Chapter 1 - Drug Transport (1)

"You little shit!"

The man's voice was loud enough to burst eardrums. His face reddened with rage as he swung his fist at Acel.

With a dull thud, Acel's head snapped to the side. His body lost balance and fell into the muddy water, the inside of his mouth tearing and filling with a bitter taste of blood.

Though the blow landed on his cheek, his jaw felt dislocated and the world spun around him. Something felt wrong with his head.

No, perhaps it wasn't just from being hit.

Acel shifted his blurry gaze to the pile of white powder spilled beside him.

A drug that induced hallucinations similar to reality and amplified mana when consumed. Though far inferior to what nobles enjoyed, it was still a precious commodity in the slums—both hard to obtain and quite expensive.

And Acel had spilled it during transport. Right in front of the client, no less.

Of course, it was the man's fault. If he hadn't shoved Acel for being late with the delivery, the drugs wouldn't have spilled into the muddy water and become unusable. But such details didn't matter to the man.

"Do you have any idea how much this costs?! You worthless little bastard!" the man shouted as he stomped on the fallen Acel.

With each kick carrying the man's full weight, Acel felt his breath being cut off. But the pain wasn't too severe. Probably because he had accidentally inhaled some of the spilled drugs.

"..."

Acel narrowed his eyes as he felt the mild pain and foreign sensation throughout his body. Blood trickled from between his closed lips, but all his attention was focused on the hallucinations induced by the drugs.

A place called Earth. Images unfolded before him of a man born to ordinary parents in South Korea, living an ordinary life. The young man's life felt more like a dream than a hallucination, etching itself deep into Acel's mind.

He slept on a bed with a warm blanket instead of tattered, moldy rags. He complained about disliking foods he'd never get to taste in his lifetime, and laughed and joked with people his own age.

"Die, you bastard! Just die!"

— What do you want to eat?

Voices from reality and hallucination overlapped.

One side of his vision was red. Blood from his head must have gotten into his eye. But the hallucination remained vivid. Though it flowed by quickly, every detail felt as clear as if he'd experienced it himself.

Then, plop.

"..."

It rained in the hallucination. At the same time, a droplet fell on his cheek in reality. The young man in the vision took out an umbrella. Meanwhile, in reality...

"Acel!"

With a familiar voice calling out, the hallucination faded.

Acel shifted his blurry gaze towards the source of the voice. His only blood relative, Evelyn, was running towards him urgently.

Come to think of it, this delivery area was near their home. She must have guessed what was happening from the man's shouting and rushed out.

– Rumble!

The sky flashed, followed shortly by the sound of thunder. The world was momentarily tinted blue. The light drizzle began to gain strength.

"Stop it!"

As Acel stared entranced at the blue lightning flashing between the dark clouds, Evelyn, who had arrived nearby, shouted while pounding on the man's back with her small hands.

"I said stop, you bastard! Stop hitting my brother!"

"Ha! Fine, you vermin. I was in a foul mood anyway, so I’ll just let you die here. Evelyn, I'll cut off all your limbs and sell you to a brothel."

As the man turned towards Evelyn saying this, undisguised fear settled on her face. Seeing this, Acel groaned as he struggled to raise his barely responsive body.

The hallucinatory effects had faded, but the pain-numbing effect still lingered. Acel forced his creaking body to move, picked up a sharp stone lying nearby, and brought it down on the man's foot with all his weight.

"Aaagh! You bastard!"

The man let out an agonized scream, his face contorting in pain as if his foot had been crushed.

The man's body suddenly went limp. Acute exhaustion and seizure from external shock above a certain threshold. It was a typical withdrawal symptom of an addict unable to get their fix. Ignoring the man's curses as he laid fallen, Acel limped towards Evelyn.

Before Evelyn could say anything at the sight, Acel spoke first, "Sis, let's run."

"What?"

"I said let's run. Hurry!"

Acel grimaced and forcibly pulled Evelyn to her feet. Finally, understanding Acel's words, Evelyn started running in the opposite direction of the fallen man.

"Haah... haah..."

Acel followed her. Fortunately, the man hadn't focused on kicking his legs, so he could still manage to escape.

They ran until the man's shouting voice faded into the distance. Acel and Evelyn sat down, leaning against a half-broken trash can, breathing heavily. The trash can reeked, but both Acel and Evelyn were already accustomed to such levels of stench.

"Phew... are you okay?" After catching her breath sufficiently, Evelyn asked, looking at Acel's swollen face. 

Acel was about to say he was fine, but his face contorted from the pain as the drug's effects were wearing off. Seeing his reaction, Evelyn's face crumpled.

