Prologue: The Ten-Mile Demonic Fire Jade Flame Technique
The Ten-Mile Demonic Fire Jade Flame Technique — a forbidden demonic martial art that burned the user's flesh to turn a ten-mile radius into a scorching hell.
The flames of the Ten-Mile Demonic Fire that it summoned would never extinguish, even after a hundred years, and all those trapped in the scorching hell would burn their entire bodies in the karmic fire.
The flames of the hellish karma called Bunda-ri would wrap around the ten-mile area, entangling and crushing anyone who tried to hide or flee, reducing them to ashes.
From the Demonic Cult, the disciple and maid who had followed her out and lived with her in the imperial palace bowed before Yeong-ryeong.
Yeong-ryeong sat in the lotus position and slowly gathered the demonic energy.
Clouds began to cover the clear sky, and ominous energy started rising from somewhere, causing everyone to open their collars.
The prince who had been hugging his newly acquired young concubine and enjoying boating at the hexagonal pavilion suddenly looked up at the sky.
The Empress Dowager who had been flaunting her power with the concubines at the banquet in Suwangjae also furrowed her brows at the ominous energy.
Thud—
At that moment, silence descended over the entire imperial palace.
And with a deafening roar, the ground split open, and from the cracks, the lava of karma violently erupted.
The beautiful halls and the trees surrounding them were engulfed in flames in an instant.
The emperor's ship capsized, and the concubines who fell into the water screamed for help.
The prince who had climbed to the edge of the pond alone, leaning on a stone, shouted in horror at the hellish landscape and looked around.
Everything around him was enveloped in black-red flames.
The tombstone built for the son he had with his concubine was torn from the bottom up like paper being ripped.
He panted heavily and started running.
The voices of the concubines screaming for help were swallowed by the burning murky water in the pond.
The ground shook horribly and continued to split.
He wanted to believe that all this was just an ominous nightmare, but facing a woman who came out screaming and burning from Suwangjae, he froze in place.
“Mother…!”
The maids and eunuchs tried to spray water, but the flames clinging to her body only grew stronger.
“Emperor, Emperor, please save me.” The voice of someone pleading echoed, but he could not reach out to his mother.
This place where tragic screams erupted was a scene from the complete Ten-Mile Demonic Fire Jade Flame Technique.
“……”
Yeong-ryeong.
My Yeong-ryeong.
Amidst his fading consciousness, the voice of a man echoed.
In front of Yeong-ryeong, whose eyelids lifted as she turned into burning lotuses, was a man desperately pleading.
“Yeong-ryeong, I cannot send you like this.”
He made her burning shoulders lean against him.
The heat of hell clung to his body, but he paid no heed.
“I have loved only you until now. Therefore, I only wished for your happiness, but if all that remains for you is nothing but vicious hatred and pain…”
A sweet voice seeped into his ear.
“Let’s go to hell together.”
It burns.
Everything burns.
“If we meet again in the next life, I will never hesitate and hold your hand then.”
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1. Awakening Through Betrayal
In the lush garden of the ducal mansion, two women stood.
The pale-faced woman in the gorgeous red dress was the Duchess of Klaus, Esika Klaus.
She had been born wealthy and possessed beautiful silver hair and blue eyes.
And the woman standing straight before her was Yuri Anesis.
She was the daughter of the wet nurse who had raised Esika, and her only childhood friend.
Yuri’s lips moved slowly.
“The one he loves is……”
In Esika’s blue eyes, Yuri’s calm face was reflected.
Yuri, with her brilliant golden hair and red eyes, said with a voice mixed with mysterious pity, as if comforting.
“……Me.”
The sound of leaves rustling in the wind was heard.
Esika’s blue eyes shook violently with shock.
“It seems a woman has appeared in his life. What am I supposed to do?”
That conversation with Yuri had been only three months ago.
Yuri, who had been the daughter of the wet nurse, had been taken in by the Klaus Duchy when Esika married in, and served as her companion.
Even when the mother-in-law Leona Klaus found fault, calling her “the daughter of a house that bought nobility with money,” and when her husband Kalian Klaus treated her with icy coldness…
In this hellish ducal mansion, the only person Esika could trust was Yuri.
“But that Yuri… betrayed me?”
