The Original Protagonist
At just eleven years old, Baek Seo-jin was already the prodigy upon whom every surrounding hope had settled.
As the one and only son and heir of the Baekho Guild — one of South Korea's top ten guilds — his extraordinary talent had drawn every eye.
"Give it a swing, young master."
"Yes! Here I go! Hyaaah!"
Baek Seo-jin swung his sword with all the fierce energy a child's voice could muster. Mana surged from the blade gripped in his small arms, cracking like a whip as it slammed into the spear of the Baekho Guild member standing across from him.
The man who blocked the blow grinned.
"Whoa! My hands are tingling! You're already at the level of a B-class mana awakener. Incredible, young master!"
Baek Seo-jin scratched his head with a sheepish little laugh at the praise.
"It's nothing. I still have a long way to go."
Reaching B-class as a mana awakener at the age of eleven... his potential was estimated at SS-class at the very least — or even the realm of SSS-class beyond that. A genius, born with talent that defied ordinary measure.
"Oh my! How on earth did I end up with such a brilliant son?"
A stunningly beautiful woman swept in — Kim Yu-jeong — and gathered Baek Seo-jin into a radiant embrace. She looked ready to burst with pride.
"Hehe~"
Nestled in the arms of a mother who adored him, Baek Seo-jin smiled with pure delight. A single thought filled his head: he would work even harder, so he could make his beloved parents proud.
"Shall we go have breakfast, Seo-jin?"
"Yes! What about Dad?"
"Your father will be along shortly. Breakfast is something a family should eat together."
"Yes!"
Kim Yu-jeong stroked his cheek, gazing at her son as though he were the most precious thing in the world.
"Honestly, our Seo-jin~ even the way you talk is just adorable. Hehe~ Other children speak so casually to their parents, but you answer so politely and sweetly~."
Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong's doting love for their son was famous. Videos of the couple showering the boy with affection circulated so widely online that anyone with even a passing interest in the Baekho Guild already knew the story.
But among the guild members who had been there for six years or more, the sight left a creeping chill.
Especially the image of Kim Yu-jeong holding Baek Seo-jin's hand, smiling as they walked toward the guild master's private dining hall — and Baek Hyeong-won greeting the two of them with a warm smile of his own. They looked, for all the world, like the picture of a perfectly happy family.
"The Guild Master really does dote on the young master."
"Tell me about it."
The more recently recruited members of the Baekho Guild would send fond looks whenever they happened to catch sight of the family out walking. Careful not to reopen any wounds, they never once mentioned Baek Seo-jun — the son who had been kidnapped by villains — and spoke only of the couple's love for Baek Seo-jin, as though offering praise.
The veterans who had been with the guild for over six years, however — the ones who knew exactly how the eldest son, Baek Seo-jun, had once been treated — could not look upon that scene with the same warmth as the newcomers.
Bound to the Baekho Guild and silenced by Baek Hyeong-won's warnings, they could not speak of what they knew. So they simply buried it, and said nothing.
"Yield? You want me to step aside — and walk to my own death?"
"You little brat! I gave birth to you, raised you, put a roof over your head and food on your table — you ought to be grateful!"
"Don't you dare talk back to your mother! You're the older brother — you can't even do that much for your younger sibling?!"
The video captured every word of it — Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong, five years ago, telling me to die for my younger brother. I had never forgotten a single line of that conversation, but hearing it again through the footage still made my tongue click against my teeth.
"Tsk. It's my own past, and it still makes my stomach turn just watching it."
Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong were repulsive enough. But Baek Seo-jin, nestled in their arms with that vacant, uncomprehending stare, was just as sickening. He had been only six at the time, and he had simply stood there with a blank face, as though none of it made the slightest sense to him.
The revulsion I felt had nothing to do with whether Baek Seo-jin was guilty or not. Sold to villains, put through every hell imaginable, and left unable to forget a single moment of it — the hatred I held for him had sunk its roots deep. I would do whatever it took to make sure I never had to watch this brat live happily.
"Baek Seo-jin."
There were still nine years left until the original story began. At this point in time, he was nothing more than a little kid. Doing anything to him now would be meaningless.
He's not ready to fall yet. Not enough.
The evidence that would expose Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong's lies was already in my hands. But I needed to drop them at the absolute peak of their happiness. Exposing everything now would only make a mess of my revenge.
