Chapter 01
Someone once said.
The acquisition of knowledge brings pain and anguish, while the revelation of secrets carries the risk of death.
“That is my secret, Miss Emily. Something I have never confessed to anyone until now.”
Therefore, when someone reveals even the secret they have hidden in the depths of their soul in an attempt to prove their love, as they were doing now, it is an exceedingly dangerous situation.
“I see.”
“Of course, I cannot prove my feelings with something as trivial as this…….”
Lord Henry’s flushed face trailed off. Just moments ago, he had made the confession of a lifetime to me.
‘Miss Emily, I have been looking only at you for a long time.’
After reading my first novel, , he had become my fan and was content simply to attend every one of my readings and watch me from afar.
‘But now…… it has become difficult to keep suppressing my feelings for you.’
After sharing several heartfelt conversations with me at Helena Blavatsky’s academic society, he had realized that the feelings he had thought were nothing more than those of a fan had transformed into genuine affection.
‘This proposal may be too sudden…… but would you be willing to formally enter into a relationship with me, with marriage as the ultimate intention?’
In response, I gave him the perfunctory answer that I was a little flustered and that we did not yet know each other very well. Henry Langham had just revealed a ‘secret he had told no one’ in order to let me know him better.
‘The secret was more shocking than I had expected, so I was a little surprised.’
I concealed my surprise and offered him a polite smile.
“Since you have told me that, Lord Henry, I shall tell you a few of my own insignificant secrets as well.”
At those words, the ‘Lord Henry’ seated across from me leaned his upper body toward me.
Broad shoulders and a thick torso. Firm chest muscles clearly visible even beneath his clothes, and thick forearms.
‘Rather than a solid businessman from a respectable old gentry family, wouldn’t his build be more suited to a factory worker?’
His masculine appearance, which could perhaps even be considered somewhat rough, was offset by his black hair that shimmered dark brown beneath the sunlight streaming through the window, and by his handsome features, so striking that they bordered on the dazzling.
Meeting his deep blue eyes, reminiscent of the sea at night, I continued speaking.
“You are well aware that I married at the young age of eighteen and became a widow the following year.”
Immediately after graduating from boarding school, I had fallen blindly in love with an unpopular writer I had met in high society.
I defied my aunt, who had ranted that he was a man without the wealth or ability to support me, and married him in a whirlwind, as if roasting beans with lightning, and although we enjoyed a happy newlywed life for about a year……
“No one could have imagined that Mr. Carter, once regarded as the darling of the literary world, would leave this world so suddenly.”
At Lord Henry’s exceedingly courteous response, I nodded and replied.
“That’s right. In any case, that incident led me to have a very special experience.”
“A special experience?”
“I remembered my past life.”
At the words ‘past life,’ Lord Henry’s round eyes widened.
“Your past life…….”
“The life I lived before I became ‘Emily.’ I lived in a future more than a hundred years beyond this 1890s London. I was born as an Asian in the Far East, thousands of miles away from London.”
Lord Henry looked impressed. Judging by his expression, he seemed to be taking every word I said as the absolute truth.
“A future a hundred years from now? If you do not mind, could you tell me a little more about it? How Her Majesty the Queen’s British Empire will change, for instance—”
“My secret does not end there.”
I cut him off promptly and added.
“I do not die, Lord Henry.”
“……What?”
“To be precise, I return to the past before I die. Have you ever heard the term ‘infinite regression’?”
Lord Henry opened his mouth in bewilderment.
“Uh, well, that…….”
“It does not matter if you have not. To explain the gist of it, I have returned to the past countless times after experiencing countless deaths.”
“…….”
“……You cannot believe something like this, can you?”
At my question, delivered as if driving the final nail into the coffin, he abruptly raised his head and shook it. A gentle smile spread across Lord Henry’s handsome face.
“No, I believe you. I, of all people, know better than anyone that there are more than a few mysteries in this world that cannot be explained by reason and logic.”
……I did not expect him to believe me so easily. Rather, I felt my energy drain away as I continued.
“I am glad you believe me. In any case, I have also experienced events as horrifying and bizarre as death itself. ……And, for the record, every incident in my novels is something I experienced firsthand.”
For the record, I was also a pulp horror novelist who primarily published my work in the weekly magazines and .
“And last week, a novel called ‘The Two Faces of a Gentleman’ was published in .”
“I have not read that one yet.”
‘The Two Faces of a Gentleman.’
The horror story about the double life of a certain man regarded as the finest gentleman in London high society had enjoyed the greatest popularity since the founding of .
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for me that he had not read it, I proceeded to the main point.
“Lord Henry, it was based on your story. Did you know that?”
Lord Henry’s eyes widened.
