TRPM 04

CHAPTER 04

In martial arts novels, the term usually refers to the darkness within—when someone gains great strength through martial arts and becomes consumed by destructive instincts or greed, or when they fall into despair after losing faith in themselves. In such cases, it is often described as being “possessed by” an inner demon.

But when I experienced it myself, I thought the expression “faced with” was far more accurate than “possessed by.”

It took the form of my mother, who had taken her own life, speaking words of resentment toward me.

Rationally, I knew it was nothing more than a hallucination my mind had conjured up. But the shock was greater than I had expected.

For a while, I suffered, tormented by those visions, and it took me a long time to recover my sanity.

It’s fine… this time, that won’t happen.

The reason my mother was periodically abducted by some mysterious organization, only to eventually commit suicide, was obvious.

It was entirely because I had become famous as “the sole awakened martial arts ability user.”

In other words, as long as I hid the fact that I had awakened martial arts abilities, the chances of my mother being kidnapped would be drastically reduced.

Sure, if my strength became known, I wouldn’t be able to avoid becoming famous—but at least it wouldn’t lead to my mother being abducted.

No matter how reckless an organization might be, they rarely kidnapped the family members of celebrities.
They certainly didn’t kill them.

Such groups usually didn’t want to cause too much trouble, nor did they want to antagonize powerful figures.

The only reason my mother had been taken was because I had been uniquely desirable—as the sole martial arts ability user, I had been worth the risk.

In short, the important thing was to hide the fact that I was an awakened martial artist.

I’ll just pretend I awakened as an aura user instead.

That was what I was thinking as I watched my mother preparing baby food.

Ding-dong.

“Huh?”

The sudden chime of the doorbell rang out.

My mother set down the vegetables she had been chopping, washed her hands, and checked the intercom.

—[Jaehee, are you home?]
—[We came to visit.]

“Oh, come on in.”

Hearing the familiar voices, my mother pressed the button to unlock the front door.

They must be her friends. Some of the voices I even recognized.

“Oh? Is this…?”
“Ah, this must be Geonwoo, right? Did you bring him home today?”
“Yes. I went and picked him up this morning.”

The women noticed me sitting quietly in a chair.

Of course, my mother’s friends would at least know she had a child.

“He’s such a calm kid! He’s not even crying in front of strangers.”
“I’m jealous… my Ha-eun cries every time she sees someone new. Ah, can I sit her down here?”
“Of course.”

But when I heard the name that came up in their conversation, I froze.

…Ha-eun?

At that instant, the name Lee Ha-eun surfaced in my mind—the real name of Serenity.

…It had to just be a coincidence.

Or so I thought—

“…?”
“Oh? Geonwoo’s staring at me? Even at his age, he knows Auntie’s pretty already?”
“Geonwoo, is this your type of lady?”
“What? Auntie?”
“Hey, you called yourself that just now!”

She looked familiar.

The woman who sat her baby, Ha-eun, beside me bore an uncanny resemblance to the Serenity I remembered.

Which meant… this baby beside me…

“…Byaaah…!”

Watching the excited baby react to meeting a peer for the first time, a thought struck me:

…Could this really be… Serenity?

She didn’t look anything like the future her yet—still just a baby. But if she grew up to resemble her mother exactly…

Then does that mean Serenity and I met as infants?

I knew she and I were the same age, but the idea that we had been childhood friends…

Why hadn’t I known that? Why hadn’t my mother ever said anything…?

—[Son, did you know? You and that Ha-eun who’s on TV right now used to take baths together when you were little.]
—[Oh really?]
—[You don’t believe me, huh?]
—[I don’t remember bathing with someone like her.]
—[Of course not. Her family moved away shortly after you both turned one.]

Suddenly, I remembered something from before my regression—my mother telling me this while we were watching TV together.

So she had told me. I just hadn’t believed her.

…So it was because they moved away…

If Lee Ha-eun’s family didn’t move this time, I could grow up with Serenity as my childhood friend.

Of course, that won’t be easy.

Families don’t move away without reason. And as a baby, I had no power to interfere in adult matters.

So naturally, I assumed they would move away again, just like before.

But… I was wrong.

“Geonwoo! Let’s play!”
“Ah, sure.”

I smiled as I caught the 5-year-old Lee Ha-eun as she rushed into my arms.

Unlike before my regression, her family hadn’t moved away.

From what I’ve overheard from the adults, I think I can guess why…

I hadn’t done anything major.

I just treated Ha-eun kindly every time she came to our house to play.

Eventually, she started looking forward to visiting, and seeing that, her parents decided not to move.

No—if I recall correctly, only her father moved away.

In my previous life, Ha-eun’s father must have been transferred to a provincial branch, so the whole family moved.

But now, since Ha-eun had grown so attached to me, her parents must have decided they couldn’t separate us—for her sake, they chose to live apart.

