The Witch's Scout
It had been a full year since Lee Dam fell into this world.
He had shouted his status window, tried to roll for skills, and searched for knight classes. He had dug through memories of every game, anime, and novel he once played or read. He had even looked for a hero, a regressor, a returner, and a reincarnator.
In the end, all of it had been a waste of time.
This place was not a world created for some special person, nor was it a medium for turning pages and crafting stories. It was simply reality.
Lee Dam had realized that truth only after a year. And now he chose to lock himself away in his room.
The passionate dream of building super-transforming robots had long since faded.
What could he even build in a world where everything revolved around riding horses?
The world was cruel.
The small village Lee Dam chose for his home was Windmill Village.
It was called a windmill, but in truth it was no more than a rudimentary waterwheel. When the wind blew, it turned. When it didn’t, it didn’t. It had no purpose beyond that.
There were plenty of things like that here.
Nothing-frills things that looked useless but were still there.
The tiny stage-like courtroom in the village center was one example, and the execution rock, hewn smooth, was another.
That was why Lee Dam liked it here.
Because his beloved hobby—actually nothing but a collection of useless frills—was perfectly at home here.
Knock knock knock!
A knock came from outside the door.
Last time the door had been smashed open and he had spent days patching it up; he was sure this one would break too.
“Knock properly.”
Lee Dam opened the door, and the neighborhood brats poured in like a flood.
“Wow! I’m the first one!”
“Pervert mom! What did you make today?!”
“I brought wood! Show us right now!”
When the boys arrived, a couple of girls stood forlornly in front of the house.
“Are you two not coming?”
It was merely polite, but the girls screamed and ran away.
“Witch! Witch!”
“A witch who seduces the boys!”
“tsk.”
The familiar reaction.
Lee Dam closed the door and stepped inside.
The boys were already sprawled across the long table, eyes wide in admiration at the handsome plastic models displayed there.
“What else could they be?”
Every single one of them was a model Lee Dam had built, using designs from anime he remembered from his previous life.
“Wow, this one is so cool. Especially this! The backpack on the back is amazing!”
“It’s not a backpack; it’s an auxiliary weapon. The jet one is the best. I have eyes for that kind of thing, right, brats?”
“This! I want this! Double cannon on both shoulders! Puff puff puff!”
“Double cannon. An absolutely splendid model. Heavy, solid, with a robust presence. It looks too streamlined, but that’s exactly what makes it cool. You know your stuff.”
Lee Dam’s unshakeable belief, sharpened even more by his arrival in this world:
‘Every man hides a robot in his heart.’
Whether boy or man, no one could live without robots.
This truth crossed eras, crossed worlds, crossed dimensions.
He had once read something like it somewhere.
Male infants instinctively reached for robot toys; female infants played with dolls.
So what was the point?
The desire to love transforming robots was the most loyal instinct stamped into the DNA of the entire human race from birth.
‘I’m not at fault.’
Lee Dam was certain of it.
His obsession with robots had nothing to do with him.
The world had simply created him this way.
Humans had evolved into males like this, so what was he supposed to do about it?
‘Of course, I’m a woman now.’
When he arrived in this world, the lower half of his body vanished and his chest burst outward, but the passion burning inside him for robots never faded.
If anything, seeing himself so actively obsessed with robots despite becoming a woman made him wonder whether women also secretly desired robots in their own bodies.
He was simply too embarrassed to admit it.
“Well, this is what I built this time.”
The thing Lee Dam held out was palm-sized plastic models.
They looked nothing like the usual ones—only one horn and a single eye.
“Oh!”
Gasps erupted.
The material was scraps of wood the kids had scavenged and iron scraps he had melted down. He had decent handiwork, but more importantly, he possessed a rare magical talent.
With mana he could craft delicate, intricate pieces, so his models were of a quality good enough to sell on the market.
According to plastic-model grades, they ranked RG—Revolutionary Extra Advanced Level Grade.
Basically, precision and realism pursued to the extreme.
“But it looks a bit weak.”
“It’s cool. I prefer this one.”
“How does Lee Dam keep making things like this? He’s a genius.”
“Super cool. This is for the henchmen. They get beaten all the time, but they can’t be thrown away.”
“Paint them in the color that looks the strongest! Like red!”
One of the boys suggested it, and Lee Dam shook his head.
“Red is special. Only the fastest machines can wear it.”
He would paint them red later, after making them even more detailed and flashy.
Either way, despite falling to another world and becoming a woman, Lee Dam was having the time of his life.
---
“Shit.”
Correction.
He had thought the Windmill Village people were only pretending to care, but today he learned the truth.
“Witch! It’s a witch!”
“Burn her! Burn her alive!”
“Cut off her head!”
He never imagined he would end up on the very courtroom used for the village children’s talent show.
He never imagined he would be the first head placed on the execution rock hewn for this very purpose.
“A witch who seduces men!”
“She’s clearly trying to lure children alive and eat them!”
“That brat seduced my husband! With those ridiculously huge breasts!”
“You’re the crazy one, old hag! Do you even know what happens when outsiders come out naked every dawn beating the streets?!”
Even if he ignored everything else, the accusation of seducing men was something Lee Dam could not swallow.
