As always, realization came in a flash.
[Memory synchronization is complete.]
[Current cycle: 9th Round]
“Ah…”
The system window floating before my eyes was altogether too familiar.
To the person I was until a moment ago—to ‘Enoch’—it might have been a strange entity never before seen in his lifetime, but to the current me, it was something I was sick and tired of seeing.
At least, to the Korean who transmigrated as Enoch, that is.
This place was inside the fantasy novel ‘Master of the Sun Castle’, a book my younger sister used to read obsessively.
One day, out of nowhere, I woke up as Enoch, a petty villain in this story.
Honestly, even calling him a ‘petty villain’ was too generous.
He was merely a passing mention in the early chapters, used strictly to explain the misfortunes the protagonist went through.
By the time the main plot actually kicked off, he was already dead, meaning he didn’t even appear in the main story.
Enoch.
As the illegitimate son of the mastermind Grand Duke, he had been brainwashed by his father from a young age, turning into a lunatic who would gladly throw his life away at a single command.
Later, following the Grand Duke’s orders, he becomes the very person who kidnaps the twelve-year-old protagonist, the Imperial Prince.
After kidnapping the protagonist and leaving him with unforgettable trauma, Enoch allows himself to be captured by the Grand Duke’s men.
He is executed for the crime of kidnapping the prince, but even after his death, the fact that he was the Grand Duke’s illegitimate child remains hidden until the very end.
Thanks to this, only the Grand Duke reaped the benefits.
With the Grand Duke’s influence expanding after the incident, the protagonist’s true hardships began in earnest.
Because I had only skimmed through it after my sister practically begged me to read it, I didn’t immediately realize this was a novel even after hearing the name at first.
I had just brushed it off, thinking, ‘Wow, what a terribly miserable life.’
‘But who could have guessed… that I would transmigrate as Enoch?’
I had barely managed to recall any information about this guy at the beginning of the 3rd round.
Though, even if I had remembered from the very start, it wouldn’t have mattered much since he doesn’t even appear in the main story anyway.
Moreover, it wasn’t just a simple case of transmigration.
For reasons unknown, I was also repeating regressions.
Transmigration and regression?
What kind of combo package deal is this?
[Quest | Fulfill the wish of ‘?’. ]
A system window written in golden text floated before my eyes.
It was a mysterious window that appeared and disappeared every single time I regained my memories.
At a glance, it looked like a quest guide, but I couldn’t actually use any quest functions.
No matter how many times I shouted, the quest window would never open.
Yet, it kept popping up out of nowhere every time I regained my memories after a regression.
‘It’s like it’s mocking me.’
[Having surpassed the 9th round, you are faintly liberated from the binding force of the story.]
[The ‘Drop’ function has been unlocked.]
‘What is this now?’
This was a message that had never appeared before. I could roughly guess what the ‘binding force of the story’ meant, but a function unlock?
I suppose reaching the ninth time around finally brought a system update.
Even if it did take me until the 9th round to barely obtain it.
“Haa…”
But what was the point?
I had already kidnapped the protagonist.
‘The only silver lining is that today is Day 1 of the kidnapping.’
Yeah, no.
That didn’t bring any comfort at all.
