Inside the main conference hall on the second floor of the Daphne Viscounty’s fortress, right in the center.
While the key figures of the house were all seated, Commander Mulgybson spoke with his head deeply bowed, wearing a sullen expression.
“I am deeply sorry, Lord… It is entirely my fault.”
At that, a man seated at the head of the table furrowed his brow.
A middle-aged man with sea-colored hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and a large scar over one eye, giving him a solemn appearance.
Cobalt Daphne, the current head of the Daphne Viscounty, opened his mouth to speak.
“Hardin… has fainted?”
“Yes. I heard this happened because the Young Master said he would demonstrate the real Wave Swordsmanship to the knights.”
“The real Wave Swordsmanship? What are you talking about?”
“I heard the Young Master said so himself. I have yet to grasp the details fully…”
When Commander Mulgybson trailed off, Cobalt asked again.
“What did the physician say?”
“Fortunately, I heard there is no danger to his life. He should wake up soon. However…”
“However?”
“There was a report from Gadolph that the Young Master has been acting a bit strange…”
“Acting strange? What do you mean by that?”
Mulgybson hesitated, unable to answer right away, then carefully opened his mouth.
“I heard it seems he has lost part of his memory. He forgot even the name of the house and was saying strange things. Perhaps his insistence on demonstrating Wave Swordsmanship was part of that…”
“….”
Cobalt’s forehead creased even deeper.
Mulgybson lowered his head again and hurriedly added.
“I am sorry, my lord. I will see to it that Manton, who was in charge, is disciplined separately…”
“There is no need for that.”
“…Pardon?”
“Wasn’t this an accident Hardin caused on his own? Manton bears no blame, so what discipline are you speaking of?”
“But…”
Cobalt lowered his voice, making it sound even more solemn.
“Make sure no one gets needlessly involved and disrupts the training.”
“…Understood.”
When Commander Mulgybson bowed his head again, a chilly silence filled the room.
‘As expected of the lord.’
‘He is so composed.’
To make such a swift judgment about what is truly important now…
The retainers nodded as if in agreement with the lord’s decision.
With a hardened expression, Cobalt thought to himself.
‘Hardin…’
The Young Master, Hardin Daphne.
Once a child who had been called the pride of the house, the very light of the family.
He had an innate understanding of the principles of the sword, awakened his mana at a young age, and was always bright and full of life—that was Hardin.
Cobalt too had been convinced that once Hardin came of age, he would restore the lost Wave Swordsmanship and someday become the shining hope of the house.
Until that incident… occurred.
[My lord… The Young Master can no longer use mana.]
A voice echoed in his mind like an auditory hallucination.
Deep wrinkles formed on Cobalt’s face, and a bitter taste welled up inside him.
Though there had been some rough and excessive tendencies, he was still, without doubt, a child of considerable brilliance.
But because of “that incident…” After losing his mana, Hardin had only continued to wither away.
Even to the point that…
[Kyaaaaaaa!]
[Bring me some liquor, you bastards!]
He had struck the servants and harassed the territory’s people.
He drank almost every day, never having a day when he was sober.
Cobalt knew well that many called Hardin trash, a wastrel, and worse, and he had never been able to refute them.
Because it was all true.
If only “that incident” hadn’t happened—if only that event hadn’t occurred.
Would Hardin have become like this? Would a slightly different present have awaited them?
Just as his thoughts tangled like a knotted skein of thread—
“Father.”
“Hm?”
A voice broke in.
“Shall we continue the meeting?”
A bespectacled boy with a face covered in freckles raised his hand lightly, smiling with his eyes.
He was Malion Daphne, the third son of the house and the steward overseeing all affairs of Daphne.
“…Yes, pay me no mind and proceed.”
“Understood, I will.”
Malion adjusted his glasses and continued, the corners of his lips rising.
“Regarding… the demands from the Calpion Viscounty, we need to establish a response plan. But first, I’d like you to report on the findings from the past week.”
“Ah, yes. First, I will report the intelligence gathered from the information guild in Farend.”
Under Malion’s direction, the retainers began raising their hands one by one to continue the meeting.
‘Hardin…’
But Cobalt barely listened, his troubled face turning toward the window now and then.
‘My lord.’
Mulgybson looked at Cobalt with a pained expression.
How much time had passed like that?
“Father?”
“…”
“Father, are you listening?”
“Ah, you called for me?”
At Malion’s repeated call, Cobalt snapped out of his thoughts and turned his head.
“I believe that should conclude today’s family council.”
