Episode 2


    “Wow!”


    As soon as I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.


    I felt an unpleasant feeling of resistance and got up from my seat.


    Rattling!


    The rough noise unique to the carriage prated my ears, and at the same time, my body shook violently.


    I put my hand on my throbbing forehead and gathered my thoughts.


    ‘Where am I?’


    Iron bars surrounding all sides.


    There was a wooden board on the other side of the iron bars, so you couldn’t see outside.


    The sunlight seeping through the wooden boards only gives you an idea of the time zone.


    ‘Approximately around noon?’


    Perhaps because I had not eaten anything, my stomach was making a loud noise.


    When I lowered my hand to my forehead, I saw the iron shackles on my wrists.


    The other side was connected to the iron bars, so movement was greatly restricted.


    But there was something strange.


    ‘Are my hands this small?’


    Small, soft palms with no visible calluses.


    It was like looking at the hands of a child.


    When I thought about it, there were one or two strange things.


    I didn’t feel the pain I should have felt.


    In addition to the injuries caused by the series of fierce battles, the internal injuries caused by the use of gold balls hadpletely healed.


    ‘There…’


    There was no heavy feeling that should have been felt in the lower abdomen.


    Even if the Danjeon was broken, you wouldn’t feel this empty.


    ‘Prohibition? hallucination? Or is it the legendary Great Law of Divorce?’


    I let out a groan and shook my head.


    No matter how confusing the divorcew is, isn’t the leap too big?


    ‘Anyway…’


    The convoy wagon was too flimsy for transporting an unmanned vehicle, and the body of the car was tilted as if it were running on a mountain road.


    Plus, there was loudughtering from outside.


    Things were going strangely.


    “So I grabbed him by the cor and said this. Hey, you little bastard with no blood on your head! “Did you think I would be scared if you said that?”


    “So what?”


    “The expression on his face was very scary. It was so funny how he rolled his eyes like a rat. “Anyway, it’s just people who have nothing to brag about.”


    “Haha! “That’s a masterpiece!”


    “Anyway, I guess we should hurry. “If I don’t get over the mountain today, I’ll have to stay homeless.”


    “How about sleeping on the street for a bit? “Anyway, you can’t stop by a guesthouse or inn while transporting goods.”


    “No matter what, wouldn’t it be better to sleep in a house with a roof rather than on the street?”


    I don’t know what happened while I was unconscious, but at least I knew they weren’t Shaolin temple goons.


    Because there’s no way they could call a person a ‘thing’.


    “Is that guy still sleeping?”


    “I don’t know. “He might be awake by now and eavesdropping on our conversation.”


    “Those parents were funny too. Those guys who say things they can’t do to children and all that. “I never thought you would give me medicine in advance and wait for me?”


    “I guess they didn’t want to shock their child who was about to be sold.”


    “Well, the only difference is whether you find out right away orter. In the end, they just disguised what they did to make themselves feel better.”


    “For the sake of the child, you’re a piece of shit. “Do such loving parents have the guts to sell their children for a pittance?”


    The sound of gigglingughter spread like wildfire.


    I leaned back against the bars and organized my thoughts in my head.


    ‘I thought they were arresting and transporting me while I was unconscious for the purpose of interrogation, but that’s not true?’


    At least it seemed like I wasn’t being escorted to the Shaolin Temple or the Murim Alliance.


    Maybe it’s the opposite?


    The religious warriors who btedly arrived at the battlefield may be recovering me and returning.


    ‘No. ‘Is that too wishful thinking?’


    I sighed and shook my head once.


    If they were religious soldiers, that would be strange.


    Two questions immediatelye to mind.


    First, is it really necessary to disguise yourself as a ve trader?


    The second question was why an illusion was cast on the subject of recovery.


    ‘There is too little information.’


    In the end, I have no choice but to ask directly.


    The moment he muttered that, the carriage shook violently and stopped in ce.


    “Big!”


    I suddenly hit my head on the iron bars and grabbed the back of my head, swearing.


