Chapter 2

The assassin from Tiris was bewildered when he saw how effortlessly Baberi dodged his attacks.

‘I deliberately chose a frail body for you, so it should be easy to kill her.’

That was how the mage who had sent Baberi Rangs to another world had explained it.

“Easy, my ass.”

The assassin cursed the mage through gritted teeth.

“Just die quietly, would you?”

The assassin swung the kitchen knife.

Baberi read the trajectory of the blade aimed at her neck, ducked beneath it, and drove her fist into his stomach.

The assassin staggered backward and coughed painfully.

If he had been using his own body, which had been trained for many years, a blow like that wouldn’t have done much damage.

But the owner of this pathetic body suffered an enormous amount of pain from just one hit.

“Aren’t you the one who deliberately chose a weak body?”

The body he was temporarily borrowing was so slow and lacking in strength that he began to wonder if the mage had intentionally chosen a frail body after all.

Baberi, on the other hand, was incredibly quick.

Whenever he tried to grab her, she slipped away by the narrowest margin and continued throwing punches at him.

‘How am I supposed to fight under conditions like these?’

He was furious, but what could he do?

It was the king’s order.

All he could do was try his best to kill Baberi Rangs with this body and return to his original world.

“Glock, that bald bastard, sent you, didn’t he? Huh?”

Baberi asked with one corner of her mouth raised.

Her smile was so sinister that, at first glance, she looked more like the assassin than he did.

“What good will knowing that do when you’re about to die?”

“It means I have one more reason to get revenge, so I’d better keep count.”

The two of them backed away from each other, keeping their distance and remaining on guard as they caught their breath.

“Woof! Woof!”

Because his owner had been attacked by a stranger, Kongtteok barked loudly in excitement.

Even when Baberi told him to stay away because it was dangerous, Kongtteok bravely continued barking at the man.

“Grrrrr, woof! Woof!”

The assassin glanced at Kongtteok, then stepped on the leash lying on the floor.

When the startled Kongtteok tried to retreat, the sharp blade was suddenly pointed toward him.

“Don’t!”

Baberi threw herself forward to save Kongtteok.

It was a trap.

The assassin had deliberately made her lower her guard and rush toward the dog so that he could pull her into the range of his arms, knowing that she was faster at dodging attacks.

The tip of the assassin’s kitchen knife was just about to sink into Baberi’s left arm—

Someone suddenly grabbed the assassin’s hand and snatched the knife away.

“What the hell are you doing in front of a police station, mister?”

Baberi had realized she was being followed and had deliberately stopped in front of a police station.

But the assassin had never been to Korea before.

He didn’t know this was a police station.

He didn’t even know what a police station was.

“Don’t move! Damn it! Student, are you okay?”

A middle-aged man who appeared to be a detective barked at the assassin before approaching Baberi and asking her in a gentle voice.

“Oh dear, oh dear. What do we do about this?”

He looked at Baberi’s blood-soaked left arm and grimaced as though he were the one in pain.

“We need to contact your parents and take you to the emergency room.”

“I don’t have parents.”

The detective’s face suddenly took on an expression that clearly said, Oh, crap.

“Oh, dear. Oh, dear. I made a mistake. I’m sorry, student.”

It was the first time Baberi had ever heard someone apologize after hearing that her parents were dead, so she found it rather strange.

Her own parents had been traitors, so their deaths had been inevitable.

If anything, the fact that they were still alive would have been the bigger problem.

Of course, she had heard that Yoo Chaeyoung’s parents had died in a traffic accident.

“I have a sister.”

“Then shall we call your sister first?”

Baberi nodded and called Yoo Chaerin.

After hearing what had happened, Yoo Chaerin was horrified and told her to stay there because she was getting off at the next stop.

In the meantime, Baberi took Kongtteok’s leash again and watched the assassin being taken into the police station.

“I just have a few questions before your sister gets here. Do you know that man?”

Baberi thought about the detective’s question for a moment before shaking her head.

“No.”

“A man you don’t know suddenly attacked you with a knife? Do you have any idea why he did it?”

