TME 01

Chapter 1

00. Prologue

1

“Kill Cain!”

“Whoever brings Cain’s head will be given the title of Duke and the Imperial Family’s surname!”

“Waaaaah!”

The Imperial Palace was burning.

The area around the Imperial City was completely engulfed in flames.

Knights wearing white armor were moving around everywhere, slaughtering the soldiers.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

A man was urgently searching for me.

It was Duke Aslan.

The man who had always guarded me, the Emperor, and made sure no one could come near me.

The reason he was searching for me so desperately was because there was very little time left to leave.

My empire was… though it was hard to accept… destroyed.

My empire, Zergard, which had once prospered as the greatest nation on the continent, had lost to the allied nations led by the Holy Empire.

Why! Why had I not known?

I had never noticed anything until now.

I could never have imagined that the people I believed were loyal subjects would be so easily tempted by the enemy and sell out the country.

At this point, who could I blame?

I had no other way to break through this crisis head-on.

The enemies were simply too powerful.

So, what I chose was to use an ancient forbidden technique of the Magic Empire.

No one could guarantee whether it would succeed or fail, but I decided to place my last, tiny hope in it.

The method was simple.

A huge magic circle with a radius of 20 meters had to be drawn around an altar made from the hearts of 100 dark mages.

Then, black mana stones had to be placed in the four directions and at the center, and a magic scroll written in an ancient language had to be placed on top.

After that, I had to stand inside the magic circle.

The moment the scroll was set on fire, the magic circle would activate.

This magic circle would make the people inside it disappear from this world.

Depending on what happened, they could be torn apart and killed in some unknown space. Or they could travel to the past or the future.

No one could know.

But one thing was certain.

They could escape from reality.

2

The place Duke Aslan and I went to while avoiding the flames was the secret altar beneath the Imperial Palace.

I had prepared this place just in case.

It had been temporarily made in case something truly unexpected happened. Most of the people gathered here had only learned of the altar’s existence for the first time today.

Beside me were Master Duke Aslan, a 7th Circle dark mage named Duke Forn, 25 knights, and 25 dark mages.

And in the center of the altar were the hearts of the dark mages, still warm with blood.

“Ah…”

Tears suddenly filled my eyes.

Those were the loyalty of the dark mages who had given their lives for this altar.

They were the devotion of the dark mages who had given their hearts without hesitation for this pathetic Emperor.

But I quickly regained my reason.

Everything had already become the past.

What remained was for me to survive and restore the reputation of the Magic Empire Zergard once again.

If I could not do it now…

Then in whatever world I would face again, I would accomplish it.

“Your Majesty, then…”

Duke Forn trailed off.

He meant that he was going to activate the magic circle.

Once this magic circle was activated, I would move to some point in either the future or the past.

What kind of world would unfold before me?

Would I see my empire before it became a ruin?

Or would I see the future of the empire after it had become a ruin, with everything changed?

My heart became complicated as I faced a future that no one could guarantee.

3

Everything had happened far too quickly.

The military teleportation device had been completely destroyed beforehand by someone, and the Imperial Palace had been completely surrounded. This was the only means left to escape.

The huge white magic circle surrounding the entire Imperial Palace interfered with the paths of movement, making teleportation impossible.

Many dark mages who tried to teleport without knowing this were torn apart in midair, becoming pieces of flesh that scattered everywhere.

Since when had it started?

The people surrounding me had become my enemies.

I would never forget what happened today.

O power of darkness, guide us to a new world. We entrust all our lives to you.

Faaah-!

A flash of black light appeared.

An incredible cold suddenly swept over my entire body.

The space around me twisted and grew darker, like black ink spreading through water, while my entire body gradually became cold and stiff like ice.

Inside that darkness, I engraved many names in my heart.

Especially the names of those who had betrayed me, and the knights, mages, and Emperors who had helped slaughter my empire…

Everything gradually became faint.

As my body grew cold, it felt as if my heart had stopped as well.

I could see nothing, and even my thoughts, which allowed me to realize that I could see nothing, gradually slowed down.

My final memory ended with the burning Imperial Palace in the capital.

“Dark magic…”

The last word left my mouth.

And then.

Everything turned into a completely white world of nothingness.

01. Resurrection

The forbidden technique of time travel is a forbidden sorcery. To reverse or advance through time, one needs the power of life capable of enduring the natural paradox.

Human life originally comes from the heart.

Ten hot hearts of dark mages can guarantee one year.

The infinite power of life that pours out from those hearts turns time back into the past or advances it into the future.

The person traveling within it is not restricted by the flow of time. Whether they go to the past or the future, their age and condition remain the same.

Only the surrounding environment changes.

Going against time is extremely dangerous. Even if one goes to the past, the future will not be the same.

Even if one goes to the future, not everything from the past will remain intact.

—From The History of Forbidden Sorcery by Dark Mage Akern

1

“Uuuumm…”

The long sleep had finally ended.

It was a long blank period during which he could not know what time it was or where he was.

