Chapter 1
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue
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“The old saying goes, some people can never be changed.”
Why did it take a knife in my back to finally realize that?
*Stab!*
The blade pierced through my back.
“Gah!”
A fountain of blood erupted.
He scoffed at his own futile end.
He had dedicated his entire life to the family.
And his reward was a sword through the back.
*‘Is this all I get for my loyalty?’*
His past life flashed before his eyes.
Nameless, the one without a name.
Taken in by the head of the Cheon Family, he was called Nameless instead of being given a name.
“Protect this child. That is your reason for living.”
Nameless trained relentlessly.
All of it was to become the guardian warrior of the Cheon Family's Great Young Lord, Cheon Muryang.
*‘Why didn't I realize back then what a terrible scoundrel he was?’*
But Cheon Muryang was a scoundrel.
The Family Head only ever pushed the wayward Cheon Muryang harshly.
Perhaps it was in rebellion to that.
Cheon Muryang became a scoundrel.
Even after becoming the Family Head, his scoundrel nature never changed.
*‘Family Head, are you watching? You should have… abandoned that scoundrel.’*
It was too late even when Nameless became his guardian warrior.
Cheon Muryang's nature as a scoundrel had already been solidified.
In the beginning, it was somewhat bearable.
The Family Head was still alive then.
But then, the Family Head died suddenly.
*‘After that, Cheon Muryang became the Family Head…’*
Amidst the great chaos, Cheon Muryang became the Family Head.
But nothing changed.
The family's fortunes declined sharply, and all those who had been loyal to the Cheon Family were driven out.
In the end, only sycophantic jackals remained.
*‘Should I have… left then?’*
He should have left.
Nevertheless, Nameless stayed by Cheon Muryang's side.
He tried to somehow support the crumbling Cheon Family.
However, what Nameless could do was extremely limited.
In the midst of it all, Cheon Muryang made an irreversible choice.
*‘He brought in the Demonic Cult.’*
He still didn't know the reason.
But Cheon Muryang had joined hands with the Demonic Cult.
*‘He did what should never have been done.’*
By the time Nameless found out, the Demonic Cult had already shown its true colors.
In an instant, the Cheon Family was engulfed in flames.
The Cheon Family he had sought to protect his entire life was now walking the path of annihilation so futilely.
“Was this sword… the price for my devotion?”
The flashing memories ended.
Time flowed once more.
*Clang.*
The sword fell.
Turning his head to see the one who had stabbed him, a hollow laugh escaped his lips.
*Tremble, tremble.*
He saw the trembling head of the Cheon Family, Cheon Muryang.
“I did everything to save you, Young Lord… yet you are the one who kills me. Did they say they’d spare you if you brought them my head?”
He understood.
He must have wanted to live.
And that was why he couldn't understand.
Nameless smiled coldly.
“Did you think that was the way to survive?”
If he wanted to live.
He should never have brought them in.
“You were wrong.”
Cheon Muryang didn't know.
That all of this was just a game to them.
*Slice.*
Cheon Muryang's head fell.
It was his destined end.
The end of the Great Young Lord he had tried so hard to protect was so pathetic.
“How foolish.”
He scoffed.
The ridicule was directed entirely at himself.
“From the very beginning…”
He should never have served the Great Young Lord.
*Cough!*
He coughed up a mouthful of blood.
As if even his blood had died, it was pitch-black, without a single trace of red.
“No. Who is there to blame…?”
In this situation, who was there to blame, who was there to resent?
“It is merely a shame.”
That he couldn't fulfill his lofty ambitions.
It was a shame he couldn't achieve his dream of becoming a master of the martial world and standing tall.
And it was a shame that so many innocent people would die here today.
Nameless looked at the black shadows surrounding him and scoffed one last time.
“In my next life, I’d rather not be born as Nameless.”
*Stab!*
Dozens of swords pierced Nameless.
*Drip!*
Blood flowed.
And so, the one without a name died.
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Reincarnation
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*‘Cold.’*
Death was cold.
He thought that was the end.
*Trickle, trickle.*
But suddenly, with the sound of flowing water, he felt a cold sensation on his feet.
“Ah! Cold!”
He opened his eyes.
