I Am Gwak Yeon
“……Young Master?”
Somewhere in the valley, a distant scream rang out. One of the martial artists who had just finished striking down a wolf that had been attacking him spun around in haste.
“Young Master! It’s me, Cheon Gang! If you can hear me, answer!”
His name was Cheon Gang. A Class-A Warrior belonging to the family. A former vagabond who had weathered every hardship the world could throw at him. That was why the rumors about this mountain had already reached him loud and clear back when he still wandered the marketplace streets.
Gwigok Mountain.
The mountain where ghosts wail.
Eighty years ago—or thereabouts—hundreds of people had been massacred by a single archfiend. Ever since, this place had seethed with ceaseless ominous energy and demonic miasma.
……Damn it. Even bandits won’t set foot here because they say it’s cursed.
It was a place where misfortune was said to cling. Of course the Young Master would have fled this way; even ordinary folk and most martial artists regarded the mountain with dread.
I definitely heard him.
Cheon Gang launched his body upward out of the valley. As he streaked through the pitch-black gaps between the trees, unease began to bloom in one corner of his heart.
Tak-tak-tak!
Beyond lay a cliff. According to old legends, the mere sight of it meant your life was already over—hence its name, Instant Death Cliff. The steep drop had grown somewhat gentler after the terrain changed in “that incident” eighty years ago, but it remained every bit as deadly.
That was why Cheon Gang’s heart plummeted as he raced toward the source of the scream, half-dreading what he would find.
………!
A thicket of bushes lay thoroughly trampled. Caught among the branches was a scrap of torn blue fabric that could only have come from the Second Young Master’s robes.
And that was not all. Human and beast footprints stamped the ground before and behind the thicket.
Barely steadying his pounding heart, Cheon Gang pushed through the undergrowth—and then he saw it.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!”
There, at the very edge of the cliff where empty air yawned beyond, dusty footprints were stamped in chaotic haste. From them, a single long vine trailed down toward the depths below.
Thump!
The picture painted itself: fleeing the wolves in blind panic, the Young Master had suddenly found himself at the cliff’s edge, grabbed whatever vine his hand could find in his fluster, and gone over.
“………Cough!”
“Y-Young Masteeeeeer!”
Hearing the Young Master’s cough from below the cliff, Cheon Gang seized the vine and, without a moment’s hesitation, hurled himself over the edge.
Tak, ta-da-dak!
Soon he found what he was looking for.
A cave?!
A massive cavern opened in the middle of the cliff face… and inside it lay the family’s Second Young Master, unconscious.
“Young Master! Come to your senses, Young Master!”
A soft, enveloping sensation. The gentle touch of a blanket covering his body, and a fragrant scent filling the air.
“Is his body all r—”
“Well—”
“First, his breath—”
At the soft murmur of voices around him, the man opened his eyes once more.
Flash!
“………Mm.”
“Ah!”
The moment the gazes of those surrounding him poured down, one figure in particular made a great fuss.
“Y-Young Master?!”
“Mm.”
“Are you conscious, Young Master? It’s me, Cheon Gang!”
“……Cheon Gang?”
“Yes! Are you all right?!”
“Cheon……Gang, you say.”
A martial artist with a scarred face. The man who called himself Cheon Gang. The man on the bed regarded him quietly for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Who is that?”
“……!”
“And where is this place?”
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”
Not only Cheon Gang, but the old man and the middle-aged man standing to either side of him widened their eyes.
“……P-Physician? What in the world……”
“He appears to have lost his memories.”
“What did you say?!”
“Hmm. There was nothing particularly wrong with his body…”
The old man Cheon Gang had called Physician took the pulse of the man lying on the bed once more, then bowed his head toward the middle-aged man standing to Cheon Gang’s right.
“Chief Steward, it seems the mental shock was simply too great. Given that he was chased by wolves on Gwigok Mountain, it is understandable. For now, we should give it time and proceed slowly…”
“This is deeply disappointing.”
The man addressed as Chief Steward looked down at the figure on the bed with cold eyes.
“Memory loss, of all things.”
“Chief Steward! The Young Master was at the bottom of the cliff—”
“Hold your tongue, Cheon Gang. Not only did he flee all the way to Gwigok Mountain out of nowhere, now he has lost his memories as well. I cannot even find it amusing anymore.”
“The Young Master—”
“Did I come all this way to converse with the likes of you? Tell that ‘memory-lost’ Young Master of yours to prepare himself; the Family Head may summon him later.”
Those final words, too, were spoken while looking down at the man on the bed.
Distrust.
There was not a shred of trust to be found in the Chief Steward’s gaze as he regarded the man. He clicked his tongue, then left the room together with the Physician.
