WeTried Translations

Translator: Joy

Editor: Joy

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◈ Damned Transmigration

Chapter 6

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Elena (1)

The woman who burst through the door was a complete stranger to the rural city of Oldor, where Yuri had spent the last month.

At a glance, she was clearly an outsider.

From her wide-brimmed hat and sparkling blonde hair to her clear, pale skin, everything about her screamed of a world far from this dusty town.

Her dress was made of a luxurious fabric, and even her shoes were spotless, without a single speck of dirt.

"Why are you pretending not to be here?" she demanded, glaring at Yuri as she repeated her question.

Yuri could only stare back, his mind struggling to process what was happening.

Even for a backwater town like Oldor, where security was a joke, having someone smash down his door in broad daylight was bizarre.

Stranger still, the intruder wasn't some brutish thug, but a beautiful woman he had never seen before, one who was interrogating him as if he were the one in the wrong.

"Surely not."

Her eyebrow twitched.

Her blue eyes, framed by thick lashes, narrowed to a sharp gleam.

"You don't recognise me?"

Her voice dropped to a cold, hard tone that mirrored her expression, and at her words, Yuri's slack jaw finally snapped shut.

To be honest, he hadn't recognised her. But he could hardly be blamed.

The face he remembered was that of a ten-year-old girl. No matter how naturally she grew up, the difference between ten and twenty was vast.

Her entire aura had changed, and aside from the blonde hair and blue eyes, very little of the child remained.

"There's no way you wouldn't recognise me."

Her words were the final clue, and a name finally surfaced in his mind.

"Elena."

In her last letter, Elena had mentioned she'd be away from the mage tower for six months on a 4th-grade request.

It had ended with a simple "I'll be waiting for your reply."

Yuri never wrote back, so neither did she.

Six months passed without another word. As far as Yuri was concerned, that was it. They had given up on each other, and the thin thread connecting them through childhood memories had finally snapped.

That was what he had believed, at least.

He'd actually told her in a previous letter that she didn't have to write anymore.

She had refused, sending a reply anyway, but in truth, Yuri had wanted to end their 'relationship' for a long time. After all, the life she described in her letters was a world away from his own as Yuri, an orphan without even a last name.

Her stories only served as a sharp reminder of his own reality, feeding the jealousy and worthlessness that festered inside him.

"Why are you here?" he finally asked.

Frankly, he never wanted to see her again, because childhood friend or not, she meant nothing to him now.

The old inferiority and jealousy he'd felt towards her radiant life had faded, replaced by a desperate wish for her to simply leave him alone.

He wanted her to remain a distant memory, or better yet, for him to be the one to disappear from her world entirely.

He had never, ever imagined she would actually show up here.

Was her 4th-grade request somewhere in this area? Or was she really here just because he hadn't written back?

As Yuri scrambled to make sense of it all, Elena's lips tightened into a thin line. She glared, her hand clutching the hem of her pristine white dress, and then she started toward him with determined strides.

"Hey, wait..." he stammered, his wariness growing as she advanced without a word.

His mind instinctively went to his neck, to the faint, reassuring nothingness he felt there.

The Veil of Deception, a gift from Lorelia and the Sect of Order. As long as he wore it, Elena would never be able to sense his internal energy.

"Stay still," Elena snapped, her glare fixing on him as he instinctively backed away.

But there was no way he was going to obey.

For a wild moment, he considered diving out the window. Yet as he continued to back away, his leg hit something solid.

The bed.

In this tiny room, a few steps was all it took to run out of space. His escape route was cut off, and a flicker of satisfaction crossed Elena's face.

Thud.

With a light push of her hand, Elena sent a ripple of force through the air.

Yuri saw the shift in the atmosphere, the visible ripple of mana moving towards him. He knew it was useless to try and dodge.

A sharp breath escaped him as the invisible force struck him squarely in the chest, sending him stumbling back to sit heavily on the bed.

He blinked, completely flustered.

"Don't move," she warned, her voice cold.

Stepping right in front of him, Elena reached out and, with a deft flick of her fingers, sent the buttons of his old, worn shirt popping open.

Though she hadn't touched the fabric, they all came undone in an instant.

"Hey, what, what are you doing?"

Yuri stammered, genuinely thrown off balance.

Again, Elena didn't answer. Her blue eyes widened as she stared at his exposed chest.

Old scars, the puckered burn mark from a branding iron, and the newer wounds from his time with the Black Snake Gang, now healed into pale lines.

As she took it all in, a tremor ran through her.

"Ugh..."

Elena bit her lip, stifling a gasp.

She bowed her head, her knuckles white as she gripped her skirt, fighting to compose herself. After a moment, she spoke.

"I received a letter... from Gordon Ahjussi."

"What?"

"It was about the life you've been living since you left the orphanage, Yuri. You... you joined some ridiculous, trashy gang called the Black Snake Gang, didn't you?"

‘Damn it.’

Yuri's lips pressed into a hard line. So that was it. A letter from Gordon at the general store had brought her here.

"I also know your gang was attacked," she continued, her voice growing more unsteady.

"And I know that you, by some miracle, were the only one who survived."

She took a few deep, shaky breaths before raising her head, her glare fixed on his scarred body.

"You almost died."

"It... wasn't that serious," he muttered.

"Not serious?" she shot back, her voice cracking.

"What do you mean, 'not serious'? Does not getting a fatal wound mean you weren't on the verge of death? You were the only one who made it out of there alive!"

Crackling!

Sparks of raw, uncontrolled emotion began to arc around her.

It was no surprise. Elena was from the Dersia Mage Tower, and just as in the game, the mages of Dersia were masters of lightning.

It was only natural that she would wield such power.

"...Hoo."

Elena finally managed to rein in her ragged breathing, and the crackling electricity around her subsided.

