"Husband… please don't hate me…"
The woman spoke with a blood-covered face. Her lips trembled as if every word hurt.
"I was blind. I didn't understand your warnings… I stopped you…"
Tears rolled down her cheeks, cutting lines through the dried blood. Around her were broken stones, shattered wood, and the heavy smell of blood in the air.
"Because of me… everything you ever dreamed of is over. And now… we're going to die…..as well."
Her voice was full of guilt and regret. Her hands shook as she held them close to her chest.
In the end, she forced a weak and miserable smile.
"After we die… if we're reborn… I hope we find each other again…."
Her voice became softer, almost a whisper.
"And this time… you can conquer….."
"Useless bitch…..."
A low murmur echoed in a silent room.
A man slowly stood up from a rocking chair. His body felt heavy, as if it carried years of pain. His eyes were blurry, tears gathered at the corners without his notice.
He raised his hand and rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his vision.
Using the handle of the chair for support, he stood up fully, breathing out a long, tired sigh.
The room was dark and quiet.
He walked toward the window, each step was heavy and filled with regret…
Creak.
He pushed the window open. It made a rough sound as it moved.
Sunlight poured inside, spreading across the room. The light fell on his face and body, finally revealing his figure.
He was a masculine man…..no, not a man. A werewolf.
His upper body was bare, muscles carved and powerful, carrying a quiet dominance.
His pupils were black as a moonless night, sharp and alert. Long black hair fell down his back, braided neatly from both sides.
His face was undeniably handsome, yet there was an unmistakable arrogance etched into his features as he gazed outside.
His nose twitched. He inhaled deeply, ears atop his head flicking once as his brow furrowed.
"Snow…" he muttered, sensing it in the air.
He turned away from the window. As he moved, his long, fluffy tail swayed lazily behind him.
Walking back, he sat down on the rocking chair once more. Just as he was about to close his eyes…..
"Young Lord, the meeting is about to begin. The clan leader requests your presence."
A female voice came from outside the door. His eyes slowly opened.
"I will be there in a few minutes. You may go," he said, rising from the chair.
"Yes, my lord," the woman replied, her footsteps retreating as she left.
The man stood up, straightened his back, and let out a long sigh.
"It's been a week…" he murmured.
The last thing he remembered was dying in a prison cell, his body broken after two years of torture.
In his first life, he was not a werewolf. He was a human.
He came from a planet called Setrex.
On Setrex, he was a tyrant.
Since his youth, he had dreamed of conquering the world. He had almost succeeded when everything began to fall apart.
"There was a fanatic cult…" he recalled.
"They reproduce like insects! They control more than half of the nations on Setrex."
Someone had argued with him back then.
"You're exaggerating."
He wasn't.
"That is how they took those nations," he had replied.
They followed three steps to conquer nations.
First, they stayed peaceful while they were a small minority.
Second, once their numbers grew, they started protesting and demanding rights.
Third, when they became the majority, they began killing...demanding everyone accept their God.
They repeated this pattern, conquering one country after another.
His jaw tightened.
"I said I would erase them completely," he whispered.
"And I did."
He had killed many. Too many.
But by the time he finally became the ruler of his country, the cult had already grown too large.
Still, he slaughtered them without mercy.
And that was when everything ended.
"Honey, please don't kill innocent people."
His wife had said this softly. Her expression was gentle, almost pleading.
"They are humans too, aren't they?" she continued. "They have children as well. Please… don't kill innocent people."
The man hesitated.
She then lifted her clothes slightly and showed her belly. She was pregnant….around six months.
"We have a child too," she said quietly.
"What if someone tries to kill our child one day?"
The man was still unsure.
Then her eyes hardened.
"If you don't stop killing," she said firmly, "I will kill myself."
His face twisted.
"Useless woman!" he growled, grinding his teeth as his fangs came out of his mouth…
A deep sense of anger and hatred surged in him towards his wife.
Fearing that his wife would truly take her own life, he stopped killing.
For seven years, there was peace.
Then they came again.
They entered his land illegally, through unknown ways. Their numbers grew fast. One man took many wives. Children were born like insects!!
When they became the majority, everything changed.
They began killing.
They forced people to convert.
Those who refused were executed. Women suffered the worst fate. What was done to them was beyond words.
With the help of traitors inside the cabinet, the fanatics reached his castle.
During the attack, his wife died when a building collapsed.
As she lay dying, she begged for his forgiveness.
But he felt only hatred toward her.
He and his six-year-old daughter were trapped inside a ruined building, surrounded by the fanatics.
They gave him a choice.
"Give us your daughter as an offering and convert," they said.
"Or die."
His voice trembled as he remembered.
"They asked for my daughter… and I knew why…..."
He clenched his fists.
"They never spared children. They used them to satisfy their sick desires."
Tears rolled down his face.
"So....I killed my daughter with…my own hands…."
His body shook as he cried.
And after that he was about to kill himself….
But they captured him instead.
He was imprisoned.
For two long years, they tortured him.
They mocked him as they did it.
"Accept our god and die," they said again and again.
"If I am going to die," he had replied, "I will die with pride."
He never accepted.
In the end, they tortured him until his body failed.
And then they killed him.
In the end, as he died, only two emotions remained inside him.
Endless hatred.
And regret.
His hatred was toward his wife for stopping him through threats. He also hated himself. If he had not listened to her…if he had continued killing them…none of it would have happened.
His daughter would still be alive.
And his regret was something else.
He had failed.
"I couldn't conquer the world in the end…"
As he remembered this, the regret burned deep inside him.
Then he died….with that regret.
He thought he would enter the afterlife.
But when he opened his eyes again, he was no longer human.
He was in another body.
A werewolf's body.
For three days straight, memories that did not belong to him flooded his mind.
The life, thoughts, and emotions of the body's original owner crashed into him without pause.
Only then did he understand.
He had been reincarnated.
This body belonged to Augustus Vane.
He was the heir of the Vane tribe.
From the memories, he understood that the original owner of this body had wanted something similar.
Augustus Vane wanted his clan to escape the control of humans. He wanted the children of the tribe to have a safe future.
Every few years, humans demanded members of the tribe as hostages so they could control the tribe…
Augustus wanted to fight back.
He wanted to resist.
But in the end, he was stopped.
He was stopped by his uncle who was also the leader of the clan!
From the recent memories, he understood what had happened.
The humans had demanded his cousin….his uncle's own son…as a hostage, along with other clan members.
Augustus had wanted to rebel.
But his uncle had said,
"We can't fight. Humans want hostages so we won't become aggressive."
It was pitiful.
Augustus felt anger and hatred, but more than that, he felt humiliation.
He was told to give up his own brother.
And he could not even rebel against his uncle.
That man had raised him after his parents died. Werewolves valued kinship deeply. Because of that bond, Augustus had been powerless.
In the end, overwhelmed by shame and humiliation, Augustus killed himself.
"How utterly pitiful…"
He stared out the window.
"Augustus… you and I are both pitiful."
"I was stopped by my useless wife," he muttered.
"And you were stopped by your useless uncle."
Silence filled the room.
Then his expression changed.
"However, do not regret it in the afterlife," he said calmly.
"Fate has given me a chance by reincarnating me into this body."
A burning fire ignited in his chest…..the same one that had burned many years ago when he was just a child…
"I will take full advantage of this chance."
His eyes hardened.
"I will live as Augustus Vane."
"And this time…."
"I will conquer the world."