Regression
The faint fragrance of white chrysanthemums drifted through the air, mingling and lingering at the tip of my nose.
Among the crowd, some could only sigh; others wiped at wet eyes. I too stood motionless, staring at the memorial portrait without a word.
……
Beneath the photograph, the nameplate bore the characters clearly etched: The Late Lee Sihyun.
I had been standing there in a daze for nearly three minutes when two sets of footsteps carefully halted behind me.
"Is that… Dam?"
I turned slowly. A middle-aged woman and man, both haggard, looked back at me. Their eyes were bloodshot from nights without sleep, their shoulders slumped as if they had aged decades in a single stroke.
"Yes… that’s me."
"You’ve grown so much…"
The couple were the parents of the girl in the portrait behind me—Lee Sihyun.
"Thank you… for coming like this. You have no idea how grateful we are."
"Sihyun would have been so happy to know you came."
A brief silence fell. Then her mother studied my face with quiet concern.
"You haven’t eaten anything yet, have you?"
I answered only by bowing my head.
"Don’t be like that… Come inside and at least have a bowl of yukgaejang before you go."
"I’m fine."
"Sihyun wouldn’t have wanted you to leave hungry."
I glanced once more at the portrait, then quietly nodded.
"…All right."
In the end I walked toward the dining hall. I sat at an empty table, and before long a steaming bowl of yukgaejang was set in front of me. A savory aroma rose from the red broth, yet somehow I felt no appetite at all. I lifted a spoonful to my mouth, but I couldn’t even taste it. Only the heat of the soup slid down my throat.
I set the spoon down and stared blankly into the broth.
…How did it end up like this?
I am not originally from this world.
Living as the Sword Saint—that was the title of the novel that described this other world. In the story, often abbreviated as Geomsal, there was a main heroine, as in countless harem fantasies, and alongside her a sub-heroine. And the term “sub-heroine” was simply another name for Lee Sihyun.
As a reader back then, I had been firmly on her side. Yet because she was only the sub-heroine, she was never chosen by the original protagonist.
……
Yes. If I had simply called it trash and dropped it cleanly at that point, none of this would have happened. But people are foolish creatures, aren’t they? I couldn’t help picking the novel back up again, clinging to the stupid possibility of a “what if.”
The problem was the next chapter’s story.
In the following battle, Sihyun took a fatal wound in the protagonist’s place, hoping to win his heart, and finally died in his arms. Even though she had sacrificed herself to save him, her death was dismissed in a few short lines.
Lee Sihyun closed her eyes with a smile.
I was speechless. The next episode didn’t even spare a single scene remembering her. The protagonist gained new power and strode toward the future with the remaining heroines.
"…That’s it?"
I clutched my phone for a long time, unable to speak. It was empty. That this was how Lee Sihyun’s story ended left me hollow. That she had been sacrificed purely for the protagonist’s growth filled me with rage.
And so I did something I never should have done.
Hello, Author. I’ve been a reader of Living as the Sword Saint since the very first chapter.
No matter how I look at it, I cannot accept the way Lee Sihyun’s story ended. She sacrificed more than anyone. Is it really right to close her tale with only a few lines of narration?
At the very least, there should have been a single scene remembering her.
Unable to contain my feelings, I hunted down the author’s email address and sent a long message. A few minutes after I hit send—
Ding~
A short notification chimed from the monitor.
Hmm… I fully understand what displeased you, dear reader. However, this is her fate. It is not something that can be changed so lightly.
I hope that answers your concerns?
…Ha. What is this?
I let out a hollow laugh and typed another reply.
If it were me, I wouldn’t have left it like that.
A few seconds after I sent it—
Ding~
You’re an interesting one.
Then I’ll give you a chance.
I look forward to seeing whether you can change her fate.
That was my final memory before I arrived in this world.
……
When I opened my eyes, the situation I found myself in was far better than expected. No—calling it the best possible would not have been an exaggeration. At only five years old, my childhood friend was already Lee Sihyun. That said everything.
Time passed. I took up the sword; Sihyun learned magic. There was no special reason. I simply had no talent for mana, while she was destined to become an exceptional mage. We walked different paths, yet the time we spent together never changed.
Elementary school. Middle school. High school. We were always together. And somewhere along the way a small feeling began to bloom…
Maybe… just maybe Sihyun and I could end up together?
Holding that quiet hope, we enrolled in South Korea’s world-class hunter training academy—Frontier.
The first semester at Frontier flew by. I trained more deeply in swordsmanship; Sihyun refined her magic step by step. She was always at the center of everything. Teachers poured their expectations onto her; students looked up to her. It was only natural. Even in the original novel, Lee Sihyun had been one of the most gifted geniuses.
