Sreung
A sword is drawn from the scabbard.
A retired war hero.
A daughter is born.
A novel, a long novel.
The reflection in the mirror, which reflected the opposite side, showed the cold, emotionless eyes of a man.
A man who had trained countless brilliant disciples, thrown himself into battle for the kingdom, and whose eyes had become numb after the slaughter of tens of thousands.
In those bloodshot eyes, the screams of those who had died by his hand, mingled with the blood spilled on the battlefield, tangled together in a dark, murky mass.
“Phew.”
A deep sigh escaped from the man’s mouth.
To erase the memories that made his head throb.
However, the memories, which were painfully branded into his mind, would never be erased, and in the end, those memories, which had only faded slightly, were pushed aside as he returned the sword to its scabbard.
Tap
As the sword disappeared into the scabbard, a young boy entered the man’s line of sight.
The boy standing opposite the man was none other than the first prince of the kingdom, Enoch Ring Shardena, whose dignity could immediately be sensed by anyone.
“Are you really leaving?”
“…Yeah, I’ve been through a lot. I think it’s time for me to retire and try something new.”
The boy, who no longer saw the man as a force for the kingdom but as someone who intended to retire and live a new life, wore a complicated expression.
The expression was not simply one of regret over the departure of the war hero, who had saved the kingdom from the brink of ruin, and who could be called the kingdom’s sword.
The reason for Enoch’s complicated expression lay in the guilt that he, too, was responsible for the man’s decision, his anger at the environment that had pushed the man to this point, and a mix of sadness as he tried to empathize with the emotions the man must have been feeling.
And because the man knew Enoch’s nature so well, he gently patted his head as he always did, though it was rough.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to die. I’m just tired, so I think I deserve a break.”
“…Of course. If you need anything, please let me know. I’ll ask my father and get it for you.”
“Yeah, if I need something, I’ll ask.”
Even though he said it, with those lifeless eyes, it was hard to believe.
Enoch briefly thought that, but he didn’t speak it aloud.
Why? Because Enoch trusted the man, his teacher, who had raised him to this point.
Even though the war had pushed him into a corner, Enoch believed that, if given time to catch his breath, the man would rise again as he always had.
‘Of course, the wounds… won’t disappear.’
However, no matter how much the man’s appearance might return to normal, the scars left on his heart by this war would never disappear.
Many of the disciples the man had raised with so much affection, dedication, and care had lost their lives in this war.
The size of the justice he had given them was immeasurable, and similarly, the wounds carved into his heart were beyond measure.
No matter how much time passed and his appearance returned to what it had been, those wounds would never disappear.
‘I wish there was something that could heal my teacher’s wounds…’
However, Enoch, who knew better than anyone that such a thing would not exist, could only hope that his teacher’s appearance would return to normal.
“The best of luck. I will always wait for you in this kingdom, Teacher.”
“…Yeah. You take care too.”
With what was probably the final farewell, the man turned and began descending the hill where the castle was built.
It was a midday time when the warm sun was shining down, but the afternoon felt completely devoid of warmth.
Enoch watched his teacher’s retreating figure until the very last moment.
And it would be years before Enoch could reunite with his teacher again.
It had already been fifty years since he had fallen into this world.
At first, he denied it, turned away from the truth, and wanted to shut himself away, but after a series of events, he had come to accept that this world was real, and he had been running hard for fifty years.
However, even after fifty years had passed, whenever he looked at his unchanged body, he couldn’t help but doubt if this world was truly real.
“But it must be real…”
Yet, that brief doubt was pushed aside as Enoch recalled the memories of the past and dismissed it with a word of denial.
It had been fifty years since he had fallen into this world, a world he had thought was a game, a growing open-world RPG, ‘The Continent of Marika.’
No matter how much he tried to ignore the reality before his eyes, the people he saw—so clearly real and diverse in their characteristics—convinced him that this was indeed reality.