It didn't seem to be the afterlife.
“Am I alive?”
The sword that pierced his back.
The sensation of dozens of swords tearing through his flesh, stealing his life, was still vivid.
But what was this ticklish feeling?
“Y-Young Lord?”
An unfamiliar voice came from below.
His head naturally lowered.
And a young maidservant was washing his feet.
“U-Ugh!”
“Wh-What is it? I-I'm sorry! Young Lord!”
“N-No, it's not that. I just felt dizzy for a moment…”
Nameless quickly calmed his startled heart.
*‘This isn't unfamiliar.’*
The voice wasn't unfamiliar.
The maidservant washing his feet also had a face that Nameless clearly recognized.
“Aren't you Woryeong?”
“Yes, Young Lord. That is correct. If I have made any mistake, please forgive me generously.”
Woryeong was a maidservant who served the Great Young Lord.
And Woryeong was a child who was always abused by the Great Young Lord.
*Shudder.*
So, although she spoke with a composed expression, she couldn't hide her trembling hands.
Seeing this, Nameless felt a sense of doubt.
*‘She's different from the Woryeong in my memories.’*
In his memory, Woryeong was a woman as cold as snow.
He remembered her as a woman who showed no emotion despite the Great Young Lord's persecution.
*‘She's still young.’*
But what about her now?
She was a frightened young maidservant.
The emotion of fear was palpable.
*‘What on earth is going on?’*
Nameless asked Woryeong.
“But why do you call me Young Lord? Where is Young Lord Cheon Muryang?”
“Pardon?”
Her fear vanished in an instant.
In its place was confusion.
“But you are Young Lord Cheon Muryang, aren't you?”
“Wh-What did you say?”
Nameless instinctively looked at the basin by his feet.
Reflected in the water was the face of the coward who had driven a sword into him—Cheon Muryang.
“Th-This is…!”
It was impossible.
He wanted to dismiss it as a dream, but he knew better than anyone that this was reality.
“Woryeong.”
“Yes?”
“How old am I?”
“You are of the age of learning this year.”
“Hmm…”
The age of learning was fifteen.
On the day Nameless died, Cheon Muryang was merely thirty.
It meant he had gone back a whole fifteen years in time.
*‘This is absurd. How did I become the Great Young Lord?’*
It was impossible.
He wanted to dismiss it as a dream, but he knew better than anyone that this was reality.
So, he asked.
“Let me ask one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Is there anyone in the family called Nameless?”
Woryeong thought for a moment.
No matter how she thought, there was no such name.
“No. There isn't.”
“I see…”
His own existence had vanished.
Nameless felt a strange sensation.
*‘I’ve become Young Lord Cheon Muryang… and because of that, have I, Nameless, disappeared?’*
A hollow laugh escaped him.
*‘I know I said I didn't want to be born as Nameless before I died, but…’*
How could he have been reincarnated as the very lord he had served?
*Grit.*
Cheon Muryang gritted his teeth.
The life Nameless had lived was too vivid to be dismissed as a mere dream.
In the destined future, the one who led the Cheon Family to ruin was none other than Cheon Muryang.
*‘I couldn't stop it.’*
Nameless had been unable to stop it.
The gruesome sensation of the moment of his death was still clear.
*‘Right. Perhaps this is an opportunity.’*
It might be an opportunity.
An opportunity to set right the Cheon Family that Cheon Muryang had ruined.
*‘I don't know why. I don't know how this happened. No, it doesn't matter.’*
Whatever the reason,
whatever principle led to his reincarnation,
it didn't matter.
*‘I will protect the Cheon Family.’*
That was the way to protect himself, and also to protect the Great Young Lord, Cheon Muryang, which had been Nameless's mission.
*‘I must accept it.’*
Nameless was dead.
And now, he had to accept that he had become Cheon Muryang.
*‘I am Cheon Muryang.’*
And so, Nameless's consciousness became Cheon Muryang's.
Woryeong looked at this Cheon Muryang and asked cautiously.
“Y-Young Lord?”
“Yes, Woryeong.”
Cheon Muryang smiled at Woryeong.
Woryeong had suffered a great deal because of the scoundrel Great Young Lord.
