The Distorted Land
“It should be somewhere around here….”
The Hidden Piece he'd told me about was definitely supposed to be in this area. But no matter how thoroughly I searched, I couldn't find so much as a trace of it.
It's not showing up even at this level?
Baek Hyuk had said I'd know it the moment I arrived. Yet even standing at the exact coordinates he'd given me, there was nothing that looked like it could hold a Hidden Piece. If anything, the place was too empty.
There's no way the area near Mount Baekdu could be this quiet….
Where I stood now was Mount Baekdu, the border region between our kingdom and China. It was one of the places where a gate had first opened, and from what I'd heard, a Break had torn through it, turning the land into a breeding ground crawling with monsters.
The kingdom designated it for monster suppression, but this is still terrain where monsters keep spawning….
Something about it felt artificial. I could sense it—too artificial, like a scent that didn't belong. Forget the monsters, I can't even pick up the presence of animals. Even if the monsters had been cleared out, there being no wildlife at all made no sense.
It's not a mental attack.
When the kingdom was proclaimed, every citizen had been granted complete resistance to mental interference as part of its effects. Then that leaves… spatial distortion. If someone had warped space itself, scrambling the information I was receiving, everything would make sense.
“If this is a space someone's twisted, then I just need to twist it harder.”
I immediately set my footwork into motion. The Nameless Footwork—this step, Jipyeong, the Leveling Earth. The instant my foot landed, the surrounding space began to tremble violently. If the distortion was bending space out of shape, then my footwork was straining to bend it back.
Two opposing forces colliding—the result is an even greater distortion.
I waited, and under the shock of the two clashing powers, space itself began to warp. When the twist had widened just enough for a person to pass through, I stepped out.
“That was easy.”
The moment I emerged, presences began registering on my senses. Not just one or two of them—nearly a thousand.
What the hell….
I'd never imagined presences numbering in the hundreds would be hiding in mountains like these. And worse, they all looked terribly precarious—frail, like flickering candle flames.
“Whatever this is, I'll have to meet them first.”
I hurried toward where the presences gathered.
“Gluttony, my lord.”
“What is it.”
At his subordinate's report, Gluttony answered while tearing into his meat with gluttonous abandon. His bulk, larger than a compact car, filled the surrounding space to its edges.
“It appears the thing you desire will be in your hands soon.”
“Don't tell me—you've found her?!”
“Yes.”
Gluttony was so startled the meat slipped from his hand.
“You've truly found her?”
“Yes, my lord. Ninety-nine percent certain.”
Gluttony had gained status and power, but luck with women had never been his. Perhaps because of his grotesque appearance, women recoiled from his approach, and none had been willing to become demon-kind at his side. What he remembered was the woman who, back before he became a demon—when he was still ugly and wretched—had stayed beside him and helped him anyway. Ever since, he had ordered his subordinates to search for her, but every attempt had come up empty.
“Where?! Where is she?!”
“She was reportedly sighted near Mount Baekdu.”
“Mount Baekdu, you say?”
Mount Baekdu had recently been shrouded by some strange barrier, cutting off all passage to anyone.
“Why would she be there?”
“Our investigation shows that a demon of the Greed lineage has occupied the area for about a year now.”
“Greed, you say?”
“Yes, my lord.”
The Seven Great Demons respected one another's territories. Envy held Korea and North Korea, Lust held Japan, Greed the United States, and Gluttony China as their respective strongholds. The remaining three demons, each sunk deep in their own obsessions, had no particular nation to call home. Every one of them strictly forbade trespass into another's domain. And yet a demon of Greed's lineage had broken that rule—the worst possible way.
“Chen.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Send our elite to the United States. Handpick a few of them and kill that lunatic.”
“I—I accept your command.”
With that, the subordinate called Chen left the room.
Greed… you dare lay a hand on what is mine? I'll show you what burning feels like.
So Gluttony thought to himself as he tore into his meat.
“What in the world….”
What I had discovered wasn't merely a crowd of people. They were living together in something like a village—though for its size, the facilities were in poor shape.
Let me approach for now.
Thinking I'd need to speak with whoever was in charge, I moved toward the village. And the villagers, the moment they laid eyes on me—
“It's a monster!”
“Awakeners have come!”
“Somebody help us!”
Panic exploded through them. Some tripped and scrambled back into their homes; one man fell flat on the ground and wet himself in terror.
“What is this situation?”
I stood there, bewildered, until several people walked out from the heart of the village. Unlike the others, they were armed, so it wasn't hard to guess they were the leadership.
“Are you the leaders of this village?”
“….”
They didn't answer. Instead, they seemed to be sizing me up, studying me carefully. After I waited a short while, a woman who appeared to be their representative stepped forward and asked:
“Did you come from China?”
“China?”
