Starting a Reversal in Life From the Time of Release

1 – There was a crime, but there wasn’t.

Bribery. Embezzlement. Homicidal teacher.

Transcripts related to him.

I, who used to be a hunter, was falsely accused of a crime I didn’t commit and imprisoned.

“You scumbag.”

“Mr. Siho… I’m so disappointed! How could a person do that?”

“Have you been deceiving us all this time?”

Even the guild members I belonged to turned their backs on me one by one, and all I did was endure insults.

No one believed the cry of innocence from any of us.

They just wanted to vent their frustration.

Even the party members who had ventured into the gates with me.

The trust and efforts I had built up over the years vanished like bubbles.

I don’t know who turned the tables, but the manipulation was so thorough that there was no way to escape.

So I received a life sentence and set foot in the prison.

With a mana ankle bracelet created to arrest the hunter who committed the crime.

“Hey… a notorious scumbag, right?”

The fake bad reputation was so famous that even the heinous criminals who shared the same cell welcomed me warmly.

“Well, you should do the induction ceremony, shouldn’t you?”

Looking at the fact that I didn’t have the ankle bracelet, I seemed like an ordinary person.

Judging by his size and demeanor, he must have been someone who had some authority.

The other inmates surrounded me, laughing and mocking, but one middle-aged man sitting in the corner seemed to have no intention of getting up.

Just by looking at him, you could tell he was a Western foreigner.

“Step on him!”

While the man continued to stare at me, the burly inmate, presumably the cell leader, shouted.

As if they had been waiting, the other inmates punched and kicked me.

A hunter who couldn’t use mana was no different from an ordinary person.

So I understood why they were trying to assert themselves and belittle me.

However, the real combat experience I had gained in the gates still ran deep in my body.

“Cough!”

I stepped on the foot of the inmate behind me and struck him in the chin with my elbow.

The prisoner who had been hit on the chin stumbled and fell into the room as if he were drunk.

“This guy!”

The warden, though seething with anger, calmly assessed the situation.

The prisoners surrounding me leaped at me with their arms outstretched, intending to tie my legs and collectively stomp me. Their intentions were clear.

Before the prisoners could grab my legs, I kicked vigorously with my elbow to the back of my neck.

As a result, the approaching prisoners fell to the ground, making a deflated noise, writhing on the floor in apparent agony.

Sudden pain in the back of my neck had to be excruciating.

“Wow…this guy…”

While the warden was still in shock, I swept the heads of the fallen prisoners on the ground, precisely near their chins.

The prisoners I kicked in the chin wriggled on the ground like fish for a moment, then quietly lay their bodies on the floor.

With their eyes turned upside down.

There were only six people in the room, including me, and three of them were lying on the ground.

One person was still standing, observing the situation.

In other words, it was a one-on-one standoff with the warden.

“Would you like to continue?” I asked, subtly implying that he should give up.

“Um…”

Should he preserve his pride?

Or should he just kneel down?

The warden seemed to hesitate at this crossroads, but in the end, he collapsed to the ground.

“Damn. You be the warden.”

“Me?”

I asked, tilting my head, and the warden responded with a slight nod.

“Of course, the winner becomes the warden. But don’t touch that guy in the corner. We have an unwritten agreement with him.”

Unwritten agreement.

Ignoring the warden’s words, I knelt and sat in front of the man who had been staring at me intently.

Unlike the menacing prisoners and the warden, his eyes were clear, and there was a sense of calm and gentleness in his demeanor.

Based on my experience, people like him often had good character, so I believed that if I showed respect first, he would respond accordingly.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Yoo Sihu.”

“My name is Alberto Saveri,” he said politely, and the middle-aged man smiled as he greeted me.

Our long-standing connection started in a small prison cell.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few unjust people in prison. While most had committed real crimes to end up there, there were occasional exceptions. People who had turned to crime due to financial troubles or threats.

People like me, who had been falsely accused on a whim.

Meeting people who had suffered as unjustly as I had eased my heart, and I found solace in the bitter reality that I wasn’t alone.

People find comfort in looking at those less fortunate than themselves, and that saying was exactly right.

It was a rather absurd and pitiful situation.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really. What would I gain by lying about this?”

The former prison guard, Mr. Hwang Doo-sik, chuckled as he shared stories from his life before coming to the prison.

He told us about the time when a massive, black-furred beast, a Black Dog, had torn into his shoulder with its teeth.

After spending about a year in the same cell, we, along with others, had become quite familiar with each other’s stories.

With a proud expression, he unbuttoned his prison uniform and exposed his shoulder.

As we showered together, I noticed the large scar that I had seen a few times before.

“Look here. My shoulder was nearly torn apart. I thought I was a goner back then.”

“If it was a Black Dog, it must have been a Grade B Maesu. That must have been quite dangerous…”

“Anything is dangerous. Just because I wanted to take a closer look, I stuck my head into the gate without thinking, and well…!”

He shook his head as if even thinking about it gave him a headache.

