“Um... Master Gale?”
At Runo’s words, Gale came back to his senses and looked around. Before he knew it, the dishes they had ordered were piled up in front of him.
Gale smiled and said, “Shall we eat first?”
Was it because he had spent so long in the carriage?
Or was it because he had gone hungry during the war?
Once Gale started eating, he shoveled food into his mouth as though he had starved for days.
Watching him, Runo asked, “It seems... the food suits your taste.”
Gale nodded as he chewed with his mouth full of food.
Runo let out a sigh of relief and said, “I am glad. Your expression did not look good earlier, so I thought perhaps you had no appetite.”
“Ah, that was because I was thinking about various things....”
After finishing that leisurely and relaxed meal, Gale rose from his seat, and Runo held out a key with a wooden tag attached to it.
“This is the key to your guest room. Applications to the Imperial Army are tomorrow, so please rest comfortably today. I will come pick you up tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you for your help.”
“Then I will see you tomorrow.”
After seeing him off, Gale went up to the third floor, where the guest room he would be staying in was located.
When he opened the closed wooden door, a simple room with a clean bed and desk came into view.
Compared to the Orhan estate where he had stayed before, it was plain and small, but it was more than enough for one person.
After unpacking lightly, Gale immediately threw himself onto the bed.
“Haa... Somehow, even though I came back to the past, this feels harder.”
Lying on the bed, Gale recalled the talk about the Imperial Army he had heard in the restaurant.
Just because he had returned to the past did not mean he had time to take things easy.
Things were progressing rapidly in places he did not know about, and the moment he missed them or stood by and watched, he was certain he would be swept into a whirlpool he could no longer do anything about.
Things that had not yet happened, but soon would, pressed down on Gale’s shoulders.
Think calmly, no matter the situation.
Gale recalled Major Reina’s words.
At some point, whenever Gale grew impatient, he had started recalling her words out of habit, and each time he did, he felt as if he became calmer.
‘It somehow feels like I’m being scolded.’
If he thought about it calmly, what mattered was doing what he could, rather than obsessing over things he could not do anything about right now.
Gale thought of what he could do immediately.
“Then... shall I take care of this first?”
Gale sat up from the bed and took a small wooden box engraved with a dragon design out of the subspace pouch.
With it placed before his eyes, he felt a vague fear.
No matter that he had found it in Count Orhan’s storehouse, there was no guarantee anywhere that it was not a fake.
“It’s strangely scary.”
He carefully opened the lid.
The roundly shaped elixir revealed itself.
At the same time, an indescribable scent, a mix of earth and grass, filled the room.
Just smelling it made the saliva in his mouth dry up.
The energy he felt from it, at least, proved it was the genuine article.
Gale stared at it for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
‘Screw it. I don’t know anymore.’
Gale picked up the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp.
As soon as the elixir entered his mouth, it crumbled as though he were chewing a clump of packed dirt.
The scent and texture were not pleasant, but perhaps because he had imagined the worst,
“Mm...? It’s more edible than I thought.”
Just as he was starting to feel disappointed when no reaction came even after waiting for a while,
“Ggh....”
In that instant, he felt a tremendous energy surge up from deep within his stomach.
The energy blooming inside him slowly spread through his entire body, and the elixir melting within him began tearing through his whole body’s muscles, starting with his organs.
“Gghaaaaa...!!”
It was truly the pain of raw flesh being torn apart.
Inside the torn muscles, new muscles formed, and beneath the ripped-away skin, new skin grew, repeating the process over and over.
“Gghhhh!!”
Gale clenched his teeth and endured it, but the terrible pain, which surpassed common sense, made him feel as if he would lose consciousness at any moment.
But his instincts told him
that he must not lose consciousness here.
Enduring the pain, Gale desperately clung to consciousness.
The bone-shedding transformation continued as time passed, until the moon rose high.
