A New Life
My name was Kim Minsoo.
I’d been sitting at my desk at the company, pulling an all-nighter like always, when at some point a sheet of white light swallowed everything around me and I found myself in a space I couldn’t begin to recognize.
I’d never seen anything like it, never been in a place like it, but I understood it on instinct.
I’m dead.
"Dying of overwork? What a joke."
As I looked around, something caught my eye off to one side.
When I walked closer, I saw my life recorded there from beginning to end.
"So this is what it means to see your life flash before your eyes after you die? Is that what this is?"
Looking back over my life, I realized it had been tragic from the start.
I’d been abandoned at birth, left behind by my parents and raised in an orphanage.
Was it because I was ugly? I hadn’t even managed to get adopted, and in the end I’d been left there until I grew old enough to move on.
The only blessing was that the orphanage director was a good person.
There were a few other children there besides me.
Among them, I’d been given the painfully ordinary name Kim Minsoo.
It wasn’t until I entered elementary school that I first realized my surroundings were anything but ordinary.
Even so, I wasn’t sad.
I had my own family, in the form of the people at the orphanage.
With the thought that when I succeed, I’ll repay the orphanage for everything, I worked harder than anyone else.
But I didn’t have any real talent to speak of.
Sports, looks, grades, singing, none of it stood out compared to anyone else.
If anything, because my gifts were so meager, I believed effort was the only way I could survive.
Convinced that studying was the one path to success without talent, I studied harder than anyone.
I worked myself to the bone, but as college admissions drew closer, the reality that I had no talent felt cold and unmistakable.
Still, by grades alone, I was good enough to get into a university people would at least recognize by name.
But in reality, I didn’t have the money to even think about applying to most schools.
In the end, I accepted my limits and enrolled in an engineering college at a provincial national university that offered full scholarships.
Even after entering university, I studied as hard as I always had.
I entered at the top of my class and graduated at the top of my class, and though I’d wanted to go on to graduate school, I jumped straight into the job market to make a living.
Maybe because all I’d done at university was study, I had no credentials to my name at all.
At best, I had a few part-time jobs at convenience stores and cafes.
Most major companies and even plenty of smaller ones rejected me on paper, citing my provincial university degree and my utterly unremarkable resume.
I didn’t give up. I kept sending out resumes everywhere and pushing through the job hunt, and in the end I landed a position at an advertising company, though it had nothing whatsoever to do with my major.
It was all new to me, but I worked twice as hard as everyone else.
My results were always first place, and I never once clashed with my superiors.
But the people who were always promoted were the president’s nephew, or a manager’s acquaintance.
This year, too, I’d let myself hope that maybe, just maybe, this time would be mine. Instead I was passed over again, and in a fit of frustration I ground my teeth and kept working overtime, only for overwork to be the end of me after all.
"When I look back on it like this, it’s a tragedy through and through."
"They always say hard work never betrays you... and I really did live my life with that thought, telling myself someday would come."
Looking back over my life, I felt strangely light, to the point that I had no regrets left.
Maybe it was a relief, in a way, that I could finally rest now.
As that thought crossed my mind, a single orb of light floated in front of me.
"What is this?"
As if answering me, a voice drifted out from the orb.
"Hello? I’m God. You’re Kim Minsoo, right?"
For a ball of light, it was awfully confident in calling itself God, but for some reason, I found myself believing it.
"So I really am dead?"
"You catch on fast. You’re awfully calm about it, too."
"What happens to me now?"
"You weren’t some villain who committed horrible sins, and you weren’t so saintly that you’d be reborn as an angel, so you’re just going to be born again."
The idea of being born again didn’t stir much in me.
I’d poured everything into my life because I’d believed life only came once, and I didn’t think I had any strength left to give.
Maybe it read the vague expression on my face, because the orb began explaining itself in a cheerful voice.
"Still, after seeing your life, I felt sorry for you. So when you’re born into your next life, I’m going to give you a little advantage."
The word advantage caught my interest just a little.
"In this life, you were missing so much. In the next one, you’ll be able to live with all of that in abundance."
"Explain that a little more."
"For example, in this life you had no family, so in the next one you won’t be born into some ordinary household. You’ll have a very good background."
At its words, a little excitement began to build inside me.