Despite that, Woryeong had not left the family, even up to the moment the Great Young Lord died.
Knowing this, Cheon Muryang could trust her.
“Let's get along well from now on.”
Smiling, Cheon Muryang patted the shoulder of the bewildered Woryeong.
“...?”
Woryeong couldn't hide her confusion.
Before she could even manage her expression, Cheon Muryang was already thinking about what he needed to do.
“My training uniform?”
“Ah, here it is.”
Woryeong opened the wardrobe.
Inside, crisply starched training uniforms were neatly arranged.
Seeing this, Cheon Muryang clicked his tongue.
Because they looked as if they had never been worn.
“Tsk.”
“Should I prepare some comfortable clothes?”
“No. There's no need. From now on, I think I'll only be wearing this uniform.”
The Cheon Family was a martial family.
The training uniform should have been no different from daily wear.
Cheon Muryang told the still-unsettled Woryeong his destination.
“I'm going to the Heavenly Dragon Library.”
“What? The Heavenly Dragon Library?”
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
“N-No! Of course not.”
“And bring another training uniform.”
“Pardon?”
“I plan to go to the training ground after the library. It would be good to have a change of clothes, wouldn't it?”
“Ah… Yes!”
Woryeong nodded.
It was thanks to her remembering that the servants of other young masters always carried spare training uniforms.
“I-I will prepare it.”
“Good. I'm counting on you.”
Woryeong left.
Cheon Muryang took off his clothes.
Then, he observed the condition of his body.
“Hmm…”
Cheon Muryang was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
So, from birth, he had undergone Bone Marrow Cleansing and consumed all sorts of elixirs.
“That was the problem. For this scoundrel Great Young Lord, it was poison…”
Cheon Muryang gave a bitter smile.
Despite being born in an environment blessed for a martial artist, this foolish scoundrel kicked that blessing away.
Be it elixirs or Bone Marrow Cleansing, if one accepted external energy, one had to make it their own through constant effort.
“He should have refined the elixirs' energy through training. By not doing so, he had to give up so much.”
Elixirs were essences containing different energies.
Therefore, it was only natural for the elixirs to clash with one another.
To prevent this, he should have used an internal art to refine the elixirs' energy, but since he didn't train at all, Cheon Muryang's body began to break down from the inside.
“Hoo. So the signs were already there at this age. The pain must have been considerable…”
After observing his body,
the energies of various elixirs were clashing in large clumps.
The side effects had already appeared.
His bloated flesh was one example.
“Tsk.”
Perhaps the reason his scoundrel nature worsened day by day was to forget this pain.
“Great Young Lord, I have no intention of living the same life as you.”
He didn't want to see the Cheon Family fall to ruin.
Nor did he want to meet a miserable end.
This wasn't just his problem.
*‘The countless people who died for the family.’*
Woryeong was one of them.
Countless members of the Cheon Family had to die.
*‘I will protect them, including myself.’*
To do that, he had to become stronger.
*Grip!*
He wanted to become stronger.
“So, do not feel it is unfair. I am merely trying to walk the path you were originally meant to walk.”
*Glance.*
A sword came into Cheon Muryang's view.
The Heavenly Light Sword, given to the Great Young Lord of the Cheon Family, was a famed sword.
However, because of its master, in his past life, the sword was also harshly criticized, called a pearl before swine.
“You too, do not be sad that your master has changed.”
*Whoosh!*
Cheon Muryang gripped the sword.
Then, a clear and pure resonant hum, one he had never heard in the past, reached his ears.
The will of the sword was conveyed.
“Thank you. First, I should clean you.”
Before going to the Heavenly Dragon Library,
Cheon Muryang first had to clean the Heavenly Light Sword, which had been neglected for so long that it was covered in a thick layer of dust.
Then, wearing the Heavenly Light that had regained its brilliance, Cheon Muryang stepped outside.
“Ah…”
Sunlight poured down.
A sensation he thought he would never feel again tickled Cheon Muryang.
“I truly have been reborn…”
There was no time to be sentimental.
Cheon Muryang headed straight for the Heavenly Dragon Library.
“Young Lord!”
He saw Woryeong waiting for him in front of it.
