The Second Achievement (3)

The gap that connected to the fourth floor of the Tower of Challengers. The moment Cain laid eyes on what lay beyond it, his eyes widened in shock.

"……!!?"

What in the world is that?

Then, slowly—he extended a single finger. Was it pure coincidence that the imperial ring happened to be on that very finger? Hwimin would never know.

If he’d just stayed put and watched… but the second he tries something, I won’t hold back.

Hwimin adjusted his grip on his sword. With his characteristic caution, he prepared for the possibility that his opponent might try to flee.

Pathetic is pathetic, but a reward is a reward, so… huh?

But the instant Cain’s hand touched the rift—

Neither of them could have predicted what happened next.

WHOOOOSH—!!!

A blinding surge of light suddenly erupted inside the ruined castle.

"……!!!?"

What the hell?!

SWISH—!!!

Hwimin swung his sword on pure reflex. He had no idea what the other man was doing, so his first instinct was to kill him.

What is this all of a sudden…

But Cain wasn’t cut. In fact, he didn’t even seem to notice the attack. Before Hwimin’s blade could reach him, the world in front of Cain had already changed completely.

"……Huh?"

As incomprehensible messages floated before him, Cain opened his eyes in a familiar place.

…It was the Demon King’s castle.

"What is this…"

A voice he could never forget rang in his ears.

"…Brother?"

What on earth is going on?

He had definitely been begging Hwimin for mercy. So why, the moment he opened his eyes, was he back at the Demon King’s castle? And why was the voice of the brother he had killed himself ringing so vividly through a magical tool?

Cain couldn’t understand any of it. Yet even so, what he had to do was crystal clear.

"……Hup!!!"

The Demon King, Barbatos. The moment he saw him, Cain swung his greatsword. He had learned through hundreds of regressions that the longer he dragged things out, the stronger the enemy became.

WHOOONG—!!

His massive blade tore through the air—

SLASH.

"…Huh?"

"Kuhuuuugh!!! If only… if only I had a little more time…"

"……?"

The sword that had never reached its mark no matter how many hundreds of times he regressed sliced through the Demon King with absurd ease.

"……Haa?"

It took Cain a full week to accept reality.

GRIP.

"Your Highness Cain, please stop! Your face is going to stretch out at this rate!"

"No… this can’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠possibly be a dream…"

He had returned to a peaceful past. It took him an entire day to accept that.

"Brother, there’s no way Barbatos would die so easily!! He must be using some wicked trick. Send out a search party immediately—"

"Cain, was the Saintess’s confirmation of the Demon King’s annihilation not enough for you?"

"But…"

"It is peace we were only able to reclaim because you were here. Let it go now."

"……"

It took another six days for him to realize that he had truly succeeded in subjugating the Demon King.

And once he finally accepted that this was real, Cain reached one conclusion.

This is not the past I remember.

"…Bring me the history books."

I’ll go through everything, from beginning to end, and figure out where it diverged.

He opened the thick historical tome and read it with intense focus. At first glance it resembled the history he remembered, but the details were slightly different.

"The Saxen territory is intact?"

"Yes, Your Highness. It is a region where demons never appeared."

"There should have been a monster colony near there. There’s no way the demons would overlook it."

"Forgive me, but there is no such thing near Saxen."

"……What?"

The event where demons massacred an entire territory and accelerated the Demon King’s resurrection by several months had never occurred here. The cause of that massacre—the monster colony—had never existed.

"Ah, according to records, monster packs frequently appeared in the area several hundred years ago."

"Yes. They gathered and formed a colony…"

"But a knight from the Minet Kingdom happened to pass by and exterminated them all."

"The Minet Kingdom?"

Cain frowned at the attendant’s words. What was this nonsense?

"A kingdom knight exterminated them? Even the Empire struggled with those monsters and couldn’t deal with them until they formed a colony?"

"You exaggerate, Your Highness. They were weak enough for a kingdom knight to handle."

"That’s impossible. In the original history…"

"Original history? What do you mean, Your Highness?"

"……Never mind. You may leave."

