Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Powerless? Really, powerless?”
Powerless.
Powerless.
Powerless.
It started with one person's echo of disbelief, and the crowd packed around us began chirping the same phrase like a flock of parrots.
Shock was only natural. Our Andong Kim Clan was the pillar of what people commonly called the Sedao Clans—the ancient family of aura users that had held back the monster invasions during the Rift Catastrophe that swept the world.
No wonder they're freaking out. A powerless from a prestigious house like that?
Sure, you could have low-level talents popping up, but someone who couldn't inherit even a scrap of ability? That was on another level entirely.
The elders' gazes shifted by the second as they stared at me. Doubt when the test results first came in. Bewilderment once they were confirmed. And undisguised loathing after Father uttered those words about my "base blood."
“What a disaster. A powerless from our clan, of all places…”
“If word gets out, the family's reputation will hit the dirt. That Jo Hwi-seong will have a field day picking fights…”
“We had such high hopes since he's the young master of the family head, but this…”
Yeah. That was the look.
The second son of the Andong Kim Clan, boasting Joseon's supreme power. Despite inheriting that blessed bloodline, I was the family's shame—a wretch who hadn't awakened even a speck of ability. The mocking, contemptuous stares I'd endured my whole life as the household's punching bag.
The first time I felt them, it was like the sky was crashing down. But now? I couldn't care less what those parrots squawked.
Fuck...
Ever since the moment I confirmed I'd returned to the past, that single thought had consumed my mind.
Sure, someone else might celebrate a new life, but for me, it was just irritating as hell.
How did I come back? No—why?
Me, who'd lived like trash my whole life, regressing? A second chance? What the hell for?
“Young master Chang-un.”
I'd even left some parting words behind, gotten a bit of petty revenge on those bastards! I'd died clean—should've just ended there. Why the fuck did I wake up again?
I didn't deserve something like this…!
“Young master!”
My spiraling thoughts snapped as the voice of my bodyguard cut through. I blinked back to reality, and there was Father approaching with those ice-cold eyes.
“……”
“……….”
The murmurs died in an instant, the room turning frigid as a frozen wasteland. The silence was suffocating, like the air itself had iced over.
No real thoughts crossed my mind. Back then, I was too cowed by his presence to speak, and Father didn't bother saying a word to me either.
In that heavy quiet, all he offered was a look. A chilling gaze, like he was staring at something filthy.
A failure. A contaminant. Defective goods. Eyes reserved for worthless trash.
“Go back.”
With that curt command, he turned away. He'd made his judgment and severed any interest in me completely.
“Uh, s-sir… wait…!”
“Family head!”
The parrots, gauging his foul mood, scurried after him in a herd. Even the doctor, who'd been peeking nervously, bolted. How much time passed after that?
“…Kuh.”
A laugh burst from my lips. I was the only one left in the testing hall.
“Khahaha! Right, that's exactly how it went! Just like that! Khahahaha!”
It had been so long since I'd heard Father's voice. From that day—the powerless verdict—until my death, he never spoke a single word to me.
Facing his attitude back then had shattered me, like the heavens collapsing. My brother, the elders, and the father I'd idolized—those cold eyes terrified me.
I'd blamed myself for things that weren't my fault, done every insane thing imaginable to grasp what wasn't mine. All to earn their approval. To shed the stigma of "base blood."
But now? It was different.
“Why did those pieces of trash scare me so much when I was a kid?”
Born of base blood? The basest thing was you, Father, clinging to that filth.
The family's shame? The real shame was your rotten minds.
Ostrich chicks burying their heads in holes, ignoring the blade at their throats while lost in debauchery—that false sense of security!
They weren't the fearsome adults from my memories anymore. Just idiots obsessed with stuffing their own pockets.
It hit me how young and stupid I'd been back then.
“Coming back to my childhood has its perks, at least.”
I glanced down at my still-childish body. Barely shed of its baby fuzz, this fragile frame. I'd clawed and scraped from this tender age.
