My Life Was a Series of Failures
Outcast, bastard, incompetent, half-wit.
Those were the names I was called instead of my own. The label of an illegitimate child brought either contempt or disregard, and, without power, I lived my life having everything taken from me.
Even so, there were times when I dared to have expectations for my life.
For instance, when I first realized the weight of the name of the noble Suungmu Yi family.
Or when I was chosen for a top-tier weapon during the Iron Selection Ceremony.
I thought to myself—
If I continued to earn recognition like this, if I kept pushing forward without stopping, maybe one day I would be acknowledged by everyone.
But that never happened.
—"Hmm, I've never seen a magic circuit like this before. It's unsuitable for learning magic… and as for martial arts, its instability makes it hopeless. Even reaching the 9th rank as a warrior would be difficult."
After my peculiar constitution was revealed, the events of the Iron Selection and the Naming Ceremony were dismissed as mere flukes or mistakes.
Even those who once harbored faint expectations for me eventually turned away, muttering, "I should've known."
Still, I persevered out of sheer stubbornness.
And, to some extent, I achieved results.
Contrary to the claim that I wouldn't even reach the 9th rank, I proved myself as a 7th-rank warrior by the age of 25.
Of course, the other children of the family accomplished that before they even became adults.
Then, when I turned 30, I was finally expelled from the family.
The only reason I left with all my limbs intact was thanks to my eldest brother's help.
And yet…
"So, this is how it ends."
The visitor who came to find me was unexpected.
Or perhaps I had anticipated this moment all along.
A man dressed in black.
The moment I saw him, my heart turned cold.
His unique attire, a fusion of a modernized hanbok and a Western coat, was the mission uniform of the Shadow Sword Corps—those who only obeyed the head of the Suungmu Yi family.
He reached into his robe and handed me a white envelope.
"This is an official order for you, Young Master. Please confirm it."
"Young Master?"
A low, bitter chuckle escaped me.
Even after throwing it all away… this cursed bloodline continues to haunt me until the day I die.
I accepted the letter.
I had erased my tracks and spent the last ten years living as if I were dead.
Yet the family had still found me.
Breaking the seal, I scanned the brief mission details inside.
…..
[Mission Order]
Target: Ninth Son, Yi Cheol
Objective: Investigate anomalies in the Uncharted Zone, Sector BA-1. Join the expedition team by 18:30 today.
—Head of the Yi Family, Yi Gunseong
….
I let out a dry laugh in disbelief.
Not a dungeon. Not a gate.
An Uncharted Zone.
A hellscape of monsters that had resisted exploration for centuries.
A place where ancient beasts, now fully adapted to Earth's environment, lurked in swarms.
Especially Sector BA-1, which had recently been the site of anomalous activity.
"As a 7th-rank warrior, you're sending me there? You do realize this is a death sentence, right?"
"Do you refuse the order?"
The Shadow Sword warrior remained motionless, but a chill ran down my spine.
Refusing a direct order without just cause meant death.
I rubbed my fingers over the head family's official seal at the bottom of the letter.
"So… Gunseong became the head in the end, huh?"
It had been a time of turmoil.
The borders of the Uncharted Zone were expanding, and monster attacks were intensifying.
In the midst of it all, my father—the former head of the Suungmu Yi family and the pinnacle of martial might in Korea—had passed away.
The strongest candidate for succession had been my eldest brother.
He had the legitimacy, the character, and the skill.
Yet, it was my third brother, Gunseong, who emerged victorious.
"Then prepare yourself. I will return in an hour."
Like a phantom, the Shadow Sword warrior vanished into thin air.
"…Hah, fuck."
I crumpled the mission order in my fist, grinding my teeth.
***
"We're all going to die. This is insane."
"Damn it… Yi Gunseong, you son of a bitch…"
We had started with 150 expedition members. Now, only 48 remained.
In ten hours, we had moved a mere 10 kilometers.
A hundred men had died just for that.
And these weren't just any men—they were warriors of the Suungmu Yi family.
So, this was never really an exploration.
This was a purge.
I clenched my jaw and turned my gaze to the Shadow Sword warriors overseeing the expedition under the guise of security.
What had my third brother done to them?
Even in this hellish Uncharted Zone, the Shadow Sword warriors remained unscathed.
Not because they were exceptionally strong.
Even when gravely wounded, they healed almost instantly—like monsters.
