‘What is this? ……What the hell happened!!’
The scene before his eyes had completely transformed in the brief instant it took him to close and reopen them.
The place looked like nothing more than a heap of assorted rubbish, and an unbearable stench rose from it, exactly as its appearance suggested. Yet that very stench sharply assaulted all five of his senses, immediately making him realise that this was reality rather than a dream.
“What happened? Mir, did the experiment succeed?”
All Jaeseok could do at that moment was try to understand the situation through Mir. However, Mir’s answer only plunged him deeper into confusion.
[—Experiment successful. Your memories were recorded using the fixed time of 03:13 as the reference point, Master.]
‘……Master?’
Before he could even consider the contents of the answer, what bewildered Jaeseok was the clear change in Mir’s manner of speaking.
Mir’s responses had originally been delivered in the stiff, mechanical voice typical of an AI. Now, however, the voice and manner of speech had become strangely cute and expressive, as though they belonged to a person with a distinct personality.
[—However, warning. My link to the main unit has been severed. I am entering sleep mode immediately.]
“What? W-Wait!”
WHOOSH.
Then he immediately felt it.
The absence of Mir, the ultra-high-speed computational AI.
‘The link was severed? It should have been programmed with two or three layers of redundancy to prevent that from happening, at least while I was inside the laboratory! Then where in the world am I?!’
“Oh. Are you the one responsible for that surge of mana? I see. I can faintly sense the aura of a non-elemental spirit I have never encountered before.”
Before Jaeseok realised it, a strange man had appeared in front of him.
‘Who is this person? When did he appear?’
The man before him was a middle-aged gentleman.
He wore a tailcoat that looked luxurious at a glance. Perhaps it was because of his dazzling golden hair, which seemed impossible to achieve through dyeing or bleaching, and the reddish makeup around his eyes, but despite clearly being a man, he possessed an alluring and mysterious air.
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Duke Ailin. Have you ever heard of me?”
‘……A duke?’
“……No. Who exactly are you?”
“Ha ha. I see. Then I suppose there will be no problem with taking you away for a brief conversation.”
“……Huh?”
Duke Ailin grinned at his response and snapped his fingers.
At that moment, a bewildering day that Jaeseok would never forget suddenly began.
* * *
“—So that was where the master found you and took you in?”
“……Yes. I suppose you could say that.”
“That is fortunate. The duke is a little eccentric, but aside from that, he is a very good master.”
“A master…….”
“Hmm? Were you not hired as a servant in this household?”
“Hmm. I probably…… was?”
Approximately two hours had passed since Jaeseok experienced that strange and absurd series of events.
He was now conversing with a young maid who had come to explain how life worked here, inside a magnificent mansion resembling one of the grand palaces he had seen while travelling through Europe.
‘Is this…… really happening?’
Only moments ago, Jaeseok had been conducting an experiment alone in the laboratory while wallowing in solitude. As an engineering student who pursued logic and reason, the current situation was so unrealistic that he found it impossible to accept.
‘……I have not gone insane, have I?’
Judging solely by the circumstances, it appeared as though he had suddenly been transferred to another world, just like a story from one of the fantasy novels he read as a hobby.
Nevertheless, as an engineer incapable of accepting anything without a logical explanation, he had tried to remain as calm as possible and understand the situation theoretically.
As a result, he had formed a single hypothesis.
‘This happened immediately after I performed the experiment, so that must be the cause, right? But how could something like this…… ……No. Could a parallel world really exist where another “me,” completely identical to me in every conceptual sense, is living? And did the experiment synchronise my memories with the “me” who lived in this world?!’
There were three main reasons Jaeseok had conceived of such an absurd idea.
The first was that the face he had happened to glimpse in a mirror looked eerily similar to his own appearance during middle and high school.
The second was that faint memories that did not originally belong to him seemed to be mingled within his mind like fragments of a hazy dream.
And above all, the final reason was…….
“—Wind (Wind)!”
“Wait, what did you just do?!”
