Chapter 2: A New World’s First Encounter

The scent of blood.

Darkness enveloped my vision, making me believe I had gone blind. I craned my neck, and only when I saw the flickering torchlight to one side did I realize I was sprawled face-down on the ground.

Feeling gradually returned to my limbs as my vision cleared. I tried clenching my fingers, and my stiff digits once again found strength, closing into a fist with a mechanical creak, much like a robot lacking lubrication.

Alright, both my arms and legs were still attached. I touched my face; all my features were intact. There was no pain anywhere on my body, save for a slight ache in my spine from collapsing in such an awkward position. It seemed the scent of blood wasn’t my own.

Pushing against the ground, I slowly rose. Though my body felt weak, I managed to stand by leaning against a nearby wall. ‘Where am I?’

I recalled being in a car accident with my boss, being flung from the vehicle, and believing I was surely dead. Yet, here I was, conscious and alive. But where exactly was ‘here’? The torches lining the walls and the luxurious red wool carpet beneath my feet gave me an unsettling sense of displacement, especially coupled with the thick, cloying scent of blood in the air.

‘I must be in a corridor now. But why, after a car crash, would I find myself in a corridor?’ The decor was clearly not modern; who still used torches for illumination? I felt my attire: the same formal suit I’d worn that day, my white shirt torn in a few places, but no injuries on my body. All my belongings were gone. My briefcase, wallet, and phone must have been ejected during the crash, leaving me no means of calling for help.

‘Could I have transmigrated?’

‘No, no, that’s impossible. Such things don’t happen. How could I just casually transmigrate like that… But… if it really was transmigration, would that mean I’d have two busty mothers fighting over me?’

‘But there’s no one around me…’

I glanced left and right. As I’d noted, I was in a corridor, with only two directions: forward or back. Yet, for someone with no sense of direction, either way was the same. I wasn’t flustered. As a secretary who had weathered countless storms, the most crucial thing now was to remain calm and figure out how to escape safely.

Otherwise, working as a secretary among all sorts of eccentric individuals, I would have been collateral damage long ago.

Just then, I heard footsteps. They were muffled, the sound of bare feet padding on carpet, yet in the profound silence, the noise was amplified significantly. A surge of excitement propelled me forward, and I jogged towards the sound. No matter what, I just wanted someone to tell me what was happening and where I was. I desperately yearned to see another person, anyone at all.

Ahead lay a bend in the corridor. As I ran, I listened to the hurried footsteps approaching from around the corner. It seemed we would both round the corner at the same moment.

“Do you know where this is?!”

“Ah!!”

I burst around the corner, shouting excitedly. However, the approaching figure collided directly with me and bounced away. I looked on in surprise at the little girl who had fallen after crashing into me.

Before I could fully register my surprise, a furious gust of wind whipped past my ear. I instinctively ducked, and a heavy metallic presence suddenly loomed above my head. Light was momentarily blocked, and the heavy clang of metal colliding with the wall echoed terrifyingly close. Before I could even react, I saw the blade that had just swept over my head being drawn back.

‘A sword?! A genuine sword?’

It was the first time I’d felt death so intimately close. Unlike the car crash, where I’d felt nothing, now I clearly saw a sword being pulled back from directly above my head. The accompanying rush of air and the cold steel screamed a mortal threat to every cell in my body.

‘I’ll die!!’

However, it seemed the attacker had no intention of killing me. After drawing the blade, she didn’t lunge at me again; instead, the sword was raised high, aimed at the little girl before her. The small, frail girl lay sprawled on the ground, wailing as she desperately tried to scramble backward. Yet, the cold, unyielding wall behind her pushed her mercilessly towards the long sword. Her eyes were wide with panic and terror, the glint of the blade reflected in their crimson depths.

“May the gods forgive my sins.”

A cold voice emanated from above the blade. The sword was raised with a dull, heavy motion, poised over the girl. The girl had nowhere to run, trapped against the wall. She sobbed loudly, large tears like drops of blood streaming from her red eyes. Her trembling legs refused to let her stand.

“No… no… please… please… don’t kill me, don’t kill me!! It has nothing to do with me… I… I… Father never cared about me… I just live here… I have nothing to do with them! Nothing!!! Absolutely nothing!”

