Kim Han-su wanted to make music. No, to be precise, he had lived with everything in his life staked on music, and he wanted to go on living that way.
His talent manifested early, and starting with the piano he went on to master even the violin, rising to stand tall as a maestro of many instruments.
For Kim Han-su, life held no greater joy than the beautiful melodies flowing from his fingertips and the sight of an audience moved to tears by them.
-Kim Han-su, the musical genius born in South Korea! From the piano to the violin, he rises to become a maestro of many instruments!
-All eyes are on Kim Han-su's next move.
-The White House in the United States requests a performance from Kim Han-su, the youngest genius maestro!
Kim Han-su's life was going rather well.
The music he poured his passion into brought him honor and wealth, and his life seemed to be sailing along smoothly, like a ship with a fair wind in its sails.
-Kim Han-su has lung cancer.
-Breaking news: the musical genius has stage 4 lung cancer.
-Musicians around the world sent Kim Han-su messages of support.
Misfortune came just as his career was reaching its peak. One day he coughed up blood and went to the hospital, where he was handed a declaration of the end: stage 4 lung cancer.
From then on, Kim Han-su's health declined rapidly.
And about 1 year later.
Beep...... Beep.......
Kim Han-su lay in a stark white hospital room, preparing for the end of his life.
The labored sound of the ventilator and his weakening heartbeat announced that his body could hold out no longer.
But deep down in Kim Han-su's consciousness, his longing for music still burned.
'Just once more, I want to press the keys and bow the strings with these hands. I want to melt this winter with a melody I've melted my soul into.'
But even at that moment, performing was all that filled Kim Han-su's head.
He wanted to move his fingers and command an instrument, and to let his own mind hear the beautiful notes that came of it.
If there was a next life.
'Let me play then, too.'
Kim Han-su resolved that he would move his fingers once more and spread the wings of a phoenix.
Beep...... Beep...... Beeeep!
Kim Han-su, the musical prodigy who had roamed the world's stages since he was 7 and become a legend. At the age of 28, he lost to lung cancer in the end.
And.......
"Young Master, do you remember pouring liquor at the tavern last night on the Aura Knights who guard the Count?"
Imperial Year 1502.
He woke as the youngest son of the Count's family that ruled the Arhan territory, and as the greatest trash of his time.
Ding-a-ling!
[Reincarnation carried out with Trait: Musical Genius retained.]
[A system exclusive to the Musical Genius is granted.]
A system of the kind he had only ever seen in novels came with it.
***
Dason Arhan, the youngest son of House Arhan. Called Young Master Dason for short, he was a man who ran toward rock bottom as if it were a race.
Harassing women and making a habit of drink and rampages were the least of it; he had not hesitated to hurl curses even at his father, the Count.
"As you know, the Count said it before he left. That if you caused trouble again this time, he would exile you to the Demon Realm Forest."
The worried voice of Kemen the butler rang through Dason's bedroom. The Young Master, who had been behaving himself until just recently, had gone and caused trouble yet again.
His worries could only deepen.
"Why did you do such a thing last night? To pour liquor over the heads of the Aura Knights, the core of our family's strength, and insult them...... They are men who could take your life in the blink of an eye, Young Master."
The arrows of his nagging kept coming. Yet Dason sat on the bed and answered every one with silence. As if he were ignoring Kemen's very existence.
"Young Master. Do you mean to ignore even me now, an old butler? The Count will soon return from the Dalan Empire. Should you not be devising some way to beg his forgiveness?"
The aged butler gazed at Dason with eyes tinged with disappointment.
"......."
Dason felt that gaze, and his lips trembled faintly.
"Um...... Kemen."
Unable to hold out any longer, Dason finally opened his mouth.
"Yes, Young Master."
"Leave me for now. I'm not sober yet, so my head is pounding. I need time to get my thoughts in order."
At the unexpected request, Kemen's brows drew together even more.
An awkward silence passed through the room. Kemen, his wrinkles turned grim, looked as if he were swallowing what he wanted to say.
"Understood, Young Master."
Still, he soon bowed his head and withdrew.
Creak.......
"Haa."
With the sound of the old wooden door closing, Dason let out a deep sigh.
"I'm f—cked."
