Prologue
“Vice Commander, Sigmund.”
My superior and commander, Arwin Messiah, called my name with a grave expression.
She was the eldest daughter of the Grand Ducal House of Messiah, a genius blessed with extraordinary talent in swordsmanship, and the one considered most likely to become the next Grand Duke.
“Have I ever wronged you in some way?”
“No.”
“Then did you harbor some personal grievance against me?”
“Not that either. You were an excellent superior, Commander.”
“I see. Then why?”
The Commander suddenly coughed up blood.
Bright red blood dripped from my sword, which had pierced straight through her chest.
“That is…….”
“An order from the First Young Master…… am I right?”
I did not answer.
No, I could not.
But the Commander nodded as though that alone was enough.
“To think he would use you for something like this. Truly, that man is vicious beyond measure.”
“Please do not forgive me.”
I had served at her side for no small amount of time as her vice commander, so I knew very well just how good a person she was.
The Commander gave a bitter smile.
“How could I resent a dagger that has been stripped of its will?”
“……You knew?”
“I knew at least that the Shadows secretly trained by the First Young Master cannot refuse his orders.”
Shadows.
A specialized assassination group trained by the First Young Master, Schubert Messiah.
I was one of those Shadows as well.
“You must be Number One. The Shadow said to possess the greatest skill.”
“…….”
“It seems you cannot answer even that.”
The Commander’s breathing grew weaker.
Her naturally powerful body and immense Aura had kept her alive until now, but she must have finally reached her limit.
I carefully lowered the dying woman to the ground.
It was the least courtesy I could show her as her vice commander.
“Sigmund.”
“Yes.”
“Would you hold my hand?”
“That is…….”
It was not something I had been ordered to do, but as though entranced, I took her hand.
The Commander smiled faintly.
“It is warm.”
FWOOSH!
Blue flames burst from the Commander’s hand as it clasped mine.
“This is…….”
“The Sacred Flame. It is a great divinity carried by every member of Messiah’s bloodline.”
“If you intend to burn me, I do not mind. I was not ordered to stay alive.”
“Haha…… What an inflexible fellow.”
The Sacred Flame originating from the Commander began to wrap around me in an embrace.
“It would be easier if I could hate you, but I simply cannot bring myself to.”
“Why?”
“That much, I cannot tell you.”
The Commander weakly shook her head.
“It is yours now, Sigmund.”
“……What?”
“I do not care how you use this Sacred Flame. Use it however you wish.”
The Commander smiled with relief, as though she had just left her final words to a member of her family.
Why……?
Why would she treat a traitor like me this way?
“I told you just now, did I not?”
The Commander smiled weakly and closed her eyes.
The faint breath that had still lingered within her ceased completely after her final words.
“I…… cannot tell you…….”
“…….”
I laid the Commander’s corpse neatly on the ground and closed her eyes.
“Please do not forgive me.”
After voicing that nauseating hypocrisy one more time, I rose to my feet.
“Aaaagh!”
“B-Betrayal……? Who the hell did this?!”
Screams rang out from every direction.
They were the sounds of the knights who had followed Commander Arwin Messiah being disposed of.
The ground was covered in corpses.
A man stood at their center.
Beneath the moonlight, his teal eyes gleamed coldly.
Schubert Messiah, the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Messiah and the First Young Master.
“Arwin?”
“She has been dealt with.”
“I see. Well done.”
He nodded and flicked the blood from his sword.
One by one, the Shadows and black mages who followed the First Young Master gathered around him.
“Congratulations on becoming the lord of Messiah, ‘Your Grace’!”
Werner, the leader of the black mages, bowed his head and shouted.
With the position of Grand Duke currently vacant, the First Young Master was now as good as the Grand Duke himself.
“I shall remember your contribution, Werner.”
The First Young Master smiled and lightly patted Werner on the shoulder.
Then his gaze turned toward me.
“And Number One.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Young Master, you say…….”
The corner of the First Young Master’s eye twitched.
SHNK—!
He drove his sword into my shoulder.
“Urgh……!”
“A mere pawn has no business being so insolent. Then again, I suppose that is why you developed such pointless sentiment toward that wench.”
