Chapter 1: The Master has Changed

Life is but a dream.

The time I’ve lived feels meaningless now, as I find myself starting over in an entirely different world.

“Do you prefer arms or legs?”

“What’s the point of dragging them before the master? Burning them alive would suffice.”

“Seriously, just hanging them cleanly would set an example and be better, wouldn’t it?”

“It’d also be fun to drug them. Hehe…”

Correction: life is a chaotic mess of a dream.

Otherwise, there’s no way to explain this disaster.

“All of that is dismissed. Is that really all you idiots have in your heads?”

I finished my words, making it clear that anyone who tried nonsense would face consequences, and got up from my seat.

It was fair, considering the thug I encountered recently had just mistaken someone for someone else.

‘But cutting off someone’s arm or leg, burning them alive, hanging them in the marketplace, or drugging them just because of a misunderstanding?’

That’s absurd.

Though, it seemed even that level of cruelty wasn’t enough for my deranged disciples.

‘How did it come to this…?’

I sighed as I looked at my disciples, whose behavior lacked any semblance of rationality.

Perhaps it was my punishment for choosing only those destined to become villains as my disciples.

But my intentions were good.

I took in those who hadn’t yet become villains, hoping to reform them and steer them away from their destructive paths.

It was the best I could do after reincarnating into a mere extra in the story.

After all, protagonists and righteous characters can handle themselves just fine without intervention.

So I chose to guide only those who would otherwise spiral out of control.

“Rita.”

“Y-yes!”

“Throw away the hair in your pocket. Now.”

“B-but… it’s only one strand…”

“You’re planning to use it for a curse, aren’t you?”

“…I’ll throw it away…”

Even Rita, the most well-behaved of them, was like this.

I thought I taught them proper values, so why are things like this?

The only fortunate part is that they at least listen to me, though the unfortunate part is that they listen to no one but me.

The stack of complaint letters filling my study is proof of this.

Everyone knows I’m the one who raised these troublemakers from childhood.

While my name isn’t widely known across the continent, those “important figures” immediately send letters to me whenever something happens.

And honestly, in about 95 out of 100 cases, it turns out those incidents were indeed caused by my disciples, leaving me no room to protest.

After all, it was my responsibility to take in those who would have otherwise been shunned by society.

‘But if I left them alone, they’d definitely become villains.’

Looking at it optimistically, they were less evil now than the versions I remembered, so perhaps my efforts weren’t entirely in vain.

Although they were still skilled in their respective fields, much like the original villains.

At least, they didn’t seem to have any grand secret ambitions—at the moment.

For now, they’re just a bunch of fools who hold emergency meetings after getting harassed by a thug.

I want to believe that such fools won’t endanger the entire continent.

“…It’d be great if they could just stay out of trouble…”

***

After my disciples returned to their respective homes, I was left alone in my cozy house.

I rummaged through the drawers of my study, looking for something.

A letter to send to the Tower Master, who had recently suffered an unexpected attack, and a piece of parchment bearing a life-extending magic circle.

From a past battle, I had sustained severe injuries, requiring me to extend my shortened lifespan every few years through magic.

Between the stress caused by my disciples and the lingering effects of my injuries, sometimes it feels like a miracle that I’m still alive.

‘But I can’t afford to die just yet.’

If I die before this world’s “ending,” all my efforts to reform these would-be villains would go to waste.

I shudder at the thought of what chaos they might unleash once the leash is gone.

Although the story’s events were still a few years away, life is unpredictable.

Trusting the time spent with my disciples and simply closing my eyes wasn’t an option.

***

After sending the letter of apology to the Tower, I unfolded a brown parchment.

It was something one of my few friends had recently acquired for me, bearing a slightly new design for the life-extending magic circle.

“Did they say it was from some ruins?”

Having done this ritual multiple times, it no longer stirred any emotions in me.

While the design of the magic circle was different, its mechanism was the same as before.

Think of it as the difference between two energy drinks—same purpose, different details.

I floated the brown parchment mid-air and began drawing the magic circle on it, chanting the incantation.

A soft light filled the room, and I felt a strong energy enveloping my body.

‘How long will it take this time…?’

