The First Disciple
Time flew by in an instant, and before I knew it, a year had passed since I was born.
“Jayeon! Pick whichever one you like from these!”
My name was the same as it had been in my previous life.
Kim Jayeon.
Jayeon. The character for nature, and the character for being true to oneself.
I’d been given life again as nature itself.
Was that really just a coincidence?
I’d wondered about that once, but what did it matter now?
In front of me lay a spread of objects, each carrying its own symbolism.
So this is the “pick one” ceremony. They do this kind of thing too? Humanity must finally be living a little easier.
It was a luxury I’d never even dreamed of in my previous life.
A sword, a stethoscope, a staff, a book, money, a hammer—the choices were all over the place.
I picked up the sword. A tiny decorative one.
The life I had walked in my past life.
Of course, I planned to walk that path again in this one.
“Jayeon chose the sword!”
But it didn’t end there.
Staff, hammer, spirit stone, bow.
Longevity?
That wasn’t a problem for me anymore.
Even my long ears were easy enough to hold with these short little arms of mine.
I was an elf.
Admittedly, my father was human, so I only inherited half of that blood.
It couldn’t be helped if I wanted to awaken.
That wasn’t a problem.
I had become the strongest with only a hundred years in my previous life.
If I had the lifespan of an elf...
Then I can make every talent reach its peak.
Just because I picked one or two talents didn’t mean I’d end up looking like some withered old fossil.
The average lifespan of an elf was about two thousand years.
A half-elf lived half that long—one thousand years. I had time to spare.
All I need is enough to live as an ordinary human would.
Then...
At last, I’d be able to do what I’d wanted in my previous life.
Subjugate the Demon King? Obviously. That had to be done.
The monsters behind him? I’d deal with them somehow.
If I can’t kill them anyway, then it’s all over.
There was still one noble and beautiful destiny left to me, something far greater than blood and sweat.
Romance! Who cares how strong you are if nobody sees you as a man? They just see me as some grandpa!
Thanks to my abilities, I had become the strongest.
And because of those same abilities, I’d never even dreamed of romance.
In the prime of my twenties, all I had was blood and steel.
Love can bloom even in wartime.
It just wasn’t me who got to be the main character.
The feeling of being called “grandpa” by a woman older than I was.
Do you know that disgust?
Damn it. This time, I’m absolutely doing it.
I tightened my grip on the small dagger in my hand.
My face was full of ambition, though I wasn’t quite laughing or crying.
“Haha, our son does seem a little more mature than most...”
In the blink of an eye, I was eight years old.
During those seven years, instead of picking up a sword, I read books to gather information and built up my mana.
Physical training at too young an age does more harm than good.
But there was something a child could do.
A clean body, untouched by impurities.
Nothing stood in the way of mana moving through it.
Light.
I used the most basic spell.
A spell that could be cast without a circle.
In a single use, all my mana vanished, but the next day it came back even greater than before.
I repeated that for years.
People said I slept too much because of the side effects, but the return was worth every bit of it.
Thanks to that, I managed to gather a great deal of mana.
There probably wasn’t anyone my age with more mana than me.
My talent is so garbage I can’t even form a circle.
The talent of this body was practically an abyss.
Moving mana was difficult enough as it was.
To form a circle, I had to draw mana out for a long time and connect it.
And from the heart, no less.
And try doing that with talent like this?
That was a direct route to the afterlife.
Try to connect mana from the heart, and the body would burst apart. End of story.
Game over.
No matter how extraordinary my talent had been in my previous life, it was useless in a situation like this.
In novels, reincarnation alone is supposed to be enough.
Reality wasn’t so forgiving.
At twenty.
Until then, I had to hold out somehow.
Effort was the only way to survive.
By then, my arms and legs had finally grown a little longer.
All right. It’s time.
Physical training.
Building the body was something where effort mattered far more than talent.
So I said,
“Dad.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you get me some stamina potions and a wooden sword?”
“Sure, no problem.”
What? Why was he agreeing so easily?
Shouldn’t this be the moment for a father’s opposition, a sulky son, and a mother stepping in to mediate?
“You’ve got a thoughtful look on your face, son. What, did you think I’d say no?”
“Yeah.”
At my answer, my father lifted me up.
“Your mom and I made a promise, you know. We’d let you do whatever you wanted.”
Oh. Ohhh!
So this was the life of a golden spoon!
You think I wasn’t a golden spoon in my previous life?
I hadn’t exactly lived a normal life back then either, but I’d never gotten to enjoy any of those benefits because it was wartime.
