He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 1

1. Setting Up a Marriage Agency in 18th Century London – Part 1

1. This Is 18th Century England?

◈ TaeWon Marriage Information Company ◈

Hyun Tae-oh’s steps faltered as he headed to the restroom.

He overheard his name being mentioned in the conversation of employees just around the corner.

“Did you hear? Executive Director Hyun Tae-oh personally matched the second daughter of the Geosan Group and the eldest son of the Hwaryong Group, and they’re getting married soon?”

“Really? They’re really getting married? The two families were on such bad terms that it seemed impossible. What happened?”

“In the end, Executive Director Hyun Tae-oh pulled off another big deal.”

“Wow, Executive Director, your skills are truly amazing! Where are your limits?”

“Wasn’t Executive Director the best diplomat in his past life or something? A talented person who could stop wars with his excellent rhetoric.”

“No, at this point, he must have saved the country several times in his past life. Is this even a realistic achievement? Our company became number one in this industry in less than 10 years, all thanks to the Executive Director.”

“But according to rumors, the Executive Director has a Ph.D. in psychology? Is that true? I heard our CEO scouted him because of that.”

“Come on, why would a psychology Ph.D. be a matchmaker? And does having a psychology Ph.D. mean you’re good at matchmaking? That’s nonsense. It’s all just rumors.”

The employees’ murmurs flowed clearly into Tae-oh’s ears.

‘Why are they making such a fuss? I can’t even go to the bathroom.’

Hyun Tae-oh.

Known as a living legend in the marriage information industry, he was the person who made TaeWon Marriage Information Company the unrivaled number one in Korea’s marriage information industry within eight years of its establishment.

After thorough analysis, the marriage success rate of members he personally matched was 98.3%, regardless of general or noble members.

A figure that was beyond surprising and hard to believe.

The lacking 1.7% was due to the member’s sudden accident. In fact, the couples he matched had virtually a 100% marriage rate.

But it wasn’t just the phenomenal marriage rate.

Even more surprising was that not a single couple he had connected had ever broken up.

As this fact spread by word of mouth, Hyun Tae-oh’s popularity in the marriage brokerage market soared.

However, Hyun Tae-oh’s amazing performance was not accidental.

It was the result of a perfect combination of his innate talent and hidden background.

Since childhood, Tae-oh had a particular fondness for understanding people’s psychology and observing their behavior. By the time he went to middle school, he could easily discern whether someone was lying just by looking at the changes in their pupils, surprising those around him.

In high school, he even received a commendation from the National Police Agency for detecting the suspicious behavior of an apartment security guard who was planning to kidnap a kindergartener.

As a student preparing for college entrance exams, Tae-oh realized that his special intuition was not just a simple feeling but a type of psychological science. He decided to major in psychology without hesitation.

After majoring in psychology at university, Tae-oh went to the United States to obtain a doctorate (Ph.D.) and became a clinical psychologist, working at a university hospital.

###

Clinical Psychologist

Very different in nature from counseling psychologists, who are commonly known as psychological counselors. In the United States, clinical psychologists do not ‘counsel’ but aim to ‘treat’ patients with mental illnesses, like doctors.

While general psychiatrists mainly treat patients with mental illnesses through medication, clinical psychologists treat patients with mental illnesses through psychotherapy rather than medication. They usually examine and treat patients in collaboration with psychiatrists at American university hospitals.

A highly paid profession that requires a doctoral degree and a license recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA), making it quite difficult to obtain.

###

Tae-oh fully utilized his innate sense and applied effective psychological therapies to patients, which quickly became famous, making it difficult to book counseling appointments.

Hyun Tae-oh’s ability to feel and read people’s emotions better than anyone else allowed him to empathize with the wounded hearts of lonely and suffering patients, sharing their sadness and comforting them, healing many patients without medication.

However, outstanding abilities that others do not have are not always praised. Inevitably, envy and jealousy followed.

Doctors and clinical psychologists who saw his abilities began to belittle and slander him, treating him like a charlatan or sorcerer.

