PMF 1

This Is Unfair! I’m Ruined!
I was the first human to set foot upon this land. At the same time, I was the being into whom God had poured the most effort.

Born with everything beautiful, I was loved by countless beings.

The love I received overflowed enough to fill dried rivers and embroider the sky itself.

The colors of that love, which filled the world, were truly dazzling.

At first, simply watching it made me happy. But then, a thought suddenly came to mind:

“What if I gathered all those radiant things together?”

After all, it was love given to me—what did it matter? So I carefully collected the love I received from others and stored it in a treasure chest.

It wasn’t just that the colorful ‘love’ fascinated me—I also hated the idea of sharing it with others.

After about half a year, the love I had gathered had grown to the point where it not only filled the treasure chest but overflowed beyond it.

Even so, I never shared my love with anyone.

Those who gave me love began to fight among themselves to receive mine in return.

It was around that time that the light that once brightly illuminated the world disappeared, and eternal night fell.

Then one day, God—who had been watching us from beyond the world—descended to earth.

“Why do you gather love instead of sharing it?”

God asked me a simple question.

“Because I like it.”

That was my answer.

But it wasn’t the truth. I merely dressed it up nicely because I was speaking before God.

And God seemed to know I wasn’t being honest.

“How pitiful.”

With a sorrowful expression, God took the box in which I had stored my love over the past six months and said:

“I will give you a question. If you answer it correctly, I will return this box to you.”

Panicked at the thought of losing the box, I gave many answers—but none of them were correct.

“I will wait until you find the answer. No matter how long it takes.”

Then, as I continued to give wrong answers, God returned to the heavens.

Taking with Him every being—except me.

And so, I was left alone in the world God had created.

Having always been loved by many, I learned the emotion of loneliness for the first time.

After spending years alone, I began to resent God.

In a world with nothing, I gradually withered away.

At first, I thought I might just die like this. But cruelly, time stretched on endlessly with no sign of an end.

So, to put an end to this boring and lonely life, I wandered in search of the answer to God’s question—

Unaware that I had been bound by the curse of immortality.

How many lives had it been now?

Once, a child I met on earth said something like this:

“Big sis, living is like an apple falling from an apple tree.”

At the time, I looked at the seven-year-old with disbelief.

Though I was only ten then, I had memories of my past lives, so mentally I was practically an old person.

Still, the child—despite not sharing my circumstances—spoke with surprising depth for someone so young.

He said that we could never choose the beginning of our lives; we simply open our eyes, and the world is already there.

Judging by how he compared such a philosophical idea to an apple, he wasn’t an ordinary kid.

And he was right.

Whether I was a beggar on the streets or a noble lady shining in luxury, I had never once been able to choose my starting point.

“Ugh…”

One day, as warm sunlight poured over my eyes, I slowly opened them.

‘It stings.’

The very first sensation I felt was pain.

My eyes prickled so much that I had to blink repeatedly. It seemed to be daytime, and the warm breeze felt like spring. Yet, for some reason, the pleasant sunlight stabbed at my skin like the scorching heat of summer.

‘My vision is strange.’

Why couldn’t I see properly? Everything was blurry, like a light that had just been turned on.

Blink, blink.

As I kept blinking, my vision gradually cleared. Slowly, I opened my mouth.

“Ueegh—”

When I tried to speak, only strange, slurred sounds came out.

‘Hmm… is this a body I haven’t used in a long time?’

The first thing I noticed was a fence.

‘A fence?’

I tried reaching out, but my body wouldn’t move as I wanted. It felt like I was tied up with ropes.

‘What is this? If not a prison… a slave market?’

I tried to shake my head, but even that didn’t work.

‘If I’m really tied up, that’s a problem.’

I fell into deep thought and recalled my past lives.

I had lived countless lives.

Sometimes a beggar, sometimes an ordinary person, once a knight, and even a noble lady of a ducal house.

There was one rule in all those lives:

I never knew when or where I would awaken.

I called this phenomenon reincarnation, and I had experienced countless deaths and rebirths as proof.

