The moment of death had been excruciating.
Heat and flames like a sun exploding.
Karyl had desperately prayed to All God to endure the horrific pain that felt like every cell burning.
Then, at some point...
"Karyl bro, get up. Time for shift change."
Karyl opened his eyes to someone shaking his shoulder.
He jolted at the sight before him.
The battlefield of Divine Weapon clash was gone, replaced by the dingy interior of a rundown building.
'What? Didn't die—evacuated to the rear?'
But there was no pain from his wounds.
Had All God truly granted his plea for a next life in a peaceful world free of war?
The one who'd woken him spoke again.
"What're you doing? If you dawdle, I get chewed out."
"You—you're Nico...!"
Karyl whipped his head around in shock.
His hometown little brother, who'd clearly died ten years ago, stood right there.
"No way... You're definitely dead...!"
"What're you on about? Bad dream?"
"Or are you here to greet me in the afterlife?"
"Talking like a lunatic in your sleep. Hurry up to the watchtower for shift."
Prodded by Nico, Karyl reflexively grabbed his gear and stepped outside.
A familiar landscape unfolded.
Moss- and vine-choked walls, crumbling towers everywhere.
Karyl's eyes bulged.
'This is ten years ago...?'
An unnamed fortress on the border between Valua Kingdom and Vardia Empire.
Shortly after joining the Leviathan Mercenary Corps, Karyl's Palmen Squadron had desperately defended it for a month before near-total annihilation.
"Damn it, Theos—what kind of bullshit is this?"
He'd begged to be reborn somewhere nice if dying—but instead got hurled back to this nightmare he wanted to erase from memory!
'Wait—if this is ten years ago, then Ralph...'
Thud thud thud!
Karyl bolted to the watchtower.
Bounding up the stairs, a burly mercenary turned with a grin.
"There ya go? Sleep well?"
Karyl nearly burst into tears.
His childhood friend who'd died shielding him in the fortress battle.
Someone he'd thought gone forever, alive and vivid before him—emotions surged like a tidal wave.
"Whoa, you crying?"
"Wh-who's crying? Just yawn tears from earlier."
Karyl choked back his feelings. Ralph flashed a toothy grin.
"Sure? Thought you were dreaming of when they called you Aura Impotent as a kid."
"You bastard, ruining my morning mood!"
Karyl the child prodigy, famed for swordsmanship in his territory.
Sir Gilbert, the chief knight, had acknowledged his exceptional talent.
But the glory ended there.
No matter how hard he trained, Karyl couldn't awaken to aura.
It wasn't a lack of training methods.
For some unknowable reason, he simply couldn't accumulate aura in his body.
'Father and grandfather were the same—said it was a constitutional flaw.'
Aka Aura Incapable.
The cursed constitution others mocked as Aura Impotent.
To overcome it, Karyl tried everything.
Spent every coin from mercenary work visiting mages, even traveled to the eastern continent to learn so-called inner power techniques.
Still, no aura awakening.
His dream of becoming an Aura Expert, rising as an elite mercenary or knight, crumbled.
'Come to think—right around then. I quit daily sword practice without fail, turned cynical and money-obsessed.'
Still, his mercenary skills were solid, and his seriousness in battle earned him a scout spot in one of the continent's top ten: Leviathan Mercenary Corps.
'If I'd known that damn bastard Hakan would toss me into hell like this, I'd never have joined!'
Mercenary King—or rather, just a top-tier mercenary at this point—Hakan Leviathan.
Karyl and the other dispatched rookies had been duped by him.
Said to hunker down in the fortress and rotate with Valua Kingdom forces—but reality was brutal combat against ten times as many Vardia Empire troops.
"Vardia bastards up to anything?"
"Quiet. Fought three days straight—they're beat too. Damn, what's so great about this crumbling heap...?"
Karyl gave a wry smile at Ralph's grumbling.
'Yeah, no clue back then. That this ghost-infested dump hid twelve Divine Weapons—including Sword Saint Rolan's Holy Sword Angelica!'
No telling where the intel came from, but Valua and Vardia had used the long-abandoned fortress's ownership as pretext for border skirmishes.
But the one who'd actually snatched the holy sword was someone else.
Hakan, captain of the Leviathan Mercenary Corps hired by Valua Kingdom forces.
'With that stroke of fortune, he mastered the perfected Stella Sword, became an upper Sword Master, and claimed the Mercenary King title.'
Had he known in advance?
That's why he'd swiftly contracted with Valua and dispatched mercs?
"Karyl, what're you mulling over?"
"...Just thinking what to do after this beggar brawl ends."
"Yeah? I'm saving this payout for wedding prep."
"Got a girl? Mill girl Ilene?"
True childhood friend material. Ten years apart, yet their banter remained simple, childish—but enjoyable.
Which only complicated Karyl's mind further.
'Looks like I really regressed to the past.'
The gritty texture of the wall under his fingertips, the chill dawn air filling his nostrils.
Far too vivid for a dream.
And his left eye, lost in this very fortress battle ten years ago, saw perfectly.
Not dreaming or reincarnating after death—this was regression, plain and simple.
