“My son. Eat some of this.”
“This is medicinal herb, this is poison. Got it?”
“Careful!”
“Run! Hurry!”
“Don’t move a bit and stay here. Okay? I love you. My son.”
“Look. That’s Roan, right? They say his parents all died during the last monster attack, no?”
“Village head. I’m sorry. I have eat and live too.”
“You orphan bastard!
“You’re gonna be a soldier? Lunatic.”
His head felt dizzy.
As if a powerful stream flowed, the old memories tore through his head.
“Just why is that thing so dumb?”
“I tell you there’s no use if you are simply earnest.”
“I told you. I knew that you’ll be thrown away even if you devote yourself like that.”
“I heard that you failed to advance to adjutant again, no?”
“You try giving some bribes too.”
“It’s war again. A disgusting war.”
Following that, numerous battles and wars, veiled strifes and schemes filled his head.
“That Pierce became a noble?”
“They say we’re doing a war with the Estia Empire!”
“They say Pierce became a duke, no?”
“It’s the Grand Commander!”
After that, it was the turn for the memories he had forgotten.
And finally.
“There is a bastard alive here.”
The last memory from the last life.
A steel sword stabbed his chest.
And the memories that started again.
“This bastard of a greenhorn slipping out! You dare to sleep while we are on standby for battle?”
“You really are a coward. This is a safe area. There are no such things as monsters.”
“It’s the Ghost squad.”
“The one that died right now was your underling?”
“I’ll definitely get you to Potter fief, sir.”
“Amaranth Troop march!”
The things he’d experienced until now were painted like a scenery.
And.
“Thi, this isn’t the past! This isn’t the past!”
The death throe he heard right before losing his consciousness echoed through his head.
At that moment.
“Huugh!”
Roan gasped and instantly opened his eyes.
“He, he awoke!”
“The lord woke up!”
Suddenly, thunderous voices exploded out from around him.
“Get the doctor and the priest here!”
“Hurry!”
Soon following, hurried orders fell down.
Although Roan had opened his eyes, he wasn’t yet at a state where his senses were clear.
‘What? What’s going on?’
His entire body felt heavy as a wet cotton.
His ears were stunned and his vision was blurry.
Most of all, he felt dizzy as if the inside of his head was spinning.
Soon, a doctor and a priest ran up and meticulously checked Roan’s state multiple times.
“For now, it’s correct that he has awaken.”
“It seems we’ll just have to watch for now.”
Stories that anyone can tell.
“Do move aside sirs.”
Austin pushed the doctor and the priest and came up to Roan’s side.
“My lord. Have you come to? I’m Austin, sir.”
It was a desperate voice.
Following behind, Harrison, Chris, and Brian swarmed up to the bedside.
“I’m Harrison, sir.”
“I’m Chris, sir.”
“I’m Brian, sir.”
The other retainers were also the same.
They all looked at Roan with worried expressions.
Battle-tested warriors.
Majority of them were comrades that went through countless twists and turns together with Roan since the time he was a rank and file spearman.
‘Uum.’
Roan effortfully swallowed the groan that filled up to his throat.
As the blurry vision came back, the faces of his retainers that were surrounding him were seen more clearly little by little.
Faces that seemed like they might immediately burst into tears.
No, the ones like Harrison whose hearts were soft in the first place were already shedding tears.
Roan unknowingly made a faint smile.
“He, he smiled! He smiled!”
Everyone including Austin flustered about.
Harrison brat too wiped his tears with the back of his hand and made a bright smile. (
Collecting his breath, Roan arduously spat out the words that filled up to his throat.
Ten days.
The words Roan, who regained his consciousness ten days after receiving the sudden attack at the mansion’s garden was,
“Harrison. Something bad will happen to you if you cry then laugh.” (t/n footnote: This is basically an old teasing phrase in Korea where you say ‘something bad will happen if you cry and then smile’.)
*****
“During the time, his majesty the king has sent famous doctors and priests, and Prince Simon and nobles sent countless medicines.”
Austin briefly explained the events that had happened within the last ten days.
‘Even his majesty the king’s own doctors and priests came by, you say.’
Even so, there had been no particular improvement.
The retainers including Austin, in case Roan’s health may suddenly slip away, abstained from eating and drinking and stayed up all nights at his side.
The doctors and priests were also frustrated.
Because the state of Roan’s body was extremely normal.
There was not a single reason why he couldn’t awaken.
