Episode 4. Why Did I Become an Inn Waiter Again?

A silent dawn.

I woke to the sound of rain.

Yellowed wallpaper spread across the ceiling, and a musty smell of mold hung in the room. Yet the headache that had tormented me my entire life was gone, so the feeling was rather strange.

And what was even stranger was that the smell somehow felt familiar, and the scene before my eyes was one I knew.

The atmosphere of a dirt-poor household was generally like this, but no matter how I looked at it, this place was my old home.

Looking around, I realized this was the back room of Zixia Inn, which my grandfather had left to me.

My name being Li Zixia was because of this inn as well.

“Why am I here?”

After this Zixia Inn burned completely to the ground, I had never once had a proper home, so there was no way I could mistake it.

Suddenly, the words of that unidentified man came to mind.

‘This is your last lifeline. Do not swallow the Heavenly Jade again.’

How could I possibly swallow the Heavenly Jade twice?

Unless I had returned to the past, that is.

“Huh? Wait, the past?”

Come to think of it, my body felt much better.

It was amazing enough that my headache had vanished, but the wounds I had suffered while breaking through the Tianluo Diwang had also disappeared cleanly. Only my face felt somewhat sore, as if someone had punched me.

When I opened the door to grasp the situation, the shabby interior of Zixia Inn came into view.

Putting together the man’s words and what was happening now, it seemed to mean that even if I went back to the past, I should not swallow the Heavenly Jade under the same circumstances.

If so, then this “now” was clearly my “past.”

I was so flustered that I did not immediately realize this situation was nothing short of a blessing.

“Wow, what the hell is this?”

I had always thought Zixia Inn was a filthy, tiresome place, but the sight of the inn after so long was truly quiet and serene.

Beyond the entrance of the inn, dawn was breaking over the mountain ridge where the rain had just stopped.

“Mm……”

I gazed at that scene for a long while.

Until the faintly spreading sunlight began to fill the quiet inn……

For me, it was a peace I had not felt in a truly long time.

It was a little regrettable.

Why did it have to be this period, of all times?

There was no sign of my elderly grandfather in the inn.

Or perhaps it would have been nice if I had returned to when I was even younger, so I could at least see my parents.

But according to my grandfather, my parents had died because they were in poor health, so that would probably have only hurt my heart more.

Even so, I could not help the sudden wave of emotion that welled up inside me.

While I was staring at the scenery outside the inn for a long time, my right eye throbbed especially hard.

It seemed to be bruised.

Since there was no mirror, I had no choice but to leave the inn.

I thought that old memories might be scattered like fragments or buried in the realm of oblivion, so looking around the area near the inn might help me recover them—bullshit!

First, I hurried to the stream and checked my face.

“……”

To think I would be this surprised by my own face.

With all those scars gone, my face gave off such a gentle impression that even I was surprised. However, the area around my right eye was dark blue, as if I had been hit recently, and my lip was split as well.

‘When did I get beaten like this again?’

In any case, it was the face of someone in his early twenties.

Back then, I had suffered so many misfortunes that I could not help confusing the time period. As the rippling water stilled from time to time and reflected my face, I stared at it and sank into old memories for a long while.

* * *

In any case, this was certainly my hometown at the southern edge of Ilyang County.

Wherever people lived, a jianghu of its own would form. There were no prestigious great sects or noble clans here, but it was a world where forces that were black path like the white path and white path like the black path were tangled together in a chaotic mess.

To put it simply by the standards of when I was called the Mad Demon, it was just a region with a lot of bastards who were pieces of shit.

Among them, Ilyang County had an especially large number of pathetic bastards.

Because it was a place where brothels flourished.

Ever since I was young, the neighborhood thugs had already been roaming around in groups, doing things even worse than third-rate gangs, and those thugs’ dream was to enter one of the black path gangs outside Ilyang County.

As I looked at the quiet Ilyang County, I shouted without realizing it.

“You sons of bitches! I’m back!”

Some man nearby, who had barely fallen asleep at dawn, answered.

“Keep it down! You crazy bastard! If you’re drunk, just go home quietly. Ah, shit.”

“All right. Sleep tight.”

Some man who had barely fallen asleep at dawn shouted from inside his house. At that string of curses, I realized for certain that I had returned to the past.

Was such heavenly fortune granted to me because I had fought the Demon Cult, or because of that unidentified man?

It could be said that this had happened because my resolve not to leave the Demon Cult alone and heavenly fortune had overlapped.

* * *

At this time, I deliberately acted as an inn waiter.

Since I thought I might suffer disadvantages if I said a young brat like me was the owner of Zixia Inn, I often got through situations by lying that an older relative had entrusted the inn to me.

Of course, the townspeople who had been close to my grandfather knew that I was not an inn waiter but the owner of Zixia Inn, yet they kept silent to the end. People called me Li Zixia because I was the waiter of “Zixia” Inn and had the surname Li, but in truth, that was also my real name.

Memories of a time when I could not even call my own property mine flashed past like a revolving lantern.

Only then did I grin.

“It’s good to be back.”

At the thought that I could live again, my body was already itching to move. It was still quite some time later, by the standards of this period, that I had begun to learn martial arts in earnest. So this time, I could not even dare to guess how much stronger I might become.

Because I was seven or eight years earlier than in my previous life.