In a world with a little tension and peace, power was strength.
My father was an officer. A general, with one star.
My mother had two stars, and the blood of the elf royal family flowed in her veins.
I was a born royal-road silver spoon.
“Thank you!”
“Yeah, yeah! Hahaha!”
So this was the taste of power!
One day later, my father handed me a wooden sword.
“Son! Here!”
“Ohhh!”
A wooden sword with a sleek black finish stood out sharply.
It felt just heavy enough in my hand.
The moment I picked up the new sword, I even felt stronger somehow.
No, maybe my mana increased too?
My mana increased, and my strength went up? Wait a second...
“This is real blackwood?”
“Haha, what do you think? Your old man pulled some strings!”
“Thank you!!”
He actually did it?
He burned blackwood into a wooden sword for an eight-year-old boy’s sword training?
If it had been anyone else, I’d have clicked my tongue.
Sweet. So sweet.
But if it was for me, the story changed.
“I’m off!”
“All right, don’t overdo it and come back soon. Ah, right. Jayeon, your neighbor—oh, never mind, you’re already gone.”
I’d figure it out on my own.
***
The training ground was the hill behind the neighborhood.
For about an hour, I stood there holding my sword and doing nothing.
Damn it. I knew this already, but still.
Since I couldn’t see the grain of the world, it was maddeningly frustrating.
I had no idea where to swing my sword.
I’m the Sword God, for crying out loud! Damn it!!
So this was what a normal person’s perspective felt like.
I hadn’t paid it much attention before, but now that I was holding a sword, I felt a ridiculous amount of self-loathing.
I knew the ideal form of swordsmanship in my head.
But just because you watch a pro gamer’s videos doesn’t mean you become a pro gamer.
This garbage body wouldn’t move the way I wanted.
Still, I couldn’t stand around like this forever.
Even with a garbage body, if you keep beating it, someday it’ll turn to steel.
Getting into Jayeon Academy isn’t the end of it.
An educational institution bearing my name, and the world’s largest military organization.
First and foremost, Jayeon Academy was an academy.
It was a military school where officers were selected.
Since my mother had founded it, I was definitely going to go there.
Even without that, there was no better place to find talent.
The problem was—
You have to enter at nineteen...
No matter how favorable it was to humans who awakened at twenty, the entrance age was still nineteen.
Honestly, getting in wouldn’t be hard.
After all, the first year was just military life for everyone.
The real issue was that year was used to determine your rank for the next year.
If you performed well, you became an officer.
Average ability earned you a noncommissioned officer rank.
The rest stayed as soldiers.
My goal was officer. No exceptions.
What, I’m supposed to fail to become the best at my mother’s institution, which bears my own name?
Sure, if I awakened at twenty, my rank would naturally rise.
But that kind of thing was for weaklings.
If I entered like that, I’d be mocked even after I died.
Not that I haven’t already died once.
I raised the sword and settled into stance.
Let go of the past.
I couldn’t swing the way I had back then.
Then I’d just have to do a single proper downward cut.
After that, a follow-through swing.
Again and again.
The path existed in my head.
If I kept at it, I’d reach it someday.
Even if my muscles didn’t move the way I wanted them to.
If I kept at it, it would work.
Fortunately, my concentration was still intact.
I closed my eyes and erased the world around me. The scenery turned black. I placed my own body within that darkness and pictured the ideal posture.
I aligned my body to match it.
Then swung.
Whoosh—.
“Haah, no, that’s not it.”
The idea was perfect, but my body just wouldn’t listen.
The swordsmanship in my head kept flickering before my eyes, driving me half crazy.
Don’t be disappointed. I already decided to give up on perfection.
It was only natural.
“Again.”
The moment I lifted my arm—
Rustle, rustle.
The bushes beside me shook.
What now?
Shake, shake.
A tail?
A red tail revealed its presence from inside the bushes.
Like a lizard’s, it stood stiffly in the air.
Grab—.
I carefully reached out and closed my hand around the tail.
In that instant—
“Hieeek!”
An enormous cry came from inside the bushes.
“A Dragonian?”
A red-haired girl crawled out from the bushes.
Her face was as red as her hair.
“W-what are you doing? Why are you touching someone else’s tail!”
She looked about my age.
Come to think of it, I felt like I’d heard of this before.
Dragonians had a strange tradition where touching a tail was basically a marriage proposal... wait, what?
Did I just propose to this kid?
Eh, it was just kids, so maybe it didn’t matter?
