Chapter 1: My Story (1)

I was a slave.

Back when I was less than three years old, my parents sold me to a slave trader. No, I didn’t hold any grudges against them. Well, I was barely able to speak when they sold me, so I couldn’t even remember their faces to begin with.

The only thing that I could remember was the time when I was following the slave trader while sucking on my fingers.

In the slave market, young slaves sold quite well since they were popular with those magic freaks. Pretty sure the trader said that slaves that were sold for human experiments would get him some good money.

Aside from those freaks, he also said that the greedy temple pigs had a thing for children, so he’d get good money from them too.

Basically, young slaves sold like hot cakes.

I was sold to one of those freaks I mentioned before. Pretty sure the slave trader called me ‘unlucky bastard’ or something when I was bought. Though, if I may be honest, it was probably better for me to be bought by a mage rather than having to cater to the obscene desires of those old perverts in the temple.

Anyway, ten years after I became a slave for the magic freak, a mage, I became one of the three remaining survivors out of the hundred slaves he bought. To be exact, one of the three surviving test subjects of the freak.

The thing that the mage experimented with was extracting monster cells and transplanting them into the human body, with the goal of strengthening it. It wasn’t an uncommon sight in the freak’s laboratory to see the children’s bodies implode, or turn into something that was neither human nor monster and thrown into the incinerator. That was the natural outcome if they couldn’t adapt or endure the power of the monster cells.

Back then, while my body was weak, my will was crazy strong.

My will to live.

I had that.

Even at a young age when I didn’t really know what death exactly was, I longed for survival. That was why, I desperately endured the experiment, and eventually, began to achieve the results that the mage wanted. The freak was delighted when I showed my ability to adapt to the genes of two monsters at the same time; A bipedal dog and a man-eating demon.

But then, the mage suddenly tried to dissect me.

Pop!

“Huh?”

Let’s just say that I didn’t expect a person’s head to explode that easily.

And thus marked the first time I had ever killed someone.

Normally, a slave could never kill their master, but it seemed like as long as they had no intent to attack their master, the slave imprint wouldn’t react at all. In this case, because I unconsciously struggled, I ended up hitting him and killing him even though I had no intention of doing that.

It was basically a miracle. Using a less grand word, I was lucky.

Well, I could also say that this was the result of the mage’s carelessness.

Like, just think about it for a second. I had the genes and the power of a man-eating demon, a troll, inside of me. And yet he still pointed his knife to me. I guess there was a reason why those mages were called magic freaks. Those fuckers really had shit for brains.

Anyway, after my master died, I automatically became free and tried to leave the laboratory.

Unfortunately…

“Look here. There’s something interesting over here.”

“…Ah.”

I failed to escape. In hindsight, maybe I could have succeeded if I were to move quicker, but my timing was just bad, guess my luck ran out back then. Anyway, the mage happened to die on the day the organization that sponsored him visited his lair, so I was caught by them instead.

“Choose. Will you follow me? Or will you die right here?”

“…I’ll follow you.”

“Smart.”

The organization that sponsored the mage. They were none other than an assassin organization called the ‘Black Moon’.

And so, at the age of thirteen, I became an assassin.

The assassin organization wanted strong soldiers with the abilities of a monster and excellent assassination skill. From what I heard, they were trying to overthrow a certain kingdom or something.

Right, for an assassin organization to wish to overthrow a kingdom… What a fucked up world…

In any case, I was able to survive in that place because I was useful. Not only that, I got to live like a human for the first time in my life as they raised me as an assassin. Well, of course I had to endure their inhumane acts in the side, like they’d regularly feed me poison or torture me to raise my tolerance.

Although, thanks to them, I was able to understand what it meant to be a ‘human’ since I got decent food and a place to sleep. That was why I held no resentment towards them.

I was trained for about five years before I finally became a professional assassin.

“Prepare for the mission.”

“Understood.”

“Number 9 and 10 will also go with you. Take care of yourself, number 8.”

“…Okay.”

At that time, they called me Number 8. In other words, there were 7 people that were above me, though this wasn’t a strange thing. I mean, there was no way that the assassin organization that had a goal of overthrowing a kingdom would trust just a single mage to carry out their plan.

They definitely had sponsored a few more magic freaks, seeing how there were quite a few people in the organization who had unusual abilities—whether it was physical or mystical—like me.

By the way, Number 9 and Number 10 were the other kids who survived the experiment along with me, but our relationship was anything but good. One of the reasons for that was probably because of the nature of the organization, but it seemed like they also didn’t like the fact that my number was higher than theirs even though I was younger than them.

Childish punk, don’t you think so?

Maybe because they were childish like that…

“Die, Number 8!”

“If it’s not for you…!”

Number 9 and 10, who possessed a strong inferiority complex towards me, attacked me, and I ended up having to fight them to protect my life. It was quite the battle, but I still had the upper hand against them the entire time. After that, of course I had to let these guys know…

“If you want a higher number, you should have worked harder than me.”

Plop!

“Keheuk!”

“H-How…”

“Just think about it. Why do you think my number is higher than yours? I hope in your next life, you two become a little smarter than you are right now.”

The reason why my number was higher was pretty obvious; I was far stronger than them.

“Phew… Now, what should I do…?”

Although I had succeeded in killing them, I wasn’t happy. Murder was a futile and bitter thing, if I were to feel happy about it, it meant that I was not right in the head.

But, that bitterness quickly was replaced by worry. At the end of the day, those two were still talented people who were raised with great care by the organization. And now that I ended up killing them… I was worried that the organization might just try to kill me.

