The scene reflected in Gale’s eyes was exactly the same as it had been back then.
If there was one very small difference, it was the sight of himself having escaped the prison and muttering a magic chant.
“Fire.”
“Aaaaagh!!! It’s hot!!”
And the sight of a bandit screaming amid flames that would not go out, his body burned black.
THUD.
When Gale lifted his head and looked around, the remaining bandits merely stood hesitating as they stared at him.
“What are you doing? Not coming at me?”
At Gale’s provoking words, faint murmurs reached his ears.
“Damn it... no one said he was a mage.”
“You go first.”
They shoved one another forward, urging each other to step out.
Watching them, Gale recalled that time.
In his old memories, they had radiated an intimidation so overwhelming it was as though they had ground up and devoured thousands of people alive.
But seeing them now, flustered by a single teenage boy, he could tell just how exaggerated those memories had been.
‘Maybe things will be easier than I thought.’
That was what he was thinking when,
a deep voice sounded from beyond them.
“Move aside.”
A man pushed through the bandit group and appeared.
He had a massive build, as though one were looking at a giant.
The countless scars carved into his exposed skin indirectly spoke of the rough years he had lived through.
At a glance, Gale could tell that this man was the leader of the group.
‘That tattoo....’
Gale’s eyes widened.
A black moon tattoo was etched beneath the man’s right eye.
‘The Black Moon Syndicate?’
The Black Moon Syndicate was a criminal organization infamous throughout the empire.
The reason Gale was shocked at the sight of what was merely a criminal organization was that the Golden Dawn Society stood behind them.
Most people did not know that fact, but Gale, who had once investigated the Golden Dawn Society with Major Reina, knew it well.
Because of the Golden Dawn Society’s nature as an organization that operated beneath the surface, they needed an organization that could display their power outwardly, and the Black Moon Syndicate was one of the dangerous blades they wielded.
Those loyal to the imperial family, or those who refused to join the Golden Dawn Society, often became their main targets.
Judging from Rita’s kidnapping, Gale could guess that her father, Count Orhan, was also connected to them.
‘But they were already moving this far back?’
Gale clenched his fist tightly.
It felt as though matters were growing more complicated than he had expected.
“Damn it, boss! That bastard was a mage!”
The man’s gaze turned toward him.
“Pathetic. To think there are only idiots here who get scared of a brat like that. Someone bring me my sword.”
After a short wait, one of the bandits came running over, panting harshly, carrying a massive greatsword.
“Here it is!”
It looked to be a full two meters long.
The man took the sword and looked at Gale as he spoke.
“It seems you managed a lucky trick, but this is as far as you go. I will put the blood you shed to good use as lubricant.”
When the Black Moon Syndicate man stepped forward, cheers rose from those around them.
“Hehehe. That brat’s as good as dead now.”
“Boss! Just kill him in one blow!”
An unwanted one-on-one confrontation had formed, but Gale, watching it, thought it was actually better this way.
“My name is Kalif. I will grant you the first move. Come when you are ready.”
Gale slowly examined his opponent.
‘Close combat won’t work.’
Gale wrapped mana around his body and formed a Barrier.
Rather than proper magic, it was closer to mana manipulation, but it would block a certain amount of impact from close-quarters attacks.
Then Gale constructed a magic formula.
‘Fireball.’
‘Wind.’
Red and green magic circles rose over Gale’s hands.
“Then here I go.”
When he brought both hands together and cast the spell,
FWOOSH.
a ball of flame filled with heat appeared in the air, then met the wind magic and shot forward at tremendous speed.
BANG!
“…!!”
“Isn’t that... multi-casting?”
The bandits watching were startled,
but smiles soon appeared on their faces.
“Even so. A mage is no match for the boss.”
At that moment, something unbelievable happened before Gale’s eyes.
“Hup!!”
The Fireball that flew toward Kalif’s face was struck by his palm, bounced away, and shot off in the wrong direction.
BOOM—!
The spell bounced off?
As Gale stared at him in shock, Kalif raised the hand he had used to deflect the spell and smiled faintly in satisfaction.
“I knew it already, but its performance is certainly reliable.”
That was when Gale noticed the ring on Kalif’s finger.
Above the golden ring, complex waves of mana were twisted together.
It was a form Gale had seen before.
‘An anti-magic item...?’
They were objects usually worn by high-ranking nobles engaged in commerce or by imperial officials, and the tier of magic they could block differed according to their quality.
Such items were so expensive that he had been doubtful.
‘I can’t believe he has one.’
The fact that the 1st Tier Fireball he had just fired was blocked meant that most of the magic Gale could currently use would not work.
Both close-quarters and long-range attacks had been blocked.
While Gale searched his mind for a breakthrough, Kalif drew his sword back, took a stance, and kicked off the ground.
“Die!”
