Chapter 147
Thinking they had finally cornered Kaien, the assassins grinned.
“Everyone, be careful. Five of our men already died by this bastard’s hand today. He’s like a demon!”
“Still, he can’t win against our numbers.”
The assassins filled the cave entrance without leaving a single gap and slowly approached.
The one standing at the very front twisted his lips mockingly.
“If you’re a bastard, you should’ve lived like one—quietly, without drawing attention—ugh!”
In that instant, a flash of lightning-like sword light split him apart.
Blood sprayed as the assassin at the front collapsed.
The others tightened their grips on their swords in fury.
“I told you! Don’t let your guard down!”
“Die!”
“You sure you’re assassins? You talk way too much.”
With a childish sneer, Kaien swung his sword.
In the narrow, dark cave, blades clashed again and again, sending sparks flying hundreds of times.
Had it been less than ten minutes?
Thud.
As the last assassin fell, silence finally settled over the cave.
The only one left standing was Kaien.
Sheathing his sword, he drew in rough breaths.
“O–Oppa!”
A girl hurried out from behind a rock.
“Sorry. I wanted to help, but you were moving too fast. I was scared I might hit you by mistake….”
“You’re still alive.”
Even though he had checked her breathing several times during the fight, his voice still came out curt.
Kaien clenched his fist. His fingertips trembled irregularly.
‘Poison.’
Gritting his teeth against the twisting pain in his insides, Kaien leaned back against the cave wall and slid down to sit.
“Wh–what’s wrong? Are you badly hurt?”
The girl approached with frightened eyes.
He was about to tell her to ignore him.
“Kh—!”
Kaien suddenly vomited blood.
The clotted blood was stained a dark crimson.
Proof that the poison had spread through his body.
With his head bowed as if dead, Kaien tried to regulate the energy inside him as best he could. It was useless.
Then suddenly, his body slumped forward and collapsed.
“Oppa!”
The girl screamed and grabbed him.
Her voice rang in his ears, but he had no strength to scold her.
It felt like his insides were boiling. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead from the agony.
The boy who had never once knelt before any enemy finally fell for the first time.
The girl’s face turned deathly pale with fear.
“Don’t die, oppa. Please….”
She spoke through sobs, her words slurred.
“You have to become the Tower Master….”
Even in this situation, he let out a hollow laugh.
Spitting up more blood, Kaien looked at her in disbelief.
“Why the hell… would I become that….”
“My dad said that if someone has talent, they have to use it for the world.”
Tears streamed down the girl’s face.
“So you have to become the Tower Master. But to do that, you have to go back alive. I–I’ll try using healing magic.”
She chanted a healing spell desperately, but the effect was pitifully small.
Kaien squeezed his eyes shut and spoke weakly.
“I’m not going to die. So… don’t waste your mana. Stop crying… you’re getting snot on me.”
“R–really?”
Her eyes sparkled.
It seemed that just hearing him promise not to die gave her strength.
Holding his hand tightly, she whispered,
“Then let’s leave the forest together and—”
Thud.
She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Kaien’s eyes flew wide open.
The arrowhead that had pierced through the girl’s chest was bright red.
“Ah….”
A faint sound escaped her lips. Her small body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
For a moment, it felt as if time had stopped.
He couldn’t immediately understand what had happened.
Only after her upper body was drenched in bright red blood did the terrible shock strike his brain.
“…Hey.”
The fallen girl twitched faintly.
“No.”
With trembling hands, Kaien tried to pull her into his arms.
“She’s over there!”
A shout came from outside.
Kaien gritted his teeth. His jaw trembled with rage.
“How long….”
A voice full of hatred slipped through his clenched teeth.
He had already killed countless assassins today. Yet it still wasn’t over.
He knew there were those who wanted him dead this badly.
It had always been ridiculous and irritating, but it had never made him this furious.
But today was different.
Clutching at his chest, Kaien dragged his sword and walked out of the cave.
Seeing that he had clearly been poisoned, the assassins’ eyes gleamed.
But in the next moment, a few sharp-eyed ones sensed something strange and stepped back.
“What is that?”
“Mana…?”
Normally, mana is invisible unless infused into a sword or object.
