Waking Up in the Kangyu Dynasty

"You are, indeed, dumb," he laughed at her. "You realize you're rejecting something that many others only wish for? I'm offering you freedom, as well as a rich and wealthy lifestyle. Enjoy everything while you can, you're just nineteen."

"I don't want freedom, and I've never tasted happiness," she said. "Mr. Jonathan is a very attractive man, but I'm not sure I'd want to sleep with him or any other man. I'm not a fan of clubs either. If something I've always wanted, that's a family, and no matter if it's a mafia family, I'd serve it with total sincerity. We should rather focus on teaching me whatever you want me to learn. I vow I'll do my job with zeal and devotion. Because, Mr. Kang," she paused, and he cocked his head, eagerly awaiting her final words.

"Although I may appear hopeless, the truth is, the moment you rescued me from that filth, I pledged to owe you with my life. You don't have to entice me to buy me. For money cannot buy what a simple act of kindness can," her lips quivered as she struggled to speak, a single drop of tear twinkling in the dim light cascaded down her cheeks causing his heart to clench unexpectedly.

"And you've been kind to a piece of filth like me," she said, her voice trembling as she squeezed her eyes shut, head bowed low. "Even my own parents weren’t kind enough to give me a name." Her words faltered as she sniffled, hastily wiping the tears.

She struggled to steady her breath, her chest rising and falling with each sob. While his eyes remained cold, void of any emotion as he worked hard to mask the subtle impact her tears had on him.

"No human can be a god," she continued, her voice soft but resolute. "And neither can you. Yet, I see you as an angel sent by the gods to pull me out of that miserable life. For that, Mr. Kang, I can’t thank you enough."

With those words, she turned and left the room. He stood there, frozen.

He could see now that she wasn't quite as dumb as he had assumed. For she was wiser and in it for something greater, but neither his riches or position.

But, for a man who seldom believed words, the question, "What exactly does she want?" disturbed him.

He expected her to be a soldier, but soldiers don't cry; they bleed. This made him question if she would live up to his expectations..

The confidence he once had in her was beginning to dissolve, replaced by a growing wariness. She was the antithesis of everything he had expected—emotional, unpredictable, and entirely unreadable. For someone like him, that unpredictability was the most dangerous trait of all.

Present day

Zane's first breath was sharp, stinging from the unfamiliar air, and he gasped as if drowning. His eyes snapped open, but the world before him was a disjointed blur—a haze of shapes and figures that he struggled to make sense of. 

His surroundings were not like the chilly, antiseptic room at the hospital he had expected. Instead, he was laying on a firm, hard bed, surrounded by thick tapestries and the dim flickering of candles. He could smell burning wax and old wood in his nose.

Confusion clouded his mind.

Where am I? 

A sharp wave of pain hit him, not physical but deeper. He was shot, and while he missed the bullet, he fell from a thirty-storey building, straight into a pool. And in those last moments, he had seen the love of his life, Vanessa die because of him. The one person he'd loved, the woman who had meant everything, died in front of him, and he couldn't save her.

“Vanessa…” he whispered as a lone tear escaped his eye.

That was when his eyes met a pair of familiar ones staring right back at him, his heart stopped. For a fleeting moment, he thought he had ended up in hell. Where else could he meet her again?

But when he cupped her face and crashed his lips against hers, the rush of warmth that surged through him made him rethink. Hell could never feel this heavenly. And yet, heaven was out of reach—for both of them. Given the sins they’d committed over the years which forever condemned them.

The fate of a mafia lord and his gun-moll might be anything but heaven.

So, where are we?

"What on earth do you think you’re doing?" the woman pushed him away.

Her voice startled him, breaking through the haze in his mind. His gaze lingered on her, taking in the details he had missed in his desperate delirium.

The face, those exquisite brown eyes, her dusky complexion—even the delicate shape of her jawline—it all resembled Vanessa. But the rest of her? Completely different.

She was adorned in jewels, her figure draped in unusual traditional attire. She wasn’t Vanessa.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice hoarse as he rubbed the remnants of sleep and confusion from his eyes.

The woman stood there, staring down at him, her face unreadable.

Sure, she had an uncanny resemblance to the woman he’d loved and lost. But she wasn’t his Vanessa.

Then, who exactly was she?

On top of that, why was he with her?

What just happened?

Did I not die?

And if I didn't, then is Vanessa alive as well?

Was it all a dream?

Where the f*ck is Jonathan when you need him?

Does he even know?

Zane had many questions but to answer them, only the lady in front of him.

"My name is Princess Vaani of Dharakand," she said proudly, eliciting a scoff from him. He would have believed her if she said she was Vanessa's long-lost twin, but this?

He rolled his eyes, "And I'm Prince Zane of Seoul."

"You're a prince?" The female exclaimed, her eyes wide out of surprise.

"Where is Seoul Province?" A male in a blue hanbok emerged from behind her, flashing a wide smile. "Does it happen to be close to Kangyu?"

"Wait?" The female intervened, her fingers leisurely tracing the scar on his face. "Are you related to Kang Yeonho in any way?"

"Who is this Kang Yeonho?" He blinked, annoyed, yanking her hands away from his face. "Even you resemble my dead girlfriend. Did I complain?" He whined, pointing a finger at her, his nose scrunched. "And where the hell am I?"

As he took in his surroundings, his eyes widened and mouth hung agape.

Everything around him, from the mysterious princess to the hanbok guy and even the traditional Korean hanok, with traditional items, reminded him of historical dramas and movies.

"You're in Namgyeol," the hanbok guy replied. "The capital of the Kangyu dynasty."

"Ka-Kangyu?" He exclaimed, repeating the words and blinked his eyes in disbelief. "Kangyu Dynasty?"

"Yes!" The princess nodded.

"Is this some kind of prank?" He burst out laughing, but soon clutched his head as it began to ache. "You!" He directed his index at the female. "Did Lorenzo hire you to trick me?"

"Do you even know who I am?" He began to yell, the veins in his neck and forearms popping as he clenched his palms into fists. "You may look like Vanessa but you can't be her. No one can be her."

"Who is Vanessa?" She exclaimed, her tone soft yet curious. But before he could utter a word in his response or get more angry at the female, he was stabbed with a needle and put to sleep.

"Why did you do that?" The female exclaimed, followed by a male voice that Zane could only dimly hear. "He was getting aggressive."