Roan, who couldn’t come to without even a clear symptom nor treatment method.
The retainers could only watch with restless hearts.
“And I awoke in the middle of that, yes?”
Roan faintly smiled and looked around at the many retainers including Austin.
He was talking while still lying down on the bed with just his upper body up.
“Yes. That is correct, sir. I really thought my lord was……khm.”
Austin couldn’t keep continue his words.
The end of his voice trembled and something hot kept rising up.
He thought Roan was going to die just like that.
His eyeballs hotly heated up.
A look as if thick tears would immediately fall down.
‘Oops.’
Inwardly and slightly shocked, Roan quickly changed the subject.
“What happened to the ones who assaulted me?”
Chris answered as if he had been waiting.
“We’ve caught them for now, sir, but……”
A perplexed look was clear on his face.
“For some reason, they are all in a madden state, sir.”
Brian continued off the rest of the words.
“At first, we interrogated them rather harshly believing that they were acting, but it’s been revealed that they have actually gone mad, sir.”
Since many doctors and priests had checked, it should be an undoubtable truth.
Roan slightly creased his brows.
‘The attackers all lost their minds……?’
On the other hand, his body.
‘Has no particular fault.’
His mana hole went without saying, and even the amount of mana accumulated had absolutely no difference.
Merely.
‘I feel excessively fresh.’
Even though he had lost his consciousness for a long time, the inside of his head felt incredibly clear and fresh.
A feeling as if a headache he suffered for a long time had cleanly been cured.
‘It’s a feeling as if a fog has been clea……’
The moment his thoughts reached that point.
‘Kuk!’
Suddenly, he felt an intense headache.
A pain like a needle was stabbing his head.
‘This is the pain I felt during that attack!’
Roan unconsciously gritted his teeth.
A situation where he didn’t knew if he might soon lose his mind.
At that instant.
Paat!
A light flashed in front of his eyes.
Simultaneously, incredibly many and complicated memories floated up on their own.
‘Memories from when I was young? My parents? This is before entering the army, this is the battle of Ale Gorge……’
Clear memories, hazy memories, forgotten memories.
The memories, meshing together, tangled up complexly.
‘Kuuk.’
With the memory of steel sword stabbing in his chest, the time began to run backwards.
The memories started again from the Rose Battalion.
‘It’s the memories of my second life.’
Memories much clearer than those of the first life.
Numerous memories rapidly flew by one after another.
The memories reached to the point when he was being attacked in the mansion’s garden.
‘Is this the end?’
When such thought entered his mind.
An explosion rang out within his head.
Boom!
Simultaneously, a completely unfamiliar and bizarre memories filled his head.
Even so, they didn’t feel repulsive.
As if they were originally Roan’s memories, they naturally continued and opened again.
But one thing certain was,
‘These aren’t my memories.’
Unknowable memories that wasn’t his own continued on for a long time.
Even Roan, who at first greatly panicked, now found his calm.
Rather, he meticulously perused and looked at the unfamiliar memories full of interesting things.
‘This is……’
Each different and unfamiliar memories opened up five times in a row.
Only then, Roan was able to realize whose memories were inside his head.
‘So they’re the bastards who assaulted me.”
Shockingly, the attackers’ memories were saved inside Roan’s head.
No, not at a simple level of being saved, they were absorbed completely as Roan’s own.
Thanks to that, it wasn’t so difficult to grasp their identities.
‘The identities of the ones who attacked me were hexers. They tried to search through my memories and then turn me into a doll afterwards.’
The surprising point was the person who gave such order.
‘Duke Bradley Webster.’
The light in Roan’s eyes calmly sank.
At that instant, the continuing memories reached their end.
Simultaneously.
Paat!
A light once again flashed in front of his eyes.
“Huu.”
A long sigh flowed out through the gap between the slightly parted lips.
“What is it, sir?”
Austin and the numerous retainers asked with worried expressions.
Roan, with a stiffly hardened expression, looked at Austin.
Suddenly, one memory floated up within his head.
‘Austin. The day we first met, he walked from the camp’s west, picked a fight with Pierce and Glenn, then slantly stood facing me.’
He clearly remembered the situation at the time.
It wasn’t that he remembered since before.
At this very moment, he remembered the old memory he had forgotten.
That wasn’t all.
‘After ten days from now, a small outbreak of monsters will arise in the Pidel region.’
