Yeon's POV
The world is moving around me…now moving past me and through me, but I feel nothing.
It's like I'm dead again.
Panic surges through my body as I turn around with quickened breathing and wide open eyes.
What did he do to me again?
I want to live, I don't want death, it was a joke.
"Ah, I see" he says and I look by my side where he stands.
How did I do it?
I looked around and didn't see him, yet he was beside me all along?
"What are you?" I ask the question out loud and he hums.
"They call me many things" he says and begins to circle around me, with a snap of his finger a sharp pain in my chest has me on the floor gasping for breath.
"Some call me the dragon prince" he says and his eyes turn into that of a dragon, black and yellow, terrifying.
This man is scary.
I can't breathe.
"Stop-" I wheeze in pain.
"Others call me the healer" he says and my lungs suddenly fills with fresh air, the pain disappearing with the breathlessness.
"But you, my dear, will call me the sorcerer" he says with a wide smile and stretches out his hand to pull me up.
I place my hand to my chest to make sure I'm still intact, I don't trust him.
"Five men died at the yellow river four days ago, it was ugly" a woman passing by says.
"The mayor's son was a part of them!" her partner says as they both walk through me.
I stumble backwards as their body passes through mine like I am air. It doesn't hurt, but it's shocking.
"I died at the Yellow river too" I say to the Sorcerer.
"Yes, I gave you choice to live or die, remember?" he says.
How can I forget?
How can I forget how I snatched the gangjeong out of his palm, no questions asked, and stuff it into my mouth.
I heard life and knew I wanted it more than anything.
"If I offer you the yakgwa now, will you take it?" He asks me with a sly smile.
"No" I respond immediately and he burst into laughter, "of course! This is why I chose you instead of them all".
"What are you talking about?" I growl at him.
"You are selfish" he says, leaning into my ear to say the last word.
Selfish?
Me?
Yes.
Yes, I'm very much selfish.
I have gone through so much in life to not be selfish.
All I have in the world is me, myself and I, so all I will care for is me, myself and I.
"You say it like there's a price to my life" I say with a growl, realizing that I can not be brought to life without a clause.
"Of course, nothing in the world is free, I know you know that much by now little beauty" he says, his eyes getting dark as they run over my body.
I am used to every secondary gender; alphas, betas and omegas even!, staring at me as an object of desire.
I am that beautiful and that confident about it, but the Sorcerer's eyes makes me shiver and my skin crawl.
"What am I to do" I ask quietly and he hums gently, "you are to bring me the kingdom on a golden platter" he says.
Eh?
"What do you mean?" I ask and he continues walking around me, his eyes tracing my body, "stop looking at me like that" I growl.
He bursts into laughter.
Laughing like I am putting on a show for him…maybe my life is just that laughable, but don't care.
I have my life back, I will not give it away!.
"Your selfishness is like a fire, it's bright within your soul" he says and steps backwards to take a good look at me.
Like he's considering if a good is worth it's buy or no.
"What do you mean by bring me the kingdom on a golden platter?" I ask and he claps his hands.
"See? Fire!" the sorcerer says with a joy that irritates me.
"Can I go back now?" I ask and turn around to leave him.
"One year" his voice booms and I stop in my track.
"If you fail within one year, you will return to the dead, and your afterlife will be worse" he says.
"What do you mean worse?" I ask him with a frown.
"Your life, you cheated, lied, stole, sold your body…amongst many other things, and now you cheat death for life" he says.
"If I don't fail?" I ask.
"You will live a good life and die a good death, I will ensure your Afterlife is paradise" he says.
I can't suffer on earth and suffer in the Afterlife.
I must not fail.
"What am I to do?"
"You will bring me information of the emperors, what keeps the five of them, what power they feed from…especially that Kihyun bastard" he spits out the name Kihyun.
The name of the emperor who brought me to the palace, the Golden Sun of the country.
"Everything will be brought to me" he says and I nod my head.
Easy. I will charm them.
"If you get caught, it will be equal to failing" the Sorcerer warns and I sigh.
I can't fail.
Gu Yeon doesn't fail, what Gu Yeon wants, Gu Yeon gets.
Who Gu Yeon wants, Gu Yeon gets…even if it's the five mated emperors who the whole country knows are bound together as tightly as cords.
I will make my life worth it.
I will get in, get the information, maybe know what it's like to have a taste of royal cock and royal treatments and then get out.
"I see your face plotting" the man says and laughs again.
"I never make mistakes! You are the perfect candidate" he says, still laughing as people keep walking past us.
"I will get you what you want" I say with surety.
"You will give me five lives for the price of one good one" he says.
"Deal" I agree and with a snap of his fingers.
My body goes into indescribable pains.
"You mother-!"