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Chapter 1
. I Picked Up a Child
There was someone collapsed in front of my house.
To be precise, a child.
“A… child…?”
I had stepped outside early in the morning to do some shopping, but froze on the spot, blinking blankly before gasping in shock.
“Gasp! A child! It really is a child!”
A tiny little kid, battered and barely clinging to life, was lying in front of my house!
I dropped the basket I was holding and hurriedly ran toward the child.
I carefully tried to lift the child up, but there was no response.
When I placed my fingers under the nose, I could feel the faintest breath.
“Thank goodness…”
I let out a quiet sigh of relief and quickly scooped the child into my arms.
After bringing the child inside, I examined the condition more closely.
The child’s pitch-black hair was matted with clumps of dried blood, and the tiny face was blotched with bruises.
The ragged scraps of clothing barely hanging on were torn in several places, revealing raw wounds beneath.
“Insane… how could a kid end up with injuries like this?”
My words failed me at the sight of the child’s body, covered in horrific wounds.
I immediately called forth healing magic.
The refreshing scent of water filled the air as a blue-green radiance swirled around the child several times, before slowly seeping in.
Soon, I saw the child’s complexion return, and I exhaled in relief.
“Ha… if I hadn’t been nearby, what would have happened to you…”
With wounds that bad on the outside, the internal injuries must have been just as severe—perhaps even life-threatening.
External wounds could be healed with time, but internal injuries? Even the most renowned sorcerers were helpless before those.
The only thing capable of completely healing such damage in a short time was the water spirit’s healing art.
And in this entire world, I was the only spiritist contracted with a water spirit.
“This really is heaven’s blessing… sheer luck…”
My body loosened as the tension drained away, and I mumbled softly while washing the child clean with water’s power—then suddenly froze.
Now that the grime and bruises were gone, the child looked… familiar somehow.
Hair curling down to the waist, pale skin revealed beneath the dirt, long lashes, and a delicate pair of rosy lips…
Who did this child resemble? As I racked my memory, a face I had tried so hard to bury away flashed in my mind.
Arkes de Serenia—the shadowy mastermind in the fantasy novel I had transmigrated into, The Tyrant Emperor Cuts Down the Villains.
Didn’t he also have curly black hair, just like this child?
But no matter how I strained my mind, I couldn’t find any link between the man who had just returned from five years of war, and this half-dead kid in front of me.
For a moment my heart lurched, wondering if this was his child—but reason quickly assured me it couldn’t be.
In the past, Arkes had been gravely injured when his father, maddened with jealousy over his mother’s lover, set fire to their estate. Because of this, Arkes despised mistresses.
And I had never heard of him marrying. So there was no way this child could be his.
Moreover, Arkes was an only son, and the Serenia family—elevated from dukedom to archduchy a decade ago—had very few collateral relatives.
Especially not any Serenia child around seven or eight years old like this one.
It couldn’t possibly be him, either.
Could it be some distant relative I don’t know of?
I scratched my chin and strained my thoughts, but nothing remotely convincing came to mind.
I sighed and gave up on thoughts of the villain.
What’s the point of thinking about him, when I don’t even have the courage to face him again, hiding away here in the Countdom of Haila…
I brushed back my chestnut-brown hair and muttered,
“But really, what on earth happened to this child?”
Why would a child with such striking, protagonist-level looks suddenly collapse here, covered in wounds?
…If I’m not careful, I could get dragged into some serious trouble.
But even so, I couldn’t just abandon a child who had no memory and hadn’t even regained consciousness.
Not because I was some saintly philanthropist.
Simply because… I knew all too well how it felt to be suddenly thrown into a strange, unfamiliar place.
After all, I also woke up one day to find myself in a completely foreign world.
I didn’t want this child to feel the same.
“…”
Unbidden, the memory of my first moment in this world resurfaced.
It had been just an ordinary day.
Like always, I picked up my phone to read The Tyrant Emperor, logging into the novel platform.
But unlike usual, instead of a new chapter update, there was just a notice posted there.
A notice?
An ominous feeling crept over me, but of course, I clicked it.
[Dear readers, hello. This is the author of The Tyrant Emperor Cuts Down the Villains. We apologize to those waiting for the next update, but unfortunately, we will be placing The Tyrant Emperor on indefinite hiatus. ….]
“…Why… why hiatus…?”
It was the only joy that had kept me going through my exhausting job-hunting struggles.
My precious favorite character had just risen to take fiery revenge, finally standing tall…
But now it was being cut off before even taking the first step?
“This can’t be happening…”
That day, overcome with grief, anger, and emptiness, I drank.
It was during the pandemic, so I couldn’t even meet friends. I just downed strong soju by myself.
Then, when I received a text rejecting my latest job application, I cried harder and gulped down soju with tears.
I don’t remember exactly how I fell asleep, but it was the best sleep I’d ever had in my life.
Until I woke up the next day… and realized I had been reborn as just a nameless commoner in The Tyrant Emperor.
