Like the Old Days
I had practically declared war on the princess from the very beginning. It was not driven by anger toward her, but by a cold, rational calculation.
{That’s why the princess now knows I’m strong enough to defeat her, right?}
“Yeah, that’s right.”
If she had regressed, she would have returned to yesterday just like me. So she still hadn’t found any other regressors.
Therefore, the hatred I had shown toward her carried the weight of a warning.
[If you cross the line with me one more time, I will never forgive you.]
“But······ she made that expression?”
Yet the reaction I had expected never came. Instead of looking apologetic, she simply stared at me with a face that said she was sorry.
“Sorry? After committing that act······ for twenty years offering no apology, no action······ and now that I’m killing Pelican, suddenly you’re sorry?”
The person she truly despised was one who delighted in shattering others through pure malice.
Yet from my perspective, there was one more creature I hated even more than that: the man who committed a sin and only admitted it belatedly, once everything was already ruined.
“Those who commit sins without reflection deserve nothing but more pain. If they admit guilt early, they still retain a sliver of redemption. But······”
The belated admitter only seeks forgiveness after destroying everything and sinking into endless despair. When such a man is rejected, he usually thinks:
“I asked for forgiveness, so why won’t you accept it?”
Then the roles suddenly reverse. The one begging becomes the pitiful perpetrator, the one who refuses becomes the cold-hearted victim.
That had always been the unchanging truth of the world.
So I muttered to myself, staring at Alice crying from afar with eyes full of contempt.
“You bastards ruined your lives completely and I didn’t cry······ but you’re sobbing over some trivial reason······ you hypocrites.”
Thus, every man who now came begging for forgiveness was nothing but a hypocrite.
A hypocrite who tried to escape responsibility for his sins with such a performance.
And I would never forgive such hypocrites easily.
Not unless you suffer until you want to die.
**
Before my first class, “Mana Theory,” began, I went to find Professor Bever.
“What is it, student Dullahan Franz?”
She still looked at me with nothing but curiosity, unaware that the rumor of me being the academy’s weakest had spread.
“I want to change my major. My aptitude seems to lie elsewhere, not in magic.”
“You want to······ transfer departments?”
“Yes.”
Since I already knew my abilities through Pelican, there was no need to cling to magic. Besides, I possessed talents far beyond anyone else’s.
“I want to transfer to the Sword Department.”
It was the one area I had never properly learned in my past life because of the Honeybee Clan’s side effects.
“Hmm······ since the class hasn’t started yet, changing now is fine······ but transferring departments requires a special exam.”
“An exam?”
“Yes. It won’t be difficult. Just have Professor Erina assign you to spar with one student.”
······Sparring. If it were me from before, I would have quit immediately. Even as a student, they were those who dreamed of becoming knights. The side effects of the Honeybee Clan were no joke.
“Very well. Can we begin right now?”
However, after experiencing the most horrific pain in battle against the Demon God, I no longer fell easily from ordinary damage.
Moreover, to seize the tremendous power I had aimed for, I would need to wield the Honeybee Clan’s strength.
‘······ Don’t run. You swore you would change.’
If I couldn’t even endure the pain of defeating one student, what would I accomplish in the future?
After making that resolve, Professor Bever continued her conversation through a magical communication device.
“Yes, Professor Erina. It’s like······ a student wishes to switch from the magic department to swordsmanship······ yes, then we’ll do that.”
After the call ended, the professor approached me with a kind voice.
“Professor Erina asked you to come to the third-floor training hall. I hope your wish is granted, Dullahan student.”
“···Yes, thank you······ and, I’m sorry.”
“······What? The voice was too soft, I couldn’t hear clearly······?”
“Nothing at all. It’s only for one day······ thank you for teaching me.”
“Yes, let’s work hard together!!”
With that cheerful cheer ringing in my ears, I left the room with a bitter smile.
{Master, did something happen with that professor?}
‘······ The few people who helped me when my mana circuits shattered. And the one who was fired from her professorship.’
{······Ah, I see.}
Even in a life as cruel as mine, there had been those who reached out a helping hand. But······ the problem was that when they did, their hand was cut off.
In name, selection was based on merit, but in reality, this place—Palette Academy—was stained by every form of scheming and sharp relationship.
Yet even here, there were people one could call “good.” But they too vanished in the end, swallowed by those same relationships.