After sending the chief attendant away, Cain buried himself in the history books once more. It didn’t take long for him to notice.

All these changes had begun at a certain point several hundred years ago.

Verce the Sword Saint and Celestia. Their wedding was supposed to have taken place this year, wasn’t it?

The most noticeable change was that the marriage between the Third Prince and the kingdom’s princess had never happened. At first it seemed insignificant. In the original history, the Third Prince had no children, and the princess had lived alone until her death. One might think the wedding made no difference.

But that wasn’t the case.

The Third Prince Verce accomplished all these feats?

First, the Third Prince had uprooted the seeds of evil that had plagued the Empire. From the perspective of someone who had come from the future, every action had prevented the demons’ schemes.

"……?"

What is this nonsense?

If Hwimin had seen it, he would have been horrified. In truth, the Third Prince had never forgotten him and trained relentlessly in the sword just to emulate even the tip of his technique. Anyone who knew the truth would have turned purple with secondhand embarrassment and called it self-service. But because the imperial princess had scolded him to go outside and hunt monsters instead, the sword-obsessed pervert’s sexual fetish had been repackaged by later generations as a heroic legend. That was why even Cain never suspected the real story.

And then there’s the monster colony in Saxen… Could it be the knight who escorted the princess that day?

"Brother, I will visit the kingdom for a moment."

Cain immediately decided to head for the Minet Kingdom.

"The Minet Kingdom? We already had a visit scheduled, so this works out perfectly. Let’s go together."

"…Yes."

For some reason, even his brother—who was now the Emperor—decided to accompany him.

"This is my one and only younger brother, Cain. Greet him properly."

"N-n-nice to…"

Nobody told me Cain was coming too!!

For the kingdom, suddenly hosting both the Emperor and the great hero was like being struck by lightning, but regardless.

After that, Cain carried out the schedule with his brother. It was two days later that he finally looked into the princess he had originally come to investigate.

"Cain, where are you going in the middle of the night?"

"I heard there is a statue that Princess Celestia cherished. I’m going to see it."

"…Wasn’t that princess dead hundreds of years ago? Why would you…?"

"You’ll understand when you see it."

Step. Step.

The two brothers walked through the royal palace. Normally, they would have been followed by a massive escort including knights from the kingdom, but Cain had vehemently refused, so no one trailed behind them.

"I was told it was here…"

What they reached at the end was a garden attached to the royal palace. In a place that had once been forbidden to men, a statue of someone had been erected.

"……Ah."

Cain let out a sigh. The vague suspicion he had felt turned into certainty in this very moment.

—I can travel between the past and future of the Empire. Unlike you, I can go a little further back.

"So that’s how it was…"

The one who had sent him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠here—Ryu Hwimin. Having seen the future, he had gone back several hundred years into the past. He had exterminated the monsters that would have formed the colony. He had prevented the princess’s marriage, which led to the Third Prince’s awakening and the elimination of the monsters. As a result, the Demon King had been weakened to the point where even Cain could kill him in a single strike.

Then what was the future I experienced?

Of course, he wondered why the future had changed yet he himself remained unaffected. But—

No, I must be the exception. That was the nature of the contract.

The contract that had granted him the power of regression. Thinking about it made everything click.

Once he realized the truth, only a hollow laugh escaped him.

"Ryu Hwimin, huh…"

"Cain, what’s wrong? Who is this Ryu Hwimin?"

"He is my benefactor. The hero who saved this world."

Shing—

Cain drew his sword and bowed deeply toward the statue.

"Thank you. For everything."

"I don’t understand the situation, but if that’s the case, I should thank him too. Thank you, Ryu Hwimin."

The Emperor also bowed. Beneath the moonlight, the two most noble men in the Empire paid their respects to a mere knight. It was nearly ten seconds before they raised their heads again.

"Cain, so what exactly is your relationship with this Ryu Hwimin? Did you inherit his swordsmanship?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Then why do you call a knight from hundreds of years ago your benefactor?"

"Even if I told you, Brother, you wouldn’t believe…"

After that, the two brothers talked at length about Hwimin.

