I finally had no choice but to admit it.
This place wasn't heaven or hell, nor was it some afterlife somewhere in between.
It was a completely different world. A different dimension.
A country called South Korea, billions of degrees removed from the common sense of the world I had lived in.
“Uh…….”
When I first came here, I thought it was a dream.
And even now, seven years later, that hadn't changed.
I still dreamed of the days when I had commanded the world as a great mage, and those dreams always ended the same way—with the horrific sight of my head being severed.
“Phew…….”
After lying wide awake for five minutes, I got out of bed.
I had already lived in this world for nearly seven years, but after spending 101 years in another world under completely different common sense, I still often found myself blankly reminiscing about my previous world.
With my eyes half-open, I opened my bedroom door, entered the bathroom, lifted the faucet lever, and turned on the water.
SHHHHH—
No matter how many times I saw it, I still couldn't get used to it. It was fascinating.
To think water could gush out so strongly just by lifting something like a lever….
I washed my face thoroughly and dried it with a towel.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, a woman with understated beauty smiled brightly and stroked my head.
“My Hyunwoo. You've been waking up early lately, haven't you? You get up at this time every day and wash your face.”
“Mmm…… Yes.”
By now, I had admitted it to myself.
I wasn't a 101-year-old walking corpse.
I was a seven-year-old child whose life had only just begun.
Since this was a new life, I needed to act my age. I didn't want to spend this new chance at life shackled to my previous one.
I'm a child.
I'm not some hundred-year-old grandfather with age spots all over his face.
So let's act naturally, like a seven-year-old would.
I smiled innocently and hugged the woman's legs.
No, my mother's legs.
“Who did our Hyunwoo take after to be so pretty and handsome?”
My biological mother scooped me up, stroked my head, and rubbed her cheek against mine.
It didn't feel particularly bad.
I had only realized the value of family after losing mine, so I clung to my mother's neck and cuddled closer like a whining child.
“I look like my parents. Mom and Dad.”
“Mhm, that's right. You look like Mom and Dad.”
My mother carried me around the living room, her voice dripping with affection.
Apparently finding me adorable, she kissed my cheek, then began indiscriminately planting kisses on my lips as well.
I frowned and blocked my mother's barrage of kisses with my hands.
“Don't do thaaat.”
Your breath stinks.
“Nope. I'm going to keep doing it..”
Smooch, smooch.
For a moment, I seriously considered casting a spell to stop her movements, but belatedly realized that such thoughts were pointless.
This was a world where science had developed far more than magic.
Magic did exist, but its history was short, and from what I occasionally saw through the media and internet, Earth's level of magic was pathetic compared to that of my original world.
The amount of mana permeating this world was also fundamentally different from the world where I had spent my entire previous life.
More importantly, I hadn't actually learned any magic since coming to this world.
Partly because I hadn't felt any need for it, and partly because I didn't particularly want to learn that tiresome magic all over again—magic that had ultimately led me to my death.
So I changed tactics and stretched out both arms, doing my best to block my mother's kissing assault.
“You don't like Mommy's kisses?”
“…….”
My mother put on a hurt expression.
I know.
She's acting.
But this child isn't supposed to know that.
Barely suppressing the sigh rising into my throat, I kissed my mother's cheek.
Smooch.
“Here too. Here too.”
The ‘here too’ my mother pointed at was her lips.
Forcing myself to act the part, I kissed her on the lips as well.
Phew…….
Damn it.
What the hell is a geezer over a hundred years old doing?
She'd probably faint if she knew who I really was, wouldn't she?
***
I had one sibling.
Her name was Lee Yeowoo.
She was a girl.
She insisted on wearing her hair in pigtails—or ponytails—had large eyes, fair skin, a straight nose, and lips as red as cherries.
She would probably grow into a beauty someday, but right now, she was nothing more than a nine-year-old brat.
If there was one decent thing about her, it was that she took good care of me.
“Okay, Mom. Don't worry. I'll make sure Hyunwoo gets there safely.”
“I'm counting on you, Yeowoo. If a stranger stops you and asks for directions or asks you to do something, you must never listen to them. You understand, right?”
“Yep!”
Both my father and mother worked, so they were busy with their jobs.
Thus, I headed to kindergarten with my older sister, who was two years older than me, holding my hand.
“Hyunwoo. When you get to kindergarten, listen carefully to your teacher. Okay!?”
“…….”
Yeowoo, who had been pulling me along by the hand, turned around when I remained silent.
She tilted her head, then placed one hand on her forehead and the other on mine.
“Are you sick? Why aren't you saying anything?”
“…Okay. I got it.”
“Hmmm.”
Yeowoo looked me over suspiciously.
When the pedestrian light stopped us at the crosswalk, she pulled a short rod from her bag, swung it around through the air, and shouted.
“Wingardium Leviosa!”
“…….”
Ah.
This is embarrassing.
The people waiting for the light with us were staring at us curiously.
“Sis. Do you have to do that?”
“Huh? Why? I have to practice if I want to go to magic school. Aguamenti! Lapifors~!”
Haaah.
A deep sigh escaped me before I even realized it.
“Oh my, these kids are absolutely adorable. What's that stick?”
Two teenage girls in school uniforms approached us with interest.
Embarrassed for no reason, I tried to put some distance between us, but Yeowoo kept a firm grip on my hand and pointed her rod at the girls.
“Levicorpus!”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“It's magic. And this isn't a stick. It's a magic wand.”
“Ahaha. She says it's a magic wand. How cute.”
As the girls said that, their attention shifted toward me.
They stroked my hair and fiddled with my cheeks.
