Of All Places... (1)
My head throbbed like it was about to split open.
I blinked several times, struggling to regain my senses, when a youthful voice spoke up beside me.
With what little strength I could muster, I turned my head slightly to look at the woman who had been caring for me.
She's got huge breasts... No, that wasn't the point. An unfamiliar style of clothing filled my vision.
It looked like traditional Chinese attire, but before my possession, the only Chinese outfit I knew was the cheongsam, so I couldn't glean much useful information from it.
More importantly, what the woman had said earlier. It sounded like Chinese.
My mind was a complete mess after nearly dying. Frowning at the pounding headache, I reached a simple conclusion.
For now, just stay quiet.
In situations like this, observing the surroundings was the best course of action.
“I'll bring you some porridge, so please rest, sir.”
The woman smiled brightly, wiped my mouth with a towel, and fluffed my pillow. Thanks to her, the sticky discomfort faded, and once she left the room, I could leisurely examine my surroundings.
The building had the kind of structure you'd see in a wuxia novel, and from somewhere outside came the sharp cries of martial artists training. The shouts were vigorous and full of energy. And... the strong scent of the sea.
I stared blankly at the ceiling and let out a sigh.
It seemed I'd washed up on the coast of China.
I'd wanted to go far away, but I hadn't exactly meant this far.
I hadn't even known China existed here until I opened my eyes.
Before waking up in this place, I'd assumed I'd become an extra in a medieval fantasy novel.
In a world where knights were swinging swords and spewing aura everywhere, who would've thought there'd be a China? I'd figured it was just some fantasy continent that felt vaguely like the real world.
“...I don't know. It'll work out somehow.”
As long as it wasn't a battlefield, anywhere was fine.
Anywhere but a battlefield.
I thought back to the days when I'd showered in the blood of those Middle Eastern bastards every single day and spun my happiness circuit into overdrive. In a way, washing up in China might actually be a stroke of luck.
I had no idea what novel I'd been sucked into, but having no connections at all was better for me. The West was currently locked in a brutal war with the Middle Eastern forces. If I went back, I'd just get dragged into the fighting again. It made more sense to find a way to live here in China.
Besides, the knight order I'd once been tied to had been wiped out years ago. There was nowhere for me to return to anyway.
I shook off the gloomy thoughts and closed my eyes. I'd gathered enough situational awareness. Now it was time to examine the inside of my body.
First, the mana road—or rather, the qi meridians—were intact.
My muscles had atrophied a bit, but it wasn't too bad.
The mana core, or dantian, was completely empty. It looked like I'd unconsciously drawn out my aura to protect my body when I fell into the sea.
I'd have to focus on recovering first.
I'd also need to lay down some groundwork for convenience's sake.
“Patient, it's mealtime~”
Right on cue, a bright and lively voice entered the room. I turned my head toward the sound of clattering dishes and looked at the woman I'd met when I first opened my eyes.
“Even if you're sleeping, you should eat first… Ah, you're a foreigner, so you probably don't understand the Central Plains language.”
The woman opened her mouth in realization, making a slightly dazed expression, then set down a small table in front of me. She pointed at the porridge with a slender finger and mimed eating with a spoon.
So, eat this. Got it.
I watched her body language for a moment before speaking.
“I… can speak the Central Plains language…”
Ow, my throat hurt. Still, if I'd said it, I had to follow through. Thanks to some possession perk, I could understand the language without issue. It seemed my only special trait wasn't limited to English after all.
It would be troublesome if I accidentally spoke it naturally later, so I needed to plant the seeds now.
Hiding the fact that I could speak it would only make things inconvenient, and throwing unnecessary suspicion on myself in a new place would be the worst possible move.
“What?! How do you know the Central Plains language…?”
“I had… a friend from the Central Plains… so I learned it from him…”
I gave a suitably vague excuse and watched her reaction. Fortunately, the woman accepted it without any suspicion.
Well, if I said I'd learned it from a Chinese person, how could she doubt that? There wasn't really any other way to learn it anyway.
“You're the first foreigner I've ever met who speaks the Central Plains language so well!”
She clapped her hands, staring at me with sparkling eyes full of curiosity.
Those shining eyes suggested she had quite a curious personality.
To gather more information, I asked her a question.
“Where… am I?”
“This is the pride of Hainan Island—the Hainan Sword Sect!”