The events of the future that he had dimly known, no, the small and unremarkable events that he had forgotten completely floated up clearly.
‘The memories that were asleep must have all awaken thanks to the hexer bastards.’
A misfortune turned into a blessing.
Roan made a bitter smile.
Inside his head, countless informations and memories repeatedly floated up and sank down without a break.
“My lord?”
“My lord. Are you alright, sir?”
Because of Roan’s somehow blank looking expression, the core retainers asked in worried voices.
Roan cheerfully smiled and nodded his head.
“Ah, hmm. I’m fine.”
As he collected his breath, the inside of his head that was complexly storming also found its calm.
‘Then what exactly is the reason the hexer bastards lost their minds……?’
First, he had to check that point.
Roan’s gaze turned towards Chris.
“Then have we not grasped the attackers’ identities?”
The naturally starting question.
“That is so for now, but it isn’t as if there aren’t any possibilities, sir. Because they kept muttering the same words during the interrogation process, we are separately checking that part, sir.”
“Same words?”
When Roan asked back, Austin quickly stepped in.
“They were bizarre words that we simply couldn’t understand, sir. For now, we wrote them down as they sound and sent them to President Clay. Together with my lord’s symptoms, sir. It should soon be about time for the contact to come……”
His gaze naturally headed towards Chris.
Chris faintly smiled as he nodded his head.
“Coincidentally, we just received the news that the reply has arrived and an agent has went outside.”
“Good.”
Roan responded shortly and formed a smile.
“What were the words you said they kept muttering?”
He might be able to suppose the reason why they went mad.
“That’s……”
Chris rummaged through his clothes and took out a small notebook.
“Umm. We’re not sure what they meant, but they were certainly pronunciations like this, sir.”
Very slowly, he exactly pronounced each and every word.
“Venepi Venepi Tempes Inane Legresus.”
As soon as his words ended.
‘Kuuk.’
Roan creased his forehead again and gritted his teeth.
Once again, a sharp pain tore through the inside of his head.
At that instant, the hexers’ memories floated up within his head.
‘Venepi Venepi Tempes Inane Legresus. This is a spell controlling space and time?’
Roan widely opened his eyes.
The words the hexers muttered while insane was a certain spell.
And of that, it was a spell of controlling space and time passed down like a legend and said that no one had attempted nor succeeded.”
‘Control the space and time?’
Roan quickly groped through his memories.
It was as expected.
To control space and time was.
‘To return.’
Returning.
If he was like most people, he would have snort saying it’s an absurd story.
But Roan was different.
Since he himself was a one who directly experienced a return.
‘Let’s see……’
Amongst the hexers’ memories, Roan pulled out the information concerning the spell controlling space and time.
‘To execute the spell that controls space and time, one needs the god metal Astrom as a medium. But this Astrom is only minable from the Golden Dragon Lord Europas’s lair.’
Roan read on the memories inside his head as if reading a book.
‘Golden Dragon Lord Europas?’
There was a memory of hearing, and seeing it.
‘Right. I saw it in a book.’
It was definitely a story he saw at the Rinse Palace Library.
‘Grand Commander’s Baton.’
The unique rank that was temporarily used only when the Rinse Kingdom was set in a crisis.
‘When the Great Warring Era began, Pierce was appointed to the Grand Commander’s rank.’
The old memory, the memory of the future floated up.
The object which was alike the Grand Commander’s mark and symbol, and no different than a national hero and a guardian spirit, was the very Grand Commander’s Baton.
It was said that on the top of the Grand Commander’s baton lies the gem that the Rinse Kingdom’s founding king, Norman Von Rinse, received from the Golden Dragon Lord Europas as a present.
A feeling of one’s head clearing in an instant.
‘Perhaps that baton’s gem is Astrom?’
It was something plentily possible.
Around the time his thoughts were getting a bit deeper.
“My lord?”
He heard Chris’s voice.
It was because Roan was only blankly blinking his eyes without a word.
“Ah, hmm. Yes.”
Roan nodded his head a moment later and formed an awkward smile.
‘Right now isn’t the time to grope at something like memories.’
He couldn’t feign indifference while leaving aside his retainers who were as tired as they could be from looking after his health for ten whole days.
How long must had passed.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Sound of knocking was heard.
Soon, the door opened and a young soldier brought a thick letter.
He was the Agens’ agent who went to bring Clay’s reply.