I was used to people doing that, so normally I wouldn't have cared much, but having complete strangers do it was uncomfortable.
Then my sister suddenly shrieked and swung her wand, smacking the girls on their arms and heads.
“Don't touch my little brother! Arania Exumai!”
“Ow!”
Right then, the pedestrian light turned green.
Yeowoo grabbed my hand and hurried across the crosswalk.
Behind us, the girls complained in bewilderment, but we ignored them and quickly fled the scene.
“S-Sis…… I don't think you needed to go that far….”
“Hmph! I won't forgive anyone who touches my little brother like he's some kind of object. Hyunwoo, you have to tell people not to do that when something like this happens too! Mom told you, remember?”
“Yeah.”
She's quite a bold little brat for her age.
I smiled contentedly and nodded.
After walking a little farther, a familiar kindergarten building came into view.
[Sprout Kindergarten]
In front of the building, the kindergarten teachers were brightly greeting the children as they arrived.
We joined them and greeted one of the teachers.
“Hello, ma'am.”
“Oh, Yeowoo! Did you come to drop off your little brother?”
“Yes! Please take good care of my little brother Hyunwoo, ma'am.”
Yeowoo bowed politely.
At times like this, she looked far too mature for a nine-year-old.
The teacher seemed to feel the same way, because she smiled brightly and stroked Yeowoo's head.
“Don't worry, Yeowoo. We'll take good care of Hyunwoo. How can our Yeowoo be so pretty and kindhearted?”
“Hehe.”
I scratched my chin and quietly waited.
“Hello to you too, Hyunwoo!”
The kindergarten teacher turned toward me and raised a hand in greeting.
Like Yeowoo, I bowed politely.
“Hello, ma'am.”
“Do you know how much I missed you because I didn't get to see you over the weekend?”
The teacher hugged me and lifted me into her arms.
I merely stared blankly at her.
“All right. Shall we say goodbye to your big sister? Say bye~. Bye~”
“Bye~”
“I'm going! See you later, Hyunwoo!”
“Okay.”
And so another exhausting day of kindergarten begins.
I swallowed the sigh threatening to escape my throat, smiled, and watched Yeowoo leave.
***
My childhood in my previous life had been a struggle for survival.
I had to take up a plow to do my share of the work, and to survive, I had to walk all the way to a well far outside the village to fetch water.
Terrifying monsters that could threaten your survival simply by crossing your path.
Merciless bands of bandits.
To avoid those dreadful threats, I always had to remain inside the village, and even when I was treated unfairly, I was too young to do anything but endure it.
But here…….
“Yaaawn.”
The welfare here was on an entirely different level compared to my previous world.
In my old world, people said that when you eventually died, the deeds you had committed throughout your life would be weighed, and you would be placed into either a carriage bound for heaven or one bound for hell.
Compared to the world I had lived in, this place was practically heaven itself.
Just because I was young, I didn't have to do anything.
I could play freely.
There were no restrictions on what I could learn.
And if I was tired and sleepy, I could simply go to sleep….
“Hyunwoo. How do you solve this?”
It was a girl from my class.
Apparently embarrassed that she couldn't solve such a problem, the little girl approached me with a flushed face and showed me her worksheet.
[There are two apples and fifteen strawberries. Minsu ate one apple and six strawberries. How many pieces of fruit are left?]
She doesn't even know basic arithmetic like this….
Suppressing a sigh, I imparted a fraction of my knowledge to the ignorant child.
“Ten. There are seventeen in total, and since he ate six strawberries and one apple, that leaves ten.”
The girl blinked at my answer before finally letting out an exclamation of admiration.
“Wow. You're amazing. How did you solve it?”
I explained it as simply as possible.
But the answer I received was one of pure childish innocence.
“Mmm…… It's hard. I don't understand what you're saying.”
Did I explain it too complicatedly?
Whatever.
I told her the answer, at least.
“Hyunwoo, were you helping your friend with a problem she didn't understand? What a good boy!”
The Star Class teacher proudly stroked my head and praised me.
Being showered with praise for something so trivial actually felt rather nice.
Perhaps it reminded me of the old days.
Back when I had nine Circles around my navel and grew out my beard a little, people would heap praise upon me.
Back when merely tugging on my beard made people go, ‘Ooh.’
Thinking about it now, I wondered how I had possibly endured 101 years in such a boring place.
“Hyunwoo learns so quickly that I hardly know what to teach you next. Would you like to try learning English?”
“English? What's that?”
“Well, it's something like this.”
The teacher wrote strange, squiggly letters on a piece of paper.
I had occasionally seen strange writing that wasn't Hangul before.
So this is what that was?
“Is this the language of another country?”
“Huh……? Y-Yes. That's right. But Hyunwoo, how did you learn the word ‘language’?”
“……I just happened to hear it somewhere.”
“You're very bright for your age, Hyunwoo.”
As a reward, the teacher affectionately stroked my head again.
“Hyunwoo, have you ever watched foreign movies on TV? The ones where foreigners appear and talk?”
“Yes. I have.”
“These are the letters those people use. English is something you'll definitely need later in life, so there's nothing wrong with learning it early. Would you like to try?”
“Yes. I'd like that.”
What the teacher was saying meant that the country using this language called English must be the world's hegemonic power.
Then South Korea, which used Hangul, isn't an empire.
Would that make it an allied nation of the empire, or perhaps one of its neighboring countries?
Still, I could hardly believe it.
There was a country stronger than one where, just walking down the street, you could see hundreds of skyscrapers that seemed tall enough to reach the heavens……?
What in the world is wrong with this world?
Marveling inwardly, I received an alphabet workbook from the teacher.