“Yes. Anyway, only I can go inside the library, so you can rest easy around here.”
“Pardon?”
Woryeong's eyes widened.
She had thought the scoundrel Great Young Lord was acting strange since morning, but it seemed something had truly changed.
“Y-Young Lord.”
“Hm?”
“By any chance… did the stir-fried mushrooms you ate yesterday not agree with you?”
In other words, she was asking if he had eaten something bad.
Cheon Muryang shrugged.
“I don't know if you'll believe me, but it seems I was able to be reborn because of those stir-fried mushrooms.”
“Pardon?”
His words made even less sense.
Leaving the confused Woryeong behind, Cheon Muryang tried to enter the Heavenly Dragon Library.
*Clank!*
If the warriors guarding the library hadn't stopped him, that is.
“What is it?”
“Those without permission may not enter the Heavenly Dragon Library, Young Lord.”
“Do I not have that qualification?”
“That is correct. The Family Head has revoked your qualification. Have you forgotten?”
“Ah, is that so?”
Only then did he remember.
Since he had no intention of learning martial arts, the Family Head had gone so far as to revoke his access to the Heavenly Dragon Library.
The underlying intention was for him to realize his mistake and beg for forgiveness, but how would a scoundrel of the age understand that?
*‘He probably thought, ‘Great!’ and just went drinking.’*
Now that things had changed, he decided to see the Family Head first.
It was to ask for forgiveness and regain his right to enter the Heavenly Dragon Library.
“The Family Head has gone on a trip.”
“When will he return?”
“We do not know.”
What could he do?
He wasn't in the family estate.
Cheon Muryang lightly praised them for their hard work on guard duty.
“It can't be helped. Well then, keep up the good work.”
“…”
He pretended not to see their slightly surprised eyes.
*‘What, did they think I was going to cause a scene or something?’*
The brand of ‘scoundrel’ stamped on Cheon Muryang was more severe than he had thought.
Cheon Muryang approached Woryeong.
“Seems I don't have the qualification.”
“Ah…”
Woryeong quickly grasped the situation.
She expected him to go back and ask for alcohol.
“Well, I'll just have to train until the Family Head returns. I know the basic martial arts, after all.”
“Pardon?”
The only martial art he had been allowed to learn in his past life was the basic art of the Cheon Family.
That alone had been enough to become the Great Young Lord's guardian warrior, so it was sufficient.
“Did you mishear me? I'm going to the training ground. You come too.”
“Ah, y-yes!”
Woryeong had no choice, so she followed behind the striding Cheon Muryang.
*‘Please, let nothing happen…’*
Hoping that nothing would happen.
There were many training grounds within the Cheon Family estate.
The training ground closest to the Heavenly Dragon Library was originally for Cheon Muryang's exclusive use, but that privilege had also been revoked, and it was now a public training ground for everyone.
*Swish!*
*Swish! Swish!*
Countless trainees were swinging their swords, honing their skills.
Those immersed in martial arts day and night were people whose goal was to become official warriors of the Cheon Family.
To them, Cheon Muryang, despite being the legitimate heir of the Cheon Family, was nothing more than a scoundrel they didn't want to acknowledge as their lord.
“Where is there a spot?”
*Flinch.*
With the appearance of Cheon Muryang, known as the scoundrel of the age, everyone's movements stopped for a moment.
All eyes focused on one spot.
But, whether he knew it or not,
Cheon Muryang found a spot in a corner of the training ground.
“Sit there and rest.”
“Ah, yes!”
Cheon Muryang drew the newly cleaned Heavenly Light from its sheath.
“Hmm. A famed sword truly is different.”
The sword Nameless had wielded in the past was just a cheap iron sword, so this was incomparably better.
“I can't use the excuse of having a bad sword anymore.”
*Grip!*
He gripped the sword.
It wasn't the calloused body of his past, so the grip felt rough.
*‘How long has it been… since I’ve felt the weight of a sword?’*
A sword held in a new body.
It felt unfamiliar, yet somehow exciting.
*‘I.’*
*Whoosh!*
The clear sky.
The Heavenly Light soared toward the sky.
*‘Can become stronger.’*
The Heavenly Light, filled with that desire, fell sharply toward the earth.