Fear and tension coiled through the woman's voice as she questioned me—like someone haunted by trauma.
“No. I came from the Roa Kingdom.”
“The Roa Kingdom?”
“Yes. The kingdom that was just founded.”
At my words, the woman and the other leaders went wide-eyed. The emergence of a nation calling itself a kingdom must have come as a shock to them.
“And just so you know—I was born in Korea.”
“Korea!”
At the word Korean, they practically leapt for joy. Watching them, I felt a jolt of cognitive dissonance.
Why are they this overjoyed just because I'm Korean?
People living in the twenty-first century reacting this way—it made no sense to me. Noticing my expression, the woman gave me an embarrassed smile.
“Would you come inside for now? We can explain everything properly.”
“I'd appreciate that.”
And so, guided by her, I entered the village. Inside, conditions looked at least five times worse than they had from outside.
Facilities like these—you'd only see them back in the Joseon era….
I was still thinking that when my guides led me into the largest building in the village. Largest being a relative term—it was a tiled-roof house that a Joseon-era nobleman might have used.
“So? What's the story with this village? No matter how I look at it, the facilities are far too primitive.”
“There's not much we can say about that… we're simply making do with what was already here.”
“Using what was already here.”
Which meant this really was a village from the Joseon era. But I couldn't quite understand why they were choosing to stay somewhere like this. Perhaps sensing my gaze, the eldest-looking man seated beside the woman spoke up.
“We are Joseonjok, you see—ethnic Koreans living in China.”
“Joseonjok?”
“Yes. Ever since Korea was recognized as a nation of powerful awakeners, the treatment of our people has grown crueler by the day.”
My jaw clenched at those words. A country as proud and self-conscious as China could never accept being left behind by us. So they took their resentment out on the Joseonjok. Because Korea was an awakener powerhouse, China couldn't lash out at us directly—so they'd vented it on people who shared our blood instead.
“We managed to endure for a while, but one day that man showed up, and everything changed.”
“That man?”
“He called himself a servant of Greed. He plundered our food, killed our people, violated our women. We had no choice but to flee to this place.”
My teeth ground together again at the old man's words. A servant of Greed—the only beings who could claim such a title were demons of the Greed lineage. In other words, Greed was involved in this, whether directly or not.
What is he after, that he'd trespass into Gluttony's territory for it?!
While I seethed inwardly, the woman who'd acted as their representative earlier approached and took hold of my arm.
“We're grateful that you're angry on our behalf, but could you perhaps rein in your strength?”
Her words brought me back to my senses. My emotions had flared, and mana was leaking out of me, pressing down on everything around us.
“I apologize. I lost myself for a moment….”
“Please, don't be. It only means you empathized with our situation that deeply.”
Watching her speak so calmly, I felt oddly ashamed of my outburst.
“Ah—I'm late in introducing myself. I am Han Jin, King of the Roa Kingdom.”
“The king?”
“An actual king?”
At my introduction, the representatives began to murmur. They clearly hadn't expected a king to come in person. But there were exceptions.
“Ho ho, I thought you were no ordinary young man, but I never dreamed you were a king.”
“Indeed. Though judging by that energy just now, I never once thought Han Jin might be lying.”
It was the elderly man who had explained the situation to me, and the woman who had just calmed me down.
“I am Song Baek-hwa, the leader of this group. Your Majesty.”
“And I am Song Cheong, grandfather to the child here.”
With those words, the two of them bowed their heads to me in greeting. Then they finally came to the heart of the matter.
“If it would please you, Your Majesty—might we be received into your kingdom?”
A request to join the kingdom. At that request, I closed my eyes and began to weigh it.
Is expanding the kingdom's population the right call?
Even with the kingdom stabilized, it had only taken its first steps. I couldn't grow its numbers recklessly. But it's also true that these people's living grounds sit inside our territory. In a sense, they were already my people. Having already accepted everyone within North Korea, I couldn't very well pretend not to see them.
“I'll accept your joining—but you'll need to relocate to a new living area. Is that possible?”
“If you provide us a place to live, it's we who should be thanking you.”
Song Baek-hwa answered with a smile. And at that smile, I paused for a moment—because there wasn't a trace of hesitation in her words or manner.
“You have no attachment to your homeland?”
“Attachment… none at all.”
“Your Majesty, the Chinese government threatened my daughter and me so relentlessly that neither of us has any lingering feelings for that land.”
No attachment showed in the old man's voice either. Something about it stirred an unfamiliar emotion in me—because I was someone who had longed for a past lost before my regression.
But setting that aside—the government moved?
The Chinese government. It was no exaggeration to call it a puppet government at this point. If the Chinese government acted, that means Gluttony moved. A strong, sinking feeling told me I'd just been caught up in something far bigger than a missing Hidden Piece.