FSTE 01

Chapter 01

Prologue

The man was sobbing alone in a tiny room barely five pyeong in size.

“If it was always going to end like this, then why did you even give birth to me…? Why?!”

It was a hollow resentment.
He hated the parents who had given birth to him only to abandon him, yet he didn’t even know their faces or names.
With nowhere to go, that resentment only gnawed further at the man himself.

Stage-four colon cancer.
He had gone to three major hospitals, but there was no miracle waiting for him.

He had struggled desperately to live.
Yet the world responded only with cold, mocking laughter.

The doctor tried to give him hope, saying that with consistent treatment he could survive—but the man didn’t have the money for that.
The price of hope was far too steep for him.

His life had always been like this.
A constant tightrope walk, never secure.

If he hadn’t tried, it wouldn’t feel so unfair—but he had always worked twice as hard as everyone else.
Without ever setting foot in a cram school, he had studied himself to the bone and even made it into a prestigious university that others envied.

But that was where his luck ended.

He thought that attending a top university would be enough to earn a living through tutoring, but reality was different.
Even for elite students, tutoring depended on connections.
And unlike others, he had no parents to serve as those connections.

Earning a living through part-time jobs while keeping up with his studies was far more grueling than he had expected.
Maintaining grades high enough to receive a scholarship at a prestigious university was anything but easy.

When he found himself weighing next month’s rent against the next semester’s tuition,
the man had no choice but to decide to drop out.
A professor suggested taking a leave of absence, but to him, there was no future to be seen if things continued like this.

And cruelly enough,
the very year after he dropped out, a national scholarship program was introduced for the first time.

It was so absurd it wasn’t even funny.

After leaving university, the first job he managed to land—after great difficulty—turned out to be a scam.
It was advertised as a permanent position, but in reality it was a contract job.
The salary was only 70 percent of what had been promised.

With no parental nest to fall back on, he couldn’t afford to wait for better opportunities.
Even if the rope was rotten, if it could keep him alive, he had no choice but to grab it.

And from there on, his life plunged endlessly into the abyss.

Drifting from part-time work to contract jobs.
Enduring hardship after hardship, unable to save money, only accumulating illnesses in his body.

“If only… if I’d never been born in the first place, then at least I wouldn’t have had to suffer…”

No.
His life had never once escaped the abyss from the moment he was born.

All his efforts up to now had been nothing more than meaningless struggle.

“From the very beginning… it was all pointless…”

The man collapsed onto the floor, sobbing.
Curling his aching body into itself, he trembled helplessly.

As if he wanted to return to the womb,
to the time when he was still a fetus.

Rian was a child who seemed somehow special.

Golden hair that seemed spun from sunlight itself, and a face so beautiful that even elves would marvel. His appearance could easily be described as perfect.

On top of that, even his smallest gestures set him apart from other children. He was so intelligent that he could learn to read on his own without anyone teaching him. Sometimes, he even possessed such deep insight and wisdom that adults would overcome their pride and seek his advice.

He was, in every sense, a model young gentleman.

“Hey, Rian. What are you—ugh! That smell!”
“Compost mixing. Don’t want to smell it, so go away and don’t bother me.”

But he was a serf.
His fate was to spend his life carrying and spreading smelly manure.

“Ugh. Why bother poking around something that stinks like that?”

A girl, pretty though not quite on Rian’s level, frowned and pinched her nose.

“Who are you to talk, smelling like urine yourself?”
“Sh-shut up! I don’t smell like urine!”

Her name was Nora. The daughter of a tanner, she was Rian’s childhood friend and neighbor.

“Here! Dad said to give this to you!”
“Huh? Oh, a return for last time? Thanks… hey, don’t drop it on the ground!”
“No! What if it gets covered in pig poop?”

Nora tossed a small leather bundle onto the ground and stepped back a few paces.

Rian let out a small sigh and picked it up. By now, it had gotten dirty from the compost and soil.

“Honestly, no wonder they say she’s like Jeomsuni.”
“Hey! That was an insult!”
“It’s a compliment, a compliment. It roughly means ‘cute.’”
“Lies! She’s two years younger than me! Does she think I’m stupid?”
“Oh, it wasn’t?”
“Waaah!”

Rian occasionally used words no one else could understand.

Words from a world entirely different from this one—a small habit left over from his previous life.

“Hmph! You keep being mean to me, you’ll regret it later.”
“Why would I?”
“Didn’t you hear? The young master is coming to our village.”
“The young master? The lord’s son? No wonder the village head has been fussing over decorations lately.”

Rian stuck the shovel he was holding roughly into the ground and let out a long sigh.

The harvest season was near, and the village was already busier than ever. It was hard to understand why the head was so concerned. But since the future lord was visiting the village for the first time, it was understandable that the village head would be on edge.

“So what’s the point?”
“What do you mean, what’s the point? The young master might see me and fall in love with me as his bride, you know?”
“Sorry, I don’t even know where to start arguing with that.”
“Pfft! Don’t mock me!”

Nora, ignored by her childhood friend who was two years older, pouted.

“But, well… if you want to marry me, maybe I’ll wait until next year?”

Though Rian still looked like a boy, he would come of age next spring.

If he had eaten more or slept differently, he might have grown a bit taller. Judging by his usual meals and sleep, though, there was no hope.

“Do you think you can? My dad always says he wants to see his daughter married off well and change her fate.”

Even if he grew taller, nothing would change much. A year from now, he would likely still be digging through manure.