Click.
Silence settled over the chamber.
How long did the awkward quiet between them stretch?
“………”
“………”
Still lying on the bed, the man turned his head toward Cheon Gang. Slowly, he opened his mouth.
“Hey.”
“Yes, Young Master!”
“Just what…”
At last he asked the question that had been burning in him ever since he had come to his senses in the cave after his mutual destruction with the old monster.
“Who……am I?”
“……And that is how it came to be.”
After finishing the rough explanation,
“Do you remember anything now?”
“For the moment……I’d like to be alone.”
“Ah, understood! The physician also said to rest and recover for the time being, so please rest well, Young Master! I am always on your side—if there is anything you need, call for me anytime!”
Cheon Gang bowed respectfully and left the room.
Click.
Only after he was gone did the man let out a long breath. He slowly scrubbed his dry face with both hands, trying to calm his startled heart.
He could hardly help it. The “present situation” explained by that man who called himself his bodyguard, Cheon Gang, was far too absurd to simply accept.
So in other words…
It was ridiculous.
……Eighty years have passed?
The battle between himself and the Shadowless Old Monster had become a rumor of an archfiend who kidnapped and slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians, and a government-trained expert, destroying each other on a mountain near Hangzhou.
And now the original owner of this body was the second son of the foremost martial family in Hangzhou.
He could roughly guess why the boy had fled to “that mountain”… but what mattered to the man right now was how he had woken up inside this body.
Reincarnation? Possession? Something like that?
It was clearly no dream.
Or perhaps that mad old monster’s evil arts worked in some incomprehensible direction…
That was when it hit him.
Grit!
Even amid the confusion, merely recalling the Shadowless Old Monster made hot rage surge up unbidden. The man had been a great evil—one who commanded with a mere tilt of his chin the Shadowless Band, a group of villains who had each struck terror across the Central Plains.
……And yet.
The man remembered. The final words that great evil had spat out just before their mutual destruction.
— There are nine more like me! Why are you only killing me?!
It was hard to believe lightly.
……That tattoo.
But what if the words had been true? What if there were others connected to the tattoo carved into the man’s body? What if he had been not only the ringleader of the Shadowless Band, but also one of the hidden forces operating in the shadows?
In other words—what if, unknown to the Central Plains, there had been nine more great evils of comparable stature?
— Our cult is……
No.
Suddenly the man’s hands began to tremble. Rage toward the wicked—the very force that had driven his previous life—began to pound in his chest.
Grit!
He knew all too well. Evils of that magnitude left traces for later generations unless their roots were thoroughly torn out.
If the remaining nine were never uprooted in time…
If that shadow force’s bloodline still continued, it was a grave problem. Evils on that scale could only be faced by those willing to devote their entire lives to the eradication of the wicked—not mere ordinary righteousness.
Even now……are there still fools like me left?
Suddenly the man’s heart raced.
Thump!
He still did not know how to interpret this situation, but one thing was certain: he had been given one more chance.
He turned his head toward the mirror standing in one corner of the room. Reflected in his eyes was a refined young master—utterly different from his rough previous self. Not a single scar on him, either.
Having experienced the state of this body firsthand when he woke in the cave on Gwigok Mountain, the man knew just how absurd that was.
The regenerative power……is ridiculous.
And that was not all. Every time he tensed any part of his body, the energy he felt was different. Focusing on his dantian, he realized it was not merely because he had entered the body of a young man he had never seen before in his life.
A bizarre energy.
A strange force flowing as if wrapping around his inner power. Just as he tried to sense it more deeply—
— Memory… you say…?
— Shh…
— Then… the Third Young Master…
Voices of people passing outside the room reached him faintly enough that he realized his hearing had grown keen.
And that was not all. When he focused power into the eyes reflected in the mirror, a subtle crimson light gleamed in his pupils—a strange gaze that could even entrance himself.
Flash!
Seeing it, the man felt the truth anew. The incomprehensible change that had occurred in the cave had remade this body from the marrow outward.
Have I……become that mysterious existence the old monster spoke of?
He had obtained the very body the Shadowless Old Monster had coveted until the moment of his death.
……A vampire.
The man reaffirmed the fact.
Thump!
What mattered to him now was not the information Cheon Gang had given about the original owner of this body.
Gwak Yeon……is it?
The roots of evil that the nine great evils he had failed to punish might have left in this age, and a new body more than capable of tearing them out.
In other words, the man who had become a vampire made his resolve.
I’m sorry to the original owner of this body, but……
Under the newly obtained name of Gwak Yeon.
……From now on, I am Gwak Yeon.
He would accomplish the eradication of the wicked that he had left unfinished in his previous life.