’It must’ve been for leverage, and blackmailing my parents.’
’They wanted to hold my life hostage to break my parents mentally.’
I remembered my parents’ condition during their final years in my past life.
Their faces had become full of wrinkles. They seemed to be under immense stress and it had ruined their health.
I had never noticed it until they died, and even then, I never understood the cause of their stress.
But now, it made sense.
I had been cursed before. I just never noticed. But they had. They must have known. And they’d carried that burden for years.
Frank hadn’t just killed them.
He broke them first, and made them suffer.
I clenched my jaw until it hurt. My hands curled into fists as fresh pain flared in my ribcage.
But anger wouldn’t fix anything.
I wasn’t yet strong enough to walk into Frank’s house and burn everything down. He might have more supernatural allies like Liana.
And right now, I was badly injured.
I could feel one of my ribs cracked, maybe broken.
Every movement hurt. Sitting up had been bad enough.
I looked down at the bloodied floor and Liana’s lifeless body.
’I need to hide the corpse.’
Even a single trace left behind would lead to problematic questions.
I forced myself to crawl, even as my legs trembled from blood loss and mana depletion.
My mind pushed past the pain.
A plan to deal with the corpse formed in my head.
Liana’s blood was rich in mana.
It could be used as a medium instead of my blood.
With it, I could inscribe a [Spatial Inventory Rune], large enough to hide her corpse, at least.
I took a strand of her hair and drew a circle on the floor using her own blood.
Mixing in my space-element mana and a drop of my blood, I completed the Rune.
A soft glow pulsed, and space warped faintly.
The floor was now a doorway to a Spatial Inventory.
The inside was about the size of a cupboard.
With a heavy breath, I pushed her body into it. As soon as her corpse disappeared inside, the rune faded.
’Done.’
I wasn’t finished, though.
There was plenty of blood, and I decided to make use of it. After all, blood loses its potency as time passed. I should use it while it was fresh.
Using the earlier method, I created another Spatial Inventory on my palm.
This one was separate from the inventory on the floor, with an interior roughly the size of a room.
Her daggers—probably Rank 1 Relics—went into the palm storage.
I channeled my mana through the rune etched on my skin. It glowed for a second, and the weapons vanished as I pushed them into it.
’Now that this is done....’
I glanced around the room.
Aside from the blood on my shirt and the injuries, everything looked normal.
The room was clean. The air was still.
There was no sign of the fight that had just happened, and no sign of the corpse that had nearly killed me.
I could erase the blood from my clothes using alchemy. That wasn’t a problem.
But the injuries... that was harder to explain.
A broken rib couldn’t be hidden. I needed medical treatment, and a very good excuse for it.
’I’m starting to... get... tired...’
My eyelids drooped. Fatigue caught up with me all at once.
But I didn’t sleep yet.
Frank wouldn’t sit quietly when Liana didn’t return.
He’d assume something had gone wrong, probably think a supernatural guard was watching over our house.
He might panic, and do something reckless.
Poison. Kidnapping. Assassins. Snipers.
Who knew what cards he had left to play?
If he had connections in the supernatural world, then he had plenty of dangerous options to choose from.
A cold rage simmered in my gut as I recalled how he’d smiled at me today and then sent his ’girlfriend’ to poison me.
The anger surged as I recalled my parents’ death during my last time, and their condition before they died.
The grief on my parents’ faces. The dullness in their eyes. The quiet, tired way they walked. All of it must’ve been due to the poison curse I had been inflicted with.
I wouldn’t let that happen again.
Even if I had to crawl on broken bones to make sure of it.
’Leaving him alive is dangerous.’
’He would grow more cautious after today.’
’Besides, there is no knowing when and how he will attack again.’
My body hurt. My mana reserves were low. I wasn’t fully healed.
But....
’I need to kill Frank tonight.’
I needed to do that even if it was dangerous. If I waited, Frank would have the initiative.
’If I want to kill him, this is the best moment.’
