Return (2)
Return (2)
I had been watching the Count closely from the very beginning.
Although Count Chaipree had gone wild in the underground plaza, no matter how much I thought about it, there seemed to be no reason for him to personally accompany this ruins expedition.
He had no map or signet ring. From every angle, the expedition seemed bound to fail.
And yet the head of the family, the Count himself, was acting as our guide.
Even if he was trying to cozy up to the princes, it was hard to understand.
But right up until our return, I couldn't spot anything suspicious about him.
Seeing him go frantic in the plaza had even made me think that perhaps I had misjudged him.
But when the Count turned around just before the passage leading upward, I knew my long-standing suspicions had been right.
The moment he opened his mouth, some of the knights and noble officers walking at the very front attacked those beside them with their weapons.
"Run forward!"
I shouted to Katrin and the Princess.
Fortunately, the Princess and Katrin moved at once when I told them to.
Seeing even the Princess follow my command without question made all my past struggles feel worthwhile.
But even as I sprinted forward, I couldn't help berating myself inwardly.
'Like an idiot!'
I had been too slow to react because I was wasting time on useless thoughts.
Things had become so tangled that I kept wondering whether I should simply let events play out as they would.
I seemed to have gotten on the Count's bad side, and the expedition was a complete mess.
The academy students who had come along would probably view me through a biased lens simply because I had gone down to the ruins with the Princess.
More important than any of that, however, was the fact that the Princess's true capabilities had been exposed to others.
At this rate, it seemed extraordinarily difficult for the Princess to graduate safely from the academy.
That was why I had been hesitating over whether I should use Death Regression, but when the crisis broke out, it turned out my useless hesitation had only made things harder.
It wouldn't be too late to think things over after giving it my all and getting the job done first.
For now, handling the knights charging toward me was what mattered.
While the Count placed his hand on the wall, the knights and noble officers who had attacked their comrades were slipping away toward the front, where the Count was standing.
The sudden betrayal left the other knights and officers utterly bewildered.
Katrin and I, with the Princess along, weaved past the falling knights and closed in until we stood right in front of those who had attacked their comrades.
"Block them!"
Shouts rang out from the knights blocking our path, screams from the falling men echoed behind us, and overhead, the ceiling split with a crack.
It was complete and utter chaos.
I saw the knight blocking my path raise his sword, and I could feel shimmering heat haze radiating from Katrin's sword as she ran beside me.
The Princess's breathing grew ragged behind me, and I felt the mana throughout my body burning violently.
And then, time gradually slowed down.
The world moved in slow motion.
Even the sword I swung seemed to move so slowly that it was deeply frustrating.
But my opponent didn't seem to feel the same way.
The knight's eyes widened as my greatsword carved right through his neck.
Using the momentum of the swing, I spun around and lashed out with the blade once more, severing the officer beside him at the waist.
Slash.
The sound of slicing through both men seemed to echo at once.
When I took down the officer Katrin was meant to face as well, the wall of human bodies burst wide open.
Although Katrin's opponent was already dead, she still had work to do.
Boulders were pouring down from the fractured ceiling.
"Block... above... us!"
Even the sound of my own voice seemed drawn out and slow.
Katrin raised her shield and poured her mana into it.
Hum.
A massive, transparent umbrella unfolded above our heads.
In that state, we burst through the knights' defensive wall and charged forward.
Rocks rained down overhead as Count Chaipree's shocked face drew near.
Thunk.
Then I felt the floor splitting apart beneath us.
Katrin was beside me, and the Princess followed right behind.
I hurled the greatsword I was holding straight at the Count's shocked face, reached out, and grabbed Katrin and the Princess.
I pumped mana into both my arms. My mana rapidly dwindled.
The slowed-down world began to tremble.
"Just... run... forward... no... matter... what!"
Shouting loudly at them, I shoved the Princess and Katrin forward with both hands, putting all my strength into it.
At that exact moment, the floor collapsed completely.
Bang.
'Since they are ability users, their backs should be fine.'
An out-of-place worry crossed my mind as I watched the Princess and Katrin fly forward.
Fortunately, both of them seemed to have protected their bodies with mana, as their backs didn't buckle backward while they flew through the air.
Just then, the mana burning through me settled down, and the world returned to normal.
It was a fascinating experience—so much so that I wanted to open the status message window immediately.
But I couldn't very well check the message window while plunging into the abyss.
Seeing the Princess and Katrin land safely on the passage, I plummeted into the depths along with the crumbling rubble.
Watching the boulders fall alongside me, I realized that I would be returning to the past once again.
I had worked so hard this time too, but as always, an unexpected variable had reared its head.
While it was disappointing to die yet again, at least it was a relief that I had sent the Princess and Katrin off alive.
Even though I would regress to the past like this, I always did my absolute best for others.
There were several reasons for that, but the most crucial was that I couldn't be certain whether the past I returned to was truly the past of this world.