Life-extending magic belongs to the forbidden realm.

It’s not a normal act to artificially prolong the lifespan granted to a human being.

Naturally, there are side effects—the least of which is temporary unconsciousness, while the worst could be permanent bodily damage.

Having prepared countermeasures in advance, my only concern now was how long I’d be unconscious.

Moments later, as everything settled into silence, I opened my eyes to see the dark night sky.

As expected, I had collapsed on the floor.

“Ugh….”

It felt like only a moment for me, but it seemed like over a day had passed in reality.

Judging by the relatively small number of new letters in the study, it appeared I had regained consciousness sooner than expected.

“…?”

But something felt off.

My hands were small.

No, my entire body was small.

Tilting my head, I couldn’t help but wonder about this unfamiliar sensation.

“What was happening to me now?”

“What is this…?”

Leaning against the window, with the dark night sky and soft moonlight in view, I gazed at the unfamiliar face reflected in the mirror before me.

My once-short hair now flowed down to my waist, and my previously rough skin was smooth like fine porcelain.

‘Had my body’s time been reversed? That didn’t seem right—I’d never had hair this long in my life.’

‘And what was this strange discomfort in my chest?’

“A-Ah…”

Even my voice was strangely thin.

The flow of mana was as normal as ever, yet my body felt more abnormal than ever before.

Not that I felt unwell—if anything, my body felt slightly stronger than usual, which only added to my confusion.

And then, a strange hypothesis entered my mind and refused to leave.

‘…No way.’

Surprisingly, it was a hypothesis with a fair amount of plausibility.

I slowly raised my now-delicate arm and cast a simple clothing spell.

-Swish.

The mana that had been by my side for countless years clothed me not in pants but a skirt.

In other words, my mana had determined me to be female.

The jacket and cloak were also not male but female in design.

The conclusion was simple.

‘…How much does lizard meat sell for these days?’

Orphion, that lizard, had deceived me.

The life-extending magic found in some ancient ruins didn’t just extend my lifespan—it reversed my age and even changed my gender.

Sure, one could argue that reverting my age achieved the goal of prolonging my life.

But I was never informed of the risk of a gender change.

So, this was entirely the fault of Orphion, that lizard.

With the conclusion reached, I knew my next course of action.

***

-Swish…

I used the longest-range teleportation magic circle I knew multiple times, crossing to the other side of the continent.

What awaited me there was a vast expanse of snowfields and mountain ranges.

Of course, I already knew that all of it was nothing more than an illusion.

Orphion, despite being a dragon, had a severe aversion to cold.

That lizard, who hated even the smallest bits of ice, would never surround its lair with snow.

This was precisely why—

“Orphion—!!”

—I was able to call out the lizard hiding within the illusion magic that surrounded the area.

When I added that I would unleash freezing magic into his dragon’s lair if he didn’t appear, a massive shadow finally emerged, crawling out.

“…Who are you?”

A voice as deep as a cavern pressed down on me like a heavy weight.

With its immense size, I naturally had to look up at it.

But I wasn’t here to grovel.

I was here as a victim who had suffered at the hands of Orphion.

“The parchment you gave me. Exactly which ruins did you find it in?”

Skipping any preamble, I went straight to the point.

But once again, he asked who I was.

The sheer nerve of this lizard pretending not to know me made my anger boil from deep within.

With my small hands, I began moving my fingers to cast a spell.

‘This lizard dares…?’

“Polymorph!”

[?!]

As I chanted the spell, mana surged and quickly located Orphion’s core, infiltrating it and transforming him into human form.

The now-human Orphion fell before me.

With my shrunken hands—’All of this is because of this lizard’—I grabbed Orphion by the collar and shook him violently.

“What are you going to do about this?! Fix it—now!”

“You… Don’t tell me… Are you Asher?”

“This damned lizard!!”

And just as I screamed in rage, I realized how pitiful I sounded—my voice now unmistakably that of a young girl.

Though Orphion finally recognized me, he had the audacity to laugh.

“Pfft. Look at you. What even is this…?”

The very cause of my current predicament was laughing so hard he seemed about to keel over.

I seriously contemplated whether I should roast or fry this lizard.