A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation

Discord:dsc.gg/wetried

If she sends Seo Eun-hyun to kindergarten, she can dress Seo Eun-hyun in kindergarten uniform.

But if she actually sends Seo Eun-hyun to kindergarten, she can’t see what Seo Eun-hyun looks like.

“Is this what they call a contradiction where if I hold the sword, I can’t embrace him, and if I put down the sword, I can’t protect him!?”

Ji Hwa chews on her fingernails as she begins to dig into how to solve this contradiction.

And at last, Ji Hwa opens her eyes wide and gains an enlightenment of how she has to solve it.

“Can’t I just peek?”

It is a very simple method.

After wrapping herself up tightly, she goes to Seo Eun-hyun’s English kindergarten, climbs up the building’s outer wall, and starts secretly peeking into the classroom Seo Eun-hyun enters.

‘Such a genius method!’

She is very satisfied as she spies on Seo Eun-hyun from the building’s outer wall.

However, as you would expect, a criminal who hangs off an outer wall to peek into a kindergarten cannot help but stand out…

In not even three minutes, she gets caught by security and ends up being chased off.

***

“This method won’t work either.”

Ji Hwa does not want to commit a crime.

Even if she has gained a mortal body and is living on Earth, she is a former Radiance Eight Immortal who once upheld justice.

Although she has relinquished the position of the Eight Immortals, her heart toward justice is still firm.

“Right, instead of peeking in a way that stands out, I’ll peek from the building across the way!”

But unfortunately, when she tries to watch Seo Eun-hyun from a nearby building, that also stands out, and there is no suitable spot. Utility poles and signboards block her view, and so on.

In the end, Ji Hwa lets out a deep sigh, goes up to the rooftop of a building a bit farther away, and looks down at Seo Eun-hyun’s kindergarten.

“This spot is the best. I can look at every window of the kindergarten, and there is no worry of getting caught by someone.”

She finds the best spot, but there is one problem.

“Ah…”

No matter what, unless something special happens, even Ji Hwa cannot easily break the promise to restrict her power on Earth with Seo Eun-hyun as the main condition.

So now, with the distance becoming too great, she has run into the problem that she cannot spy on the inside of the kindergarten with a mortal’s eyesight.

“Kuaaaagh! Dammit! Why can’t I see Seo Eun-hyun!? This can’t be happening!”

Driven mad by this tragic reality, Ji Hwa stomps her feet and begins to search for a solution quickly.

“I am the goddess of war. I am the king of weapons that brings victory!!! This time too, I will win. I will never lose!”

Gritting her teeth, she searches the internet, and at last she finds the perfect product.

“Found it, a telescope!”

To solve this difficult problem, Ji Hwa orders, through direct overseas purchase, a top-class telescope that costs several million won (several thousand dollars) and a bugging device, and smacks her lips.

Although this makes the bank account balance she has been saving up and putting away become completely empty, the game currency and ultra-rare items she has piled up in the game are still left in full, so if she just sells those, Ji Hwa can earn several million won again.

“Good, this solves it. Hehehe, it will be delivered tomorrow, so if I just wait one day, then starting tomorrow I can see Seo Eun-hyun in the morning and at night too…!”

Ji Hwa laughs slyly and heads to her home, looking forward to the hope of a happy tomorrow.

***

That evening,

Seo Eun-hyun gets dropped off in front of Ji Hwa’s house and clicks his tongue.

‘Kindergarten…it’s not bad to live while setting my brain aside.’

Sure enough, after taking out rationality and playing to his heart’s content as he returned to childlike innocence, his mental strength seemed to be recovering.

However, it is still awkward.

‘But the place I go when kindergarten ends is Ji Hwa’s house… It’s strange…’

Seo Eun-hyun arrives at Ji Hwa’s house, enters the password, and goes inside.

“I’m back…Ji Hwa?”

And after entering the house, Seo Eun-hyun notices that the atmosphere inside the room is somehow strange.

Tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak…

From deeper inside the room, he hears the sound of something being struck again and again, and he can see very gloomy intent sweeping around.

“Ji Hwa…?”

Seo Eun-hyun goes into Ji Hwa’s room that gives off that gloomy intent, sticks his head in a little, and soon comes to see something tremendous.

Ji Hwa, wearing an aluminum hat with a face that looks like her soul has left, is pounding the keyboard like she is insane.

Seo Eun-hyun knows that she likes games.

However, her current appearance is quite strange.

What she has up on the screen is not a game screen, but a news screen.

The title of the news article is as follows.

—Breaking news!

—In a large-scale hacking attack on UCN Company’s <Life Creation Online>, all users’ currency and items were deleted by the hackers…

Life Creation Online is the name of the game Ji Hwa enjoys the most, and it is also her biggest way of making money.

And it seems that all the currency and items in that game got hacked and deleted.

Ji Hwa blankly puts something up on another screen and is pressing ‘refund’ like crazy, but on that screen, only a window that says refund unavailable keeps popping up.

From the look of it, she seems to have bought something worth several million won, but it does not seem refundable.

“Uh…Ji Hwa.”

Seo Eun-hyun clicks his tongue as if he feels sorry for the situation where all of Ji Hwa’s efforts have blown away, and he speaks to her.

It is unfortunate, but he has to bring her to her senses.

“Don’t be too heartbroken. Items and wealth…you can gather them again, can’t you? Even if it all became 0, if you accumulate it up again…”

“Kiyaaaaaaagh! It’s the dirty Lizard Race bastards’ scheme!!”

However, Ji Hwa cannot accept reality and only screams.

“Ji Hwa, come to your senses…”

“No! If, if it becomes like this…to send you to kindergarten…I, I…I have to get a job…!!”

Screaming at the dreadful fact that she has to work, she starts rolling around on the floor, and Seo Eun-hyun sighs and begins to comfort her.

“Getting a job isn’t hard. I’ll help you… Let’s definitely try job hunting before the kindergarten tuition payment due date.”

“I have to job hunt…? Me…? You’re telling me to do that thing called interview, and fart out flattery while begging mortals to pick me?”

Ji Hwa trembles as if the world turns pitch-black, foaming at the mouth as she grabs Seo Eun-hyun from the floor.

Seo Eun-hyun sighs and begins to calm Ji Hwa, who falls into a panic.

Although she sometimes shows a weak side, she is strong.

She is the goddess of war and victory, so she should be able to do something like getting a job easily.

‘For now, let’s calm Ji Hwa down.’

Seo Eun-hyun indulges Ji Hwa’s tantrum and believes she can become self-reliant.

A month passes.

“Make me ramen.”

“Uh…Ji Hwa. A whole month passed, but you’re still not employed?”

“Ahh, seriously. Someone has to hire me for me to get a job or not, okay? Stop nagging and just cook.”

“You said that last week too, and I hear you went on a stabbing spree at the interview site…do you even intend to get employed?”

“Ah, seriously! Do I have to cook!?”

“I’m sorry, Ji Hwa. Please spare me from you cooking…”

Seo Eun-hyun sighs at Ji Hwa’s arrogant attitude, moves his small body, and quickly cooks ramen.

Ji Hwa is the god of war and victory, but she has never properly learned Earth cooking, so whenever she cooks, she goes to war with the ingredients and turns them into a mess… Her cooking is the kind you must absolutely never eat.

‘Does Ji Hwa even…have any intention of getting employed?’

With the tuition payment date approaching, Seo Eun-hyun only feels regretful.

‘If Ji Hwa can’t pay the kindergarten tuition…I can’t keep going either…’

Then what can he do?

Seo Eun-hyun also has to return to work.

‘Is my rest as a kindergartener over with this…?’

Although it seems Ji Hwa is also searching in her own way, with her personality, calmly taking an interview seems close to impossible.

