Chapter 57

Besides the spy colluding with the Ghost King, there was one more here.

I disarmed completely. I sheathed the Red Sword and holstered the EX Revolver, then clenched both fists.

As I readied myself for the duel, he opened his mouth with clear pleasure.

"I am Un."

A single-character name.

"And what's your name?"

"No need to know."

"Well... fine. Doesn't matter."

There were plenty of people stronger than me. Marjelo Arnis. The Ghost King. The Demon King Army's officers. And this man, Un—the next Imperial Knight Commander, a traitor who had joined the Demon King Army when the Empire fell.

Meanwhile, I was nothing but a frog trapped in a well. The ocean lay right beside me, yet I was stuck in a lake. From now on, I had to experience and learn as much as I could. First, I needed to understand how this future enemy fought. Why Marjelo had been forced to lose to him.

"How can you throw a punch like that?"

"Huh?"

"An invisible attack."

"No need to know."

He echoed my own words back at me. Then he strode forward. Judging by his expression, he was starting to enjoy himself.

The moment he closed in, a strong wind kicked up. I shut my eyes to block the dust flying straight at them. Even with my eyes closed, I felt a wave ripple from the end of his fist. It didn't spread from the ground and sweep across objects—instead, I saw the mana suspended in the air quiver. In that black-and-white space, the mana surged violently, a bright white. My guess that it was like firing compressed air from a cannon wasn't far off. It shot forward like a massive bullet. It was the first time waves had spread from somewhere other than the floor.

The mana Un had moved slammed into my head. I tumbled backward in an ugly heap, but I couldn't stop myself from grinning.

"What the hell? Why are you laughing on the ground?"

"The floor... the floor isn't the only place where the waves echo..."

I stood up straight. I raised both arms and wiggled my fingers—a taunt, just like he had done.

"What makes you so confident?"

I had come here ignoring Karasuma's death to push Lake to its absolute limit. To erase Lake's duration. To live inside Lake. I stared at him while maintaining the skill.

"Unbelievable. You even closed your eyes?"

He stepped forward, each footfall deliberate, and swung his fist.

The white mana shooting toward me was crystal clear. Un's punches always carried a second attack—a follow-up that moved the mana in the air to strike. Lake was detection magic that read mana. With my eyes closed, I could see that second attack vividly.

Ironically, what was invisible with my eyes open only became visible when I shut them.

I ducked slightly, slipping past a mana bullet. Un's left eyebrow twitched.

The next attack came: he bent his right knee, then exploded forward in a single step, leading with his right elbow. This time, instead of dodging, I slapped his arm aside to redirect the elbow's trajectory. And sure enough, the second attack—the mana bullet—came flying. White mana streaked toward my left temple. I ducked into his body to evade.

The moment I was close enough, I didn't waste the opening. I drove my fist into his chest.

He stumbled backward.

"How... can you see it?"

His question had changed from what to how.

"I can see it, so it's easy."

"Ah... is that so...?"

His expression shifted abruptly.

"My real weapon isn't my hands—it's my feet. I haven't even used them yet. Aren't you getting a little too cocky?"

Un dragged his finger through the air from left to right.

"Watch closely. From your perspective, it goes from left to right. That's how I'll pass through."

"What are you doing?"

"I figured I should at least tell you for fairness."

The moment he finished speaking, he extended his leg from where he stood. Just as he said—a kick that swept from left to right.

His toes didn't touch me, but of course, the second attack came.

White mana surged enormously. If what I'd seen before were fist-sized bullets, this was a wave. Sharp and massive. A tsunami of mana crashed over me. Maybe because he'd told me the direction himself, I flattened my body to the ground and dodged.

The colossal mana passed over me.

When the wave was gone...

The trees beyond Lake—every single one—were cut in half and toppled over. Like a disaster. An artificial disaster.

I could see it with Lake, but if an ordinary person had faced that attack, they'd have been severed without even knowing what hit them.

As I straightened up, Un leaped into the air and spun. 180 degrees. 360 degrees. 720 degrees.

Two full rotations.

The force culminated at the tip of his foot. This time, he aimed for a direct hit.

I was about to catch his kick with my fist when-

Water surged from the lake behind me.

At the same moment, something coiled around my waist and yanked me into the lake. I struggled to identify the thing wrapped around my body. It wasn't the lizard from before. A translucent tentacle was dragging me under.

I was about to clasp my hands together and smash it down, when—

Electricity surged through the tentacle.

*

A familiar voice seeped into my ears.

"Mago...!"

Marjelo's voice.

I forced my eyes open. As my vision focused, her face came into view alongside her voice. Her black hair fell all the way to her waist.

I was just sitting there, motionless. Sitting inside a coffin.

Silver light glimmered inside and outside the coffin. It was the dog tags I had collected. Bell Red. Amon Coster. Oscar Sitta. Louise Murphy. Kinzo Shua. All kinds of names lay scattered about. And at the very end—Marjelo Arnis's dog tag.

The woman before me was no longer alive. And neither was my reflection, cast across the polished surface of her shoulder armor. My skin was flaking away like cracked pottery. Both my eyes had turned as white as my hair.

I had become undead.

"That stupid bitch. Messing with me was her mistake."

She seemed to be referring to the silver-haired Ghost King.

