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Chapter 02
Apparently I’m Not a Beggar
In the middle of the marketplace. A small girl standing among the busy-looking people muttered absentmindedly,
“Am I dreaming right now?”
She had definitely been hit by a car. She vividly remembered the terrible pain that had struck her whole body and the sound of screams. Geum Seolha had been certain of her own death.
But when Geum Seolha opened her eyes again, what greeted her was an unfamiliar scene.
“Where on earth is this?”
Blankly looking around, Geum Seolha raised a hand and pinched her own cheek hard once more.
“Ow!”
At the vivid pain, Geum Seolha froze.
“This isn’t really a dream? It’s reality?”
Cold air seeped through the tears in her clothes, making her shiver. The realistic sensation drained the color from Geum Seolha’s face.
When people face something too absurd to accept, they tend to think it’s a dream. Geum Seolha was no different.
But the chilling cold and the pain in her cheek were telling her that this place was not a dream.
“No way.”
Geum Seolha hurriedly looked around. The scenery before her remained unchanged.
People wearing unfamiliar clothes and shops lined along dirt roads—it looked like something straight out of a historical drama.
“Cheap, cheap! Fresh vegetables for sale!”
A woman squatting on the ground selling greens caught her eye.
“Hey, if you stand there people can’t pass. Hold Mommy’s hand tightly and come along.”
A woman carrying luggage on her head while tightly holding a child’s hand walked by.
“Fresh dumplings! Hot dumplings! Come buy some!”
Even a man loudly advertising his dumpling stall.
After seeing all of that, her breath caught in her throat.
“How does this even make sense?”
Geum Seolha’s voice trembled. It was shocking enough that she had somehow survived being hit by a car, but her current situation was even more unbelievable.
This place was different from the world she had lived in.
“Hey! Move aside! Move!”
With a loud shout, someone crashed into Geum Seolha and knocked her over.
“Ugh.”
A sharp pain shot through her knee as it slammed against the ground. As she tried to stand up again, she noticed a puddle of water near her face.
“Huh?”
Geum Seolha doubted her own eyes.
“Why is there a little kid there?”
At the sight of the unfamiliar young child reflected in the water, Geum Seolha’s mouth fell open. The child in the reflection opened its mouth too.
“No freaking way.”
As she moved to pinch her cheek, convinced she had gone insane, the reflected child copied her exactly.
“I became someone else.”
Muttering blankly, Geum Seolha suddenly realized even her own voice sounded unfamiliar.
“This is driving me crazy.”
Opening and closing her eyes tightly, Geum Seolha carefully examined the child’s face reflected in the water.
Large, well-shaped features and plump cheeks filled with youthful softness. Soot stains covered her face.
“So this is me now?”
The child looked no older than seven at best. She was actually pretty cute.
But judging by her clothes, which weren’t just dirty but torn and hanging in rags—
“No matter how I look at it, I look like a beggar.”
Staggering from the shocking reality, Geum Seolha almost lost her balance.
How would anyone feel if they suddenly died in a car accident, woke up in an unfamiliar world in a younger body—and on top of that, as a beggar?
“This is insane.”
Squatting down, Geum Seolha raised her hand. Her tiny hand, small like a sprout, was covered in scratches and grime.
“If my hands look like this too, then I can’t even convince myself that I only look like a beggar because my clothes are ruined.”
Standing up, Geum Seolha looked at her ragged clothes before pausing.
“But clothes with sleeves this wide are usually worn by kids from rich families, aren’t they?”
With faint hope in her heart, Geum Seolha searched through every part of her clothing. The wide sleeves, inside the folds above the sash around her waist—everywhere.
“There’s nothing. So I really am a beggar?”
She muttered gloomily.
Life had never once been easy for her, but could the world really be this cruel? Just when things had finally started improving, a random traffic accident happened, and now she had been dropped into some strange world.
And on top of that—
“Beggars don’t have homes or food.”
Tears gathered in Geum Seolha’s dirty eyes.
Even in modern civilized society, surviving as a child without guardians wasn’t easy.
But having to live as a beggar in a place that was clearly from another era?
“Can I even survive here?”
She knew absolutely nothing about this world. It was truly the worst possible situation.
Geum Seolha looked down at the puddle again.
Covered in soot and with tangled hair caked with mud, a miserable little girl dressed like the poorest of beggars stared back at her.
“Ha…”
Blankly staring at her reflection, Geum Seolha finally lifted her head.
“For now, I need to get out of here and think properly.”
She needed time to calmly process this whole disaster.
Just as Geum Seolha started walking toward a quieter corner away from the crowd—
A rough hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder tightly and spun her around.
“You little thief! I finally caught you today!”
“Ugh! What the—”
Frowning at the pain in her shoulder, Geum Seolha looked up.
A rough-looking man with a flushed face stood before her.
“You damned rat! How dare you steal from me! I’ve been trying to catch you for ages!”
“Stealing?”
Me? A thief?
As Geum Seolha stared at him blankly, the man shoved her hard.
“Ugh!”
Rolling across the ground and twisting her wrist while trying to catch herself, Geum Seolha let out a groan.
Initially caught off guard, she gradually regained her composure. Situations like this required keeping a cool head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why am I a thief?”
“You stole my goods, that’s why! Do you think this is the first time I’ve seen little pests like you?”