She had noticed Kalian’s suspicious circumstances after he bought the Allet Ring from the jewelry shop.
The gift given when pledging eternal love to a lover.
She had been thrilled thinking it might be for her, but a month passed and Kalian didn’t say a word.
And now, on Yuri’s left hand ring finger… the Allet Ring of the same design he had purchased was sparkling.
“……!”
The shock waves didn’t subside for a long time, and Esika barely lifted her trembling hand.
And with that hand, she slapped Yuri’s cheek hard.
Slap—
The sound of the cheek being slapped rang out loudly.
“Yuri! How dare you…!”
At the moment Esika was about to pour out curses while clutching her heart that was tearing apart with her other hand.
“That habit of yours doesn’t seem like it will ever be corrected.”
Kalian’s voice appeared as he grabbed the staggering Yuri.
A chill emanated from him, with his clear brown hair and cold purple eyes.
“……Kalian……”
Esika’s eyes shook.
Kalian Klaus, one of the three dukes in the empire, was Esika’s husband.
He had a height that gave an intimidating feeling, a solid body, and outstanding looks that ranked in the top five in the empire.
When they first married, she thought she had obtained the world.
“Those maids who had devoted their entire lives to the ducal house, one day after another, due to your tyranny, are quitting. Now even to the friend who serves you, you dare to lay hands.”
Kalian appeared, supporting Yuri’s waist so she wouldn’t fall.
A hand that had never once held Esika’s hand since their marriage.
“When am I supposed to watch this behavior of yours?”
Esika could clearly feel from his cold gaze.
The fact that Kalian despised her.
Kalian, the successor of the founding duke family, and Esika, the only daughter of the newly rich Brigate Marquis family who made a fortune through jewelry business, had different backgrounds from birth.
Everything from small interests to habits was different, and just as Esika couldn’t understand Kalian, he couldn’t understand her, but…
Esika had thought they could be a good couple.
After all, the prestigious and handsome Klaus Duke was her ideal that she had always dreamed of.
Despite three years of continued indifference, Esika had thought that one day Kalian would take care of her and had worked hard without rest.
But the price of return was such betrayal.
“……Kalian! You have no right to say such things to me……”
“Don’t call me that again. My name.”
Esika’s eyes shook at Kalian’s cold voice that cut off her pleas.
The ends of Yuri’s red lips curved.
It was as if saying that all of Esika’s countless efforts had been a futile dream.
“Let’s go, Yuri.”
Kalian said in a whisper, placing his hand on Yuri’s shoulder.
Esika could no longer endure it.
She ran towards him with the intention of grabbing his hair and tearing it out.
It was the only revenge she could do to Kalian and Yuri right now.
However, her hand didn’t reach because it was blocked by Kalian’s firm arm.
“Stop it! Let go! I’ll kill you!”
Esika raised her eyebrows and struggled, and Kalian’s cold voice flowed into her ear.
“You are really… vicious and boring.”
Immediately, Kalian pushed the struggling Esika with all his might,
“Ahk!”
Esika fell backward and tumbled.
A tremendous shock hit her head, and blood from Esika seeped into the grass.
She only wanted to die right there.
***
She had been in agony for ten days and nights.
At first, Esika thought she was hallucinating.
But it was neither a dream nor an illusion; it was the memory of her previous life.
All the things she had lost were flowing vividly into her eyes, ears, and skin.
Her previous life name was Cheon Yeong-ryeong, and the place she lived was the Wulin of the Central Plains.
She was the wild daughter of the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader.
She met the emperor of the empire and fell in love.
She abandoned the free life in the martial world and chose a new life in the imperial palace as a woman of one man.
“Older brother Dok-yeong, I… have a man I love.”
“Dok-yeong can never be happy in a cage, Yeong-ryeong.”
Everyone who had protected her, like family, tried to dissuade her, but the world of women who jumped into love required ruthless and cunning strategies as cruel as the martial world.
Yeong-ryeong had stained her hands with blood countless times and survived the war of flowers.
At some point, the emperor’s concubines feared her from behind, calling her the poison of the world, the evil villain Cheon Yeong-ryeong.
What she had given up everything for and wanted was only the love of one man.