She was begging for mercy.

Her voice was so childish, so powerless. It sounded utterly feeble against the weight of the metal, doing nothing to halt the descending blade.

‘She’ll die.’

‘She’ll really die.’

‘What could I do? I had nothing on me. Could I push away this armored woman? I’d probably just get cut down. How could I save this girl? What else could I possibly do?’

“No… no!! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!! No!! Don’t!! Save me! Please save me! No! No… I don’t want to die, I really don’t want to die!!!”

The girl’s cries mingled with her tears, scattering beneath the poised blade. Finally, her gaze fixed on me, and she wailed even louder.

‘What could I do?’

‘Should I save her?’

‘What else could I possibly do?’

‘But could I just stand by and watch a little girl be cut down before my eyes? No matter what, she was just a child. What could she possibly have done to deserve such a brutal death?’

I hadn’t thought of any method.

But my body had already moved.

I didn’t know where I was, but it seemed clear now that I had transmigrated. I wasn’t sure where I’d ended up, but nowhere on Earth would people still be wielding longswords to kill others. If I had indeed transmigrated, then it meant I had died in my previous world.

I still had no idea how I would survive here. More accurately, I hadn’t yet grasped the reality of being alive; there was a strange unreality to it all. It felt as though everything was just a dream, a figment of my imagination.

If that were the case, then I wanted to be a hero. Every man harbored a dream of being a hero. My hero’s dream in my old world had long been extinguished by reality. So, at the very least, let me depart this world as a child’s hero.

I lunged forward, embracing the child tightly, holding the little girl securely in my arms. As I held her close, a pleasant floral scent wafted to me, mingled with a strong metallic smell of blood. ‘Was the scent of blood coming from her, then? Regardless, children and blood simply didn’t go together.’

The heavy sword, propelled by a fierce gust, descended above my head. My body tensed, rigid with fear. They say that before death, one’s entire life flashes before their eyes. Yet, my mind was a blank slate; I could think of nothing. All I saw was the terrified face of the girl in my arms.

I had never seen such a beautiful girl. If she grew up, she would surely be a beauty capable of toppling kingdoms. Unfortunately, in my past life, I rarely had opportunities to interact with beautiful women; typically, I just helped them meet my boss, and then my involvement ended. Now, for the first time, I held such a lovely young girl in my arms, even if only for a few fleeting seconds.

“It’s alright.”

‘This, I suppose, would be the last three words I ever uttered.’

The death-bringing gust from the sword roared past my ear. I closed my eyes, bracing for the final blow. ‘How pathetic. I’d been given such a good opportunity, yet I was still squandering this chance at a new life. But it was alright. At least, I had done something I always wanted to do.’

‘This time, perhaps this little girl would remember me.’

“CLANG!!!”

The grating screech of the blade against the wall sounded terrifyingly close, a noise that nearly set my teeth on edge. Clutching the child tightly, even with my eyes closed, I could feel the sword’s menacing proximity to my neck. I waited for the strike, but the blade never moved.

After a long silence, I cautiously opened my eyes, then slowly lifted my head to look up.

A cascade of silver hair swayed faintly in the air, framing a pair of blue eyes that fixed upon me. She wore a metal breastplate, its surface gleaming with countless scratches under the torchlight. She wore no other visible armor, and I hadn’t time to notice more, for my gaze was utterly captivated by her face. I had said earlier that I hadn’t seen a girl as beautiful as the one in my arms, but now I had to admit, this woman’s beauty was breathtaking, enough to make one forget to breathe. Beneath her piercing blue eyes was a perfectly sculpted nose, and her lips, though slightly pale and unmoving, appeared full and luscious. A delicate beauty mark gently graced her skin, yet her expression was anything but gentle.

Her blade rested on my neck, no longer descending. It was an incredibly close call; the edge of the sword lay precisely against my throat. Even a slight movement would mean the sharp blade would slice through my neck.

I stared at her, and she stared back. Neither of us spoke. We simply remained in silence, observing each other.

The blade was still at my neck, and the child was still in my arms.

“Move aside.”

After an indeterminate amount of time, those full lips coldly uttered two words.

“I won’t.”

Well, that was our first exchange.