The past I regressed to after death was identical to the world before I died, and unless I acted differently, it always yielded the exact same outcome.
Therefore, I believed that upon death, I returned to the past of the current world, and I wanted to keep believing that.
But I couldn't rule out the worst-case scenario.
I was someone who had experienced a past life—another world.
Knowing that other worlds existed, I was well aware that the past I returned to might not be the past of this world at all, but rather the past of a parallel world—identical, yet distinct.
Even if I went back to the past, the people of the world where I died might continue living on in that timeline.
There could be people continuing their lives in the world where I died as an infant, or in the world where I was buried under collapsing ruins like right now.
The thought that such people might still exist made it impossible for me to give up doing my best.
And now, it was time to spend what remained of my life for the sake of the past.
Thud.
When I hit the ground below, I still hadn't died.
Both my legs had snapped, but it wasn't my time to die just yet.
Though the thunderous noise of falling stones and rocks echoed from all directions, I simply held a dagger against the person who had fallen alongside me.
Honestly, I could have landed unscathed this time as well.
But since I would be buried under the cascading debris before long anyway, I used both my legs for a far more important task.
Namely, keeping Count Chaipree right in front of me alive.
Regrettably for him, he hadn't managed to escape; the greatsword I'd thrown was lodged in his chest, and he had plunged downward right beside me.
Fortunately, he was still breathing as he fell, and I cushioned his body the moment he hit the ground so he wouldn't die instantly.
Thanks to that, both my legs were crushed, but Count Chaipree was able to land safely on the ground.
"Khak, ugh... You saved me? What the hell are you thinking, brat?"
Although he hadn't died on the spot, the greatsword piercing straight through his chest meant he wouldn't last much longer.
Honestly, he didn't need to live long, but it would be problematic if he kicked the bucket right away.
"I just wanted to know why on earth you did it."
"Heh heh... Is that it? You want to satisfy your final curiosity before you die?"
As he spoke, a sizable rock fell directly above the Count's head.
I flicked my dagger and sliced the rock apart.
Rumble.
"Cough... For a half-grown kid to possess such skill... The Duke must deeply regret that you're nothing but a bastard."
I wished he would save his rambling for hell after he died.
Fearing he would waste all our precious time with idle chatter, I stared intently at him.
"Heh heh... Very well. Since we're both going to die anyway, I'll satisfy that little curiosity of yours."
Nice! Bless this blabbermouth Count!
"You wouldn't know, but th-this ruin belongs to my family."
Nonsense. Just because your ancestor brought something back doesn't mean everything belongs to you.
Though I scoffed inwardly, I listened attentively with an expressionless face.
"With Ride dead and... and the family's relic nowhere to be found, we had to align ourselves with someone amid all this chaos."
"So we aligned ourselves. I—our earldom—sided with Grand Prince Julian."
The Count's words caught me completely off guard.
I had just heard a name I never expected.
Grand Prince Julian de Carlos.
He was the younger brother of the current king, the head of the noble faction, and the man who had broken away to establish a principality right next to the Kingdom.
Come to think of it, I had heard about him during my private tutoring at the Duke's estate.
I was told that if the King were to pass away, the three individuals competing in the succession war would be the two princes and the Grand Prince.
I hadn't heard anything about him since, so I had erased it from my mind.
And now he was making his move?
"But... ugh... simply aligning ourselves would have made us just one of the countless nobles siding with him. So I intended to bring him a grand gift."
Having heard this much, I could easily tell what his 'gift' was supposed to be.
"Using the ruins to assassinate the Princess, driving a wedge between the two princes... With the Grand Prince's backing, it should have been a complete success..."
The Count no longer struggled to speak—because blood had stopped flowing from his mouth altogether.
"To think I would die like this at the hands of a mere bastard..."
With those final words, the Count breathed his last.
After the Count died, I felt a slight pang of regret.
There were still a few more things I wanted to hear before he died.
Whether he knew what was inside these ruins, who his ancestor had obtained the map and the signet ring from, and how he had brought down these ruins.
Still, I was grateful to have learned this much.
I hoped he would rest in peace—or as well as one could—in hell.
Thud!
A boulder smashed down onto the lifeless Count.
I didn't bother blocking the falling rock.
Far too many were pouring down for me to stop them anyway.
I raised my dagger and pointed it at the left side of my chest.
If a falling stone hit me wrong, I might suffer in agony for a long time before dying.
Or worse, I could end up buried alive.
Just as countless rocks and boulders completely filled the space above my head,
I pulled the dagger with all my might.
Thump!
I felt the dagger cut through flesh, and the sword aura infused with mana burst my heart.
My breath stopped, and my vision went dark.
...
How much time had passed?
Flare.
Everything before my eyes brightened.
<You have died. Restarting from the automatic Save Point.>
Along with the system message, a vine-covered forest came into view.
The past Save Point.
The day after falling behind during the field trip.
I had returned to the cave in the Forest of the Seal.