Kalif closed the distance in an instant.
The massive greatsword swung wide before Gale’s eyes.
Calmly watching the tip of the sword, Gale ducked.
WHOOSH!
The greatsword grazed over his head by a narrow margin, and the instant the blade missed,
Gale did not let the opening slip by and threw himself in with all his strength.
‘Fire Lance.’
A red magic circle rose over Gale’s right hand.
Kalif flinched in surprise and tried to respond by raising his hand, but Gale was a little faster.
BOOM—!!
The Fire Lance caused a massive explosion right in front of Kalif’s face.
Because he had slammed all the mana he could use into it, its explosive power was far greater than that of an ordinary Fire Lance.
“Kgh…!”
The recoil was strong enough to send Gale’s body flying backward.
After rolling across the ground several times and collapsing into a seated position, Gale spat blood from his mouth.
“Khaak... Ptoo!”
There was only one way to break through an anti-magic item.
It was to strike the projectile directly at a place beyond the item’s range of influence.
Knowing that, Gale had caused the explosion right in front of him even though he knew he would be caught in it himself.
Gale wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve and checked Kalif, who was wrapped in explosive smoke.
A brief silence followed.
Then, as the smoke slowly cleared, a voice he did not want to hear reached him.
“You goddamn mage bastard...”
Standing there was Kalif, his face twisted in pain.
There were burns around his face, but he had not suffered a fatal wound.
“That is our boss!!”
Cheers rose from the surrounding bandits.
Kalif said, “Think about it. Did you really think this ring was the only thing I have taken while tormenting those noble bastards?”
Kalif tore off a half-broken necklace.
Damn it.
Gale did not know exactly what that necklace was, but it was certain that it had reduced the impact of Fire Lance.
Gale let out a rough breath.
Every time he breathed, he felt a stabbing pain inside his body.
It was a sign of mana depletion.
Kalif approached him.
Every time his steps touched the ground, Gale’s heart beat in time with them.
Before long, Kalif stood before Gale and looked down at him with cold eyes.
“Your talent is too valuable to kill here. Any interest in joining the bandit group? I will treat you well.”
At his words, a faint smile formed at the corner of Gale’s mouth.
“…You think I’d join?”
Kalif’s face crumpled.
“To kick away my final mercy. It seems your fate ends here.”
Then the sword he raised with all his strength gleamed in the sunlight.
After finally making it back to the past, Gale was about to die like a dog without accomplishing a single thing.
‘Damn it.’
The moment the word give up was about to surface in Gale’s mind,
Kalif shouted,
“Die!!”
Just before the massive greatsword could come crashing down, time stopped once more, and the world was dyed black and white.
[It appears you need power.]
An unpleasant voice burrowed into his ears.
[I told you before. I would grant you power in exchange for your lifespan.]
As Gale stared at Kalif’s sword, frozen before his eyes, he let out a hollow laugh.
“I didn’t expect you to show up like this.”
[If you wish it, I shall grant you the power to overcome this crisis. The price is five years.]
There was no need to think.
A mere five years of lifespan to overcome a crisis of death.
It was almost no different from getting it for free, but the question of why a being with this level of authority was fixated on him made him hesitate to choose.
Gale turned his gaze.
Rita.
If he died here, she would also walk the same future as before.
If two people could live in exchange for five years of time, Gale had no choice but to think it was worth it.
“I have... one condition.”
[Speak.]
“Tell me my remaining lifespan.”
At that, a burning pain surged from his left arm.
“Kgh…!”
When he looked down at his arm, letters like a tattoo were being carved into his snow-white skin.
14,750 DAY
Based on the Imperial Calendar, it was a period close to forty years.
[That is your current lifespan.]
“You said five years?”
They were certainly the days he had left to live, yet once they appeared as numbers, the life they represented felt like nothing much at all.
“I’ll do it. Deal.”
Then the number carved into his arm changed.
12,925 DAY
[The contract is formed. Its duration lasts until you escape this crisis.]
As soon as his words ended, Kalif’s frozen sword bit violently into the ground.
***
When the sword he had swung down with all his strength struck the ground, Kalif felt a question rise in him.
There had been no sensation of cutting anything at the end of his blade.
The moment he sensed a presence behind him and turned his head,
“…!!”
Kalif doubted his own eyes.
‘He got all the way over there in that instant?’
There stood the boy, black-violet energy blooming from his body.
What startled Kalif was not only the boy’s nimble movements.
‘He changed.’
The boy, who had seemed frightened just moments ago, now had the eyes of a beast that had survived after cutting through countless battlefields.
And the energy rising around his body was like—
Demonic energy.
It closely resembled the energy felt from named magical beasts among magical beasts.
“Then I’ll do this properly.”
At that moment, the boy’s body wavered, and his form vanished from sight.
