Chapter 11

Chapter 11 - To Change the Future (1)

 

There were broadly two ways to increase one’s martial strength.

The first was, quite literally, to increase the potential of the body.

The other was to make the strength one already possessed settle into the body through real combat experience.

Neither of them was unimportant, but if it was my story, things were different.

‘At least for me, something like real combat experience should not matter.’

How many enemy bodies had I trampled over?

For a tiny nation in the north to stand against the empire, even the King himself had to take up a sword.

It was true that one could develop the strength one possessed through actual battle, but the countless combat experiences I had accumulated had already perfected the Sword King’s swordsmanship.

Then there was only one method left.

Training to make up for my lacking strength and aura.

‘But that will not be enough.’

There was no way leisurely training could ever prepare me for the approaching future.

The time given to me was short, and my enemies would not wait.

Especially now, when the forces hostile to me were gradually increasing.

I needed overwhelming strength, enough to easily trample the trash who dared to doubt my actions.

……Personal martial power.

The overwhelming strength I had possessed back when I had been called the Sword King.

“A-as I heard, this truly is an eerie place.”

I let out a small sigh at the sight of Baron Vidor, who asked me in a trembling voice.

“It is not too late. You may return to the royal palace even now.”

“T-to leave Your Highness alone in a place like this…… I absolutely cannot do that!”

“Tsk.”

“But are you truly certain it is all right to come without any guards? I fear harm may come to Your Highness’s person.”

This time, my head shook on its own.

I appreciated his concern for me, but when he said such things while looking terrified, his words were not exactly persuasive.

“Be quiet. If you are going to follow me, then do so silently.”

“Th-then I would rather take the lead.”

“Do as you wish.”

I shrugged and shifted my body slightly.

The thick darkness and the pale mist that blocked our sight.

When the old gravestones faintly appeared through them, it was only natural that the baron looked as though his breath might stop.

I gave a faint laugh as I looked at the baron, who was somewhere between pathetic and admirable.

“If you were going to be like that, why did you not simply follow behind me?”

“Th-that is……!”

“There is no need to go out of your way to become a laughingstock.”

“…….”

I lightly patted the baron on the shoulder and began walking.

My destination lay beyond the endless mist.

“A nostalgic feeling…… is that what this is?”

This place, Cemetery, was also called the resting place of souls because an unidentified mist lingered over it all year round.

It was my first time coming here, but the chill that flowed from the boundary between life and death closely resembled that of a battlefield.

‘What an interesting atmosphere.’

Perhaps that was why. The atmosphere that must have felt horrifying to the baron gave me a sense of comfort, as though I had returned home.

“It feels as though a monster…… no, even a corpse might leap out at any moment.”

“That could happen.”

“Pardon? Haha, Your Highness makes truly cruel jokes.”

I deliberately did not answer his doubt and continued pushing through the mist.

It was a kind of consideration.

This was a place where the negative emotions of those who had experienced the death of family or acquaintances became distorted.

By nature, a cemetery was a place where an enormous amount of negative-dimensional mana gathered, enough for it to be called holy ground for black mages.

To the people of the continent, this was truly common knowledge.

Then why did people continue to build cemeteries?

The reason was very simple.

‘Even if negative-dimensional mana gathers, corpses do not rise and move.’

Even if the flow of mana in the air became excessive, magic did not activate on its own.

Likewise, if a black mage’s spell was not activated, then an increase in negative-dimensional mana was not a problem at all.

This, too, was common knowledge to people.

However, in human history, things that shattered common sense often occurred.

What if this was not merely an ordinary cemetery where negative-dimensional mana gathered?

What if one was truly unlucky, and the place where the cemetery had been built happened to be anything but ordinary?

I looked around the destination we had reached before I knew it and grinned.

“We have arrived.”

The center of the cemetery now felt so ominous that it seemed to tighten around the heart.

Indeed, this place was a forbidden zone famous for the rumor that corpses moved on their own.

Of course, the truth behind the rumor would not be revealed until five years later.

‘Is he perceptive, or is he not?’

As for the baron, who had followed me here without knowing anything…… I felt rather sorry for him.

Then again, who had threatened him into following me?

If there was one fortunate thing amid the misfortune, it was that the place had not yet begun to emit a visible ghostly aura, unlike what I had heard before my regression.

“There is…… nothing here.”

“Mm.”

Certainly, the place where we stood had no special feature beyond the fact that it was the center of the cemetery, where the well-maintained roads converged.

If anything, the graves lined up around us were more noticeable. To the eye, this was truly nothing more than an ordinary road.