“Hmm? What do you mean? Wind. It is First-Tier Magic. I am using it to dry the laundry.”
“Magic……?”
“Yes. Have you never seen it before?”
The freckle-covered maid before him had just used magic—a technique that could never have existed in the world he came from—right before his eyes.
‘Then the feeling that I teleported here with that man calling himself Duke Ailin was real too?! It was not a distorted memory caused by me briefly losing consciousness or becoming confused?!’
Through his conversation with the maid, Jaeseok was gradually able to organise his thoughts about the present situation, though his understanding remained incomplete.
There was an overwhelmingly high possibility that this truly was somewhere entirely different from the world in which he had originally lived.
Furthermore, it was a world where the magic he had only ever encountered in fantasy stories was used in place of science and technology.
‘And as a result of the experiment, the memories of the original “me” were overwritten onto the version of me who lived in this world?!’
The experiment Jaeseok had conducted was intended to synchronise his memories with himself from a few seconds earlier, who possessed the same brainwave pattern.
But what if a being completely identical to Jaeseok—a so-called doppelgänger—truly existed in a parallel world?
He had never considered such a possibility when defining the variables of the experimental environment. Therefore, it was not entirely impossible that the system had mistaken this world’s ‘Jaeseok,’ who possessed an identical brainwave pattern, for the intended target of the memory synchronisation.
The thought suddenly flashed through Jaeseok’s mind.
‘For now, that is the only way I can interpret this situation, right?’
To be honest, part of him still wondered whether this was a dream. However, the vivid passage of time had continued far too long for that explanation to remain convincing.
At the same time, as an engineer, he could not simply dismiss the situation by declaring that he had suddenly been transferred to another world like a character in a novel.
‘Still, I have to accept the situation for now.’
The experiment had only been intended to transmit memories. Therefore, even if his hypothesis was correct, the version of himself in his original world—Jaeseok—might still be continuing the experiment without any problems.
Regardless, the important fact for the version of himself who was here now—Jaeseok—was that he appeared to have suddenly fallen into a completely unfamiliar world.
‘……Is this really happening?’
Jaeseok had been a fan of fantasy novels since childhood, so he was somehow attempting to understand and adapt to the situation.
However,
—THUMP. THUMP.
As he slowly became aware once again that this was reality rather than a dream, his heart began pounding as though it might burst, overcome by an emotion he could not identify as tension, fear, or excitement.
‘Judging by the title of duke, the maid, and this magnificent mansion, this must be a class-based society with a king, just like the ones commonly seen in fantasy novels. Then I have to be careful about what I say and do. Otherwise, my life could suddenly be placed in danger.’
With that thought in mind, Jaeseok continued speaking with the maid, who had introduced herself as Miya, and drew out as much information as possible without appearing unnatural.
Through their conversation, he was able to form a rough understanding of this world.
What he confirmed was that his ‘perhaps’ had ultimately become ‘just as expected.’
‘Even so…….’
Despite that, countless details continued to trouble Jaeseok, who was an engineer by nature.
The fact that he could communicate so naturally despite the difference in language was strange enough. More than anything, however, what felt unnatural was that although this was an entirely different world where something called magic existed, it did not feel nearly as alien to him as it should have.
‘Is it because only my “memories” were overwritten onto a body that originally lived in this world? Or is it because I have been a fan of fantasy novels since childhood?’
Several hypotheses immediately came to mind.
‘……This is not some story from a novel. If this is not a dream, it is astonishing enough that a world like this truly exists. But is it statistically possible for it to be “so similar to the fantasy worlds I encountered through books and games” that I already feel this little discomfort?’
However, he had no time to continue examining every minor inconsistency.
‘Fine. I will simply consider this an experience like becoming the protagonist of the fantasy novels I dreamed about as a child.’
Even granting that this was a world different from the Earth he knew and that he had somehow discovered such a place, the first thing he needed to understand was the immediate situation before him.
“But that Duke Ailin fel…… gentleman suddenly brought me here. Does that mean I have been hired as a servant?”
