Chapter 709: PAID

Tang So-yeol was still at the stage where she could count the number of times she had died.

As sweat drenched her trembling body, the Shadow King spoke.

“Do you know what you fear most?”

The master of the night.

The king of assassins.

The man closest to death himself posed the question, and Tang So-yeol raised her head.

What was she most afraid of?

“…Is it death?”

Death.

The end of life.

Thinking this might be the answer, she replied, but the Shadow King, maintaining his usual impassive expression, said:

“Wrong.”

The punishment for a wrong answer was severe.

Slash—!

With a flick of his dagger, the Shadow King severed Tang So-yeol’s neck.

Thud!

The moment her severed head hit the ground—

“Gah…!”

It was as if everything had been an illusion. She awoke again.

“Gah… haah… sob…!”

As Tang So-yeol whimpered in terror, the Shadow King spoke.

“Still not enough.”

“Wait…!”

And with that, she died a hundred more times.

Afterward, Tang So-yeol’s expression became empty.

She no longer whimpered in fear.

Yet—

“I will ask again. What do you think you fear the most?”

Even now, she couldn’t find the answer.

It wasn’t death. That much was clear.

So, what could it be?

At the time, Tang So-yeol still couldn’t answer.

“Not yet.”

The Shadow King nodded.

Slash.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

And death repeated itself once more.

How many times had she died now?

She had counted up to five hundred, but after that, she stopped keeping track.

It was a cycle of the same question and her inability to answer.

“Do you know?”

She answered no.

And faced death again.

“Do you know?”

She felt as if she might know.

But because it wasn’t complete, she continued to die.