Chapter 1: Getting Cast as Easily as Breathing (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1: Getting Cast as Easily as Breathing (1)
I have lived through many past lives.
The Stone Age, the Bronze Age, Ancient Rome, the era of Vikings and Crusaders, the Hundred Years' War in Europe, the Imjin War...
I was never anyone of high status.
I was always a disposable pawn, handed a crude thrusting spear and ordered to charge first into the fray, only to be cut down.
That was my existence.
However, thanks to those experiences, I was able to bring my final war to a spectacular conclusion.
During a deck battle on a Panokseon during the Imjin War, I managed to take three Japanese pirates with me to the afterlife in hand-to-hand combat.
Having experienced every kind of death imaginable, I was able to pull off such a feat even while my intestines were spilling out from a mortal wound.
And I wasn't even an elite sailor; I was just a lowly Panokseon rower.
I didn't care how that battle ended, but I did find myself worried until the very end about the future of the young boy soldier who had been rowing so hard behind me.
After that, I was reincarnated into a peaceful era for the first time.
I still had to serve in the military as a mandatory requirement, but a military that didn't go to the battlefield!
It was a first in my infinite cycle of lives.
I safely completed my service, and finally, it was the day before my final discharge leave.
"What? You want me to go to the firing range? Sir, I start my final leave tomorrow."
"All the corporals and sergeants with seniority are out on leave, so we're short-staffed. See things through to a successful conclusion."
My bad feeling turned out to be right.
A talkative private suddenly went on a shooting spree at the range, and I died just before my discharge, my stomach shredded to rags.
As if in compensation, my next reincarnation took place the very next year after my death.
"Our daughter is so beautiful. She doesn't look like us at all, does she?"
"Honey, do you think she was swapped at the hospital? There's no way our daughter could be this pretty."
It was an experience I hadn't had in any of my many past lives.
For the first time, I was born a woman.
*
"Sis! Mom says it's time to eat! What's up? Period cramps again?"
"You're dead... Get out..."
I couldn't even find the strength to tell him not to call me "Sis." It felt like my abdomen was being torn apart.
It was a excruciating pain, one that reminded me of the time I had to push my own intestines back into my split-open belly.
Maybe it's because I died with my guts spilling out in my last life, but this felt like the literal pain of severed intestines.
"Ooh, are you in an 'Guard-Down' state? Then let's take a look at the glorious face of the supreme ruler of the Lee family—gaack!"
"Put that phone away right now!"
The moment my brother held up his phone, I hurled a pillow at him.
That crazy bastard makes a business out of taking photos of his sister to show off to his friends.
Once this gut-ache is over, you're dead.
The first time I caught him selling my photos, I beat him within an inch of his life to drill the lesson in.
I wouldn't have known if I hadn't thoroughly interrogated him about the source of the money he used to suddenly buy a high-end gaming desktop.
「I did it to build a gaming PC for you, Sis! I only charged them a viewing fee; I didn't actually send the files!」
There were mitigating circumstances, and since they were just everyday photos, I let it slide after beating him until he was just short of breath.
Since then, he was sentenced to the punishment of having to put glowing stickers over his phone camera whenever he was at home.
A punishment I handed down, of course.
If he didn't look exactly like that little rower boy, I would have struck him from the family registry by now.
Whenever his face overlaps with the memory of that boy crying because he didn't want to die, I find myself getting soft-hearted.
"Sis, I'm telling you, you should be an influencer. They say once you start being an influencer, your period cramps disappear. It's a proven fact recorded in the Goguryeo Subakdo."
"You son of a bitch! Shut up and get out!"
When he spouts nonsense like that, I just want to beat him until he cries and begs for death.
"Or do you want to stream? Not a 'cam-girl' setup, how about game streaming? I'll be your manager. We'll split the profits 9 to 1! You get the 9, obviously!"
"Get out! I said get out!"
"Fine, fine! 9.5 to 0.5...!"
Even though I'm in a woman's body, I'm stronger.
So usually, he can't even breathe right in front of me, but whenever I'm incapacitated by this gut-ache, he gets cocky and pours out everything he wants to say.
Seriously, if he didn't look like that kid, I would've beaten him to death already.
