I’m on a bridge.

  That was the first coherent thought that came to me.

  Beneath my feet, there was a white bridge.

  No, actually. Not just white.

  It was something more than just that. More pure than that. Not like... polished marble, or even... freshly fallen snow.

  It was radiant, with a glaring glow pulsing out of it.

  It's light.

  It was a bridge made of light. Solidified light. It didn't make any sense, and yet, it was the only description that felt right to me.

  Time passed as I stared at it, empty-headed, and soon enough, the fog in my head began to clear.

  It was then, that I saw them:

  People?

  Hundreds, if not thousands of them.

  I looked straight ahead at them, trying to piece together the sheer mass of bodies in front of me that I somehow hadn't seen until now.

  Then, I suddenly noticed something. Somehow, it felt like my centre of vision was lower than it should have been. It was like I was viewing the world from chest height.

  But that made no sense.

  What's up with... that? Did I shrink or something?

  It bothered me, like an itch on my back I couldn't scratch. Because, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. Why did my line of sight feel so low?

  Urgh.... I can't think of anything.

  So, I dismissed it for the time being, and focused back on what was in front of me. This bridge that stretched on far beyond what I could even hope to see.

  On it, there was a line of people stretching equally as far. All of them inching forward in lockstep, without a single stumble or misplaced step.

  No one bumped into one another, or even stepped a bit aside from the line.

  Well… isn't that weird.

  An immense human collective, shuffling onwards, towards… somewhere.

  Nobody made a single sound, not even a breath, like they were all being compelled. Like they weren’t even conscious.

  There was only the soft sound of shoes and feet smacking against the ground.

  Are they…? Maybe they’re in the same state I was just a minute ago...?

  Wait.

  A realisation hit me.

  If they were all walking, then…

  Quickly, I looked back down.

  I was walking.

  My legs were taking steps forward, without any conscious thought from me.

  I hadn't even noticed.

  An awful sensation made its way into me, as the reality of the situation I'd found myself in settled in.

  Really, truly settled into my head.

  I'm on some... random bridge, with impossible construction, head foggier than an english winter, and now... I couldn't even control my own legs. Which was disorienting as all hell!

  I tore my eyes back up.

  No need to get myself feeling any more dazed.

  Maybe a look around will help clear my head a bit. Not like staring at that is doing me any favours.

  Probably. Maybe.

  My gaze moved out from the crowds and looked out to beyond the bridge.

  And what was out there was—

  ... Nothing?

  There was nothing beyond the bridge. Absolutely nothing at all.

  The bridge was long, sure. Long in ways that hurt to think about. I couldn't even see the end of it from here.

  But, the void surrounding us dwarfed even that. It was a nothingness so profoundly immense, that if not for the light of the bridge, I would've thought I'd gone blind.

  It looked like a night sky that had been emptied of everything it had, even the faintest light having vanished. Only this bridge, bright as it was, seemed to cut through that darkness. A bright radiant luminescence, like the stars that had shined on quiet nights.

  The stars that should have adorned the night sky.

  Maybe that's... where the stars went. Used to... build this bridge? I mean... not that big of a leap in logic, is... it?

  I gazed at the emptiness a bit longer before craning my eyes back down again.

  Looking around had indeed cleared my head just a bit. With that extra bit of clarity, I finally noticed something about the people around me. That they didn't exactly look... normal, stood out painfully clear to me now.

  More specifically, rather than people, they looked more like walking corpses.

  A man, who was the one right in front of me, was so aged, that he had wrinkles and folds deep enough to resemble valleys and peaks. His skin looked like a prune, one that had aged for a thousand years. There was another person. A young woman a few steps ahead of me. She had sickly grey skin so diseased, I could see her swollen and discoloured veins and arteries. They streaked her already sickly skin with dark, odd lines.

  Dozens like them, age and disease having claimed their bodies.

  There were others as well. Those who'd be dealt a more violent end.

  A woman clutching her side, blood staining her dress a deep crimson. A soldier who had holes punctured through his body, organs visibly damaged.

  Even a child, no older than eight, had his skull cracked open, brain and viscera spilling onto his clothing.

  How... sad.

  My eyes brushed past them all, as I looked even further ahead to see even more of the same. Sights of people already dead or dying.