He was far from the kind of suitor Nora’s father wanted.

“Besides, you’re not even my type.”
“What! There’s no one prettier than me in this village!”
“You’re… uglier than me.”
“Eeek!”

Though upset, the girl couldn’t deny it. She liked that face the most. After all, who would fall for a smelly serf?

“So what kind of woman is your type, then?”
“A rich widow.”

Nora paused. She had heard it before, but it never got any easier to accept.

“What is that! Always with your silly jokes!”
“Jokes? Can you stop dismissing someone’s preferences?”
“Hmph! If you like a woman like that, then maybe the infamous Isabelle from the Lapis Lazuli Trading House would do?”
“Exactly. Perfect, right? Now I get it.”
“What? Snap out of it! That woman is from a country at war with us!”

Though Rian said it jokingly, he considered marrying a wealthy widow the most realistic path for social mobility.

A serf could not choose where to live or what work to do. Even though he could read and do calculations, the local nobles had no interest in his exceptional talents.

“So if I marry a fat rich man, and then he dies, would you marry me then?”
“That wouldn’t be bad. If necessary, I could even help you secretly kill him.”
“What? That’s not funny at all!”

Not a joke, Rian thought, picking up his shovel again and stabbing the compost heap.

One lesson from his previous life: living honestly and diligently only brings suffering.
Justice and fairness were illusions. Those who worked hard often watched others cheat and thrive while they suffered.

This life, I won’t live like that.

To do so, he first had to escape the miserable fate of being a serf.

“Still…”
“Hm?”
“If you hate this village too, I’ll take you with me when I run away.”

It wasn’t about love. Perhaps because of memories from his past life, he saw Nora more like a younger cousin or little sister than a romantic partner.

If anything, it was a kindred spirit feeling.

Nora, unaware of Rian’s true feelings, blushed and smiled shyly.

“Really? Promise?”
“Of course.”

But Rian never got the chance to keep that promise.

The next morning, Nora was found dead at the village well.

Rian was hated by his parents.

The reason was simple: he looked nothing like them.

They suspected he was the product of a fairy’s trick, not an affair. He was like a dragon hatching from an egg—a bizarre child.

The village elders concluded the same.

As a result, Rian was treated worse than a servant, barely tolerated by his parents.

Will my parents react the same if I die?

Rian watched Nora’s grieving parents and drifted into thought.

Her father, staring at the sky with empty eyes.
Her mother, exhausted from crying, muttering her daughter’s name like a madwoman.

A normal parent might behave this way, but Rian had never had proper parents, even in his previous life.
Seeing parents cry for their child felt utterly strange to him.

This idiot child! Are you jealous of the dead girl?

He hit his own head in frustration.

He couldn’t cry for his friend’s death and was instead sulking over his own jealousy. Even he felt tears forming at his petty behavior.

“Hey! Why are you all gathered here? Go back to work!”

An old, strict man pushed through the crowd. It was the village head.

Perhaps because such an unfortunate event happened while a respected person was visiting, his wrinkles looked even deeper than usual.

“I knew an accident would happen here!”

The head immediately tapped the well—source of the incident—with his cane.

Meanwhile, Nora’s body lay wet on the dirt. Her parents, bereaved overnight, were ignored.

“Hey, mason! Before we bury her, raise this a bit higher.”

The head barked orders at a mason among the spectators.

“But sir, it’ll be inconvenient if it’s too high.”
“Inconvenient? Life is more important than comfort!”
“Y-Yes…”
“Do it quickly!”

It sounded reasonable. The mason sheepishly went to adjust the work.

Thanks to the village head, things seemed to be moving quickly.

Are they really just going to call this an accident?

Rian found many things suspicious.

First, the well’s height. About one meter, slightly above Nora’s waist—hardly enough to cause an accident.

Sure, a full bucket of water could make someone lose balance, but the bucket tied to the post was dry and untouched.

And those bruises…

Rian studied Nora’s cold body. Small bruises marred her neck and wrists—bruises that weren’t there yesterday.
It was unlikely her parents did this.

Perhaps someone had murdered her.

“Wait, village head.”

He had to say something. Nora’s death couldn’t just be ignored.

Then, he suddenly pressed a hand to his ear and frowned.

“What’s wrong, Rian?”
“Nothing… I just can’t believe Nora is dead.”
“Life and death aren’t ours to decide. When the debt to the earth will be paid is not for us to judge.”

The village head patted Rian’s hair.
He assumed Rian looked serious simply because he had lost a close friend.

“Go home quickly. Don’t linger on a girl drowned in the well, or your spirit will haunt the water.”
“Yes.”

Rian could not tell the head his suspicions.
He heard strange whispers in his ear.

These hallucinations had occurred since childhood. Sounds like voices or songs, but meaningless and indecipherable.

One thing was certain: whenever he heard it, something would happen.

That felt ominous.

If he had spoken, something bad would happen.

The last time he had heard such a terrifying sound was when children wanted to pick berries in the mountains. He refused, and one of the children never returned after encountering a wild boar.

Could it be…

Rian looked toward the village head’s house. On a distant hill, a group of men watched.

Three armored knights, and one young nobleman wearing a flashy fur coat.

If there was injustice in Nora’s death, it would be their duty to uncover it.

If it’s them, I’m the one in danger.

Rian’s fists trembled with tension.

These were opponents a powerless serf boy could never face alone.
He needed to stay calm and think carefully.