Chapter 2

Episode 2

“Wow!”

As soon as I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.

I felt an unpleasant feeling of resistance and got up from my seat.

Rattling!

The rough noise unique to the carriage penetrated my ears, and at the same time, my body shook violently.

I put my hand on my throbbing forehead and gathered my thoughts.

‘Where am I?’

Iron bars surrounding all sides.

There was a wooden board on the other side of the iron bars, so you couldn’t see outside.

The sunlight seeping through the wooden boards only gives you an idea of the time zone.

‘Approximately around noon?’

Perhaps because I had not eaten anything, my stomach was making a loud noise.

When I lowered my hand to my forehead, I saw the iron shackles on my wrists.

The other side was connected to the iron bars, so movement was greatly restricted.

But there was something strange.

‘Are my hands this small?’

Small, soft palms with no visible calluses.

It was like looking at the hands of a child.

When I thought about it, there were one or two strange things.

I didn’t feel the pain I should have felt.

In addition to the injuries caused by the series of fierce battles, the internal injuries caused by the use of gold balls had completely healed.

‘There...’

There was no heavy feeling that should have been felt in the lower abdomen.

Even if the Danjeon was broken, you wouldn’t feel this empty.

‘Prohibition? hallucination? Or is it the legendary Great Law of Divorce?’

I let out a groan and shook my head.

No matter how confusing the divorce law is, isn’t the leap too big?

‘Anyway...’

The convoy wagon was too flimsy for transporting an unmanned vehicle, and the body of the car was tilted as if it were running on a mountain road.

Plus, there was loud laughter coming from outside.

Things were going strangely.

“So I grabbed him by the collar and said this. Hey, you little bastard with no blood on your head! “Did you think I would be scared if you said that?”

“So what?”

“The expression on his face was very scary. It was so funny how he rolled his eyes like a rat. “Anyway, it’s just people who have nothing to brag about.”

“Haha! “That’s a masterpiece!”

“Anyway, I guess we should hurry. “If I don’t get over the mountain today, I’ll have to stay homeless.”

“How about sleeping on the street for a bit? “Anyway, you can’t stop by a guesthouse or inn while transporting goods.”

“No matter what, wouldn’t it be better to sleep in a house with a roof rather than on the street?”

I don’t know what happened while I was unconscious, but at least I knew they weren’t Shaolin temple goons.

Because there’s no way they could call a person a ‘thing’.

“Is that guy still sleeping?”

“I don’t know. “He might be awake by now and eavesdropping on our conversation.”

“Those parents were funny too. Those guys who say things they can’t do to children and all that. “I never thought you would give me medicine in advance and wait for me?”

“I guess they didn’t want to shock their child who was about to be sold.”

“Well, the only difference is whether you find out right away or later. In the end, they just disguised what they did to make themselves feel better.”

“For the sake of the child, you’re a piece of shit. “Do such loving parents have the guts to sell their children for a pittance?”

The sound of giggling laughter spread like wildfire.

I leaned back against the bars and organized my thoughts in my head.

‘I thought they were arresting and transporting me while I was unconscious for the purpose of interrogation, but that’s not true?’

At least it seemed like I wasn’t being escorted to the Shaolin Temple or the Murim Alliance.

Maybe it’s the opposite?

The religious warriors who belatedly arrived at the battlefield may be recovering me and returning.

‘No. ‘Is that too wishful thinking?’

I sighed and shook my head once.

If they were religious soldiers, that would be strange.

Two questions immediately come to mind.

First, is it really necessary to disguise yourself as a slave trader?

The second question was why an illusion was cast on the subject of recovery.

‘There is too little information.’

In the end, I have no choice but to ask directly.

The moment he muttered that, the carriage shook violently and stopped in place.

“Big!”

I suddenly hit my head on the iron bars and grabbed the back of my head, swearing.

There were signs of the men outside moving around busily.

“What is this...”

The men started beating me as if to vent their anger.

He slapped his cheek with his palm and kicked his side with his foot.

They looked down at me as if I was screaming and crouching down, as if laughing, then quickly separated the carriage and horses, packed up their belongings, and prepared to move.

“I’m telling you this just in case. You’d better not even think about running away secretly. “You can’t run away anyway.”

The scarred man warned me as he tied a rope to the back of a horse and secured me.

I nodded with a scared expression.

‘I’ll make sure to run away.’

In my heart, I burn the will to escape.

* * *

Let’s summarize the situation.

‘My age at this time... ‘Are you ten?’

It was when I was ten years old that I was taken by warriors belonging to the Demonic Cult’s Oewon (外院) disguised as illegal slave dealers and thrown into Jamma-dong.

I went back to the past, exactly twenty-two years ago, when I was a child.

His body was small, like that of a child, and he had no martial arts skills at all.

‘At this rate, not even the warriors of the Demonic Cult’s outer circle can do anything, let alone the third-rate ronins on the streets.’

But I had no intention of giving up and meekly accepting the situation.

If you are dragged into Jamma-dong like this, your previous life will repeat itself.

I wanted to avoid that much.

‘Let alone being forced to live as a demon, it’s not even clear whether you can survive.’

You might say I’m used to it since I’ve already experienced it once, but that actually made me even more reluctant.

Jamma-dong is a training center that cultivates new masters of the Demonic Religion.

It was not a place where you could survive simply by being strong or getting good grades.

Because what happens there is not something as soft as friendly competition.

‘If I were to use a metaphor, it would be loneliness.’

There is a curse called loneliness or innocence.

The method is to fill a jar with deadly poisonous bugs, have them eat each other, and then use the last surviving one to cast a spell on the target.

I heard that its effect is so powerful that it cannot be compared to other curses.

I don’t know if curses really work or if it’s just superstition.

Jamma-dong’s education system was similar to that.

Children exposed to threats to their lives will do anything to survive.

From small things like theft to big things like murder.

Nevertheless, the majority of children lose their lives because they are unable to adapt to the harsh environment or are eliminated from competition.

A hell of royalties where conspiracies, betrayal, and underhanded tactics run rampant.

Jamma-dong was that kind of place.

‘Besides, once you’re trapped in Jamma-dong, you won’t be able to breathe the outside air for at least ten years...’

It was enough to have terrible memories once in both my past and present lives.

I had to do whatever it took to outrun the men in front of me and run away.

“That’s it.”

“Wow. “I thought you were dying because you were hungry.”

“No one is stealing, so calm down, right?”

The problem was how.

There were limits to what a child’s body could do.

“Now eat.”

“... ... .”

“You want me to eat it?”

“... ... .”

“Do you want to get hit or just eat it?”

I looked around while scooping up the porridge the men handed me with my hands.

The safe house, located in the middle of a deserted mountain, was extremely desolate.

A space where there is no sense of living at all.

The only passage leading to the outside was the front door and the wooden window at the back, and there were no useful objects in sight.

‘It’s good to be free of restraint...’ But

what do you do when your hands and feet are free?

There is no way to avoid the eyes of surveillance, and even if you do escape, you will be caught again in no time.

It was then.

“What a guy!”

Chachaechaechaeng!

While I was thinking hard about how to escape from this place, the men sitting around the cauldron got up and picked up their respective weapons.

One of the men opened the door to the safe house wide open.

A number of young men and women appeared beyond the door.

“You were here! “A brat!”

“you!”

“I am sure I told you that I would make you regret insulting me!”

The young man in the lead shouted excitedly and drew his sword.

I wiped my greasy hands on my clothes and my eyes lit up.

‘... ... Now that I think about it, something like this happened.’