The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1
Everyone says when you die, you transmigrate to a better station in life.
“Stop dawdling and move!”
“If we don’t meet today’s quota, nobody eats!”
When I opened my eyes, I’d transmigrated into a seven-year-old convict.
Amid the guards’ harsh barking and the occasional crack of the whip, the prisoners and I labored away, sweat pouring down our faces.
‘It all happened so fast I didn’t even have time to be shocked.’
While the adults mined ore in the Mine, I gathered it and loaded it into carts to transport.
Waking up in this strange new world overnight—it was somehow less terrifying than simply bewildering.
Then.
“Hm?”
A red Name Badge on my shabby convict’s uniform caught my eye.
‘Everyone else has white ones, but mine is red?’
I asked the fellow inmate in my cell, and she gave me a pitying look before explaining what it meant—a life sentence convict.
“A life sentence convict is someone who has to live the rest of their life in exile. Here, there’s only two of us life sentence convicts—you and that Dallis woman over there.”
……
I turned to where the inmate had pointed, my face blank, and saw a white-haired young woman staring at me with unfocused, vacant eyes.
“She’s here for killing her husband and abusing her child. And also, well…….”
“She lost her mind?”
“To put it bluntly, yes.”
Damn it, I wanted to lose my mind too.
Swallowing the urge to cry, I asked what was gnawing at me most.
“So, what crime did I commit to end up here?”
“You mean you came here without knowing?”
“Yeah…….”
Pity flickered across the inmate’s eyes again.
By the way, this kind sister’s name was Livy.
With her brown hair and eyes, her crime was murder during robbery.
“Attempted assassination of the Princess.”
For a moment, I couldn’t believe my own ears.
“What do you mean, attempted?”
“Attempted assassination of the Princess.”
……
“Your family tried to kill Her Highness the Princess and failed.”
Then came the next word.
“You were dragged here under Guilt by Association.”
* * *
Guilt by Association.
A system where the family of a criminal is punished alongside them.
‘Grandfather, father, son—executing three generations of the same family, is that it?’
A month had passed since I transmigrated into this seven-year-old convict under Guilt by Association.
“……Is exile just my constitution?”
I had grown quite fond of exile life.
I’d never imagined such a comfortable, untroubled existence was possible.
‘No wonder the ancestors who were exiled took up literature.’
Six hours of forced labor per day, rest periods in between, fresh vegetables and meat at every meal.
Apart from labor, I was free all day, and the guards left us alone.
Moreover, my fellow prisoners were genuinely kind.
Each carried grave charges, yet they were the most virtuous and compassionate people I’d ever met.
Because my body was small and clumsy, they helped me often, and at mealtimes, they always loaded the most scraps into my bowl.
Whenever they found pretty wildflowers, they’d show them to me; when they heated hot water, they’d let me bathe first.
‘My own family never treated me like this.’
My previous life had been worse than this exile.
Pushing aside the conflicted feelings, I’d come alone to the Stream for a walk and now sat down haphazardly to organize what I’d learned so far.
First, the identity of this small body I’d transmigrated into.
‘Hebenia Clavis, seven years old.’
The youngest daughter of an extraordinarily wealthy family.
In this world, there existed rank and station, and the Clavis family was supposedly so powerful that even nobility and the royal family couldn’t touch them carelessly.
Rumor had it they received a noble title but then gave it to a dog they were raising, which made them commoners.
‘So what could a family like that want with assassinating the Princess?’
The exiled prisoners found it equally strange.
In any case, the incident resulted in the execution of all Clavis men, while the women were scattered across various places of exile.
‘I’m cursed with no family luck, no matter where I go.’
I let out a deep sigh when someone called my name loudly.
“Hebenia!”
“Ian.”
This young man with distinctive indigo hair was a former imperial knight, convicted of embezzlement and breach of trust.
“What were you doing out here? It’s about time for dinner, so I came looking for you.”
“Looking at the Primordial Forest.”
Ian sat beside me and gazed out at the vast forest that encircled the exile.
‘An exile surrounded by forest.’
Exilium.
A place that holds only the most heinous criminals, yet its security is surprisingly lax.
The guards only watch during forced labor; otherwise, they don’t interfere. The prisoners live freely, forming villages near the labor grounds instead of behind bars.
That’s possible because of the vast forest that rings the exile.
“Ian, do demons really live in that forest?”
“They say it’s overrun with man-eating demons. I’ve never seen one myself, though.”
“But why can’t the demons come in here? They could easily eat the guards too.”
“Then we’d meet them in the demon’s belly right alongside the guards. Look—the reason the demons can’t enter here is…….”
Ian picked up a small stone from the ground and abruptly hurled it toward the Primordial Forest with all his strength.
The stone, flying at high speed, bounced back before reaching the forest.
“There’s a barrier, you see.”
“Wow……!”
No matter how many times I saw it, it never got old.
As I’d just witnessed, Exilium isn’t trapped by demons—rather, it’s surrounded by that invisible barrier, making escape impossible.
Except once a month.
On the night when the full moon rises, a passage to the outside temporarily opens, and supplies and provisions come through.
I don’t remember it, but I arrived that way a month ago, or so I’m told.