"A hero who crossed between past and future to prevent destruction? Unconditional time leaping?"

"Yes."

"What a joke. That’s absolutely impossible."

"……"

I thought so too, Brother. But just as he said, there is no such thing as ‘absolute.’

The Emperor’s casual remark gave Cain an indescribable sense of déjà vu, but anyway.

The brothers continued to open their hearts and talk for a long time. Since both of them stood closest to the pinnacle of power, their conversation eventually turned to politics.

"Brother, are you thinking of handing the throne to me?"

"…You must have your own ambitions. It would be better to step down gracefully rather than cling to it pathetically."

"I thought so."

Cain smiled gently. Not because he was happy about inheriting the throne.

"I refuse."

"R-really?"

"Yes. I could never do as well as you, Brother."

His brother, who had shed tears of blood at the very end of his life yet still entrusted the Empire to him. Unlike that man, Cain had been an incompetent Emperor. He knew that better than anyone.

And above all… he had something he needed to do.

"I plan to spend the rest of my life training with the sword. Just like Sword Saint Verce."

"You want to get even stronger? After cutting down the Demon King in one strike?"

"Yes. Because at the end of this life, I feel like someone will need me."

Cain looked up at the night sky. He gazed toward a future both near and far.

When I die, everything of mine will become his.

Cain had vaguely sensed it. His soul was already half Hwimin’s. It was something he had intuitively understood after being recognized as a temporary summon.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have to repay this favor.

So he would hone his sword. He would become as strong as the Third Prince from hundreds of years ago. And when Hwimin eventually needed him, he would be of help.

Cain, who had repeated hundreds of hellish cycles, made a solemn vow beneath the statue of his savior.

I don’t know what ‘Dohwa’ is, but it must be something incomparably greater than the likes of me.

…The being that would actually absorb all his power was a small, adorable pink fluffball. Had he known that, he probably wouldn’t have gone so far as to make a vow. But Cain had no idea about any of that.

He simply swung his sword with everything he had.

I will become stronger.

…And so, when he turned forty, he became capable of slicing through mountains with his blade.

Still not enough.

When he reached sixty, he finally understood a fragment of the swordsmanship Hwimin had wielded.

Time continued to flow, and by the time Cain turned 122—

THUD.

The sword he had swung every single day for decades finally plunged into the ground for the first time in years.

"……"

Today must be the end.

THUMP.

Cain, now an old man, collapsed as well. He had grown strong enough to far exceed the average lifespan of the Empire, but even he could not overcome the toll of old age.

I hope I didn’t make you wait too long.

Even the lifetime I spent here would be less than an hour for you.

He wasn’t afraid of death. If anything, he felt a little excited. Soon he would be absorbed by something called Dohwa. But he had become so strong that even he no longer recognized himself. So he hoped Hwimin would be shocked. He hoped that weakling would be stunned that he had made Dohwa this powerful.

"This… my…"

When I repay this favor…

THUD.

His head drooped powerlessly. Cain, the absolute powerhouse who had surpassed even Sword Saint Verce and would be recorded as the Empire’s guardian deity—his life had finally come to an end.

And the moment he met his death, Hwimin, who was still inside the Tower of Pilgrims, was… still swinging his sword at Cain.

SWOOSH!!

…Hm?

"What? Where did he go?"

Hwimin blinked. From his perspective, Cain had reached out toward the rift and then simply vanished. Which made sense—without an Awakener present, time inside the tower did not flow. And the Tower of Pilgrims was a future already twisted by hundreds of regressions. In other words, Cain’s entire lifetime had already been observed as past events here.

The lifetime Cain had spent swinging his sword amounted to nothing more than an instant for Hwimin. Hwimin had no way of knowing.

"……Huh?"

Weren’t you in the early 900s?

And so Cain’s natural death was processed as Hwimin having killed him…

Wait a second, the bonus is multiplicative?! And it comes with a guaranteed Regression trait grant?!

The reward was, befitting the name Tower of Pilgrims, on an unprecedented scale.