Lee Hanyeong slowly opened his eyes. At the same time, pain surged through his head.
"Ugh."
It hurt so much that a groan escaped his lips without him realizing it.
Enduring the throbbing pain, Lee Hanyeong frowned and moved only his eyes to check his surroundings.
"A hospital?"
He had swallowed a cyanide pill.
Then this should be a hospital.
But…
"What is this?"
His furrowed brow twisted further.
"A courtroom?"
He had definitely been in a detention center.
There, he had taken the pill given to him by Kim Yunhyeok.
That was a fact.
But this place right now was a courtroom.
A handful of spectators were seated…
Lee Hanyeong shook his head.
"So they say you see hallucinations before you die."
A bitter chuckle escaped him.
"To think the thing I see before dying is a courtroom."
Just thinking about it made his life feel miserable.
He had lived his entire life as a diligent judge, doing nothing else but going back and forth between home and the courthouse. Perhaps that was why the final memory that surfaced at death was also a courtroom.
It felt a little unfair.
If this was how it would end, he should have traveled more, tried doing other things.
At that moment, a man's voice reached Lee Hanyeong's ears.
"Your Honor."
Lee Hanyeong's gaze turned toward where the voice came from.
It was a prosecutor.
Gold-rimmed glasses, hair neatly combed back.
He looked familiar somehow, but the memory was hazy.
"Could it be… Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo?"
Park Cheol-woo, suddenly called by name, widened his eyes and looked at Lee Hanyeong.
"Yes? Is something wrong?"
"No. It's nothing."
Lee Hanyeong let out a hollow laugh.
He looked young, but it was definitely Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo.
An upright man who couldn't bow his head to others, his stiff personality had kept him far from promotions.
And he had died several years ago in a mysterious traffic accident.
"To think I'd see that guy's face before I die. Why am I even seeing him?"
Something felt off.
Shouldn't you recall people you were close to before dying?
He only knew Park Cheol-woo by face; they weren't close.
Remembering someone like that in his final moments made no sense.
As Lee Hanyeong quietly stared, Park Cheol-woo opened his mouth.
"Then we will begin. The defendant, Kim Sang-jin, is—"
"Kim Sang-jin?"
Lee Hanyeong's gaze snapped toward the defendant's seat.
Kim Sang-jin was sitting there.
About 165 centimeters tall, with a frail build.
Perhaps terrified of standing in court and facing the prosecutor's attack, he had his head lowered and was trembling.
A smile slowly spread across Lee Hanyeong's lips as he looked at him.
"So that's why. It wasn't Park Cheol-woo I wanted to see—it was this trial."
He remembered Kim Sang-jin clearly.
About twenty years ago, it was the first case Lee Hanyeong had presided over as a single judge.
"So this means…"
Kim Sang-jin, who had drifted from one construction job to another, lost his work as the construction market declined. To fill his empty stomach, he climbed over someone else's wall, and in the end, he was caught in the act.
This trial had even plastered newspapers under the title, "Kim Sang-jin, the Long-Haired Jean Valjean Who Stole Bread Because He Was Hungry."
When Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo finished speaking, the defense attorney stood up.
"The defendant, Kim Sang-jin, admits to all the charges. However, we must consider the circumstances that forced him to commit this crime."
Lee Hanyeong turned his head toward the lawyer.
Gray hair streaked his head. He seemed to be some kind of human rights lawyer, but the name didn't come to mind.
The lawyer continued.
"The defendant committed the crime impulsively due to extreme hunger. Taking into account his deep remorse—"
The lawyer couldn't continue.
Lee Hanyeong had raised his hand, stopping him.
When the courtroom fell silent, Lee Hanyeong's gaze shifted to Kim Sang-jin.
"Mr. Kim Sang-jin? Please lift your head."
At Lee Hanyeong's words, Kim Sang-jin slowly raised his head.
His eyes were shaking violently with fear. That, combined with his gaunt face, made him look even more pitiful.
"I-I'm sorry, Your Honor. I'm truly sorry. I hadn't eaten for days, I was so hungry that I did something no human should do. I won't ever do it again."
"Was it impulsive?"
Before Kim Sang-jin could answer, the lawyer spoke up first.
"Prior to the incident, the only thing the defendant consumed over three days was water. Even that was just sips taken at banks or township offices to wet his throat. In such a starving situation, the defendant—"
Lee Hanyeong shook his head.
"Counsel, I'm asking Mr. Kim Sang-jin. Please be quiet for a moment."
"Ah, yes."
Lee Hanyeong's gaze returned to Kim Sang-jin.
Kim Sang-jin still looked terrified.
"Mr. Kim Sang-jin, answer me. Was it impulsive?"
Kim Sang-jin nodded with difficulty.
"I-I was hungry, so hungry that I couldn't think. I just wanted to eat a single spoonful of rice. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."
His trembling voice now wavered with sobs. His eyes grew moist.
Lee Hanyeong opened his mouth.
"Do you feel sorry toward the victim?"
"Yes. I'm truly sorry."
Listening to Kim Sang-jin's desperate voice, the corners of Lee Hanyeong's mouth curled upward.
"What a load of crap."
"…!"
Not only Kim Sang-jin, but also the lawyer beside him and Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo widened their eyes.
The lawyer jumped to his feet.
"Your Honor, what do you mean by that!"
"What do I mean?"
Lee Hanyeong replied casually, but what he had just done was completely absurd.