But fortunately for me…

“Huh?”

When I returned, the organization had been destroyed. It seemed like the kingdom’s army marched out and wiped out the organization the moment they discovered their plan to overthrow the kingdom.

As someone who knew the extent of their power, I found it hard to believe at first. That was why I looked around and investigated every place I knew, including the organization’s safe house. However, every single one of the places that I checked was soot black, as if they had been burned.

“…Seems like those guys fought back to the very end of their lives.”

Only when I saw the organization’s instructors and executives’ headless bodies hanging on the poles did I become convinced…

Ah, the organization is done for.

At the time, I was 18 years old.

And I was finally truly free.

Two years later…

I had moved to a foreign country for a new life and had been living diligently. If there was one thing I had learned during that time though, it was how heartless and much harsher the real world was compared to back when I was in the organization.

Was this how this world works?

“Fucking dogshit.”

Life was difficult. I needed to make money, maintain human relationships, find a job and so on. It was to the point that I ended up using the vulgar words I first learned all the time.

In the end, since one of the many skills I had learned was cutting something, I had no choice but to choose the job related to that after trying so many different jobs. It was the thing I was best at anyway.

“Youngest, you’re too slow.”

“I’m going!”

And so, I became a mercenary. To be exact, I became the youngest member of a small-to-medium-sized mercenary group.

“Seriously, where did you come from? What the heck did you do before coming here?”

“I just wandered around the back alleys.”

“Really? Your steps are just like that of an assassin.”

“What? Me? An assassin?”

“Tsk, you are not? Sorry, for assuming.”

“Nah, no need to apologize for that, hahaha.”

…Perceptive fuckers.

I thought these guys were just working to make ends meet, but they turned out to be quite perceptive and sensible. Well, I guess that was why they could live by the sword, huh? From that moment onwards, I made a conscious effort to give up my assassin posture and abandoned my gait and habits. Of course, I still kept what I needed. After all, skills and necessary habits would be useful at all times.

Just like that, I worked as a merc for four years; traveling around several battlefields, living off my sword while trying to escape my status as the youngest member of the group.

Pow!

“Keheuk!”

“You damn bastards!!”

And yet, this fucking life…

One day, the mercenary band was betrayed by our client, that fucking bastard. During the event, I fell to the ground and my head was hit by a stone, making my vision blurred.

…I need to play dead…

Of course, the attack wasn’t enough to kill me. I mean, with my body, there was no way getting hit by a mere stone would be enough to kill me.

We can’t win this.

Still, even if I were to reveal all my hidden skills, there was no way our small band of mercs could defeat those well-trained soldiers. So, I decided that it would be best for me to pretend to be dead and bide my time.

I endured the slings and kicks of those bastards’ military boots, relying on my strong regenerative ability and strong body. What? ‘How could I do that when other people are dying?’, oh, don’t give me that bullshit. I had to put up with the strange looks those fuckers gave me every time I picked up a soap when they were alive. They should be thankful that I hadn’t killed them with my own hands back then.

Suddenly, I could feel the back of my head throbbed as I tried to make an excuse to justify my action…

Ah, I want to drink some cola…

And then, I recalled memories I had forgotten. But, it wasn’t from this life, rather it was from my ‘previous life’.

At the age of 24, I found out that I was a reincarnator.

Would I get the reincarnator privileges?

After I managed to survive, I tried calling out the status window for about five hours. Unfortunately, nothing came up.

“Fucking dogshit.”

Seriously, if it was going to be like this, I’d rather not have these memories come back.

So, the mercenary group was wiped out. When I, the only survivor, informed the Mercenary Union about the client’s betrayal, they immediately took revenge.

Even though they were normally heartless and were called butchers who’d do anything for money, the mercenary industry had an absolute rule of carrying every request they accepted to the best of their abilities. That was why, they’d never let any clients who dared to hit them in the back go.

Since the reason why the client betrayed our group was to cut some expenses, there was only a single way to resolve this grudge: bloody revenge. The mercenary completely destroyed the client’s territory. Everything that had some kind of value was plundered and taken away by the Union. Also, the client’s blood relatives were either sold into slavery or committed suicide on the spot; the latter probably did it because they couldn’t endure living as a slave.

…I want to retire…

Maybe it was because I had awakened memories from my past life? Somehow, I became repulsed by the brutal lootings that I had been trying so hard to brush off in the past. It was just an aversion more than anything, it wasn’t something I couldn’t overcome, but I had a feeling by the time I did overcome it, my humanity would have worn out already.

It must be something called delicate sensibility.

“Why don’t I just become a civil servant or something…?”

After making a decision to retire, I started studying. It was easy to become a soldier in certain territories as long as you could read, but maybe because I saw the territory of that traitorous client being trampled by the Mercenary Union, I opted to become a soldier for a kingdom that would never fall instead.

“Rather than becoming a civil servant in the countryside, it’s better to work in the capital instead!”

By the way, it wasn’t like I had prejudice against the countryside or anything, so please don’t misunderstand me.

Anyway, I worked hard and did my best to prepare for the exam, and finally…!

“Wow, you are quite good.”

“Pardon?”

“For someone as talented as you to be a soldier… Those guys’ eyes seem to have rotted. You. Starting from today, you will start working at the Knight’s Order.”

“…?”

Rather than become a soldier, I became a late-bloomer knight instead.

“What in the…”

And so, at the age of 27, Knight Lee Han was born.