Physically or mentally.
Lee Dam was undeniably a beautiful woman, but his mind was that of a burly man obsessed with robots.
After accidentally stumbling upon a doujinshi where robots fucked each other’s asses, he decided homosexuality was an idea he could never accept.
“N-no, don’t say nonsense! A witch like you!”
“What? I saw something as small as a peanut swinging around and thought it was a shrimp! You must be so hard-up for food that you eat it raw? How the hell do you even give birth like that?!”
“You crazy bitch!”
The husband beside the auntie hurried away with his head bowed.
Lee Dam had won.
Smiling to himself, the village chief coughed and glared at him.
“You’ve been seducing the local boys. As chief, I cannot overlook this. I will therefore sentence you to death.”
And then the village’s most famous chicken farmer, who raised more chickens than anyone, entered holding an axe.
“No, it’s a trial! What the hell kind of trial is this?! Lawyer! Get a lawyer!”
“Lawyer—? Whatever you’re demanding, it’s obviously a magic spell. Gagged!”
“You’re so barbaric!”
Witch trial.
The sentence of death had already been handed down; a retrial was pointless.
If he had known this, he would have learned fire magic instead of building plastic models.
Sighing deeply with regret, Lee Dam knelt before the rock.
He saw the boys watching him.
They were crying but could say nothing; their cheeks were swollen and bruises rose, evidence that they had been beaten for trying to protect him.
To them Lee Dam offered a grin.
“If I die, take one of the things you want from me, little ones.”
Tears streamed down their faces.
Their parents hurriedly dragged them away from the execution ground.
The village folk gathered around the rough rock.
From babies still at their mothers’ breasts to grandmothers who claimed their backs ached and stayed home, everyone came to watch.
‘In a village where boredom kills, this is the best entertainment.’
He had heard that long ago families gathered for executions like a comedy show.
An event everyone could enjoy regardless of age.
“Bring all the witch’s tools!”
The chief instructed with the air of someone who had suddenly become a great person.
Moments later, burly village men smashed open Lee Dam’s house and hurled his plastic models to the floor.
“How did you make something so crude?! Hey! That bastard stole my underwear, damn it!”
One man’s pocket had his own pair of panties sticking out; Lee Dam shouted, but no one paid it any mind.
Primitive bastards.
Thinking of them sniffing, biting, and licking his underwear made his blood boil, but bound hands left him helpless.
“From this moment, the witch’s execution will begin!”
If only he had bribed the neighbors.
Lee Dam, who had only ever experienced the cold indifference of South Korean neighbors, felt nothing but sorrow.
“Do you have a final request?”
“The universe is great, and the void is even greater. Everything is wonderful.”
“I don’t understand a word, but you’re dying anyway!”
He had already died once before.
“If there’s another life, please let me be born in the universe. Please please please please! I want an SF-fantasy world where robots are commercialized and star travel is possible!”
“If it’s a life gacha, please please please!”
Just as the execution was about to begin—
“Hee hee!”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Open the way!”
“Bow down! D-don’t look at me!”
The villagers watching the fountain show of blood from severed neck and body split to the sides and prostrated themselves.
A path of wind opened, fluttering Lee Dam’s hair.
Standing there was a woman in a robe.
At first glance she looked like a child, but the aura and mana radiating from her told of decades.
The tower emblem embroidered on her robe held the strength of a village chief—enough to crush a soccer ball.
“Ahhh! It’s a magician!”
The courtroom, which had been alpha and omega just moments ago, did not flinch.
The woman in the robe approached Lee Dam.
She picked up one of the discarded plastic models from the floor and asked.
“Did you make this?”
“Well, yes, I did.”
“Really?”
“It’s under strict copyright.”
“Hm?”
The woman furrowed her brows as if confused, then continued staring at the model with her black eyes.
“Fascinating.”
“Excuse me?”
“Fascinating. Original. Could you tell me what this is you’re holding?”
“It’s a beam saber. A high-heat weapon capable of cutting through anything.”
“A sword made of high heat? Ho. Then what about this?”
“A cannon. It fires high-heat energy.”
“A ranged weapon for a knight’s armor?”
‘Hmm?’
Lee Dam briefly thought he had misheard.
Knight’s armor?
But he understood instantly.
‘This human sees all of it as armor.’
It was true; it did look like armor.
A revolutionary kind of armor.
While Lee Dam grasped the idea, the magician nodded vigorously as if she too had understood.
“Ah! I see! Knights can’t carry bullets! Even with difficulty, the spell turns bullets into mana! No need to keep the shape, right? Brilliant! It may look excessive, but that’s exactly why it’s original!”
More than anything, his chest was pressed painfully against the rock.
As he writhed,—
Crunch!
A mana blade severed the ropes binding his wrist.
A small, white hand appeared before his eyes.
“The Master of the Iron Magic Tower, Beldora Millennium, invites you to the tower.”
Screams erupted from every direction.
He knew the woman was a magic tower mage, but a tower master?
A single gesture could snap a person’s neck like a twig.
Lee Dam’s mind raced; he had to decide how to survive.
“Join me, and let’s turn your creations into reality.”
“With all my loyalty!”
His answer came faster than his thoughts.
The moment she became a magic tower mage.