His face is so identical that I sometimes wonder if he really is a reincarnation.
But his personality is the complete opposite, which makes me certain it's just a coincidence, not reincarnation.
It's just that I feel a bit uneasy sometimes.
"Don't you feel bad for the high-tech, state-of-the-art PC I built for your streaming? How long are you going to let it sit idle?"
"Lee Yu-seok! Stop bothering your sister and get out here right now! Why did you take the sticker off your phone? I told you to keep it on in the house! Are you trying to brag about your sister's photos to your friends again?"
"Agh! Mom, stop hitting me! That hurts!"
"Go eat your dinner, now."
My brother was chased out after getting a satisfying back-smack from Mom.
Mom approached my bedside with my brother's confiscated phone and stroked my forehead with a pitying expression.
"Oh, my poor daughter. You're so fragile, what are we going to do?"
It was the face of an ordinary mother, the kind you see anywhere on the street.
She looked exactly like the woman in the family portrait hanging on my wall.
Of course, I wasn't the one who hung it; Mom did.
"Should I bring your food to your room? Can you eat?"
"No... I'll eat... later."
I felt like I could breathe again now that my brother was gone.
Mom stared intently at my face and started giggling.
"Who do you take after? I mean, which gene worked so hard to produce such a beautiful daughter?"
"...Your genes, Mom."
I don't look like her at all, but she loves it when I say that.
In the family photo, I'm the only one who looks out of place.
I don't mean the pose or the composition; I mean my appearance.
I don't look like Mom or Dad at all.
I look so completely different that no one believes I'm their daughter.
Everyone in my family looks average except for me.
Since I was a child, I grew up receiving a tiring amount of casting offers, asking if I wanted to debut as a child actor.
Back in kindergarten, even when I tried to spend time alone quietly, kids would constantly swarm around me, which was annoying.
On the first day of elementary school, I received a public confession from a boy in my class.
"Our daughter, you need to get your roots touched up again. They've already grown out this much."
"Has it been that long already?"
The biggest reason no one sees me as a daughter of this household is my hair.
My hair is silver.
My skin is pale, almost like I have albinism, and my eyes are blue, so I was often mistaken for a mixed-race adoptee when I was young.
It was so extreme that my parents even had a paternity test done when I was a baby, thinking I had been swapped at the hospital.
The results confirmed I was their biological child.
"You're starting high school next week already. My tiny, cute little baby is already a high schooler. I think I'm going to cry."
Mom dotes on me terribly.
No matter how much parents see their children as forever young, she still tries to take care of every little thing for me, even though I'm now taller and stronger than her.
Suddenly, the gut-ache stopped.
"Mom, I think the pain is gone now."
"Really? Okay, I'll go get your food ready."
Mom left the room excitedly.
I sat up and brushed back the hair that was falling annoyingly over my face.
Ugh, this is stifling. I want to just cut it all off.
I tried a short cut once in middle school, but Mom wailed so loudly that I haven't dared to try it again.
If it were just parental oppression, I could deal with it, but she cherishes me so much that I can't bring myself to just do whatever I want.
I stared into the mirror hanging on the wall.
A young woman with long, straight hair dyed black stared back at me.
I like the way she looks.
The problem is, why on earth is that me?
I recalled the voice I heard like a hallucination every time I died in a past life.
「Poor soldier, tell me your wish.」
I still don't know if it was the whisper of a divine being or just a hallucination I had right before death.
But the answer I gave before my breath stopped was always the same.
「In my next life... let me live in a peaceful era... with the most beautiful woman in the world...」
Through all those past lives, I never once managed to start a family.
I was always being dragged off to the battlefield, busy dying after being told to "Charge!"
Was I five or six the first time I was sent to war?
I'm not sure because age wasn't tracked clearly back then, but it was something like that.
Perhaps because of that hallucination, I still find myself lamenting whenever I look in the mirror alone.
"I said I wanted to live with a beautiful woman, I never said I wanted to be one..."
The being in the mirror is a stunning beauty, both subjectively and objectively.
But using words like "pretty" or "beautiful" for myself makes my skin crawl.
Even though I've lived as a woman for fifteen years now.
I'm still not used to the fact that I am a woman.