“Well, we will know once we see whether there is truly nothing here.”

I carefully examined the ground, then called the baron over with a nod.

Baron Vidor approached my side with a puzzled expression.

“Baron Vidor.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Please give your command.”

“Take out the item you prepared.”

“The item? Ah! Are you perhaps referring to this?”

The baron took a small object out of his pocket.

It was a gem with a faint violet glow. A lowest-grade Magic Stone.

“Hand it here.”

“Understood.”

The baron bowed politely and handed me the Magic Stone.

Though he obediently followed the order, his expression said that he truly could not understand.

In any case.

“Since we have come to someone’s home, we cannot very well leave without knocking.”

I roused the aura inside my body and began lightly sending it into the Magic Stone.

From every crack to the tiniest groove, it was an extremely advanced technique, the same as coating a weapon in an Aura Blade.

And the reaction appeared before long.

“Ooh!”

When red light blazed within the lowest-grade Magic Stone, which had been nothing more than an ornament with almost no market value, it began to look quite plausible.

In fact, its appearance, wrapped in hellfire, left an impression more intense than most Magic Stones.

Of course, that was not the end.

FLASH!

“Gasp! Such a powerful mana reaction!”

Immediately after, a cluster of red energy burst out and filled the air.

Would it feel like this if one set off fireworks made of jewels beneath a night sky spread with the Milky Way? Even the procession of eerie mist was gradually pushed back by the brilliant light and began to thin.

The baron’s eyes became soaked in rapture.

And then…….

RUMBLE!

The ground shook.

Even the baron, who knew nothing, vaguely realized that it was no mere earthquake.

New arrivals had appeared through the vanishing mist of the graves…….

At last, when the cluster of red light that had embroidered the air disappeared, the baron opened his mouth wide and merely moved his lips.

“……Uh?”

A group of corpses rose, revealing their rotting flesh.

Even by a conservative count, there were more than ten of them.

The thick scent of black magic I felt from within them made me smile.

“It seems they liked the knock.”

“Th-the corpses are moving. Your Highness! What in the world are those……?”

“As you can see, they are ghouls that were hiding inside the graves.”

“Gh-ghouls? Gasp! How can this be?”

It was probably his first time seeing a monster at all.

Then how could he ever have seen a corpse rising and moving?

“O God!”

So it was no wonder that he was so shocked.

I aimed the tip of the sword I had drawn at the creatures and murmured quietly.

“They are coming.”

“Pardon!? Surely you do not intend to fight them? There are so many of them…….”

“Stop talking and move back a little. If you stay close, you will not like what happens.”

Then, without listening for his answer, I kicked off the ground.

The creatures had already come within striking distance.

SCREECH!

“Not a chance.”

I explosively moved the muscles I had kept tense all along and swung at the ghoul in the lead.

Then, before it could even react, my sword cut across its upper body.

Unfortunately, that was all.

SCREECH!

‘It did not cut all the way through?’

It was because I lacked strength.

Before the regeneration unique to undead could activate, I swung my sword once more and cut off its upper body.

It was not a result I particularly liked, but a smile bloomed on my face.

“I truly like the way you entertain your guests.”

Those were not empty words.

Ever since I had returned to the past.

The satisfaction and fighting spirit I felt from finally clashing with an enemy after enduring a period of self-restraint that had not been short gave me greater joy than anything else.

This time, there were two.

I immediately found my next prey and swung my sword.

My target was their weakness, the head.

SLASH!

The sensation of the sword cutting through flesh and bone traveled through my arm and into my mind.

The problem was…… though my body had loosened up more than before, the fact that I lacked strength remained unchanged.

SKREECH!

Even though I had aimed at the thinnest part, the neck, only one of them died.

The surviving ghoul charged at me with its dangling head barely held in place.

I had no choice but to swing my sword again to finish it off.

The muscles I had forced into motion momentarily stiffened because of the recoil, but I paid it no mind.

At that moment.

SCREECH!

“Gaaah!”

The baron’s breathless scream came from behind me.

A single rotting arm had shot up from the ground and grabbed the baron’s ankle.

Seeing the baron look as though he was about to faint, I could not help frowning.

“Tsk.”

I had thought I had accurately grasped their numbers with the perception I had spread out, so I had focused only on the enemies before my eyes.

Given that even my senses had not caught it, it was probably a ghoul that had just been born.

It was a mistake the former me would never have made.

No matter how I looked at it, it was carelessness for which I had no excuse.

“I have grown complacent.”

It took roughly one second to reach the baron’s feet.

CRUNCH!

