Confrontation with the Body's Owner
"Gasp?!"
Terrified by the crimson blur hurtling toward me like a cannonball, I kicked the covers off and bolted upright.
"What the...?"
I scrambled out of bed and surveyed my surroundings. It was my old room back on Earth.
Wait, hadn't I been sucked into a web novel and stood on the very precipice of utter ruin?
"...Ah."
Right. Of course.
It was just a dream—an uncomfortably vivid one. Logically speaking, getting transmigrated into a novel made zero sense. No matter how many times I replayed it in my head, it was an absolute impossibility.
"I seriously need to lay off the web novels. What kind of messed-up dream was that...?"
Yeah, it was nothing more than a nightmare. I was just an ordinary South Korean high school boy with classes to attend. Getting turned into a girl? As if that could ever happen.
All I had to do was get up, wash my face, eat breakfast, and head off to school.
Right on cue, the clatter of pots and pans echoed from the kitchen—Mom was clearly making breakfast. My stomach gave a timely rumble, and I swung the door open, calling out, "Mom! What's for breakf—"
The door swung wide.
And what met my eyes was...
"Jeonghye! Jeonghye! Are you alive?!"
The moment my eyes fluttered open, only two things filled my vision: a sun-drenched sky, and Zaphia's face.
She was slapping my cheeks with terrifying enthusiasm.
If you're asking whether I'm alive, why the hell are you trying to kill me?! That hurts!
"I'm... alive..." I wheezed, forcing the words through bruised, throbbing cheeks.
"Is that so? At least there's that."
Confirming I was still conscious, Zaphia's voice dropped an octave.
Immediately afterward, a crimson figure stepped into my line of sight.
"Why didn't you assume a stance?"
It was Bella, looking thoroughly incensed. Her scowling face was turning nearly as crimson as her hair.
"Are you mocking me? Everyone here knows your skills go far beyond this."
How should I know, you crazy bitch?!
I had just woken up in some stranger's body, overwhelmed and on edge, only to find out the entire world was teetering on the brink of annihilation. Did she have the faintest clue how I felt? Every single second she spent flirting and messing around with Leon, this world was hurtling closer to doomsday.
Did she understand the agony of rolling in the dirt, completely helpless to stop it?
"Ugh, it's... it's not like that, okay?"
A sharp bite of irritation slipped into my reply.
Zaphia clearly didn't care for my tone, scolding me like a strict drill sergeant.
"Your capabilities were proven more than enough back in your first year, which is why I let my guard down... I never imagined things would turn out like this. Why didn't you mount any defense whatsoever? You ought to thank Bella. Even mid-thrust, she turned her greatsword flat, which is the only reason you aren't hurt worse."
Oh, gee. I'm so touched I could cry.
"Haa... haa..."
A wave of agony unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life crashed over me. This wasn't merely a broken bone or two; it felt as though every single bone in my body had been pulverized into fine powder. I couldn't even draw a proper breath.
"Whew... Sparring matches are held three times a day, but in this condition, that's out of the question."
Trailing off, Zaphia turned toward the gathering of waiting students.
"Hey, you two! Bring a stretcher! Get her to the infirmary, now!"
Moments later, two students jogged over carrying a stretcher.
"One, two, lift!"
Just like that, my broken body was hauled onto the canvas and carried toward the infirmary.
"How did she even end up like this?"
"Who knows? Maybe she was just riding on dumb luck all this time. I mean, with that pathetic trickle of mana..."
The two carrying the stretcher chattered back and forth, but their voices blurred into static.
Whatever feeble grip I had on consciousness finally snapped.
My vision plunged back into darkness.
When I came to, I was lying in the infirmary.
Curiously enough, it looked almost identical to a high school nurse's office back in Korea. I had half-expected some fantastical chamber, but no.
As I was taking in the room, the door slid open.
"Ah, you're awake."
A plain-looking woman wearing spectacles stepped inside.
"What on earth did you do to get mangled like this? It's been a while since I've seen someone in such a state. You look like you took a direct hit from a speeding motorcycle, so of course your body's in pieces. I don't care how sturdy the folks around here claim to be."
Adjusting her glasses, she rattled off an assessment of my condition, completely indifferent to my bewilderment. Judging by the white coat, she had to be the academy's school nurse.