······Still, this time I would not let it slide. I would never be taken advantage of like in the old days.
My heart had died long ago, yet the warm feelings I once received from certain people remained faintly, unforgettably alive.
‘Professor Bever, Professor Erina······ and Dianne······ I will never lose them like in the old days.’
I could no longer lose pure beings from the world as I once had.
**
In the training ground on the third floor, after climbing from the first, Professor Erina stood with her sword raised, demonstrating swordsmanship to the students.
“Here, holding the sword this way, focus on the opponent’s movement, not their sword······ what? Are you the magic department student Professor Bever mentioned?”
She maintained her usual boisterous expression, approached me, and shouted at the students who had been demonstrating.
“This guy here wants to join our swordsmanship department starting now. Who among you wants to spar with this fellow?”
“That person······ isn’t that Dullahan Franz? The descendant of the famous Franz family······ they say he was incredibly talented from childhood?”
“Or not? I heard he suddenly lost his aptitude as a knight and was practically abandoned by the family······ so I assumed he transferred to the magic department.”
“But if that were true, wouldn’t he have come back to the sword department? I thought he had talent in magic too, so he returned here.”
I observed the various speculations aimed at me, then slowly turned my gaze to the loose-built guy approaching me.
“Hey you, are you that famous Dullahan Franz? The famous Franz family······”
The name of the man who stepped forward was Sebal Sieki. A first-year student in the swordsmanship department······
“The trash known as ‘Su Chi,’ right? A worm like that dares to make the great Alice princess cry······ his guts must have spilled out.”
She was the daughter of the duke, one of the key figures who had ruined my life in the past and a follower of Alice.
“Even though······ now you want to enter the swordsmanship department? Haha, did the Palette Academy look that ridiculous to you? You bastard.”
“Sebal student, the student I called down is here for sparring······ not to start an argument.
He had been trying to pick a fight with me, but Erina professor cut him off. He glanced at her sharply, then pointed at me with his chin and said,
“Then, may I spar with this Dullahan Franz? It seems no one else besides me wants to come out.”
As he said, no one stepped forward to spar with me. Only students remained to watch how the situation would unfold.
Among them was Dia Grilite, who had regressed with me and was called the next Sword Saint.
“···”
She watched my spar with Sebal seriously, then when my gaze reached her, she quietly lowered her head as if acknowledging it.
After Dia, I refocused on what Erina and Sebal were saying and interjected.
“Sebal student, apologize for speaking so harshly to Dullahan student······”
“Professor. Let’s begin the sparring right now.”
“······Huh? But Sebal student hasn’t apologized yet······”
“I don’t want to receive an apology from a pig who won’t apologize sincerely anyway.”
Sebal, as expected, reacted violently to his own words. He exploded with rage and shouted as if he were about to charge at me.
“You bastard, what the hell are you saying right now!! Do you really want to die?”
“Sebal, if you do that one more time······ I’ll expel you from this class······”
“Professor, we should continue the class soon, right? Let’s start the sparring as quickly as possible.”
“Ha······ but······ fine, understood.”
I stopped her from trying to calm Sebal again, slowly steadied myself, and looked at the man before me.
“What are you staring at? If you’re afraid I might lose even now, I’ll specially forgive you if you ask Alice for forgiveness right away······”
“You pig, you’ve been whining since earlier. I want to kill you right now.”
“······You bastard!!”
“Very well. From now on······ I will begin the spar between Sebal Sieki and Dullahan Franz. Both of you······ remember that once defeated, you may no longer attack.”
She declared the start of the spar with me and Sebal—rather, the bastard—and added rules to minimize injury.
‘Anyway, that guy will target my head as usual, so even if there’s no injury, it’s already gone.’
Sebal, despite his dog-like personality, was the kind of man who could ruin his entire past life simply by possessing sword talent and being born the eldest son of a duke’s family.
After confirming that the professor had stepped back, I approached Sebal and spoke in a voice only he could hear.
“Really, it’s fortunate······ that you’re still the same as in the old days.”
“······Ha? What the hell kind of nonsense is that?”
The guy who had doubts about my sudden words, I quickly raised my chin, rushed behind him, and before striking his body, whispered into his ear.
“Thanks to being like the old days······ as trash.”
So that even if I turned his body into a cripple right now, I would feel no guilt.
With those words, the strike carrying my power slammed into his back.