Record of a Thousand Lives

Chapter 42

Kang Yoon-Soo frowned at the?assailant’s words.?He was certain that he?had?not mentioned his regression to anyone in this life.?‘It doesn’t feel like another hallucination…’?He?dropped the wild tusk boar’s?carcass and walked toward where the voice?had come from.

Whiing!

A couple more arrows flew past him, but he did not stop?moving and?easily avoided every one of?them.?He asked?coldly, “Who are you?”

He knew that the assailant was hidden behind a boulder, and he nimbly dashed toward the back of the boulder as he drew his?longsword. However,?his sword?stopped in midair the moment he came face to face with the assailant.

“Why…” he?murmured, his voice trembling.?He found it hard to hide his surprise as he asked, “Why are you here?”

The assailant responded,?“Why? Am I not allowed to be here?”

Sirian smirked at?Kang Yoon-Soo.

***

It was?Sirian Lanchecaster, the Corrupted King of All Things, and the strongest human?on the continent. However,?Kang Yoon-Soo?was supposed to meet Sirian at the later stages of the legendary quest;?why was he here in the mountain ranges now?

Kang Yoon-Soo bit his lips as he tightly gripped his longsword. He said, “You…?It’s not possible for you to be here right now. You should be guarding the doors of Pandemonium right now… just?as?you always?did.”

Sirian slung his longbow onto?his shoulder and smirked.?“Look here, my emotionless friend. Have you forgotten how you killed me in the ‘previous world’?” he asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo could not help but frown at?those?words. In the previous world, his 999th life, he was the one who had killed Sirian. However, that?had not stopped the war with Pandemonium from breaking out.

His?thoughts were conflicted?as he tried to suppress something welling up from his chest when he suddenly noticed something peculiar.?“Where is Riberion’s Magic Spear? Why are you using something like a bow?” he asked.

“Who knows? Maybe you’ll?get to know once you get hit by it,” Sirian answered as he?drew?his bowstring.

Kang Yoon-Soo immediately ducked and avoided the arrow,?but?he figured out the identity of the assailant at the same time.?He?sighed and said, “I knew it. You aren’t?Sirian.”

He charged toward Sirian and swung his longsword. Sirian jumped to the left to avoid the longsword, but Kang Yoon-Soo was a step faster.?The?longsword swung down in a crescent arc, slicing through?Sirian’s body.

“Kuh!”?Sirian’s body was cut in half and turned black.?His corpse?was no longer recognizable;?it looked closer to a pile of charcoal than a human corpse.

A doppelganger was a monster that read another’s mind and transformed into something from their?thoughts. The Sirian that had appeared in front of?Kang Yoon-Soo?was just a doppelganger?who had?read his mind.

If the doppelganger truly wanted to shake Kang Yoon-Soo up, it should have transformed into the Demon Lord. However,?the Demon Lord was not a being that a lowly creature like itself could dare imitate,?which was?why it settled for?Sirian?instead.

‘Something is strange…’?Kang Yoon-Soo thought.?Based on his experience from his hundreds of lives,?doppelgangers never left?their?habitats, and they didn’t live?in the Hatar Mountains.?‘I?should?be meeting a doppelganger in a few days, but that was a variant and an exception. Why did a doppelganger that shouldn’t be here suddenly appear?’

At the very moment?he was lost in thought,?a whisper teased his ears.

‘The calamity is almost here. You have to prepare?for?it.’

Who was the one?who?kept whispering to him? What was the approaching calamity?

It had been a very long time since Kang Yoon-Soo?had been?full of questions he did not know the answer to.

***

Pitter-patter… Pitter-patter…

The vast mountain range was covered by rain.

“He’s late…” Shaneth?muttered, sticking her hand outside?the cave. A trail of rainwater?fell from between her fingers.

“Maybe he’s?planning to catch a tiger or something,” Henrick said as he fiddled with his sculpting knife.

“Hmm… I’m still getting worried,”?Shaneth replied.

“Do you really think he’s?someone?who would?get lost?”?Henrick?grumbled.

“It’s raining… What if he catches a cold?”?Shaneth asked?as she looked out?of?the cave.

“Who knows? He seems to be the kind of guy?who would be fine even after getting hit by a hailstorm,”?Henrick?said as he tossed?a piece of wood he had been?sculpting behind him.

“What are you so carefully making?”?Shaneth?asked, tilting?her head.

“This and that,”?Henrick?answered as he took another piece of wood and started to sculpt it.?He?continued, “But do you know?”

“Know what?”?Shaneth asked.

“What do you?mean?‘what’??That guy, Kang Yoon-Soo’s identity,”?Henrick?replied?as he skillfully and accurately sculpted the piece of wood with only his right hand. He?continued,?“A youngster like him has knowledge that even an adventurer with decades of experience?would never?have, and he’s eerily emotionless. I’ve met different kinds of people, but it’s my first time?meeting?someone as emotionless as that guy. Are all Travelers like that? What the hell is he anyway?”

“I’m not so sure either…”?Shaneth?replied. She took a moment?to think deeply, before slowly answering,?“...but?I believe?he’ll tell us when the right time comes. He doesn’t answer anything he doesn’t want to answer, but…”?She?hesitated for a minute before saying?adamantly, “He’s a good person. He’s someone I can trust and depend on.”