The newly formed muscles made Gale’s once-feeble body far stronger, and the unimpressive shape of his body slowly began to approach a powerful physique.
The toxins that had built up inside him over the past few days from overusing mana drained out along with his flesh.
When the entire process was complete, Gale was crouched amid the dark-red clots of blood around him, looking completely different from how he had before taking the elixir.
“Haa... haah....”
He breathed roughly and slowly opened his eyes.
“So this... is the effect of an elixir.”
Gale rose from where he sat and looked around.
Seeing the waste matter that gave off such a terrible smell it made him frown, he clicked his tongue.
“All of this came out of my body?”
It felt as though he had stepped into a butcher shop in a ruined world.
Amid the foul-smelling chunks of flesh, Gale looked down at his own body.
The body that had never so much as glanced at exercise before now had not a trace of excess flesh, and the contours of firm muscles showed through his thin skin.
“It’s definitely better than before....”
He could also feel that the mana heart inside his body had grown far larger than it had been before.
“So that’s why everyone made such a fuss over it. Its effects are this good.”
Even the sensation of clenching and unclenching his hand told him he had grown stronger.
Suddenly, Gale’s gaze fell on his left arm.
“I feel like my skin tore open several times, but this is still the same.”
12,921 DAY
The tattoo, reduced by one day, remained engraved on his left arm.
Now he had completed all the preparations he could make at present.
The only thing left was to head to the Imperial Army.
“Before that... shall I deal with this place first?”
The room had become a complete mess.
And first, he felt he had to do something about the fact that he was standing naked in the middle of it.
***
The next day.
“Master Gale! Over here!”
When Gale went down to the first floor, Runo was waiting for him.
“You came earlier than I expected.”
“Today is an important day for you, Master Gale.”
Runo smiled brightly, and unlike yesterday, he was wearing something that looked a little more professional.
When Gale stared at him because it somehow suited him well, Runo scratched his head awkwardly and said, “Ah, this? I have to escort you this morning and then go straight to work.”
He had said it was the Sesilla Appraisal Office, had he?
Gale decided he should stop by once when he had time someday.
After finishing the checkout process and about to leave the inn, Runo asked, “Um, Master Gale, something seems a little strange.”
“What does?”
“I feel like the owner has been looking at us strangely since earlier. Am I mistaken?”
“Haha....”
Gale avoided his gaze and let out a small, hollow laugh.
The previous night, a small incident had occurred while he was cleaning up the byproducts that had poured out during the bone-shedding transformation in his room.
After roughly clearing away the unpleasant chunks, he had washed the floor with water-attribute magic and ventilated the room with wind magic.
But something must have gone wrong, because the floor below had made a huge fuss about leaking water, and the owner had given him an earful.
‘I don’t think I’ll ever forget the owner’s face after he smelled my room and his expression rotted away....’
Afterward, Gale had shoved some gold into his hand and somehow forced a settlement, but the owner still seemed to be holding a grudge.
“There’s no need to worry about it. The bill is all settled.”
“The... bill?”
Runo followed Gale, who had gone ahead, and left the inn.
Once they were outside, Runo immediately waved at a carriage passing along the street.
“The area near the registration desk will be crowded with people, so it will be better to take a carriage.”
Soon, one carriage stopped, and Runo said in a spirited voice,
“Please take us to the Imperial Army Plaza.”
“Understood.”
Had about thirty minutes passed in the carriage?
Once they passed the Imperial Central Plaza, the Imperial Army Headquarters building began to come into view.
It was massive enough to easily accommodate several hundred people, and from its exterior to its interior, it was fitted with excellent facilities with no unnecessary excess.
If one asked whether a place where mere Imperial soldiers stayed was really that fine, that place was not where ordinary Imperial soldiers were stationed, but where skilled elites who had followed a thoroughly elite path gathered.
‘This time, I have to make it that far.’
In the past, even looking at it had felt burdensome, but this time, he had no other choice.
To protect the Empire, he needed power and status to match.
