Chapter 1
Yongcheon Hall (龍泉館) under the Jeongdo Alliance.
It was a school hall that once had high prestige, nurturing the promising talents of the sects and families belonging to the Jeongdo Alliance.
And the place where the medical practitioners belonging to Yongcheon Hall taught or cared for patients.
Busin Pavilion (復新閣).
Sa Bigang, who had been lying on the bed there as if dead, suddenly opened his eyes wide.
“Kheuk! Heuk! Heo-eok! Heo-eok!“
His body thrashed about noisily like an eel that had fallen to the floor.
After convulsing for quite a while, he soon calmed down and slowly raised his body.
Sweat dripped from the tip of his chin.
“Heuk, heuk, heuk.“
After taking deep breaths for a while, he felt around his upper body.
There were dark bruises here and there.
He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists, then slowly raised his head.
An unfamiliar, no, familiar scenery.
Door frames and windows that he couldn’t see in the demon realm entered his field of vision.
A place he had been away from for a long time.
Perhaps because of that, the scenery that entered his vision was both strange and somehow familiar, giving him an odd feeling.
‘I’m… alive. And…’
I’ve returned!
He didn’t know the exact time, but it was certain that he had returned to the Central Plains.
His body trembled again.
An irrepressible joy welled up.
“In the end… I did it! Kuk-kuk. Hu-hu-hu. Keu-ha-ha-ha-ha!“
Sa Bigang threw back his head and burst into wild laughter.
The years stained with resentment melted into his laughter and scattered into the air.
How long had he laughed like a madman?
Suddenly sensing a presence, Sa Bigang turned to the side and jumped up.
“Heuk! Who, who are you!”
Right next to him, an old man was staring at him with wide eyes and a serious expression.
It was right after his regression, so he was in no state to be calm.
He hadn’t even thought to look around.
He was just so happy to see this scenery that was both strange and familiar that he didn’t know what to do.
But to think there was someone staring at him right next to him.
Sa Bigang quickly searched his memory.
In preparation for a case like today, he had meticulously memorized important memories with magic while in the demon realm.
Thanks to that, he could quickly recognize the old man.
“Busin Pavilion Master…?”
“Pavilion Master…?”
“…nim?”
Busin Pavilion Master Jin Baek (眞伯) made a displeased expression and shook his head.
“I heard you were beaten so badly by hooligans that you were barely conscious, and I thought you’d gone mad.”
That was understandable.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he thrashed about like an eel, and now he was suddenly bursting into wild laughter.
From Jin Baek’s perspective, it was enough to suspect that Sa Bigang had fallen into ‘Juhwa-ipma’.
Sa Bigang examined his body again.
A body torn and bruised all over.
There wasn’t a single healthy spot.
What was certain was that these weren’t wounds from the demon realm.
‘The Demon King’s sword pierced my heart, so these wounds are…’
Jin Baek clicked his tongue and asked.
“Don’t you even remember?”
He searched his memory again.
Beaten by hooligans?
Come to think of it…
He remembered. Yes, there was such a time.
He heard that a student had been dragged away by hooligans from the village below.
He rushed to save that student but was instead beaten unconscious by masked men.
Of course, the student wasn’t there.
It was a nasty prank by students who despised him.
If this was that time…
‘Ten years before they appear?’
Jin Baek, who had been quietly watching Sa Bigang’s mood, let out a light sigh and stood up.
“How long will you continue to be tormented by the students? You need to be strong-hearted. Kids these days have no fear. With their sects and families backing them…”
Jin Baek, who had been continuing his words, shut his mouth like a mute who had eaten honey.
Instead, he stared blankly at Sa Bigang who had suddenly stood up.
A somewhat thin body for a warrior.
Because of this, Sa Bigang looked somewhat small despite his moderate height.
But Sa Bigang’s face was different from usual.
Unlike his usual expression that looked lifeless like a dying beast, he was now surveying his surroundings with sharp eyes.
At this unfamiliar sight, Jin Baek narrowed his eyes and asked.
“Are you… alright?”
“Do you have a mirror?”
Sa Bigang answered the question with a question.
Previously, he was so timid that he couldn’t even look directly into the eyes of his superiors.
But now he was throwing a question instead of an answer?
Jin Baek found and handed him a mirror while feeling like he was dealing with a completely different person.
“Here it is… Are you really alright?”
Sa Bigang examined his appearance reflected in the mirror from various angles.
He had become younger.
A somewhat haggard appearance and a somewhat fragile-looking expression.
‘Pathetic. Did I really look like this? I can’t stand to look at it anymore.’
Sa Bigang returned the mirror.
“I’m fine. I’m indebted to you, Pavilion Master.”
“Yes, well. Ah, I told the Hall Master that you would need to recuperate for about two days.”
“Well, thank you.”
Sa Bigang replied curtly and walked away step by step.
‘Two days. I need to organize my thoughts first.’
Meanwhile, watching Sa Bigang’s changed back, Jin Baek clicked his tongue.
‘It seems the psychological shock was quite severe.’