However, more and more women entered the harem, and the emperor who had said he would give his heart for her grew tired of her jealousy and stopped looking for her.
In the end, trapped in the cold palace due to the harem’s schemes, Yeong-ryeong withered like a dry flower.
And her last memory was the pain as if her whole body was burning in fire, mixed with a man’s desperate cry.
She didn’t remember the reason for death.
“Yeong-ryeong. I……”
“……Huk… huk……”
Sweat pouring down, Esika woke up on the bed after ten days.
The scenery in the room that had been blurry in her vision gradually became clear.
“……Uck……”
Esika covered her mouth and shook her body greatly.
Her expression with wide-open eyes was full of shock.
Although she felt nausea from the weak body, the rising vivid memories of her previous life were intact.
“This place… is exactly the same as the book I saw in my previous life.”
The fact that Yeong-ryeong, who was withering, had spent time reading Western novels was a secret known only to her disciple from the Demonic Cult, excluding everyone else.
The Flower of Turesian was a novel weaving stories of intrigue in the fictional empire called the Turesian Empire.
The protagonist was Lesban Deon Rusein, the crown prince of the Turesian Empire, and the Klaus Duchy was a force supporting the second prince and checking the crown prince.
In the book, Esika Klaus was Kalian Klaus’s wife, the only daughter of the newly rich Brigate Marquis family, and due to her extravagance and violent personality, she was divorced after five years of marriage and then committed suicide.
The woman who entered as a concubine after Kalian divorced Esika was…
“Yuri Anesis.”
The childhood friend of Esika Klaus and the woman who had worked as a maid in the Klaus Duchy.
Yeong-ryeong muttered while recalling the part where Esika cursed the Klaus Duchy until the moment of her death.
“This woman… she looks just like me……”
“It’s strange. It feels like sisters.”
A woman raised without fault, losing everything for love.
There could be no more regrettable and cruel fate than this.
Yeong-ryeong empathized and comforted herself by looking at the Esika in the book.
She was neither smarter nor more evil than her, and lacked the ability to manipulate enemies, but in the end, the ending was the same.
But now she had become that Esika in the book.
The one who had her husband taken by her childhood friend, and the one who would curse them after divorce and commit suicide.
And Kalian… his face and atmosphere were similar to the man she had loved.
She had become Esika as she had, and the emperor had reincarnated as Kalian, she suspected.
Perhaps that’s why she had clung to him even more.
“Past was Yeong-ryeong, current is Esika. If I were both,”
The posture that had been slightly hunched was changed to be too straight.
“I will never regret this second life.”
Above all, Esika’s gaze was no longer the hazy and timid one from before.
In the dark room, only the blue eyes shone brightly.
***
One of Esika’s maids, Sella, entered her room carrying a piece of dry bread and a glass of water.
It was because the news that the Duchess had woken up had been delivered, and the dowager had commanded it.
“To punish the crime of causing a disturbance in the family, bring only the withered bread and cold water.”
The room was pitch dark.
The dowager had always disliked Esika, calling her the daughter of a rootless new noble, and hadn’t even provided a lamp stand, so she had to light the candles with oil.
“What time is it? Why are you still complaining?”
Sella grumbled while looking at the lumpy blanket on the bed with a sharp voice.
“You are lazy too.”
The Duchess of Klaus was a woman who could only cry and complain, a weak woman.
When the maids teased her, she would tremble and get angry, but it only harmed herself.
All the provisions and items of the duke were under the management of the dowager.
The only one who would suffer if the maids turned against her was the duchess.
Because of the dowager’s command, every time the maids submitted resignation letters, they wrote the duchess’s name, so her reputation in the Klaus Duchy had long been in the ground.
Perhaps when she woke up in bed and saw this bread and water, there would be tears in the duchess’s bright blue eyes.
“Please bring warm food, Sella… this dry bread is too hard…” She might even beg.
“Should I kneel and beg? When will a noble beg in front of me. Hmph.”
Sella raised the corner of her mouth and bowed her waist to grab the blanket and pull it up.
Thinking that Esika was curled up inside the bed.
“……?”
But there was nothing in the bed. Just the crumpled blanket.
And at that moment, Sella felt something cold touch her neck and couldn’t even scream.