But now, from the boy’s body, mana overflowed like water pouring from a shattered jar, glowing blue.
Fear filled the assassins’ eyes.
They were facing only a single boy, yet their scalps prickled with terror.
In an instant, the situation reversed. The assassins stepped back, and the boy advanced.
“Y–you monster….”
As someone stammered the words, blue mana burst explosively from the boy’s body.
It was his first time experiencing a rampage.
After a while—
“Hah… hah….”
Kaien returned to the inside of the cave, breathing heavily.
Both his hands were soaked red with blood.
“Oppa….”
At the faint voice, his heart dropped.
He rushed to the girl.
She opened her mouth with difficulty, as if trying to say something.
Was she going to blame him? Say that getting involved with someone like him had cursed her too?
When his mother had said such things, he had felt wronged. But after today, it felt like the truth.
The girl’s lips moved.
His heart pounded like a prisoner awaiting judgment.
“Hey… if you meet my mom and dad….”
“….”
“Can you tell them I didn’t die in pain?”
Kaien’s eyes widened.
His lips trembled, then he spoke harshly.
“…Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not delivering any last words.”
“Sorry.”
She smiled weakly.
“Don’t talk anymore. You need to focus.”
Gritting his teeth, Kaien drew a healing magic circle on the ground.
“About you….”
Her voice was fading.
He was about to snap at her to be quiet.
“There were… so many things I wanted to ask….”
That was the last of it.
The light slowly faded from her eyes.
The mouth that had chattered endlessly no longer released even a single breath.
Kaien blankly chanted the healing spell.
“Cure.”
“….”
“Cure.”
Brilliant light filled the cave, but it could not sink into her body. It simply faded away.
Kaien clutched the girl’s lifeless body in disbelief.
It was still warm. Still soft. But it no longer moved.
“No.”
His voice trembled.
“Stop joking and open your eyes.”
She had taken an arrow for him, someone she had only met today.
What kind of pointless death was this?
His misfortune had spread to her too.
The lifelong misery clinging to him had killed the first and only person who had ever helped him.
“Get up.”
He shook her again with shaking hands.
He had been the one ready to throw away his life, thinking death wouldn’t be so bad.
Not her. She had shining dreams and hope for the future.
So why are you lying here?
“No….”
He poured out hundreds of useless healing spells, but not even half his mana was depleted.
Because of the aftermath of the rampage, his mana surged as if it were endless.
He could annihilate assassins. He could blow up a mountain.
But he couldn’t bring her back to life.
Unless he could make that horrible wound from the arrow as if it had never existed….
Kaien’s eyes flashed.
“Regression….”
His hand violently scattered the healing magic circle.
Instead, a new magic circle was carved over it at a frenzied speed.
A spell to turn back time. A miracle called regression.
Everyone thought it impossible.
But in theory, it was possible.
‘If the aftermath of the mana rampage still remains… maybe….’
All through the white dawn of night, Kaien drew the magic circle.
He didn’t even know why he was so desperate.
Maybe because she was the first one who had spoken to him about his future.
Maybe because she was the first person who had not despised him.
Or maybe simply because he wanted to see that bright smile one more time.
Whatever the reason, that night, the boy created a miracle.
Blinding mana burst forth, dyeing his golden eyes red.
“Kh—!”
Even as he vomited blood, Kaien stubbornly stared at the light.
Soon, with a loud creaking sound, the world rewound.
Those who commit the taboo of controlling time must offer the most precious thing to them as the price.
Thus, the boy forgot the first sincere heart he had ever gained.
When he opened his eyes again—
“Hey, oppa? Are you okay— ahh!”
Like a puppet moving under orders, Kaien slung the girl over his back and ran blindly out of the forest.
He remembered nothing, but obsession remained.
“What! F–Freesia? Mom, Dad! Freesia’s being carried by some strange older brother!”
“…Take her.”
Only after he handed her over to a boy who seemed to know her did the binding will disappear.
He saved the girl.
But he would never know why he had moved so blindly.
I slowly opened my eyes.
“…Ah.”
My cheeks were soaked with tears.
Feeling as though I had just walked out of a dream, I murmured blankly,
“It was the Duke.”
The person who had saved me.
