The Beginning of a Long Reckoning
The moment I settled onto the wooden stool, the tavern keeper set a steaming bowl down in front of me.
"Here you are, one piping-hot bowl of gukbap! Enjoy your meal~"
"Thanks—!"
Man... Just how long had it been since I last tasted meat? My fingers had been itching around my spoon and chopsticks for ages, and I set them to work without missing a beat.
First, the broth... Slurp.
"Ahhh... Now that's what I'm talking about."
The broth here was thick and rich, far better than the watery swill served at other joints. At the moment, there were only two customers in the entire tavern, myself included. Sitting at the table behind me was a fierce-looking man who merely poked at his soup with a spoon, never once touching the meat.
Chomp...
Yep, humans definitely needed meat to function. That was benefit number one of landing in a world that wasn't actual Murim: the food actually suited my palate. Well... aside from that, I still wasn't entirely sure what to make of this place.
"Whew, haah..."
More than ten years had already slipped by since I first opened my eyes in this world.
"Mmm... Now this is how kkakdugi is supposed to taste. Hell yeah."
Collapsing face-first onto my bed after finishing mandatory reserve military training had been my final memory of my previous life. The shock of waking up surrounded entirely by a frozen expanse of snow was still fresh in my mind. Fortunately, a kind family took me in, allowing me to grow up reasonably healthy and well-fed.
"Haaah..."
Back then, seeing everyone walking around in martial robes made me convinced I'd been dropped straight into Murim. But when I eventually got around to asking my adoptive parents about it, my mother simply tilted her head: 'Ortho... dox? Demonic... Cult? The Heavenly Demon? Oh, if it's the heavenly demon herb you're looking for, that stuff grows wild all over the mountain behind our house~' After hearing that, I gave up on that fantasy entirely.
Ha, to think that was already ten years ago...
"Phew— Boss, extra meat over here, please!"
"Coming right up~"
Well, it wasn't as if this world was completely barren of fantasy tropes either. People still practiced sword styles, and there were physical enhancement techniques that functioned remarkably like internal qi. Naturally, any red-blooded man would be drawn to that sort of thing.
Clack.
"Thank you! Hahh... wow, that's hot—"
The real issue was why everyone around me felt the need to coddle me like a fragile porcelain doll. What was the point of having physical strength that eclipsed boys my age twice over, or mastering swordplay drilled into me by my brot—no, by those two absolute lunatics, if I was never allowed to use it anywhere? That overprotective suffocating nonsense was precisely why I grabbed a sword, swiped a meager handful of travel funds, and bolted from home the moment my coming-of-age ceremony wrapped up.
"My, the little lady sure has a healthy appetite~ Could you be... a Rangin?"
"Mmph— Ye-ep..."
Whoops. Guess no matter how low I pulled my traveling cloak, anyone standing this close was bound to notice. Surprisingly, this world was populated by people bearing the physical traits of certain mammals—mostly canines and felines. I happened to be one of them. Early on, having ears sprouting from the top of my head had made adjusting an absolute nightmare, let me tell you.
By now, I was so accustomed to being called "little lady" or "miss" that the words hardly registered anymore. At the end of the day, it was just a label.
"So, what brings you all the way to Jungno~?"
Huh, she hadn't walked away yet. Well... not like it was a state secret.
"I came to get my rank advancement certified."
Now if she'd kindly leave me alone so I could finish eating.
"Aha~ Well, crossing paths like this must be fate, so I won't charge you extra for the meat."
...Seriously?
"Ah, thank you!"
Sweet, saved myself some coin! It was true that even if Rangin existed, we only amounted to roughly one in several hundred people. There wasn't any systemic persecution or anything, but our scarce numbers meant we were treated like an exotic rarity, for better or worse. And occasionally, pleasant perks like this fell right into my lap.
Ah, right.
"Um... how much is the total...?"
"Hmm, one silver coin."
Wow, that was ridiculously cheap. Wandering from town to town had gradually rebuilt my shattered sense of monetary value. Back at my adoptive family's estate, I'd genuinely assumed everyone in this world dined on roasted pheasant for every single meal. But with my entire worldly wealth sitting at a measly five silver coins and a single banknote, this price was an absolute godsend.
"Here—"
Better pay upfront so I didn't forget later.
Right at that exact second—
KABOOOM—!
"Wh-what the hell?!"
Starting immediately behind my stool, every table and chair in the rear half of the tavern was obliterated into splinters. Did that guy sitting behind me... just get launched through the air? The ceiling shattered alongside the blast, raining a hail of timber and plaster down from above.
"Urrrgh..."
A deep dent gouged into the plaster wall, followed by a pathetic groan. Judging purely by the pitch, it belonged to an adult male... A person? Then that meant the destructive path had been carved by that very man hurtling across the room.
"Hmm."
Crashing into a reinforced wall like that and keeping all four limbs intact meant he was at least 7-Geom. But seeing as he couldn't even pull himself to his feet after a simple impact...
"Somewhere between 7-Geom and 6-Geom, huh."
Heavy, measured thuds rumbled from the shattered doorway.
Footsteps... Ah, right. If someone was thrown, it stood to reason that someone else had done the throwing.