    There were signs of the men outside moving around busily.


    “What is this…”


    “I heard this is a problem on mountain paths with few people. “The wheel got stuck again.”


    “You remember the order, right? “This time it’s your turn.”


    “shit. In the end, I have to do this too.”


    I looked outside through the narrow gap between the wooden boards covering the iron bars.


    At first nce, men with different outfits appeared in my field of vision.


    ‘Ronin (浪人)?’


    From the looks of it, he looked like a ronin, but upon closer inspection, I felt a strange sense of heterogeneity.


    It didn’t take long to realize why.


    ‘They all had the same type of weapon. And that’s a weapon that isn’tmonly used.’


    Although the men were dressed in different outfits, the types of weapons worn on their waists were uniform.


    These are wandering ronin who each wield two curved swords that are about halfway between a long sword and a short sword.


    It was too borate to be a coincidence.


    ‘I guess we can see them as a group dispatched from a specific force. Are they also religious warriors?’


    After a while, the carriage shook violently again.


    It looked like a wheel that had fallen into a hole had been removed.


    “…It’s broken.”


    “Was it a defective product from the beginning? “How can the joint in the center be damaged while the spokes remain the same?”


    “I’m going crazy. “I’m running out of everything I had prepared in reserve…”


    The men, who had been murmuring among themselves for a while, came to a conclusion.


    I decided to abandon the carriage and move on.


    “Are you serious about what you say? Do you really want to throw it away? “How much does that cost?”


    “It’s a shame, but it takes a lot of time and effort to take it with you.”


    “No matter what…”


    “Then what should I do? Should everyone here join forces and take the carriage? Or should we wait for someone to get the wheels from a nearby town? “Do you know how many days it will take?”


    “…….”


    “You’re right. If you hadn’t procrastinated, the schedule wouldn’t have been so tight. “You probably know what will happen if you don’t meet the delivery date, right?”


    This makes it clear.


    They were by no means ordinary ronin or ve traders.


    What ve trader would think of abandoning his expensive carriage to save time?


    p!


    I thought I heard a rattling noise from the back of the carriage, and then the chain connecting the lock was released and the swing door opened.


    Then, a man suddenly entered the carriage.


    He was an impressive man with a long scar running diagonally across his face.


    ‘Now!’


    I took a deep breath.


    How could I forget?


    It is the face of the enemy who pushed me into hell.


    The man must have thought I was scared, and with a grin, he came over and grabbed my wrist.


    ‘Why is this person here….’


    For a moment, I watched what the man did with a mesmerized expression.


    I thought of the best word to describe the current situation.


    ‘Return.’


    I went back in time and went back to the past.


    That was all I could think of.


    The idea of a return was more absurd than the fact that the Divorce Law actually existed.


    However, the evidence presented in front of me was too clear to deny.


    Thest voice I heard before losing consciousness lingered in my ears.


    [Amitabha Buddha. I hope you attain enlightenment in the next life.]


    ‘Then did I really die then?’


    I was able to understand the current situation with my head.


    But emotionally it was difficult to ept it.


    “Come on!”


    The man removed the shackles from his wrists and pulled me violently.


    I couldn’t resist much and was dragged out of the carriage and fell to the floor.


    “What about this guy?”


    “I guess I should take him with me. Just because you’re throwing away the carriage doesn’t mean you’re throwing away the horses, right? “You can just tie it on the back of a horse and drag it.”


    “I guess we’ll have to do it until we get a new carriage.”


    With difficulty, I lifted my upper body and looked at the men.


    It may be hard to say it myself, but I am a very persistent person.


    He has a damn personality that forgets favors but never forgets resentments.


    ‘I never thought I’d see those faces again.’


    Augh escaped my lips.


    The faces of my enemies, who had put me in Jamma-dong in my past life, came into view one after another.


    It was astounding to see that the people I had personally killed and buried were still alive and walking around.


    “Let’s move quickly since we don’t have time to sleep.”


    “Look at this guy? “Why are your eyes so crooked?”


