Chapter 1 :

Chapter 1 — Novels and Misfortune

 

“His Highness the Seventh Prince has been acting a little strange lately, hasn’t he?”

 

The youngest maid, who had been doing laundry by the old well, cautiously opened her mouth.

 

For a mere maid to speak of royalty—normally, it might have cost her her head. But in the Seventh Prince’s Palace, where there were few workers and no one who cared, there was no one to nitpick over every such insolence.

 

“He throws fewer tantrums than before, and he doesn’t throw things as much either.”

 

Especially not at people anymore……

 

The maid added in a voice that seemed to crawl into itself.

 

“Maybe he finally realized that no one’s coming here to work anymore?”

 

Another maid, who had been listening with the same apathetic air, gave a plausible opinion just as apathetically.

 

The Seventh Prince’s Palace was treated like yesterday’s leftovers, so no one wanted to come there, and they were always short on manpower.

 

The Seventh Prince had either killed the people who had originally been there, half-killed them, or threatened them until they all left.

 

They were already busy because they were short-handed, and since they had no mental room to care about such things, the topic soon slipped out of the servants’ interest.

 

“No. There’s definitely something strange……”

 

Only Anna, the youngest maid who had first brought it up, tilted her head, unconvinced.

 

And this clever girl was right.

 

No, half right.

 

Because this body, sitting on a tree by the window of the decrepit Seventh Prince’s Palace and listening to the maids gossiping at the laundry area, belonged to the Seventh Prince, Ran Abiran.

 

Though the thing inside it was that of an ordinary twenty-eight-year-old man from South Korea.

 

To add to that, he had no way of knowing where the original owner of this body had gone.

 

But it probably didn’t matter.

 

It felt a bit wrong to say this, but he was a piece-of-trash bastard, and he was going to die within three years anyway, his neck torn open.

 

If you asked how he could be so sure, that was pretty simple too.

 

Because he’d read the whole thing.

 

So, to summarize, this was the world inside a book, and he had ended up inside it.

 

* * *

 

There are days when you feel unusually exhausted.

 

Days when nothing goes your way all day. Office workers’ daily lives may all be more or less the same, but even so, there are days when you crave a cigarette more than usual.

 

In the morning, my shoelace suddenly came undone on the stairs, making me miss the subway once. Then, just when I had barely managed not to be late, the section chief, who had come in early for once, chewed me out.

 

I thought he had no right to say that when he was the kind of person who came on time maybe once a month, but he held my lifeline, so I just nodded along.

 

It wasn’t as if work went smoothly either.

 

The new employees made the most basic mistakes over and over again, and I was the one who ended up with the hassle.

 

On top of that, a boring company dinner was waiting at the end of an energy-draining day.

 

I’d heard that the culture of forcing people to attend company dinners had disappeared these days, but our tiny company seemed to have been flung out of the orbit of progress, unable to withstand the inertia of the times.

 

Dragging my exhausted body along, I had to enter the pork belly restaurant behind the office building, the place we always went.

 

Sitting in a spot that was neither too far nor too close, I let the section chief’s meaningless heroic tales go in one ear and out the other while picking at the pork belly.

 

If I wasn’t going to gain anything else, I might as well replenish some protein.

 

“Assistant Manager, what do you do on your days off?”

 

A female employee with sparkling eyes had spoken to him.

 

She was a new employee from the team next to him, the one who had made a lot of mistakes today.

 

She was such a fresh newbie that she had been struggling just to answer the phone.

 

I had wondered why she was like that when she didn’t seem bad at work, but once I recalled who her mentor was, I understood.

 

Assistant Manager Kim, the salary thief who was always away from his seat.

 

I thought I had heard he was doing something with stocks, but he was the type who clung to his phone even during work hours, affecting the work of the people around him too.

 

She must not have been taught anything by her mentor, and watching her fumble around had been frustrating, so I had taken over for her.

 

Maybe she had felt very grateful for that, because it was obvious she was trying to get closer to me in her own way.

 

I had no intention of getting closer to her, though.

 

I felt bad, but I didn’t want to teach her every single thing in place of her mentor, and in the first place, I didn’t make close acquaintances at work.

 

“I don’t do anything.”

 

“Ah! So you’re a homebody too, Assistant Manager. No, wait, a stay-at-home guy. I’m like that too…… Home is the most comfortable place, isn’t it? Even when I’m outside, when I come back home, I feel like I’m recharging or something.”

 

Whether she had good social skills or not, the way she tried to continue the conversation despite his blunt answer was pitiful. He was answering half-heartedly and about to stand up, saying he was going to the restroom, when it happened.

 

“What homebody? Assistant Manager Lee isn’t a homebody, he’s just a monk. A monk.”