Severed arms regenerated. Pierced chests mended themselves.
They never died.
The Shadow Sword Corps.
Once loyal warriors who moved only at the head's command…
Now, they were something else entirely.
"We're moving, Expedition Leader. The destination is just ahead."
"…Understood."
It was a disorganized and devastating march.
And then.
As the expedition advanced, leaving countless casualties behind, an unidentified ruin revealed itself before them.
"Why is there a ruin here?"
"How has such an ancient ruin remained so well preserved?"
Although the roofs and walls had collapsed in various places, rendering it nearly a ruin, there were undeniable traces of traditional East Asian architecture.
In an uncharted land teeming with monsters like grains of sand on a beach, the existence of such an intact structure was beyond belief.
As the expedition hesitated in shock, a member of the Sword Corps urged them forward.
"Proceed."
When they finally reached the deepest part of the ruins, a vast open space unfolded before them.
Scattered around the area were countless white skeletons, their identities unknown.
And then, the expedition members discovered something massive in the center of the clearing—something that left them horrified.
"What… what in the world is that?"
It was the remains of a colossal monster.
A fossil, reduced to a mere skeleton, lay there in eternal slumber.
"We found it."
The Sword Corps member's eyes glinted.
Then he spoke.
"Begin."
"Begin what?"
The Sword Corps member pulled down his mask and smirked.
"What else? The purge."
Schlch!
Blood splattered into the air.
"You… you bastards…! I should have known…! Guh!"
"No! Stop!"
"A massacre like this in the 21st century…!"
"The third son has lost his mind! You insolent—!"
Each swing of the Sword Corps' blades brought another death.
"What the hell is this?!"
"You all knew, didn't you? You were destined to die anyway. At least take pride in perishing for the sake of the family."
"Ugh!"
"Khak!"
A one-sided slaughter unfolded.
Before long, the vast clearing reeked of blood.
Then, one of the Sword Corps members approached me.
I gripped my sword tightly and held it in front of my chest.
He curled his lips into a sneer.
"Our lord gave us orders. Bring them here, and if they don't resist, make it as clean as possible."
"Shut up!"
I had no intention of dying so easily.
I kicked off the ground and swung my sword.
"Pathetic."
With a flick of his blade—
Clang!
My sword shattered.
I saw it with my own eyes—the steel blade splintering like a twig, its pieces flying into the air.
Ever since my eldest brother helped me escape from the family, I had never skipped a single day of training.
Yet, I couldn't even last a single exchange.
Boom!
Another flash of light erupted before me.
"Ugh!"
Darkness consumed my consciousness.
When I came to, I was no longer in my original position—I had been hurled dozens of meters away, now embedded in the skull of the monstrous fossil.
"Even if you're only a half-blood, the direct lineage is different. To think you survived that."
Pain wracked my entire body, as if my bones had been shattered into dust. Still, I forced myself to stand.
It was pathetic.
Weakness had made me an outcast in my own family, forced me to flee—only for my own bloodline to be the reason I had to die.
Because I was weak, I had to run.
Because I was weak, I lost everything.
And now, they would take even my life.
'I… I can't die like this.'
I needed a weapon.
At that moment, through my blood-stained vision, I noticed something unfamiliar.
It was a sword, lodged deep into the monster's skull.
I had no time to wonder why it was there.
With trembling hands, I reached for it.
Crunch.
But the moment I grasped the sword, it crumbled to dust.
Even my final desperate attempt was denied by fate.
"The disgrace of the Lee family is truly unsightly."
Schlch!
A blade sliced through my back.
From my spine outward, a molten-hot sensation spread through my body.
'Ah…'
Amidst the unbearable pain, my life flashed before my eyes.
The moments of misery.
And I thought—
If I were to be reborn.
I would never live like this again.
Vwoom—!
Beyond my fading consciousness, the remnants of the shattered sword—the ashes—seemed to slither toward me.
Darkness swallowed my vision.
And I lost consciousness.
***
Pain wracked my entire body. My mind was hazy.
The light was too bright, my breath felt like needles piercing my lungs, and even the air grazing my skin stabbed like thorns.
The sounds were deafening, like rolling thunder, threatening to burst my eardrums.
'Is this hell? The pain is unbearable.'
I couldn't hold back. My mouth opened on its own, and I let out a scream.
"Waaaah! Waaah—!"
'…Huh?'
"A Baby's Cry?"
Could an infant really fall into hell?