"Ow... does it hurt? Your fingers... they're bent in strange angles."

"What can we do? It's better than having them cut off," Acel said this while exhaling deeply.

Physical mutilation was a common occurrence in the slums. Some people voluntarily sold parts of their bodies, while many others were forcibly robbed of them.

Thinking about it that way, having a few broken fingers was relatively fortunate. Of course, fingers weren't the only parts that were damaged, but it was still bearable.

Those who couldn't bear it had already died screaming.

"Want to go see the granny doctor?"

"If we go there, we'll have to starve for a week. Today's delivery was the first in two weeks, remember?"

"But still..."

"Forget it. I'll just take the painkillers we bought before and endure. It'll heal on its own," Acel muttered this while spitting out the blood pooled in his mouth.

There were hospitals in the slums, but the costs were insanely high. If one went for a consultation and got medicine, one would have to survive on dirty puddle water for days. It was better to just take the painkillers they had saved up from before.

Thinking this, Acel put his trembling hand inside his worn-out shirt. Then his face contorted.

"Ah, shit."

The three painkiller pills he had surely put in his pocket were all crushed to powder, rolling around in his pocket. Some had even dissolved in the rainwater. The pills must have been crushed when that man hit him earlier.

But what else could he do? He had to take this at least.

Acel inwardly cursed as he scraped together the sticky, melted painkiller powder and tossed it into his mouth.

A terrible bitter taste spread on his tongue. He wanted to neutralize it with some other food, but all that was around was dirty muddy water. Acel sighed deeply and staggered to his feet. Evelyn followed, standing up as well.

"Let's go."

"...Okay."

Acel and Evelyn pushed their rain-soaked hair back and started walking aimlessly. They couldn't go back to the sewer entrance they had called home, as that man lived nearby.

So they had to find a new place to stay. Fortunately, they had a few potential spots in mind, so they could focus on checking those out.

– Rumble!!

As they thought this and started moving, the sky flashed brightly, followed by a low rumble of thunder.

"..."

Acel briefly looked at the clouds writhing with lightning, then moved on.

***

The year Evelyn was 10 and Acel was 9. Their parents, who had always been deeply involved in devil worship, decided to use their own children as sacrifices for a devil summoning ritual.

In other words, they were to be living sacrifices. A ritual where their stomachs would be cut open while alive and their organs and hearts extracted.

Realizing this, Evelyn and Acel left home the night before the ritual and settled in a slum far away from their parents.

Fortunately, their parents didn't particularly look for Evelyn and Acel. Instead, a week later, the two found a newspaper reporting a mass death incident and an attempted devil summoning ritual in the village where they used to live.

Three years passed like that. Evelyn turned 13 and Acel turned 12.

To survive in the slums, they each started working.

Evelyn got a job at a contraceptive factory. It was work making cheap condoms from animal carcasses left over after slaughter.

When she first started, she spent all day retching and getting beaten by other employees. Now she could make the tools with her eyes closed.

"Here's your daily wage."

The factory where Evelyn worked paid daily wages. Even so, it was barely enough to buy a single fruit in the city.

But Evelyn smiled every time she received money. Sometimes the factory owner, who had anger management issues, would slap her for smiling, but the next day he'd often give her a little extra money as an apology. Even that wasn't much.

Compared to Evelyn, who did legal work but earned little, Acel did illegal work that paid more.

Drug courier.

A job where one was likely to be targeted by those after drugs and easily beaten to death by severe drug addicts.

Moreover, because the mana-amplifying effects of drugs were popular among twisted mages, it was common to be kidnapped by crazy mages dependent on drugs. That was why Evelyn tried to dissuade Acel as soon as she heard about his job.

But Acel didn't listen to Evelyn.

Even in a garbage dump of a slum, money was ultimately important for the powerless. Evelyn shouted at Acel to quit several times when he came back injured, but she eventually fell silent when Acel pulled out one or two silver coins with a strained smile.

Time passed like that. Before they knew it, Acel had become a renowned drug courier, and Evelyn had become a recognized skilled worker at the factory.

They earned more money, but it was like sand slipping through their fingers, disappearing after buying just a few painkillers. Their life was still impoverished.

The new dwelling they found wasn't in great condition either.

An abandoned house crawling with rats and insects, filled with stench. Maggots crawling out of moldy walls. The corpse of the house's former owner, left in the kitchen, had long since become a nest for insects.

They couldn't clean it up. The corpse, melted by drugs and fused with the floor, would remain there until it became a skeleton unless completely burned.

Still, it was fortunate to have a roof and walls to shelter from wind and rain, wasn't it?