“Ah, yes. Good work. All of you may go.”
“Is there nothing else you wish to say?”
“…No. Nothing else.”
At that, Malion’s brow twitched slightly as he replied.
“Yes, understood.”
Then, returning to his smiling expression, he gathered the parchments stacked on the desk and rose from his seat.
“Thank you for your efforts.”
The retainers all stood up at once and filed out of the room, leaving only the lord and Mulgybson behind.
Cobalt slowly rose from his seat and asked.
“Mulgybson, where is Hardin now?”
“Most likely… resting in his room. Shall we go see him?”
“We should.”
With heavy steps, Cobalt slowly walked out the door.
A deep shadow fell across his solemn face.
At that time, in one room.
Hardin sat on the bed with his arms crossed, stroking his chin with a troubled look.
After being struck(?) by Manton and fainting, he had been dragged to this room. Following the physician’s advice, he had holed up here to recuperate.
Of course, that didn’t change the fact that his head still felt like it was about to split open.
“Phewww, what a goddamn shitty situation.”
After I had slain the Demon King and awakened 80 years later, the family had fallen into ruin, and the secret swordsmanship manual I created had been lost.
Even that alone was enough to drive me mad, but on top of it all…
‘Of all things to reincarnate into, why did it have to be this worthless trash?’
Never mind that this body was pathetically weak—if I couldn’t even use mana, then what the hell was I supposed to do?
Feeling as if my chest were being crushed, I pressed hard on my temples.
At that moment—
Creeeaaak!
“Young Master, are you feeling any clearer?”
The door opened, and Gadolph slipped in carrying a tray with an apple and a fruit knife.
Waving a hand, I said,
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just fainted for a moment.”
“Phew, thank goodness. Still, the physician said you must rest completely, so please relax.”
Gadolph naturally sat down on a chair and began peeling the apple.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye, then asked,
“Gadolph. Why has our family ended up like this?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
I shook my head and went on.
“Why has our family become such a bunch of beggars? We were prosperous once.”
“Are you still not in your right mind? Should I call the physician back…”
“No, just explain it to me. I’m saying I don’t remember very well.”
“Are you sure you’re truly all right?”
“I said I’m fine. Hurry up.”
Gadolph rubbed his chin, as if gathering his thoughts, then asked,
“How shall I explain it? In detail and at length? Or summarized briefly…”
“Short and concise.”
Gadolph smiled faintly and spoke.
“The knights’ order was the cause of the ruin.”
“…That’s it?”
“Yes.”
At that, I slowly rose from the bed and walked up to Gadolph.
Thwack!
“Ow! Why—why are you hitting me?”
I rapped my knuckles against his head and said,
“That’s way too short!”
“…But you said to keep it short?”
“Not that short—use some sense, will you? At least tell me enough that I can understand something!”
Gadolph let out a sigh and continued.
“You know the history that 80 years ago, while trying to stop Shagrath, our family’s knights and the entire legion were annihilated… correct?”
“I know. I know it very well.”
I mean, I was the man who came from that time.
As I nodded, Gadolph continued.
“I understand that ever since then, the family has been in continuous decline.”
“You’re saying we fell because of that incident? We didn’t recover afterward?”
“Yes, I heard the knights’ order suffered irreparable losses.”
“Losses on that scale… our family could have rebuilt.”
“Rebuilt how?”
“We had plenty of money, the eldest—no, Valter—was still alive, and our swordsmanship manuals remained.”
As I rattled off questions, Gadolph tilted his head curiously and asked,
“Young Master, you sound as if you actually lived 80 years ago?”
“Stop spouting nonsense and answer.”
“Hmmm.”
Gadolph picked up a piece of the apple he’d been peeling and slipped it into his mouth, then spoke again.
“Well, what you said isn’t wrong. But I heard there were several problems afterward.”
“What kind of problems?”
“Well, first of all… I heard the swordsmanship manual you spoke of was lost.”
“Huh? Why would that disappear?”
“…Apparently, the storage vault caught fire.”
Hardin’s eyes went wide.
“What? A fire in the storage vault?”
“Yes, you said so yourself before. That’s why the ‘damned’ manual is no longer with the family.”
“No, how did a fire break out? In that critical vault?”
“How should I know? It happened before I was even born.”
So that was it? That’s why the knights were swinging swords with no real foundation?
‘How can everything be this twisted…’
He was momentarily at a loss for words.
Pressing his palm to his forehead, Hardin continued.