“…….”
“Did you think I would not know? That you tried to resist my order until the very end.”
I had.
It was an order I had not wanted to obey.
Though in the end, I had failed.
“I know you are a useful tool, but a tool that does not obey its master has no reason to exist.”
“If there is something you want, then give me an order.”
“Haha! An order…… an order, you say!”
The First Young Master burst into mad laughter, then glared coldly at me.
“Very well, then. <Kneel.>”
The suggestion took effect, and my body moved on its own as I dropped to my knees.
THUD!
‘Damn it.’
If I could move, I would cut off the First Young Master’s head this instant.
But that was impossible.
‘Am I going to keep obeying the First Young Master’s orders like this?’
That was when it happened.
Something began to burn deep inside my chest.
TWITCH.
“……!”
My right hand moved.
Only slightly, but it moved.
The hand I had clasped with the Commander before she died.
How?
“I never liked how a mere chess piece like you insisted on having pride.”
I let the First Young Master’s words go in one ear and out the other as I focused on the sensation I had just felt.
I could not move freely, but my hand was undeniably moving enough to be visible.
‘Is this the power of the Sacred Flame?’
I did not know the exact principle behind it.
What mattered was that I could move.
As I continued forcing myself to move, I gradually regained control not only of my right hand, but also my left hand and legs.
“Now that Arwin has already been eliminated, I have no further reason to make use of you.”
The First Young Master sneered at me and gave a simple order.
“…….”
I obediently raised my sword to my neck, just as the First Young Master had ordered.
Werner and the other black mages showed no agitation whatsoever.
They merely watched me with expressions that said they had expected this.
They must have already discussed it.
‘Of course.’
My purpose had been fulfilled.
Now I was being disposed of.
The First Young Master had always wanted to kill me in the first place.
He had merely kept me alive because I was useful.
Now that the First Young Master had decided to kill me, there was no ordinary way for me to make it out alive.
Then there was only one option left.
‘Kill the First Young Master.’
Kill him and escape this place.
The instant I decided that, my body moved on instinct.
“H-He moved?!”
“You bastard, how dare a Shad……!”
Werner thrust out an arm and tried to begin casting magic, but my sword was faster.
SLASH—!
Werner’s head flew through the air.
“Werner……! Cast your magic, n…….”
SLASH—!
“S-Stop him! Do not let him get any clo…….”
SLASH—!
The other Shadows hurriedly threw themselves between the First Young Master and me, but it meant nothing.
At last, I reached the First Young Master.
I thrust my sword toward his heart.
But—
SHNK—!
“Guhk!”
A sudden wave of excruciating pain struck me.
I lowered my trembling gaze.
A jet-black spear had pierced through my abdomen.
“Black…… magic?”
“It is a secret black magic art possessed by the Ducal House of Ralke, my mother’s family.”
The First Young Master sneered at me.
“To think you actually broke free of the suggestion. It was only for a moment, but you did surprise me.”
SHNK—!
A second spear pierced through my shoulder.
It was a spear governed by principles no human could understand.
So he had been hiding something like this all along.
“Did a mere Shadow tool truly think it could do anything to me?”
“…….”
“Well, no matter. I shall personally finish you with my own hand.”
The First Young Master raised a third spear.
“……Ha.”
Now that things had come to this, I would stake everything on this single moment.
A vivid, blood-red Aura enveloped my sword, and as a side effect of the overload, my vision was dyed crimson.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“You lunatic!”
The First Young Master belatedly tried to launch the third spear.
But I was just a little faster.
One chance!
SLASH—!
“Aaaaaagh!”
Blood erupted from the First Young Master’s face along with his scream.
My blade had reached him.
But—
‘……Too shallow.’
A sigh escaped me on its own.
If only it had been a little longer…….
“You…… Number One……!”
The First Young Master clutched his right eye and glared at me.
Perhaps because I had poured out every last bit of my life force, I truly had no strength left to move anymore.
Through my fading vision—
‘Ah.’
I saw blue flames flickering.
‘This is…….’
Understanding came naturally.
‘So this was the Sacred Flame the Commander gave me.’
