'...Is it over?'
It had been a life where luck had favored me, in its own way.
Born an orphan who never even knew his parents' faces, reaching this position could only be described that way.
I had no complaints. As long as I could elevate the status of the family I'd newly sworn loyalty to, I was willing to do anything.
Anyway, thanks to the merits I'd earned in following them, I was about to be granted freedom and, for the first time, the right to live for myself.
'...So it ends like this after all.'
Dark, viscous blood leaked from my abdomen. I could feel my body gradually cooling.
"It's hard to watch the end of a cherished hunting dog with my own eyes."
My gaze couldn't reach the source of the voice. My head was smashed into the floor, and my body, betrayed by foul play, refused to move.
All I could see from this height were the traitor's filthy toes—like a scene confirming my own plight.
I didn't even need to check to know who had done this to me.
"Siek... Aintz..."
The lord of the family who had taken me in, once as close to a benefactor as it got.
"Know that I regret it too. A master can't just release a hunting dog without responsibility."
With those words, a sword was aimed between my eyes.
This was the item that had elevated the mere count family of Aintz to a grand ducal house recognized by the empire.
It also symbolized the time I'd devoted to the family.
"Enough chatter. Rebel Kroha."
Siek Aintz raised his sword like that.
It was just a fabricated charge. I'd never committed treason.
I knew they'd been preparing to dispose of me long before this.
The cause lay in this thing gripped in my hand—a jet-black sword blade.
Kali.
The keepsake from parents whose faces I never knew, and my beloved weapon through countless battlefields.
I knew it.
That Kali held the same value as the sword Siek aimed at me—a divine artifact.
That if I'd handed Kali over to Siek, who had noticed it, I might have survived.
An overambitious weapon for someone unqualified like me.
But I couldn't let it go in the end. Even if it led to death, I didn't want to abandon myself like that.
"Live according to your station in your next life."
Siek's low whisper brushed my ear.
It was unjust. But all I could do was share my boiling emotions with my beloved weapon.
No, if there's a next life... I won't die in such a pathetic way.
With that futile wish, Kali's blade flickered...
Aintz's hunting dog, Kroha, met death without any reversal.
...Or so it should have been.
What brushed Kroha's nose was air warm with sunlight.
Had he ever slept so peacefully even once?
Kroha's life had started on the streets, far from anything stable.
'...Am I dead?'
The only explanation for his intact thoughts was the afterlife he'd dismissed as superstition—or nothing else.
He couldn't easily open his heavy eyes. No matter how harsh a life, no one faced death without fear.
It didn't take long to realize that fear was unfounded.
I'm alive.
With that near-certain thought, his eyes opened.
The ceiling that entered his vision wasn't the kind Kroha knew.
He wanted to sit up and assess the situation, but lingering injury made it hard.
'...Hold on.'
Memories chained together.
Discovering the family's plan to eliminate him, being framed for treason and becoming a fugitive, ultimately slain by Siek.
Everything came into sharp focus, bringing anger and emptiness.
At least he wasn't too bad off to speak.
Kroha took a deep breath and opened his mouth to spew curses.
"Abooboo!"
Right, abooboo.
...Abooboo?
Aftereffect? No, not quite.
The voice from his mouth wasn't a grown man's. It was like a baby's cry...
Huh?
Only then did Kroha grasp the odd disconnect he'd felt.
The unusually large room, a body too weak to even roll over, and a cute mobile dangling over the bed where he lay.
'...What the hell?'
His barely turned gaze revealed tiny, pudgy arms and hands. Not a trace of muscle.
Impossible to believe they were his.
"Abooboo!"
A loud, panicked babble burst out. Not being able to speak was this frustrating.
"Awake already?"
A young woman's voice he'd never heard rang out.
It took Kroha seconds to realize it was directed at him.
"Too bad, but it's still bedtime."
The woman who appeared said that, hugging Kroha and singing a lullaby.
The scene was clue enough that she was the baby's birth mother.
It was warm. Like melting into the conveyed heat.
I've got to stay alert.
Judging so, Kroha could only thrash violently. But it wasn't enough to escape.
What's with this flawless woman!
Not a snap judgment. A lifetime on battlefields let him spot it.
She soothed the baby without showing openings—a habit of the well-trained.