Glock told him to kill me, so of course he attacked me.

Baberi knew the reason perfectly well, but she shook her head with an expression that said she had absolutely no idea.

“Did he say anything strange while attacking you?”

“I don’t know. The moment I saw the knife, I was so shocked that my mind went completely blank.”

Blank, my ass. I was laughing because all that bulking was for this very day.

Baberi sniffled as though she were trying to hold back tears.

The detective nodded with an extremely apologetic expression.

“What will happen to that man now?”

“I’ll make sure he goes to prison. He won’t be able to lay a hand on you again.”

The detective stayed beside Baberi until her sister arrived, reassuring her and telling her not to worry.

“Yoo Chaeyoung!”

Yoo Chaerin came running toward Baberi, completely out of breath.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“Ma’am, please calm down first. Take her to the emergency room. It doesn’t look like she’s seriously injured, so don’t worry too much.”

Only after the detective told her this did Yoo Chaerin notice that Baberi’s arm was covered in blood.

Although the detective had told her to calm down, Yoo Chaerin let out a shrill scream and looked as though she was about to cry.

“I’m okay. It’s not really—”

Baberi was about to tell the truth, but then she remembered that Yoo Chaerin had told her to run the washing machine earlier and she hadn’t done it.

So she decided to exaggerate her pain.

“Actually, it hurts a little.”

It was past midnight by the time Baberi returned from the emergency room with Yoo Chaerin after having her wound stitched up.

Even when Yoo Chaerin saw that the washing machine hadn’t been started, she didn’t say a word to Baberi.

“You’re tired, aren’t you? Go to bed. Do you want me to make you some milk with honey?”

Instead of nagging her, Yoo Chaerin was incredibly kind.

Baberi drank the honeyed milk and comfortably lay down in bed.

She didn’t have to run the laundry again or wash any cups.

Lying in bed, Baberi fell into deep thought.

Had anyone in Tiris ever helped her when someone attacked her?

No.

No one had.

In that damned place, even her teacher had taught her that a traitor should quietly accept whatever stones people threw at them.

But what had happened today?

A detective she had never met before had appeared and helped her.

Because she—Yoo Chaeyoung—was a citizen protected by the state.

Thanks to that, Baberi was now lying on a soft bed while the assassin sent by Glock was sitting in a cold detention cell.

A faint smile appeared on Baberi’s face.

So this is what the power of the state feels like!

“Maybe this place is so comfortable to live in that I could even give up on revenge…”

That night, Baberi fell asleep feeling unbelievably happy, as though one glass of milk alone had filled her stomach.

But her happiness didn’t last long.

‘Kill Baberi Rangs.’

She dreamed of Glock sitting on his throne and ordering an assassin to kill her.

She woke up grinding her teeth.

As expected, forgetting revenge was simply not an option for her.

If she still had absolutely no clues, like before, that would be one thing.

But now there had been an assassin from Tiris.

There was no way he could have come here without knowing how to return.

If she threatened him properly, she might be able to find out how to go back.

“I don’t know how to return.”

But when Baberi somehow managed to track him down and visit him in prison several months later, he gave her a ridiculous answer.

“The mage who sent you and me here said that if I killed you, he would bring me back to my original world himself. Looking back now, it was obviously a trap.”

The assassin gave a bitter smile.

Only after he was captured did he learn that the owner of this body had been a criminal responsible for robbing and murdering five people.

Apparently, his fingerprints and DNA matched evidence found at the crime scene.

As a result, he had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

“It’s infuriating to be punished for something I didn’t even do.”

Baberi nodded sympathetically at his sense of injustice, but then suddenly realized something was strange.

“If you’re an assassin, didn’t you kill more than five people?”

She asked because, as far as she knew, that seemed likely.

The assassin flinched.

What the hell? Then he doesn’t have any reason to feel wronged.

As Baberi looked at him in disbelief, the assassin let out a long sigh.

He suddenly began confessing that he had killed countless people throughout his life.