'If this is the chance All God gave me...'
He'd seize it.
And make no regrets!
As Karyl steeled his resolve inwardly, Ralph suddenly peered over the wall.
"What? Something there?"
In lieu of answering, Ralph leveled his musket rifle at the thick dawn fog.
Bang!
"Argh!"
The shot pierced the fog, answered by a scream.
Karyl reflexively rang the watchtower bell to rouse the allies.
Ding ding ding ding!
Detected, the group stealthily approaching through the fog now charged en masse.
Their black rag cloaks shed, revealing their uniforms.
Red coats, black trousers—Vardia Empire soldiers.
Hundreds at a glance.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Bang bang bang! Bang! Bang!
Continental Calendar Year 1525.
Gunfire echoed ceaselessly around the old fortress on the wasteland hill.
Though Empire numbers dominated, the mercenaries—flush with hefty upfront pay—stoutly held the line.
"Fire! Loaded shooters first!"
"Nico, you punk! Quit ducking—shoot back!"
Hundreds of lead bullets whistled through the battlefield shrouded in gunsmoke fog, interspersed with arrows.
Gunpowder weapons, introduced two centuries prior.
Cannons more devastating than any siege engine, muskets wieldable by children—they reshaped warfare.
But Karyl clung to old-school sword and bow.
"Ow, hot! Rifle's overheating!"
Karyl smirked as Ralph blew on his singed hands.
"Told ya why Dad said skip guns, stick to bow."
"Bull—saving on powder, everyone knows."
The tedious firefight dragged on.
Then, as Empire shooting abruptly halted, Karyl recalled something and bellowed.
"All take cover! Incoming cannon!"
"What? For real?"
Ralph peeked at the enemy lines.
When had they closed in?
The wheeled black iron tube belched fire.
Boom! Boom!
KABOOM!
"Ahh! The wall...!"
The battered wall that had weathered countless bullets finally gave under the barrage—one section caved in.
"Hold it! Breach means we're done!"
Palmen Squadron, made of rookies.
The new Leviathan Mercenary Corps sub-unit dispatched to the fortress.
At Captain Palmen's roar, mercs fumbled to fix bayonets or grab axes and maces.
But before they could form a line, the enemy charged—inflicting massive casualties.
Knowing this, Karyl drew his sword and leaped from the wall.
'Passage is narrow anyway. My skills can hold it.'
He rolled twice on landing, then felled the lead Empire soldiers three or four in a flash.
"Turn back. No passage."
Karyl slung his sword casually over his shoulder.
Fuming at his nonchalance, an Empire officer charged with a swing.
"Die, Valua dog... Gah!"
The officer's swordplay was sharp—but no match for Karyl, veteran of superhuman Divine Weapon wars.
Karyl dodged effortlessly and slashed down; the officer's chest split, staining his red coat darker.
"You bastard!"
Enraged soldiers thrust forward with bayonets.
Karyl swept his blade to parry them one by one, then reverse-thrust into vitals.
"Arrrgh!"
"Gurk!"
In a blink, over a dozen sprayed blood and tumbled.
The reinforcements charged bravely but fell to Karyl's sword without exception.
The Empire soldiers lost heart, hesitating and falling back.
A rear commander berated them.
"Quit dawdling! Think he's a Cavalier?"
"O-one merc's rampaging like a demon."
"Idiots! Guns for show? Shoot him full of holes!"
"But our guys are tangled in..."
"Doesn't matter—fire!"
Bang bang bang! Bang!
Dozens of lead slugs poured into the narrow defile.
But the fallen weren't Karyl—they were Vardia Empire troops.
The mercs had descended the wall during Karyl's frenzy and opened fire first.
"Karyl, we're here!"
"Damn idiots—warn before shooting!"
Ralph shrugged at prone Karyl's gripe.
As if to say, you knew and dodged—complain much?
Skirmishes repeated over the bottleneck pass.
Yet the fierce resistance from Karyl and Ralph's mercs forced the Empire to retreat, leaving heaps of corpses.
"Whoa! Empire's running!"
"We won again!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Having repelled the Empire forces, the mercenaries piled sandbags to repair the collapsed wall.
"They'll hit again. Stay sharp—no slacking!"
Under Captain Palmen's nagging, the mercs kept vigilant watch on the enemy.
But Karyl scouted elsewhere.
Off-duty, he secretly rummaged every nook of the fortress.
'Holy Sword Angelica's hidden somewhere underground here...'
Karyl recalled his pre-regression memories.
The banquet right before the clash with Elf Queen Eleanor.
One of Hakan's inner circle, drunk, had let slip to Karyl:
"Hey, Karyl. You were there, right?"
"There where?"
"That old fortress where Valua Kingdom and Vardia Empire had their border spat ten years back. Captain snagged a holy sword from a hidden dungeon there."
"N-no way, for real?"
"Kekeke, straight from the captain. Turned Valua's Sun King and the Empire Emperor into dogs chasing chickens."
If true, a secret passage to an underground dungeon lurked somewhere in the fortress.
'I'll find the holy sword first and shove it right up Hakan's ass!'
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