“……how…… bastard…… blue Sacred Flame…….”
The First Young Master shouted as he stared at me, now engulfed in blue flames.
My life must have been fading, because I could no longer hear his words properly.
“……no…… cannot! …… that…… the likes of you…… have……!”
What the hell was he saying?
I gave a faint laugh, lowered my head, and lost consciousness
Chapter. 1
The Grand Ducal House of Messiah.
Selaine, the Grand Duke’s second wife, held her newborn baby in her arms with an utterly exhausted expression.
Perhaps because of the difficult labor, her eyes were filled with tender affection as she gazed at the baby.
“You worked so hard, Lady Selaine.”
“Mhm. I’m truly relieved.”
Selaine stared intently at the baby in her arms for quite some time.
“But the young master isn’t crying?”
“Y-You’re right?”
At her words, Selaine tilted her head as well.
It was certainly strange.
“Emily, there isn’t…… something wrong with him, is there?”
“Of course not.”
The maid reassured Selaine with an expression that told her not to worry.
“Wouldn’t it actually mean the young master has incredible patience? Enough to hold back even his crying!”
“Y-Yes, I suppose so?”
Selaine tried to reassure herself as she gently stroked the child.
“Ah, my child.”
With a gentle expression, Selaine carefully caressed the face of her second child.
“Your name is Sigmund.”
The Second Young Master of the Grand Ducal House of Messiah.
“Sigmund Messiah.”
Even after hearing those words, the child merely stared ahead with wide, clear eyes.
There was no particular reason for it.
He simply could not accept the situation that had just unfolded.
‘What in the world…….’
Shadow Number One, no, Sigmund, who had met his end after being used and discarded by the First Young Master, could only stare blankly ahead at this unbelievable situation.
***
“Ah, how can our young master possibly be this adorable!”
I let out a small sigh as I watched the maid make a fuss over me again today without fail.
“Goo.”
“Eek!”
……Of course, in the maid’s eyes, even that probably looked like I was acting cute.
‘I’m going crazy.’
It had been a week since I was reborn like this.
At first, I had been confused, but by now I had realized that this was reality.
And that I had returned to the past.
But there was still something I could not understand.
‘There was never a Second Young Master in the Grand Ducal House of Messiah…….’
The direct line of the Grand Ducal House of Messiah had only two members.
The First Young Master, Schubert Messiah.
And…….
‘Arwin Messiah.’
The Commander I had served in my previous life.
Those two were the only ones.
Which meant I had been born into the body of someone who had never existed…….
‘I have no idea what happened.’
But since my current situation was reality, I had no choice but to accept it.
It was not a bad thing for me, either.
‘If anything, this is an opportunity.’
In my previous life, the Grand Duke had already gone missing, and after I assassinated Arwin, the First Young Master, Schubert, became the Grand Duke.
But things were different now.
The Grand Duke was still alive and well, while Schubert and Arwin were both still young.
In other words, I could change everything.
Clench.
The moment I thought that, strength instinctively entered my curled fist.
“Oh, are you hungry?”
The maid smiled brightly, picked me up, and handed me to the Second Wife.
“Oh, are you hungry, Sigmund?”
“Goo.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
It was not because I disliked Selaine, my mother in this life.
It was simply difficult to look at her because of my guilt.
I had not personally assassinated the Second Wife, but I had still been an accomplice.
Everyone in this room was a victim of who I had been in my previous life.
There was no way I could remain unaffected.
More than anything…… ‘she’ was in this room too.
“Mother.”
“Ah, aah…….”
A composed voice far too mature for her age.
My body stiffened before I even realized it.
-It is warm.
‘She’ stood before me.
A girl with the golden hair and green eyes that symbolized Messiah.
Arwin Messiah.
“Is this my little brother?”
She bounded over and gently stroked my cheek.
“That’s right.”
The Second Wife nodded with a warm smile.
“Goo.”
“Let’s get along, little brother!”
‘Little brother.’
That’s right.
I had become her little brother.
I had no idea why I had been reborn as the Second Young Master.
But I knew exactly what I had to do.
‘Kill the First Young Master, Schubert, and save the Commander.’