I See Stars in My Eyes Chapter 1

I See Stars in My Eyes Chapter 1

I See Stars in My Eyes Episode 1

Boom!

Kwahwahwah!!!

“Khahat! How long are you going to run away like a little rat? Huh? Little brother!!!”

The sword strike shattered everything in sight. Although it was the midst of a fierce battle on the battlefield, no one dared to approach the area where the sword strike erupted.

The one wielding the sword was none other than the continent’s number one swordsman, the man standing at the pinnacle of power on the continent.

Knight King Kyle.

With his long hair swept back, a luxurious crown rested atop his head.

His features, as if sculpted by an exceptional artist, radiated brilliance even without adornments.

Swoosh.

The red cloak that enveloped his body and the sword resting on his shoulder made him look like a hero from mythology.

Kyle was a person who emitted his own light.

As if he were the center of this world.

How many had been captivated by Kyle, shining like a protagonist?

Kwah-!!!

At that moment, Kyle’s sword struck something. To be precise, it could no longer evade his sword strike.

“Finally reached you! Little brother!!!”

Kyle shouted with joy in his eyes. The sword that clashed with Kyle’s was an old, worn-out blade, its teeth chipped away.

Vibrating.

Gulp!

The one wielding that sword appeared to be standing exactly opposite Kyle.

The protagonist and the extra.

The extra, Maier, clad in old armor and a tattered cloak, spat a mouthful of blood. The impact had shaken him to his core.

As he looked at Kyle, who was unleashing a furious attack, Maier revealed his blood-soaked teeth and grinned.

“You bastard with three crests.”

A bastard with three crests.

The number one swordsman on the continent.

More people referred to him that way than as the continent’s greatest knight.

Drip.

In that moment, the refreshing smile Kyle had been wearing cracked. No, his smile twisted for an instant. At that moment, the light that had been sparkling and shining from Kyle dimmed. Then, Kyle’s form distorted, and the entire world around him cracked as if centered on him. ŘаℕÖᛒÊŠ

That was Kyle’s aura.

Kugugugugugu-!!!

The ground around Kyle trembled and sank. The aura he emitted alone was bursting forth as if it would collapse space itself, an ability that was still incredibly formidable.

“Your tongue is sharp, little brother.”

However, Maier did not back down. He had lived his life to avoid yielding to that man. Even under the threat of being torn apart by that aura, Maier stood his ground.

“Your star is a waste. It seems overflowing for someone like you.”

[Kyle Garden: ★★★★★?]

Kyle twisted the corners of his mouth. A grotesque smile spread across his lips. That was the very essence of who Kyle was.

“Then, die.”

Kwah-!!!

The aura that Kyle unleashed pressed down on Maier’s entire body. Maier desperately braced himself against that sword. Blood flowed from his mouth, and his skin, crushed by the aura, burst, causing blood to trickle down.

But Maier did not give up.

“If you want me to die, do I still look like the Maier who used to be like that? You bastard?”

Clang!

Maier dropped the sword he had been holding. Then he summoned everything he had learned thus far.

[Garden Family Swordsmanship (★)]

[Disorderly Sword (★★★★)]

[White Crane Sword (★★★)]…

Dozens, hundreds of sword techniques.

All of them blossomed and faded in Maier’s mind.

Instead, Maier raised his hand.

And he reached out towards the approaching Kyle. No, he reached out towards his sword.

And the corners of Maier’s mouth lifted slightly.

“Finally, reached you.”

Kwah!!!

With a violent shock, Maier’s body jolted, almost lifting off the ground. A thud caused his breath to momentarily stop, and soon after, a pain like his belly being torn apart and his insides bursting surged through him, causing yellow bile to flow from his mouth.

“Ugh, ughhh!!”

Maier vomited the yellow gastric juice that he had not eaten anything. Tears flowed from his eyes, and he trembled, unable to bear the unbearable pain.

It felt like being hit by a huge truck.

At that moment, even amidst the pain, Maier blinked.

‘Truck?’

The word truck was unfamiliar. But Maier recalled that it felt strangely familiar. In that moment, even without being hit on the head, he realized that an unfamiliar knowledge had flowed into him, and he opened his eyes wide.

‘Rebirth truck?’

He had definitely been hit by a truck.

A truck, which could range from 1 ton to several tons, had struck him while he was helping to clean up the trash from a handcart that had fallen over at the crosswalk.

He remembered the massive truck, which was practically a formidable mass weapon, crashing into him, but that was all.

And then he became Maier.