"Everyone's been resurrected. We'll be moved like slaves for the Empire's reconstruction."

"Wait..."

"The only time you'll be able to hold on to your will is right now. The first and the last. Got it?"

"Wait, Marjelo."

I pointed at the object in her hand. A silver pocket watch.

"That's the magic tool Un had. It passed from the Demon King to Un."

"Why are you bringing that to me...!"

"Because you have to take it."

"You should be the one to use it."

"All the titles attached to my name—they were burdens. I'm sick of them. I don't want to fight anymore."

"I can't replace you, Marjelo."

"Of course you can't. You're not me."

"If someone's going back to the past, it should be the strongest person in the Empire."

"Mago, the one who survived the longest was you. The strong don't survive—the survivors become strong. You know that."

"I said no...!"

"Then what about this?"

She looked down at the dog tags piled like a grave. Thousands of them.

"This is all your regret."

Her voice dropped low.

"Regrets you want to undo. And yet you're telling me to go? Mago, don't talk nonsense. No one wants this more than you. You know that too."

"Marjelo Arnis...!"

In that instant, the Ghost King's voice rang out from afar. She was staggering toward us, one arm torn off and the other hanging in shreds. It was obvious who had done that to her.

Marjelo, now an undead, still held on to her consciousness.

"There's no time. This is your last chance, Mago."

She pressed the magic tool against my chest.

"Go. And when you meet the me of the past, make sure you tell her this."

In her final moment, she forced a smile. Her long black hair whipped in the wind.

"Tell her to stop wanting a bob cut every single time and just grow it out for once."

"That's it?"

"I've got plenty to say, but I hate cheesy stuff."

She wound the pocket watch.

"You always said your goal was to go to Akuella and see the aurora, didn't you? You dreamed of it since you were a kid."

"Yeah..."

"The 63rd Company was the fastest scouting unit in the Empire. And you, as its Company Commander, were the fastest of all. From the moment you became a free man, Mago, you could have gone to Akuella."

"That's not true."

"If you'd moved in secret, dodging the Demon King's Army, you could have gone from the very start. Right? But you didn't. Ending the war came first."

"I told you, that's not..."

"You just didn't want to go alone. Because you've been alone your whole life since you were a kid."

She said it as if she understood everything.

"When you achieve your dream, and you're still alone in that moment... it would just feel hollow."

She was right.

If I succeeded in regressing like this, I wanted to go with her. I wanted to go back.

To all of you who had been reduced to cold silver.

*

"Marjelo, you said you hated cheesy stuff. And yet you said all of that in the end..."

A headache twisted my eyes shut. I didn't know the reason for this sudden regression. But rather than digging for it, I decided to focus on what was right in front of me.

That was my decision the moment I returned.

But soon, everything came flooding back.

— How far ahead can you see? No, how far have you already seen?

Madam Anne had said that on the day of the final battle, just before she died. She had lived through the war a hundred years ago, so she must have known about that magic tool.

The name of that pocket watch was Cosmos.

It had been in the Demon King's possession, then passed to Un. From Un to Marjelo. Marjelo had risked her life to steal it.

And its final destination was from Marjelo... to me.

Into my body.

I knew I had been able to return because that magic tool, Cosmos, had activated. But I only remembered now that Marjelo had personally transferred it to me.

Maybe my memories had faded because I was resurrected as an undead.

I still didn't know.

But even if I did, my resolve to focus on what's in front of me hasn't changed.

So first, I had to break free from the chains that held me.

"Ugh...!"

No matter how hard I strained, the chains barely twisted. Un's kick was still heading for my head when a long, thick tentacle shot out of the lake and wrapped around me. It yanked me straight down into the water.

And now here I was.

When I came to, I was bound. Alone in a pure white room.

There was no way a room like this existed at the bottom of a lake. No way I could breathe this easily underwater, either. Where I was hit me fast.

The mana gathering place on the map. Follow the waterfall down, you get the lake. The waterway from the lake leads to the sea. And deep in that sea, a kingdom.

I was in Atlantis.

"Let me go!"

Un's raised voice came from the next room. When I turned my head to look at the wall, I realized something.

A green number was floating in midair.

6

0.

Then 5

9.

Then 58. It ticked down at one-second intervals.

Right around the time I started wondering about the numbers, the door swung open.

"Squid?"

A squid mermaid.

Her hair spread out like squid tentacles. Dark circles under her eyes bled like ink stains—or maybe that was actual ink. Thankfully, the rest of her looked human enough that it wasn't disgusting. Someone with peculiar tastes might even call her pretty. The fact that the squid wore glasses was kind of funny, too.

"'Squid' on our first meeting. You're a rude one."

Her voice bubbled—the popping water droplets matched her volume exactly.

"Well, you are a squid..."

"This is your remaining time."

She pointed at something just below my head. The green number.

"The duration of your underwater breathing magic. You can breathe like we do right now, but once it runs out... well, you get the picture."

Apparently, the same news had reached the next room.

"Put me back up on the surface!"

I heard Un shouting.

The green number kept dropping. 49, 48, 47.

I stayed silent for three seconds.

"You're saying I die when it hits zero?"

"Whether you drown or your duration gets extended depends on your actions, human."

She grabbed my chain and tugged.

"Follow me. His Majesty is waiting."