“Hebenia.”
“Hm?”
“Do you still remember nothing?”
“Nothing.”
Right now, I’m being treated as someone who’s developed amnesia from the shock of Guilt by Association.
When I asked about things I didn’t know, the adults simply assumed what they wanted and filled in the gaps themselves.
Thanks to that, I didn’t have to bother pretending to be Hebenia Clavis.
“Should we head back? It’s time for dinner.”
I stared at the hand Ian offered and pulled myself up using his grip.
“Ian, do you want to get out of here?”
“If it were possible, sure. Though you won’t believe me—I’m actually innocent.”
“All the other adults say the same thing.”
The hardened criminals are kind enough, but they lack conscience.
‘As if that matters.’
What matters to me is whether they’re good to me.
“Actually, there’s a place I want to go back to.”
“Really? You’re planning to go?”
“Yes. I like it here in the exile. I’m thinking of being buried here.”
But I won’t be able to go.
‘I have this certainty that I can’t return to where I originally came from.’
Perhaps because of that, I’ve accumulated lingering attachments I can’t shake.
The fact that I came from another world is a secret, but I can at least tell him one reason for my attachment.
“To pick up a delivery.”
“‘Delivery’? What’s that?”
“A limited edition Magic Girl Milk Shake that I collaborated on with an overseas jewelry designer, and its magical wand…….”
The Eternal Heart Milky Way Straw Stick used in the final episode of season two was supposed to arrive the next day.
“I spent three hundred coins on it……!”
“It’s fine. Everyone goes a little mad when they first get to the exile.”
With that gentle consolation, Ian slowly stroked my sobbing back.
* * *
[Don’t look for reasons to help someone.]
[Even if you fall, we can walk again if we get back up!]
[Even if not now, hope will surely save you!]
Having watched only robot anime that my older brother liked, the magical girl anime I stumbled upon at a friend’s house was nothing short of a revelation.
Girls my age saving the world.
It was only natural to fall head over heels for these strong, remarkable heroines.
‘If I’m going to transmigrate anyway, why not as a magical girl…….’
My arm froze as I reached down to pick up a dried twig that had fallen into the stream.
‘Mm, but that doesn’t feel right.’
I was far too materialistic to ever live like a magical girl.
‘But it really is a shame.’
An entire bookshelf crammed with magic wands. The money I’d poured into them was one thing, but the memories and effort embedded in each one clung to me like regret.
Especially that three-million-won limited-edition magic wand—it was crafted with genuine gemstones and the quality was exquisite.
When I’d broken into my savings to buy it, I’d heard no end of criticism from everyone around me.
Most of all, a senior who had always been kind to me looked at me with a distant gaze, as if to lecture me—as if to say, was I really in a position to afford such a thing with my salary?
“Senior, you must have been shocked……?”
Since I’d transmigrated, my body there must be dead.
To suppress the complicated tangle of emotions, I sat by the stream and gazed blankly at the Primordial Forest.
“……But still, exile is better than the office. The convicts here are far nicer than my family, too. If I grow attached, it’ll become home.”
I murmured to myself while doodling absently in the dirt.
An inverted pentagram with a circle in the middle.
It was a doodle I’d drawn whenever I was bored since childhood, but my mother, who was a deaconess at church, had always been horrified by it. She’d frequently cursed at me, calling me demon-possessed.
‘But drawing this one thing calms my mind.’
Perhaps Mother was right after all.
The fact that I could befriend vicious criminals without hesitation, that exile felt comfortable to me—it must be because a demon had taken firm root in my soul.
“Magic Girl Milk Shake, sweet and silky milky sugar…….”
I hummed the theme song while layering my doodles.
Then a single drop of saliva fell onto my sketch.
Perhaps because of this seven-year-old body, I occasionally made these genuinely childish mistakes.
“Oh dear.”
I quickly wiped my mouth.
“Well, time to go…….”
As I gathered up the twigs and rose to my feet, I froze in place.
Before my eyes was an elegant four-legged bathtub.
A dark silhouette was visible within, shrouded in warm, fragrant steam.
Long, thick forearms jutted through the vapor.
I started, gripping the twigs in my arms tightly.
As the steam cleared, a man dripping wet emerged.
A handsome man—so striking it felt presumptuous to even look at him.
His sharp gaze was particularly striking, and the muscular bare frame draped with long black hair created an atmosphere so imposing it was difficult to approach.
‘But wait…….’
Why was he bathing outside?
The man in the tub was gazing back at me with equal bewilderment.
Eyes like worn suns stared straight at me.
In that instant, I understood instinctively.
‘He’s not human.’
I instinctively took a step back.
Swallowing hard, I felt a tension unlike anything I’d experienced since the transmigration.
“You’ve really come back.”
The man twisted one corner of his mouth into a smile.
What was that supposed to mean?
“So, what’s your wish?”
“……Pardon?”
“Your wish.”
The man rested his chin on an arm propped against the edge of the tub as he spoke.
“If you’ve summoned a Demon, you should naturally make a wish.”
“Oh, no…….”
That’s quite alright.
After politely declining, I gave an awkward bow and fled.
But my escape ended in failure.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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