Thinking about it carefully, living with a corpse in a shack seemed better than an open sewer. Acel thought this as he threw insect-infested firewood into the bonfire.

The firewood was partly torn from the walls.

"Cough, cough."

Just then, Evelyn walked out from the kitchen. Seeing the blazing bonfire, she wrapped the cloth on her shoulders tighter and approached the flames. Acel smirked at the sight.

"Cold?"

"Yeah... it's been cold every day lately. I keep coughing, and my chest feels tight."

"A cold?"

"Seems like it, ugh. My head and throat hurt too..." Evelyn said this as she buried her face in her knees. 

Then she spoke in a muffled voice, "Are you okay? We both got rained on."

"I'm fine. The broken parts sting a bit, but I can manage."

"That's good, cough...! Ugh, I haven't been able to go to work for days, what is this…?"

"It's okay. We can still buy food with the money we've saved up."

"Is that so...?"

Evelyn sighed weakly and picked up a nearby crawling insect, throwing it into the flames.

"Any jobs coming in?"

She was asking about drug transport jobs. Acel didn't bother to lie.

"Nothing. Looks like I'll have to take a good rest for a while. I'm sick too, after all."

"Mm-hmm. That's right. If you go to work now, you might end up with even more hospital bills, right?"

"We just won't go to the hospital, that's all."

"Will you say that even when you're dying?"

Acel chuckled at Evelyn's joke. Evelyn laughed back and wrapped her blanket tighter. As she did so, her eyes drooped.

The chills she felt were getting worse. Her eyes felt like they were burning, and her eyelids kept wanting to close. Her body was cold, but her head was hot. Every time she coughed, she felt a stabbing pain in her chest. Something felt off for it to be just a simple cold.

But she didn't show it. Evelyn had no intention of worrying Acel. So she forced a smile.

"Got any interesting stories?"

"Interesting stories?"

Acel hummed, deep in thought. Then, as if something occurred to him, he looked at Evelyn with a somewhat serious expression and said, "I think I've realized my past life."

"Are you crazy?"

It was an immediate response. Acel grumbled, avoiding Evelyn's skeptical gaze.

"It's true."

A few weeks ago, when he hallucinated after taking drugs.

Back then, he thought it was just a hallucination, but not anymore. Acel was convinced that what he saw then was from his past life.

It was almost instinctual. Even now, after quite some time had passed, he hadn't forgotten a single detail of what he saw then.

But Evelyn didn't believe Acel's words. Anyone would have reacted the same way.

It wasn’t like he was some holy maiden blessed by the gods. Past life, what past life? Evelyn tapped Acel's forehead with her finger and stood up.

"I'm tired, so I'm going to bed first. Don't stay up too late."

"Okay. Sleep well."

"You too."

Evelyn lightly kissed Acel's forehead and went to lie down in a corner. Acel watched her for a moment, then turned back to the bonfire, continuing to throw in firewood as he thought.

I may have realized my past life, but it doesn't seem like anything has changed.

His life in his past life. Although he had roughly sensed and seen those things, there was no immediate change he could feel.

His sense of self hadn't wavered, nor was he consumed by memories of his past life. The only change, if any, was that he felt his mind had become a bit sharper. Even this could just be his imagination.

"...Haa."

After following this train of thought for a while, Acel sighed deeply and stopped thinking.

Pondering over it now wouldn't yield any answers. It wasn’t like the memories of his past life were completely clear, anyway. Many parts were missing, and the overall flow was strange. It felt like watching some kind of play.

In any case, it probably wouldn't be of much help in his current life. Acel shook off these idle thoughts, covered himself with a cloth he had thrown nearby, and laid down.

The bonfire would go out on its own. Fed with rotten firewood, the flames would quickly die out if not regularly fed with more wood. Acel paid no mind to the flames burning beside him and quickly fell asleep.

***

The next day.

As expected, the bonfire had gone out. The weather was brighter than anticipated, and his physical condition seemed better than yesterday.

Acel stretched and approached Evelyn, who was still lying down. He gently shook her body.

"Sis."

"..."

No response. Acel's face hardened as he sensed something was off.

"Sis?"

"..."

"Wake up. Sis, just wake up for a moment."

Still, there was no answer.

Acel checked Evelyn's pulse, fearing the worst, but her breathing hadn't ceased. Rather, it was haggard. Her face was red, and her forehead was burning hot as if it might burst into flames at any moment. The symptoms were too severe to be just a simple cold.

"...Ah."

As Acel's expression began to darken, a disease name he had seen in his past life flashed in his mind.

A disease with symptoms of chest, throat, and head pain, coughing, and persistent chills. A disease his past self had suffered from, looking just like Evelyn did now.

It was pneumonia.