 

The voice came from her mentor—in other words, Assistant Manager Kim, the salary thief.

 

His plump face had turned red, and he was looking this way with dissatisfaction.

 

The new employee seemed flustered by her mentor’s sudden intervention and asked back.

 

“Pardon?”

 

As if he didn’t like the sudden awkward atmosphere, Assistant Manager Kim clicked his tongue.

 

“Your mentor is sitting right across from you, so why are you taking care of Assistant Manager Lee?”

 

After subtly revealing his displeasure and downing another glass of soju, Assistant Manager Kim glared at him this time.

 

“You don’t come out when the department head calls you to go hiking on weekends, you don’t play golf, and you don’t really have any hobbies, do you? You’re diligent about every bit of work that gets you overtime pay, but with that money, well, it’s not like you’re dressing yourself up or anything……”

 

As he said this, Assistant Manager Kim openly looked him up and down.

 

My clothes weren’t dirty or old, but apparently they weren’t enough in his eyes. He fiddled with the wallet he had placed on the table and continued speaking.

 

“Assistant Manager Lee should pay a little attention to self-improvement too. It’s not like people succeed just by being diligent.”

 

When I didn’t avoid the gaze that swept over me as if checking my reaction, Assistant Manager Kim clicked his tongue as though he didn’t like it.

 

“You must have a lot of pride in your success.”

 

I put another piece of meat into my mouth as I spoke, and a sneer appeared on his face.

 

“I’m confident I’m living a better life than someone, at least.”

 

“How did you succeed?”

 

When I asked, Assistant Manager Kim opened his mouth as if I had asked something obvious, but soon closed it again.

 

This time, I had only been asking a pure question, so I felt a little disappointed.

 

Since he thought he was living a decent life, wasn’t that why he could speak so confidently?

 

I had been a little curious about what the source of that confidence was.

 

Even at this age, I still wasn’t sure whether I was living properly.

 

But Assistant Manager Kim only fiddled with his belongings and didn’t give me a clear answer.

 

“……At least I’m not living a life where I come to work and do overtime the day after my father’s funeral, unlike someone.”

 

And that was the best answer he could come up with.

 

He flinched at the words he had spat out, then glared at me instead, as if angry at himself for reacting that way.

 

“Why? You got something to say? You’re always glaring at me in that irritating way.”

 

He should get his words straight.

 

I had never glared at Assistant Manager Kim. Though I had told him not to leave his seat and to do his work properly.

 

“I don’t think we run into each other at the company often enough for me to glare at you all the time.”

 

I meant, how was I supposed to glare at someone who wasn’t even sitting at his desk?

 

Even with his head soaked in alcohol, Assistant Manager Kim seemed to have enough sense left to understand that much, because he snapped and opened his mouth.

 

“What, you—”

 

What, you bastard.

 

When I looked at him with eyes that said, So what are you going to do about it? Assistant Manager Kim pressed his lips together.

 

Even if he demanded to know what I meant here, all that would happen was that the fact he was often away from his seat would be mentioned once more in front of everyone. It seemed he didn’t want that to happen.

 

Fortunately, Assistant Manager Kim did not pick another fight with me during the company dinner.

 

Though that didn’t mean he stopped sipping his drink while glaring holes into me from time to time.

 

If he had come to work to earn money, he should just earn money. Why was he getting so heated about things at the company?

 

By the time the company dinner was more or less wrapping up, the tiny speck of interest I had in him—someone incomprehensible to me—had completely vanished.

 

After giving a perfunctory farewell and turning around, I wondered whether I should walk home or take the bus. In the end, rather than use public transportation while reeking of alcohol and grilled meat, I chose to sober up in the cold early-winter wind.

 

That was how the day was supposed to end.

 

“Hey! You……you, come talk to me.”

 

If not for the slurred voice that grabbed me from behind in the alley I had entered as a shortcut, today could have been a slightly less exhausting day.

 

When I turned around, Assistant Manager Kim was glaring at me, his face flushed red.

 

“If it’s about work, talk to me at the office tomorrow.”

 

He came closer, reeking of alcohol, and I frowned, taking one step back because his approach was anything but welcome. Assistant Manager Kim only raised his voice further.

 

“Hey! Why are you always looking down on me?”

 

What the hell was this now?

 

I wasn’t interested enough in people at work to single anyone out and deliberately ignore them.

 

While I briefly lost my words out of sheer absurdity, Assistant Manager Kim’s drunken rant continued.

 

“You, who the hell are you to look down on me?! Who the hell is a guy like you, with nothing to his name, to ignore what I say! Why did you humiliate me?”

 

Right. It was my fault for forgetting, even for a moment, the immutable law that drunk people don’t hear anything you say.

 

I looked around.

 

It was late at night, and the alley was deserted. Meaning there was no one around.

