The idea that all human blood is the same red is a lie.
Some people are born with blue blood, and even in the modern world we live in, that hasn’t changed.
Especially in the job market.
In this market, where bloodline discrimination runs rampant, the most expensive blood belonged to the Jangnim.
The blood of chairmen, presidents, chief prosecutors, and court justices.
The sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters of countless high-ranking elites.
While others bled for their college entrance exams.
While they struggled to build their resumes.
While they ruined their health working unpaid internships.
The privileged ones went abroad for their so-called studies, drank in clubs, partied at home, and contributed only to America’s domestic economy—only to return and take the positions that had already been prepared for them.
And once again, I was eliminated in an interview, blinded by the blood of the Jangnim.
A job seeker.
Someone born with the lowest-value blood.
In other words, an orphan.
“…Life.”
Since I had nothing to be ashamed of before the heavens, I suffered through my repeated job failures.
A kind, well-behaved, diligent student.
But the reality that awaited me after I graduated neatly in four years was endless failure.
If employment was the starting line for entering society, then I was frozen in place, unable to even step onto that line.
If my failures were purely due to my lack of skill, I could have at least given up on the dream of an office job.
But then, I unlocked my secondhand smartphone and checked the screen.
[Job Forum]
[Title: I’m a current employee at â—‹â—‹ Corporation]
[Post: All the new hires this year are nepotism babies. One of them even calls the CEO “uncle.”]
[Comment: Haha, that’s just how small companies are.]
[– But isn’t â—‹â—‹ Corporation considered a strong mid-sized company?]
[Nah, every company in Hell Joseon is a shithole, bro.]
It was all the same.
The companies I applied to—
Some hired the CEO’s son.
Some hired the executive director’s niece.
Others made sure every grandchild of the chairman got a spot.
And every time they took a limited position, someone else had to be pushed out.
Every time.
That “someone” was me.
Bloodline.
Because of that one thing, these people passed while I failed.
I felt suffocated.
***
Lately, these thoughts had come and gone, but today, they were particularly relentless.
“…Fuck.”
I spat the curse out, but since swearing wasn’t a habit for me, it only made me feel worse.
‘Why do these people even bother getting jobs?’
The grandsons of conglomerate chairmen.
The only sons of landlords with buildings in Gangnam.
The heirs of stable mid-sized company owners.
People who could never spend all their money even if they just wasted their whole lives doing nothing.
‘Wouldn’t it be better if they just stayed out of the job market and left the rest of us alone?’
“…Sigh.”
I was exhausted.
From the self-loathing.
From staring at the Han River.
My chest ached again, and I rubbed at it.
‘Guess I’ll have to go do warehouse labor.’
Since the convenience store I worked at shut down, my rent for this month was at risk.
Even if I were a dirt spoon, I could at least crash at my parents’ place.
But an orphan didn’t have that option.
It didn’t matter if I was injured, robbed, or had any other unavoidable circumstances.
If I couldn’t pay my rent, I’d be kicked out.
In fact, when I had broken my leg once, I got thrown out and had to live in a sauna.
Even self-pity was a luxury that came in limited supply.
For an orphan who had to work to survive.
“If only I had been born with a good bloodline…”
- How much better would life have been?
And then, my chest throbbed sharply again.
“Ugh…!?”
This was nothing like the vague discomfort from before.
A crushing pressure and pain started in my chest and spread down my left arm.
“Shit”
I lost strength in my body.
As I watched myself collapse, I remembered my conversation with the doctor yesterday.
“Looks like you have a congenital heart condition. Have you never had a checkup before? Wait, this is your first time at a hospital in your entire life?”
‘No way.’
‘Was I dying?’
“I mean, I know it’s serious, but— Oh, right, you said you don’t have a guardian. Hmm… This seems hereditary. You should get to a big hospital fast. This could be fatal.”
‘Even death wasn’t my fault, but my bloodline’s?’
“Fucking… hell….”
Pain swallowed me whole.
Darkness took over my consciousness.
***
In the infinite black void, a whisper reached me.
[Bloodline, huh.]
The voice lifted my very soul.
[Then let me grant half of your wish.]
And carried me away—
[Live with both the best and worst bloodlines at once. Will your journey lead to light, or to darkness?]
***
Then, darkness again.
Pain again.
But this time, a different kind of pain.
“Aaaaah!! Aghhh!!”
“Push harder! More! More, more, more!!! Damn it, the mother won’t make it!”
“Then save the baby!! Get the scissors!!”
The darkness faded into red.
A beautiful woman, drenched in blood, held me in her eyes—
Smiling through her tears.
“Ah… my… baby…”
She whispered in awe.
“Ellie, ah…”
And then, in her eyes—
Life disappeared.
A second birth, branded as trauma.
***
Fifteen years later.
In an orphanage within the empire, I finally recalled all my past life’s memories.
And after deep contemplation, I spoke.
“…Well, I’m fucked.”
I couldn’t think of a better phrase.
It was accurate, and it even had a wordplay twist.
‘So, my bloodline is…’
My father was the emperor.
My mother was a prostitute he spent a night with.
I didn’t know if it was just one night or if she was a regular, but their identities were clear.
The very definition of both the best and worst bloodlines.
‘An emperor’s illegitimate child, huh.’
‘What kind of fate awaited people like them in the original world?’