Later, he spotted the emblem on the door.
That's...
No mistake.
An unforgettable crest. He didn't know why it was here, though.
Unfortunately, before finishing the thought, his mind fogged again.
I just woke up—why so sleepy...
A baby in its mother's arms was defenseless, after all.
Kroha's eyes slowly closed.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"I told you to always say when you're going outside."
In the mansion's garden, bathed in warm sunlight.
There, his mother Anet scolded Kroha with a regretful face.
It had been six years since his reincarnation into this new body.
'Still amazing no matter how I think about it.'
The family Kroha was born into was Frontel.
The empire's absolute power, led by 'Kun Frontel,' called the hegemon of the western continent.
'Coincidence, I guess...'
Though officially under the empire, Frontel was treated as an independent entity.
With great power came many enemies. The representative among them...
Aintz.
The family Kroha had sworn loyalty to in his previous life. He knew better than anyone how the two houses were entangled.
If Frontel weeded out the weak for only the strong to survive, Aintz emphasized the duty of the strong to protect the weak.
With opposing values, friction was inevitable.
'Ha! Unbelievable.'
At first glance, Aintz's ideology seemed flawless. But Kroha couldn't deny they were prettily packaged lies.
'Protect and save? What nonsense.'
By now, it was just a grand excuse to control the strong and manipulate the empire.
He remembered the dirty deeds Aintz, the relatively weaker grand ducal house, committed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Frontel.
'If only I could turn back time.'
That bred his aversion. He'd contributed to it himself, after all.
The turning point was when Aintz ascended to grand ducal status. Siek's order was still etched in Kroha's mind.
'Assassinate Kun Frontel.'
Absurd even now.
Yet Siek's plan proceeded.
Aintz had secured influence and backers in becoming grand dukes.
But naturally, it failed.
Most dispatched knights perished like flies, and even Kroha, the empire's sharpest fang, lost an arm to Kun Frontel and was defeated.
'A foregone conclusion.'
He hadn't known then that even that was part of Siek's scheme.
Kun Frontel surviving didn't spare his family unscathed.
Afterward, Frontel—deemed an uncontrollable threat—was stripped of the divine artifact granted as grand dukes.
'Still pisses me off.'
No different from what happened to Kroha. It didn't matter that Frontel was on the receiving end.
That was why he saw the current situation as opportunity.
-Why is my name Kroha?
A question to his mother when he started talking. He'd long wondered why he kept his previous life's name.
-It's the name of a knight acknowledged by the family head. Oh, this is a secret, so don't tell anyone, shh!
The unexpected answer had credibility.
Frontel children must receive names from the family head per custom.
Of course, Kun Frontel was just eccentric. Valuing only martial prowess.
'Wait just a bit, Siek... I'll correct that undeserved status of yours.'
This place was perfect.
...Though his current reality was too frail for grand dreams.
"You should answer."
Anet's voice snapped Kroha from his reverie.
"The weather was too nice..."
His subdued reply darkened Anet's face. Acting like a child wasn't so hard now.
"...Right. You're at that playful age."
Almost to herself. Then she hugged Kroha tightly. It felt like someone gripped his heart—a feeling unknown in his previous life.
"No need to worry so much. See, I'm fine."
"Then come in after exactly ten minutes?"
"Yes. Sounds good."
No more talk. Confirming Kroha's mature expression, Anet returned inside.
Overly worried. But Kroha didn't mind much.
No one had ever cared this much about him in either life.
'Still, I need to deal with this soon.'
Kroha looked at his palm.
A sensation like something draining in real time. Not imagination—mana meant to stay in his dantian was fracturing.
All humans instinctively condense mana in their bodies, like breathing.
Mana was a living being's driving force.
But Kroha had a defect there.
No core.
A congenital constitution rejecting innate mana, called Dissolving Ice—a disease that slowly broke its victims.
Indeed, Kroha was excessively frail compared to peers.
Chills even in sunlight, tiring at the slightest movement.
Afflicted Kroha was a precarious child who might breathe his last anytime.
'Not happening.'
This life had much to do. One meaningless death was enough.
But Dissolving Ice was a rare continental disease. No standard cure.
'...Or so it's known.'
Kroha knew a way. He'd overcome it in his previous life too.
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