When it came to being ignored, insulted, humiliated, and tormented, the profession of inn waiter stood at the peak of the jianghu.

However, there would be no reason for me to be tormented here again.

Because that inn waiter of old had ultimately survived, caused conflict with the Murim Alliance, and grown into a man who clashed with the Demon Cult.

* * *

To dredge up my memories, I walked all around Ilyang County.

Each time my gaze touched something, memories that had been hiding in every corner of the streets revealed themselves.

The dirty alleyways, the fishy smell wafting from the fish shop, the huge pot lid placed in front of the dumpling shop, the windbreak covering a street stall, even the unusual soup-and-rice shop I often visited.

The ordinary sights and the smell of this street kept drawing out my memories.

Each time I recovered a memory, emotions I had forgotten came back as well.

Ridiculously enough, though this place was lined with all kinds of shops, there wasn’t really anywhere I frequented apart from Chunyang Restaurant, which I visited from time to time.

As I wandered through the alleys and streets, the corners of my mouth often twisted.

The feeling of having no money, of having no choice but to scrimp and save desperately.

The miserable feeling I had when my protection money was taken from me.

With each alley I passed, the memories that surfaced were hardly what one could call fond.

It was said that I owned an inn at a young age, but I had been so busy just trying to keep food in my mouth that I lived a life that would put even a Beggar Sect beggar to shame. Since I never spent money on anything frivolous, the customers would often tease me by calling me a miser.

The bruises on my face right now came from something similar.

Once, a customer asked me what I was saving all that money like a miser for.

To be honest, when I heard that question, I was rather startled inside.

Because I thought, I’m an orphan, so of course I’m saving every coin I can—where would I get money to throw around like you, who works as a guard at a pleasure house?

At the time, in my childish desire to make people laugh...

I said that my wish was to save up money bit by bit and hear one song from Chaehyang of Maehwaru.

I swear, those words were truly a joke.

People did laugh their bellies off, just as I expected, but the part about it being a joke was conveniently left out as the story spread.

That was when I learned that rumors change in meaning as they pass from mouth to mouth.

Because before I knew it, “I want to hear one song” had turned into “I want to sleep with Chaehyang.”

Isn’t that astounding?

This rumor spread like wildfire to every corner of Ilyang County, yet nowhere was there any mention of it being a joke.

“I heard the waiter bastard at Zaha Inn is saving money like crazy just so he can sleep with Chaehyang once?”

“So he was a lunatic. I wondered why he was saving money so desperately.”

“Pathetic bastard.”

“As if Chaehyang would actually sleep with a guy like him just because he did that. It’s not like Chaehyang is a prostitute. She must feel insulted. Especially when she’s already so proud. And it’s not as if there are only one or two men after her.”

Thinking back on the past, my insides still twisted.

“No, I said it was a joke, you bastards. Ah...”

Every time the rumor circled back and reached my ears, I had to tear at my hair.

Then again, what an utterly idiotic and amusing story it was.

The words I had said to make people laugh had somehow become the actual reason I was saving money, spreading throughout all of Ilyang County until it turned into a tale passed down like a legend. It even got to the point where some idiotic joke went around saying that, at this rate, even the Murim Alliance might hear about it.

* * *

I stopped my stroll for a moment in front of Maehwaru, where blue lanterns hung.

If they hung blue lanterns, it meant prostitutes were available.

If they hung red lanterns, it meant not to come here looking for prostitutes.

Of course, the meaning differed by region, and later on, as time passed, the meaning would become distorted as well. In any case, that was how it was here.

The old events flashed past like a revolving lantern.

When the guards of Maehwaru heard the rumor that there was a waiter who wanted to sleep with Chaehyang, they came to the inn to mock me. Since my expression had stiffened completely, it began with me getting punched in the face several times without warning and ended with those bastards kicking me.

There were many reasons.

They might have been angry that I was treating Chaehyang like a prostitute. Or it might have been the ugly behavior of men trying to look good in front of Chaehyang.

Judging from the state of my face, that incident seemed to have happened only a few days ago.

It had been so long ago that I hadn’t really dwelled on it, but now that I had actually returned to the past, I couldn’t help chewing over it again and again.

The reason my face had stiffened back then was because those bastards had deliberately brought Chaehyang along to mock me.

How could I possibly describe the suffocation and humiliation I felt then?

In truth, whether it had been a joke or not probably hadn’t mattered to them.

They must have been displeased that a mere waiter bastard dared to covet Chaehyang, who was said to be the prettiest woman in Maehwaru.

That was the first time I saw Chaehyang.

She was indeed beautiful, but there is nothing more humiliating than looking at a woman’s face when it is filled with anger and contempt.

As even those emotions came back to me clearly, a smile hovered at the corners of my mouth.

Since they had humiliated me while people watched, I intended to visit Maehwaru in the evening, when the greatest number of people would be able to watch.

I needed to turn the “rumor” that had spread back into a “joke.”

After staring at Maehwaru for quite some time, I turned away, and a guy who worked at the fabric shop across the street approached me, speaking as he came.

“Are you so pissed off you’re thinking of setting it on fire or something? What are you glaring at so hard? Pathetic bastard.”

His voice made it sound as if I were the most pathetic person in the world. Of course, it was true that I had been pathetic at this time.

But the more important truth was that I was still pathetic.