Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of frantic footsteps echoed through the empty alley. A teenager, his school uniform disheveled and soaked in sweat, ran as though his life depended on it. His chest heaved with each breath, lungs burning from the effort. Behind him, three men closed in, their pocket knives glinting like fangs under the pale moonlight.
Ren's eyes darted desperately ahead. There! A tall boundary grill loomed at the end of the alley. Without slowing down, he leapt, gripping the cold metal and scrambling upward. But his hands, slick with sweat, betrayed him. Before he could make it over, rough hands yanked him down.
"Gotcha!" one of the men growled, slamming Ren to the ground.
He struggled fiercely, but the odds were against him. Two of them pinned his arms, while the third stepped forward, blocking his only way out.
"Let go of me, you bastards!" Ren roared, thrashing against their hold.
"You should've taken the deal," the man in front of him said, his voice cold as the steel blade in his hand. "Master gave you a way out. All you had to do was change your testimony. But no—"
"If you know everything, then why the hell are you still doing this?" Ren spat, glaring up at him through bloodshot eyes.
The man hesitated. For the briefest moment, his lips twitched as though he wanted to say something—anything—but then his expression hardened.
"I'm sorry, kid. We don't have a choice."
Ren let out a bitter laugh, his voice laced with defiance. "Hah! Says the dog who sold his soul for a fistful of cash. You're pathetic."
The insult struck a nerve. The man's grip tightened on the knife, his knuckles whitening. His jaw clenched as he exchanged a glance with the others. A silent command.
Then the blade plunged into Ren's abdomen.
White-hot pain exploded through his body. His scream tore through the night, raw and guttural. Blood spurted from the wound, warm and sticky, soaking through his shirt. He gasped, his knees buckling, but the man wasn't done.
The knife struck again, burying itself deeper this time. Ren's vision blurred as agony overwhelmed him. He collapsed, clutching at the wound with trembling hands, but the blood wouldn't stop. It seeped through his fingers, pooling beneath him like a dark, growing shadow.
The man stood up, wiping the knife on his sleeve with a trembling hand. "Let's go," he rasped.
The two others released Ren, letting him crumple to the ground. One of them hesitated, glancing back at the dying boy. For a moment, their gazes met—one filled with fear, the other with defiance. But then the moment passed, and they disappeared into the darkness, their footsteps fading into silence.
Ren slumped against the cold, rough wall. His breaths came in shallow, uneven gasps. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, and his limbs felt heavy, unresponsive.
'So this is it?' he thought bitterly. 'This is how it ends?'
Memories flashed before his eyes—his friends laughing in the schoolyard, the joy of his mother's cooking, the bittersweet pain of betrayal. His chest tightened, not from the wound, but from regret.
'I should've punched that fat pig at least once', he thought, his lips curling into a weak, bloody grin. 'That bastard will pay. Even if I die, I'll haunt him until his last breath.'
As his vision darkened, his thoughts faded into silence. The alley grew still, save for the faint rustle of wind. The pool of blood around him reflected the pale moonlight, an eerie, silent witness to the snuffing out of a young life.
*****
Huff. Huff. Ren gasped for air. The moonlight streaming through the window illuminated the tiny room, revealing only his bed and a wooden table with a few scattered books.
Ren relaxed his breathing and looked out of the window. He got up from his bed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Picking up the clay pot near his bed, he chugged down the water. Satiating his thirst, he placed the pot back down.
'It feels like it happened just yesterday', Ren thought as he slipped back into his bed. 'I'll have to get over it somehow.'
The morning sunshine lit up the entire town, revealing the bustling streets of the market. People of different races filled the road, some clad in armor with weapons strapped to their backs, while others wore simple clothing.
In this chaotic crowd, a young boy wove his way through, holding a sack tightly in his hands. This young boy was Ren.
'It's been a month now since I got transmigrated to this place', Ren thought as he adjusted the sack full of salt on his shoulder. 'I still can't get used to this place though.'
