episode_0001

The tip of the sword shook. As if proving that he had reached his physical limit, he put the sword away at the tip of the sword that was shaking. Anything in excess is worse than anything insufficient.

Thinking that today’s training would end here, I sheathed my sword and wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed.

My second life was a world like the so-called martial arts novels, the world of Murim. It was not much different from the things in the martial arts novels I read incessantly in my previous life.

The background of the story is the Ming Dynasty.

As is the case with most martial arts settings, it is a world that is so stereotypical that it is not particularly special. However, there was one thing that was strangely twisted: this world was a world where the gender roles were reversed.

A world where the sexual roles of men and women are completely reversed.

It wasn’t something I would delve into, but what can I do? I was born into that world and am already close to my prime age.

“Has it already been half a month… … .”

Late at night, I muttered as I looked up at the full moon hanging in the sky above the training ground.

It’s been almost twenty years since I started living in this kind of world. Naturally, I had already adapted to it as best I could.

After my head got thicker, I tried shouting out the status window, the inventory, and all sorts of things to see if there were any special benefits for reincarnated people. It’s been quite a while since I realized that I just reincarnated without any of those things, and I was disappointed.

In the end, all that was left for me to do was to diligently learn the martial arts that were the foundation of the world of martial arts.

“There’s nothing I can do since I’m from the Demonic Cult.”

As I sat down on the dirt floor of the training ground and spat out my words, the place I belonged to was the Demonic Cult.

Cheonma Shingyo.

The Demonic Cult, which is usually described as a third force, separate from the sects or factions. Although it is called a cult, it would be more accurate to say that it is a gathering place for martial arts fanatics who are crazy about martial arts rather than a religious group.

I was an orphan in this life. My childhood memories are now hazy and I don’t remember them well, but I lost my parents to a disease when I was very young and was abandoned and raised by the Demonic Cult.

It’s a common story in the Demonic Cult. Due to the extremely closed nature of the Demonic Cult, it is impossible to meet the demand for high-level practitioners without bringing in people from outside.

That is why kidnapping orphans who wander around begging for food is one of the main tasks of the Demonic Cult. The Demonic Cult’s method of recruiting masters is to train the kidnapped orphans harshly, weeding out those who die or become disabled, and raising the remaining members into masters.

“I don’t know if I should call this lucky or unlucky.”

He sat down on the floor of the training ground, looked up at the sky, then shrugged his shoulders. Then he stood up and shook off the dirt and dust from his clothes.

I still couldn’t decide whether I should say that I was lucky to have come to the Demonic Cult to learn martial arts and save my life, or that I was unlucky to have been raised in the Demonic Cult.

Well, I’ve adapted to this kind of life, and now I’ve learned martial arts and I’m living pretty well.

If anyone saw me, I would think I was some crazy guy muttering to myself in the moonlight. With that thought in mind, I was about to wash up and go to bed when a pigeon flew in with a fluttering sound.

“… … Jeonseo-gu?”

I looked at the pigeon wondering why it was flying at this hour, but strangely enough, the pigeon was not landing on the pavilion-like building, but was flying straight towards me.

I blinked, wondering what was happening, and there was a small letter tied to the leg of the pigeon that had landed right on my arm.

As soon as I opened the letter to check, the pigeon flew away somewhere again, fluttering its wings. After watching the pigeon’s back as it disappeared for a moment, I soon came to my senses and checked the contents of the letter.

“… … Synchronization complete?”

What is this?

It was such an absurd situation that I couldn’t help but say those words. The letter Jeon Seo-gu gave me contained a short sentence.

A short sentence was written, ‘Synchronization complete. Someone is aware of a future that has not yet happened.’ I stared at the letter for a long time, wondering what it meant and if it was a code.

I even put off washing up and went into my room to hold the letter up to the light, but nothing like hidden letters appeared.

“… … What does this mean?”

If you look closely, it’s strange. It’s not a word you’d commonly use in this world, and it’s strange that a messenger would specifically send me this letter in the middle of the night. When I think about it again, this letter is suspicious from beginning to end.

I need to know what it means before I can do anything.

I stared at the letter for a long time, groaning, but there was no answer.

* * *

“Little cult leader?”

“It’s nothing, so go away.”

“… … Okay.”

A confused face and a mysterious woman’s reflection overlapped beyond the shards of the silver mirror that shattered with a loud crash.

Her bright red eyes, like rubies that are hard to see naturally, were filled with confused emotions and were drifting among the broken shards of silver mirror.

“This is… … .”

The woman muttered in a bewildered voice. The torrent of memories surged in. The moment Eun-kyung heard the sound of breaking, the court guards who were about to open the door and come in were repelled, but the woman’s voice was small.

Memories she had never experienced came flooding into her head. Waves of memories of things that never existed, things that had yet to happen.

A tear fell from the eye of the woman who was standing there, dumbfounded, as the waves of memories washed over her.

Boom, boom.

Tears flowed down my cheeks and fell down my face. But before I could even wipe them away, I had to first retrieve the information I wanted from the flood of memories.

After a long time, long enough for the tears flowing down her cheeks to dry, the woman and the leader of the Cheonmasingyo sect were able to realize what had happened.

“Is it regression?”

The voice was so cold and heavy that it was hard to believe it was the same woman who had been confused and crying just a moment ago. Anger, confusion, sadness, longing, and other emotions were mixed and settled in the restrained voice.

Yu Ye-hyang, the leader of the Cheonmasingyo sect.

She regressed. She regressed from 20 years in the future, back in time like a salmon, to the present moment, when she had just recently ascended to the position of the cult leader and was about to meet him.

Yu Ye-hyang slowly reached out and picked up the fragments of Eun-kyung that had fallen on the floor. Her hand, which had not been wrapped in a single strand of energy, was pricked by the sharp fragments, and a drop of bright red blood flowed out, but Yu Ye-hyang, oblivious to the sharp pain, stared at the broken Eun-kyung.

Yu Ye-hyang, whose face was still young, but a little younger than her in twenty years, was looking at herself in the mirror with a dry expression.

After locking eyes with herself in Eun-kyung, Yu Ye-hyang muttered softly.

“If it’s now… …I guess I haven’t met her yet.”

The muttering voice, each syllable, was dripping with emotions of longing and affection. A kind of joy of meeting someone I thought I would never see again began to spread like wildfire in a corner of my heart.

The eyes that were filled with regret were filled with light, and the past that she desperately wanted to turn back came to her as a gift called regression.

Even Yu Ye-hyang couldn’t figure out how this happened. Was it the work of some supernatural power, or was it the heavens that took pity on her regret and gave her a second chance? That’s still unknown.

But what was certain was that the cause or reason for such a strange incident was not important. What was important was that she had regressed back 20 years into the past.

And at this point in time, before I had even met him, it was important that he was still alive.

“One tragedy will be enough.”

Yoo Ye-hyang, who put down the silver mirror fragment she was holding in her hand, spoke with a voice as dry as her expression. If losing someone precious is a tragedy, then one tragedy was enough. I didn’t want to experience it twice.

“You’re lucky.”

That’s why the corners of Yu Ye-hyang’s mouth twisted upwards and a deep smile appeared. Luckily, she had returned to the past. She knew everything that would happen in the future. And how to avoid that tragedy.

“At this time, you haven’t been assigned anywhere yet and are still training?”

Yu Ye-hyang’s lips formed a deep line as she muttered softly. She wanted to go see him right away, but she displayed superhuman patience and sat down on the bed to start making plans for the future.