stop it!”

The moving corpse shouted loudly. I stopped firing magic and caught my breath.

I tried to appear as calm as possible and asked him.

“You, what are you? You’re not human, right?”

“I-I am human……”

“Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no way a human could give off such a strong smell of death!”

“I-I am a corpse, but……”

The answer that came back was strange. How can he be human and a corpse at the same time? What is this nonsense?

Something started to confuse my mind, as if about to surface but not quite.

“You bastards, are you in cahoots! You there, did you deliberately get caught aiming for this place from the start!”

And the woman who I thought had disappeared suddenly appeared and threw a dagger at me. I dodged without thinking, and the corpse-like man stopped abruptly.

“I, I……”

All the flowers I had bloomed withered away. The smell of death grew even stronger.

“Fighting is, bad……”

I remembered that face.

“I said.”

Death bloomed around him. Continuously, continuously.

I sighed twice at my own stupidity.

“Too much, too much too much too much too much too much too much too much.”

The man known as the strongest in the current world. One who awakened at the moment of death, with a strange body that is dead yet alive.

“Why, everyone. Doesn’t listen to me…?”

The Emperor with the title ranking 1st in China and boasting 1st in world rankings. Jin Ming Jin Sihyun.

“Kkeuk, hic. Hehe. Everyone just die……”

Why on earth is such a person here?

There was a man. In life, he had a timid personality and was someone who couldn’t say no to things he disliked.

Then one day, an incident occurred. In a world where everyone faced death, people used the kind man out of selfishness to survive.

‘You be the bait to draw attention.’

‘Then everyone here can live, right?’

Unable to refuse, the man was dragged out despite his own death being imminent.

And so he died.

And he was resurrected.

As the king of corpses, the emperor of all dead things.

“Hic, hehehe…!”

The black smoke rising around him was terrible.

Through the flowing black smoke, snow-white skeletal hands began to emerge. As if corpses digging out of graves, the bones rattled to life on this earth according to Jin Sihyun’s will.

A few years ago, I happened to read an article. It was an article that unfolded the stories of world-class rankers as if telling tales.

Indeed, there were no normal people among the top rankers, they all had peculiar stories.

The most striking among them was the moving corpse Jin Sihyun. Awakening at the moment of death to become the king of corpses. Famous also by the title of Emperor, he was a well-known hunter in our country as well.

World rank 1. Famous as a necromancer who endlessly revives no matter how many times he’s killed, but there was one more famous fact, and that was his personality.

Usually extremely timid and doing everything others tell him to do, but once he crosses a threshold, he suddenly changes and tries to kill everything around him.

‘I must have been crazy to pick a fight!’

It couldn’t be helped. Jin Sihyun’s attribute was death (死), mine was life (生). When two opposing attributes met, it was bound to be particularly unpleasant.

“Kkeuk, keureuruk……”

I thought that at least I could endure because it was me. The self-proclaimed owner of the gate who was facing off against me was on the verge of dying.

“……”

My eyes met with Jin Sihyun’s. Now I’m going to die too. The moment that thought crossed my mind.

“Geez, I leave you to sort out the situation for a bit and this is what happens? Really.”

Someone appeared, hitting the back of Jin Sihyun’s head with a large staff.

It was another familiar face. Or should I say, someone I knew one-sidedly.

“……Saint Nisha?”

“Oh my, you know me. That’s fortunate. I had something to talk about.”

Jin Sihyun’s body collapsed. With his pale and thin body, he fell with a light ‘thud’.

“But before that, may I heal you first, Yohwa? You don’t look to be in the best condition either.”

It was the appearance of the world’s strongest healer, ranked 3rd, who is said to be able to revive even the dead.

“So you’re saying the two of you came to save me?”

“That’s the gist of it, yes. Along with cleaning up this trash heap while we’re at it.”

Saint Nisha answered my question with a smile. Still confused and unable to fully process the situation, I mulled over her words several times.