"Hmph. Look at them. Playing house so happily."
I checked on how Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong were living with Baek Seo-jin inside the Baekho Guild. Their images reached me as vividly as if I were standing there in person. The way the two of them smiled with such joy as they watched Baek Seo-jin eat was exactly the picture of loving parents I had seen in the original novel. In the guild master's private dining hall, they fed him fine dishes prepared from expensive ingredients, no different from before.
How wonderfully, goddamnably different from me. Up until five years ago, I had never once complained — even when I was making do with meals that cost less than ten dollars. I had told myself it was fine, that I could endure it because I was a reincarnator.
That had been a foolish thought, and nothing more.
I closed my eyes for a moment at Lamia's question.
"Who knows. When, indeed? Once he enters Kangin Academy, I suppose."
Lamia — the final boss of the original novel — had already handed her power over to me and now lay coiled around my shoulders. The original story was as good as destroyed. Even so, one thing would not change: the relationships between the original protagonist and the heroines, so long as I did not interfere. The fate the world would have followed, had no one ever stepped in...
One way or another, Baek Seo-jin would still become entangled with the heroines — Seomun Ye-jin aside — just as he had in the original.
"Until then, I suppose I should plant a Trojan horse or two."
I turned over the plan in my mind — a plan to wait until the original protagonist was convinced he had reached the height of happiness, and then drag him and his entire family down to the very bottom. I found myself looking forward to the moment that picture-perfect family of three would be cast into hell.
"Aaaargh!"
"S-stoood! Aaaargh!"
Screams reached my ears. The screams of the villains who had once served under So Gang-seok. I had granted them the honor of becoming fresh experimental subjects themselves — the same people who had once held me down and performed every manner of human experiment on my body.
"Honestly... when is he coming back?"
Seomun Ye-jin bit her lip faintly as she waited for Baek Seo-jun, who had yet to return. He had left without so much as a word about when he would be back, and she had ended up finishing her meal alone.
"It's already been two days."
Two full days, and still no sign of him. He had said he was going to Somalia, of all places — which meant there was no chance of her going after him. She had never once imagined she could survive in Somalia on her own, not with her current abilities. Given his strength, she didn't believe he would have been hurt. Even so, knowing he had gone somewhere so dangerous, the worry came on its own.
"Miss."
"Kyaa?!"
A voice sounded suddenly from behind her, and Seomun Ye-jin let out a scream before she could stop herself. She was a mana awakener, and she hadn't sensed a single trace of anyone's presence. Of course she had been startled.
She clutched her racing chest and turned around. A boy with blue hair and eyes as red as blood stood there, smiling softly.
"I'm back, Miss."
"Ah, honestly! You scared me!"
"Sorry about that. I'll be more careful next time."
Seomun Ye-jin let out a small huff of laughter at his words. She looked him over from head to toe.
"You don't seem to be hurt. Did everything you set out to do go well?"
"It did."
Baek Seo-jun nodded, and Seomun Ye-jin thought he must have succeeded in taking his revenge on the villains. And perhaps...
"Did you find the evidence footage as well?"
"I did. They even recorded the scenes of me being tortured, nice and clear."
"Ah..."
He said it as though it were nothing. But Seomun Ye-jin had felt how deeply those facts enraged him, and she had no idea what words of comfort she was supposed to offer. She had never once tried to console a boy her own age.
"Could I... see it too? Ah—!"
She had been so busy worrying over how to comfort him that the words had slipped out wrong. She froze, afraid she might have hurt him — afraid he would think she wanted to treat his suffering like some kind of spectacle. Baek Seo-jun only smiled.
"You haven't done anything wrong, Miss. There's no need to walk on eggshells. It's not as though I have anything to hide. Showing it to you is no trouble at all."
"Alright..."
"Then do you have anything around that can play a video?"
"Ah — this should work."
Seomun Ye-jin pointed to the television in the house. It was a set capable of 3D holographic playback and even basic augmented reality; all they needed to do was connect the data drive. The drive itself was shaped something like the USB sticks of the old world, but there was no need to plug it in. Thanks to technology developed from the mana stones harvested from monsters, the drive simply sent a signal to the television, and the television recognized that signal and played whatever was stored inside.
And then...
"Ah... aah..."
Seomun Ye-jin covered her mouth with her hand. Her face had gone deathly pale, and her body trembled at the sheer horror of what the footage contained.