After Ren was stabbed to death, he suddenly found himself in the body of a 13-year-old boy. The concept of transmigration that Ren had only read about in novels was now his reality.
'Sigh. It would have turned out really bad if I hadn't adapted to this place sooner.'
Suddenly waking up in someone else's body after a gruesome death wasn't something Ren had ever prepared for. The first few days were spent as though he were walking a tightrope over spikes.
Ren entered a two-story building, its interior filled with the chatter of patrons sitting at tables scattered around the tavern. Being from a world where people barely bore scratches on their hands, Ren couldn't bring himself to meet the eyes of the scarred mercenaries who frequented the place.
The body Ren now inhabited belonged to an orphan who worked at the tavern. To blend in and avoid suspicion, he had to agree to whatever work the owner gave him.
Thwack! A woman smacked Ren on the back of his head. Her hair was tied back, and she wore an apron. She glared at him.
"What took you so long? It's been almost an hour since you left," she scolded, narrowing her eyes.
"Ack… Uncle Somer said he didn't have any salt, so I had to go further," Ren replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Why do you keep hitting me all the time, anyway, Luna?"
"Sigh. Just give it to Dad in the back and come help me. We've got a lot of customers today. Take the orders and manage the counter."
"Yeah, yeah," Ren grumbled as he headed behind the counter and into the kitchen. There, a middle-aged man with a muscular frame and scarred arms stirred a stew. Its rich aroma tingled Ren's nose. This man was Robert, the tavern's owner.
He has to be the most bizarre cook I've ever seen, Ren thought as he placed the sack of salt down. "Here you go. I'll get the orders."
"Stop," Robert said in a deep voice. "Where were you this morning?"
'Seems like I've been found out already', Ren thought as his body tensed. Each morning, he ran around town to build endurance and survey his surroundings, hoping to better understand this world.
"I went out for a walk," Ren said hesitantly.
"Tell me something. Are you thinking of becoming a mercenary?" Robert asked. Despite his heavy tone, his eyes betrayed concern.
"I… don't know," Ren admitted.
"If you're not sure, forget it. That world isn't for someone like you."
'Just say you're worried about me', Ren thought, sighing as he turned to leave the kitchen. "Got it."
Exiting the kitchen, he began taking meal orders until the crowd dwindled. As he worked, a strange thought crossed his mind.
'It feels normal. Running errands for Luna, living in another world. I thought it would take longer to adjust.'
When Ren first arrived, his sole goal had been to return to his world. But as the days passed, he began to enjoy this life. Waking up surrounded by nature, meeting kind-hearted people—it was a peace he hadn't expected.
'I was thinking of finding a way to go back to my world but...… would it be worth it? Even if I do go back, I doubt anyone I knew would even be alive. It's a dying wish altogether. Not to mention I don't even have a clue about how I'm going to do it.'
As he went deeper in his thoughts, Luna noticed the grim expression over his face. She went towards him and stood alongside him.
"Don't take what Dad said to heart, he can be a bit harsh at times, but he's just worried about you." she said.
'Huh? Oh, was I thinking a bit too much?' Ren thought as he noticed that Luna had a misunderstanding about what had happened in the kitchen.
"Yeah, I know, I am not really worried about that. By the way, why are there so many knights today?" Ren asked, steering the conversation elsewhere.
"Tsk. The count's in a territorial war with Duke Garham's forces. These knights are the vanguard. All nobles care about is money and war. I can't imagine the state of the villages on the outskirts," she replied, launching into a tirade about her disdain for nobles.
'War, never really thought I would really witness such a thing ever in my life. Well, considering there are knights and mages in this world, war is not something I should be surprised about.' He thought as one of the knights caught his eye.
His blonde hairs shone brightly and his facial features made him like he was a noble himself. Clad in heavy armor, his tall and muscular figure made him condescending. His longsword, sheathed in a decorated cover indicated his position as their commander.
'Aura huh, I wonder if I can use it too.'
