Transmigration
In the beginning of my transmigration, I was utterly confused. After all, every single thing in this world was completely different from what I knew.
"Yuhyeon, is your name Yuhyeon?"
"......"
"Hey!"
"It's written right there. The charges are for not paying taxes during the winter and assaulting the local magistrate. In the process, he knocked out dozens of imperial soldiers with his bare hands, so he must have some talent..."
"What's that got to do with anything. Hey, you idiot! If you don't want to die, pick up a weapon and go down to the wall right now!"
"Next!"
The world I knew was nothing like this. The exotic clothing I saw for the first time, the jagged mountain ranges stretching out below the walls.
At least I could tell it was some country in the East from the looks of it. But the era seemed very different from the one I had lived in on Earth.
The soldiers in golden uniforms treated us like insects, their attitudes hostile. Still, from their conversations, I could figure out my situation.
The Tianyu Empire.
The country at the center of the Eastern Continent, the literal center of heaven.
Of course, the boy I had transmigrated into, Yuhyeon, was just some nameless boy living in a remote mountain village, only about 11 years old.
Dragged here on a heavy charge of assaulting the local magistrate and not paying taxes during the winter, this place was the frontier region. I had become a member of the Border Defense Unit, tasked with defending the empire against the orcs and other beasts that came to plunder food and supplies.
It was an organization supposedly made to defend the borders, but in reality, it was just a pit where criminals were thrown to their deaths. This place was full of not just barbarians but also strange demonic beasts, so it was too dangerous to station regular armies here.
The use of penal conscripts. That had been the empire's solution for a long time.
Being drafted twice. From my perspective, it felt like the sky was collapsing, but to survive, I had no choice but to pick up a spear.
So, I started going down to the wall to stop the demonic beasts that came rushing.
I survived my first battle purely by luck.
"Hah...! Little one, are you okay?"
"Yes."
A man named Park Gyu came to talk to me. He was a convict like me. From what I heard, he had stoned a man from his wife's in-laws who tried to rape her.
In truth, his wife had been the one who actively sought affairs, and there were about twenty other lovers across the empire that he had wanted to deal with, but he was always regretting being caught in the checkpoint and sent to the Border Defense Unit.
Still, since he had gone all the way to the imperial capital Cheondo to catch the unfaithful women, it was a good time to ask him about things I was curious about.
"Is there something I'm curious about. Is there no such thing as martial arts here?"
"Huh? Martial arts?"
"Like internal energy or sword techniques."
From two perspectives, it was a rather normal question. One was that up until now, I had thought this was a wuxia world.
Right now, this place was like the imperial golden army, and if I went out to the central plains, I expected to see the righteous and evil sects I knew from Earth. To survive in such a harsh world, learning martial arts was essential.
However, even if I mentioned names or techniques I had heard from wuxia novels, no one knew them. Park Gyu just saw me as a pitiful child who had lost his parents and gone mad.
"Yeah, people like you who didn't actually commit any crime but were dragged here unjustly often escape reality like that."
"......"
"More importantly, how did you kill that beast? It looks like it's not a normal size."
"Well, it seems that bastard who was dying from an arrow got his throat cut by my spear by chance."
Even with Park Gyu's shocked expression, I didn't reveal the other reason. The moment I felt the fear of death, an unprecedented power filled the tip of my spear, piercing the beast.
I decided to keep this energy, which could be called internal energy or mana, a secret known only to me for now.
Time passed, and I entered my 5th year of transmigration.
*
The eternal truth in the Pamagok where demonic beasts boiled was that to survive even one more day, you had to stick close to the strong.
I had become a senior in the Border Defense Unit. Since the average survival was only a year, up to two years, this was enough for others to trust and follow me.
Especially the ones who had seen me fight up close had tried not to fall behind, acting like human shields.
"Hah, Commander Yuhyeon."
"Why are you calling me your commander. And there are older men than me who are calling me 'you'?"
"Heh heh, being born with a thousand years and having a human face is one thing, but being born with a thousand years and having a human face is another. It's only natural to speak respectfully to a great person like you who has the fate of protecting the empire."
"You think I can just flip a six-legged bear with my bare hands? The beast that just fell wouldn't have begged to be spared if it could talk?"