  All of them were walking. Mindlessly drifting forward. No purpose in sight, as though they had nothing else to do.

  Or nothing else they could do.

  Two questions came to me then.

  Where am I?

  Following that…

  Who am I?

  Despite the slight clarity I'd gained, my head was still fogged and my thoughts still bleary and uncoordinated.

  My memories, too, felt as slippery as an eel.

  A twisting knot built up in my gut, as some feeling told me that there would be horrible consequences if I didn't find the answers to those questions.

  Maybe... seeing my own face will clear things up?

  The exact moment that thought had passed through my head, my head had turned. Unconsciously, without thinking.

  Not down, but rather, a full hundred and eighty degrees.

  I finally saw myself at that moment.

  And...

  I didn't quite comprehend what I was looking at first glance.

  A headless corpse, with its mutilated left arm reaching just above my line of sight, firmly gripping... something.

  Oh.

  That's my head.

  It was my body. My decapitated corpse. My thoughts instantly cleared and quieted, as everything finally slotted into place.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Took you long enough, idiot. Should have gotten that way faster, honestly.

  I was dead. Catastrophically, undeniably dead.

  And this was some kind of in-between period of the afterlife. A final march through before… whatever came next. Heaven, hell, reincarnation, oblivion or whatever else.

  I wanted to kick myself for being so slow. Though, I guess I wasn't exactly in my right mind at first either, so I'll hold back on the kicking.

  Not that I could, even if I wanted to, since my legs weren't under my control now. Nor was the rest of my body, really. Felt disgusting, to have so little control over myself.

  And speaking of my body, now that I got a better look at myself...

  Man, I really got fucked up, didn't I?

  My legs had the most obvious injuries, mutilated beyond comparison. Hard to even call them legs really, despite how firmly they were moving.

  A few holes and puncture marks littered my body as well, mostly centred around my sternum and shoulders. My left arm I had already seen, but my right arm was even worse. It was barely hanging onto its socket, limply trailing behind the rest of me.

  I should've been in horrible pain. Kicking, screaming, crying and rolling on the ground.

  And yet…

  I didn't feel anything at all, besides a chilling numbness, that is.

  Well, isn't that nice?

  A small smile gracing the lips of my severed head. Good thing I wouldn't have to suffer through the pain of my worldly injuries just yet. Small mercies, and all that.

  Now then.

  My memories.

  As I was fully conscious now, most of the fogginess cleared as well.

  It released, bursting into the forefront of my mind quite like a broken dam.

  A pressure release that I hadn't known was even building. One that, along with it, brought the life that I had lived.

  An explosive torrent of recollections and memories.

  ...

  I was twenty five when I died and more than half of it, I'd spent as an imperial agent. A part of the military institution of… some empire whose name I couldn't remember.

  It was a patchwork empire stretched across Asia, fraught with internal tension at all times, and ruled by an Emperor whose whims knew no end.

  Because of that, agents like me had no end to our work.

  It was the untimely deaths of my entire family that sent me into the arms of the military. I'd tried my damnedest to keep myself alive before then, and for the two-three years I'd been on the streets, I had.

  But, it wasn't easy at all. People had no care left to give for a homeless thirteen year old without a family. Those without a family to protect them were bad luck.

  Because of that, keeping a job for more than a few months had been nearly impossible. No prospects at all for me.

  None besides the military, that is. So, when military recruiters had come knocking with promises of a comfortable life, I couldn't refuse.

  Well, I wouldn't have been able to refuse even if I'd wanted to, but I didn't know that at the time.

  It wasn't very very reasonable to be taking thirteen year olds into the military. But, the empire had hardly ever cared for what was reasonable. Besides, it had been an easy way to deal with the overpopulation as well.

  From then on, for the next four years, I went through basic-training.

  All of which I’d passed with flying colours. The enhancement drugs, the strangely spiritual exercises and martial arts, the brutal drills. I'd taken to all of them like a fish to water.

  As it turned out, I had a particular gift for the type of violence they wanted, and after I'd completed my training surprisingly fast, I began seeing active duty at seventeen.

  For the next six years, through a mix of great luck, skill and wit, I would work myself up to…

  Lieutenant-Operative.