“Even so… there had to be at least a few inheritors left.”
“Well… all of them passed away too.”
“Huh? Why did they?”
“I heard that after defeating Shagrath, they all died here and there in unfortunate ways…”
“Died… of what?”
“I never heard the details, so I don’t know exactly.”
The inheritors died? There were at least three or four of them left.
‘Does this even make sense?’
Heat flushed through Hardin’s head.
He rubbed around his temples for a long while before asking again.
“What were the other nobles doing all that time?”
“What do you mean?”
“The vassal families. There were plenty of other nobles nearby, weren’t there? When the demons kept coming, none of them helped?”
“I heard a few did lend support, but it was too small in scale. Supposedly because of pressure from the other Seven Great Houses or something.”
“Pressure? From those Seven Great House bastards?”
“Yes, you said so yourself.”
Hardin’s brow creased deeply.
All except for Bloodfoot, the eastern barbarians, the remaining five houses…
He knew well that their relations had been bad.
The power the Grand Blue Knights once held.
How they used it to strengthen the Imperial Court. Those bastards had always found it intolerable.
But even so—no matter how much they hated them—Hardin’s family had stopped the Demon King.
They had stepped up in place of those bastards, and this was how they repaid it?
His insides seethed, and the lines on his forehead refused to fade.
‘If they had any decency as human beings, if they knew we sacrificed ourselves, how could they do this?’
Hardin pressed his finger hard between his brows, then exhaled a sigh.
In the end, the cause of all this was singular.
‘The fall of the knights.’
The aftermath of the Grand Blue Knights sacrificing themselves to bring down Shagrath.
If they hadn’t stepped up, if they hadn’t insisted on pride and honor and simply withdrawn… the family wouldn’t have ended up like this.
Grit.
His teeth clenched on their own.
At the same time, an emotion naturally filled my head.
‘Father… did you really have to take up that cause?’
When no one else stepped forward, we were the ones who rose to defeat Shagrath and protect the common people in the name of a noble cause.
Because of that damned ideal, the family lost its strength, lost Wave Swordsmanship, and in the end, ended up here.
An undeniable collapse.
Even with my eldest brother alive, it must have been impossible for him alone to stop it all.
Feeling hollow, I lowered my head.
‘Bastards…’
The Flames of Ignima.
The Light of Divinity.
The Gold of Bower.
The Shadows of Shader.
The Mystery of Quiznos.
Those five ducal houses, plus the wild Bloodfoot we had once been close to and the Fabian Imperial Court.
Just imagining how they either crushed Daphne or sat back and watched the ruin unfold while laughing made my clenched teeth ache.
If I could, I would have rushed over right now, grabbed them by the collar, and shouted.
Why the hell did you do that to us?
But reality was pathetic.
‘What can I possibly do right now?’
A body that couldn’t even use mana, and a family already in ruin.
Even if I had the experience and knowledge of the past, was that really enough to stand before those bastards? Was that even possible?
Anger and the urge to run away.
Those two feelings clashed fiercely inside me.
“Young Master? Are you all right?”
“…You’re asking if I’m all right?”
Gadolph looked at me with a puzzled face, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer. I only shut my eyes tight.
And then, all of a sudden, a memory from the past flickered through my mind.
[Varlach, don’t forget that if I die, you will have to take responsibility for this house.]
[Hey, what kind of ominous nonsense is that? You should just live for a thousand years and remain the head yourself. I’m already exhausted to death just doing what I’m doing now.]
[Who knows… Someday, you too will have to lead the family.]
[Stop with that unlucky talk, will you.]
Idle words we had exchanged over drinks by the seaside.
That conversation replayed in my mind.
A bitter smile came to my face.
‘Did you… say that because you somehow foresaw this would happen, Brother?’
Really, how unlucky. Truly…
I clenched my fist tight and let out a long sigh.
‘If I’m going to rebuild this family… what do I have to start with?’
What I was best at.
What would most help the family grow again.
What could become the greatest strength of the house.
The answer was obvious.
‘The Grand Blue Knights.’
Men chosen regardless of their birth, selected only for talent and skill.
Those were the ones I had personally trained, the order that had once been called the strongest in the Empire.
That was what the family lost—and in the end, restoring the knights had no choice but to be the top priority.
Besides, this… was what I was best at.
I exhaled and opened my eyes.
If there was one problem, it was the current state of my body.
In the end, the first thing I had to do was clear.
‘First, restoring my mana takes priority.’
Biting down hard on my lip, I focused all my determination into my gaze.