Correct! Off with their heads!
Whether they started a rebellion themselves, were falsely accused of treason, were simply misunderstood, or were executed preemptively just in case, they almost always met the same fate—either decapitation or a blade through the heart.
In that sense, being stuck here in the orphanage was actually better… or so I wanted to think.
***
“E-Ellie.”
Hans stammered in a whisper.
“If… if we don’t finish cleaning quickly, w-we won’t get dinner t-tonight either.”
The orphanage—called a childcare facility in my original world—was my second life.
The problem was, calling both this place and the modern childcare facilities of 21st-century South Korea by the same name would be a grievous insult to the latter.
For instance, take Hans, standing right in front of me.
He was skin and bones, and one side of his head was always crusted with blood and pus due to a persistent skin disease.
A single visit to a doctor could completely cure it.
It wouldn’t even cost much—just two loaves of bread.
But since the orphanage director considered that a waste of money, Hans had lived with that condition for as long as I could remember.
The other children weren’t treated much better.
Cramped, coop-like rooms.
Tattered, patched-up clothes.
Meals consisting of a measly piece of stale bread and watery vegetable soup, with nearly spoiled milk served as a “special treat” from time to time.
This wasn’t a childcare facility.
It was a child abuse facility.
And the problem was, if you tried to escape from here, your life would be at risk.
I hadn’t been reincarnated into a modern society with a proper social welfare system, nor even an early modern society where such concepts were just beginning to take shape.
This was the Middle Ages.
Though, it was quite different from the Middle Ages of my original world. In some aspects, it was even more advanced—not just compared to the Middle Ages, but even to the modern era.
And the reason for that was—
***
“Ellie! Hans!”
A girl as ragged and malnourished as us came running over.
Her name was Mary.
“The director said we all have to wash up, quick! Girls go to the west wing bath, boys to the kitchen!”
Luckily, I had just finished scrubbing the stairs, which was my assigned task.
“Okay, I’m coming.”
My voice was frail as it slipped from my lips.
My hands, though roughened by hard labor, were still slender and pale.
“I-I’ll go ahead f-first then.”
Hans hurried off, leaving me and Mary to head toward the west wing together.
As I had just been mumbling to myself earlier—before my reincarnation, I had been a proud Korean man.
And then, through the process of being reborn, I lost something crucial.
Or rather, I had it taken from me.
My new name was Ellie.
Officially, I had no surname, though it was assumed that my true family name was absurdly long.
I was now fifteen years old, slightly on the shorter side at 155 cm.
Recently, certain parts of my body had started developing more rapidly.
And while I rarely had the chance to look into a mirror, I was fairly certain that I was… quite pretty.
A girl.
That was my new body.
***
“I hope we get a good look at the visitor today.”
“That much?”
“Who’s coming again?”
As we walked toward the west wing, I asked, and Mary’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You didn’t hear?”
“Is it just another merchant making a big donation?”
Of course, donating to this orphanage was the same as donating directly into the director’s pockets.
Most donors either didn’t know that or simply didn’t care.
“No! Today, it’s someone really amazing!”
“What kind of person?”
“None other than—”
Just as Mary’s perpetually infected eyes sparkled with excitement—
“Ellie!”
A voice roared like a bellowing bear.
A bear that had gorged itself on everything in the forest and grown bloated with fat.
“Eek…!”
Mary trembled.
Thud. Thud.
With each heavy footstep, the old wooden floor trembled as a large, middle-aged woman appeared.
Doloria Umper.
The orphanage director.
And a tyrant.
I opened my mouth.
“You called for me?”
Doloria narrowed her eyes.
“I told you to keep your eyes wide open!”
A hand the size of a pot lid rose into the air.
Whoosh.
The sound of air being sliced.
But before the slap could land on my cheek, her hand stopped just short.
“…No, even someone as plain as you needs to keep their face intact today.”
Instead, her fingers reached for my shoulder beneath my clothes.
Rough nails touched the tender skin of my arm.
They pinched.
They pressed together until her nails dug into my flesh, grinding against each other.
I endured it without screaming, and Doloria twisted her lips.
“I’m really curious, Ellie. Just how much longer can you keep enduring like this?”
She smirked, pulling her fingers away.
They were smeared with my blood.
“Go wash up.”
After Doloria left, Mary hesitantly asked, “Are… you okay?”
I took a breath.
“Mary.”
She blinked.
“Who did you say was coming today?”
“A magician.”
“For real?”
“Of course! They said it’s an incredible family of magicians who even received a noble title ages ago!”
The biggest difference between this world and my original one.
Magic.
In this world, where magic surpassed even technology, magicians were lords and nobility.
Just like how warriors who wielded lances on horseback had been in my original world.
“Is that so?”
I smiled.
“That’s a relief.”
I didn’t care who it was, as long as they were a real magician.
Whether they were from a duchy founded by the Emperor’s tutor, a barony built in the wilderness, or even just a rogue spellcaster—
It didn’t matter.
I had never once seen real magic up close.
And that was the only reason I had remained trapped in this orphanage until now.
“Looks like today is the day for a bear hunt.”
“A b-bear?”
“Yeah. And—”
I lifted a strand of my hair onto my palm.
Making sure it was still properly black, I smiled at my frightened friend.
“A bear that gorged itself on children and grew fat. A truly wicked one.”