The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 1

The world is not equal.

I first realized this immutable truth on the day I turned fifteen.

‘Powerless?’

‘Y-yes. We’ve retested several times, but there’s no doubt. Young Master Changwoon has no phase power…’

My father alternated his gaze between me and the results sheet with an expression that looked ready to devour them both. After a long moment, he finally spoke.

‘It’s because of that lowborn blood.’

Lowborn blood.

Those few short words sent my mother’s life and mine plummeting into the abyss.

A bastard born of lowborn origins.

The Andong Kim clan’s burden.

The shame of a noble family, unable to even be born with common phase power.

I nearly broke countless times before those many stares, but I never gave up.

More precisely… I couldn’t afford to give up.

“I’ll do anything!”

On a day of drizzling rain, I knelt in the courtyard of the main house and shouted those words.

That I would become their dog.

That I would take on all the filthy, sordid work they wouldn’t even glance at but desperately needed done.

I shouted that I would devote myself to them and earn recognition as one of their own.

And the result of all that…

“Phew…”

Right. The result was… this pathetic state.

Spitting out the tobacco pipe from my mouth, I looked around.

Joseon, shattering to pieces from revolution.

The clan’s central figures had all fled overseas, leaving me with nothing but an empty position as clan head.

“Kim Changwoon. From the day I first decided on revolution, I’ve fought you countless times, but…”

And before me stood the ‘protagonist of the revolution,’ brandishing an enormous sword.

“Even your obstruction ends today.”

“…Yeah. It’s over.”

Just as he said, everything had ended.

The end of power clan politics that had lasted over three hundred years since the Rift Incident in the early 20th century.

And simultaneously, the end of Joseon—a nation that had endured for eight hundred years.

“Congratulations, hero sir.”

I sneered with deliberately exaggerated speech, and the hero’s hand holding the sword trembled.

His gaze wasn’t directed at me but at Hanseong, covered in flames and smoke.

Watching the city—twisted together like an ant colony—burn, I twisted my lips.

“Your revolution destroyed this country.”

“…How dare you spout such words.”

But as expected.

The revolutionary before me seemed to have plenty to say as well.

“You, who claimed to be the dog of corrupt power clans and oppressed countless people…! You, who lived your entire life as their lackey! Do you think you have the right to judge this revolution?!”

“…”

“It was you who drove this nation to this state in the first place…!”

“Right. Because of us nobles… the so-called power clans.”

Who’s saying otherwise?

After adding that, I packed tobacco leaves into my pipe.

“Ignoring the monsters rampaging across the Central Plains and the island nations, obsessing only over your own power struggles. The few decent talents you had, you drove out and eliminated through your pathetic political games.”

Foolish bastards who were desperate only to maintain their own power, and when things finally reached this point, fled in a panic.

Moronic sons of bitches who ignored all those warnings about revolution coming, then hurriedly ran with their tails between their legs the moment a blade was thrust before their eyes.

“But here’s the thing.”

I know better than anyone that I’m a bad person—no one needs to tell me that.

But that doesn’t mean we bad people have nothing to say, does it?

“What happened to the revolution you committed in the name of opposing them?”

“…!”

Hey now. Don’t make that face already.

The protagonist of the revolution clenched his teeth, seemingly unable to find words to refute me.

-Aaaaargh!

-Save me, save me! I just did what I was told…! Gurk?!

-No prisoners. No trials. Everyone in the palace is a cancer on the nation, the enemy of our fallen comrades!

-Kill them all!

Even now, explosions and screams echoed from below the palace.

It was obvious without looking.

The revolutionary army, drunk on victory, was beyond control.

Right now, down there… hell itself was unfolding.

“You poured cluster munitions on innocent civilians in the name of suppressing the loyalist forces. Your subordinates, blinded by revenge? They’re shooting everywhere without even knowing who they’re killing. The combat forces died ages ago—they’re combing through Hanseong killing any businessman or noble they find without discrimination!”

“…!”

“Revolutionary values? A decision to save Joseon? Right! Well done! Is this burning of the entire nation your precious revolution? Is killing anyone with money or power for no reason the new Joseon you kept spouting about?!”

Crash—!

A blade sliced past my head and instantly embedded itself in the wall I was leaning against.

Normally, fear would have coursed through my entire body at this, but I felt nothing now.

I was already anticipating death.

It didn’t matter.

A dead man anyway, a life thoroughly ruined.

I might as well run my mouth to the end.

“You started it first…!”

Meanwhile, the hero’s twisted face grabbed me by the collar.

The mask of a revolutionary.

What resided inside the title of hero was just another orphaned child you could find in any gutter.

Just another common revenge ghost burning with hatred toward the power clans that took his parents.

“You killed them first…! You drove them out first…! To contaminated lands with nothing but monsters! To die fighting monsters! And despite that, you…!”