Chris received the reply and directly passed it to Roan without daring to open it.
Rip.
The sealed envelope opened.
Roan opened Clay’s letter carefully and read it.
“Hmm.”
Instandly, a quiet groan flowed.
Although the letter’s content was significantly long, the core content was written at the head.
< Venepi Venepi Tempes Inane Legresus. Although I too can’t remember exactly, the strange words you’ve written to me are similar to a sinister spell appearing in old books. It’s quite similar to the ones the beings often called hexers used, and…… >
Roan closely pored over each and every word.
< If the attackers’ identities are actually hexers, and if the lord has been done in by a sinister hex, it isn’t easy for the state to improve with regular doctors and priests’ treatments. Even if he were to perhaps regain his consciousness, the possibility of him having become mentally crippled or insane is high. Looking at the precedents, there are cases at times where one overcomes the hex’s restraint and instead earns a unique ability as a misfortune turned into a blessing, but this is especially rare…… >
Clay was Clay.
Using those short information as a basis, he was leading a deduction that was almost close to perfection.
‘He certainly is an incredible guy.’
He couldn’t help but exclaim at his abilities once anew.
Furthermore.
< Everyone. I will look for the lord’s treatment method starting now. Everyone, do please look after your bodies and hearts. Although this is purely my personal opinion, but from seeing how the hexers who attacked the lord have gone insane, it might perhaps be that instead of their hex causing harm to the lord they on the contrary caused a big harm to themselves…… >
Clay was seeing through even the possibility of Roan and the hexers’ position having each reversed.
‘As Clay’s words say, the hexer bastards and my position has reversed.’
The hexers tried to look inside Roan’s head.
But because of a certain reason, the hex became tangled and they instead handed over their memories to Roan.
‘What could be the reason that their spells became tangled?’
That should then be the same as the reason they went mad.
‘There’s a need to look through the hexers’ memories a bit more slowly.’
Roan neatly folded the letter and passed it to Austin.
“Read it.”
“Yes. Understood, sir.”
Austin answered shortly, then closely read the letter’s content together with the many retainers.
Thanks to that, Roan was also able to have a time to separately think.
‘The inside of my head is full of all sort of spells even besides the hexers’ own personal memories.’
All of a sudden, a curiosity arose.
Roan oddly twisted the fingers of his hands.
‘Could I also use the hexes?’
When he fumbled through the hexers’ memories, the possibility of being such was plentily high.
But the problem was the divine power that was surely needed to use the hexes.
Right now, Roan was at a state where the thing called divine power was nonexistent.
‘Let’s see……’
Roan stared at the retainers who were completely occupied from perusing the letter’s content and pushed through the deeper and more secretive memories.
And finally, he found a very short and meaningless hex that he could use even without the divine power.
‘Should I try it?’
Roan twisted and crossed his left forefinger and middle finger, then softly wrapped them with his right hand.
‘Sterrnumen.’
A quietly murmuring sound.
No, a hex.
At the same time.
“Achoo!”
Austin, who was reading Clay’s letter, burst out a sneeze.
“Ehey. Vice Legion Commander. You’re spraying spit all over the place.”
Harrison tapped and dusted his clothes and creased his brows.
Austin, with a bashful expression, raised his hands.
“Sorry. My nose was suddenly itchy, so……’
He tilted his head for a moment, then focused again at the letter’s contents.
‘It succeeded.’
At that sight, Roan inwardly cheered.
A peculiar smile floated up on his face.
It was a smile almost like that of a young child who got a new toy.
The retainers, from focusing on the contents of Clay’s letter, didn’t see that face.
‘A misfortune really has turned into a blessing.’
Roan tightly clenched his fist.
The restoration of his old memories, the reason he came back to the past, the hexers’ abilities.
For having slept for ten days like a dead man, the things he earned were simply too many.
‘Then, should I slowly go back to the fief?’
Due to the unexpected issue, the returning to the fief was delayed longer than he had thought.
Now was the phase to quickly go back down to the fief and prepare for the next.
Of course.
‘I should go visit the princess before that.’
Roan had words that he wished to tell Aily.
The words he wished to say before it became even later.
For some reason, his heart raced and his face blushed brightly.
At that moment, Austin, who had completely checked out the letter’s contents, panicked with a startle-shocked expression.
“My lord! Are you okay, sir? You aren’t hurt anywhere, sir, no? Your face is red!”
< New Ability (4) > end.