“Urk…!”
Acceleration magic?
Kalif stepped back and took his stance again.
“Where are you…!”
That instant, several black spears rushed down from the fingertips of the boy who appeared above his head.
TING, TING, TING!!!
When Kalif raised his sword and barely blocked the magic,
“Kgh…! Darkness-attribute magic?”
his fingertips rang with numbness.
The boy widened the distance again, and magic circles rose once more over both of his hands.
He was much faster than before.
It was a casting speed completely different from any mage Kalif had seen until now.
TING!
The boy continued attacking along threatening trajectories, and Kalif was too busy blocking his attacks to do anything else.
TING!
It even felt as though he were fighting a veteran mercenary wearing the mask of a child.
“Raaaaah!”
When Kalif shouted and swung his sword wide, the boy widened the distance.
Looking at the changed boy, Kalif thought,
If this fight dragged on, he would lose.
It was a conclusion he had carefully reached through years of experience.
Kalif corrected his stance.
The boy’s body was already battered from the earlier explosion.
Just once.
If this sword touched him even once, victory would be his.
Kalif focused his mind on his sword.
“I do not know what trick you used... but this ends here!!”
In an instant, Kalif sprang into the air and swung his sword toward the boy.
The sword drew a long line toward the boy’s head with lightning-like speed.
At that moment.
CRACKLE—!
“Kgh…!”
A black magic circle rose over the boy’s hand, blocking the sword.
The magic circle touching the blade trembled as though it would tear apart at any moment, but the sword containing all of Kalif’s strength did not reach the boy.
Then the boy murmured softly.
“Dark Severance.”
The pitch-black blade that formed next followed the boy’s finger and sliced Kalif’s body vertically in two.
SHRAAAK—!
Bright-red blood poured down over the boy’s head, and the body split in half fell to the ground.
It showed no movement at all, to the point that it was hard to believe it had been a living person moments ago.
Standing amid the scattering blood, the boy looked back at the bandits and said,
“Next.”
A brief silence followed.
When the man who had served as the bandits’ leader fell, the bandits watching the fight were clearly thrown into panic.
“No way...”
“The boss lost to a brat like that…!?”
Having lost their leader in an instant, they fell into panic.
One of them shouted,
“Run!”
At that, the remaining bandits came to their senses and frantically turned their backs to flee.
Covered in blood, Gale watched the backs of the terrified bandits as they ran away.
Despite how wildly he had fired magic, another circle that had formed inside his chest was fiercely rotating, spewing out mana.
It felt as though he possessed infinite mana.
Gale pictured black lightning running through the bodies of the fleeing men and murmured softly,
“Black Lightning First Form: Chain.”
From the magic circle that rose at his fingertips, black lightning shot toward them at high speed.
Chain was a spell that gave Black Lightning, the existing 2nd Tier darkness spell, the property of transferring to nearby targets.
It was a spell Gale had created in his previous life because he could alter mana structures to the extreme.
“Aaaaagh!!”
“Save me...!! Grr... r... rk!!”
Along with the smell of scorched corpses, the surroundings fell silent in an instant.
After confirming that there were no living bandits nearby, Gale let out a small sigh mixed with relief.
“Whoo….”
When he looked around, he saw Rita staring at him in terror.
Gale scratched his head awkwardly.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
At Gale’s voice, the same as usual, Rita ran over and threw herself into his arms.
“Waaah... You’re Gale, right? I thought I was going to die of fright....”
Gale looked down at Rita in his arms with pity in his eyes.
It had been one difficult situation after another, but still, she was alive.
If he just did this.
If he changed things one by one like this, he felt that he might be able to protect this world from the terrible tragedies that would unfold in the future.
Gale smiled and placed his hand on Rita’s head.
Then a voice sounded in his ears.
[The contract has ended.]
As soon as those words ended, the mana that had been overflowing inside his body vanished in an instant, and excruciating pain came over him.
“Kgh…!”
Then the black-violet energy billowing around his body disappeared, and Gale collapsed on the spot as though his soul had left him.
“Gale!”
Lying on the ground, Gale looked around with blurred eyes.
Is it all right to collapse like this?
If he collapsed, there was no guarantee of safety after this.
He felt as though he would lose consciousness at any moment, but he barely clung to the thread of his mind and racked his brain. Then a booming voice came from one side.
“Lady Rita!!”
At the entrance of the camp, above the corpses of the bandits, Gale saw a blond knight wearing light mail.
It was someone Gale knew.
His name was definitely....
“Benon! Where have you been? Why are you only here now?! Hurry... Gale is....”
Benon was the vice-captain of the knight order led by Rita’s father, Count Orhan.
At long last, the count’s knight order that he had waited and waited for had arrived.
It would be fine to entrust what came next to them.
Thinking that, Gale closed his eyes.