Chapter 3

Chapter 3

All I Did Was Leave One Supportive Comment

《Love on Judgment Day》

That was the title of the romance fantasy webtoon I'd clicked on out of curiosity.

The typical male and female leads: a Hero and Saintess who grow through adventures and hardships.

When I first started reading, I thought it was a straightforward heroic tale about an almost frustratingly righteous Hero and a kindhearted Saintess overcoming one crisis after another.

But the more I read, the more blood started spilling, characters I'd assumed were important began dropping dead left and right, the setting turned out to be unexpectedly grim, and there were even frequent explicit scenes... Yeah, I eventually realized it was a story sprinkled with a few drops of dark fantasy.

And I ended up possessing one of the characters in that not-so-gentle world.

Not someone from the Order of Justitia, Goddess of Order and Justice, which the protagonist couple belonged to, but Beatrice, Saintess of the Order of Eris, Goddess of Love and Battle.

Beatrice was a supporting character created to emphasize the cruelty of the villain, Cassian.

Her body and mind were brutally trampled by Cassian, her entire existence consumed solely to demonstrate his wickedness and cruelty—the very definition of a ‘woman in the refrigerator.’

What happened to her was so excessive, with even numerous instances of sexual abuse heavily implied, that I, having absolutely no tolerance for misery porn, couldn't take it anymore and dropped the series during the Eris Order arc.

“Ugh... I seriously can't watch this. I'll binge it after it's finished.”

When was it that I'd closed it with that thought? Afterward, I completely forgot about it.

Then one day, while going about my life, I absentmindedly clicked a post on an online community and got spoiled on the ending.

The protagonist's party loses to the demons, and humanity ends up reduced to livestock raised by them, ending the story on a bad ending?

‘Seriously? I know the setting is dark, but they're ending it like that? In Korea, of all places?’

Half-disbelieving, I opened the webtoon and skimmed only the final chapter. It was true.

I hate bad endings. I don't particularly like open endings either. Clichéd as they may be, I prefer a completely closed happy ending.

‘Thank God I never binged the whole thing. If I'd kept reading, that would've done some serious emotional damage.’

With that thought, I casually opened the comments.

Just as expected, the comment section was absolute chaos. There were vicious insults, scathing criticism aimed at the author, and a whole parade of random food recipes.

I was chuckling at the comments and even copying some of the tastier-looking recipes into my notepad when a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

‘What kind of reaction would I get if I left one supportive comment in a section that's nothing but insults and criticism?’

With that thought, I wrote and posted what you'd call a ‘mindless defense’ of the author, the sort of pretentious comment you'd expect from someone drunk on their own artistic sensibilities.

[Honestly, doesn't an ending like this leave a strong impression? I think Korea needs enough cultural sophistication to accept bad endings like this as art by now. I hope the author doesn't get intimidated by all these mindless hate comments and change the ending. If anything, the fact that it isn't another predictable happy ending is exactly what makes it a masterpiece... Aren't you guys way too accustomed to mass-produced garbage?]

...It was just a prank. I'd tossed one drop of oil onto a blazing fire.

So why the hell did someone like me end up possessing a character in this webtoon?

“You fucking author bastard... Is this how you repay someone who defended you?”

By the usual formula, shouldn't you transmigrate the person who wrote a 5,700-character rant or one of the guys hurling vicious insults?!

All I'd done was laugh at the furious replies pouring in under my comment before going to sleep, yet when I opened my eyes, I was in a rotten-smelling back alley straight out of the Middle Ages.

On top of that, the fit body I'd built through regular exercise and martial arts was nowhere to be found. Instead, I'd become a scrawny little kid.

But the most horrifying part was something else. My lifelong partner between my legs, one I'd never even gotten the chance to use, had disappeared too.

In a single instant, I'd gone from a healthy Korean man in his twenties to a homeless little girl in the Middle Ages.

I bawled my eyes out twice like the world was ending. Once when I realized I'd become a girl, and again when I realized this place was, of all things, the world of 《Love on Judgment Day》.

But I didn't have time to sit around crying in despair.

Life as a back-alley street rat gave me no such luxury.

Getting driven away from begging spots by other beggars, or having coins tossed to me by sympathetic passersby stolen by thugs, was an everyday occurrence.