He spoke with an extremely serious expression, but unfortunately for him, Baberi had absolutely no interest in whether he had been born in a back alley or in a noble household.

“What was the mage’s name?”

That was what mattered.

She needed to crush that mage along with Glock.

But even if she wanted revenge, she needed to know who she was taking revenge on.

“I don’t know. He was careful. He wore a mask.”

Baberi sighed because of this so-called lonely assassin who apparently knew absolutely nothing.

At this rate, she was back where she had started.

“What I remember is… yes. He was a man.”

How many male mages could there possibly be in the Kingdom of Tiris?

Probably just as many as female mages.

“Looking back, my life has been a continuous cycle of betrayal and struggle.”

Baberi left the assassin behind as he began rambling about his life and escaped.

Almost two years had passed since Baberi had been abandoned in Yoo Chaeyoung’s body.

Two years was enough time for even someone with Baberi’s personality—someone who couldn’t stand leaving a grudge unpaid—to have her desire for revenge gradually fade.

Should I just give up on revenge?

One morning, after spending the night wrestling with that question, Baberi woke up at the sound of rustling outside.

Yoo Chaerin seemed to be getting ready for work.

“You’re up early?”

Yoo Chaerin asked in surprise when she saw Baberi come out into the living room.

“…My dream was to be a potato farmer.”

Yoo Chaerin tilted her head at the completely unexpected statement.

“I wanted to grow a really, really big potato.”

“Don’t sleep-talk. Go back to bed.”

When Yoo Chaerin had asked why she was awake so early, Baberi had apparently said something completely bizarre, making her laugh softly.

Baberi nodded weakly and returned to her room to lie down.

After that, Baberi continued to lack energy.

She barely touched even her beloved tteokbokki.

She often sat staring blankly into space, lost in thought.

“Yoo Chaeyoung, go to bed early tonight. We have somewhere to go tomorrow.”

Yoo Chaerin said this to Baberi, who was listlessly picking at her food.

“Let’s go to a weekend farm. You said you wanted to grow potatoes.”

She could grow them indoors in a flowerpot, but if she wanted to grow a really big potato, growing them outdoors would obviously be better.

Yoo Chaerin had already bought everything they needed.

All they had to do was wake up early tomorrow.

Baberi stared silently at Yoo Chaerin with wide, surprised eyes as she explained the plan.

She could barely remember saying that she wanted to grow potatoes.

But the fact that Yoo Chaerin had remembered it made an inexplicable emotion well up inside her.

For the first time, Yoo Chaerin truly felt like her older sister.

Baberi made up her mind.

If she could live as Yoo Chaerin’s little sister, she was willing to give up her revenge.

“So go to bed early tonight and don’t fool around. Otherwise, you won’t have the strength to work at the farm tomorrow.”

Baberi nodded obediently.

She brushed her teeth early and climbed into bed.

Potatoes…

She was too excited to fall asleep easily.

But she closed her eyes, eagerly waiting for tomorrow to come.

Baberi eventually fell asleep.

Then, suddenly, she bolted upright with the sensation that she had slept for a very long time.

Potatoes!

Afraid that she might have overslept and missed the trip to the farm, she tried to get out of bed.

But a metallic clink stopped her.

Chains were fastened around her arms and legs, binding her in place.

“You’ve finally awakened.”

Baberi turned toward the voice.

By the flickering candlelight, she saw the people surrounding her.

The blue uniforms they wore were strangely familiar.

They were the uniforms of the royal guards.

“Criminal Baberi Rangs, listen carefully.”

She didn’t need to ask where she was.

The answer had already appeared in Baberi’s mind.

Koreans might wear bulky padded jackets, but they certainly didn’t proudly parade around in old-fashioned blue uniforms like these.

“Because you failed in your mission, the evil dragon has returned alive. Therefore, by His Majesty’s command, you are to exterminate it again—this time without making any mistakes.”

The king was just as arrogant and unreasonable as he had been two years ago.

Faced with this utterly absurd reality, Baberi could only say one thing.

“XX…….”