The first thing to break that silence was Cain’s voice.

When Cain opened his eyes and stood up, he immediately saw the black inner walls.

Judging by the surroundings, it seemed that he was still beneath the Imperial Palace, in the same place where they had performed the forbidden technique.

“Haa.”

White breath appeared every time he breathed.

Cain let out a long sigh and looked around.

Pieces of ice were scattered across the floor, and pillars of ice stood in concentric circles around him.

Tick-! Tick!

Just then.

The sound of ice breaking came from here and there, and the ice pillars suddenly collapsed.

It seemed that everyone was waking up around the same time as Cain.

But what had gone wrong?

The moment Aslan woke from his long sleep and breathed in the air of the world, he vomited a lump of dark-red blood and collapsed on the spot.

“Aslan! Duke Aslan!”

“…Your Majesty, please step back. We have been poisoned by the poison in the air. We probably will not wake up again.”

At that moment, Duke Forn, who had escaped from his ice pillar, spoke in a resigned voice.

Cain looked at Duke Forn in disbelief.

What situation he was in right now did not matter.

He could not remain calm while a knight who had stayed by his side for all these years was dying like this.

“What are you talking about, Sir Forn?”

“Your Majesty… I do not think I can explain for long. I also… Kugh!”

Drip, drip.

Forn struggled to continue speaking, then suddenly bent his body down.

A handful of black blood poured from his mouth.

Cain had no idea what was happening.

Why! Why!

Why was everyone like this?

Before the forbidden technique was performed, Forn had said that everything was fine.

He had only said that Cain needed to close his eyes and open them again. Then they would wake up first and wait for him.

“P-please… take this book first… This is a book I prepared in case something happened to me. Everything about… dark magic is organized inside it. Even with this book alone, you will have no problem developing magic in the future without me…”

“Sir Forn! Do not talk as if you are going to die!”

Perhaps because of this unexpected situation, Cain shouted.

But Duke Forn shook his head as if it was already too late and continued speaking with difficulty.

“…On the very first page of the book, there is a method for using the surrounding circumstances to… cultivate life force and mana… What that means is… everyone inside this place except Your Majesty becomes the tool…”

“……!”

Cain’s eyes widened in shock.

Forn added another faint whisper.

“…Simply put, we become the source… Cough!”

Duke Forn’s voice gradually weakened.

Tears had already gathered in Cain’s eyes.

Because something came to his mind at that moment.

And he realized.

From the very beginning, the moment they activated the magic circle in the secret chamber of the Imperial Palace, he had been the only one who could survive.

There was no way a forbidden technique capable of reversing time could work with only the hearts of dark mages.

The dark mages and knights who had agreed to accompany him had all become sacrifices.

Just for me…

Cain clenched his teeth at the thoughts filling his head.

“…There are many kinds of forbidden dark magic. The method Your Majesty used to come here is one of them, and the methods you will use for training in the future will also be like that. At times, you may not be able to control the power when it runs wild. But please remember that it can become a weapon, and please…”

Duke Forn closed his eyes.

Cain knew what Duke Forn had been unable to say.

He wanted to tell Cain to grow stronger and prepare for the future.

After the previous Emperor had died from an unexpected illness, Cain had spent every day desperately trying to stabilize the weakening Imperial authority.

He persuaded and absorbed the anti-government forces in the provinces and those who challenged Imperial authority. When it was unavoidable, he firmly cut off their roots.

He also reorganized the military system and built an army that could rival any other country.

But perhaps he had been too pure.

As the Emperor who ruled over everyone, Cain had done something he should never have done.

He had placed absolute trust in one particular person and given the Duke all the power of the empire.

But Cain’s trust lost him everything in a single day because of his subject’s scheme.

The empire’s important command routes, which had already been secretly taken over, were rendered useless as soon as the war began.

He had dreamed of an empire that would last a thousand years, but it collapsed so meaninglessly.

Before that uncontrollable downfall, Cain had been nothing more than one helpless man, not an Emperor.

He could not lose everything like this.

He knew very well that his feelings and Duke Forn’s feelings were no different.

That was why he felt heartbroken as Duke Forn cried out while vomiting blood.

Thud.

Duke Forn collapsed before he could finish speaking.

Then, with a choking sound, he vomited a fist-sized lump of blood and died on the spot.

“……”

Cain stood silently for a long time, as if he had lost all words.

Only now did he realize that the two Dukes and 50 subordinates who had surrounded him had not come here as people who would “wake up and continue together.”

They had come knowing that they would “certainly die.”

They had started together, but now he was alone.

Only one thing remained.

A single book left in his hands.

“Waaaaaah! Damn it! Damn it all!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Cain slammed his fists against the floor like a madman.

He did not feel the pain.

Red blood flowed from his fists as he continued striking the floor.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

A lonely scream poured out, with no one left to hear it.

The tears flowing from his eyes soon mixed with blood-like tears and stained the floor.

Cain cried for a long time.

The only thing left here was himself.

Alone.