Because what's inside the body of that woman in the mirror...
Is the soul of a Panokseon rower.
My mind is that of a man.
*
I've been carrying a high-end smartphone since I started kindergarten. Even if it did have a parental lock on it.
It was a luxury my younger brother, born only a year after me, never enjoyed.
It was for GPS tracking and to contact my parents immediately in case of an emergency.
Despite that, I faced kidnapping threats more than once or twice.
Once, there was even an attempted kidnapping while my kindergarten teacher and other children were all present.
Of course, I noticed immediately, picked up a rock, and smashed the would-be kidnapper's crotch.
The culprit collapsed screaming, and it caused quite a stir.
That was when I realized.
That I am abnormally strong.
Usually, I only have the strength appropriate for my physical gender and build, so I didn't know, but when I focus, I can exert strength that transcends physical limits.
I suspect it's a perk bestowed upon me by that divine being on the deck of the Panokseon.
It's not exactly in the realm of fantasy, like ripping a bear apart with my bare hands.
But I can exert the muscle power equivalent to my strongest past life.
Since it's a level of strength that could never come from these thin arm muscles, it's definitely abnormal.
Of course, I usually keep it hidden, so my parents only think I'm strong for a girl.
It's thanks to this that I can beat my brother, who hit 185cm in his second year of middle school, like a cornered rat.
The reason I don't think my brother is the reincarnation of that boy soldier behind me is also because of his build.
That young friend was skin and bones, and very small.
While I sat on my bed eating, Mom watched me with an overwhelming intensity.
It happens all the time, but I'm still not used to it.
"Yu-jin, are you going to the hair salon after you eat?"
"Yes. I need to get a root touch-up."
"I'd love to see your natural hair without the dye."
"Maybe once I get into college."
I was so stressed by my hair color as soon as I started elementary school that I've been dyeing it black ever since.
Elementary school boys were always trying to touch my hair or secretly pull a strand out, which was exhausting.
No matter how much I got angry or beat them up, they would try to ambush me the moment I let my guard down.
It got to the point where the school even suggested I always wear a hat.
I put on some sweatpants and a round-neck tee to go to the salon, then pulled on a baseball cap.
Mom, who saw me off at the front door, looked regretful.
"Why is my daughter so uninterested in dressing up? That face is such a waste."
"I'm heading out."
"Sis! Sis! You're going to the salon? Me too! Me too!"
"Get lost."
He just wants to take photos to sell to his friends again.
He actually tried to put on his shoes to follow me, so I gave him a good beating and knocked him down.
"Sis... you could... make a fortune... as a female MMA fighter... cough! cough!"
"You're really asking for it."
*
Linear Hair Shop.
Daniel Choe, real name Choi Yoon-seok, was an experienced new designer in his second week on the job.
Today, Yoon-seok felt that the staff, regardless of gender, seemed a bit restless.
"Is something good happening? Everyone seems excited."
"Ah, this must be your first time, Daniel. A VVIP client, Lee Yu-jin, is coming in today."
"We have a VVIP at this branch?"
Yoon-seok was baffled.
The shop wasn't small, but it was still just a franchise hair salon.
It wasn't a Cheongdam-dong shop frequented by celebrities or the daughters and daughters-in-law of the upper class; it was just a normal shop for local customers. A VVIP?
"Does she spend a lot of money?"
"No, it's not that... You'll understand once you see her."
"Pardon?"
"Ah! There she is!"
The staff began to move busily.
What was strange was that even the regular customers suddenly started clearing their throats or adjusting their clothes, acting slightly flustered.
What on earth...?
Yoon-seok looked toward the glass entrance.
He saw a baseball cap coming up the stairs from the first floor.
The brim of the hat hid her face, but the small, slender jawline visible between her hair was extraordinary.
Tinkle. Tinkle.
The door opened, and a female customer wearing baggy sweatpants and a round-neck tee walked in.
She was quite tall. Maybe in her early 170s?
Even in her loose, comfortable clothes, the lines of her long, slender limbs couldn't be hidden.
The moment the customer took off her baseball cap and lifted her head, Yoon-seok dropped his scissors with a blank expression.
How can a person... look like that?
It was the first time in his life he had ever had such a thought.