“High-value target. Kill on sight.”
My fingers tightened around the paper.
The air shifted. Cold. Familiar.
A name like a curse. Something inside me — something I’d buried long ago — stirred.
Seori
No Exceptions
There are rules etched into my bones.
Kill without hesitation.
Do not question the order.
Demons lie. Demons seduce. Demons ruin.
And above all — never leave a mark breathing.
I repeated the mantra as I walked the dim marble halls of the Hwaryeong Guild, moonlight pooling through the arched windows. The smell of incense and steel filled the air — comforting in its own strange, disciplined way. This was home. Or the closest thing to it.
At twelve, they handed me a blade and told me demons killed my parents.
At thirteen, they taught me how to make them scream.
Now, at twenty-three, I’m their finest asset.
And still, that name echoed in my skull.
Rheon.
I hadn’t heard of him before — which meant one of two things. He was either dead… or dangerous enough to be buried under blood and silence.
--------???--------
Grandmaster Sun stared at me from across the stone table, his expression unreadable. Candles flickered around us, casting long shadows across his weathered face.
“You don’t hesitate, Seori. That’s why we’re giving you this one,” he said.
“He's unlike the others.”
I tilted my head.
“You think I’ll fail.”
He smiled — a grim thing.
“I think you’re the only one who won’t fall for his tricks.”
I didn’t ask what kind of tricks. Instead, I opened the scroll again. One name. No photo. Just:
Rheon.
Demon Prince. Possible realm key. Kill on sight.
I’d heard whispers of “realm keys” before. Living conduits. Beings that could open the gate between the demon realm and ours. The kind of power the Guild wouldn’t let survive.