A chill spread through the courtroom.
The lawyer glared at Lee Hanyeong with sharp eyes.
But Lee Hanyeong waved his hand as if annoyed. Without even looking at the lawyer, he spoke to Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo.
"Prosecutor, redo the case. What do you mean attempted burglary with trespassing?"
Park Cheol-woo blinked.
When he remained silent, Lee Hanyeong continued.
"Insufficient evidence. Do it again."
"Insufficient evidence?"
Park Cheol-woo flipped through the documents he had brought.
There was no need to talk about evidence at all.
The defendant had confessed.
It was a trivial case where the judge only needed to hand down a light sentence.
Yet he was being told to investigate again.
Park Cheol-woo shook his head.
"Is he telling me to screw off?"
Even a light case required preparation.
A judge acting this way could only be interpreted as deliberate obstruction.
As Park Cheol-woo pressed his lips together tightly, the lawyer shouted from the opposite side.
"Your Honor!"
Lee Hanyeong sighed and looked at him.
"My hearing is just fine, so you don't need to raise your voice. And if you're unhappy with my attitude, file a formal complaint."
The lawyer's face grew pale with rage.
Ignoring him, Lee Hanyeong fixed his gaze on Kim Sang-jin.
"Hey, Mr. Kim Sang-jin."
Kim Sang-jin was trembling, unable to do anything.
Lee Hanyeong continued.
"You know why I'm doing this, right?"
"I-I don't know. I really don't know. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'll live diligently from now on. I'll never do such a thing again."
With a desperate voice, Kim Sang-jin began to beg, rubbing his hands together.
Lee Hanyeong looked down at him with cold eyes.
Then, as Kim Sang-jin's pleading voice faded and the slightly noisy courtroom grew quiet, Lee Hanyeong spoke in a low voice.
"You're sentenced to death."
"…!"
Lee Hanyeong turned away just like that.
Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo urgently called out to him.
"Judge Lee Hanyeong, what is this supposed to be?"
Lee Hanyeong stopped as he was leaving the courtroom. He turned only his head and looked at Park Cheol-woo.
"I told you the evidence is insufficient. Investigate it properly so you don't regret it later. We'll continue the trial next time."
A broad smile spread across Lee Hanyeong's face as he walked down the corridor.
No one knew it, but Kim Sang-jin was a murderer who had killed four people. This time as well, he had entered not to steal, but to commit murder.
Lee Hanyeong shook his head.
"To think I gave that bastard a suspended sentence."
His first solo trial. Lee Hanyeong had been taken in by Kim Sang-jin's emotional act and handed down a suspended sentence.
Later, when it was revealed that Kim Sang-jin was a serial killer, Lee Hanyeong went through hell.
The newspaper headline at the time had read, "Judge Fooled by Murderer, Even Shed Tears."
"That didn't matter."
To Lee Hanyeong, other people's opinions had never mattered much.
What tormented him was the butterfly effect of giving a murderer a suspended sentence, which led to two more people being killed. One of them was a nine-year-old child.
Lee Hanyeong let out a bitter smile.
That this case still weighed on his mind enough for him to see this courtroom before dying—it was almost laughable.
Just sentencing Kim Sang-jin to death made him feel refreshed.
Still smiling as he walked, Lee Hanyeong slowly reduced his pace. He turned his gaze back toward where he had come from.
The courtroom door was visible in the distance.
"It would've been nice if I could've cursed at those bastards too."
A sudden regret about life bubbled up.
Having to leave this world while letting the people who pushed him to the brink of death—the demons standing above the law—go free felt unbearably frustrating.
After staring at the courtroom door for a while, Lee Hanyeong shook his head.
At the end of life, there is always regret. But that doesn't mean you can keep holding on to it forever.
Now, it was something the living had to deal with.
As he sighed, Lee Hanyeong's gaze landed on a restroom.
"Dirty world—might as well take a crap before I go!"
Lee Hanyeong stood in front of the sink mirror in the restroom.
With eyes that looked possessed, he slowly touched his own face.
Short hair commonly called a "sports cut."
Sharp eyes.
The sunken scar on his right cheek from a knife wound was gone.
More importantly—
"Young."
No wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
The once graying hair was black.
"What the hell is going on?"
Suddenly, a monk's words he had heard in childhood came to mind.
"You have the face of someone who will die and awaken to overturn a nation. Something that happens maybe once in a thousand years. It seems the era itself has called for you, so think carefully and act wisely."
"Was that actually true? Is this not just a dying hallucination?"
He didn't know how to explain it, but the moment he looked into the mirror, he realized he had gone back in time.
"So I've returned to the past? With youth that can do anything?"
As his tightly furrowed brow slowly relaxed, a smile formed on his lips.
He even felt confident that, if he prepared from now on, he could judge the demons standing above the law.
Lee Hanyeong clenched his fist tightly.
He was reclaiming the regret he had let go of when he thought he had just died.
At the same time, the smile on his lips grew deeper.
He didn't know why something like this had happened to him.
But—
"If an opportunity comes, you act."
However, he couldn't just keep feeling pleased.
At that moment, something came to mind.
He had completely wrecked the trial just now.
No matter how rotten Kim Sang-jin was, he had blurted out "death penalty" to someone charged with attempted theft.
"Damn it."
If only he had realized from the start that he had returned to the past. His life was getting tangled right from the beginning.