HSM 1

Chapter 1

“This life will be over in just two more months.”

I stretched and flopped down on the grass.

My body was exhausted from wrestling with laundry all day, but my heart felt refreshed.

It had been a full 4 years and 10 months.

I entered the palace as a maid at thirteen and had now reached the age of seventeen.

What terrible luck. Of all times to possess someone’s body, it had to be right when she got hired as a maid.

If it had been even just one day earlier, I would never have made such a choice.

With no education or special skills, this was the only way for me to earn the most money in a short time, but nothing in the world is more important than one’s life.

To think of working in a place no different from a den of demons – the original owner of this body must have lost all sense of fear. Or else she was a complete fool.

What should I do first when I get out?

Even though I still had two months left, I was already imagining a brilliant future.

I’ve saved quite a bit of money through frugal living, so should I take grandmother on a trip to somewhere scenic?

“Hey, you senseless thing! What’s this about a noodle shop and travel nonsense! Stop talking rubbish and hurry up and make dumplings!”

I could picture grandmother immediately getting angry.

While others would sometimes close their shops for vacations and such, our Shin Geum had never rested even a single day.

To drag grandmother out of this den would probably require quite a lot of effort.

If persuasion really doesn’t work, I’ll have to leave alone, but perhaps due to our bond, I wasn’t keen on that idea.

In any case, the fact that I’m living this well now is largely thanks to Shin Geum.

I, who had been an ordinary office worker in South Korea, entered a martial arts novel overnight.

I had simply fallen asleep while reading a novel, but when I opened my eyes, I had become someone else.

The feeling when I, who had been a twenty-five-year-old adult, transformed into a thirteen-year-old girl.

Now I know this world is the world of the novel I read, but I had no idea for the first while.

Because I was a character who had never been mentioned even as an extra, let alone a supporting character in the novel.

It was all thanks to our Shin Geum that I came to know the true nature of this world.

I was truly in an almost panic state due to the suddenly changed environment.

Looking back now, it’s admirable that I managed to do maid work in the midst of all that.

My mind was gone, but someone assigned me work, and my instinctive sense whispered that I should quietly do my job without causing a commotion.

Fortunately, since I had just been hired, I could get by without being severely scolded even if I was clumsy.

Then about a week passed.

Shin Geum came looking for me. As soon as she saw me, she struck my back with her toad-like hands.

“You child! Didn’t grandmother tell you to come home every five days? Are you already ignoring grandmother’s words just because you became a palace maid, you little thing? Did I raise you like this!”

“…G-grandmother?”

“What’s with that expression? Did you forget grandmother’s face already?”

Seeing my surprise, Shin Geum grabbed the back of her neck in disbelief. Right then, I was dragged away by her with my earlobe caught.

Whether there had been prior notice or not, no one stopped us at the time.

Grandmother, who had acted terrifyingly as if she would beat me when we got home, brought out boiled meat saying my face had become half its size in just a few days.

Then she tried to persuade me, asking if I really had to do maid work, saying her body was still strong enough and it was sufficient to feed one person like me, so I should quit even now.

I roughly got the picture.

That the body’s owner had gotten a job as a maid for the sake of grandmother who was suffering to raise her.

And that due to my possession, she couldn’t keep her promise to come home.

“Well, you can’t quit work right now. Since you made a contract, you have to keep it.”

As I, having just possessed this body, had nothing to say and just hung my head low, she spoke with emphasis as if telling me to remember.

“But you must be careful, and careful again. It’s almost impossible for you to meet the cult leader, but there’s always the unexpected. You must not encounter the princes either. Especially be careful of Eok Wi-baek, the first prince. If you catch his eye and get hurt, this grandmother can’t live. You must remember!”

Before I could deeply ponder what “getting hurt” meant, my mouth was asking about something else.

“Eok Wi-baek?”

It was a familiar name if anything. It was one of the characters from the martial arts novel I had been reading until the night before I opened my eyes in this world.

Coincidentally, the owner of that name was also called the first prince.

“Don’t tell me you’ve already seen him?”

“N-no.”

When I reflexively shook my head, grandmother emphasized again.

“He’s famous for his cruel methods. He hasn’t officially become the successor yet, but currently he’s the strongest candidate for young cult leader. What good could come from people like us catching the eye of the next Heavenly Demon? If you ever have to encounter him, you must absolutely lower yourself. Did you understand this grandmother’s words well?”

It wasn’t difficult to understand. But I became dazed for a moment as if lightning had struck my head.

First Prince Eok Wi-baek.

Young cult leader candidate.

Next Heavenly Demon.

Just these few facts were enough for me to get a sense of what world I had fallen into.

But faced with the reality I wanted to deny, I clasped my hands together and asked.

“By any chance… do you also know the second prince’s name?”

“You mean Eok I-geon?”

Shit.

A curse slipped out naturally.

“…Then the third prince is Eok Hwi-gyeom…”

“Did you memorize all the princes’ names just because you became a palace maid?”

