Leon woke with a gasp, his body trembling from the nightmare that had returned once again.
The silhouette of the masked girl lingered in his memory—the mysterious figure who had killed him in his previous life.
Back then, he had been Rigo, an elite assassin of the Gelar Clan.
Now, in this new body, he was Leon, the son of Baron Albrecht.
But the pain was the same.
The destruction was the same.
Like a wound that had never truly healed.
Soft morning light filtered through the narrow window of his small room. Leon exhaled slowly, trying to steady his breathing.
He looked down at his trembling hands.
The motion felt painfully familiar—the same tremor of fear he once felt as Rigo when confronting the mysterious assassins during the coup against the Baron’s family.
Leon rose from the bed and walked toward the window.
Outside, the Imperial Palace stood tall and imposing, surrounded by towering walls that hid countless dark secrets.
In this life, Leon knew what lay behind those walls.
He had once been part of that darkness.
Now, carrying knowledge of the future from his life as Rigo, he faced a far greater dilemma:
He had to choose between two families he loved—though in very different ways.
He remembered what had happened yesterday.
The moment when Rigo and the Emperor came to execute his father, Baron Albrecht.
Albrecht von Dreiss.
A stubborn nobleman who refused to abandon his principles.
Leon knew that in the future he remembered—as Rigo—Baron Albrecht would have died by his own blade.
That execution had been the spark that ignited a chain of tragic events.
After Albrecht’s death, Leon’s older brother, Frederick von Dreiss, had been forced to lead the family at a very young age.
Consumed by hatred.
Consumed by vengeance against the Gelar Clan.
In the future Leon remembered, Frederick eventually led a rebellion that plunged the Empire into bloodshed.
The Gelar Clan was deployed to eliminate the entire House of Dreiss.
But the mission did not go smoothly.
The Dreiss family had gained support from a mysterious organization of assassins—fighters who could rival even the Gelar Clan.
Leon remembered them clearly.
Their techniques were unpredictable.
Their strategies ruthless.
Their cruelty equal to the Empire’s deadliest killers.
But the one who haunted him most…
was the masked girl.
She had appeared like a ghost in the night—vanishing and striking with terrifying speed.
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Leon could still remember how calmly she approached him.
Her sword cold.
Her resolve unwavering.
In a battlefield soaked with blood and chaos, he—Rigo—had finally fallen to her blade.
And in that moment, he had accepted death with an empty heart.
As if he had long been waiting for it.
Leon rubbed his face roughly, trying to shake away the memory.
But the image of the masked girl and the cold edge of her blade still lingered.
Now he stood on the opposite side of fate.
He was Leon.
The heir of House Dreiss.
The boy who had survived the execution thanks to his own interference.
But had he truly escaped fate?
Nothing was certain.
The war between these two families had carved deep scars into his soul—scars he could not simply ignore.
“What should I do…?” he whispered to himself.
“Should I defend the Dreiss family… or the Gelar Clan?”
The question struck him like a blow.
How could he possibly choose?
On one side stood the Dreiss family, his blood in this life.
A family he had grown up with.
A family that gave him warmth he had never truly known before.
A loving mother.
A caring brother.
A determined father who stood firm even against the Emperor.
How could he betray them?
But on the other side…
there was the Gelar Clan.
The clan that had raised him.
The clan that had trained him.
The clan where he had grown alongside other assassins, sharing pain, discipline, and loyalty.
Yes, the Gelar Clan was cruel.
Merciless.
But it was still his family.
And there was also Elina—his mother from his previous life.
He could not imagine seeing her heart break if he were forced to kill Rigo and destroy the Gelar Clan in order to protect the Dreiss family.
“If I choose one,” Leon thought bitterly,
“I will betray the other.”
The dilemma twisted painfully inside him.
Tears threatened to fall, but Leon forced them back.
He could not afford weakness.
Not now.
He knew the decision he made would shape the fate of many people—including his own.
“If I hadn’t stopped Rigo yesterday… everything would have happened exactly the same,” he thought.
He had already changed the flow of fate.
But he also knew that one small change would not be enough.
Not unless he acted again.
A sudden knock broke his thoughts.
Before Leon could respond, the door opened.
Kara stepped inside.
With her short hair and sharp eyes, the elite assassin wasted no time on formalities.
“Get up and prepare,” she said coldly.
“Today your official training begins.”
“There’s no time for hesitation.”
Leon looked at her quietly, trying to calm the storm inside his mind.
“Alright,” he said.
“I’ll get ready.”
Kara studied him suspiciously, as if measuring the seriousness of this child.
“Remember this,” she added sharply.
“There’s no place for weakness here.”
“You must prove you deserve to stand among us.”
Leon nodded.
“I understand.”
After Kara left, Leon took a deep breath.
Training with the Gelar Clan would not be easy.
Even in his previous life as Rigo, it had been brutal.
The clan pushed every member beyond their limits.
This was where Rigo had been forged into a ruthless assassin—without mercy, without hesitation.
But this time was different.
Leon could not fully side with either the Gelar Clan or the Dreiss family.
Both were part of him.
And he had no idea how to reconcile two lives that stood in direct conflict.
The training hall of the Gelar Clan lay hidden within one of the palace’s most secret sections.
Its stone walls were scarred by countless sword strikes.
The floor bore deep marks from years of brutal combat.
To many, it felt like a prison.
To Leon, it felt even worse.
When he arrived, he saw that Rigo was already there.
She stood tall and silent, her cold eyes observing him carefully.
Rigo said nothing as Leon entered.
But her gaze was sharp, evaluating.
Without a word, she picked up two wooden swords and tossed one toward him.
“Today we fight,” Rigo said simply.
Her voice carried the weight of an order.
“You must show me the strength of your resolve.”
Leon caught the wooden sword firmly.
His heart was still full of questions.
He knew this was not merely physical training.
It was a test.
A test of how far he could endure the conflict tearing him apart.
“Ready?” Rigo asked coldly.
Her eyes showed no mercy.
Leon nodded.
Before he could think any further, Rigo attacked.
Her wooden blade flashed forward like lightning.
The strikes were precise, fast, and deadly—movements refined through years of brutal training.
Leon barely managed to block.
The impact sent vibrations through his arms.
The duel intensified quickly.
Every attack from Rigo forced Leon to focus completely.
He had to rely on every technique he had once mastered as Rigo.
Though his current body was younger and weaker, the memories of countless battles still lived within him.
But with every clash of wooden swords, Leon felt the same inner conflict.
Part of him did not want to defeat Rigo.
Did not want to betray the person who had once been himself.
Yet another part of him burned with the desire to prove that he was no longer bound by that dark past.
Inside the silent training hall, the sound of wooden blades echoed again and again.
Like a warning from fate itself.
Leon knew the path ahead would be difficult.
But he had already made a promise to himself.
He would find a way to save both families—even if it meant facing death once more.
“This is only the beginning,” Leon thought as he blocked another fierce strike.
“And I won’t stop until I find a way.”