Maier recalled that it was the wooden sword that had caused the pain of his belly being torn apart and his insides bursting, and wiped his mouth.

At that moment, a mocking voice pierced his ears.

“Sir. Didn’t I tell you it was a battlefield? If you kneel down at this little thing, you might lose your head next time.”

Looking up, he saw a sly-looking man spinning a wooden sword in his hand. That wooden sword had struck Maier’s abdomen.

‘Gilrot.’

Maier remembered that he was the knight of the family, Gilrot.

[Gilrot Kent: ★☆☆☆☆]

To be precise, that name and the strange star rating shone brightly above Gilrot’s head.

‘What is that….’

But there was no time to leisurely think about it. A sharp pain surged from Maier’s abdomen, as if his body had reached its limit.

And he remembered that this was not the first time such a thing had happened.

His body remembered.

Memories of ruthless beatings and assaults.

At the same time, the arm that Maier had been using to support himself on the ground buckled. The moment he recalled that, the tenuous thread of his consciousness snapped.

As Maier’s head hit the ground, he saw Gilrot’s expression, laughing at him, and his consciousness abruptly cut off.

‘Crazy bastard….’

Maier was picking up trash.

He was not the only one who had come out onto the road to pick up the scattered trash on the crosswalk.

In this day and age, a heartwarming story unfolded, but misfortune had only struck Maier.

Screech!

Kwah-!!!

A dump truck came barreling in and hit Maier head-on.

Just before being hit by the dump truck, the world changed. Then, the wooden sword had lodged itself where the dump truck had struck, and he had lost consciousness.

“Ughhh.”

Maier rose, drenched in sweat. But at that moment, he collapsed again.

“Gahhh….”

His belly hurt as if it were being torn apart. No, it seemed he had actually sustained injuries, as he saw bandages wrapped around his abdomen when he lifted his shirt.

“It hurts too much.”

Maier lay there, waiting for the sudden pain in his abdomen to subside. After 30 minutes, as the pain finally faded, Maier bit his lips tightly and carefully got up.

“Ughhh.”

Tears welled up in his eyes. Only after he had risen did he finally have the leisure to look around.

And.

“Huh?”

Maier tilted his head. To be precise, Maier was not the original Maier anymore. The moment he was struck in the abdomen by Gilrot’s wooden sword, the memories of Maier and another person had intertwined to form the current Maier.

“Am I Park Yeon-ui? Or am I Maier?”

Park Yeon-ui.

30 years old.

A long-time civil service exam student in South Korea.

And Maier.

19 years old.

The legitimate heir of the Garden family.

These two had mixed together to give birth to a new version of Maier. Maier tilted his head and looked around.

“They said I was a noble, but it’s barely better than a study room?”

Maier was the legitimate heir of the Garden family. The Garden family was a baronial family that had governed Auwis Province for generations, serving as the gateway to the northern region leading into the imperial capital, Ocasum.

Yet, as the heir of such a family, all that surrounded him were old and dilapidated items.

Buildings that seemed to be over 30 years old.

The carpet in the room was faded and stained, and the bedding showed clear signs of wear.

The bed creaked every time he moved, and the window was so dirty from neglect that he could see nothing outside.

The cobwebs on the ceiling were a minor detail.

At this point, it was a level even worse than the slightly larger space of a study room in Noryangjin that cost 350,000 won a month.

But the answer was not hard to find.

“Is this really reincarnation?”

He wanted to laugh at the funny joke, but the pain in his belly snapped him back to reality. Maier grimaced at the memories flooding back.

“Essentially, I’m a child who has been abandoned? A fool who faints at the sight of blood? A coward who is scared of swords? An idiot who cries at the mere act of speaking?”

Fool, coward, idiot.

Despite being the legitimate heir, Maier had been ostracized within the family. The problem was that his personality was inherently timid. Moreover, unlike the Garden family’s tradition of revering swords, he fainted at the sight of blood and was terrified of swords, preventing him from mastering them.

Essentially, he was a son that the family had almost given up on.

Of course, there would be no support from the family for a child with no redeeming qualities. Thus, despite being the legitimate heir, Maier had lived effectively confined to this old annex.

“So even though there are potions and such, all I got was a bandage wrapped around me?”

Despite being the legitimate heir, the only treatment he received after nearly having his insides burst was a single bandage.

That was too much.

Maier gritted his teeth at the pain he felt in his abdomen.

“Why was I being beaten with a sword?”