He felt rewarded by seeing patients heal, but the excessive slander and jealousy gradually exhausted Hyun Tae-oh.

Then one day, while treating a patient suffering from emotional distress due to love problems, he realized that there were certain types and patterns in human love. He discovered that if he could intuitively find them and connect people with compatible tendencies, they could maintain a very satisfying relationship for a long time.

Tae-oh immediately turned his attention to his surroundings and volunteered to analyze and connect acquaintances who had not found partners.

And as he watched their happy dating and married lives, he experienced a very special sense of accomplishment that he had never felt in the hospital.

Afterward, Tae-oh suddenly quit his hospital life in the United States and returned to Korea to join a marriage information company that his uncle had just founded.

And he was able to leverage the methods he had discovered to achieve the miraculous results he has today.

***

A hotel banquet hall in Seoul.

The wedding ceremony of the daughter of the director of Daekwang Medical Center and the second son of the president of Myungsung University was over, and the reception was in full swing.

However, in one corner of the bustling banquet hall, a man was suffering, surrounded by middle-aged women.

It was Hyun Tae-oh.

“Executive Director Hyun? When are you going to match my eldest daughter? Huh?”

“Mrs. Kim, what are you talking about? There’s an order to things. My son is in a hurry! He’s in his mid-thirties the day after tomorrow. Executive Director Hyun? You have to take care of my son first, right?”

“Oh, my daughter is returning home after finishing her studies abroad. Don’t just say you’ll take care of her; please make some time for her.”

Tae-oh sweated and repeatedly bowed.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But instead of doing this here, if you come to the office later…”

“Oh, we can’t even meet you when we go! You’re always said to be out.”

“That’s right. The person who is harder to meet than the President of Korea is the Executive Director!”

“Schedule me in today! Otherwise, I won’t let you go.”

“Me too, me too!”

They were all ladies from prominent families. If he wanted to continue working in this industry, he couldn’t ignore them and run away.

Tae-oh made several promises to make time before he could finally break free.

*

Thud.

“Hoo-”

Tae-oh, who had hastily escaped to the balcony, slumped down on a folding chair and let out a long sigh.

It wasn’t something he experienced just once or twice, but it felt particularly exhausting today.

‘Too… tired.’

Tae-oh, who had downed the remaining wine in his glass, stared blankly at the night view unfolding before his eyes.

But at that moment,

“Kkeuek!”

A terrifying pain, as if his heart would stop beating at any moment, struck his chest.

And…

“Ugh!”

Just as the chest pain seemed to move upward, a severe headache soon enveloped his head.

“Kkeuaaak!”

Tae-oh clutched his head, which felt like it was about to explode, and collapsed to the side.

Koong-

*

*

*

*

How long had he been unconscious?

Bang!

Tae-oh snapped his head up at the sharp impact on the back of his head.

But…

‘?’

He looked around with a bewildered expression.

The balcony with the splendid city night view was nowhere to be found. He was sitting in a desolate place like a narrow, crude wooden table and a warehouse with only a few strangely shaped household goods.

‘What is this? Where am I?’

He felt a terrible headache following the chest pain, collapsed, and woke up here.

At that moment, a foreign old woman with two missing front teeth glared at Tae-oh and screamed.

“Theo! Why are you sleeping slumped over at the table? If you’ve eaten everything, why don’t you go out and look for work?”

She was a white old woman with wrinkles and a very nasty impression.

‘Am I still not fully awake? How does that foreign old woman, who looks like a witch, know my name and call me…?’

It was that moment.

Jjiing-

After staggering for a moment due to a strong dizziness,

An unbelievable thing soon happened.

The surroundings, which had been unfamiliar, suddenly felt familiar.

Not only that, but memories of this dilapidated house came flooding out all at once.

“Huh? Wait a minute… Is this where I was born… and raised?”

“What is that crazy guy babbling about? Did you have some kind of dream?”

Tae-oh intuitively realized that he had entered the body of a young man in his mid-20s named ‘Theo Sanderson,’ a member of the British lower class. Moreover, it was hundreds of years in the past.