"Hate to break it to you, but injuries this severe won't mend with mere medicine. We'll need divine power to knit you back together. I've already sent for someone to treat you, so just sit tight. Oh, care for a candy? They're quite popular with the kids."
"...No, I'm fine."
"Suit yourself."
When I turned down the offer, she unwrapped the candy and popped it into her own mouth.
The only sound breaking the heavy silence was the clatter of candy rolling against her teeth. Then—
SLAM!
"I heard a student was gravely injured! Where are they—?!"
A familiar face framed by flowing pink hair burst through the door.
"Good heavens! Miss Jeonghye, it was you?! Eek?! How on earth did you get hurt this badly?!"
Taking in my miserable state, Professor Maria fired off questions like a Gatling gun.
"I got hit by a truck."
"Whatever does that mean?!"
It was supposed to be a witty joke, but clearly, it fell completely flat.
"We must treat you immediately!"
Clasping the holy cross in her hands, Professor Maria began to recite a prayer under her breath.
"Our Father in heaven, ■■ ■■■■■..."
A soft murmur, part incantation, part sacred scripture, floated through the room.
Before long, the ritual took effect. A luminous, soothing warmth enveloped my battered frame, gradually washing away the agonizing throbbing that had plagued me.
Is this... divine power?
Experiencing magic straight out of a fantasy novel for the first time filled me with quiet awe.
After several minutes, the professor lowered her clasped hands and looked up.
"Most of your injuries have been mended. However, until the bones and tissues fully knit, absolute, absolute bed rest! Do you understand?!"
"Yes, I will."
It wasn't as if I had the strength to do anything right now anyway.
Seeing me lapse into silence, Professor Maria spoke again in that warm, gentle tone of hers.
"I don't know what kind of trouble you're facing... but if you ever need help, please come see me!"
I owed Professor Maria an immense debt of gratitude. On my very first day in this world, she had helped me find my way, sorted out my impending expulsion from the academy, and willingly accommodated my requests.
Yet the burden weighing on my shoulders wasn't something I could confide to anyone.
So instead of the truth, I offered a hollow, polite reassurance.
"Yes, I definitely will."
The very next morning, I discharged myself from the infirmary and headed to class.
Professor Maria had insisted on complete rest, but I saw little reason to stay cooped up in bed. It wasn't as though today's lectures involved physical training.
The moment I stepped into the classroom, countless gazes bored into me—stares incomparably heavier and colder than on my first day.
"What's her deal anyway?"
"Guess her bottom line finally showed."
"Hey, she thrashed half the class last year. You really think she's a fraud?"
"She went down without even putting up a fight. It makes no sense."
"...True. You think she's been cheating this whole time—?"
I had become the prime subject of classroom gossip, dissected and chewed over by everyone.
What was I supposed to do? Flip a desk and pick a fight with all of them?
Hah. That would just end with me getting beaten into a pulp again.
Even the glares from Bella and Everett were visibly sharper than before.
How dare an unqualified nobody like you cast eyes on Leon!
Was that what was running through their heads?
I did my best to tune out the stares burning into my skin.
The real ordeal, however, came after the final bell rang.
"Well, well, look who decided to grace us with her presence! If it isn't our brilliant combat prodigy, Miss Jeonghye!"
"Isn't it about time we gave her a new title? Something like, oh, I don't know—"
"A punching bag! A washed-up has-been!"
The pack of sycophants put on a whole theatrical performance, cheering each other on.
I tried to push past them and leave the lecture hall.
"My, my, wherever did all that grand bravado go, young lady?"
A chubby blonde pig of a student blocked my path: Henry.
Grease dripped down his smug face, practically oozing with malicious delight at my misfortune.
"You know our next sparring match is in a week, don't you?" he sneered, his grating chuckle dripping with sarcasm. "Last year was just a fluke. I let my guard down, that's all. Who could've guessed a commoner orphan like you had any tricks up her sleeve?"
"Exactly!"
"No way Henry would lose to trash like her!"
His cronies chimed in eagerly.
"Must be thrilling for you, huh? Well then, see you in a week."
Because after that, my academy life would turn into a living hell compared to this.
Having spewed his venom, Henry turned on his heel and sauntered off.
...I can't just sit on my hands.