    “What? “Are you saying you’re angry at me?”


    The men started beating me as if to vent their anger.


    He pped his cheek with his palm and kicked his side with his foot.


    They looked down at me as if I was screaming and crouching down, as ifughing, then quickly separated the carriage and horses, packed up their belongings, and prepared to move.


    “I’m telling you this just in case. You’d better not even think about running away secretly. “You can’t run away anyway.”


    The scarred man warned me as he tied a rope to the back of a horse and secured me.


    I nodded with a scared expression.


    ‘I’ll make sure to run away.’


    In my heart, I burn the will to escape.


    * * *


    Let’s summarize the situation.


    ‘My age at this time… ‘Are you ten?’


    It was when I was ten years old that I was taken by warriors belonging to the Demonic Cult’s Oewon (外院) disguised as illegal ve dealers and thrown into Jamma-dong.


    I went back to the past, exactly twenty-two years ago, when I was a child.


    His body was small, like that of a child, and he had no martial arts skills at all.


    ‘At this rate, not even the warriors of the Demonic Cult’s outer circle can do anything, let alone the third-rate ronins on the streets.’


    But I had no intention of giving up and meekly epting the situation.


    If you are dragged into Jamma-dong like this, your previous life will repeat itself.


    I wanted to avoid that much.


    ‘Let alone being forced to live as a demon, it’s not even clear whether you can survive.’


    You might say I’m used to it since I’ve already experienced it once, but that actually made me even more reluctant.


    Jamma-dong is a training center that cultivates new masters of the Demonic Religion.


    It was not a ce where you could survive simply by being strong or getting good grades.


    Because what happens there is not something as soft as friendlypetition.


    ‘If I were to use a metaphor, it would be loneliness.’


    There is a curse called loneliness or innocence.


    The method is to fill a jar with deadly poisonous bugs, have them eat each other, and then use thest surviving one to cast a spell on the target.


    I heard that its effect is so powerful that it cannot bepared to other curses.


    I don’t know if curses really work or if it’s just superstition.


    Jamma-dong’s education system was simr to that.


    Children exposed to threats to their lives will do anything to survive.


    From small things like theft to big things like murder.


    Nevertheless, the majority of children lose their lives because they are unable to adapt to the harsh environment or are eliminated frompetition.


    A hell of royalties where conspiracies, betrayal, and underhanded tactics run rampant.


    Jamma-dong was that kind of ce.


    ‘Besides, once you’re trapped in Jamma-dong, you won’t be able to breathe the outside air for at least ten years…’


    It was enough to have terrible memories once in both my past and present lives.


    I had to do whatever it took to outrun the men in front of me and run away.


    “That’s it.”


    “Wow. “I thought you were dying because you were hungry.”


    “No one is stealing, so calm down, right?”


    The problem was how.


    There were limits to what a child’s body could do.


    “Now eat.”


    “… … .”


    “You want me to eat it?”


    “… … .”


    “Do you want to get hit or just eat it?”


    I looked around while scooping up the porridge the men handed me with my hands.


    The safe house, located in the middle of a deserted mountain, was extremely deste.


    A space where there is no sense of living at all.


    The only passage leading to the outside was the front door and the wooden window at the back, and there were no useful objects in sight.


    ‘It’s good to be free of restraint…’ But


    what do you do when your hands and feet are free?


    There is no way to avoid the eyes of surveince, and even if you do escape, you will be caught again in no time.


    It was then.


    “What a guy!”


    Chachaechaechaeng!


    While I was thinking hard about how to escape from this ce, the men sitting around the cauldron got up and picked up their respective weapons.


    One of the men opened the door to the safe house wide open.


    A number of young men and women appeared beyond the door.


    “You were here! “A brat!”


    “you!”


    “I am sure I told you that I would make you regret insulting me!”


    The young man in the lead shouted excitedly and drew his sword.


    I wiped my greasy hands on my clothes and my eyes lit up.


    ‘… … Now that I think about it, something like this happened.’