All to win approval from those worthless nobles—sadaeju, Sedao Clans, yangban—who'd vanish in one revolution.
“Never again.”
I clenched my fist. The moment I faced that wretched mug, the goal for this unwanted second life crystallized.
Survive.
Better to live on my own terms than die young and sprawled out. Live defiantly, then laugh as those idiots shattered in the coming revolution.
And with that resolve, my frozen mind kicked into gear.
Alright. So how do I survive?
For three hundred years, Father and his ilk had parasitized Joseon's rotting tree trunk. But soon, those parasites would burn in the flames of revolution.
Stick around this bug nest, and I'd end up just another bug. Like last life—torched alongside them.
So what now? Use future knowledge to stop the revolution?
Impossible.
I'd seen how this country flipped, and I'd doggedly fought that revolution. I knew best. Block one side, another popped up. Snuff one spark, hundreds bloomed from the ashes.
Killing a few leaders? Not even close. Massacres, kidnappings, division, bribes, coaxing—we Sedao Clans threw everything at them, but the blaze roared on.
And why the hell would I stop the revolution?
Second reason. Most important. Who the fuck for? Those trash bastards? The ones who'd treated me like a dog after a lifetime of slaving?
My thoughts didn't drag, but the conclusion was crystal clear. No power to stop it, no reason to.
Might as well live properly this time, like I'd lamented on my deathbed. Whether this was a real second life or a dying dream didn't matter.
“I need to join the revolution.”
Revolution's ideals? Building a new nation? Zero interest.
I just wanted to live. Not as their dog. As human Kim Chang-un.
“The family seems to take it seriously, but there are countless people in the world without innate abilities.”
On the way out of the testing building, lost in thought in the descending elevator, my bodyguard Tae-woong spoke up softly.
“I can't presume to understand as a mere warrior… but don't let it get to you.”
“……”
“Young master still has plenty of chances ahead.”
I'd been silent the whole time, unlike my usual bratty self, and it must've tugged at him.
Chances, huh. Come to think of it, he'd said something similar in my last life.
Let's see… what did kid-me snap back with?
'Of course it's different! I'm yangban, you're not!'
'You think I'm the same as you lowborn scum?!'
'Who the hell are you to mouth off? I'll tell Father to fire your ass…!'
Yeah, stop there. Fifteen-year-old punk memories. Cringe enough to die again.
“That's what I'm thinking about right now.”
But grinning and chatting warmly in this dire powerless verdict? That'd make me look insane. So instead of yelling, I kept staring out the window and spoke.
“What a powerless like me can do. How to survive.”
“Young master…”
In my previous life, I'd done every dirty job for Sedao approval. Secret agents from the Royal Guard, elite suppression squads. Experts from every field, foreign mercenaries. Top gear, top training—I wielded them like limbs.
But that power was mine yet not mine. Hired with Father's money or borrowed on the Andong Kim name. No one truly mine among those at my side.
The one closest to truly mine… probably this guy.
I eyed Tae-woong, seated solidly across from me. My long-time bodyguard, steadfast even guarding a fool like me without complaint. He was the only real "mine" I had right now.
But even that might change if I dove into revolution…
Already a mountain of work.
To join the revolution, I needed power beyond the nobles' reach. Forces untouched by their influence. Loyalists who followed only me. A group built from them, and the funds to sustain it.
Just thinking about building from scratch gave me a headache…
But not impossible.
Me, Kim Chang-un. At fifteen, I became the Sedao Clans' dog for over a decade. I'd snuffed revolutionary sparks threatening them, done every filthy deed to prop up their rule.
All that experience, all that evil—it was preserved intact in this young body.
And right now, what I needed first…
“Tae-woong.”
“Yes, young master.”
Decision made, I looked at my bodyguard.
“Post one hiring notice.”
“A hiring notice? Suddenly, what for…?”
“Oh, no real reason.”
My people. My forces. My weapons.
First: my people.
“Just hiring a new bodyguard.”
Not Father's. Not the clan's.
Someone who could be loyal only to me.