“It must be one of two possibilities. You are either a guest or a servant. However, considering that Raiden asked me to explain life here to you, I believe it is probably the latter.”
“Raiden?”
“He is one of Duke Ailin’s disciples, and he is responsible for managing this estate.”
“……But no one has properly explained anything to me yet. Is this how things usually work around here?”
“You are hearing an explanation from me now, are you not?”
“No, I mean from Duke Ailin or this Raiden person.”
“Duke Ailin tends to pick up anything that catches his fancy and bring it home without thinking about the consequences.”
“……Even people?”
NOD.
“It is not normal, but around here, you could say it is perfectly normal. Still, you do not have to be so frightened. As I said, being taken in by Duke Ailin could actually be considered a blessing. Judging by your appearance, it does not seem as though you were living particularly well before this anyway.”
“…….”
—FILTHY. SHABBY.
To be perfectly honest, Jaeseok’s present appearance was so wretched that no one could have denied he looked like a beggar from his original world.
Considering the hut where he had awakened and the hazy memories that remained like fragments of a dream, Jaeseok could not deny that the version of himself who had lived in this world had probably been in exactly the circumstances Miya described.
‘Ha. Was I an orphan in this world too? Is something like that fixed even across parallel worlds? In novels, people in situations like this are always reincarnated as the youngest son of a noble family or something!’
Of course, novels were merely fiction and reality was different, so he had no intention of seriously objecting to that fact.
Even so, as he contemplated how pitiful his circumstances had suddenly become, an irrational sense of injustice began welling up inside him.
—Seven years.
He had endured no less than seven years in graduate school.
After all that time, he had finally been on the verge of obtaining the fruit of his labour: a doctoral degree.
‘Haah. What is this? In a world without even computers, everything I studied will be completely useless.’
Of course, the present situation was most likely the result of his own experiment, so he was hardly in a position to blame anyone else.
‘Who could possibly have imagined that another world truly existed, along with another being who corresponded to me?’
Faced with this sudden and unexpected ordeal, memories of the seven years he had endured in graduate school while focusing solely on graduation began flashing through Jaeseok’s mind one after another, like the scenes one saw before death.
As a doctoral student in computer engineering, the only talent Jaeseok could confidently claim to possess compared to others was his skill at coding (computer programming).
However, in a world where magic existed, even coding—his sole speciality—would be meaningless.
In truth, it would not have been an exaggeration to say that Jaeseok had accidentally become the first person in human history to discover and prove the existence of what might be called a parallel world.
Reality, however, was far less glorious.
After enduring all the hardships of graduate school and finally reaching the point where he only needed to harvest the final result, he had been forcibly returned to nothing.
Worse still, he had been cast into an unfamiliar and incomprehensible world where even the safety of his life could not be guaranteed.
‘……I did become younger. But what good is that? A reincarnation story is only meaningful when the protagonist retains his own abilities.’
As he thought about it, Jaeseok sincerely reflected on how he had criticised recent fantasy novels for lacking plausibility whenever their protagonists suddenly received absurdly powerful abilities for no particular reason and effortlessly overwhelmed everyone.
‘Now that this has happened, I do not care whether it makes sense. Could some god or goddess appear, apologise to me, and give me an absurdly powerful ability even now? That seems to be the standard formula in otherworld stories these days.’
……However, naturally,
Nothing so conveniently novel-like occurred.
—HUFF. HUFF.
“What is it? Why are you suddenly acting like that? Is something wrong?”
“……No. It is nothing.”
SMACK.
Using the skills he had acquired in graduate school, where he had often been forced to conceal his emotions while venting his frustration alone, Jaeseok released a portion of his resentment through a brief internal frenzy.
‘Haah.’
Denying reality on his own would not change anything.
Therefore, like the engineer he was, Jaeseok decided to acknowledge and accept the situation as quickly as possible, regardless of whether it made sense.
‘Then, first…….’
He immediately began putting his decision into action.