NARRATOR
Everyone looked at Haejun, flabbergasted. He pointed toward himself.
"I have found you after a lot of hardship. I am that blue pendant around your neck. However, this is different from your memory. This is mine."
Everyone recollected and then looked at the necklace. Yes! It is truly the same.
"Then where are our memories!", exclaimed Iseul, ready to gather any information she could before…
"I am here to help you live. Your lives are in danger. Your mistake in the past has haunted other lives and will do the same for this one. Are you ready to absorb?" said Izhart, totally ignoring what Iseul had asked.
"What? Absorb?" Joonwoo said, who knew something was wrong.
"Well, memories. Though you cannot get back all of them. I stored some of them. Let me see."
"Oh, absorb memories!" exclaimed Iseul. From the moment she saw Izhart, she has been acting like she is on cloud nine. The pink energy she is giving off is blinding.
He takes out a bag and puts his hand in it, trying to grab something. He keeps taking out random stuff. A dagger embedded with jewels. Expensive jewelry. Rubies. Diamonds. A lamp with purple flames with electric currents around it. Then jars. Some are full of those orbs, while some are empty.
"Is he trying to show off?" Sooyeon, who was trying to analyze the events that just happened, whispered to Iseul.
"Good.", whispered Joonwoo. Sooyeon looked at her, realising what she was actually thinking.
[What was she thinking?]
[It's a very deep thought. I cannot reveal it now.]
By that time, the environment had cooled down. That thing called Izhart looked friendlier than before. However, Haejun was still trying to process what Izhart had just said. He killed someone? For real? The other three were not very scared but were strangely drawn to him. They kept their distance because who knows, he might not be as friendly as he is now.
"Well, I cannot find your memories. I was supposed to give them to you before departing, but I cannot find them now."
"Departing where?!", asked Iseul. Izhart was ignored again.
"Whatever you are, we are not going anywhere.", Joonwoo said, gathering a lot of courage.
But suddenly…"Do you not want to save them? Yourself. Your family. You will die like that. You have already died six times. This is your last chance." Izhart's colour changed and now appeared darker as the lights started flickering.
Izhart took a piece of paper and asked again, but this time in whispers.
"Do. You. Want. To save yourselves?"
"Why… Why do you care?" asked Joonwoo.
"Then… die…"
"No!" exclaimed Haejun, "if that murderer is me, I will go!" He felt it. The emotions. The pain. It is too familiar to deny.
Everyone looked at Haejun and then towards Izhart.
"Do we all die if we don't go? Why should we believe you?" asked Joonwoo in a low voice.
"For your first question, yes. As for the second one, it depends on whether you want to believe in me. Have you ever seen something this mythical before?
Silence screamed throughout the attic when he asked again with a worried tone, "Do you want to save yourselves and take this second chance to prove yourselves?"
"I was born for this!" said Iseul, full of enthusiasm but with a hint of sadness.
"If my brother is going, I will go", said Sooyeon.
"Then me too…", murmured Joonwoo.
They signed the contract, and the paper burned, leaving a sign on their necks that only they could see.
"By the way, I smell someone else's presence here", enquired Izhart.
"Oh! It must be my sister's", answered Iseul. Her expression changed with the word 'sister'.
"You have a sister!", for the first time he paid any attention to her. Maybe not her but to what she said. Iseul has been vying for his acknowledgement and contrastingly, Izhart has been treating her as an invisible entity. Interacting only when needed.
"Yup."
"She might be linked to this.", he clapped his hands.
"Dae?!", exclaimed Haejun.
"Is her name Deun?" asked Izhart
"No Daeun"
"That's the same thing.", he flapped his hand. "What a jackpot!"
"Why are you not going in?" asked Izhart.
Now they are on the second floor in front of her room. They stood there for quite a few seconds.
"Umm… she is too short-tempered."
As she said that, Izhart looked at the placard, and the same cranky voice flashed through his head.
"The once most graceful, dominating, and gracious queen cannot be so short-tempered and cranky! I don't believe this shit.", remarked Izhart. "By the way, she is the woman who died," he quickly informed.
"How many more surprises will you give us?"
"That's the reason she looked familiar, but why did Haejun look different?"
"People are not always reborn with the same faces. And not always as the same gender or species."
While they were talking, Iseul knocked at the door. She won't let her chance to isekaI slip away. A deep voice from the other side answered, "What do you want?"
"I want to talk to you."
"Fuck off."
All of them were taken aback.
"No option." Izhart shrugged, took out the same memory bag, and took some orbs out. Izhart burst open the door. He went inside and flicked the orbs into Daeun's head before she could do anything.
The others were shocked at how Izhart dealt with Daeun. He just broke in and knocked her out?
"What did you do?" screamed Iseul.
As soon as they entered the room, they saw a girl with dark burgundy hair wearing a black tank top with black shorts lying on the bed. A snake tattooed on her neck and headphones on. Chunni!
"Stop this! I have had enough of this question-and-answer session. I have been answering questions from the time you summoned me. Now I will speak and you will listen."
Everyone was taken aback.
"Breath, breath", he murmured, took in two deep breaths, and continued, "Alright, think. You are the people of…a certain place. You did something. Now you are here to prove yourselves. You failed in your first attempt. This is the second and last. Wait! This is no last chance, but a chance of correction. You died six times because of a single mistake. Now your task is to please the queen, the woman you saw dying, and Izeol's sister.
"It's Iseul", she corrected.
"That's the same thing."
Suddenly, Iseul's sister Daeun woke up and said, "Why do you knock me out every time we meet?"
DAEUN
Everyone was surprised to see me address Izhart so informally. But I do know him. I do! Cesare's loyal vassal, Izhart Morbert! Izhart Morbert…
"Let me introduce them one by one. This is Kang Iseul. The contractor."
"We never said our titles!"
"This is Han Joonwoo. The third wheel."
"I was a third wheel?"
"This is Lee Sooyeon. The otherworldly."
"Why are you playing with words?" I asked.
"I cannot disclose everything. And lastly, Haejun Lee. count cesare"
"Caesar?!" I got off the bed and pulled Haejun's collar. "You..".
"Stop", ordered Izhart with his damn presence. We froze.
"He is not Caesar anymore. He is here to repent. Give them the punishment.", Izhart pleased and unfroze both of us.
"I already gave them the punishment. Has he not died unhappily?" I walked towards Izhart.
"He has. But he wants to change it."
"I won't let him! He is a monster."
He banged on the desk beside, and I moved back. "He is not Count Caesar now! He is Haejun. Do you know the impact he has had on seeing his death?"
"Why are you acting up? Do you feel sad about your master's death? Where are your manners? How disrespectful! It's not expected of you! Where are the honorifics?", I roared sardonically. "Well, the rules are simple. 'You will die in agony and be reborn until you learn the value of love. ' Make Caesar fall in love. What he had was not love. It was lust. How can he kill her if he loved her?" I said, wagging my finger at Haejun.
"Thank you", bowed Izhart, "to the ever-glorious Queen Veridia. Please forgive me for my impudence".
I faked a smile and swallowed the lump in my throat. "You are forgiven?" How could I forgive them?! How could I ever?!