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Chapter 1: A Scholar in a Strange World
March 15, 2024, Seoul
Seo Jun had just finished his late-night work at the National Library of Korea. Now he sat in a newly opened café called Ihwadang on the Seoul National University campus, nursing a cup of coffee while reviewing historical documents. As a specialist in early Joseon history, he’d been deeply absorbed in recent research on King Sejong’s creation of Hangul. After reading through several documents, one in particular caught his attention—an excerpt from the Sejong Sillok that detailed the background and process behind the invention of the Korean alphabet.
Jun was transcribing the document, his hand moving swiftly across the page. Suddenly, the room began to spin. His vision blurred, and his body swayed in his chair. Something was terribly wrong, though he couldn’t pinpoint what.
Darkness swallowed him.
When Jun’s eyes opened again, he found himself lying in an unfamiliar place. He was in a field on the outskirts of Hanyang, the ancient capital. He looked around desperately, trying to orient himself, but saw no one.
He checked his clothes—still modern. His phone was useless, the screen dead.
Jun forced himself to think. He was clearly somewhere else, somewhere impossible. Drawing on his historical knowledge, he began to piece it together. The traditional hanok houses dotting the landscape, the farmland stretching endlessly before him, the complete absence of any modern infrastructure—this had to be the past.
Following the Han River, he walked deeper into this strange world, his mind racing. The architecture, the clothing of distant figures in the fields, the very air itself—everything pointed to the Joseon dynasty. But when exactly? And where precisely?
Then it struck him. The documents he’d been studying, King Sejong’s reign, the creation of Hangul—could it be? His expertise in early Joseon history might be his only advantage in this impossible situation.
Jun made a decision. He would use everything he knew. He would study the customs and culture around him, master the language of this era, learn what was necessary to survive. His knowledge would be his anchor in this storm of impossibility.
He took a deep breath and began walking toward the distant smoke of cooking fires.