 

The problem was that there was no telling what would happen if this commotion continued.

 

“Go home and sleep. Tomorrow, you’ll be so embarrassed you won’t even be able to look me in the face.”

 

I didn’t want to get dragged any further into his drunken nonsense, so I chose to leave.

 

But he, completely swallowed by alcohol, seemed to take even the act of me turning away as me ignoring him.

 

“I told you not to ignore me!”

 

I saw his chubby fist flying toward me.

 

Because he was drunk, it was a full-power punch with no restraint. But because he was drunk, it was slow.

 

I shifted my body back and avoided the punch he had thrown with all his might, and Assistant Manager Kim tumbled to the ground with an ugly “Oof!”

 

Maybe he had tripped over a stone, because the front pocket of his suit tore dramatically.

 

Looking down for a moment at him with his head buried against the ground, perhaps out of embarrassment, I felt fatigue wash over me.

 

“If you’re not knocked out, get up and go home.”

 

As if he had heard my voice, he wriggled like a slug exposed beneath the sunlight and slowly raised his head.

 

Unfortunately, his face was rather badly scraped.

 

Judging by the blood pooled in his mouth, either the inside of his mouth had burst, or a tooth had been knocked out.

 

“Eek!”

 

I swear, the owner of that adorable scream was not me.

 

I turned my gaze toward where the scream had come from—in other words, between the buildings packed tightly along the alley.

 

Someone who had been half-hiding between the buildings revealed herself.

 

It was the new employee who had been sitting next to me at the company dinner earlier.

 

And she was clutching a phone tightly in one hand.

 

A sigh escaped me on its own.

 

The exhausting day was not over yet.

 

* * *

 

“……I was about to go home when I saw Assistant Manager Kim staggering after you, Assistant Manager. I had a bad feeling, so I was only going to watch for a little while. It happened to be on my way home too……”

 

The new employee, who had approached me and Assistant Manager Kim as he lay sprawled on the ground, worked hard to explain that she was not a stalker.

 

“Got it.”

 

I answered briefly and rolled Assistant Manager Kim over with my foot.

 

With a groan, his body flipped over. He felt around himself, then seemed to discover that the front pocket of his jacket had been torn, because his face crumpled as if he were about to cry.

 

“You, you bastard……! I’ll remember this!”

 

Even then, Assistant Manager Kim was flailing his arms and legs diligently as he ran his mouth.

 

“He’s fine.”

 

When I muttered, he glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

 

“A person’s bleeding this much…… You, you inhuman bastard…… Do you know what everyone at the company whispers about you? That you’re not even human, you bast— Urk!”

 

I grabbed him by the collar as he kept babbling and searched his pockets.

 

The drunken bastard’s uniquely warm body temperature was unpleasant, so when I found his phone in the inner pocket of his jacket, I did slam him back down onto the ground a bit irritably.

 

When I turned on the phone, it seemed he had set it to unlock with facial recognition rather than a pattern.

 

It was probably the only choice in Assistant Manager Kim’s life that deserved praise.

 

If he hadn’t, Assistant Manager Kim would have had to use the cold pavement as his bed.

 

I grabbed the back of his neck and shoved his face toward the phone.

 

Fortunately, the advancement of technology allowed the phone to recognize its owner even with Assistant Manager Kim’s scraped-up face.

 

I called the number saved as “Dad” in his contacts.

 

“Your son is drunk in the alley beside the pork belly restaurant at the OO intersection, so come pick him up.”

 

And I hung up before the person on the other end could answer.

 

Not mentioning that his son had gotten drunk, tried to punch someone, and fallen flat on his face was my final act of consideration, as well as a declaration that I did not want to get involved with him any further.

 

That should be all I needed to do.

 

If a tooth was broken, he would take care of it himself.

 

Without any lingering hesitation, I turned away.

 

I really was too tired.

 

Then I heard light footsteps hurriedly following behind me.

 

The new employee began walking right behind me, and I could feel from behind my back that she was hesitating, as if she had something to say.

 

When I didn’t bother speaking to her, the new employee eventually opened her mouth first.

 

“What are you going to do tomorrow?”

 

“What do you mean? I have to go to work.”

 

“When I looked earlier, it seemed like Assistant Manager Kim’s clothes were all torn…… That’s probably pretty expensive.”

 

No wonder he had been fumbling around his jacket instead of worrying about his bleeding face. I had thought his judgment had gone downhill because he was drunk.

 

As I nodded in understanding, the new employee following behind me sped up and came to stand beside me.

 

“If Assistant Manager Kim tries to force you to pay for it, I’ll help you! I recorded everything earlier!”

 

The new employee spoke in a voice full of determination.

 

So the phone she had been holding earlier had been for collecting evidence, not reporting it.