I, on the other hand, improved my swordsmanship day by day, yet remained nothing more than an ordinary student. Still, that was fine. My only goal was to keep her from meeting that future tragedy.
In the original, the sole reason she risked her life was to win the heart of the person she loved. If I could become the most precious person to her, there would be no room for the original protagonist to enter her heart. If I could manage that, I believed I could both win her love and stop her tragedy.
And then, the day before summer vacation, I confessed.
"Sihyun."
"…Yeah?"
"I like you."
Silence settled for a moment. Then she quietly opened her mouth.
"I’m sorry."
Just those two words. Still clinging to a sliver of hope, I asked. Please let it not be true. Please let it be impossible.
"…Is there… someone you like?"
Sihyun was silent for a beat, then gave a tiny nod.
"…Yeah."
My mind went blank. I didn’t ask who. No—I already knew without asking. The face of the original protagonist flashed through my head. The story was already flowing in the direction I remembered.
……
Summer vacation felt longer than expected. Contact with Sihyun dropped off noticeably, and I couldn’t find the courage to message her first either. When vacation ended, the second semester at Frontier began.
From the second semester onward, students made their final choice of specialized track: Swordsmanship, Magic, Archery, or Alchemy. Once chosen, a track could not be changed without special reason.
In the original, Sihyun naturally selected the Magic Department. The original protagonist chose Swordsmanship. I stared down at the selection form for a long time.
This was the chance. If I stayed in Swordsmanship, the times I would meet Sihyun would shrink dramatically. And that would apply to me as well… The main story hadn’t even begun yet.
There was still time. If I could just stay by her side a little longer. If I could just show her a little more of myself. Things might change. And if they did, the original tragedy could still be prevented. Back then, that was what I believed.
"…I’ll choose the Magic Department."
I think my homeroom teacher’s expression hardened.
"Seol Dam."
"You’re really going to give up Swordsmanship and go into Magic?"
His voice held more than simple confirmation—it held doubt.
"You were originally on the swordsmanship track. Your grades weren’t bad."
A short silence. Then he looked down at the form again.
"Is there a reason you’re suddenly changing direction?"
"…Personal reasons."
It was an unavoidable choice if I wanted to stand beside her and turn her heart around again. The teacher let out a short sigh.
"At Frontier, ‘personal reasons’ are the most dangerous kind of choice."
He looked at me for a moment, then finally nodded.
"Don’t regret it."
"…Yes, sir."
What followed was obvious. With zero talent for magic, I eventually racked up failing grades, and talk of expulsion even began circulating. As for whether my relationship with Sihyun progressed—that didn’t happen either. If anything, she was drifting further away. The more I approached, the thicker the burden and wariness in her eyes became.
Even so, I didn’t stop. I had one single conviction: I knew the original story. That fact alone, I believed, would let me change everything. If I knew how events would unfold, I could intervene early and rewrite the results however I wanted.
So from the second year onward I threw myself actively into the main story’s developments—especially anything involving Sihyun.
But reality was different. I could tweak the process in tiny ways, yet the outcome never changed. Strangely, I always felt like I was floating on the outside, as if the people allowed to influence these events had been decided from the start.
In the end I was back at square one. There was nothing I could change. The more I intervened, the more precisely the world seemed to flow along its predetermined path. That fact drove me mad.
Meanwhile my relationship with Sihyun kept fracturing, and expulsion notices from Frontier kept piling up. From that point on I think I had half given up. Still, I kept doing whatever I could—honing my magic with more precision, trying to close the distance with Sihyun.
……
By the time I graduated third year, nothing had changed.
……
My unfocused vision sharpened again. The yukgaejang in front of me had long since gone cold.
After that everything followed the original until the S-rank monster subjugation of the Black Dragon Akrasion, where Lee Sihyun died to its final blow.
There was nothing I could do. Even knowing, I could change nothing. A week before the Black Dragon subjugation began, I went to the headquarters where Sihyun was stationed, clutching at straws.
"Please don’t take part in the Black Dragon subjugation that starts in a week."
"Seol Dam… I told you if you came looking for me one more time I wouldn’t hold back, didn’t I?"
"W-wait…! This isn’t something you can just brush off…!"
"More nonsense. Excuse me—please escort this person out. Put him on the blacklist."
Suddenly a single sentence flashed through my mind.
This is her fate. It is not something that can be changed so lightly.
……
Ding~
A short notification chimed from my phone. The sender was restricted. The message read—
Have you claimed the ending you wanted?
"…No way."
The original novel’s content ended here, so I had no way to predict the future.
But regardless of that, you cannot refuse returning to the past.
I mean it’s compulsory.
"What… did you say?"
Still, this time a different fate might unfold.
With those final words, my vision went black.