Yeah, probably not. It had to be fine.
“You’re the one who was hiding right next to me. What do you think would’ve happened if I’d stabbed you with this?”
The girl’s face went pale.
“You were going to stab me...?”
“No, but what if I had? That’s the point.”
“Oh. Then it’s fine!”
What a self-centered young lady.
A red-haired Dragonian, huh...
I’d definitely heard that a Dragonian family had moved in next door.
Dad was trying to say something this morning—could she be the one?
“Why were you over there?”
The girl rubbed her hands together, face turning red.
“Um... my mom told me to go talk to the friend next door...”
Huh? So that was it.
“Were you following me?”
“Yeah!”
My head hurt.
“Even so, you can’t follow me all the way out here.”
“Why? Is it dangerous?”
“Yeah, extremely. If your parents found out, they’d really chew you out.”
“Then what about you?”
She’d hit the nail right on the head.
“I came here in secret, so I’m fine.”
“Then I’m fine too!”
“What are you going to do if I tell on you?”
“Then I’ll tell on you too.”
Her catlike eyes were fixed on me, bright and unwavering.
As if she’d tell on me if I didn’t play with her.
Sigh.
“Wait by that stump over there for a bit. I’ll play with you when I’m done with this.”
“Okay! But what were you doing from earlier? You’ve just been swinging at the air.”
“Training.”
“Why?”
Why, she asked...
I couldn’t exactly tell her the truth, so maybe I should phrase it differently. It wasn’t a lie, either—it was just a midterm goal.
“I’m going to become Jayeon’s supreme commander.”
It wasn’t wrong.
In the end, the most effective way to end a war was to command an army.
Through overwhelming power!
“Really? Me too! I want to go to Jayeon someday and become a dragon like my mom and dad!”
A dragon? Wasn’t that what they called Dragonians with stars?
“Is that so?”
That was exactly the kind of thing kids her age would say.
Since this was fate and all, maybe I should have her try swinging a sword sometime.
After my training’s done, at least.
“Wait over there for a little while, okay? Thirty minutes? I think that should do it. You can wait that long, right?”
“Yep!”
After our Dragonian young lady sat down on the stump, I took another breath.
“Huuuu—.”
I exhaled deeply and let my mind sink once more.
Again I erased the world around me.
I took the perfect stance. I imprinted the downward slash into my mind.
Swish—!
I swung!
The tip of the blade wavered again, but it was better than before.
I need to put more strength into my lower body.
My shoulders, waist, and arms all lacked the basic strength they needed.
That’ll come naturally anyway.
The moment I was about to swing again—
Whoosh!
What was that?
From nearby came a sound that was very close to my own cutting wind.
The kind of cutting sound that only came from a proper swing.
Who the hell?
The moment I opened my eyes and looked beside me—
“What the hell?”
The lizard girl was standing there with a tree branch in her hand.
The branch had already been swung once and was hanging low toward the ground, and she was breathing hard.
Well, of course she was.
A single proper swing consumed a ridiculous amount of stamina.
Besides—
She copied me after seeing it only once?
I grabbed her wrist from behind.
It ended up looking like I was hugging her from behind, but I didn’t care about that at the moment.
“Miss, I’ll help you, so try again.”
Her face flushed red as she nodded.
“Okay.”
“Spread your legs a little more. Raise your arms only as high as I’m lifting them now.”
A stance suited to the girl’s body, as I saw it.
“All right. Now swing however you want.”
Now then...
What kind of talent does this girl have?
Heh. Interesting.
Gulp.
After a brief silence—
Power gathered in the girl’s abdomen.
Then the tree branch sliced through the air.
Swash!
Different.
All I’d done was correct her posture once.
And yet, even on her first try, she had distributed her strength and aim like this.
Her posture didn’t waver!
A talent! This is talent!
To discover so quickly a talent that would one day help humanity...
I could practically feel my mouth watering.
“Um, um, was it good? Did I do well?”
“You said you wanted to be a dragon?”
“Yep!”
“Then how about you learn from me? I’ll help you.”
“Really? Y-yes!! I’ll learn!”
Good. You’re mine now.
“Then get into position again.”
“Um... your name.”
Ah. Had I gotten too carried away?
“My bad. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Kim Jayeon, eight years old. And you?”
“Your name is Jayeon? That’s so cool! I’m Hong Yehwa! Eight years old!”
“Nice to meet you.”
My disciple.
“Mm-hm!!”
And that was how Yehwa and I came to know each other.