“Oh really? Hmm… I’ve been wondering for a while now,”?Henrick?said.

“About what?” Shaneth asked.

“Why do you trust someone?as?dense and emotionless?as?him?” Henrick asked.

Shaneth burst out into laughter, but after it subsided, she?showed her burn mark?and replied,?“I don’t know, maybe because he made me pretty?”

“Huh? Did he put?makeup?on?you?or something?” Henrick asked.

“Tsk… I don’t want to talk to you, mister.” Shaneth?pouted while sulking.?Henrick just let out a small laugh as he went back to his sculpting.?Silence filled the cave for a while.

Suddenly,??Shaneth stood up and shouted,?“Mister Kang Yoon-Soo!”

Kang Yoon-Soo was walking toward the cave from afar. He was under the rain without an umbrella, and Shaneth hurriedly ran toward him with a cloth to shelter him from the rain.

Then, Kang Yoon-Soo?unslung the?longbow from his back…

Whoosh!

Henrick ran toward Shaneth?and pushed?her down. An?arrow narrowly missed her, barely grazing her?head. She would have died on the spot if he?had been?late by a fraction of a second.

“Huh…? What’s going on…?” Shaneth asked in confusion.?However, Kang Yoon-Soo?drew?his bowstring once again with his usual cold expression, and another arrow flew toward her.

Henrick pulled out his summoning box, but Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly?began to speak. “Henrick, you are destined to turn yourself into a puppet by your own hands.”

Henrick stiffened for a second.?Kang Yoon-Soo?quickly drew?his bowstring and shot an arrow toward?Henrick. However, the rain from the heavens was on Henrick’s side;?the droplets of water altered the trajectory?of the arrow, and it?narrowly flew past his eyes.

“What are you doing?!” Shaneth screamed at him.

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around to face her and said, “Shaneth, I will be killing myself.”

Shaneth’s?expression?filled with fear, and?she started to tremble. Kang Yoon-Soo?drew?his bowstring once again?and?let loose another arrow toward her.

Whiiing!

Pshhk!

A sword swung down from above, blocking the arrow and splitting Kang Yoon-Soo’s head open. His corpse lay dead on the ground?and?turned into dust. The man who had swung the sword appeared in front of the two.

It was Kang Yoon-Soo.

“What the hell is going on?” Henrick exclaimed?as he came back?to his senses.

“A doppelganger imitates one’s worst nightmare,”?Kang Yoon-Soo?answered?quietly.?He?was about to enter the cave when Shaneth suddenly grabbed onto the hem of his shirt.

“Please…?Don’t die…”?Shaneth?pleaded?shakily, trembling beneath the rain.?Her breathing was rough, and it was unclear whether?the streak of water flowing down her face?came from?tears or rainwater.?She repeated, “Please don’t die…?Please don’t die in front of me…”

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around and faced her before hugging her tightly.?He said?softly,?“I won’t die. No matter what happens.”

***

“So that was a doppelganger that transformed into you?” Henrick asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo silently nodded?before adding,?“Although I’m not sure why?such a monster?appeared in the mountain.”

“Hoo, there’s something even you don’t know?” Henrick asked in surprise.

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“So,?everything was just an illusion from that monster?” Shaneth asked in relief. However,?she hugged her chest with trembling hands, seemingly suppressing a fear that would not subside.

“I hope to never meet?such a?monster ever again…” Henrick said?with a grimace.?Henrick tapped his temple before?asking, “But why are you so calm? It?doesn’t sound as if you met that doppelganger.”

Kang Yoon-Soo was busy?butchering the wild tusk boar?he?had?carried back. He sprinkled just the right amount of salt on the meat he got from the carcass. The cave was humid thanks to the rain, so it would be?difficult to smoke the meat into jerky, but that?would help them preserve the meat for a bit longer.?As he silently prepared?their rations,?Henrick chose to give up on hearing a response from him.

“Ah,?never mind.?There’s no way?someone like you?would?even get played by a monster like that. You conned the Death General, after all…” Henrick?muttered.

However, contrary to Henrick’s assumptions, Kang Yoon-Soo was actually deep in thought.?‘Something is weird… Why does it feel?as if?something is off…?’

Kang Yoon-Soo pulled the heart of the wild tusk boar from its carcass with?bloody?hands.

***

The trio took turns?standing?watch as they rested. The sky was still gloomy even after morning?came, and they had to trek across the?mountain range?while?getting rained on.

Henrick looked up at the sky that was covered with rain clouds and grumbled, “When will this damned rain ever end?”

“In four days,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“I think you would?make a killing if you opened a?fortune-telling?shop…” Shaneth commented.

Their dry rations?had all run?out after they?trekked across?the mountains for a few days. However, they did not starve to death thanks to the wild tusk boar Kang Yoon-Soo had hunted.

On?a night?they spent camping?out in the thickly?overgrown forest after four days of exhausting?travel, the rain miraculously stopped just as Kang Yoon-Soo had said four days?before.?Everything in the vicinity was wet, but Kang Yoon-Soo managed to find some dry wood from somewhere.

Shaneth was stirring the pot with a ladle, as it was her routine to prepare the food whenever they camped. However, her hands stopped moving and?she suddenly?asked,?“Don’t you hear something?”

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