“What? But I have only ever met Miss Emily—”
“That’s right. Only a handful of times at most. But there are many ways to get to know someone besides meeting them in person.”
He still wore an expression that showed he had no idea what I was getting at.
“Henry Langham, a young and respectable businessman from a gentry family. After learning the trade under his uncle, Graham Langham, he inherited the ‘Langham Hotel,’ a luxurious establishment that opened in London more than ten years ago, and became immensely popular in high society, but…….”
At the successive compliments, the man lowered his eyes bashfully, but I did not stop my explanation there.
“At night, he roams the back alleys of London in pursuit of pleasure, and is also an inhumane man known as ‘Edward,’ who takes pleasure in committing horrifying acts bordering on criminality.”
“…….”
Even after I finished speaking, Lord Henry could only stare at me in utter bewilderment, unable to say a word. If that was an act, he was good enough to put even the finest stage actors to shame.
Only after a long while did he finally manage to open his mouth.
“What…… exactly do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I just said, Lord Henry.”
The handsome man wiped away his cold sweat as he spoke.
“There must be some misunderstanding. My friends do often call me by other nicknames, but—”
“I know everything, so why don’t you stop now?”
“……What?”
I deliberately provoked my opponent, who refused to show his true face even at the final moment.
……Otherwise, there would have been no point in staking my life and laying my cards on the table.
“I have all the evidence concerning your double life, so you’d better confess while I am still asking nicely. If you insist on keeping up this act until the very end, I will go to my friend at Scotland Yard—”
—……What an insolent bitch.
The moment I heard the voice, which seemed to rumble from somewhere, a chilling presence emanated from the man across from me.
When I slowly raised my head, the guileless Lord Henry from moments ago had vanished without a trace.
The man sitting before me was someone whose very presence inspired intimidation and fear in others.
‘Finally.’
His face was just as dazzlingly handsome as Lord Henry’s, but perhaps it was because of his piercing eyes, which seemed capable of killing someone with a single glance, and his twisted mouth.
‘Edward’ had finally appeared, looking like an entirely different person.
—You’re gonna squeal to the cops? You dare threaten Edward?
I stared at him, half in admiration. I had experienced countless supernatural phenomena, but this was the first time I had ever actually seen a person possessed by an evil spirit, and the suspicion I had held had finally become certainty.
‘There is no doubt.’
This man was the very ‘Edward Hyde’ I had been searching for.
The true protagonist of <Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde>, one of the greatest and most famous works in the history of world literature.
Seeing my expression, ‘Edward’ clicked his tongue in disbelief and continued.
—Hey, bitch. Haven’t you heard this before?
“What?”
—To gain knowledge is to invite death, so knowledge that should not be touched must be left as a secret that will never be passed down to future generations.
In both my past life and my present one, I named the work of my favorite author.
“, Edgar Allan Poe.”
At that, a twisted smile appeared on ‘Edward’s’ face.
—At least you’ve got some basic education. If you knew that, you wouldn’t have summoned me so recklessly, would you?
“That’s precisely why.”
Watching ‘Edward’s’ left hand slowly move toward his chest, I smiled brightly.
“Whether that’s true or not, I am going to die by your hand soon anyway. If that is how it is going to be, wouldn’t it be better to confirm what you really are before I go?”
—…….
‘Edward’s’ eyes widened, but only for a moment.
The man spoke with an air of amusement.
—Could it be that you possess ‘future sight’? Or are you a prophet? It makes no difference.
His left hand drew the pistol hidden inside his breast pocket.
Click. As the bullet was loaded, the trigger was pulled right before my eyes.
Bang!
“Ghk!”
A hoarse groan burst forth as the bullet pierced through my chest.
The burning heat and pain were vivid.
As my life rapidly faded away like a dying flame, I heard ‘His’ whisper.
—My apostle.
The whisper soon became a voice, then a cry that filled my mind.
As the hairs around my ears stood on end, I surrendered my body to that voice.
—I shall personally turn back your time.
And soon, ‘that moment’ arrived.
The moment when every bone in my body twisted, my cells regenerated, and it felt as though my brain were being squeezed inside my skull.
Amid a sensation that never became familiar no matter how many times I experienced it, perhaps even more horrific than the agony of a final death throe—
I returned to the past.
As always, a fragment of memory that had been firmly sealed away came back to life.
***
It was something I had forgotten until now, yet it was the single most crucial piece.
The fact that all these tragedies had begun with my late husband’s posthumous manuscript, , which had fallen into my hands several years ago.
And because of it, I, Emily Carter—
had experienced twenty deaths,
twenty resurrections,
twenty regressions.
Because I remembered that one of them had ended with me witnessing the destruction of this world with my own two eyes.