She pressed a hand to her static-lifted hair, pushing it down as her fierce glare remained locked on Yuri.

"What on earth is this?"

"..."

"I knew you were involved in shady dealings, but there has to be a limit, right? You never told me anything. Neither Gordon Ahjussi nor the Director-nim would ever talk about you."

Elena let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.

"So in the end, I was the only one who didn't know what you were doing, how you were really living."

"You didn't need to know."

He couldn't stay silent any longer.

His own gaze hardened as he glared back at her.

Over the past month, he had pieced together a decent picture of the original Yuri's personality. Putting it simply, the guy was a jerk.

"You're living your good life in the mage tower," he continued.

“Why should you care about what happens to me?"

"What...?"

"It's just like you said. I've lived a bad life... ha, yeah. I've lived like trash. But so what? What I do with my life is none of your business."

Yuri snapped, pushing her hand away. With a harsh laugh, he began fastening the buttons on his shirt.

"None of my business...?"

Elena clenched the hand he had pushed aside. She blinked, her expression hardening as she composed herself.

"Why wouldn't it be my business? Yuri, you and I are..."

"Childhood friends?" he scoffed.

"Isn't that a little ridiculous? We were just two kids who happened to be in the same orphanage. That's all."

"Yuri...!"

"Please, Elena."

Yuri cut her off with a dismissive sigh.

"It's been ten years."

"..."

"Ten years. That's how long it's been since you left for the Dersia Mage Tower. I don't know what version of me you have in your head, but I'm not that same ten-year-old kid anymore."

And it was the truth. The orphan Yuri, Elena's childhood friend, was dead. The person standing here now was Lee Su-hyeok, wearing Yuri's skin.

Of course, he didn't mean it literally. It was just a way to lay the groundwork, an excuse for the changes in him, just in case.

‘Please,’ he thought, hiding his desperation behind a cold gaze.

Elena's face was blank, her shock palpable.

Seeing her stunned expression, he felt a flicker of guilt, but he couldn't afford to back down now.

The original Yuri may have been abrasive, but the current Yuri didn't have to be. They say ten years is enough to change the course of rivers and mountains; a person's personality was no different.

He could have been kind, especially to a childhood friend he hadn't seen in a decade.

But this was all intentional.

He needed her to be disgusted with him, to see this new, trashy version of her childhood friend and walk away for good.

That was the only way to ensure they would never get entangled again.

"..."

Elena stared at him in silence. From the look on her face, he guessed her shock was turning to anger.

He decided to press his advantage.

"Go back," he said, hoping it would be the final wedge between them.

“You don't need to worry about me. I'll live my life my own way, and you..."

"Your own way?"

This time, she cut him off.

"Your own way? And what way is that, exactly?"

Her hand moved, landing lightly on his chest right over the old stab wound, a humourless smile twisting her lips.

"The Black Snake Gang? When I first heard the name, I thought it might be a genuine Underworld Faction. But after looking into it, it's nothing of the sort.

Yuri, if you were going to go that route, why not join a proper Faction? You might have at least learned a third-rate heart technique."

The Veil of Deception was holding perfectly. She couldn't sense a single drop of his internal energy.

"Ten years? You're right, Yuri. Ten years is a long time. I've changed, and you... you've changed, too. But still."

She pulled her hand back with a short sigh.

"After all this time... is there really nothing else you want to say to me?"

"What about you?"

Yuri shot back.

"If you hadn't shown up and kicked my door in, maybe I would have."

After a moment, Elena blinked, letting out a short, weary sigh as she took a few steps back.

"You're right."

She nodded, her expression strangely calm.

She removed the wide-brimmed hat from her head and, to his surprise, gave him a polite bow.

"I was rude. I'm sorry for showing up like this, for breaking down your door and yelling at you without even considering how you might feel."

"I wasn't looking for an apology," he said flatly.

"Yuri."

Elena raised her head, her gaze meeting his with a new intensity.

"I'm taking you with me."

"What?"

"And I won't take no for an answer. I made up my mind the second I read Gordon Ahjussi's letter. I'm taking you with me."

There was no trace of hesitation in her voice.

Her eyes swept over his tiny, bare room before settling back on him.

"I'm getting you out of this little room. Out of this dead-end town where there's nothing for you."

This was the worst possible outcome.

"I came here with that resolve," she said, her voice firm.

He could see her gripping the brim of her hat so tightly her knuckles were white, hiding the tremor in her hands.

She was fighting back tears, he realised.

She was the very image of the life they had both dreamed of as children.

Standing with her back to him, she bit her lower lip.

If he hadn't been so cruel just now, would he have had the chance to tell her she'd become beautiful?

"Why?"

Yuri demanded, his frustration mounting.

"Why on earth would you do that?"

He just couldn't understand her.

For ten years, she hadn't visited once. Their only connection was a handful of letters. And while some of them had shown a flicker of concern, he never would have imagined it would lead to this.

His mind flashed back to their days in the Oldor Orphanage.

He had to admit it, they had been close back then. He had been her 'oppa', her protector.

Before she'd awakened her magic, she was just a pretty girl who seemed to have everything, which made her an easy target for the other, more spiteful orphans.

He, on the other hand, had been a troublemaker from the start. He was always getting into fights, but whenever someone bothered Elena, he was the one who would step in and put the bullies in their place.

‘Is that why?’ he wondered.

A debt from over ten years ago? Or was it just because he'd almost died last month? Was that all it took?

No, he corrected himself, maybe it wasn't such a small thing to her.

Could hearing that her long-lost childhood friend had nearly been killed really have been such a shock?

"Why?"

Elena spun around to face him, her voice sharp.

"Why else?"

Her face was a mask of fierce, unyielding stubbornness.

"Because I refuse to leave you here alone."

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