What Must Come First
I needed to decide what to do first.
The answer came to me immediately: the reason. All events have a process, and before that process there is always a cause. It was something one of my instructors at the military academy in Albreon had once said. Because there is a cause and a process, a result exists. Therefore, when a problem arises—when things refuse to flow the way you want them to—the most important thing is to work backward through the process, identify the cause, and then find a solution by retracing the steps.
The result was that I had died at the hands of a minotaur. So how? In what way had I been forced to meet that end?
I dredged up the horrific memories from the past and began to reason.
“The reason I died…”
It was simple. I had been weaker than that monster. My attacks couldn’t cut through its flesh and hide, which were harder than steel. Its strength, speed, and reflexes had all been overwhelmingly superior. As nothing more than an ordinary human, I had fallen short in every category. It was the insurmountable gap that existed between humans and demonic beasts.
I had to close that gap. Otherwise, even if I encountered another minotaur, I would have no chance of winning. If there was a cause, that gap had to be it.
“How?”
The problem was what process I needed to follow to achieve the result I wanted. I simply had to narrow the physical disparity in bodily ability between humans and demonic beasts. But was that even possible? How could I possibly bridge a difference so absurd it might as well have been a law of nature? A gap that no ordinary human could ever overturn.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, something clicked and I froze.
“An ordinary… human?”
Could the current me truly be called an ordinary human?
I had died once, only to be brought back to life. I hunted countless demonic beasts, absorbed their Heavenly Fate, and used that power as the driving force to keep myself alive. Perhaps the current me…
“There must be a way.”
I felt like I could find it. A method to close the gap between myself and those upper-rank demonic beasts.
Having finished my deliberation, I moved to find the clues that would lead me to the answer—the path toward the ‘result’ I desired.
I left the training grounds and headed straight for the barracks. When I found Garan, I spoke to him.
“There’s something I’d like to ask.”
“Hm?”
Garan tilted his head and looked at my face. He let out a short, dry laugh.
“Unexpected. You, of all people, requesting a private talk with me.”
I could see the other squad members inside the barracks glancing over, ears perked with curiosity.
“Hmm. Judging by your expression, it seems serious. Let’s move somewhere more private.”
The place Garan led me to was the interview room, reserved for personal conversations.
“Have a seat.”
“Yes, sir.”
With a small table between us, Garan and I sat down facing each other.
“Something to drink…”
“Ah, water is fine for me.”
“Understood.”
In a world where battles against demonic beasts never ceased, even something as simple as coffee or tea was considered a luxury. Especially on the front lines, where resources were strictly limited.
Rumia used to like black tea.
Unlike me, a former slave soldier, she had received such privileges as a commander. Or perhaps it was simply because her family was special.
“So, what’s this about?”
“I want to learn how to use magic.”
Garan’s eyes widened. He clearly hadn’t expected that.
“Magic?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. I don’t know how to use magic myself. Besides, aren’t mages an incredibly rare breed to begin with?”
“That’s correct.”
Even among humanity, mages were extraordinarily precious. Most soldiers learned how to handle mana before being deployed to the battlefield. But that was limited to manipulating the mana within their own bodies. Releasing mana outward, constructing formulas, and manifesting actual spells was an entirely different matter.
That was why mages were such valuable human resources.
They say one mage is worth fifty soldiers.
Because of that, most mages within the Allied Forces were commissioned as officers or treated with equivalent respect. In large-scale battles, a single mage could wipe out hordes of demonic beasts with overwhelming efficiency. It only made sense that mages capable of deciding the fate of entire battlefields would hold command positions.
Even Rumia, my commander back when I was a slave soldier, had been a mage.
“And yet you’re asking me this because…”
Garan immediately grasped the true intent behind my request to ‘learn magic.’
“You want me to pave the way so you can request a meeting with the Captain?”
“Yes.”
I answered without hesitation.
“Hmm…”
After hearing my direct response, Garan didn’t answer right away. He must have needed time to think. It would have been improper for me to bypass him and request a direct audience with the Defense Force Captain. That was why I had asked him to act as an intermediary.
Garan’s deliberation lasted quite a while. Only after several minutes of deep thought did he finally speak.
“Why do you want to learn magic?”
“I want to become stronger.”
“You’re already plenty strong. At least within our reconnaissance unit, if we’re talking purely about combat ability, there’s no one stronger than you.”
Garan smiled bitterly as he compared my strength to that of his squad members. It seemed a little painful for him to admit that a young newcomer was the strongest in the unit, including himself as squad leader.
But I shook my head. What I wanted wasn’t at that level.
“No. That’s not enough.”
“Then?”
“Squad Leader Garan, do you remember where we first met?”
“I remember.”
“The Beltar Plain is near there.”
