Chapter 1 - A Chance Is Given

“Ha. Fuck.”

The building had been intact just moments ago. Now it was a heap of rubble. Standing amid the ruins, Limon swept back his hair with a blood-soaked hand. He looked at the countless gun barrels trained on him and considered the matter calmly.

'What did I do wrong?'

If his opponents had been criminals, he would never have given it a thought. Whether facing the boss of a vicious crime syndicate, a politician who controlled the government, or a general from a mighty superpower, he had never hesitated to swing his sword against those who undermined the country and threatened humanity.

There was only one reason he was questioning himself now: the people aiming their guns at him weren't criminals. Many of them had even been his colleagues until yesterday.

“Listen, you guys. I've thought about it, and I still can't figure it out...”

That was why Limon couldn't keep himself from asking.

“Why the hell are you doing this?”

He had fought for humanity all his life. He had no intention of claiming he'd only ever done what was right. But he had never committed an evil act for selfish gain. Once, his devotion had earned him praise as a hero; he had even risen to a position second only to the ruler.

That made it all the harder to understand.

“Why the fuck set a trap, frame me on some absurd charge, and try to kill me?”

It wasn't a lament. It wasn't mockery. It wasn't anger or a cry of despair. There was only pure bewilderment in his voice: why were they trying to kill him? He couldn't understand why they were willing not only to frame him but to sacrifice his subordinates just to get rid of him.

The people aiming their guns at him gave no answer. A few merely stepped aside, as if on someone's orders. One person emerged through the gap.

The moment Limon saw the one who had orchestrated it all, he finally understood.

“... Ha.”

A dry laugh escaped him.

“Once the cunning hare is dead, the good hound is cooked...”

The reason was simple. When the hunt was over, it was only natural to want to dispose of a hound you no longer needed—especially a mad dog that ran wild as it pleased. Even if that mad dog had done more than anyone to protect the country.

“So you don't need a has-been like me anymore?”

He knew plenty of people found him inconvenient. He had never paid it much mind. He'd endured the envy of petty people all his life. More than anything, he'd believed that no matter what anyone said, his country would never abandon him.

But he'd been wrong. No, he'd been arrogant.

The country Limon had protected through countless brushes with death no longer needed him. Instead, it was trying to pin every manner of crime on him and dispose of him because he was supposedly an obstacle to the national interest.

Perhaps it was only natural. The days when Limon stood above everyone else were long gone. The country needed other people now, while he was dismissed as an outdated relic—even though he still had the power to fight the entire world.

“Yeah. I was wrong.”

Once he understood that much, Limon finally realized why he had ended up here. He saw what his decisive mistake had been.

“I was a fucking idiot to spend my life protecting a world like this.”

He had neglected wealth and power. He had lived by duty and responsibility. He had shown kindness to the weak and yielded to them. Even as he scoffed at talk of patriotic devotion, he had risked his life fighting to protect the world.

That had been Limon's mistake.

If he had amassed wealth and power. If he had seized his rights and authority and wielded them. If he had ignored peace and lived selfishly.

... And if he had accepted her offer back then.

At least he wouldn't have been cast aside like this, feeling so utterly filthy.

'If I were given another chance...'

The thought came to Limon suddenly. What if he had the power to turn back time and live his life again?

At that very moment, three beams of light plunged from the sky.

[A few constellations who have been watching you respond to your wish.]

[The 'Prankster Who Toys with Fate' offers you a contract. If you accept, you can gain the power to change fate.]

[The 'Benevolent Guardian of Resurrection' offers you a contract. If you accept, you can gain the power to reverse death.]

[The 'Raven Who Watches Over Glory' offers you a contract. If you accept, you can gain the power to seek glory.]

[Which constellation's contract will you accept?]

“... Huh?”

Three beams of light had poured down from the stars. Limon blinked at the messages appearing one after another before his eyes. His frozen mind couldn't immediately grasp what was happening.

It was the others who were truly startled.

“What?! Why would the constellations—?”

“That radiance... C-could they be monarch-class constellations?”

“Impossible! Not one but three monarch-class constellations appeared and offered contracts!”

To judge by the uproar they made, their earlier silence might have been a lie. Watching them, Limon finally understood what had happened—and what he needed to do.

“Kill him! We have to stop him before he contracts with a constellation!”