Here’s the whole story:

By chance, near the office where he worked, a rift in the air, a gate, suddenly appeared.

He felt curious before the gate became saturated, so he stuck his face—or more precisely, his upper body—into it.

During this moment, he got scratched by the teeth of a nearby Black Dog, resulting in a wound on his shoulder.

People commonly refer to those individuals as thugs because of their large build.

One wrong move, and they could have their throats slashed or a hole drilled into their heads, resulting in death.

He spoke about his reckless actions like a great feat, and I laughed along, offering the appropriate words of agreement.

In its own way, it could be considered an accomplishment.

“What are you going to do when you get out?” Alberto asked, lying next to me during bedtime and staring at the dark ceiling.

He never spoke about the deep reasons behind flipping others’ crimes, even though he was an illegal immigrant himself.

When I first heard the story, I thought it was dangerous, and I worried that maybe he wasn’t good at judging people.

However, it turned out to be a trivial concern that disappeared in just a few days.

I remembered the time when I apologized for misunderstanding him and he accepted my apology with a smile.

“Well, I’m not sure. I can’t leave because of the life sentence….”

“The burden they put on you is too heavy.”

He nodded, as if he understood everything.

“Still, someone forced to take on a big crime like that will leave holes. Especially if you were such a successful hunter.”

“I was successful. Just a worker earning a salary.”

“Modest, huh?”

He smirked like a jab.

For some reason, I burst into laughter as well.

“Anyway, who knows if something good will come if we wait?”

“I hope so. But still, life in prison isn’t as bad as I thought….”

It was absurd when they talked about improving prison conditions for criminals’ human rights.

But now that I lived inside, I often thought it was tolerable.

It could be because humans adapt, but it was genuinely pleasant.

“Well… yeah. It’s much more pleasant than being trapped behind dark, humid iron bars. We can shower every day, and the meals are decent. No torture or anything….”

“Torture?”

“Well… I mean, that’s what they say. Apparently, in the past, prison guards used to torture and physically assault the inmates.”

Alberto added with a nonchalant tone.

I had a feeling he made a slip of the tongue, but it was probably just my mistake.

“Oh… I heard that kind of thing happened in the past. It was even shown in dramas, right?”

“That’s right. If I had come here in those days, I might have bitten my tongue and died. hahahahaha!”

“Oh, really…”

I had nothing to say, so I just played along and moved on.

Living in prison made jokes not sound like jokes.

“Well, then, let’s get some rest. We still have to work tomorrow, don’t we?”

“That’s right. Goodnight.”

“You take care and sleep well too.”

After Alberto closed his eyes and fell asleep, I closed my eyes as well.

Tomorrow will be just like yesterday, going through the same routine.

The day after tomorrow too.

But.

Just when I thought I would wake up from my bed as usual and receive the morning roll call,

“Prisoner number 3010, please come with me for a moment.”

A fairly stern-faced male prison guard came to find me in person.

I wondered if something went wrong. Or maybe my sentence was extended.

Amidst my negative thoughts, the prison guard entered the empty duty room and opened his mouth as he looked at me.

With a complex gaze that seemed half regretful and half relieved.

“Mr. Yoo Sihoo, you’ve been declared innocent.”

“…What?”

I felt a blow to my head before I even had a chance to sit down.

Innocent.

It almost felt like a mockery, as I had resigned myself and lived fairly well in the prison.

It was understandable to feel like that when hearing that there was no crime when there actually was.

“Let me explain in detail.”

The prison guard sat me down on the sofa and took a seat opposite me, then explained how my innocence was proven.

It was a very long story from beginning to end, but it could be summarized in one sentence.

Jun Soohan, who belonged to the same guild, admitted that he was the one who framed me.

“Today, the final verdict was made, and Jun Soohan will be transferred to another prison. Mr. Yoo Sihoo, you will be released from tomorrow, so get ready to leave.”

“Really… I’ve been declared innocent?”

“Yes. You’ve truly been declared innocent. Although I had a feeling that you were a good person and falsely accused, now that it’s actually happened, I feel both startled and relieved.”

The prison guard comforted me sincerely, patting my shoulder and saying that I had been through a lot.

Innocent. I had no crime, so it was natural for me to be declared innocent.

But even so, I had thought that I could only live like this.

As I struggled to comprehend this unbelievable reality, I wondered who had helped to prove my innocence.

“Um… by the way, do you know who proved my innocence? Do you have any idea?”

I tidied up my scattered thoughts and asked, to which the prison guard responded without any sign of concern, “Yes, I’m Alex Christopher from the American Helix Guild. You know, right?”

I know well. We met during a joint operation.

But that person…

As I was in the midst of organizing my complicated thoughts, the prison guard stood up.

“I’ve said everything I needed to. You seem to be in a complex state, so take your time to sort out your thoughts and come out later. Alright?”

The prison guard kindly made way for me.

I was extremely grateful.

Soon, within the duty room, there was an unbearable silence.