At first, it was unfamiliar, but after discussing it with a scholar I met in my 12th life, I came to understand it truly was reincarnation.

Thud.

While I was lost in thought, I heard a dull sound near the fence.

When I listened closely, it stopped.

‘Who is it? That sounded like footsteps.’

I tensed up instinctively.

I couldn’t tell whether the approaching person was friendly—or an assassin coming to kill me.

‘It’d be pointless to die right after waking up.’

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I recalled my curse—and my ability.

The condition of my reincarnation: I awaken only in a body that has just died.

As long as the body had just lost its breath, I could be reborn as a child, an adult, or an old person.

Sometimes, if I was unlucky, I would awaken in a body that had been dead for three days—a truly horrific situation. Even if I somehow managed to survive, I would die again soon after.

That’s why, every time I woke in a new body, I first assessed the situation.

Fortunately, the body I had now, though hard to move, didn’t smell bad.

At least it wasn’t long dead.

Or perhaps it belonged to someone who had been on the brink of death, in a coma.

Rustle.

Soon, I felt someone lifting me.

Strangely, they gently supported my neck and back.

…This felt familiar—like when I had once been carried as a dog.

‘Don’t tell me… I was reborn as an animal again?’

A bad thought crossed my mind, but I quickly shook it off.

Being reborn as an animal was extremely rare.

“Oh my, how cute!”

A voice came from above my head.

‘Wait… that’s exactly what I heard when I was a noble’s pet dog before…’

…Am I really an animal again?

Usually, I was only reborn as an animal if I had committed a grave sin in my previous life.

‘Did I do something wrong in my last life?’

Suppressing my confusion, I recalled my most recent life.

“Uuugh…”

In that life…

I had been—

A king.

No, not just any king—I had been an emperor who turned a kingdom into an empire.

A conquering emperor.

There was a bit of a sad story behind that.

Among my many past lives, in the two most recent ones, there had been a friend who learned my secret.

“Wait, you die and come back to life?”

Her name was Ulrika.

She had become king after killing all her siblings in a bloody purge.

“Perfect! I don’t have a daughter!”

After I died as a knight and was reborn as a young noble lady, she was overjoyed to see me.

She even tried to make me her heir.

“So, want to be king?”

“No.”

I had God’s riddle to solve. Becoming king was the last thing I wanted.

I refused her dozens of times.

“Then have a child yourself, Ulrika.”

“You know I’m married to my country.”

“I understand your sincerity.”

“So?”

“I’ll politely refuse again today!”

Yes, I clearly refused.

And yet—

“Long live the new ruler!”

I ended up becoming king anyway.

All because of a single will she left behind.

With no family ties and her backing my identity, there was no way for me to escape the throne.

So, in the end, I succeeded her and sat upon the throne.

At first, I thought of running away—but then I figured being king might help me find the answer to God’s question.

‘I’ll just gather scholars and make them solve it.’

But I was completely wrong.

‘Damn it, being king is way too busy!’

Kings in storybooks just ordered people around—but reality was different.

I had to care for the people, handle diplomacy, deal with invasions—there was no time to rest.

Eventually, I realized something:

‘If there are fewer countries, there’ll be fewer problems, right?’

So I crushed neighboring kingdoms.

“Victory to our lord!”

Again and again—

“Long live the Emperor!”

Until my country became an empire.

Just when I thought I could finally find the answer—

I grew old and fell ill.

“Your Majesty lived entirely for the nation.”

‘Damn it… this life’s a failure.’

So in my next life, I swore I would focus only on finding the answer.

And then—

As I recalled all this, a thought struck me.

During my conquest, there had been countless wars…

And suddenly, I remembered a superstition:

Those who kill in life are reborn as animals.

But I had been careful! Minimal casualties, mostly intimidation!

“Abuuh!”

This is unfair!

“Bwaaah!”

I’m ruined!

No wonder my voice sounded strange—

Were those animal cries?

As incomprehensible sounds continued to pour from my mouth, I reached one conclusion:

‘It seems… I’ve been reborn as a dog in this life!’