Apparently frightened by the turn of events, the one who had set the trap shouted the order, and the others hurried to attack Limon. But they were far too late. He was already moving before they could pull their triggers.

SHRAAAK!

“...!”

At the sight that followed, everyone's jaws dropped. It wasn't because a sword had somehow appeared in Limon's hand. What stunned them was the sight of the three beams, brilliant only moments ago, shattering into fragments and falling apart.

“Fuck off, you cheating bastards!”

Limon roared amid the shards of light he had cut down. Then he glared at the stars overhead and thrust his middle finger up at them.

“My fate is mine! I'd rather die than hand it over to the likes of you for a pittance!”

'That... lunatic...!'

They were speechless. Most people never even got the chance to make a contract with an ordinary constellation. A contract with a monarch-class constellation required extraordinary luck. It was every player's dream.

Yet he had not only refused such good fortune—he had cut down the constellations' blessings with a sword. That it was possible at all was staggering. That he had actually done it was hard to believe even after seeing it.

But beneath their shock, they understood. This was Limon Aspelder, after all: the hero of humanity who had once stood at the pinnacle of the world, and the worst mad dog of them all.

“What the fuck are you staring at? Think I'll let you off if you pretend you're just spectators now?”

RRRRRUMBLE.

“Huh? What's this trick now?”

Just as the mad dog rolled his eyes back and prepared to charge them, a storm of light clawed at the night. The fragments of the beams Limon had severed began thrashing wildly, swirling around him.

“What are you, door-to-door salesmen? Hey, I said I'm not signing a contract, so piss off! Why do you keep clinging to me?!”

Limon shouted at the approaching fragments and swung his sword again. But however often he cut through them, they merely scattered. The light didn't vanish; it kept gathering around him. Limon had never seen or heard of anything like it, and neither he nor the people surrounding him could hide their confusion.

But the most bewildered of all were elsewhere.

[System error, error code k94o0a4. Bug caused by forced system disconnection during contract processing.]

[The damaged fragments of the constellations are being absorbed by the subject.]

[The 'Prankster Who Toys with Fate,' robbed of one hand, rolls around.]

[The 'Benevolent Guardian of Resurrection,' having lost one wing, panics.]

[The 'Raven Who Watches Over Glory,' robbed of both eyes, grows furious.]

RRRRRUMBLE!

Like shoppers who had just had their bags snatched, the three stars flashed frantically overhead, whipping up a gale and shaking the earth. But no matter how violently they thrashed, the flow of light did not stop.

“What? Hey, you bastards! Who said you could put anything in my body? Get lost! I said get lost!”

As the others watched in a daze, the motes of light fallen from the stars spiraled into Limon's thrashing body. At last, the final ray of light seeped into him.

—The world collapsed.

* * *

It was a strange sensation: the exhaustion of someone who hadn't slept in a hundred years, mingled with the haze of someone who had wandered through a dream for a hundred years. He hovered on the boundary between dream and reality, neither dream nor waking life, and all the harder to escape for it. As Limon sank endlessly into it, forgetting himself, a voice pulled him back to reality.

“Team Leader? Team Leader?”

Limon wondered who the voice belonged to, and why it sounded so unfamiliar when he was sure he knew it.

“Stop sleeping and get up already. This is why people call you a good-for-nothing—!”

THWACK!

“Eek?!”

“Who are you calling a good-for-nothing, you little shit?”

His mind might not have been fully awake, but his body reacted at once. The instant he heard the insult, he flicked a finger against the forehead of the person shaking him.

“Ow! Why did you have to hit my face? If I can't get married because of this, are you going to take responsibility, Team Leader?!”

It must have hurt quite a bit. She clutched her reddened forehead and groaned, then yelled at him with tears welling in her eyes. Limon stared at her with a strange expression. At last, he remembered who she was.

“Yu Na-gyeong?”

“What?”

“The Na-gyeong on my team?”

“I'm the only Na-gyeong on your team, aren't I? Is there another one?”

Name: Yu Na-gyeong. Age: twenty-six. Occupation: civil servant recruited through a special appointment. Status: member of his team. Distinguishing trait: a little too cheeky. Height: 158 centimeters. Weight... well, that could wait.

As if something blocked inside him had broken free, memories of her came flooding back at the sound of her name. Limon spent a moment going through them, then set them all aside and asked her what he most wanted to know.

“Why are you alive?”