Her voice overflowed with pride for the Hainan Sword Sect. Her pride in her sect seemed as enormous as the chest that was jiggling right in front of my eyes.
Hainan Sword Sect… so that's the Hainan Sect, right? Murim? What the hell is this? How is the world built like this? The West was already using arts and aura, and now there's a murim world too? Did I get possessed into a fusion fantasy novel?
“And you can speak comfortably! You look older than me… Oh, you can just call me Hye-ryeong!”
Hye-ryeong…
There was something oddly familiar about that name.
It felt like a name I'd heard before, but the memory was too hazy.
I figured more information would help it surface more clearly.
Having reached that conclusion, I began asking about everything I was curious about, one by one.
How I'd ended up here, whether anyone else had been found, and what kind of sect the Hainan Sword Sect was.
The last question was closer to a desperate attempt to figure out exactly which story I'd been thrown into.
“I found you collapsed on the beach! I didn't see anyone else. The Hainan Sword Sect is a prestigious sect on Hainan Island that mainly practices sword techniques! And what's more, we're part of the Nine Great Sects!”
Hye-ryeong's pride practically radiated from her as she proudly explained the dignity of the Hainan Sword Sect.
“Ah! Have you heard of the Nine Great Sects? The Nine Great Sects are…”
She's quite the chatterbox.
Well, the more enthusiastically she talked, the better for me.
I carefully stored away every piece of information she cheerfully rattled off, organizing what I could about this murim world.
As expected, the Nine Great Sects were the classic ones: Hainan, Shaolin, Mount Hua, Wudang, Kongtong, Zhongnan, Emei, Qingcheng, Kunlun, and the Beggars' Sect. Mentioning Hainan first was probably due to her sect's pride. You only put your own sect last when you were being humble.
“Ah! I was supposed to let you eat first! I'm sorry!”
“It's fine. You don't have to bow like that.”
It was making me uncomfortable.
“I'll tell you the rest after you finish eating!”
There's more?
At this rate, I was going to learn exactly how many spoons the Hainan Sword Sect owned.
“Here, open wide. Ah~”
I began eating the porridge that Hye-ryeong spoon-fed me.
It was patient food, so it didn't have much taste, but at least something was going into my stomach. With that mindset, I emptied the bowl. Hye-ryeong smiled brightly and set the empty bowl and spoon aside.
“Did it suit your taste?”
“It was good.”
“Aww, you don't have to lie. It's just rice boiled in water. There's no way it could taste good.”
She's surprisingly honest.
Honest was honest, but for the sake of managing my image, I couldn't say anything rude. So I spoke again.
“It's the first meal I've had after nearly dying. How could it not taste good?”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense, doesn't it?”
Hye-ryeong clapped her fist into her palm with a smack, as if the thought had never occurred to her.
“Then tell them to increase the portion next time. This body needs a lot more than this.”
Since this body had been chosen as a squire, it was quite large and naturally required a substantial amount of food. Hye-ryeong nodded as if she understood and said,
“I'll tell the cook! By the way, I have a question…”
“You have a question?”
“How did you end up drifting in the sea?”
Hye-ryeong's eyes sparkled as if someone had shoved a flashlight into them. She was even more talkative than I'd imagined. If this kept up, the conversation would just go on and on without end—
“Hye-ryeong! Where are you?!”
“Ah… My master is calling me! I'll see you at dinner then!”
With a regretful expression, Hye-ryeong picked up the table and hurried out with quick steps. I breathed a sigh of relief at finally being able to rest and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Did I really have to spend my recovery period like this?
Continuously dealing with Hye-ryeong's chatter?
Having barely spoken to women since my possession, I pressed my forehead at the dizzying prospect.
No, still… at least I survived…
“Master! It's me, Lim Hye-ryeong! Lim Hye-ryeong! The youngest disciple of the proud leader of the Hainan Sword Sect, Lim Ha-bong! Something like that threat is…”
Lim Hye-ryeong?
Lim Ha-bong?Sect leader?
'Hye-ryeong… you must survive no matter what.'
The hazy memory gradually became clearer.
“...Fuck.”
I was screwed.
So that's why the memory felt so blurry.
Her personality was the complete opposite, so I'd gotten confused.
This was before the heroine had gone dark.
I felt a headache coming on at the realization that I'd been rescued by a sect that was destined to be destroyed.