Thousands of years, fate? If that were true, I wouldn't have been reincarnated here from Earth.
I had never killed even a small animal, but fortunately, after starting to properly handle the power I had felt on the first day of transmigration, which I named 'Qi', hunting demonic beasts became no harder for me.
"Commander... that mysterious technique, could we learn something like that too?"
"Mysterious?"
"It's a mysterious technique, so it's called 'mysterious'."
"It's too early to teach you."
"Aigoo, but we're not completely blind, you know?"
"Yes. If you teach us even a little trick, we'll devote our lives to you!"
"It's too early."
It wasn't just that I didn't trust my criminal subordinates. I myself hadn't reached the level to teach others yet. It seemed I would need more time to research the exact usage.
The problem was there was no time for that.
'I wonder where these beasts keep popping up from.'
Demonic beasts appear without warning in purple spatial fissures in the air. They disrupt supplies and cause damage to nearby villages, making the lives of the border people miserable. The only strange thing was that they often had appearances like orcs or goblins that Earth people would recognize.
Did they come from another dimension?
There were still many things I didn't know about this world. Just as I was pondering, Park Gyu next to me shouted while looking at the plains beyond the gorge.
"Why?"
"Look there, it's the barbarian bastards!"
"What!?"
Small dust was rising at the end of the horizon. I activated the flow of Qi and watched it carefully.
Composite bows, saddles, and spears with black beast fur shaking at the tips. Yashin. One of the largest forces among the nomadic tribes in the outer lands. Tension immediately filled the air.
"Looks like scouts."
"Useless. Even if we leave a small force, they'll soon bring their warriors."
"What should we do? Should we fight them?"
"No."
I shook my head. We were just a penal conscript unit under the Border Defense Unit. We didn't make direct judgments on combat or situations.
We decided to quickly return without recovering the beast's corpse. There was quite a crowd inside the camp.
It was the day the prisoner transport wagons arrived.
The faces of the unit members distorted.
No one didn't know what happened on such days. From all sides, I heard the sounds of soldiers kicking convicts who were apologizing saying they had no fault.
"Tsk, this is..."
"Bad timing."
There were also those who stole gold and food from the convicts. Despite the fact that the enemy was about to attack right in front of us, discipline was completely broken.
I immediately headed to the military camp. The position of the Border Defense Unit commander was empty, and only the guards were yawning.
I sped up a bit more and headed to the banquet hall this time. When I opened the door, the smell of alcohol and disgusting incense filled the air.
"Oh, isn't it Yuhyeon? Perfect timing."
"Who is this kid?"
"It's the guy who brings our unit's penal conscripts. Because he hasn't died in 5 years, the subordinates listen to him more than to the commander."
The drunken Border Defense Unit commander approached me with staggering steps. In his hand was a wine bottle and the hair of some girl.
He was wearing loose silk clothes, but he couldn't hide his ugly, thin body. What was happening on the day the convicts arrived was exactly this.
"This girl, you didn't listen to my words to show off her dancing? Are you deaf or something?"
"This is not the time. There are scouts wandering in the mountains outside the city."
"Hah, really? This time, nothing will happen. As long as I, Jang Mu, am guarding, the barbarian bastards won't step on the blessed land ruled by the Heavenly Emperor, so..."
His appearance of not understanding the situation and being immersed in debauchery made my hand tighten. If it was just to save my own life, I wouldn't hesitate to run, but if the Yashin attacked, it would be the civilians who would suffer.
The comrades who had died countless times in the past 5 years, and even those still alive, wouldn't be able to close their eyes in peace until the end.
More importantly, since I didn't know what kind of world this was or where the monsters from Earth came from, I couldn't just die pointlessly.
"If they see the defense as lax, they might attack immediately. We need to stop the banquet and gather the troops..."
"Tch, shut up! Since you have strength, open this girl's mouth a bit."
There was only one way. I steeled myself, met the eyes of the captured girl once, and quietly rolled up my sleeve.
And.
"Screams and moans are fine, so once in time with the rhythm..."
Crack!
The lightly broken neck looked up at the ceiling as the commander fell forward. The others in the banquet hall belatedly realized the situation.
"From now on, I will be the commander of this place."
Receiving silent and shocked gazes, I said calmly.
"If you want to live, follow my orders."