Turning my gaze toward the source of the blast, I watched a towering, broad-shouldered brute stroll through the wreckage. He practically had the word 'thug' stamped across his forehead. Almost simultaneously, a strained voice gasped from the rubble behind me.
"*Cough*— Y-you shouldn't go around destroying private residences like this..."
The guy who'd been hurled across the tavern. Ah, hearing that whimper, giving him credit for 6-Geom was definitely being too generous. If it were me, I would've immediately channeled qi into the masonry to cushion the momentum.
A booming voice echoed from the ruined entrance.
"That's none of my concern. My employer will cover the damages, and that's the end of it."
Whoa, completely bald.
That build... at a glance, he looked to be right on the cusp of 5-Geom. If things went well—no, if things went poorly, the victim was either getting hauled away or slaughtered on the spot. What a nuisance... Though people dying in roadside taverns wasn't exactly groundbreaking news around here.
Looking around, barely a corner of the tavern remained intact. At this rate, the entire structure was going to collapse. Still... going by what cue-ball over there just said, the owner would probably be handsomely compensated.
"Guess I'll just mind my own business and eat my f—"
Right then, something dislodged from the ceiling and dropped.
"......"
Straight into my bowl.
More specifically, right into the broth.
...Are you fucking kidding me? My gukbap.
"Haa... I was honestly planning to let this slide."
You're dead meat, pal.
"Hold on. Stop right there."
I stepped directly into the path of the brute lumbering toward the fallen man. Sigh... This damn mouth of mine. I really needed to kick the habit of speaking like a modern soldier. Even so, my sudden interruption brought the giant to a halt.
"St... What kind of nonsense are you babbling? Who the hell are you anyway?"
"Me? A person. More specifically... someone who only got halfway through their gukbap."
My gukbap. Even if I ordered a replacement, it wouldn't be *that* bowl, the one I had bonded with. You can't replace that, you bastard.
"Haaah..."
At my answer, the brute rolled his shoulders, cracking his joints with theatrical menace. Did he honestly think that passed for intimidation?
"Listen here, pipsqueak. Judging by your rags, you're just some vagrant or ronin. Back off if you don't want to get broken in half. I'm carrying out a lawful enforcement here."
"......"
"......Wh-what did you just say?"
Pipsqueak......?
Me? He was talking to me, wasn't he? Well, obviously, considering the only living souls standing here were him, me, and that paralyzed lump on the floor.
"Hah...... Pipsqueak? *Pipsqueak*...? Oh, you picked the absolute worst day to breathe, you bald bastard."
My hand drifted toward the scabbard resting at my hip.
Clack—
A shiny-headed sack of meat who was all bulk and no brains, daring to call me a pipsqueak? What the fuck, huh? You're barely scraping by at 5-Geom yourself.
"Whew..."
Resting my index finger against the pommel, I coaxed my fluctuating inner qi into alignment, smoothing it out until it surged in a single unified current like a torrential river.
Bzzzt—
"......?!"
Hah, you see that, baldy?
Once you cross past 6-Geom, the disparity in skill widens exponentially. For example, the bare minimum threshold to qualify for 5-Geom is the ability to casually dismantle at least six 6-Geom martial artists without taking a scratch. There were other requirements too, of course, but the point remained. Even among peers of the exact same grade, the gulf could be massive—let alone against someone lower on the ladder...
I didn't even need to use my dominant left hand for this.
Resting only my right palm against the hilt, I closed my fingers around it in an iron grip.
"You're a 5-Geom, aren't you?"
"H-how did you..."
"Heh... And as for me, you ask?"
"D-don't tell me..."
The brute instinctively took a frantic step backward toward a stack of straw bales lining the shattered wall.
Click—
The retention catch at my waist unlocked.
"I just got promoted to 4-Sword."
And it's Rangin, not ronin.
...And I'm not a pipsqueak, either.
Without even bothering to circulate qi through my lower body, I launched myself entirely on raw muscular spring, sweeping my blade upward in a blinding crescent.
BOOM—!
A textbook rising strike, paired with a devastatingly solid crack of impact. The blade never even cleared the sheath entirely; it simply hummed with tight, violent resonance within the scabbard.
Click.
"Phew... Gukbap tavern defense: mission accomplished."
Even though my limbs were visibly slender, they were vastly more durable than the body of the strapping adult male I'd been in my past life. Every time I pulled off something like this, the reality that I was living in a high-fantasy world truly hit home.
The bald giant had taken the scabbard straight to the jaw and collapsed into dead dead slumber. The man he'd been hunting had already hauled ass out of the building. Well... as long as his next chase didn't happen anywhere near my food, that was fine by me.
Though...
"I... kind of wrecked the wall."
Maybe because it'd been so long since I found a decent punching bag, I'd slightly botched my strength control. ...It definitely wasn't because I got tilted over being called a pipsqueak. Absolutely not.
The tavern owner, who had crept back inside at some point, cautiously approached with wide eyes.
"U-um... It's all right, dear. Judging by how things were going, it would've been a total catastrophe without you, miss. Besides, this is Jungno, so we can settle it all through the legal magistrate."