My drifting into this place wasn’t mere coincidence. It was a situation already prophesied by Silence, and Silence had even asked the Emperor and the Saint to rescue me.

It was absurd. At the same time, disheartening. To think that even the sudden siege declared on Cheonrang, and me being thrown into a place like this, were all foreseen situations.

I thought they could have given the prophecy in advance, wondering if things had to be done this way. Though Silence didn’t necessarily have to give prophecies.

“There, that’s the end of the treatment.”

The Saint clapped lightly and smiled. As expected of someone worthy of the 3rd rank, she had healed not only me but everyone trapped in this gate. Even the deep scars of those branded with the slave mark.

As I was moving my body in amazement, she said,

“Oh my, you look surprised. This much is basic, isn’t it?”

This much is basic, she says. Usually, one can’t heal tens of thousands of people at once. As if reading my mind, the Saint smiled lightly once again.

“Yohwa, you’re in no position to be amazed by me, considering you enchanted all the people in this auction house.”

Come to think of it, that was true. Partly to change the subject, I shifted my gaze slightly to the Emperor.

“Um, when will he wake up?”

“Hm? He’s already awake. He’s just pretending to sleep because he’s embarrassed about the fuss he caused earlier.”

“……”

His body twitched. I decided not to probe further.

As if trying to change the atmosphere, the Saint clapped once.

“Anyway, shall we start with introductions again? As known, I’m Saint Nisha, world rank 3. My actual rank is 4. My specialties are reviving dying people and dealing with enemies before they can attack our team.”

“Ah, yes……”

“This one doesn’t seem to want to introduce himself, so I’ll do it for him. As known, world rank 1, actual rank 2, Jin Sihyun. As you can see, he’s a moving corpse, but he’s not a bad person, so you don’t need to be too afraid. If you keep being scared, he’ll get hurt too.”

“Yees……”

I was secretly trying to back away, but had to stop at those words. The Saint’s sparkling gaze fell on me.

“I’d like to hear your introduction, Yohwa.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

As I was hesitating, wondering if it was okay to introduce myself, the Saint’s singing-like voice fell on my ears again.

“I’m not trying to rush you. But since we’ve met, it’s better to introduce yourself directly, right?”

“……Park Ha, no. I’m Cheon Shin A. My title is Yohwa as I mentioned earlier, and that’s about all I have to properly introduce myself.”

“I know. You’re that ‘Cheon Shin Woo’s younger sister, right?”

“Um, I’m asking just in case… Has my information become public knowledge?”

“Those who need to know on our side know. Not everyone knows.”

“……”

“I hope you don’t misunderstand. The Emperor and I just heard a little for this operation. For example, that you’re also a returnee like me, things like that?”

That doesn’t seem like just a little information. There were many uncomfortable points, but it was awkward to argue, so I kept my mouth shut. I felt like I’d get entangled if I continued the conversation.

As I was rolling my eyes like that, I suddenly met gazes with the Emperor who had gotten up and was fidgeting. He was startled and quickly turned his head away.

“S-sorry……”

The Emperor, unable to meet my eyes, spoke in a shrinking voice. Regardless of the situation, his very existence was still uncomfortable, so I briefly answered ‘Yes’ and quickly turned my gaze away.

“Hmm, I see. You’re both uncomfortable with each other?”

“Pardon?”

“It’s understandable. The Emperor is, if you think about it, like a frozen corpse. He’s bound to be incompatible especially with fairy folk whose attribute is life (生).”

“Pardon?”

“Th-that’s not it. I’m just, moving functions that stopped due to death with magic……”

“That’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

“It’s different……”

Their conversation was like a comedy routine. While at it, I asked one thing.

“Am I fairy folk?”

“Yes, fairy folk. Oh right, you said you awakened not long ago? Then you might not know.”

And so the atmosphere suddenly changed to a hunter lecture. The Saint briefly explained that there are some people whose race changes entirely upon awakening, and among them, I take the form of a half-fairy. Like a changeling child.

She was truly an enthusiastic and good teacher. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I already knew what fairy folk were.