Chapter 1
- Shake the Carrot, Please. (1)
Being reincarnated wasn’t bad.
Beautiful appearance, ridiculous talent. It was a little disappointing that she had no powerful backers, but since she had ability, she made her own way.
She smashed monsters that popped out of the Black Swamp with magic, performed various feats, and proved her worth, eventually being officially recognized as the Empire’s Archmage.
Thanks to that, she even reached the rank of Countess of Honor—so high that not even the Emperor could strip her of it without trial.
Strength, honor, status.
Yet Selena Kim couldn’t be happy, no matter all she had achieved.
“Rice… I need kimchi… And YouTube! NetPlus! My 2,114,000 won worth of web novels! Most importantly, my smartphone!”
She missed her old world too much.
The reason she had worked so hard to become an Archmage in the first place?
It was to escape this miserable other world and return to her original one.
That goal alone had helped her endure all the abuse and obstacles thrown at her simply because she was born a commoner.
When she reached the sixth magic class, assassins sent by high-ranking magicians who were starting to feel threatened were crushed with the help of her master.
Finally, after countless hardships, she prepared a dimensional transfer magic circle.
She secretly raided the black market to find a fragment of a Blue Dragon Heart, and a possessor—the very soul that could serve as the “coordinate” to move her back to her original world.
A dimensional transfer magic circle she had researched for ten long years.
She was confident. The theory was flawless.
“Damn… Why did I have to be reincarnated? I should have been possessed!”
…It should have been perfect.
But Selena had overlooked one fact.
Even if she had memories and identity as a person from another world, once you’re reincarnated, your soul belongs to Midgar. That simple truth alone.
Thus, the goal of her life—the one she had devoted herself to—failed.
After that, Selena lost all motivation and shut herself in her residence in the Mage Tower.
She ignored nobles’ requests, research proposals—everything. She only fiddled with the businesses she had started to soothe her longing.
Five years passed, and she gained the nickname: “The Recluse Archmage.”
Selena didn’t care.
She already knew she couldn’t go home.
She opened a pack from the card gacha of her toy business, Fantasy World Hero Gacha, which she had started to make money while enduring this world, judged by 21st-century standards to be unbearably boring.
“★3 – Future Bandit King with a Straw Hat, Heading East Sea”
“★2 – Fire Bridge Space on the Execution Platform at the Summit”
“★1 – Nine-Tailed Cat Sealed in Zolryeop Village’s Rascal”
Even worse, copyright laws in the other dimension forced her to make knock-off cards, so the gacha always failed.
Card gachas were hopeless.
Selena clicked her tongue in irritation and slumped her shoulders.
She didn’t care what others called her, “recluse archmage” or not.
She had limited herself to one card gacha per day to avoid boredom, and spent her five years reading regularly delivered books. But now it had become unbearably dull.
Still, she didn’t want to go outside.
As she pondered, she glanced at her notebook, filled with scribbles for her own satisfaction, and made a decision.
There was no choice.
She would release reincarnation and regression stories into her world.
She had tried to restrain herself for the sake of Midgar’s literary purity, but her patience had reached its limit.
This world was painfully boring.
Entertainment was limited to opera and theater. Literature consisted mostly of romance-heavy works or heroic epics of the Empire. Writing carelessly could even get her executed for insulting a noble. Yet, by her standards, it was simply boring.
So she would forcibly improve it.
Even if she recycled overused heroic epics or unbearably innocent romances, adding reincarnation and regression elements would make them enjoyable.
Just as she happily picked up her notebook and prepared to unleash her poison into Midgar’s pure literary world, dressing in her casual outing clothes…
“Her Majesty the Emperor summons Countess Selena Kim. Countess Kim, please accept His Majesty’s summons.”
A royal messenger had arrived.
Selena frowned in confusion.
She had no ties to the current Emperor, who had taken the throne three years ago. She had even skipped the coronation due to “illness,” so they didn’t even know each other’s faces.
And the new Emperor hadn’t bothered her.
After all, she was a self-centered archmage who didn’t build a faction, had no intention of changing nationality, caused no major accidents under the guise of research, and quietly read books in the Mage Tower. How perfect.
Traditionally, Emperors preferred archmages to remain trapped in the Mage Tower as potential war weapons. By that measure, Selena had been a very obedient subordinate.
She had expected to be left alone for another ten years—but she was mistaken.
Selena considered pretending to be sick, as she had at the coronation, but gave up. Refusing the Emperor twice in a row would be a bit too bold.
In the end, she reluctantly took a carriage to the palace.
Even a noble’s carriage felt terrible compared to a car. The paved roads were nothing compared to asphalt—just rough tiles. But the air was clean, free of exhaust.
Nothing pleased her.
She brushed back her long silver hair in irritation, feeling physically uncomfortable.
This was why she avoided going outside—otherwise, the fact she was in another world would hit too hard.
Selena’s mood plummeted. Yet sulking would only be a loss for her, so she consciously tried to think about something else.
For example: why had the Emperor suddenly summoned her?
“Hmmm.”
She couldn’t tell. Surely it wasn’t to scold her for skipping the coronation.
Perhaps he had a magic-related request. If so, it would involve her specialty—barriers. Then a letter would suffice. But he insisted on meeting in person.
Meaning it was a request he didn’t want the public to know.
Not from just any high-ranking magician, but from the Emperor himself, secretly summoning the Archmage.
It smelled like a death flag waiting to happen.
Selena narrowed her eyes, sensing danger.
She had probably agreed to the Emperor’s summons without thinking. Five years in seclusion had dulled her judgment. Five years ago, she would have realized something suspicious, deliberately reversed some mana to make herself vomit blood, and feigned illness to avoid going.
Her intuition—the same one that had kept her alive until she became a great archmage—whispered to her now. Her so-called “super-sense” called out:
Run.
“…What to do?”
After all, she had no patriotism, no loyalty. Why not teleport away?
The only reason she might face trouble with the Emperor was that she hadn’t intended to leave the Empire. If she decided to leave, nothing could stop her.
She had no friends, no companions, no master to worry about.
Only her businesses mattered… but the Empire wouldn’t dismantle her golden goose. Confiscation was the worst that could happen.
She could move to another country, cast illusionary magic, and the Empire wouldn’t be able to track her.
Since she was tired of lying around anyway, escaping for a change of pace didn’t seem too bad.
Selena tilted her head in thought.
It almost seemed like the Emperor’s suspicious summons was just an excuse—and that she had always been waiting for a chance to leave the Empire.
Even if she had given up many things after her dimensional transfer failed, she still remembered…
Had she truly hated the Empire this much?
She recalled the past.
The previous Emperor, who had mocked her as a commoner; the contemptuous Empire nobles and Mage Tower elders; her jealous peers trying to diminish her achievements; the assassins who often appeared; the officials eager to find fault during her path to Archmage…
Now that she thought about it, it was surprising she hadn’t stood out more.
And the reason she hadn’t? Only one:
The Empire was the best place to research and find materials on dimensional transfer.
But now that she knew she needed coordinates to her original world, all that effort was meaningless.
After floundering for five years, she had even forgotten her grudges.
Perhaps also because she had methodically retaliated against easier targets first, leaving fewer enemies.
Selena toyed with her silver staff.
Should she just run away?
