I Was Their Clown, Now I Wear the Crown

I've thought about it a thousand times. What if I hadn't saved that woman? What if I had just watched as she was…

That year, my mother was gravely ill, and I desperately needed money for her surgery. A shady agency tricked me into taking a server job at a hotel in the Kingdom of Katha.

Forced smiles, bowing to guests, enduring humiliation. Day after day, it was a numb, soul-crushing routine.

Until that night. I was parking a guest's car in the underground garage. As I walked past the trunk, I heard a woman's faint cry for help.

Along with the muffled pleas, I could hear the violent thud of a body hitting the inside of the car.

My heart hammered in my chest. On a strange impulse, I walked over and opened the trunk.

A terrified but stunningly beautiful face stared back at me.

The beautiful woman was bound, her expensive beige suit dress disheveled. Her mouth was sealed shut with duct tape.

When she saw me, her dull, tear-filled eyes suddenly lit up. She struggled wildly, making "Mmm, mmm, mmm" sounds. I could faintly make out a few muffled words in my own language.

A jolt went through me, and for some reason, my mind flooded with images.

This woman, with her refined features, was clearly from a noble background. If I hadn't found her, she might have been doomed to a tragic life in Katha, a country where men are valued far more than women.

A rush of adrenaline hit me. I decisively cut her ropes. Before I could even call for help, a short, fierce-looking man in the distance spotted us and charged over, roaring in anger.

In the heat of the moment, I yelled for her to run and call the authorities while I faced the man alone.

The beautiful woman seized the chance to escape, vanishing like a butterfly on the wind without so much as a word of thanks.

As she passed me, I saw the raw terror etched on her gorgeous face.

The short man, furious that she had gotten away, pulled out a knife. Ignoring the searing pain as the blade sliced my palm, I grabbed the knife from his hand.

In the struggle that followed, I acted in self-defense and wounded him in the stomach. Blood poured from the wound, and he collapsed to the ground, wailing in agony.

Moments later, the piercing sirens of Kathan police cars filled the garage. They took us both to the station.

That day was the beginning of the darkest chapter of my life.

The short man deliberately hid the truth. He never mentioned the kidnapping, claiming I had attacked him without reason and tried to end his life.

He demanded I pay all his medical bills and sued me for attempted murder.

At first, I was calm. I explained what really happened, telling them the woman could vouch for me and that the parking garage had security cameras.

But then the police told me there was no evidence a woman had ever been there. And the hotel's security cameras had malfunctioned that night, recording nothing.

The only thing they had was the "fact" that I had tried to take a man's life.

My heart went cold, but I still held out hope that the woman I saved would come forward. I was wrong.

The beautiful woman never appeared. It was as if she had vanished from the face of the earth.

Ultimately, I was extradited back to my home country of Astoria and sentenced to three years for attempted murder.

I also had to pay a compensation of twenty thousand dollars for the man's medical bills and "emotional distress," wiping out the last of my savings.

The news of my imprisonment spread like wildfire through my hometown.

My mother, who had just barely survived her surgery, had a relapse that almost took her. My father, shamed by my actions, declared he no longer had a son.

Before I went to prison, my girlfriend of five years promised she would wait for me. But her visits became less and less frequent, until finally, she sent me a letter. She was breaking up with me. She didn't want to wait anymore.

My time in prison was the darkest period of my life. I became irritable and quick to anger. I fought constantly, and my body became a canvas of ugly scars.

After my release, I desperately wanted to win back my love. When I finally found the girlfriend who had promised to wait, she was holding another man's arm.

A handsome, mature man driving an Audi A8. He and my beautiful ex-girlfriend looked so perfect together.

I stood there, stunned. I wanted to storm over and demand an explanation, but I gave up. I just watched, numb, as she got into his car and they sped away.

I remembered the last line of her letter: Kian, I found someone who is just as good as you are. Please forget me.

I laughed, a bitter, hollow sound. I wandered the streets of Starlight City alone, losing myself in the endless nights, until I collapsed from exhaustion…

I started to rely on the city's nightlife to numb the pain, slowly becoming someone who laughed too loud, a coarse, cynical shell of my former self.

At first, I hated that woman. The one I had saved, who had refused to show up and clear my name.

She had destroyed everything!

But as time went on, I realized hating someone was pointless. It only made me sink deeper into despair.

So, I tried to pull myself together.

Finding a job with a prison record is tough. I faced one rejection and mocking laugh after another.

But fate hadn't completely abandoned me. A software company, competing for a major contract in Katha, was urgently hiring a group of technical and marketing staff who could speak Kathan.

Perhaps because they were in such a rush, the company didn't check my background. I miraculously passed the final interview and finally found a stable job.

It gave me a sliver of hope for the future.

On my first day, I dressed neatly and arrived at the company full of optimism. After finishing the onboarding paperwork, an HR specialist led me to the sales director's office to meet my new boss.

The specialist told me my boss was the daughter of the corporation's owner. She had studied overseas and was supposedly more beautiful than any actress on TV. Countless guys at the company had a secret crush on her.

The office door swung open. When I saw the exquisitely beautiful woman sitting behind the large desk, I froze.

A memory, buried deep in my mind, flashed to the surface. That same captivating face, contorted in terror. Those same beautiful, pleading, tear-filled eyes…

I never could have imagined it. The woman I had saved in that hotel three years ago—the woman who had cost me my freedom, my future, everything—was my new boss.

The memory of my parents' tears, the darkness of prison life, my girlfriend in another man's arms…

One painful memory after another churned violently in my mind.

Three years of suppressed hatred surged through me like a tidal wave.