"So you’re saying you’ll make up for what I lacked in this life in the next one?"
"To be precise, I’ll only compensate for the things you’re born with, not the things you earn through your own effort."
Hearing that, I felt a surge of triumph inwardly.
Everything I had in this life had been earned through effort; the background and talent I’d been born with had been miserable beyond belief.
"And I’ll let you carry at least some of this life’s memories with you. By the time you’re an adult, though, you’ll probably only remember that you were reincarnated."
The fact that I could take my memories with me brought me some relief.
Next time, I won’t live halfheartedly. Not ever again.
"One last question. Can I choose the world I’ll be reincarnated into?"
"Sorry, but that’s impossible. People are born wherever there happens to be an opening, or wherever the conditions fit you at the time. Even I can’t know where you’ll end up. There are all kinds of worlds out there."
To sum up what that orb claiming to be God had told me, I could be born in my next life with the talents and background I’d lacked before, and I’d retain a hazy memory of my past life, but I wouldn’t get to choose where I was born.
"That’s about all I can explain. From here, if you head toward the back, it’s your reincarnation. The rest you’ll have to experience for yourself."
With those words, the orb vanished.
And all the frames that had displayed my life disappeared as well.
All that remained in the space was a single light behind me.
"A new life... This time, I’m never going to waste my effort on anything that won’t pay me back."
A second life, like a bonus round.
I decided that I wouldn’t live desperately this time. I would live as freely as I pleased.
Without hesitation, I kept walking toward the light.
With every step, my mind grew hazier and hazier.
I recovered my memories of my past life after I learned to walk and began learning letters.
As my memories slowly returned, all I really remembered was that I had been reincarnated, and that in my previous life I’d worked myself to the bone without ever being rewarded for it.
Still, with the thought that I was starting anew, I studied hard to find out what kind of world this was.
First, I quickly learned to read and speak.
In the process, my parents were delighted, saying I was a once-in-a-generation genius.
I felt strangely moved by the existence of parents for the first time, and I was proud to see how happy they were.
From the state of the household, it was obvious that our family was fairly well off.
There was a nanny assigned to take care of me, and servants were everywhere.
After wandering around and gathering information for several days, I found out that this place was called the North Sea Ice Palace.
North Sea...? Ice Palace...? The terms were unfamiliar, but from the feel of it, this seemed to be set in China.
My father was the Palace Lord of the Ice Palace, basically the ruler of the North Sea.
My father’s the king of the North Sea? That’s amazing. I was born royalty!
What I realized about my family was that, for all the noble-or-royal image I’d imagined, they were remarkably warm and close-knit.
My father had the face of a bear and a huge build, and he always walked around with a booming laugh.
He was very stern with outsiders, but to his family he was warmer and gentler than anyone.
My mother was, first of all, an incredible beauty.
She was famous enough to be called the most beautiful woman in the North Sea, and she seemed wise as well, since she personally ran the trading company she’d inherited from her maternal grandfather.
The one thing I was grateful for was that I’d taken after my mother rather than my father, so I was good-looking.
I figured that compensated for how ugly I’d been in my previous life.
I had two older brothers above me.
My oldest brother was eight years older than me and already seemed to be undergoing training as the heir.
My second brother was three years older, an unruly little troublemaker who caused incidents every day and could always be heard getting scolded.
Both brothers doted on me, the youngest, and even when they were busy they often came by to play with me.
Playing with them taught me that this world was a martial world.
My eldest brother, the heir, was learning the martial art passed down to the Palace Lord by our father, and my second brother was also practicing something called a heart method.
That was why they sometimes explained what they’d learned that day, or waved swords around to show me sword dances.
But I knew nothing about the world of martial arts.
At most, I understood that there were good people and bad people, and that they fought using something called martial arts.
Even so, watching my eldest brother’s sword dance was mesmerizing in a way that drew me in completely.
My second brother was always showing off his strength, refusing to lose, and every time he did, he’d end up breaking something and getting scolded all over again.
My goal in this second life was simply to enjoy today, and since I was the youngest, I figured I didn’t need to work myself to the bone learning martial arts just to become strong. What mattered more was having a good family and a warm home.
And so I spent my happy days being treated like the little prince of the Ice Palace.
---