As he looked at the headquarters building and steadied his resolve, he noticed an incredible number of people lined up in front of it.
Curious what was at the end of the line, he craned his head this way and that. In front of the building, a small registration desk for active-duty soldiers had been set up.
“Are all of those people hoping to enlist in the Imperial Army?”
“That is correct.”
Gale clicked his tongue at the sight.
‘Back in my time, active-duty soldier enlistment wasn’t this popular....’
Runo continued speaking.
“There was a mention of the Imperial Army in the Emperor’s speech a few days ago. It included many important points, such as improving welfare and raising pay, so public interest has surged.”
“Is that so?”
At those words, Gale slowly examined the crowd with interest.
Perhaps someone he knew well was hidden among that sea of people.
“The reason the Emperor went so far as to mention it is probably because public order in the Empire has rapidly worsened lately.”
At those words, Gale turned his head and looked at Runo.
“Did something happen?”
“Recently, large and small criminal organizations have begun acting vigorously throughout the Empire. From robberies to murder and kidnapping, the number has grown so enormous that it is difficult to find any precedent in the Empire’s history.”
Hearing his words, Gale remembered.
It was when he had come to the Empire and was living on the streets.
The newspapers scattered on the streets had poured out articles about violent crimes every day, and the imperial citizens, who had been famous for their generosity, began closing their hearts one by one.
If he were to rank the sequence of events that led to the Empire’s downfall, this would undoubtedly be first.
“Still, since the Imperial Family has stepped forward directly, won’t it be resolved soon?”
From the Imperial Family’s standpoint, they could hardly mobilize the knight orders owned by each noble family over a mere public order issue, so to make up for the shortage of manpower, they must have had no choice but to encourage enlistment as active-duty soldiers.
But that would not be enough.
The Emperor of his past life had made the same choice, and Gale knew that the result had not been very good.
While he was thinking, the carriage soon arrived at its destination.
After paying the fare and stepping down from the carriage.
“Haa....”
The line stretching before his eyes felt far longer than he had imagined.
Just thinking about squeezing through the people to move already made him feel drained.
“There are more people than I expected. Please follow me. Applications for the special track are this way.”
Runo seemed to have already looked into it, and he took Gale with him as they moved this way and that.
The place they arrived at had a registration desk that looked similar to the one where people had been crowded earlier.
A few people had already arrived and were waiting, but compared to the scene from a moment ago, this was practically paradise on earth.
“There certainly are fewer people because it is the special track.”
“That is true, but....”
There were fewer people, but if judged by atmosphere alone, this side was far more uncomfortable.
Everyone kept their distance from one another, and there was a strange sense of a battle of nerves.
They were probably having the sort of childish battle of nerves over who was a noble, or whose patron was whom.
Gale quietly waited his turn, when he heard something loud from up ahead.
“Check it properly!”
Wondering what was going on, he poked his head out and saw an obnoxious-looking yellow-haired guy shouting at the receptionist seated at the registration desk.
“I apologize, but the House Respon you mentioned is not among the former-officer recommendation candidates....”
“Are you trying to belittle Count Respon’s honor with your own mouth?!”
“That is not what I meant....”
From what he heard, it seemed some problem had occurred regarding a former-officer recommendation.
There were two forms of the special track.
One was for those who were nobles themselves.
The other was for commoners who had received a recommendation from a former officer.
A recommendation from a former officer was a sort of authority granted only to those who had distinguished themselves in the Imperial Army before.
Not everyone who had simply once been part of the Imperial Army could make a recommendation, so these kinds of problems often arose during the special track enlistment process.
“I checked before coming here as well! My name is Lionel. My patron is Count Respon! Check it again!”
“That is, I have already checked three times, but Count Respon’s name is....”
At that, the yellow-haired man, unable to contain his anger, raised his hand.
“How dare you keep talking back to me...!”
SMACK!
Before the hand could swing.
Gale caught his hand.