***
Returning to his room after a long time, Sa Bigang surveyed the interior with cold eyes.
His expression was stiff, but he was actually deeply moved inside.
In this place, he had sometimes been happy, sometimes worried, sometimes sad.
Recalling those memories was truly…
“Pathetic. Stupid and hopeless.”
Sa Bigang shook his head.
Thinking about it now, his past self was utterly pathetic.
He always lived timidly, constantly watching others’ moods.
But he couldn’t just blame the past forever.
Now he had to live in the present.
‘Everything starts from now.’
Sa Bigang’s eyes became particularly sharp.
Ten years ahead.
He had to complete all preparations by then.
Ten years was enough time for mountains and rivers to change.
But it was tight as preparation time to fight against the Demon King’s army that would invade the Central Plains.
‘Still, I will definitely… kill him. I’ll create an invincible army by then. I may not look like it, but I’m the type who always repays debts!’
Sa Bigang touched his chest area.
The heart that had been pierced by the Demon King’s sword just before his regression still seemed to ache painfully.
Just as Sa Bigang was about to sit in a chair.
“Excuse me, Instructor, are you inside?”
Sa Bigang looked toward the door.
“Who is it?”
“I’m Yeon U-gyeong (延祐瓊) from the first-year Mokhwa class.”
Yeon U-gyeong?
Sa Bigang, who had frowned for a moment, soon nodded.
That child was the one who was supposedly dragged away by hooligans, which made him rush out.
“Come in.”
Yeon U-gyeong entered hesitantly, opening the door.
Instantly, he was startled upon seeing Sa Bigang.
Sa Bigang sitting in a chair with his feet up on the table.
Usually, Sa Bigang had never shown such an arrogant posture in front of anyone.
Even in front of students.
As Yeon U-gyeong stood there dumbfounded, Sa Bigang slightly furrowed his brow.
“What’s your business?”
“Ah, yes. I came to apologize…”
“For what?”
“I heard you were badly injured because of me.”
“Who said that?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked who said I was injured because of you.”
“The, the other students…”
“What nonsense. It’s not because of you, so don’t worry about it.”
“But you were trying to save me…”
“You weren’t there. The people who should apologize to me are the students who lied that you were dragged away by them. Unless you did something else to be sorry for?”
“Pardon? No, no…”
“Then, are you done with your business?”
“Pardon?”
“If you have no more business, then leave.”
“Ah… yes.”
Yeon U-gyeong bowed and turned around.
Just as he was about to leave, he turned back to Sa Bigang.
“By the way, I heard there was a meeting in the Yongdam Room (龍談室) presided over by the Dean. I think those students will be disciplined.”
“Discipline? Discipline. Hu-hu-hu. What a joke.”
Sa Bigang smiled with a cold expression.
Even though he had returned to his hometown after a long time, he knew well what state this place was in.
A place that had rotted to the core, steeped in decades of peace.
In fact, the instructors couldn’t even touch the promising talents carelessly.
They would be busy watching the moods of the sects and prestigious families backing those talents.
Nevertheless, his past self had held onto a glimmer of hope.
That appropriate discipline would be given to the students, and that no more students would torment him.
How foolish he had been?
“Hu-hu-hu.“
“Um… Instructor?”
When he stopped laughing and turned around, Yeon U-gyeong was still standing there, looking at him.
“Didn’t I tell you to get lost? I’m tired after a long journey.”
“A journey?”
When Yeon U-gyeong made a puzzled expression, Sa Bigang’s expression hardened coldly.
It meant not to bother him any further.
After Yeon U-gyeong left the room, Sa Bigang stared into space for a long time, lost in thought.
Shortly after, he suddenly stretched out his hand and concentrated, and a blue energy formed like a bead in his palm.
Chijit. Chijijit.
A bead glowing jade-like and brilliantly.
Anyone who saw it would have been mesmerized by this strange sight.
But Sa Bigang casually extinguished the bead as if it were nothing and muttered dissatisfiedly.
“Chet, it’s only about 2nd Circle level? I definitely need that after all.”
Even this was possible because at the moment of being killed in the demon realm, he had absorbed some of the magic power emanating from the Demon King’s sword during his regression.
Sa Bigang put his interlocked hands behind his head and fell into thought again.
After being kidnapped to the demon realm, he had desperately survived through all sorts of trials and tribulations.
In a place where conspiracy, betrayal, and dark schemes swirled, he had risen to the position of Demon Realm Grand Duke.
After that, he was fully aware that the Demon King’s surveillance had begun.
But he had been arrogant.
His preparations were insufficient.
His subordinates, who were like his alter egos, were slaughtered by the Demon King’s hand while trying to protect him.
If he hadn’t prepared ‘regression’ as his last resort, he wouldn’t have been granted this second life.
‘First, I need to properly build my body for certain revenge and preparation. For that, I definitely need that. Well, I’ll start by taking the ones that are nearby one by one.’
Finally, he slowly closed his eyes.
It had truly been a long journey.
He wanted to rest a little.