And a vulgar curse burst out of his mouth.
***
Even after Kemen had gone, Dason sat on the bed for a while, staring blankly into space.
After that, when he finally came back to his senses, Dason looked around him.
'Medieval...... by the look of it.'
Dason's room was an unfamiliar scene to a modern person.
A creaking wooden floor, a crudely built bed, a desk and chair with eye-catching ornate carvings. Every piece of furniture was made in a medieval style of the sort one would see only in a museum.
[You have fully absorbed Dason's memories through the system.]
And yet, even looking at such a sight, Dason felt nothing amiss.
That was because the unidentified system had kindly injected into him the memories of the one who had originally owned this body.
[Composure, an additional Trait of the Musical Genius, takes effect.]
[Through the Composure Trait, you do not feel confusion.]
The thing even kept him from losing his calm in a situation like this.
'An additional Trait, huh...... Well, composure is essential when you perform, too.'
Dason felt he understood why the Composure Trait existed. Intense concentration and composure were essential abilities for anyone who handled an instrument, after all.
"Anyway...... this place really is like the Middle Ages."
In any case. Thanks to the information in his memories, none of this was strange to him, but that did not make it entirely familiar either.
He knew it in his head, yet facing it in person gave him an alien feeling, as if he were experiencing it for the first time.
Swish.
Before long, Dason got up from the bed and began to explore the room for himself.
He touched the furniture piece by piece, and turning his eyes out the window, he also studied the grand castle walls and the splendidly fluttering flags embroidered with the family crest.
Tap.
Then he stopped in front of the full-length mirror standing in a corner of the room. The Dason in the mirror was a wreck, pure and simple.
His deeply sunken eyes and the dark circles under them laid bare the traces of frequent drinking and a dissolute life.
A shaggy, overgrown beard was thick around his jaw, and his disheveled hair was matted with grease. The figure in the mirror was far too removed from the musical genius who had once dominated the music world.
"Hm......."
In truth, the Dason reflected in the mirror now fell far short when compared to the Kim Han-su of his previous life.
'First, I need to get out of this sorry state.'
His head was crowded with questions that needed answering.
About Dason, the person he now was; about the hard-to-believe situation called reincarnation; and about what a system meant solely for the Musical Genius might be. All of it was unknown territory.
But the stench coming off this body and the tangled hair bothered him far too much for him to cling to such hard questions.
'A shower comes first.'
In the end, Dason decided to wash himself before turning his mind to anything else. A bath was urgent, right now.
Tap, tap, tap!
His mind made up, Dason strode vigorously toward the door. Thanks to the injected memories, he already knew what steps he had to go through in order to bathe.
Gulp.
Yet once he actually took hold of the doorknob, he could not help swallowing from nerves. Knowing and doing were clearly two different things, after all.
"Hoo."
After a deep breath, Dason mustered his courage and pulled the doorknob.
Creak.......
When the door opened, he sensed someone in the corridor. Kemen had been standing in front of the door, waiting for Dason.
"Have you put your thoughts in order, Young Master?"
"Uh, yeah. I did."
"That is a relief. Then what do you plan to do now? Surely you are not thinking of going out to drink again?"
Kemen's eyes were full of disappointment.
"The Count has heard the news through the crystal orb. According to those around him, he was most terribly furious......."
Despair showed in the way he sighed as he looked at his master's grubby face.
'Don't shrink back.'
But Dason paid this no mind.
For he knew full well that Kemen's disappointment was not in him, but in the former 'Dason' who had occupied this body.
"Kemen. From now on, I'm not going to drink. I intend to stop the rampages and the harassing of women, too."
Dason, now holding a new soul, spoke firmly. At last, a clear and clean light began to gather in his eyes.
"First, I need a shower. I think I should get my hair cut a little, too. I don't want to live looking like this anymore. Could you help me out?"
Dason's words were brimming with the will to make a fresh start. At that moment, bewilderment settled in Kemen's eyes.
"Young Master, you...... are going to take a shower? Of your own will?"
Kemen could not hide his astonishment at Dason's words, a 'declaration' that he would shower of his own will, no less.
"......?"
Seeing Kemen like that, Dason felt a curious emotion. It felt like being treated as a human in the middle of evolving from a caveman.