And her father returned from his assignment within half a year anyway.

Who could’ve guessed that simply playing with a child the way she wanted would snowball into this outcome?

Still, the result was undeniably a good thing.

“Geonwoo, hurry, hurry!”
“Alright.”

Pulled along by Ha-eun, I couldn’t help but think how energetic she was.

But that wasn’t the only thing that had changed by the time we turned five.

By now, I had accumulated a decent amount of pure inner energy.

Not much, of course—just what three years of diligent practice could yield.

It’s not like I can use the Harmony Divine Art yet, but for basic breathing techniques, this much isn’t bad.

Even with only that, I could overpower most adults.

Well—excluding Awakeners, of course. Against them, my undeveloped body and limited energy would be a problem.

“Geonwoo, Ha-eun, it’s nap time.”
“Okay!”
“Yes.”

Of course, that fact didn’t matter much when you were just a kindergartener.

After all, how often does a child in kindergarten need the strength to beat an adult?

So I let myself be led by the teacher to the nap room.

…This still feels so awkward…

Nap time. What a luxury.

I understood that children needed proper sleep and meals to grow, but every time nap time came around, I felt a strange discomfort.

I could hardly ever actually fall asleep.

“Sleep well, everyone~.”

After making sure all of us, including Ha-eun, were tucked under our blankets, the teacher turned off the lights.

In the darkness, I simply lay staring at the ceiling, wide awake.

“Snore…”
“…”

Soon, Ha-eun fell asleep beside me. And I began my usual routine for nap time.

The Great Circulation (大周天).

I had already accumulated enough energy in my lower dantian through the Lesser Circulation, so I had the foundation I needed.

Unlike the Lesser Circulation, which focused on the lower dantian, the Great Circulation gathered energy in the middle dantian.

Which meant—

I mustn’t gather inner energy.

What I needed to accumulate there was mana.

To use magic, I needed mana.

The Harmony Divine Art would come later, but for now, if I wanted to wield magic smoothly, I needed a reservoir of mana.

So instead of drawing in inner energy as I had done for the lower dantian, I had to gather mana.

Mana saturated the air.

Thanks to the Black Mist, mana had been scattered across the entire world…

It wasn’t as dense as what had filled the incubator I’d once lain in, and it was unrefined—dirty, even.

But that much was manageable.

Any filth, I can just burn away with the Flame of Samadhi.

The Flame of Samadhi was a fire that could burn away precisely what I willed, leaving no trace behind.

It could consume not only material things, but even intangible existences.

Which meant I could burn away only the impurities in the mana that entered my body.

So I inhaled the raw, dirty mana from the air.

“…”

The mana flowed through my meridians, not just along the Governor and Conception vessels I had connected for the Lesser Circulation, but through all eight extraordinary channels and twelve primary meridians.

After coursing through my entire network, it pooled in my middle dantian, where I burned away its impurities with the Flame of Samadhi.

“…”

One slip, and I could’ve burned away something I didn’t mean to. So I focused as intently as I could—while still keeping my awareness open in case another child woke up crying.

Phew… I’ve gathered quite a bit of mana again today.

Satisfied, I smiled inwardly.

At that very moment—

Click.

The lights flicked back on.

Nap time was over.

That’s the problem with the Great Circulation.

Time always seemed to fly by when I was doing it.

Of course, it made sense—it required running energy through every vein in the body.

So, like the other children, I pretended to wake up groggily and stretched.

Now it’s just free play until 3 o’clock, then the bus ride home.

Kindergarten schedules rarely changed, so even the other kids could predict that much.

But today was different.

Whoosh…

“Huh…?”
“What’s that?”

While some of the children were playing with blocks, flames suddenly burst forth.

Not from a fire, but from a child who had unconsciously used magic.

“Wow! Fire!”
“Ha-eun, how’d you do that?”
“Um… I don’t know?”

And the one who had created the flames—was none other than Lee Ha-eun.

The very girl who would one day be known and praised as Serenity… had awakened.

Awakening at age five… doesn’t that make her the youngest Awakener ever?

Well, aside from me, who had basically awakened at birth.

“Ha-eun! Easy now… can you try lowering the flames?”
“Huh?”
“No, I mean, don’t aim them at us. Could you put them out?”

The teachers quickly grew flustered.

A five-year-old Awakener was unheard of, but plenty awakened at six or seven.

And whenever a child awakened at kindergarten, the teachers were required to report it to both the child’s parents and the government.

Until officials arrived, it was their duty to make sure the child didn’t harm anyone with their uncontrolled power.

“Like this?”
“Y-yes. Good… thank goodness.”

Fortunately, it seemed Ha-eun could already control her ability well enough.

Soon after, with her mother by her side, she left under the guidance of people who appeared to be from the government—for her first ability assessment.