No matter what thoughts I had inside, the man in white robes only released my wrist after quite some time had passed.
“I have a few questions to ask. Can you answer them?”
He was addressing me. Though I understood the meaning, I hesitated at the still unfamiliar language before nodding.
“I heard you asked who this person next to me is. Do you really not remember who he is?”
“…No.”
Since it was our first meeting, saying I didn’t remember didn’t quite fit, but it wasn’t the atmosphere to explain such details. In any case, the other party accepted my answer without much concern and continued questioning.
“Then do you know where this place is?”
“No…”
“Hmm, I see. Up to this point, it could be understandable…”
He muttered softly to himself before asking again.
“Then do you know how old you are?”
I, who had been hit by a car, could tell how old I was, but for now, I was in the body of some child, not my own… Yes, for now, I was in a state of possession.
‘Let’s think about whether this is reality or not later.’
There’s no other word to explain it besides possession. Anyway, given the circumstances, it was natural that I couldn’t know the age of this body as my current self.
“…I don’t know that either.”
“Is that so? Your name?”
“I don’t know…”
As I was about to say I didn’t know for the umpteenth time, I started to wonder if this was okay. However, the man in white robes nodded with an unchanged calm face and, bending down to rummage through a wooden box he had placed beside the chair, muttered.
“You speak quite clearly… Let’s see.”
What he pulled out next was a thin book.
“Can you read? Try reading this.”
He opened the book to a random page and held it in front of me.
‘If he asked if I could read, why is he showing it to me without even waiting for an answer?’
I looked at the paper with wavering eyes. Surprisingly, what I saw resembled Chinese characters.
However, I’m clearly Korean, and while Korea is part of the Chinese character cultural sphere, we have Hangul, so I didn’t study Chinese characters diligently.
In other words, I don’t know many Chinese characters.
Moreover, it’s unclear if these are really Chinese characters, so naturally, I shouldn’t know how to read them…
“If you mix licorice and boil it, you can expect a slight enhancement in effectiveness…”
I could read it.
Is this a pharmacology book? I was dumbfounded even as I read.
“That’s enough. You read well.”
The man in white robes closed the book before I could even finish reading a single line and put it back in the wooden box.
“That’s fine now. You’ve had a hard time right after waking up, so rest a bit more.”
After speaking lightly, he turned to look at the man in black clothes who had been standing silently beside him all this time, gave a nod, and picked up the wooden box.
They left the room side by side as they had entered, and the door closed.
However, unexpectedly, they didn’t go far, instead standing in front of the closed door and beginning to converse in lowered voices.
I couldn’t miss this.
I concentrated my senses as much as possible to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“…explain well. It seems there’s a problem with some memories…”
I couldn’t hear a few words clearly, but I could understand the general meaning. It seemed they were saying something about a problem with my memories.
“Is it alright? I… the person doesn’t even remember…”
“Sometimes when one receives a great shock… It seems a bit much…”
“I see.”
“It might even be fortunate… After all, if the master is going to take a disciple… Since Hwasan is a Taoist sect, it can be considered as leaving the secular world upon entering…”
Disciple? Taoist sect?
“Are you saying it’s better to leave it as is?”
“At least for now… think about it. If we manage the body and mind well while the memories are gone like this, even if the memories return later, it will be easier to overcome the shock.”
“That’s true.”
“Yes, treat it naturally. It must have been something shocking enough for a child to erase their own memories. Memories forgotten due to ordinary shock tend to resurface when the person stabilizes, so there’s no need to deliberately stimulate them.”
“I understand.”
Perhaps they let their guard down because the one in the room appeared to be a child on the outside, but the conversation that started quietly grew gradually louder towards the end, becoming clearly audible.
Thanks to this, I could grasp the overall content of their conversation.
‘They think I’ve lost my memories due to shock.’
For now, it was a fortunate misunderstanding.
Setting aside words like Taoist sect or disciple whose meanings I couldn’t fully understand, it seems the original owner of this body I presumably possessed had experienced something significant.
So they had been lying unconscious, and during that time, I had somehow seeped into this body for unknown reasons. That was the most plausible explanation for now.
If this is reality, that is.
‘Then where did the original owner of the body go?’
I looked down at the small hands again.
As I was naturally starting to feel uncomfortable about it, the person standing outside came back in before I could think deeply. I quickly lowered my hands and pretended I hadn’t been doing anything as I turned to look at them.
The man in white robes seemed to have left immediately, as only the man in black clothes came in.
He sat in the chair next to the bed. Then, after showing signs of deep contemplation for a while, he suddenly blurted out a single word.
“…Baek Yeoeun.”
“Pardon?”