And he soon realized that Theo Sanderson’s life was Hyun Tae-oh’s past life.

‘I… came into my past life’s body? Even with a similar name, Theo? No way… This… must be a dream, right?’

The old woman, who had been glaring fiercely at Tae-oh, shouted as if she could no longer bear it.

“How long are you going to sit there with that dazed look on your face? You need to go out and find work!”

The person who was raising a worn-out wooden ladle and screaming was Theo Sanderson’s mother. To be exact, Hyun Tae-oh’s past life’s stepmother.

“Don’t even think about coming home if you don’t get paid today! Got it?”

Tae-oh had to leave the house hastily, almost being kicked out.

Clunk-

As soon as he opened the door, the 18th-century British Bristol slum alley unfolded before his eyes.

(* At this time, the exact name of ‘England’ was ‘Kingdom of Great Britain.’ However, for the sake of understanding in this novel, the commonly known name ‘England’ is used uniformly.)

‘Ugh- what is this…’

Everything was unfamiliar, but at the same time, a strange phenomenon of everything feeling familiar continued.

Tae-oh started walking aimlessly, as if possessed.

He knew every corner of the alley. He knew several people.

Even in the midst of extreme confusion, he could only laugh at himself for exchanging greetings with acquaintances.

‘Gee. Is this a dream or reality? Am I dreaming of coming into my past life? But it’s too vivid to be a dream, isn’t it?’

The old neighborhood was old and dirty.

The unpaved road was muddy, and garbage and filth overflowed everywhere, emitting a stench. Rats as big as forearms ran around like they were in their own homes.

The residents’ appearance was as shabby and dark as the neighborhood. Everyone looked worried about their next meal.

‘Could it be that I’m experiencing Alice in Wonderland syndrome after a severe headache?’

In the psychology world, people who cannot clearly distinguish between reality and fantasy, like Alice in Wonderland, are said to suffer from Alice in Wonderland syndrome.

However, Alice in Wonderland syndrome often involves distortions such as parts of the body or other objects appearing larger or smaller than they actually are.

If it looks and feels this realistic, it’s hard to see it as Alice in Wonderland syndrome.

‘No… then what on earth is this absurd situation?’

Tae-oh’s head, where his past and present lives were mixed and coexisting, was nothing but confused.

*

As he worried and walked aimlessly, he arrived in front of a large warehouse near the port of Bristol.

Come to think of it, this was also Theo Sanderson’s workplace.

“Hey- Theo’s here?”

In front of the warehouse, porters were gathered in groups of three or five, talking with worried expressions. Every one of them was a familiar face.

Tae-oh slipped into their conversation.

A balding man grumbled and continued.

“When will this damn scurvy end? Because of that lousy disease, ships can’t sail, so there’s no cargo to load or unload… We’re all going to starve to death!”

“Who knows when that scary disease will end? You just have to endure when scurvy is rampant. If you foolishly board a ship, you’ll die horribly, pouring blood all over your body. It could even spread to us who are moving the cargo.”

“We’ll starve to death before scurvy gets us!”

Suddenly, Tae-oh vividly remembered the events around this time in his past life.

‘That’s right, I remember. At this time, scurvy was so severe that ships couldn’t sail for nearly half a year. I suffered a lot because there was no work. So, does that mean I’ve come to that period? This really doesn’t seem like a dream?’

Scurvy was a disease in which blood flowed from the gums or hemorrhagic symptoms such as hematuria [blood in the urine] and bloody stools appeared throughout the body, leading to death. It was the disease that sailors feared the most.

Out of 1,854 members of the British fleet that set out on a world tour, about 1,400 died from scurvy, and only about 400 returned alive. Scurvy was truly a source of terror for sailors.

Because it rarely occurred on land and mainly occurred in people who sailed for long periods, many people at the time thought it was caused by the curse of the sea.

‘They’re treating a disease that can be easily cured by consuming vitamin C, such as fruits and vegetables, like some kind of terrible epidemic.’

At that time, a piece of paper was stepped on by Tae-oh’s foot.

‘Huh? Almanac?’