Then Maier suddenly tilted his head. Reflecting on his memories, he realized that he, the ultimate coward, had rarely stepped outside this annex.

Yet, how had he ended up collapsing after sparring with someone?

It was not just once or twice. At least more than ten times, Maier had been called out and beaten like that. Otherwise, such fear would not have been etched in his mind.

Faces of various strangers, starting with Gilrot, flashed through his mind. And at the end of it all, the face of a tall, handsome man popped up.

“Ugh.”

Just recalling it made his heart race madly and cold sweat break out. It was the fear and trauma deeply engraved in his mind. Maier barely managed to utter the handsome man’s name.

“Knight King Kyle.”

He was Maier’s brother who had been adopted into the Garden family.

“Ha. What the hell. So.”

Maier rummaged through various memories and examined them, firmly concluding that his assessment was correct.

“It’s a mess. This fool was so happy to have siblings that he didn’t realize he was losing his place.”

A mess.

That word perfectly summarized Maier’s condition.

The reason Maier had become timid was simple.

He had failed to meet his father’s expectations, and as he watched his father grow more disappointed, he began to hide more, becoming timid.

A lack of confidence.

For a noble, such behavior was akin to a sin.

As Maier continued to show disappointing appearances, his father cut off his expectations for him and ceased all support.

And then he adopted a son.

That was none other than the protagonist, Knight King Kyle, who had made Maier feel pure terror just by looking at him.

Replacing the incompetent heir, Kyle quickly occupied the position of the favored son.

The problem started from there.

Though he claimed to care for his younger brother, Kyle had called Maier out to spar under the pretense of training, alternating between beatings and assaults, completely ruining the reputation of the legitimate heir, Maier.

So that Maier could never follow in his father’s footsteps.

Or to ensure that such words could never be spoken, Kyle manipulated public opinion and ruled Maier as an object of fear.

Pain surged through Maier’s entire body, not just his abdomen.

Without showing it, he had to endure being called out for an hour or two each day, only to be beaten in the places that hurt the most.

And no one looked at Maier.

Outwardly, Kyle appeared to be a devoted brother who dedicated his time to help his talentless younger brother, and even their father favored Kyle, the adopted son, more than Maier.

“The problem is that I have to endure that now.”

A sense of crisis spread across Maier’s face. With the memories of Earth’s Park Yeon-ui mixed with the new version of Maier, he realized that if things continued like this, there would only be one of two outcomes left.

He would be beaten to death.

Or he would be beaten into a disability.

To prevent that, he needed to break free from reality.

But Maier was still an incompetent coward, and Kyle was the son trusted by their father. He needed a sharp justification or a means to change the current situation.

“Status window!!!!”

Nothing happened.

“Quest window! Show my talents. Can’t you see anything? Is there nothing?”

In novels, something usually appears in such situations. Could it be that someone sent him here to be beaten to death without anything at all?

“Ughhh.”

He wanted to get up and look around, but the pain in his abdomen prevented him from doing so. Still, he couldn’t remain like this. As Maier struggled against the pain, something caught his eye.

“A newspaper?”

An old, yellowed newspaper was rolling under the bed. It had clearly been handled many times. Fortunately, the words were automatically readable as soon as he saw them, and Maier stared intently at the newspaper.

[Volunteer Report: Although they were born on different days, the three brothers resolved to die together at the same time….]

“Huh?”

It was a single column. Unlike other articles with attached photos, it was a small article that was written in the corner.

But somehow, it felt familiar.

“Dying together at the same time? Three brothers?”

The rest had likely faded away over time, as it was not visible. The article seemed to be cut off in the middle, but it kept giving him a sense of déjà vu.

Was it truly a coincidence that it kept reminding him of the time when Maier, or rather Park Yeon-ui, was obsessed with it?

Grrr!

As Maier pondered all this, time had passed, and the sound of his stomach growling thundered.

Seeing that no one came to check on the injured person, it appeared that his father had cut off support and removed all the servants.

“Even in this situation, I’m still hungry?”

Even after experiencing such a tumultuous moment in life, he was still hungry. Even with his stomach aching like it was being torn apart, the hunger struck, causing Maier to groan as he rose to his feet.

“I can’t die from hunger even if I get beaten to death.”

They say that ghosts who die from hunger don’t look good. Whether that expression exists here, he didn’t know. But Maier made a groaning sound as he finally got out of bed, albeit with a hunched back.

He couldn’t straighten up because his belly hurt too much.

“Ugh, ughhh.”

Clutching his belly, Maier grabbed the door and finally opened it.