Wanna Die?

Wanna die?

I had been called a blockhead since I was little. Teaching manners with a headbutt to anyone who rubbed me the wrong way had simply been part of my daily routine.

And that had not changed much even now.

Thud—

The man toppled backward, twitching.

Dead?

No—just unconscious.

I pulled the dagger from him first and cut the rope binding my hands.

Bang bang!

"Hey! If you kill him it'll mess up the plan, so take it easy!"

Someone pounded on the warehouse door.

I prepared to bolt out at once, but the bastard was too lazy to come inside.

In that case…

I ran my fingers along the unconscious man's throat and channeled mana into him.

At that moment an energy different from usual stirred in my body, but I ignored it for now and examined the structure of his vocal cords.

"Is he dead?! I'm busy—why aren't you answering?"

The instant my analysis finished, I used mana to reshape my own vocal cords.

Crunch—

The vocal cords are an organ of thin muscle. Change their structure, and you can imitate another person's voice.

Just like this….

"I only beat him a little! The pretty-boy bastard started talking shit about my face!"

A voice that was not mine rang through the warehouse.

I waited in silence ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for a reply.

"Tch tch. They said he was a wastrel, but he really is a clueless idiot who can't even read a situation."

Along with the muttering, the presence faded. He had no intention of coming in for now.

Only then did I release the vocal cord transformation.

"Ugh…"

The unconscious man groaned.

I clamped a hand over his mouth and drove the dagger into his chest.

Shnk!

"……!"

He made a reflexive sound, but my palm smothered it. He curled up like a shrimp and then went limp.

Alright. I've bought some time. Let's get the situation straight first.

I sat roughly where the moonlight came in.

They kidnapped me to use me as bait and draw eyes away from the family.

And when the hired knights or mercenaries came to rescue me, they meant to strike my house.

In my previous life I was held by them for about a month before somehow escaping and returning home.

But by then everything was already over.

Screams filling the territory. Corpses of residents strewn everywhere. The manor swallowed by fire. My parents run through with swords, and my younger sibling gone….

I never regretted that I had run away from home.

I knew full well that even if I had been at the estate, the result would not have changed.

But now it's different.

I can return a month earlier than in my past life, and the experience and knowledge I built up then live in my head right now.

Use that, and I should be able to prevent the family's destruction as well.

To do that, I first have to get out of here and go home.

However, one enemy still remained outside.

Even though I had lived like a wastrel, the fact that a noble educated as I was could be kidnapped without a single scratch meant there was a skilled fighter among them.

In my past life I had barely managed to kill that one. The man who just died had been nothing special, but the other had been strong.

Now that I've regressed I don't think I'd lose to him—but there's one thing I need to check first.

For a while now, an energy that is not mana has been circulating through my body.

I closed my eyes and looked inward.

A bright energy flowed through every corner of me—foreign and familiar at once, as if washing the darkness from my entire being.

As I thought, this is…

Somewhat startled, I settled the energy.

Holy Power.

Holy Power.

A force only those chosen by Goddess Ella can use—power that blesses Ella's descendants and destroys the root of all that is wicked.

I had experienced just how strong it was through Ludian until I was thoroughly sick of it.

But for me, who has returned to the past, to possess that Holy Power…

Does that mean the being who regressed me is likely Goddess Ella?

There is no other transcendent who could hand over Holy Power and send someone back besides her.

Why she chose to regress a heretic like me instead of Ludian, I don't know…

Things I cannot know for now anyway. If I live however I please, she will get fed up enough to speak eventually.

I pulled the dagger from the corpse's chest and wiped the blood on his clothes. Then I walked toward the door.

Hm?

My reflection showed in a long pane of glass.

Because I had wandered under the pretext of pilgrimage, my black hair had grown long enough to reach my shoulders. The look resembled how I had been as the Sword Demon.

Suddenly a story Ludian had once told me rose to mind.

"The Goddess does not solve the problem itself. She only grants the power to overcome ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the trial. Just as I received Holy Power."

"……."

"Harvesting the fruit at the end is solely our responsibility."

If this was the chance Goddess Ella had given me, and if these footsteps were a journey to harvest the fruit I desired….

Then I would walk that long road once more.

Ssshk ssshk—

I began trimming my hair with the dagger.

I had no intention of suddenly embracing some other creed. I simply meant to think a little more carefully about life than I had in my previous one.

I had already thought enough about death.

That should do it.

My bangs were short enough that my eyebrows showed, and I had neatly trimmed my sideburns and the back of my head.

After that I gripped the dagger and stepped out of the warehouse.

Smells good.

Following the sweet scent, I found a man sitting with his back to me.

He was carefully roasting sweet potatoes in a fire pit.

"Ah, you're out. I roasted some sweet potatoes, so eat up."

He still pointed behind him without turning around.

Does he think his partner came out, not me?

I considered throwing the dagger as is, but it had been so long that I could not be sure of his skill, so for now I picked up a sweet potato left by the door.

More than anything, I was hungry.

These bastards, leaving me out of it…

I brushed off the leaves wrapped around the sweet potato and peeled it.

When the glossy yellow flesh showed, I took a bite.

Delicious.

Perfectly roasted without a single burnt spot.

The Sweet Potato Master spoke while he roasted.

"How's that guy doing?"

I swallowed the sweet potato in my mouth and transformed my vocal cords.

"I beat him up a little and knocked him out."

"Heh heh. Take it easy. If you kill him it'll be a pain."

"Yeah."

I took another bite and opened my mouth.

"When are we moving?"

"I don't really know either, but it'll probably take about a month. They need time to prepare on their end too, and they didn't expect that wastrel who left the ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠family to come back."

He quickly flipped a sweet potato. True to a Sweet Potato Master, all his attention was on the potatoes.

"So get along. We'll have to keep him for a long time."

"Sure."

I stared at his back and asked,

"But doesn't that guy need food too?"

"Heh heh. Trying to win him over with sweet potatoes?"

"Well, that way he'll stay quiet."

"But no. We've got to starve him a bit so he won't have the strength to resist. I heard he learned the sword to some degree, so no need to feed him well for no reason. For a while we'll just give him water."

"……."

So that's why these bastards starved me half to death back then….

"And that way he'll get uglier, won't he?"

"He's already gotten uglier from me beating him."

"Haha! Fair enough."

He threw his head back and laughed.

I took the last bite and tossed the skin on the ground.

Now only the dagger remained in my hand.

"Got any water?"

"Ah, here…"

He pulled out a bottle and turned his upper body. At the same time his eyes went wide.