The Perilous Knowledge Transfer
I was in the midst of conducting various experiments.
Among my records were not only personal stories but also others' tales, magical theories, and even continental history. If no one else could see any of it, I wouldn't be able to convey anything through writing—and yet, ordinary stories could be seen. So what if I simply wrote down the continental knowledge I knew? Or perhaps something very private and personal? I tried all sorts of approaches.
In the process, I compiled and wrote down a comprehensive treatise synthesizing all the swordsmanship theories I knew from across the continent.
"It's not visible."
As expected, it was invisible to Jayke, who was beside me. I held out the paper to him. We'd laid out so many documents that the carriage interior was a mess, and he'd asked me to move them aside. The moment he took the paper I offered, Jayke's body went rigid.
"I-it's... vis...ible..."
"Jayke!"
Jayke suddenly began trembling violently, blood pouring from his eyes and nose. Startled, I unleashed waves of healing power, but he lost consciousness and collapsed almost immediately.
"Sir Joseph!"
I called for Joseph and poured holy power into him as well, but Jayke's condition didn't improve. His state was dire—like someone on the brink of death, his soul flickering faintly over and over. Joseph, the priests, and I showered him with healing power and holy energy without rest whenever it happened.
The group halted our journey, waiting for Jayke to awaken. A week passed that way, and finally, he stirred.
The moment Jayke rose, he drew his sword, dashed outside, and began freely executing sword techniques he'd never used before. At the end, a vivid aura blazed along his blade.
It meant Jayke had become a Master-level knight.
Jayke's soul clearly lacked the talent to reach Master rank. Yet in that instant, his soul had grown larger. After unleashing a fierce flurry of swordsmanship, he collapsed again. This time, it was mere exhaustion; after some healing, he came to right away.
Jayke ascending to Master rank was an enormous event. I issued an absolute gag order to the entire group: this matter must remain secret.
Artificially turning an ordinary knight into a Master-level one? It would shatter the balance of power. Even the mild-mannered emperor of the Ether Empire would have to make a decision—whether to see me as an enemy to eliminate or a friend to ally with. Of course, with the Divanity Church as my backing and the absolute support of the common folk, he couldn't turn against me easily.
"An enormous amount of knowledge flooded into my head. It felt like it was being forcibly injected—like my brain was burning up."
That was Jayke's answer when I asked a stabilized him about what had happened.
"No memory of that whole week?"
"There was definitely something. Maybe dreams? I did a lot, but I can't remember."
Somehow, Jayke had gained a fateful opportunity, but it was incredibly dangerous. Without me and the priests, he surely would have died.
Finding a way to transmit knowledge was a boon, but it put me in a precarious position. And a bigger problem loomed: Joseph and Argin were subtly hinting they wanted the same experience as Jayke.
In any case, the group resumed our swift journey. No matter how careful, such information had a way of spreading. If imperial intelligence agents lurked nearby, I could deal with them—but even that would make the emperor wary of me. Better to return to the territory before he made any moves.
Through messengers, I'd heard various updates about the territory. I knew Wider had finished scouting talent and was developing it well, but I hadn't sent an avatar to check. Still, the territory I returned to after nearly two years far exceeded my expectations.
"Welcome back, my lord Count."
Wider greeted me with a retinue of people in tow. He looked noticeably plumper than when we'd first met. Must be living comfortably. But if he'd developed the territory this much even while taking it easy, he'd done his job.
"How is it? Impressive, isn't it?"
Proudly boasting of his achievements, Wider gestured at what was no longer a village but a small city.
The population had been just over a hundred; now, even at a rough glance, it seemed to number several thousand.
"What the hell did you do?"
"As you see, I developed the territory."
I hadn't exactly hoped for this level of growth from the start, but in the current situation, it was better than I'd imagined.
Wider introduced the talents he'd recruited, who followed behind him. As expected from a regressor, they all had strong souls.
"Let's head back and talk."
I led my retainers down the main road with dignified pomp and returned home. As the territory's lord—and a famed saint across the continent—returned, residents poured into the streets, cheering wildly.
After unpacking, I received a detailed report from Wider. He explained the achievements these recruits had in his past life, their current roles, how he'd used future knowledge to create new revenue streams for the territory, and more.
Frankly, Wider had exceeded expectations. Even for a regressor, execution was another matter entirely. The future was already shifting, and he knew his interventions would warp it further—yet he'd pressed on anyway. That took resolve.
"Wider, in your past life, was there a massive beast escape from the Ktolari Viscountcy that I stopped?"
"No, my lord. There wasn't."
The future had changed there too. Thinking it through, the divergences started where I'd intervened. Maybe in Wider's past life, I never met Drakan.
"What about Nanagopi?"
"That's the monster from legends, right?"