Anyone could see that these beings could never be just NPCs or entities made of 0s and 1s in a game.
They have emotions, react differently to the same situation, and their individual efforts intertwine or sometimes clash, making this world move forward.
No matter how or in what way I looked at it, I could never call it just a game, which made me painfully realize that this world was real.
And from the moment I understood the situation, where I felt as if I were floating alone, I began to live with all my might.
It is clear that this place is reality and not a game, but I had seen how this reality unfolds through the game.
To stop him, I trained the power given to me when I fell into this world, took in those with potential as my disciples, and threw myself into battlefields overrun by demons.
And on the battlefield, for the first time, I took a life.
It was just a mere grunt, but as my sword sliced through him like tofu, his face twisted in agony as he died.
That image remains vivid in my mind even now.
The sensation was so nauseating that I felt like throwing up.
But surprisingly, even that repulsive sensation became familiar after just two days on the battlefield.
However, the more I became accustomed to the act of killing, the more my mind deteriorated.
As the screams filled my ears and the amount of blood soaking my body increased, I could feel my sanity being chipped away moment by moment.
And on top of that, the news from different parts of the battlefield—news that my disciples, the children I had raised, had died—drove a massive nail into my heart.
A nail that could not be seen, but one that dug deep into my soul, pulling out silent screams.
Even when I managed to remove it amidst the urgency of battle, the wound it left behind never fully healed.
“What was so urgent that you had to leave first…”
Drip.
Before I realized it, tears started rolling down my cheeks.
“……Ah.”
Feeling the wetness on my cheeks, I let out a small sigh and wiped my tears away.
Perhaps because not even a month had passed, just recalling those memories made it impossible to control my emotions.
“If the others saw this, they’d be laughing their heads off.”
Even as I forced myself to think of something amusing to lighten my mood, the gaping hole in my chest remained unbearably cold.
“Sigh…”
Letting out yet another deep breath—one of countless that day—I wiped away my tears and gazed at the nearly reached cabin.
A cabin located at the far borders of the kingdom’s territory, at least 500 kilometers away from the Kingdom of Chardena.
To be more precise, not just the cabin, but the land it stood on—all of it was my domain, granted to me by the king.
Yet, I had only built that single cabin.
Because, for now, what I needed was not a bustling domain, but a quiet countryside retreat where I could rest.
I had asked Enoch to handle it, but seeing how the cabin was twice as big as a normal one, I chuckled.
“I told him to make it small, but he built it big anyway.”
Considering Enoch’s personality, he had probably restrained himself from building something several times larger.
Even so, for a remote countryside cabin, it certainly looked luxurious.
I didn’t particularly love it, but I couldn’t ignore the effort put into it, so I had no choice but to live there.
Finally, I took my last step and arrived at the cabin, reaching out to grab the door handle.
“Oh…!”
“……Hmm?”
Just as I was about to open the door, I suddenly heard crying.
The sound came from directly below me.
Lowering my gaze, which hadn’t previously reached that area, I finally saw a basket placed there.
And inside, wrapped in cloth, was a baby.
“Who would leave a baby here…?”
The baby still had its lanugo hair, and not a single tooth had come in yet.
Perhaps startled by my voice as I stood in front, the baby let out loud cries.
Hurriedly, I lifted the entire basket.
“Is there… a letter or anything…?”
Someone had clearly passed through the fence and left the baby in front of my cabin, meaning it wasn’t just lost by accident.
I thought maybe there was a reason for abandoning the child, but there was not even a single note or letter in the basket.
Only the tiny baby, waving its small limbs and letting out half-formed cries, was inside.
“What… on earth… is this…?”
“Uwaa… uuuwaa…”
As I reached out a finger, the loudly crying baby suddenly stopped and started sucking on my fingertip.
Letting out another deep sigh, I stared at the baby.
On the very first day of my retirement, I suddenly ended up with a child to raise.