No. How could that be. I just remembered because it was a book I read last week. I found it quite entertaining…

So this is what it feels like when the sky falls.

I hadn’t been this frightened even when I suddenly woke up in a young girl’s body.

Of all the many novels, why this one!

I had to exert superhuman strength just to keep from collapsing.

I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t easily escape from the shock.

Could I be dreaming right now?

I had such hopes, but the surroundings were too realistic.

The clean but old shop, the subtle meat aroma spread in the air, the pork being swallowed into my mouth.

Grandmother was constantly putting pieces of meat into my mouth, saying that eating well was most important for people after all.

Unable to spit it out, I chewed reluctantly and recalled the novel’s title.

The Descent of the Heavenly Demon.

To summarize the content, it was simple.

The birth of the most powerful Heavenly Demon in Maegyo history.

As Maegyo typically does, the new Heavenly Demon aimed for Jungwon and surprisingly succeeded in unifying the martial world.

Jeongpa, Seopa, and Maegyo. There had always been armed conflicts, but they had never been subjugated under one power.

Prince Lee Eok I-geon was the first to accomplish this.

Jeok Igeon, the protagonist of the original novel.

He was, in a word, a demon. The Jeokwi Baek that grandmother warned me to be careful of was equally evil, but compared to Jeok Igeon, he was at a cute level.

A legendary psychopath who would tear his subordinates to death just for catching his eye when he was in a bad mood, and strangle to death women carrying his children for being insolent.

The novel begins with him slaughtering his brothers and father to ascend as the Heavenly Demon.

I remember there being a brief description that until then, he had hidden his true nature while waiting for the right time.

Demon cult members naturally pledge loyalty to the strong.

Though he committed patricide, no one could rebel against Jeok Igeon who became the Heavenly Demon. Rather, there were many who praised his choice.

The novel that opened its curtain this way would take the Gonryun Sect as its first sacrifice and advance into Jungwon.

Jeok Igeon, who had long surpassed human limits through natural talent and effort, swept through the martial world like breaking bamboo.

Heavenly Demon’s Descent was a novel that gained popularity for the protagonist’s overwhelming martial prowess and its refreshing, thrilling development.

It showed that the story of a villain rather than a hero could be sufficiently entertaining.

But that was only because I understood it was a novel.

If such a situation became reality, my judgment would be completely different. I’d be too scared to even breathe properly, let alone live.

‘I must avoid standing out as much as possible.’

Fortunately, the time I possessed this body was long before the novel began.

The contract period for palace maids was 5 years. My goal was to somehow endure that period well and leave Maegyo.

Since there was no way to return home, I would have to continue living here, but I absolutely had to avoid Jeok Igeon.

Because I didn’t want to die a dog’s death.

Just two more months now.

‘If I can just endure two more months, I can escape!’

Looking up at the blue sky, I steeled my resolve once again. It was then that I heard Sook’s voice.

“Seolha! What are you doing here! Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?”

“Why were you looking for me? Is something wrong?”

Sook was a friend of the same age I met here. Though she was quite clumsy and required a lot of attention, she was a kind-hearted and gentle child.

“What kind of luck were you born with?”

“Luck?”

“I just heard that you’ve been assigned as Prince Lee’s personal maid! Right now, all the girls are going crazy with envy!”

“Wh-what kind of nonsense is that! Me as Prince Lee’s personal maid! Why would I!”

I jumped up and shouted. My heart pounded like crazy. My mind went blank at the sudden news.

“Well, isn’t it because you do your work thoroughly and well? For our seniority level, it’s a bit early, but it’s not unheard of. But Seolha, don’t you want to be Prince Lee’s personal maid? Why do you look like that?”

Her expression said, ‘Others are dying to do it, so what’s your problem?’

Of course I don’t want to!

Do you know how much I’ve suffered trying to avoid that place!

The palace cleaning area assignments operated on a rotation system with regular intervals.

Naturally, there were days when I should have been assigned to Prince Lee’s quarters. But each time, I switched with other maids and absolutely never set foot in that place. I didn’t want to allow even the slightest variable.

At this time, since Jeok Igeon was still hiding his true nature, there were many maids willing to switch shifts.

The fact that he was incredibly handsome also played a part in this.

Though I had never actually seen him, according to the maids who had encountered him, Prince Lee was definitely the most handsome man in the main sect.

‘In the original work too, mentions of his good looks appeared whenever he was described. Even his enemies would admire his appearance.’

Because I personally took on even the difficult laundry as payment for switching shifts, not a single person had ever refused until now.

I thought I had been avoiding him well like a slippery eel, but now a personal maid?

I’d rather commit suicide than absolutely never do that.

“I need to see Lady Gwak!”

Lady Gwak was something like the head maid.

I ran frantically toward her quarters.

From the sky that had been blazing bright just moments ago, raindrops began to pour down.

It seemed to foretell an unfortunate future, and I was overcome with an ominous feeling.