Chapter 70
A predetermined fate does not change easily—
especially the day one is meant to die.
Even for someone like me, who possesses the Eyes of Fate and the Book of Life and Death, it’s not easy to change a person’s destined day of death. The reason is simple: once the time has come, even heaven rarely intervenes.
Still, if there was even a sliver of hope for So-geom (the young swordsman), it was this—
the fact that his death wasn’t due to illness or old age.
Those are deaths no one can escape, no matter what I do.
In that sense, his case was… possible, though not easy.
To be honest, I had no real reason to help So-geom.
We weren’t particularly close, and he was of no special use to me.
But still, I wanted to hear his story first—
perhaps because he was still a child.
No matter how rough a life he’d led, that didn’t change.
Children are meant to live long enough to grow old,
and the elderly are meant to live long enough to put their affairs in order.
That is the natural order of things.
Maybe I just wanted to preserve that order—
and with that half-hearted excuse, I looked at the boy standing dumbly before me.
“Didn’t I tell you? You’re going to die.”
I didn’t repeat “in two days.”
It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard me—
I just said it again to see if he would respond.
“Hmm.”
He slowly opened his mouth.
At least I’d gotten him to talk.
But his answer was nothing I expected.
“So what?”
So what?
Did he think I was joking?
“This isn’t some kind of prank or joke.”
“I see.”
Even after I said it again, his reaction didn’t change much.
When he nodded quietly, I understood.
He wasn’t taking it as a joke.
He was just… accepting it calmly.
“I’ve always thought I’d die someday.
It’s not exactly a surprise. I just didn’t think it’d be two days from now.”
“You’re not curious how I even know that?”
“I may look young, but I’m still a man of the martial world.
And I used to work for the Hao Clan—dealers of information.”
He smiled faintly, then added,
“There are all kinds of eccentric people in this world.
And not far from here, a fake fortune-teller who’s always at the tavern told me the same thing—
that I wouldn’t live past this year.”
He wasn’t wrong.
There were countless so-called mystics scattered across the land.
Some could glimpse the threads of fate in their own way.
So, So-geom’s calm reaction made sense—
he’d already been warned.
But what he hadn’t heard was what I said next.
“Did he also tell you how to survive?”
That caught his attention.
His eyes widened, trembling slightly, as if asking—
“There’s… a way?”
I nodded slowly.
If the cause wasn’t illness or old age,
then yes—there might be a way.
Difficult, perhaps, but possible.
And confirming whether a way existed was simple enough—
I had both the Eyes of Fate and the Book of the Dead.
“Should I look into it for you?”
Our eyes met.
Storms swirled in his gaze.
The silence didn’t last long.
Finally, he asked,
“…How do you even know such things?
And… is it right for me to trust you?”
It wasn’t that he had no will to live.
He had simply accepted his fate and stopped moving forward.
But my answer wasn’t what mattered—
because a moment later, the boy whispered,
“…Please tell me.”
The still boy was moving forward again.
When I nodded, he spoke with resolve.
“If I can live…”
He paused, drew a deep breath, and declared firmly—
“…I’ll give you everything I have.”
I chuckled softly.
He meant what he said when he asked me to help,
but that last line was a bluff.
I didn’t blame him.
That was who he truly was—
and for the first time today,
I saw the real him:
a boy no longer drowning in despair, but starting to fight again.
“The deal’s done. Wait here for now.
I’ll look into how to save you.”
I left him and stepped outside to check the Book of the Dead.
I could use my Eyes of Fate instead,
but openly displaying my power wasn’t wise.
If the Hao Clan discovered my secret,
it could end up recorded in their information networks—
something I wanted to avoid.
“Let’s see…”
The Book of the Dead isn’t a physical book in this world.
It’s a record from the underworld that only the permitted can summon anywhere, anytime.
As I willed it forth,
it appeared on my palm as if it had always been there.
I opened it without hesitation.
More names had been added since I last looked—
people I’d met recently, perhaps.
None stood out—
except one.
So-geom’s.
When I first noticed his death had changed, I felt uneasy.
