Chapter 4: House

After inhaling— no, eating— the ramyeon, I spent some time killing time on my phone before Officer Park Jeonghun called me back to the investigation room.

The afternoon investigation ended quickly. It was simply about describing who I was before my reincarnation.

Honestly, my memory was faint, so squeezing it out was tough. Well, it’s a memory over 300 years old; remembering it perfectly would make me superhuman.

I couldn’t remember my home address, so I turned on the map’s street view and searched for a long time.
It was somewhere in Gwacheon, but I couldn’t recall exactly where.

Finally, after scanning the entirety of Gwacheon, I found the neighborhood and house lingering in a corner of my memory.

An ordinary apartment, ordinary streets, ordinary cars and people.

It felt like a story far removed from me.

Well, let’s decide to visit sometime later when I have time.

My parents probably think I’m dead.

I died in my original world.

Not Albheim, but the Republic of Korea.

It wasn’t a particularly special cause of death.

I wasn’t murdered by someone, didn’t die from a rare disease, nor was it a traffic accident.

Though usually, people get hit by a truck and reincarnate into another world.

I died of a heart attack.

A heart attack in one’s early 30s isn’t common, but it’s not an extraordinarily special death either.

It was just an ordinary death.

“Yes… it was just an ordinary death.”

I don’t particularly want to remember my second death.

Finishing my long thoughts, I picked up the phone I received, thinking of watching some YouTube to kill time.

“Real-time Trending Videos?”

Highlighted at the top was a video titled ‘Filmed the Gwanghwamun Gate’.

That’s right, it was a video of the Gate I came out of.

The video content wasn’t much.

Shot from afar, it showed a figure falling from the Gate, crashing to the ground, and then walking away. That was all.

‘I fell rather gracelessly…’

My appearance, flailing limbs while falling, was uglier than I thought.

Moreover, what kind of camera or phone was it? Wasn’t the zoom function too good!

To think that 3 million people had already seen me flailing and falling – although that number likely included duplicates, I still felt like dying of embarrassment.

Let’s check the comments too.

[Is it even possible to fall from that height without a scratch?]

[Isn’t it a monster?]

[If you look closely, the ears seem long, isn’t it an Elf?]

The main reactions were like these.

‘The World Tree must have helped slightly when I fell.’

‘Otherwise, even if I hadn’t died, I would have broken something.’

Besides that, I watched various other videos.

Footage of Orcs working in Russia, a forest of skyscrapers built in the middle of the African savanna, gameplay videos of games I used to enjoy, etc.

I watched without realizing the time passing, and it was already past midnight.

Since I was tired all day, maybe I should sleep now.

For the first time in a long while, I fell asleep without any worries.

With a soft bed and a cozy blanket.

-Zzz…

“Defendant Yakovlena El Fride…”

‘What? The courtroom…? Was it a dream?’

“Murderer!! Mass murderer!!”

‘It wasn’t what I wanted. Did I want it?’

“Please spare me… At least the children, please…”

“Lieutenant, if we let them live, they’ll just come back at us with knives. Let’s nip it in the bud.”

“Right, no need to do the work twice.”

-Bang!

“Aaaargh!! Ahh…”

Scenes shifted rapidly.

Like a movie film being fast-forwarded.

“It really wasn’t me! I’m innocent! Please spare me!!!”

“Hang him.”

“Khek… Ugh… Sa…ve…”

Thud.

The scene changes again.

“You insane knife-eared b*tch! Do you really think you can be forgiven after doing such things!”

“Shut your mouth!”

-Thwack—

“Commander, we are ready.”

“Good, let’s begin.”

-KABOOOM!!!

“Honey!!! Daughter!!! I’ll kill you! You witch-like knife-eared b*tch!!”

The screams of parents who lost their children first, Voices begging for life, Curses poured out by those who lost their homes and families at once.

And….

“I sentence you to death.”

The end of the one who created it all.

She who watched the deaths of countless many, now countless many watch her death.

The loud reveille waking the morning… no, it was Jeonghun’s cautious knock.

“Ms. Fride, are you awake? We need to finish the investigation today and register you as a Dimensional Transit Resident, so please get ready.”

“I’ll be ready soon.”

I replied, hiding my emotions.

Actually, I had been awake for a while.

Having woken up screaming shamefully and drenched in cold sweat, I was composing myself, trying to calm down.

To avoid showing such a state to others.

A short while later, I went back to the investigation room and received something like a card from Jeonghun.

“This is your Dimensional Transit Resident ID card. This here is your registration number, and this…”

After listening intently to the explanation, I also received a bankbook and a key.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the settlement support fund. Please check it.”