“…I know.”
The moment I mentioned the Beltar Plain, Garan’s face darkened.
“Two years ago, I participated in the demonic beast subjugation operation on the Beltar Plain.”
“…I see.”
Garan’s already dark expression hardened further as he nodded slowly.
“No wonder. I thought something about your situation felt inconsistent. Our 9th Defense Unit has very few slave soldiers. That’s why I thought I knew most of their faces. But I’d never seen yours before we found you in the forest. After you returned to the unit, the first thing I did was check whether any slave soldiers had gone missing on missions in the past three months.”
Garan had even inquired with other units in case I had belonged to one of them, but he had found no record of a slave soldier named Han Jungwoo.
Of course he hadn’t. I had been dead, abandoned in that forest for three months—actually, for two whole years before that.
“It didn’t add up, so I was curious. Haha… This is awkward. I said I’d look into your past, but I haven’t made any real progress. I feel rather embarrassed.”
Garan scratched his head sheepishly.
“At the time, you said you’d been living in the forest for three months.”
“Yes.”
That had been the amount of time between my resurrection in the forest and when I encountered Garan’s search party.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“…I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t tell him. Even if I did, he probably wouldn’t believe me. That I had died, come back to life, and spent three months in that forest. If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it either.
“I see. Understood.”
Thankfully, Garan didn’t press further and let the matter drop. He gave me a kind smile.
“Still, thank you for sharing even a small part of your past.”
“……”
I hesitated, unsure how to respond. I couldn’t understand why he was thanking me. I had refused to talk about my past.
“Ahem. Let’s return to the topic. You revealed part of your past for a reason. Tell me about that. It must have been necessary for you to mention it.”
“…Yes.”
I steadied myself and answered.
“Do you know anything about the war situation from two years ago?”
“…I do. I wasn’t assigned to this unit back then, but I heard that upper-rank demonic beasts—ones regular soldiers rarely even see—appeared in droves and advanced on the defense line.”
Garan stared vacantly upward, as if recalling something.
“It was a war that claimed many lives. In the end, the Allied Forces’ soldiers were swept away like leaves without being able to put up proper resistance. Only after the ‘Special Grade’ forces were deployed late did the battle finally end.”
“Special Grade…”
I had heard the term before. ‘Grade’ was a kind of rank given to soldiers within the military. It reflected not only their personal combat strength but also the level of influence and authority they held inside the army. The ranks went from Second Grade, First Grade, Upper Grade, and finally Special Grade.
In particular, the Special Grade—those powerful enough to subjugate upper-rank demonic beasts alone—were the pinnacle of the Allied Forces’ strength. There were only nine of them in total.
If a Special Grade had participated in the upper-rank demonic beast subjugation on the Beltar Plain, it was only natural that the battlefield would have ended in victory.
“They should have deployed them sooner. Idiots… Ah, I’m sorry.”
I apologized, realizing I had spoken out of turn. As a soldier, it was not something I should have said within the military.
“It’s fine. It’s not an unreasonable thought.”
“…Pardon?”
Contrary to my expectations, Garan only smiled bitterly and didn’t rebuke me.
“My son participated in that battle. And…”
He couldn’t finish the sentence. I could guess what words he had swallowed. Seeing the way he clenched his fist, fighting back a surge of emotion, I understood without him saying it. The reason was different, but he had thought something similar—that if only the Special Grade had been deployed just a little sooner.
To shift his emotions elsewhere, I continued.
“I want to defeat the upper-rank demonic beasts I saw back then.”
“……”
Garan looked at me. Without saying a word, he simply stared. I closed my mouth and met his gaze in return. A short silence filled the small interview room.
“Do you think learning magic will let you defeat those monsters?”
“……”
“You’re saying that by simply learning magic, you believe you can defeat the upper-rank demonic beasts that appeared on the Beltar Plain two years ago—the ones you encountered.”
The number of mages belonging to the Allied Forces easily exceeded one hundred thousand. Compared to an army of over ten million, it was a tiny fraction, but it was by no means a small number. Was I really thinking that I alone could accomplish what even those one hundred thousand mages—excluding the Special Grades—had failed to do?
That was what Garan was asking.
“The chances… would be slim.”
I shared his opinion. If simply learning magic were enough to defeat upper-rank demonic beasts, the war would have ended long ago in the Allied Forces’ victory and humanity would have found peace.
Even so, I had to say it.
“Nevertheless, I want to live. To survive, I’m willing to do anything.”
Garan’s expression changed. He seemed to realize that I wasn’t making this request simply because I wanted to learn magic.
“I see…”
With a complicated look, he pondered for a moment before nodding.
“Understood. I’ll speak to the Captain. I’m curious myself what you’re thinking.”