Chapter 1
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Rebirth
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The physician spoke.
“I've been a physician here for over thirty years, but I've never seen a body as broken as yours. What kind of life have you lived?”
Ha Yuseong scratched his head, swallowing an awkward laugh.
“Your knee and back joints are completely shot, every bone in your fingers and toes is bent or twisted... and what about all these scars all over your body? You're missing a kidney, and your pulse is so faint, your heart isn't doing its job properly.”
“I-Is that so?”
“Is that so? Good heavens, how could you abuse your body like this!”
The physician snapped at Ha Yuseong's feeble reply, but all Ha Yuseong could do was offer another awkward smile. After all, there was no other way for a third-rate ronin to survive to the ripe old age of fifty.
In fact, in the world of martial arts, it was nothing short of a miracle for a third-rate ronin to have survived for over thirty years.
Unaware of this, the physician could only glare at Ha Yuseong resentfully.
*Haha.*
Still, the silver lining was that Ha Yuseong hadn't come away with nothing after more than thirty years in the treacherous life of a ronin.
It wasn't much, but he had saved enough money to last until he died of old age and had secured a cozy little house to live in alone.
“You need to rest immediately! No excuses! Understood?”
“Yes.”
He was planning to, anyway. Ha Yuseong intended to retire from the ronin life.
The physician was packing all sorts of medicinal herbs from his apothecary.
“Three times a day! Make sure you brew and drink it! To be blunt, it wouldn't be surprising if you dropped dead right now! You're practically a living corpse! Tsk, tsk. A man has to know how to take care of his own body! And do you think you're still a strapping young lad? You might have gotten away with abusing your body when you were young, but if you keep it up now, you'll be knocking on heaven's door! Got it?”
“Yes. I’ll do that from now on.”
“You’re quick with your answers! Be sure to come back when you run out of medicine!”
“Yes. Well, I’ll be on my way.”
Ha Yuseong left the apothecary with a large bundle of medicinal herbs on his back.
Ha Yuseong looked up at the sky.
It was endlessly blue.
“A perfect day to retire.”
***
Ha Yuseong's house was situated at the very end of the main street of Chengdu.
Enduring his creaking knees, Ha Yuseong finally reached his house, where he untied his bundle and organized the herbs.
After spreading the herbs out in a well-ventilated spot, he sat on the wooden bench to catch his breath.
Sitting there quietly in the peace, reality began to sink in.
“It’s finally over.”
Thirty long years.
An orphan, he had entered the martial world alone and become a ronin simply to survive.
Constantly watching others' moods was his daily routine, and having his possessions taken was a matter of course.
Yet, even in such a harsh environment, Ha Yuseong had survived.
If he were to tell people the story of his life, they would never believe it.
“It was a truly hellish life. Heh heh.”
But he had survived that life.
Now, all he had to do was live out his days in this cozy little house, enjoying the money he had saved.
As it happened, a friend of his, another third-rate ronin, was scheduled to visit today. He was his oldest friend, and his last surviving one.
“Alright!”
Ha Yuseong got up briskly and started moving again.
“They say time is all you have when you get old, and they’re right.”
For the first time in a long while, Ha Yuseong prepared to receive a guest.
As the sun was setting, Ha Yuseong, who had been dozing off while sitting, blinked his eyes open at the sound of a presence.
His awaited friend stood before him.
The moment they saw each other, tears streamed down their faces without a word.
“So you’re alive.”
“You’re alive.”
Simple words for one another.
Followed by lighthearted banter.
“Keke. I’ve clung to life this stubbornly, I can’t just die yet. Let’s drink until we drop tonight!”
*Slosh, slosh.*
His friend shook the bottle of liquor he had brought.
“Excellent!”
Ha Yuseong carried the drinking table he had prepared in the kitchen out to the yard.
His friend helped him.
The table was set in no time.
As soon as they sat down, they poured liquor into their respective cups and threw it back.
“Haha! You haven’t changed a bit since the old days. It seems I’m the only one who’s gotten old.”
“R-Really? I guess I do have a baby face. Haha! Anyway, being here like this brings back memories. Do you remember that time?”
“You mean the Battle of the Heavenly Mountains?”
“That’s the one!”
“Heh! Those bastards, the ones we should have chewed to pieces, threw us to the enemy and ran.”
“Kukuku. I really thought I was going to die back then.”
His friend filled his empty cup and drained it in one go.
“Keuk! I can finally say this, but if it weren’t for you, I would have died that day.”
Everyone fled to save their own skins.
Murderous fiends chased them from behind, while ahead, their former comrades callously abandoned their allies to save themselves.
In that situation, only Ha Yuseong did not lose his humanity.
Perhaps it was the one thing that Ha Yuseong, who had nothing left, could not discard.
“Have a drink. It’s payment for my life.”
Drinking the liquor his friend poured, Ha Yuseong continued.
“A person saves another person. Does there need to be any other reason?”
His friend’s expression hardened.
“This world is full of people who can’t uphold something so obvious.”
Surviving as a ronin meant many things.
Moreover, the two of them had survived in this world for over thirty years. They had seen all sorts of ugliness and had experiences beyond words.
And yet, Ha Yuseong.
“I wanted to be that way.”