  Yes, it was lieutenant, wasn't it? Of the Imperial Expeditionary Regiment. I remember I was twenty four when I got that promotion. Got it for pulling off a pretty difficult mission.

  What was it again? Ah, right. Samgyeop Agri’s CEO.

  He was pretty hard to track down. What did he do again? Eh, forgot. Whatever. Probably treason or something.

  Anyways, that promotion had given me command over a small team of twenty five, though they were more like supporters than subordinates. Not like I commanded in any way.

  As for what my duties actually were, well, they were a bit multi-faceted.

  As a lieutenant-ranked officer, I served the imperial family complex directly, and because of that, I mostly did whatever the emperor needed from me.

  Though my main duties were primarily beyond state borders, and didn't usually involve human targets, I was also used for punishing traitors as well. Mostly the upper class, really, since Public Security dealt with the general public.

  Always the same with these types. They get the barest amount of power, and all of a sudden, they feel like they've become something important.

  You'd think they'd learn that by now. Regardless of whatever else you did, don't piss off the imperial family, and don't even think they'd ever fall.

  Not to mention, it was always some idiotic, hare-brained scheme too. Most of them couldn't even come up with anything actually interesting.

  At least the regular citizenry had some creativity in their uprisings and rebellions, as unsuccessful as they were.

  Well, anyway. Not like it matters now.

  Even with my new post as lieutenant, I hadn't gotten anything for it. I guess my salary had increased, but it wasn't like I had the time to do anything with it.

  And of course, I'd gotten even more missions after my promotion. Harder, trickier and more complicated ones.

  "The reward for work done well, is even more work” as they say.

  As for my death…

  Well, it was probably in some mission or other. I couldn't imagine I'd lose my life in any other way.

  ...

  Hmm. Well, not the worst way to go out. Some people don't even get that. At least I died fighting. That's super honourable, right?

  I could some take pride in that. Even if I did end up being pretty unremarkable all things considered, at least I wasn't fodder.

  Though, even with that, I don't think I'll be getting any plaques or statues in my honour or a page in any history book. I mean, it wasn't like I expected to, but still, it was the principle of the thing.

  It was a pretty hopeless expectation in the first place, since there wasn't a single person who rewarded tools for the work they did.

  I'm sure not even my superiors, the actual bigwigs, even got rewards, so there wasn't a chance in the hells that I'd get one.

  Yeah, obviously not, right? Why would I?

  Thinking of the life I'd lived, a small, mocking smile pushed its way onto my face.

  Real great life man. Phenomenal, really. Amazing how you amounted to becoming nothing but a whip for His Majesty.

  Ha. Ha. Ha.

  Like hell I was happy.

  It's not like I'd accepted way my life had turned out. Really, I was sorely disappointed, you know.

  I'd thought I'd have more time. That I'd be able to at least do something for myself, since I wouldn't be able to do anything for anyone else.

  Nothing extravagant, because of course not. Just idle fantasies I couldn't resist having, despite the fact that they couldn't ever happen.

  I'd be able to have a place to myself. I'd be able to sleep in late. I'd be able to sit and stare out the window aimlessly with a cooling cup of tea, doing nothing at all.

  No orders to fulfill. Nothing to investigate. No obstacles to destroy.

  But, well...

  I can't do anything about it now, can I ?

  So, I have to accept it.

  Then again, not like it'd change much even if I could. This was the fate of a person like me, I think. That, at least, I could understand now.

  No use crying over spilt milk now.

  I shook my head, by which I meant jostled it with my hand, and prepared myself mentally for the long march still left for me to cross.

  Well, hey, at least I'll get to know which religion was right.

  I did always want—

  A flare of heat whipped past my body, the first sensation I had since coming here.

  It was a familiar pain, one that stuck and clung to my body.

  Something like chemical burns.

  Along with it came a massive gale that nearly toppled me over.

  What!?

  I lifted my head up to see just what had happened and saw nothing. Nothing but the tail end of an enormous streak of a white-hot... something.

  With the arrival of this heat, something else arrived as well.

  It was tremors. Heavy tremors.

  Hair-thin crack began spreading all over the bridge.

  All the people around me were knocked out of the fugue state they'd been in. The previously orderly line shattered into a chaotic mess, as people shouted and panicked.