"Aha... Right."
In other words, she was going to pin the wall I demolished entirely onto that unconscious brute... Well, works for me.
"I'll take my leave, then."
Now, heading north was the plan...
Just as I offered a polite nod and moved to step over the fractured base of a support beam—
Grab!
"W-wait a second!"
Huh?
A hand clamped onto my forearm.
Who the hell are you now? ...Ah, did my hood slip down in the scuffle? Still, that's no excuse to go grabbing strangers by the arm.
"Phew... Look, I get that Rangin are a rare sight, but I'm kind of bus—"
Squeeze.
The grip tightened with desperate force.
"...What do you want?"
The young man, who still carried the lingering traces of youth in his features, stared at me with trembling brows.
"I believe you and I have something very important to discuss..."
Hah... What a pain in the ass. Looking at him closely now, wasn't this the very guy who'd been picking at his broth behind me earlier? He was surprisingly unscathed.
"Discuss what? We've got nothing to say to each other. Let go."
If I'd shaken you off with any real effort, kid, your arm would've flown halfway across the street.
"......"
Yet despite my glare, he didn't back down. Instead, he pointed a trembling finger toward the spot where the octopus-headed goon lay sprawled in the rubble.
"Just take a look over there—!"
"Look at what? There's nothing over there except that meathead from earlier......"
Ah.
Peering through the massive hole I'd blasted through the straw-thatched wall, I caught sight of the pulverized remains of what looked like a luxury carriage. And glittering brilliantly among the scattered wreckage... was that glass......?
Realizing the gears had clicked in my head, his voice spiked into a shrill, furious pitch.
"That's right! A state-of-the-art carriage bought entirely on credit, not to mention a full shipment of fine glassware imported from the Western Regions! Every single piece is smashed to dust!"
"Urk..."
At this rate, I was cornered with zero room to wiggle out of paying damages.
"Ah... damn it."
Why did that shiny-headed bastard have to go and provoke me with the word pipsqueak of all things...? Ahem.
"So... you're going to pay for this, right?!"
"Well, about that..."
The brutal truth was that right now, my life savings could barely purchase one of those shattered glass vials. There was no plausible way out of this.
Time for the ultimate technique.
Namely...
"So what?"
"...Excuse me?"
Look at that utterly dumbfounded face.
"I don't have any money."
I planted my hands on my hips and proudly thrust out my completely flat chest.
"Yeah, whatever! Cut my belly open if you want!"
Jingle.
"Take this if you want it. This is literally every coin to my name."
I'll memorize your face and pay you back someday, alright?
"Haaah... Listen here, you."
Rustle—
"Eep— Hey, wh-where do you think you're touch—"
Damn it.
From beneath the slightly parted fabric of my inner collar, a crisp slip of paper slipped loose and fluttered down.
"Did you honestly think I didn't see you tucking a banknote into your shirt earlier...?"
"W-well... A girl's gotta eat, too..."
Can't believe he caught that.
"Unbelievable... If you're going to pull this kind of nonsense, I have no choice but to drag you to the authorities. You hear me?"
The... authorities?
"Th-that... n-no, you can't do that."
"And why not? Are you a wanted criminal or something?"
"Uh..."
If he hauled me to the authorities, I'd end up at the Jungno Magistrate's Office. The second my identity check went through, they'd immediately send a courier straight to my family's estate. And if that happened... my grand journey would be over before it even began!
"Um..."
"Haa... Do you even have the slightest clue what that money was meant for?!"
"...What was it?"
"Escort fees! Escort fees, damn it! The funds to hire guards to head south from here, load up precious cargo, and escort it all the way back north to Seoknyeong! Half of my entire net worth was tied up in that carriage... *was* tied up in it, you lunatic!"
"Escort..."
An escort, huh...
"Yes! An escort! What do you propose we do now?! Turning you over to the magistrate won't recover my lost fortune!"
He was practically hyperventilating, his pale face flushed bright red with pure indignation.
Wait, is there a way...
Twitch.
Oh. Well, that solves everything, doesn't it?
As if in full agreement with my sudden stroke of genius, the wolf ears atop my head gave a sharp, cheerful twitch.
"Pfft—"
"What on earth is so funny?!"
This time, I reached up and firmly clapped a hand onto his shoulder.
"...?"
Hah... Pointlessly tall bastard, making my neck cramp just trying to make eye contact. I was about to make him an offer he couldn't possibly refuse. After all, a certified 4-Sword like myself—
"Why can't I just be your escort?"
I'll take the bodyguard gig myself, is what I'm saying.
"...What?"
Surprised, aren't you?
In exchange, you provide three meals a day.
Also, bend down a bit so I can look at you properly.
Oh, and cover my lodging too.
"......Hah."
Only then did his stunned expression slacken, his lips parting in sheer disbelief.
Come on, you saw that whole sequence earlier, right? Just *whoosh*, taking down that mountain of a man in a split second.
"Listen here... You're barely taller than the hunting hound living next door to me."
Hey.
"What makes you think I could ever trust you to guard my life...?"
"............"
"Ah, not that I'm trying to be discriminatory against Rangin or anything, it's just..."
Son of a bitch.