"Never heard it got captured?"
"No."
I asked just in case, but no dice.
"Was Jayke a Master knight in your past life?"
"No, Sir Jayke never reached Master."
As I thought. I was the variable in everything.
Why was this happening to me? Surely even in Wider's past life, I'd been a soul who became Count Akasha. So what was different?
"More curiously, there's something unusual. The mercenaries."
"Didn't their contracts all expire? I wasn't paying attention, but the regular mercenaries' terms ended ages ago, and Jacques's probably did recently too."
"Yes. But the mercenaries have settled in a corner of the territory."
"Jacques too?"
"Yes, Jacques became their leader."
"Did they form a mercenary company?"
"More like a mercenary village. But here's the thing: Sword Mountain—a group midway between village and company—wasn't supposed to form in our territory, and Jacques wasn't the founder."
Was this my influence on Jacques too?
"Where was it originally?"
"Originally, Sword Mountain forms in the Yujin Empire on the eastern continent, much later. Founded by a knight named Abel Tristan, it becomes the continent's strongest mercenary organization in short order."
"And it popped up here instead?"
"Yes. Plus, many of the talents I brought joined that mercenary village."
"Why?"
"They got escorted by mercenaries, and apparently found them cool. Young men are weak to that sort of thing."
Was it okay for history to veer this drastically?
"Is it being run well?"
"Jacques turns out to be surprisingly capable. Never even heard the name in my past life."
I already knew Jacques had talent for leadership. But was he vessel enough to lead what became the continent's top group? Hard to say.
Anyway, it was all because of me.
"If it's running well, no harm done, right?"
"True. And in emergencies, they'd bolster our forces."
As long as I was in the territory, territorial wars? Unthinkable. If war clouds gathered over Akasha Territory, it'd only be the emperor—and he'd need his full might.
"My lord Count, one proposal."
"What?"
"Reclaim the original Akasha County lands. At this growth rate, we'll run out of room soon."
The ones who took the original Akasha lands were the Illivad Marquis family. No desire to fight them.
"Think we could negotiate with resources?"
"Not sure. But the Illivad Marquis wouldn't want to fight us either."
True enough. We could offer to buy it with money. Proposing was harmless. Or a treasure-grade artifact. Ideal if it worked.
"Send a letter saying I'll visit the Illivad Marquis."
"Understood."
We discussed more, then Wider withdrew. Days later, a reply came: they'd meet soon to talk. But the emperor suddenly summoned the marquis, delaying it.
For a while, I stuck to routine. I diligently recorded when I had time, created avatars, and trained with them. Occasionally, I'd venture out to heal territory folk or nobles with incurable diseases.
My new avatar and Number One—who attended me exclusively—scoured Akasha Territory. They rounded up irredeemable criminals and rooted out spies not from imperial intelligence.
The territory prison already held plenty of heinous criminals; now it brimmed with new villains and spies. I used them as test subjects.
Not grand stuff like swordsmanship—just low-importance records to test transmission. Failures every time.
It seemed to transmit like with Jayke, but none survived. I didn't hover with constant healing like I did for him. Even short snippets yielded the same result.
Then one of the villains I caught succeeded. An ordinary-seeming man, but he carried over ten resentful souls. He survived a very short record after three days in a coma.
But trying another killed him instantly.
In the end, the key was soul size. This villain's soul was larger than average. I tested more large-souled criminals, and patterns emerged.
As experiments continued and prisoners kept dying, bad rumors spread. Even for heinous criminals, a saint visiting the prison daily with bodies piling up? Bound to leak.
No one dared criticize me openly, though. Around then, Argin came to me.
Argin had grown tremendously on this journey. He was already at knight level. His age and physical growth helped, but with innate talent, good instruction, and real combat, stagnation would have been odd.
"My lord Count, grant me the opportunity too."
"You want to grow stronger?"
I knew why Argin obsessed over strength. Wider had told me: in his past life, Argin became a Grand Master, dubbed Sword Saint.
"Yes. I have something I must do."
"Seeking revenge?"
"How did you know?"
Wider spilled it: in his past life, Argin was Jayke's disciple here in Akasha County, then left in his mid-twenties for revenge, becoming a Master en route and later an imperial duke.
Thanks to me, Argin's future shifted too. His revenge timeline jumped forward a decade.
"Juno spoke of it."
Best to invoke a god here. Juno wouldn't smite me for this, right?
I'd wanted to test on Argin anyway. Dangerous, but if Jayke succeeded, Argin—with his far larger soul—should be fine.
"What does Lord Juno wish of me?"
"I don't know his will. But I can share my thoughts."
Argin's brown eyes fixed on me, brimming with expectation. Couldn't betray that gaze. It was a chance to nurture a future Grand Master.
"Your enemy is my enemy."