Geum Seolha’s eyes sharpened.
Even if this body had really belonged to a thief, shouldn’t the stolen goods still be somewhere on her?
‘But there was nothing.’
From her sleeves to the inside of her clothes, she had searched everything after waking up.
Nothing.
“I didn’t steal anything.”
“What nonsense! I saw it with my own eyes!”
As Geum Seolha glared back without shrinking away, more and more people began gathering around them.
Whispers rose from the crowd.
“Tsk tsk, Hwang is at it again. Whenever business is slow, he always grabs random beggar kids and bullies them.”
“So the kid didn’t actually steal anything?”
“You don’t know Hwang’s reputation? If she really stole something, he’d already have beaten her up.”
“Exactly. With that awful temper of his, who would dare steal from Hwang’s candy shop?”
“Well, you never know. Maybe the kid really is a thief.”
Even though their voices were low, Geum Seolha could hear them clearly.
‘So I got caught by some scumbag who randomly picks on kids?’
The onlookers didn’t seem to think she was guilty, but none of them seemed willing to step in either.
‘If I can just prove I’m not the culprit, this situation might change.’
The problem was that she had no concrete evidence.
But—
‘Evidence isn’t always the only answer.’
She just needed to make it clear she wasn’t the thief.
Glancing at her own hands, Geum Seolha’s eyes gleamed.
“I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I didn’t steal anything.”
Hwang’s thick eyebrows twitched.
Kids like her usually begged for mercy by this point, guilty or not.
But today was different.
“You insolent brat! How dare you lie!”
“If I’m innocent, how are you going to compensate me?”
“Wh-what?”
“You used violence while accusing me of being a thief. I got hurt. I’m asking what responsibility you’ll take if I prove I’m innocent.”
At Geum Seolha’s logical words, suspicion flickered across Hwang’s face.
A child in this situation should be scared or crying.
But she was far too calm.
Still, the suspicion quickly faded.
A ragged child like her couldn’t possibly have powerful backing.
“Compensation? Hah! You’re just a thief who learned some fancy words!”
“What exactly did I steal?”
Hesitating at her composure, Hwang finally shouted,
“You stole candy from my shop a while ago!”
“How many?”
“How many…? Th-three or four!”
Hwang glanced toward his candy stall while answering.
Geum Seolha followed his gaze.
Even from far away she could see the size of the candy on display.
A smile curled on her lips.
“If I stole three or four right in front of you, why did you just stand there and watch?”
“Wh-what are you saying?!”
“With these tiny hands? Stealing three or four at once would’ve gotten me caught immediately.”
The crowd’s eyes shifted busily.
Each candy was about the size of her palm and fairly thick too.
Her words made perfect sense.
“She’s right. Those hands look too small to carry three or four.”
The murmuring spread rapidly.
“Exactly. Hwang never tolerated beggar kids hanging around his stall. Even if she really stole something, she wouldn’t have had time to take that many.”
“Hwang’s nasty habits are showing again. Tsk.”
Flustered by the crowd pointing fingers at him, Hwang panicked.
“You hate beggar kids, don’t you? Why would you suddenly ignore one hanging around your stall?”
“Y-you insolent little—!”
“And if I stole candy, my hands would be sticky. Dirty, sure—but not sticky.”
She raised her hand.
Only then did realization spread through the crowd.
“She’s right.”
Suspicion and contempt poured onto Hwang.
Smirking slightly, Geum Seolha decided to finish this.
“Mister, why do you keep lying? I guess those rumors about you falsely accusing people are true.”
At her mockery and the crowd’s cold stares, Hwang finally snapped.
“You little liar! I’ve been watching you for a long time! Today I’ll teach you a lesson!”
He raised his fist.
Geum Seolha grimaced.
Ah. I pushed too far.
She never expected him to be the type of lowlife who would punch a child without hesitation.
As Geum Seolha clenched her teeth and stared at his incoming fist—
“Miss!”
With a desperate cry, someone suddenly threw themselves around her and hugged her tightly.
“Why did you come all the way out here alone?! What if something happened to you again?!”
Wrapped in the woman’s embrace, Geum Seolha could hear her pounding heartbeat.
Confused, she looked around.
‘What’s going on?’
The woman had suddenly called her “Miss” and hugged her.
And on top of that—
“Who the hell are you?! Let go of me!”
A man was standing nearby, firmly gripping Hwang’s arm with one hand while glancing toward her.
“Do you even know whose fist you nearly raised?”
Geum Seolha held her breath as she watched.
“I was just trying to punish that little thief!”
Hwang shouted that he had done nothing wrong.
The young man’s expression hardened.
“If you speak out of line once more, you won’t leave here in one piece.”
“W-what?”
Hwang’s face turned pale when he noticed the sword hanging at the man’s waist.
As Geum Seolha stared blankly, a voice on the verge of tears reached her ears.
“Was it the young masters again? Or perhaps Miss Yulhee?”
“…”
“Not returning in the carriage is one thing, but how did you end up looking like this after only half a day?”
As the woman released her and inspected her appearance anxiously, Geum Seolha’s expression turned strange.
‘So I wasn’t an orphaned beggar after all.’
I had a family too? And I wasn’t originally dressed like this?
Geum Seolha’s mind spun rapidly.
She wasn’t completely certain, but judging by the situation—
She seemed to be the “young miss” they were talking about.