He didn’t know yet that Liana was dead. He thought my parents were vulnerable. His guard would be at the lowest right now.
I made my choice.
Frank needed to die before sunrise.
He was too dangerous to be left alone.
As long as he was alive, my parents would never be safe.
I couldn’t afford to let him breathe another day.
’To think I’d be doing my first assassination on my first birthday.’ I let out a humorless chuckle, wiping the blood from my mouth.
The irony was there, but I didn’t care for it. I just used the thought to distract myself from the pain.
Slowly, I pushed myself up, using the wall for support.
My arms trembled. Every movement made my chest scream.
Breathing felt like sucking air through cracked glass.
I definitely had a broken rib. Maybe more. But my head was clear. I knew what I had to do.
’Going to kill Frank in this condition is stupid.’
There was no arguing that.
’I’m too weak right now, even if I ignore my injuries.’
Still, I didn’t have the luxury of time.
He couldn’t be allowed to regroup. Especially if he realized Liana wasn’t coming back.
Luckily, she’d done me a favor before dying—putting everyone in the house to sleep.
That included the guards.
That included my parents.
I raised my hand and drew a small portal into the air.
A shimmer of violet light appeared, and through it, I saw the familiar bed and walls of my parents’ bedroom.
I crawled through, dragging my sore body behind me like dead weight.
Dad was asleep in the bed, snoring softly.
Mom wasn’t here. She must’ve decided to sleep in the guest room with Seri’s mother.
I stayed low, and looked around the room.
Behind the bed, the family photo hung on the wall.
It was large, framed in luxurious wood.
I remembered the moment when it was taken. Mom and Dad had kissed both sides of my cheeks while I trying to stop them from doing something so embarrassing.
Despite my reluctance back then, just looking at the picture gave me a sense of peace, and warmth.
The warmth I felt inside hardened into something sharper.
’I need to protect them this time. I won’t let them suffer again.’
With effort, I lifted the frame using Telekinesis Spell. I used whatever mana I had recovered for the Spell.
Behind the frame, hidden against the wall, was a vault.
I extended my hand and conjured a second portal inside the vault’s interior.
It was cramped, filled with small velvet boxes, stacks of important documents, wads of cash, and bars of gold—about the size of building bricks.
I pulled the gold bars out one by one.
They were heavier than they looked.
I dropped them beside me and created portals inside all vaults hidden in the house—the ones I knew of.
There were other vaults like this in the mansion. Dad was careful. He always spread his assets around in case of emergencies.
’I’ll use all the gold I can find to reach 3-star Mage.’
It was a reckless plan, honestly.
Normally, it was recommended to wait until a child’s body matured.
Advancing to higher Mage grades before physical growth risked damaging the internal structure of the body—especially in children.
The Magic Core could overburden the nerves, and the muscles would struggle to keep up with the increased mana flow.
But I didn’t have the time to wait for my body to grow stronger.
If I didn’t act now, Frank would try again.
And next time, he might use someone far stronger than Liana.
Or he might just decide to kill my parents now instead of waiting until a few years later.
’There’s no other way.’
I planned to handle everything through a silent assassination instead of revealing myself, and fighting directly. That wouldn’t burden my body too much.
For now, I focused on getting the gold.
With difficulty, I pushed the bars into the Spatial Inventory tattooed on my palm. I would convert them into mana in my room.
After gathering all of gold, I took a deep breath. My ribs protested, but I gritted my teeth and bore through it.
Of course, I conveniently I ignored the fact that I was robbing my own house.
’This is a good excuse.’
The idea came together quickly.
I could act like a thief came to steal the gold. He found my toys nearby. I tried to stop him. He attacked me.
That would be the story.
It would explain the missing gold.
It would explain the blood.
It would explain why I was injured.
As for my toys, I could hide them in the Spatial Inventory on the floor.
It was perfect.
Now, for the hard part....
’I need to reach 3-star Mage grade.’
I drew runes on the floor of my room with Liana’s blood. Then, I dumped all the gold bars at the center of it.
Chants escaped my lips.
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