The paper had the word Almanac written largely on it.

*Almanac: A printed material that extracts the titles of books or publications that provide dates, months, sun, moon movements, astronomical phenomena, milestones, and other technical information.

But the current year was printed below that word.

‘1774? So, I’ve returned to England 250 years ago?’

In his past life as a porter, he had never thought about what year it was.

It was just a meager life of earning a living day by day.

But now the situation was different.

Tae-oh had not only professional knowledge as a psychology Ph.D. and rich clinical experience, but also vast knowledge accumulated through constant reading.

In particular, he liked history, so his knowledge of world history was also considerable.

For him, 1774 was an unusual year.

‘If it’s 1774, huh- the American Revolutionary War is about to break out, isn’t it?’

***

That’s how a week passed.

Tae-oh was lying blankly on his worn-out bed, holding his empty stomach, unable to find work again today.

‘I spent my whole life working as a porter, couldn’t get married, and was hit by a carriage in my early 40s and suffered for several days. And after that, I have no memory.’

He probably ended his life in that accident.

‘Living as a porter and dying after being hit by a carriage? Was my past life just such a life?’

He didn’t believe that things like past lives actually existed, but if it were real, he had vaguely hoped that he would be something special.

He had even imagined that his abilities as a clinical psychologist or his amazing achievements as a matching manager were the result of some ability from his past life.

But bullshit, there was nothing.

He was just a lowly porter who wandered around slums and earned a living day by day.

‘Did I die from overwork at the wedding reception back then? So, that’s why I’ve gone back to my past life like this? No, there’s no reason to return to my past life after dying, is there?’

He had asked himself thousands of times how he had come to his past life, but he couldn’t find an answer. It just felt meaningless to ask anymore.

‘Anyway, am I going to have to keep living in this sewer-like place? Leaving behind my supercar and my wonderful house? How on earth can I go back to the present? This is really driving me crazy.’

Now, this place in his past life felt like reality, and his life in Korea felt like a dream.

***

So, a lot more time passed.

The will to find a way to return was gradually diminishing as time went by.

Because he couldn’t find a way to return at all.

Instead, other thoughts began to follow.

‘In the end, I know the future of my past life. Then, wouldn’t I be able to change the future of my past life with my own power?’

Thinking about it, this was also a futile question.

If he couldn’t return to his original time and had to live as he was now, there was no choice.

If he only thought about returning to the future and wasted time, there was a 100% chance that he would tragically die following the same path as his past life.

Gurgle-

‘I’m too hungry. All the pain and desires feel so vivid. This means it’s definitely not a fantasy or a dream. I don’t know why this bizarre thing happened to me, but it’s certain that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to return to my original time.’

If he had to continue living this bottom-of-the-barrel life, what could be more unfair than that?

Tae-oh kicked the bed and jumped up.

‘Why am I so listlessly starving? That’s right! I’m not the ignorant porter Theo from the past! I’ve learned enough, and above all, I have the knowledge of future events, world history, and the ability to establish modern management strategies.

Even if I go back to the present someday, shouldn’t I first drastically change Theo Sanderson’s pathetic life with Hyun Tae-oh’s abilities?’

***

Tae-oh visited the house of a man named Samuel Scott that evening.

Samuel Scott was a shipowner who operated several small and medium-sized trading ships and was treated as a fairly wealthy man in the Bristol area.

“Aren’t you Theo?”

“Uncle. It’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Oh, yeah. But what brings you here?”

Samuel Scott and Theo Sanderson’s father, who had died ten years ago, had been on the same ship together in their youth.

It was all thanks to his consideration that Theo Sanderson was able to get a porter job at the port.

“I haven’t been able to find work lately because of scurvy.”

“Yeah. It’s a big headache because of that. I’m also suffering huge losses.”

“That’s why I’m saying this. Uncle… you might not believe it, but I know the cure for that scurvy.”

Samuel stared at Tae-oh with wide eyes.

“What nonsense are you suddenly talking about? How do you know the cure for that incurable disease that so many doctors have been trying to find?”

“……”