  The constant walking we'd all been subject to had broken at some point.

  A cold sweat ran down my—

  I'm falling.

  The portion of the bridge I was on cracked and fell, and I fell along with it.

  Damn it!

  I wanted to scream too, but being a body and a head made that impossible.

  So, I did the next best thing I could:

  I angled my head upwards to see if I could get one last glance at what was going on.

  Shit. The bridge's completely broken.

  The bridge I had been on was actively losing chunks. People fell too, an uncountable amount of them. I could see a lot more of the bridge as I fell, but I still couldn't see the end.

  Well, isn't this just great? My afterlife got screwed.

  I hope this doesn't mean oblivion for my soul or something. That would just be adding salt to the wound.

  Seeing nothing else to do, I tightened my grip on my cranium and curled into a ball.

  Hopefully this drop's not too bad. It’d suck real bad If I had to break any more bones.

  At least I hoped there was a drop. It would be horrible if I'd be stuck falling forever or something.

  Soon, the bridge vanished completely and I was in complete darkness.

  Wait.

  Isn't this my soul or something. Could I even break anything?

  ...

  After that, I continued falling for what felt like centuries, though it could've been just a minute. With no way to differentiate my surroundings, my sense of time quickly disappeared.

  Eventually, however, something changed. Not in the surroundings, no, that remained as dark as ever, but in the sensation. The weightless free-falling abruptly transitioned into a cramped heat.

  And suddenly, I could feel my limbs again. Fully feel them again. I was also coated in some kinda sticky substance.

  What the—

  Before I could question just what the hell was happening now, a sudden crushing pressure surrounded me.

  What's going on!?

  I felt like I was being pushed somewhere, through a tight, claustrophobic passage. The pain only increased, and for the first time in forever, I felt like crying from the sheer agony.

  Then the pressure vanished.

  Cold air struck my face. A blurred mess of colours and lights assaulted my eyes and I squeezed them shut immediately.

  My ears rang, a cacophony of unfamiliar noises assaulting them. My entire body was slick and sticky, and I was still reeling from the worst pain of my life.

  Somehow though, I still felt relieved.

  Then, I was lifted up by hands and placed somewhere warm and soft, like a person’s arms.

  How is someone carrying me so… easily?

  My ears stopped ringing soon after and the noises I'd been hearing morphed into what sounded like voices. They were talking, talking in an unfamiliar language that sounded nothing like any I'd ever known.

  Finally, my eyes flickered open, having adjusted themselves.

  Above me hovered two faces. A young man and a young woman. The woman’s face had beads of sweat rolling down and a tired but happy smile on her face. The man too was grinning, an awkwardly happy smile stretched from ear to ear.

  They seemed a bit younger than me. Early to mid-twenties, I'd say.

  The young lady smiling down at me had blonde hair and emerald green eyes. The young man had black hair tied up in… a wolf's tail I think?

  His eyes were just as pretty. An immensely radiant light blue, like that of a heavenly lake.

  Beyond the two of them, I saw thick, dark beams crossed over one another above me, forming a wooden lattice as a ceiling. Off-white walls, looking as though made of clay, rose up to meet them at an angle. They looked medieval.

  ... Medieval?!

  My sight shifted a little to the side, and I saw another two people standing to the side. One of them was an elderly woman wearing a dark-purple robe who was currently wiping her hands of something with a cloth.

  The other person standing there was also a woman. She was younger however, appearing the same age as the other two here. She was wearing a plain black dress and white apron, and had black hair, tied in a tight bun. Though I couldn't see her eyes clearly from here.

  The older woman said something to the two of them, eliciting a happy smile on both of their faces. The man said something to the woman, presumably his wife, and then leaned in to deeply and passionately kiss the woman carrying me.

  An odd awe washed over me, as even with the complete and utter disorientation of my situation, I immediately understood what was going on.

  Holy shit!

  It is!

  I've been reincarnated!

  It was far too obvious to not get.

  Seeing the two above me, and the bewilderment festering in me, I tried to say something. Maybe even talk to the people who were most likely my new parents.

  And then, right when I'd unconsciously relaxed a little, the pain I’d forgotten about caught up to me, and I broke out into a wailing scream.

  Damn! I forgot about that!