Proper sleep wasn't even something I could dream about. I had to curl up in the corner of an alley and sleep in short bursts. The moment I fell into a deep sleep, I'd end up stuffed into a human trafficker's sack and sold off somewhere.

Hunger and misery quickly wore away the conscience I'd brought with me from the modern world.

I stole food when I got too hungry and roamed the marketplace picking people's pockets.

When plague swept through the back alleys, I robbed the belongings of those bedridden with illness and rummaged through piles of corpses for anything useful or valuable.

Half a year passed while I lived like human garbage.

And during that hellish time, I realized two things.

First, this body's physical abilities were abnormally exceptional.

A single swing of the wooden staff I carried for intimidation was enough to smash a grown man into a wall and knock him unconscious, while my movements over walls and rooftops were as nimble and agile as a cat's.

And second, I sometimes had dreams that foretold danger.

The scenes I saw in those dreams would become reality not long afterward. Thanks to them, I could foresee and avoid human traffickers or attacks from starving vagrants.

Monstrous physical abilities and dreams that foretold the future.

Those two things were what allowed me to survive alone in the back alleys for half a year, even in the body of a child.

But I guess this was as far as I could go.

Sh-sh-sh-sh-shiver-

What was that sound, you ask? That was the sound of my body trembling. I was shaking so violently I might as well have become a living vibration.

Back in Korea, I liked winter more than summer.

But I was now painfully realizing that was only possible because I'd had something called a ‘home.’

Clutching an armful of branches, I crawled into the shabby shelter I'd built beneath an overpass, trembling all the while.

I lit the branches I'd gathered and wrapped myself tightly in a moldy blanket I couldn't even remember where I'd picked up.

Only after warming myself by the fire did my frozen body finally begin to thaw.

“S-So, so f-fucking coooold...”

There was still a long stretch of winter left. At this rate, I'd freeze to death before I starved or got beaten to death.

Cold wasn't something monstrous physical abilities or danger-foretelling dreams could do anything about.

And recently, another problem had appeared. Namely, this body's looks, which only grew more striking as it matured.

My hair had been hacked short as though rats had gnawed at it and was so filthy you couldn't even tell its original color, while my face was covered in soot.

Even dressed in foul-smelling rags and reduced to skin and bones, this body's exceptional beauty couldn't be completely hidden.

...I still couldn't forget the filthy looks men had given me that one time I'd washed myself clean in the river and walked around afterward.

And this body belonged to a little girl.

Getting horny over a child, you fucking deranged lunatics.

This world was crawling with bastards who would've deserved electronic ankle monitors on the spot back in Korea.

And to make matters worse, had rumors started spreading about a little girl living alone in the back alleys?

This morning, some neatly dressed young punk who looked about apprentice-knight level had singled me out and tried to take me away.

What had he said again? Follow me quietly, and I'll take you somewhere you can live in luxury compared to this place. Something like that?

I wasn't some naive little kid who'd fall for pretty words.

The moment he let his guard down, I smashed my wooden staff into his temple and knocked him unconscious. Then I beat the absolute shit out of him, hung a sign around his neck saying [I'm a perverted bastard who lusts after little kids], and ran away.

After pulling something like that, they were obviously going to turn the place upside down looking for me.

Those people cared about ridiculous things like pride and chivalry, so there was no way they'd let an apprentice knight being humiliated like that slide.

If things went badly, I might have a whole mob of knights coming after me.

My physical abilities might be amazing for a kid, but if you asked whether I could escape from a swarm of knights... Well, nine times out of ten, I'd get caught.

Then wasn't it incredibly thoughtless of me to mess with a knight despite knowing that?

Not at all. This body had a plan.

Knowing my personality, if all I had was the vague thought of ‘I should leave this place,’ I'd obviously keep procrastinating and putting it off.

But what if staying here any longer meant I could genuinely get fucked? Wouldn't that make me leave as quickly as possible?

I got to vent my anger while also giving myself some powerful motivation. Two birds with one stone.

...Well, whatever. What was done was done, and I needed to leave this ‘Orphan Kingdom’ I'd been staying in as soon as possible.

A place filled with nothing but fucking assholes, as if determined to live up to its name.

“Huuu... Let's make a run for it after tonight.”