 

As I walked while thinking about social rookies drinking beyond their limit and various other things, I found myself standing in front of the old villa where I lived.

 

Perhaps my silent walking bothered her, because the new employee’s voice gradually grew smaller.

 

“……And I’m sorry. I think Assistant Manager Kim picked a fight with you even more because I acted tactlessly earlier.”

 

The paint that had once spelled out the villa’s name had peeled away so badly that the original name could no longer be made out. The walls, which must have been white when it was first built, had turned ivory with age.

 

My old home.

 

The alley happened to end there, and a main road appeared.

 

It was on the first floor and only had one room, but it was fairly livable.

 

I turned around and watched her completely leave the alley, then opened my mouth.

 

“If you get into the habit of apologizing for things that aren’t your fault, you won’t last long at work.”

 

The drunkenness I hadn’t noticed while walking down the chilly street slowly began to rise.

 

“Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong either.”

 

With my spinning head, the events and conversations that had swept over me at the end of the day surfaced and sank again.

 

Monk, dog-like bastard, beastly bastard.

 

I gave a small laugh at the last phrase.

 

Since I was the type whose personality didn’t suit anything but blunt remarks tossed out without much thought, I was about to tell her to go home and turn away.

 

“Assistant Manager Lee!”

 

But the new employee shouted at my back, startling me and making me turn around.

 

“Don’t mind what Assistant Manager Kim said! I still think you live much more like a person, Assistant Manager Lee! Living only by doing whatever you want, like Assistant Manager Kim said, is what’s really dog-like! Like a beastly bastard! Get home safely!” 

 

She shouted, then turned around again and ran toward the bus stop.

 

I stared in her direction for a moment, dumbfounded by her extreme choice of words, then turned my feet again.

 

That young new employee had called me human, but to be honest, if I had to be picky, I thought Assistant Manager Kim was closer to that word.

 

He must have been pretty drunk too.

 

Living by instinct, doing whatever you wanted—that too could be called human in its own way.

 

I couldn’t remember a day when I had ever had a goal other than surviving each day.

 

Because living like a monk, as someone had said, was more familiar to me.

 

I had never even thought about living another way.

 

To be honest, it had been quite a while since I had become okay with maintaining that sort of life.

 

In a few months, my loan would be fully paid off.

 

That meant the day when I wouldn’t have to work like a dog was not far away, but I felt no particular emotion about it.

 

I didn’t know whether it was because I had lived this way for too long, or because, as someone had said, I wasn’t really human.

 

My head, already dizzy from alcohol, grew even more complicated.

 

Feeling a bit down, I turned my head and groped around toward the small bookshelf beside my bed.

 

In my empty, bare room, it was the only piece of furniture other than the bed.

 

When I had said Assistant Manager Kim’s words weren’t entirely wrong, I meant there weren’t no parts that were wrong.

 

This was the only thing resembling a hobby I had.

 

Collecting every volume of the genre fiction I liked.

 

It was a mediocre fantasy novel that had been published when I was in elementary school, and it had not been a huge hit, so it was hard to find unless it was in paper book form.

 

After paying back my loan and saving some money, I would shave off a little from my remaining living expenses and relieve stress by buying these books, one by one, even with a premium attached.

 

There was no place that sold the entire series at once, so I had a few duplicate volumes, but that was good in its own way because I could read them without worrying about damaging the books.

 

I had three copies of Volume 1.

 

I pulled out one of them and opened it.

 

Could rereading the books I had collected like this whenever I felt a bit bad be called a hobby?

 

Or should I just call it a habit?

 

I read down the first line of the novel, which I had almost memorized by now.

 

While thinking that my eyes were strangely growing blurry.

 

—It was scarlet blood, showing that even the bodies of the divine race flowed with blood the same color as humans. From every hole in his body, he spurted blood……

 

That day had truly been an exhausting one.

 

Strangely so.

 

Before I could even finish reading the first sentence of the book, I fell into sleep as if someone had grabbed me by the hair and dragged me down.

 

I vaguely heard the sound of the book slipping between my fingers and falling onto the bed.

 

Ah, the book mustn’t get creased.

 

Through my fading consciousness, it felt like someone’s voice rang out.

 

<Mission c…mplete. As a b…nus reward…… a special ability will be given. Depending on the target’s…… d……sire…… the ability will……>

 

I didn’t know who was giving me what without my permission, but I didn’t believe in the word “free”.

 

So I wanted to answer that I didn’t need it, but I lost consciousness just like that and couldn’t.

 

And when I opened my eyes again—

 

—Caw?

 

What greeted me was a window frame decorated in a style one would only see in the Middle Ages, and a crow sitting on top of it.

 

“Uwaaaak!!!”