Now, seeing the record confirmed that feeling.
I had checked the cause of death—
[Cause unknown. Investigation ongoing.]
That was all it said.
No other details were available.
I didn’t know everything about the Book,
but one thing I did know—
“For the Book of the Dead itself to write something like that…
it means something serious is already happening.”
If only Sah-eun were here.
He’s a reaper; this would be his jurisdiction.
If a cause was being investigated,
it likely meant the underworld’s reapers were already on the case.
But I had no idea when he’d return.
And I couldn’t exactly roam the village looking for someone about to die just to find another reaper.
So I thought of another way.
“If there are no teeth, use your gums,” as they say.
No reaper?
Then what about someone higher up?
I recalled that one of their higher authorities had taken quite an interest in me—
watching to see if I’d cause trouble.
Maybe he was still watching.
No harm in checking.
So I lifted my head to the sky and called out:
“If you’re watching up there,
a little help would be appreciated!”
Of course, I knew it was unlikely.
It’s not as if a reaper appears just because someone shouts.
But if this situation was truly exceptional—
if even the reapers were struggling—
then maybe the King of the Underworld, Yeomra,
might respond, as I once did when he sought my help.
Unfortunately, the attempt failed.
I called several more times,
but no reaper appeared—not even a trace of one.
“Guess that was wishful thinking.”
I hadn’t really expected it anyway.
And I still had one method left—
the Eyes of Fate.
It’s similar to the Book of the Dead, but not the same.
“They say even Yeomra himself was the only one who possessed these eyes before me.
That must mean they can do something special.”
And I had plenty of ways to use them without revealing my secret.
For example, I could pretend I’d learned the information elsewhere.
As I was closing the book, something caught my eye.
I reopened it—
and sure enough, something had changed.
[This is merely the reaper’s conjecture, but appears to be related to that incident.]
A new line had been added beside the “Cause Unknown.”
The reaper must have known I was looking and left me a note.
That incident?
Surely, they wouldn’t reference something only they knew.
Which meant it was something I knew too.
And there was only one such thing the underworld and I shared.
“…Yeomra.”
He had given me a second life in exchange for one mission:
“Protect one person in the mortal world.”
To guard them—from both mortal and spiritual threats.
But that person wasn’t even supposed to be born yet.
It should’ve been years away.
So why was this connected now?
“This is serious enough that someone should’ve come explain it to me in person.”
I hadn’t minded being ignored before,
but now it was irritating.
This concerned both worlds—
theirs and mine.
Was it only me who saw its importance?
Apparently not.
More writing appeared in the book.
[Use of the Eyes of Fate strongly recommended.]
[So-geom — Suitable Vessel.]
So-geom, of course, was expected.
But there was another name added below it—
[Jeokseongja (Red Star Person).]
“Jeokseongja…”
A bad omen.
The word Jeokseong means “red star”—
a sign of calamity in the martial world.
“Still, I think I know who that is.”
It wasn’t a name I’d heard before,
but I had a hunch.
And confirming it would be simple.
All I had to do was ask So-geom.
“Hey. The fortune-teller who told you about your death—
was his name Jeokseongja?”
“How—how did you know that?!”
He looked genuinely shocked,
as if it had never crossed his mind that I’d know.
And there was something else he didn’t know—something I suspected.
“He drinks too much, but he’s a good person,” So-geom said.
Hmm. I wasn’t so sure.
My instincts told me otherwise.
If the reapers had marked Jeokseongja,
then he was somehow tied to the boy’s death.
But I kept that to myself and asked instead,
“I think I should meet him.
Do you know where he is?”
“The old fortune-teller?”
At first, So-geom looked puzzled,
then his expression changed—he’d realized something.
“This is to stop my death, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“Th-then please wait a moment.”
As I agreed, So-geom fell into thought.
I didn’t rush him.
The decision was his.
And as he pondered,
I focused on what I had to do next.
“Eyes of Fate…”
Alright, Yeomra.
Let’s see what you see.
I activated the Eyes of Fate.