“…Haha.”

In the end, that’s what it was.

All that talk of revolution and saving the nation was just a pretty excuse.

The reality was simply the conclusion of overwhelming revenge.

“Since I lost everything, you have to lose too. Since I suffered, you must suffer equally! So. So I…!”

“Then you should do it properly. Thoroughly.”

What was I even expecting from such a childish fool?

With a hollow laugh, I slowly extended my hand.

In it was a small data shard.

Looking at the hero’s puzzled expression, I kindly began my explanation.

“Information on the power clan members who fled abroad… no, who are currently fleeing.”

“…!”

“Their locations, the sources of wealth they embezzled through corruption I facilitated. And what they’re doing where at this very moment. It’s all in here.”

If you send a pursuit team, three days. A week at most to catch them all.

As I added that, the hero asked me with a questioning expression.

“…Even if you hand this over now, I won’t forgive you. You know that well.”

“I do.”

Showing your true colors, so you dropped the honorifics?

As I sneered while exhaling smoke, the hero with a grimacing face asked me once more.

“Then… what brought this on? Are you trying to repent at this late stage?”

“Repent? Are you insane?”

Such nonsense that only Christians would spout.

If I was going to grovel about my mistakes now, I wouldn’t have come to this point in the first place.

“The strong devour the weak, the strong swallow the weak—that is the way of the world. That belief remains unchanged even now.”

“…!”

“You won, not because you were righteous, but because you were strong.”

Oh, look at that disgusted expression.

Like he’s looking at vermin.

Watching that face, I chuckled once before continuing.

“It pisses me off, that’s why.”

“What do you…”

“Things have come this far, and it’d be unfair if only I died. If we’re going, we should all go together. Don’t you think?”

Hearing those words, the hero slowly reached out and accepted the data shard I offered.

The information I gave was naturally real.

How did I obtain it?

I was the one who planned the family’s escape routes and arranged their transportation.

I never thought I’d use the backup file I kept just in case like this.

I really didn’t expect those crazy bastards to abandon me without a plan.

“Kill them all. Joseon fell into your hands, so trying to cover it up with money will only last a moment.”

“…”

“This is all your revolutionary army can do now anyway. Isn’t it?”

I was the same.

Nothing left to do, nothing I could do.

The only thing remaining? Perhaps praying that this hero, mad with revenge, would make more companions for the journey to the afterlife.

As I thought that, the hero who’d pulled the sword from the wall immediately swung it, and—

Slice—!

The next moment, my vision spun.

A falling view.

Having my neck separated from my body was truly a horrifying experience.

“…What a f*cking stupid life.”

The more I thought about it, the more futile it was.

Nobles, aristocrats, high status.

I’d envied those pretty titles so much, covered myself in all kinds of filth trying to earn their recognition somehow.

I took on all the dirty work they wouldn’t touch, claimed to be their dog, and did everything to please them.

So now, I was regretting.

‘If only…’

If I’d known it would turn out like this, I would have made a different choice.

If I’d known you would win, then instead of clinging to the rotten lifeline of the power clans, I would have groveled under you instead.

But that was brief too.

Thud.

I met my death without even finishing that short regret.

Scoundrel, human trash, demon, corrupt official.

It was a pathetically shabby death befitting someone called such things their entire life.

It should have been that way.

“…Huh?”

My eyes snapped open.

The neck that flew toward the hero was attached intact, and the city that had become ruins was shining brilliantly like the old days.

What… what’s happening right now?

At that moment.

“Powerless?”

A voice branded like a scar in a corner of my memory seized my attention.

“Y-yes. We’ve retested several times, but there’s no doubt. Young Master Changwoon has no phase power…”

My father, alternating his gaze between me and the results sheet with an expression ready to devour them.

…Wait, but this already happened?

But why is it happening again? Why?

A life flashing before my eyes?

No, looking around, that wasn’t it.

From the family elders staring at me with shocked eyes to my brother sneering that he knew this would happen.

The malice contained in those gazes was far more vivid than what was in my memory.

“Explain in detail.”

“Th-there was nothing wrong with the detection results! The phase power explosively increased for a moment, then the waveform suddenly twisted…”

My brain couldn’t accept what my eyes were seeing.

This scenery, this scene.

Every single thing remained in my memory without exception.

‘…This can’t be. No way?’

My confusion at the scene unfolding before me was brief.

“It’s because of that lowborn blood.”

Those words.

Hearing that single phrase, I immediately realized where this place was.

Year 2224 AD. Joseon era, Gwangmu Year 327.

The phase power testing grounds where all the promising youth of the power clans gathered.

“From our Andong Kim clan… a powerless one has emerged.”

And the moment I realized that fact.

I let out a sigh, fallen into despair.

“Don’t f*ck with me. Seriously.”

Right now, I had returned to my past at age fifteen.