The bankbook showed ten million won deposited under the name ‘Fresh Start Encouragement Fund’.

Ten million won.

It was a large sum for someone who had arrived with nothing but the clothes on her back.

Of course, it wasn’t enough to live on indefinitely.

Was it a hint to become self-sufficient quickly?

“Then this key?”

“It’s the key to the rental housing assigned to you, Ms. Fride. You can check the address on your ID card, and the rent will be waived for the first two months. However, you will have to pay for utilities like water and electricity.”

“I see. So, is all the investigation finished now? Am I free to leave this place?”

“The procedures here are all finished, but there are still a few things left to do. First, let’s buy you a mobile phone.”

“And?”

“You need to register as an Ability User. You know about Dimensional Residue, right? Most people call it mana, but everyone who uses it to wield special abilities must register.”

“Troublesome.”

“Don’t even think about skipping it. Unregistered Ability Users are treated as Villains.”

“Hah, if there are Villains, I suppose there are Heroes too.”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“…?”

In this changed world, there were actually ‘Heroes’!

Of course, the official term is ‘Local Ability Self-Defense Corps’.

The Local Ability Self-Defense Corps Headquarters is an organization established under the Dimensional Management Agency to respond to Gates and crimes committed by Ability Users nationwide.

It’s practically difficult for ChaTeuk to handle all the Gates and Ability User crimes across the entire country.

Therefore, based on the principle of ‘an eye for an eye,’ the Local Ability Self-Defense Corps system was introduced and has settled in, demonstrating a fairly high level of response to Ability User crimes and Gate incidents.

Of course, they aren’t civil servants; it’s a contract-based system with the headquarters.

Meaning they are closer to mercenaries.

Perhaps that’s why they are called Heroes.

Famous Corps members even engage in entertainment activities, so they don’t seem much different from the Heroes we often see in fiction.

“Heroes…”

“Then let’s head out right away.”

Fride looks thoroughly peeved. Why is she acting like that?

Before leaving, Jeonghun suggested Fride change into casual clothes.

Of course, Fride vehemently refused.

Something about her military uniform being the most familiar and comfortable…

“Ah, please… Ms. Fride…”

“Didn’t I say no!!”

“Please!!”

“Noooo!!!”

After 30 minutes of pleading, Fride finally agreed to wear casual clothes instead of her uniform.

And there she was, sitting in the passenger seat with a pouty expression!

“Ugh… More importantly, is this your personal car? You look like a fresh graduate.”

“No, it’s a company car. I want to buy my own car soon too, but it’s still a bit difficult…”

“I see.”

Their conversation ended with Fride’s reply.

The only thing flowing through the silence was the song playing on the radio.

-♩~♫

After registering a mobile phone under Fride’s name, the two got back into the car.

“The monthly fee alone is 120,000 won. It seems too expensive.”

“That’s because you insisted on the unlimited data plan, Ms. Fride. Weren’t there cheaper options?”

“That may be true, but what can a modern person do without data?”

“Well… that’s true. Anyway, are we going to register you as an Ability User first?”

“Is there something else to do before that?”

“How about stopping by your house first?”

“My house?”

“The house you lived in when you lived here.”

“Hmm…”

The house where Fride lived as an ordinary man before dying of a heart attack and being reborn as an elf in Albheim.

That was her true home.

“Let’s go.”

An apartment complex in Gwacheon.

White matchbox buildings seen everywhere.

The house where she lived when she was ‘he’.

Returning after 300 years. What must she be thinking?

It’s been a long time.

Almost over 300 years.

I returned after more than three centuries.

Honestly, there wasn’t a great… what should I call it?

Overwhelming emotion? Joy?

There was none of that.

Perhaps because of the time that passed, and the many things I experienced.

“Shall we go in?”

Park Jeonghun, my assigned officer, spoke.

He looked obviously young, a fresh graduate.

‘His first assignment isn’t going to be easy,’ I thought, answering him.

“…Let’s go.”

Building 104, 16th floor.

Memories from childhood slowly surfaced. I lived here since I was young. Memories buried under 300 years started to push through the cracks.

—Ding! 16th floor.

The elevator’s chime broke the silence.

Right. I was home.

I walk slowly.

And stand before the door at the end of the hallway.

-Ding dong.

“Who is it?”

A familiar voice.

“Mom…”

“Yes?”

The door swings open abruptly.

“Who are you… calling me…”

“It’s me. Mom’s son. Minsu.”

“What is that supposed to…”

The one who drove tens of millions to their deaths in another world, the heinous war criminal sentenced to death at a war crimes trial.

He, now she, was…

Just the child of an ordinary family.