I strongly stomped down on the ground where the arm had emerged with a foot coated in aura.

The ghoul had been underground, so it should have absorbed the shock, but my stomp was so forceful that it no longer moved.

It had died instantly.

With the horrible sound of a rotten body being crushed, the strength in the ghoul’s grip around the baron’s ankle loosened, and the baron’s mouth showed no sign of closing.

“Stay a little farther away.”

“Th-thank you.”

The situation had seemed urgent, and Baron Vidor had only moved far away because he did not want to get in the way.

The scream that followed had burst from him almost reflexively, without him even realizing it.

But what was this?

Before his eyes, the undead were falling like leaves in an autumn gale, and the superior he served was swinging his sword as though he was enjoying himself.

It was a situation that defied common sense.

“This…… is possible?”

By the time he stared on in a daze, the situation had already ended.

His superior, who had been swinging his sword for quite some time, was now rotating his shoulder as he approached him.

“Haa, I feel a little stiff.”

The muscles I did not normally use screamed and pulled tight.

No matter how fine the sword I held was, cutting through flesh and bone with brute strength alone was extremely arduous.

Especially now, when I did not even have enough aura to unconsciously strengthen my body.

Keenly aware of how lacking I was, I slowly slid my sword back into its sheath.

“We move.”

“Pardon? Yes. Where exactly are we…… Ah!”

The baron still seemed unable to collect himself.

Beside him, an underground passage leading somewhere had appeared due to the reaction of the Magic Stone.

“It will disappear shortly, so follow me.”

I patted the shoulder of the baron, who was staring blankly at the passage, and began walking.

He, too, followed me in reflexively, without even knowing where we were headed.

CLACK. CLACK.

The lantern in my hand illuminated the underground passage, where not even an inch ahead could be seen.

Only the sound of the baron’s heels following behind filled the silent emptiness.

How much time had passed like that? The baron spoke in a voice more relaxed than before.

“Could it be that Your Highness has been hiding your swordsmanship?”

“Why do you think that?”

“I know little about martial arts, but the skill you displayed just now was certainly not at the level the world knows Your Highness to possess.”

“I see.”

I continued walking without giving any particular acknowledgment.

A moment of silence passed, and then the baron’s voice reached me again.

“I am sure Your Highness had a purpose in coming to a place like this, one I cannot possibly guess. Just as you did at the auction house.”

“…….”

“Likewise, you do not have to go out of your way to tell me. I have merely decided to follow Your Highness’s will.”

There must have been many other questions besides that.

That firm resolve to trust and follow me was probably something he had spoken after much thought.

That made him seem the exact opposite of Asus, and it pleased me.

‘I will make certain you never regret deciding to follow me.’

This was a kind of tempering.

A resolve that would steady me, who had grown somewhat complacent after killing Asus, and make me remain vigilant.

Meanwhile, before we knew it, we were standing before a massive door that had appeared at the end of the passage.

The sight exuded a terrifying air, as if it were the maw of a beast from hell.

“So this is our destination.”

Old murals were now faintly visible between the lights placed here and there.

The baron narrowed his eyes as he examined them and said,

“Ruins? No, these appear to be traces left by black mages.”

“Oh? It seems you know a little about runic script.”

“Not to any impressive degree. I can merely read simple things. More importantly…….”

A series of events in which corpses had risen. A mysterious passage located beneath the cemetery. And the traces visible when we reached the end.

Setting aside the incomprehensible things that had occurred between them, the answer was already clear.

“……This is a hideout of black mages. One that has already been abandoned.”

“Correct. I found traces of it in the forbidden books of the royal palace.”

“I see. That is why Your Highness came here to investigate.”

“Mm.”

The part about finding it in the forbidden books was a lie.

Of course, the claim that I had come to investigate was also nothing more than an excuse built upon his misunderstanding.

‘It does not sit well with me to deceive one of my own, but…….’

It was not as though I could tell him the reason I had come here.

After examining the wall for quite some time, the baron opened his mouth.

“You must be careful. We do not know what danger might be lurking here.”

In response to the baron’s concern as he swallowed dryly, I gave a small laugh and answered,

“I wonder. Even if that is true, will you still follow?”

I asked despite already knowing what answer would return.

I had grounds for it.

“Why would I need to worry when Your Highness is here?”

“A good answer.”

As if to meet the baron’s expectations, I pushed open the stone door.

I did not know in detail what would be inside, but I had no hesitation.

“You had better close your eyes.”

And at that moment.

WHOOOOOM—

With a roar resounding inside my head, my vision flickered.