From the start, it’s impossible for her, who was born with an innate noble status and fate, to interview at a mortals’ company and calmly answer interview questions.

From what Seo Eun-hyun has heard, it’s already been seven times that, when they only asked what she is good at or asked about hobbies at the interview site, she said they are taking her for a toy, pulled a sword out of her mouth, did a sword dance, and got chased out.

‘Today or tomorrow is probably my last kindergarten life.’

Seo Eun-hyun lets out a short sigh, boards the kindergarten bus, and arrives at his kindergarten, New Spring Kindergarten.

“Hello, everyone~ The friends who came early have free time until first period starts, so please play with toys!”

Together with his friends, Seo Eun-hyun plays during free time before class starts, riding a rocking horse and throwing his worries away.

That’s when it happens.

Seo Eun-hyun suddenly sees the principal teacher and several other teachers gathering in one place and discussing something seriously.

‘What’s going on?’

The teachers go into the principal’s office and hold an important discussion.

Feeling curious, Seo Eun-hyun eavesdrops beside the principal’s office, and he gets to hear a strange story.

“A rival English kindergarten opened in the building directly across from us. Those people have neither business ethics nor morals…to build a kindergarten right across from us so blatantly.”

“What do we do, Principal? I hear that the English kindergarten over there is a very long-established kindergarten. It seems they teach not only English, but also French, German, Hindi, Russian, Chinese, and even Sanskrit.”

“On top of that, it seems the tuition is even cheaper than ours.”

“If that kindergarten starts aggressive promotion, losing the children will happen in an instant. Everyone, please think of a solution.”

“If we also lower the tuition a bit…”

“Gal! Lower tuition, you say? Drag that wicked one off to the Hippo Class!”

“Principal, please forgive me. I absolutely did not have that intention!”

Seo Eun-hyun feels puzzled as he listens to the adults’ conversation coming from inside the principal’s office.

“Cheaper tuition and a better kindergarten…and it opened in the building across the street overnight? Is that even possible…? If it’s true, if I tell Ji Hwa and go to a cheaper kindergarten, wouldn’t it reduce her burden?”

And then, as Seo Eun-hyun looks at the building across the street through the kindergarten window, his complexion cannot help but rot.

“Ah…”

The other kindergarten that took up place in front of ‘New Spring Kindergarten.’

The name of that kindergarten is ‘Silver Sword Kindergarten,’ and on the kindergarten’s signboard there is a mark of a huge silver snake biting its tail.

“No…what in the world is that…?”

At Ji Hwa’s behavior of choosing to open a business instead of getting a job, Seo Eun-hyun is left only dumbfounded.

***

Shin Young-man, the principal of New Spring Kindergarten, fumes and seethes with indignation at Silver Sword Kindergarten’s behavior that has no business ethics.

‘I have to drive that kindergarten out no matter what. How, is there no way…?’

Just as there cannot be two tigers on one mountain.

Two English kindergartens cannot coexist in one neighborhood.

Just then,

After gathering all the kindergarten teachers and holding an emergency countermeasure committee meeting,

The kindergarten phone rings, and Shin Young-man quickly puts on a business smile and answers the phone.

Being enraged at shameless behavior is one thing, but as phone calls that come into the kindergarten are, one hundred times out of one hundred, parents, she has to greet with a smile when she has to greet with a smile.

“Yes, hello, this is the New Spring Kindergarten principal’s office. How may I—”

“This is Yang Ji-hwang, the principal of Silver Sword Kindergarten.”

“…”

Shin Young-man’s expression hardens, and from beyond the receiver, a clear voice strikes his eardrums.

—One mountain cannot have two tigers living on it. Waiting to see which kindergarten the children and parents of this region choose is too long and tedious. Instead, how about we settle it between ourselves.

“…What do you mean?”

—We put the children of this region on the line, and we determine who truly has the qualification to be this region’s English kindergarten. I mean a one-on-one duel between principals!

Shin Young-man hangs up the phone.

“…They’re more thoroughly insane than I thought…”