I asked back with wide eyes. He added with a complex expression.
“That’s the name you told me was yours.”
“…Me?”
“Yes, Yeoeun.”
He continued speaking in a deliberately slow tone as if to make sure I heard well.
“And I am Yu Un. I’m the first disciple of Hwasan. This is inside Hwasan’s gate… I brought you here two days ago. You’ve been unconscious since you arrived, but you finally woke up today.”
It was around the time I heard this. Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind like a spark of light.
‘Ah, this.’
Words like Taoist sect and disciple that I couldn’t immediately understand when I eavesdropped earlier.
And words I just heard like Baek Yeoeun, Yu Un, first disciple of Hwasan, etc., combined as my thoughts branched out.
As information combined and thoughts cleared up after a stuttering buffer, like an image becoming sharp…
‘Could this be?’
…I remembered.
The name Baek Yeoeun was the name of a villainous supporting character who dies early in a martial arts novel I once read, though I can’t remember the title!
Once I recalled it, the contents of the book naturally came to mind in succession.
Although I couldn’t remember the title, I could recall the early parts featuring this ‘Baek Yeoeun’ quite clearly and in detail.
‘Perhaps because the content was shockingly bad?’
Focusing on Baek Yeoeun, the story goes like this:
Baek Yeoeun was born as the youngest daughter of the Baek family, a small to medium-sized martial arts family somewhere in the Central Plains. However, she wasn’t treated well in the family.
This was because Yeoeun’s mother, who wasn’t a martial artist, died shortly after giving birth to her.
The historical background of this martial arts novel is around the medieval period. It wasn’t uncommon for women who gave birth to die without recovering their health.
But instead of rationally understanding this fact, Yeoeun’s family members decided to treat the young Yeoeun coldly.
“If you hadn’t been born, your mother would still be alive.”
“Don’t appear before my eyes. You should be grateful just to be allowed in the house, you ill-omened thing who ate your own mother to be born.”
‘…Well, I suppose that was easier for them. They needed someone to blame.’
But Yeoeun’s misfortune didn’t end there.
Although she was treated coldly, she at least didn’t have to worry about food, clothing, and shelter, which was better than having nothing. But one day, her family was attacked by mysterious masked individuals and wiped out overnight.
For some reason, these masked individuals left only Yeoeun unharmed, thoroughly pursuing and killing every other family member down to the last one.
At that time, Yeoeun was probably… 12 years old.
A 12-year-old who didn’t know what was happening suddenly became the sole survivor of the Baek family.
Yeoeun, who fled from the chaotic house, coincidentally encountered Yu Un, the First Sword of Hwasan, who was passing through the forest near the village, and was saved by him.
‘The First Sword of Hwasan. One of the Ten Great Masters of the Central Plains, the Plum Blossom Sword King.’
This is the person sitting in the chair next to me now.
In a situation where her family had fallen and she was left alone, Yeoeun instinctively realized that he was the only person she could trust and desperately clung to him.
“P-please help me. My family is all dead, and I’ve never been outside the house, so no one knows me. I don’t know what to do now…”
Yu Un investigated and grasped the situation of the young child who was crying and clinging to him, what kind of circumstances she was in, and what could have happened to her. What he felt afterwards was a sense of responsibility as her discoverer, and human compassion.
After much deliberation, Yu Un decided to take Yeoeun to Hwasan.
‘…Is it that time now? After the incident happened and arrived at Hwasan?’
It seems so. Coincidentally, Yu Un’s words that had been continuing since earlier were supporting my guess in real-time.
“Since I brought you to Hwasan, I intend to take responsibility and make you my disciple. When your body fully recovers, you’ll soon receive a Taoist name, so for now, rest and organize your thoughts. And…”
He paused for a moment, then added with a resolved expression.
“From now on, call me Master.”
I wonder if there was a need to make such a face just to say that, but considering the character of Yu Un, it was understandable.
From the time he entered Hwasan, he was the most talented among his fellow disciples, and his will and desire to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship were also strong.
With talent and effort combined, Yu Un reached a level worthy of being called the First Sword of Hwasan even before reaching forty, but as a consequence, his human relationships were somewhat narrower than others.
What this means is that he didn’t have a single disciple until he took in Yeoeun.
“…Yes, Master.”
I answered softly with complex feelings.
“Good.”
Hearing the response to even such a small word made my feelings even more complicated.
It’s because the fact that ‘Baek Yeoeun’ happens to be his first disciple will become this person’s misfortune.
______
In This Life, I Won’t Be Foolish To Lose You Again (Female-dominant)
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
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Maria the Goner
This is well set-up so far. I really like the sense of drama here.