In this world, aura and mana enhanced a warrior's physical prowess, making conventional weapons like bullets ineffective. It was something straight out of an action-fantasy novel for someone like Ren.
As Ren observed the commander, Luna noticed his interest.
"Don't tell me, do you want to become a knight and not a mercenary? Forget it. Don't even dream about it I say. Knights are often either recommended or highly talented, you have neither of those." Luna said with a smug look, it gave Ren a certain ease of mind seeing she was back to being herself.
"Don't you think you are underestimating me too much?" Ren retorted with a smirk.
"It's quite opposite." she quipped, her grin mischievous
Like that, the two of them continued to quarrel and laugh together till the sun sank in the horizon and the crescent moon rose up. The knights had taken off for where the war was going to happen, leaving room for mercenaries to come in the tavern.
Just like usual, people came to eat and left when they were done with their meal.
But even though it being so peaceful, Ren couldn't shake off the feeling that something felt out of place.
'Something's wrong.' Ren thought as he kept thinking more about why he was feeling this way. 'Am I just imagining things?'
It wasn't completely impossible. In his past life, Ren had lost a lot of his loved ones. This often gave him the feeling that he was cursed. But this life felt different, he thought he could finally live a peaceful life.
"I think I shouldn't overthink it." Ren said as he decided to not look further into it. But a thought, rather a memory from his past came to him like lightning.
A memory from his past flashed in his mind. His friend's words echoed: If you feel something's off, act on it. Regret is worse than uncertainty.
These words that had helped him a lot in his past life brought him back to the present.
With a glint of energy, Ren surveyed the entire tavern, looking at every person eating their dinner or enjoying alcohol. On the top, anyone would say they were just normal people trying to wash away the fatigue of the day's work. But Ren saw more than that.
As he looked around, his eyes stopped at a middle-aged man eating a bowl of stew with bread.
'That guy.' Ren thought as he noticed a metallic bracelet with a black colored gem embedded in the center that the man was wearing. The bracelet gave off an eerie feeling and his movements felt almost robotic.
Even while eating, the man took a bite of the bread, and then proceeded to ingest a spoonful of stew, and then repeated this action in the exact same intervals as if programmed to do so.
Ren decided to look for other people who acted similar to him. Once he was done looking, cold sweat started to form over his forehead.
'What the-'
There were in total 9 people who had the exact same bracelet and acted almost similar while some blended in more than the others. The more he examined them, the stronger they looked. At one point, he doubted if he had seen anyone as strong as them since his transmigration.
'This is bad.' Ren thought as he turned to look towards Luna who was still bringing in orders from the kitchen and served them accordingly at every table. 'Should I tell her?'
Now that he had found out the source of things, he needed to find their intentions. If their intentions were to harm him or others in the tavern, he would need to step in himself and at least keep Luna safe. But if their intention was to be something else,
'I'll just let them be if their target is not us.'
Thinking this, Ren turned back again to examine the people. He noticed that each of them had different cloths, different personalities, but they all had a single similar dagger strapped to their waist.
Taking all these things in account, only one profession came to his mind: Assassins. It wasn't a profession that had a lot of recognition. Assassins were people who were affiliated with either the 'Assassin Guilds' that are very hard to come by, or were trained and forced to serve under their master being slaves for the rest of their lives.
Here, the possibility of the second option seemed more likely.
BOOM!!!
Before he could gather his thoughts together, a loud sound of an explosion came from a distance. Everyone in the tavern turned their heads in the direction of the explosion. Some of the veteran mercenaries gripped their weapons, be it a battle axe or a longsword, and exited the tavern in an instant like lightning.
Amid the chaos, Ren met the gaze of the middle-aged assassin. His heart sank.
The assassin had noticed him long before. All nine rose, unsheathing identical daggers. One blocked the exit.
The leader swung his weapon, decapitating a man in a single stroke. Blood sprayed across the floor.
Ren and Luna froze in horror as the lifeless head rolled away.
The nightmare was only beginning.