There were many lives he couldn’t protect.
Conversely, there were many times he faced death himself.
For a third-rate ronin, the martial world was incomparably harsher than a winter cold snap.
*Grin.*
The traces of time were visible on Ha Yuseong’s smiling face.
“In any case, we survived and got to retire like this, didn't we?”
Only then did his friend’s expression soften as he grinned.
“Kekeke. That’s right! The man before me is a remarkable person who created a miracle unheard of in the world of ronin!”
“Enough with the flattery! Let’s have a drink!”
“Alright! Let’s drink!”
The two continued to drink and chat. Dead drunk, his friend staggered out the gate.
“I told you to stay the night!”
“Nah! I can’t be a burden! Let’s meet again!”
“Alright.”
“Keh keh.”
His friend left with a smile.
Ha Yuseong looked up at the sky again.
It was different from the sky he had seen that morning.
A dark night.
Within it, the stars were shining brightly.
The first day of his retirement.
“This is nice.”
***
Just as Ha Yuseong disappeared from view, Myeongwon’s staggering steps returned to normal, as if he had never been drunk.
He murmured briefly into the empty air.
“First Ronin.”
A figure appeared from thin air and showed Myeongwon the utmost respect.
“You called?”
“I met a friend today, so I’m in a good mood. I don’t want to ruin it, so cancel all my upcoming appointments.”
“But you have a meeting with the elders of the five great sects of Gangnam. Will that be alright?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
“As you wish.”
He paid no mind to his vanished subordinate and looked back. The now-invisible house already shimmered in his mind's eye.
“Live comfortably now, my only friend.”
***
Though drunk, Ha Yuseong couldn't seem to fall asleep.
He sat in the yard, gazing up at the sky.
“It’s refreshing.”
Though his body was broken, his heart was full.
As he stared at the night sky, scenes from his life flashed before his eyes.
He had faced countless hardships.
And amidst them, there were innumerable times Ha Yuseong had wanted to abandon his convictions.
The beginning of Ha Yuseong’s conviction was at the Heavenly Mountains.
Everyone had acted selfishly to protect their own lives.
In a way, it was the instinct of a living creature.
Amidst it all, Ha Yuseong, too, had stood at a crossroads.
Would he become an animal driven solely by the desire to live, just like them?
Or would he remain a human being?
A human being.
Looking back, perhaps Ha Yuseong had always been searching for the answer to the question, ‘What kind of person do I want to be?’
The age of fifty, when one is said to understand the will of heaven.
As if proving the saying true, Ha Yuseong felt he had finally found his answer.
Ha Yuseong looked around.
The late-night scenery was completely dark.
It was even more so because he was on the outskirts, away from the village.
But when he lifted his head just slightly, countless lights were twinkling in the sky.
One among them.
A single star, so small and unremarkable.
One that was barely noticeable at a glance.
Its light was uniquely faint compared to the other shining bodies.
Like him, it was so insignificant that most would never even remember it. And yet, it was always there, shining with its own quiet dignity.
*‘I am alive here.’*
That was what the small star seemed to be telling Ha Yuseong.
“Is that so.”
Perhaps because he was thoroughly drunk, Ha Yuseong, a mere third-rate warrior, spoke his epiphany as if he were a grandmaster.
“So I wasn’t wrong.”
The weight of a lifetime of worry seemed to vanish in an instant.
And at the same time, he felt a refreshing sensation, as if an explosive had gone off in his head, *Pabat!* blowing everything wide open.
All the years he had lived through were vividly painted before his eyes.
When he became a ronin in his youth, just to survive.
When he went on his first mission.
When the people he saved thanked him.
When the people he couldn’t save gave him resentful looks.
When he felt helpless, unable to do anything about his circumstances.
When he struggled against that helplessness.
Agony.
Sorrow.
Emptiness.
And satisfaction.
All sorts of emotions swirled within him.
Ha Yuseong reached his hand toward the star in the sky.
And it felt as if his hand had touched it.
***
The day after drinking heavily, one’s head always hurts.
The all-too-familiar hangover had arrived.
“Ugh.”
Ha Yuseong pressed his throbbing temples as he sat up.
“Looks like I threw up during the night. The smell is absolutely foul.”
Ha Yuseong all but ran to the well in the yard, drew water, and poured it over himself.
*Splash!*
“Kaaah! Now I feel alive.”
After a few more splashes, his mind cleared.
And then, Ha Yuseong noticed something was strange about his body.
His knees, which used to throb with pain just from touching the ground, felt fine.
“Huh?”
In addition, the constant ache in his neck and back was gone.
“Oh?”
Not only that, but his vision, which had grown dim with age, was now crystal clear.
“Eh?”
The heavy sensation that always weighed on his shoulders, as if a stone were resting there, had vanished.
His body felt as light as a feather.
“Have I become young again?”
He looked down into the well, and reflected in the water was the face of a young man—familiar, yet strange.
“Heh heh.”
A dry laugh escaped him.
He must still be drunk.
Ha Yuseong looked up at the sky.
It was clearly daytime.
Therefore, it should have been impossible to see.
But for a brief moment, he saw it clearly.
*Twinkle!*
The light of the star he had seen last night was there.
“It must be a dream.”