I'd beaten that rookie knight senseless this morning. I'd planned to leave that evening under cover of darkness, but of all days, the blizzard happened to be especially fierce today.

Heading out blindly in weather like this was a perfect way to get lost in the snow and freeze to death. It would be better to leave once the blizzard eased.

I'd already checked when the inspections became lax and several small gaps leading outside the walls, so I shouldn't get caught either.

I was reassuring myself like that, tossing pieces of firewood in one by one to keep my lifeline of a fire from going out, while sipping melted snow when...

Clank-

“...!”

My heart dropped.

Amid the howling wind and roaring blizzard came the rattling sound of steel.

Those were unmistakably the footsteps of people wearing armor.

And judging from the sound, there weren't just one or two of them. Worse, every one of those footsteps was heading straight toward my hiding place.

“Are those knights? I'm seriously fucked.”

If there were only one or two, they might've been mercenaries wearing some scavenged tin cans, but with this many, they had to be knights.

Fortunately, I'd already packed my important belongings into a bundle. I quickly slung it over my back and tightly gripped the wooden staff that had faithfully protected me all this time.

At least while I was escaping, the blizzard would become a welcome ally that erased my tracks.

...Assuming I didn't freeze to death, of course!

Without hesitation, I stepped outside the shelter, where the blizzard made it impossible to see even a few feet ahead. But at that very moment...

Thud-

“Ah!”

There should've been nothing but open space in front of me, yet I ran headfirst into a solid wall. The unexpected impact sent me sprawling backward.

It's not like some wall suddenly fell out of the sky, so what the hell?

Still sitting on my ass, I raised my head. What I'd crashed into wasn't a wall, but solid metal armor.

I looked higher and saw a stern-looking middle-aged knight staring down at me through the blizzard with a grave expression.

...I'm fucked, aren't I?

“...At last, we've found you.”

“At last, we've found you, my ass! Die!”

I made my decision instantly. I swung my staff straight at the middle-aged knight's head.

Backed by strength no child should possess and the added force of centrifugal momentum, it shot toward him in a vicious blow.

If it landed on his temple, he'd get a concussion at the very least. Even if he blocked it, I planned to use that opening to run. But...

Clang-

That plan completely fell apart when the knight casually stopped my staff with his gauntlet.

“Good heavens... I'm impressed. Now I finally understand how that rookie Leonid ended up in such a state.”

“You son of...”

I'm fucked. There's absolutely no way I'm getting away. This man wasn't someone my crude skills could do anything against.

After just a single exchange made the hopeless gap between us painfully clear, I quickly pulled my staff back and retreated several steps to create some distance.

“...My apologies. It seems our lack of explanation caused you to become wary of us.”

I was desperately searching for some way to escape when the knight suddenly knelt before me, making my entire body stiffen on the spot.

Why the hell is this old guy suddenly kneeling?

Huh? Wait, is this body secretly some abandoned princess or an illegitimate noble child or something?

“I apologize for taking so long and allowing you to endure such terrible hardships.”

“Mister, what the hell are you talking about...”

“My name is Vargas. I am the Captain of the Holy Knights of the Eris Order.”

As the middle-aged knight introduced himself, he slightly pulled aside the cloak draped over his armor. A thorn-covered rose and sword were clearly engraved on the breastplate. The emblem of the Eris Order.

...Impersonating an emblem, especially the emblem of a religious Order, was something even the vilest scum wouldn't dare attempt.

Then this man really was the Captain of the Holy Knights of the Eris Order?

My mind went completely blank.

No way... right? Yeah? It couldn't be.

I just possessed some homeless little girl's body, right? That was supposed to be all there was to it.

My hands began trembling.

The facts I'd desperately ignored and buried deep because I'd been too busy simply trying to survive began rising to the surface.

The body I'd possessed was female.

Then there was the silver hair I'd discovered the one time I'd briefly washed it, along with these mysterious white eyes.

And the strange prophetic ability that had allowed me to avoid approaching dangers through dreams.

And finally, the Captain of the Eris Order's Holy Knights had come all the way into this filthy back alley looking for me.

Every clue pointed toward a single character.

I prayed it wasn't true. Please, don't let it be. I repeated those words hundreds of times in my head as I stared blankly at Vargas's lips slowly opening.

“I have come to escort you, Saintess.”

The moment I heard those words, I fainted on the spot.