"Is this the child? Yoo-jung's offspring."
The voice was low.
A chill ran down my spine.
"Father?"
A calm, emotionless voice.
It was faint, but unmistakably my father's.
"What happened to Yoo-jung?"
"By the time we found her… she was already…"
"I see."
A rough hand touched my body.
The touch was gentle, but it felt coarse and rigid.
"Waaaah! Waaah!"
The sound that escaped my lips was the cry of a baby.
"N-No way!"
The crying I had been hearing… was coming from my own mouth?
"Father… and Steward Choi? How do they look so young?"
I forced myself to turn my head, and then I saw it clearly.
The greatest swordsman of his time.
The head of the Yi family, Yi Taeshin.
Thick black hair, the signature trait of the Yi family. Stern eyes with light brown pupils beneath them.
My father, who had died, was standing there, alive.
At that moment, our eyes met.
He gazed down at me with interest.
"…Yeong (英) should be a good name. That shall be the child's childhood name."
"As you wish."
"Assign a wet nurse, as with the other children, and have part of the Shadow Sword Corps guard him."
"Understood."
"When is the eighth child's Iron Line Ceremony scheduled?"
"Next April, sir."
"Yeong should attend as well."
"…Right away, sir? The young master is not yet prepared, and he is months younger than the eighth young lady."
"It does not matter."
My father looked down at me one more time before turning away.
I let out a hollow laugh.
Steward Choi, who had been old, was now in his prime. My father, who had passed away, was alive, as stern as ever.
And the conversation they had just had…
"If it's the Iron Line Ceremony…"
A special ritual performed at the first birthday celebration of an infant in the Yi family.
I lifted my hand toward my eyes. Even that small motion felt exhausting.
Then I strained my eyelids open to look at my hand.
What I saw was a tiny, delicate hand, like that of a doll.
"This is impossible."
Impossible… yet undeniable.
A dreadful thought crept in, and I couldn't reject it.
I had been born into this cursed family again.
***
Several months had passed since I awakened in the body of a baby.
I didn't know my exact birth date, but based on my development, the wet nurse estimated I was around nine months old.
However, since those with the blood of the Martial House of Yi grew incredibly fast, even that estimate wasn't entirely accurate.
"To think I'd see my wet nurse again."
I watched her with a complicated expression as she fed me baby food.
I had grown a bit recently, which made things easier for her, but for months, she barely got two hours of sleep each night.
And even then, she had to wake up repeatedly to check on me.
The least I could do was drink my formula without fuss, pretend to sleep, and burp early.
"Our young master is such a good boy. You eat well, sleep so easily. Young master, I'll just eat for a moment too."
She yawned widely, set me in the cradle, and started peeling an apple.
She wasn't even my real mother, yet she had raised me as if I were her own, one of the few people who had remained by my side in this place.
To me, who had no mother, she was as close as it got.
"But even she… was eventually driven out by my siblings' schemes. I failed to protect her."
She dozed off, still holding the knife, and looked dangerously close to cutting herself.
I clenched my eyes shut.
"Regression. I have returned."
If that was the case, were my talents and physical limitations the same as before?
Yes, they had to be.
Which meant… I could once again be a useless failure, unable to wield magic, stripped of everything in this family.
"To think the blood of the Yi family could be this pathetic."
I could almost hear the voice of the Shadow Sword Corps member who had cut me down.
A burning sensation spread across my back.
But this wasn't simple resentment or a thirst for vengeance.
It was something different.
The helplessness, the misery, the rage I had felt toward myself in my final moments.
"I want to be strong."
I refused to live like that again.
Not in this second life.
Not in this cursed family.
Clatter!
The wet nurse, in her sleep, dropped the knife near me.
"That startled me."
It was within arm's reach.
Worried she might cut herself, I pushed it away.
And in that instant—
Whoosh.
Black particles extended from my body, wrapping around the knife and absorbing it.
"This knife cuts so well, even without being sharpened."
"I heard Steward Choi got it from a famous craftsman. The retired butler told me."
"Really?"
.
.
.
"Young master, I'll just eat for a moment too."
A flood of unfamiliar memories surged through my mind.
Memories of things I had never seen or heard before.
"What was that just now?"
And it didn't stop there.
I gaped in shock.
Woooong—
A faint glow flickered at my fingertips.
A power I had struggled my whole life to obtain in my previous life.
Magic.