The plan I had hatched the moment I realized Leon wasn't a regressor—it was time to set it into motion.
If only to plant my fist dead center into that fat pig Henry's face.
In the dead of night, with nothing breaking the silence save for the shrill cries of crickets, I stood before the academy's towering perimeter wall with a knapsack slung over my shoulders.
Sneaking off campus without authorization was strictly forbidden, all the more so in the middle of the night.
Even so, there was somewhere I had to go.
"It should be right around here..."
On the side of the wall opposite the main gate lay a hidden crawlspace—a drainage hole that Leon had frequently exploited in his second life. Aside from the fact that some ancient senior had carved it out decades ago, nothing else was known about it.
"Ah, found it."
After rummaging through the undergrowth for several minutes, I located the hole. Finding a passage described only in printed text had been far trickier than expected.
Click.
Flicking on my flashlight, I crawled through the narrow gap and slipped outside the academy grounds.
It was my first time seeing the landscape outside the academy walls, bathed in the tranquil moonlight. It was stunning, but I didn't have the luxury to indulge in sightseeing.
My destination was Mount Rema, looming right behind the academy.
I set off immediately.
Following the rugged mountain path, I took a left at the broken signpost, then cut right past a boulder etched with a crude X. Finally, I pushed through a curtain of tangled, thorny vines concealing a cave mouth and ventured inside.
What greeted me took my breath away.
"...Whoa."
It was a sight unlike anything I had ever witnessed in my life.
Beyond the dense curtain of vegetation stretched a colossal cavern. And resting dead center in that cavern lay the skeletal remains of a beast that could never exist on Earth.
If it were still alive, its bulk would have dwarfed a human thousands of times over.
The fossilized skeleton of an ancient dragon lay sprawled across the cavern floor.
I stepped toward the center of the ribcage, where an ethereal azure light pulsed.
Resting there was a radiant blue sphere, far smaller than I had imagined—scarcely larger than a single plum.
"This is... the Yeouiju."
A dragon's heart naturally serves as an organ that stores mana. Consequently, even when a dragon perishes and its flesh rots into dust, its heart remains incorruptible. Drawing in the ambient natural energy and mana over centuries, it refines pure qi into a solid, unyielding pearl.
Much like an oyster cultivating a pearl.
The Yeouiju resting before me was the very elixir that Leon had claimed the moment he regressed in the original timeline.
Had Leon truly returned to the past, this pearl should never have remained here.
"..."
I had already deduced that Leon was not a regressor.
Yet seeing absolute, undeniable proof right before my eyes made my head spin with vertigo.
"Fine... drop the useless thoughts."
There was only one question that mattered right now: What was I going to do with this pearl?
A dragon's legacy—a Yeouiju—commanded literally any price one named. Across the entire continent, fewer than ten individuals possessed the martial prowess to slay an adult dragon. Even if one were felled, centuries had to elapse before its heart crystallized into a Yeouiju.
If I sold it, I could amass an astronomical fortune. Or perhaps I could feed it to another gifted student so they could save this doomed world...
"Ha!"
A dry scoff slipped past my lips.
I didn't have a single person I could trust in this forsaken world, and here I was, contemplating selling or gifting it away?
Absurd.
What I needed to do was consume this miraculous elixir myself and forge a strategy to tear the Cheongcheon Cult to shreds.
That was the only path forward.
With resolve hardening in my chest, I reached out and took the glowing blue pearl into my hand.
Then... I tossed it straight into my mouth and swallowed.
The sphere slid down my throat, descending deep into my lower abdomen until it reached my dantian.
The very instant it settled—
The entire world lost its light.
｢......!｣
｢Wake the hell......!｣
｢Hey......!｣
So damn noisy.
A voice echoed around me, desperately trying to wake me up.
Let's see... I slipped out of the academy at night, climbed Mount Rema, and swallowed the Yeouiju...
｢Hey! Get your ass up already!｣
Whoever it was, they were being insufferably impatient.
"Ugh, who the hell are you to keep—"
｢What? Who am I?｣
I forced my eyes open.
Standing right in front of me was a girl with tied-back raven hair and piercing emerald eyes...
The exact spitting image of the face I had been staring at in the mirror until just moments ago.
｢I'm the owner of the body you stole, you bastard!｣