Chapter 3: The Hero’s Intrusion

I arrived at the Capital.

But I didn’t stop by the Order of Knights.

Originally, my plan was to enter the Order and catch the Captain Cockroach of the First Order, but as long as there was something out there aiming for my life, I had no choice but to put off catching that cockroach for a while.

I headed straight toward the inn where I had stayed.

“Welcome… What’s this, some beggar kid?”

A burly man at the inn looked down at me.

I immediately handed over all the funds I had skimmed off earlier.

“One night’s stay.”

“…So you’re a customer. Didn’t recognize you because you looked like a beggar.”

I nodded in understanding.

The reason I was so quiet was because I didn’t use formal speech.

“Food?”

I nodded.

“When an adult speaks, you answer.”

“Raise it.”

“Haven’t you been taught to use formal speech?”

“Yeah.”

“You rude brat…”

Crack.

“Innkeeper.”

I grabbed a portion of the marble counter and glared silently.

The cracks etched into the table caused the innkeeper’s pupils to shake violently.

“I’m not in a good mood right now. So once you’ve got the money, just work quietly.”

I ignored the frozen innkeeper and headed straight to the room assigned to me.

By a cruel twist of fate, it was the very room where I had been killed while asleep.

‘…As expected, I don’t feel anything.’

But that didn’t mean it was time to give up just yet.

I waited for nightfall, calmly closing my eyes to meditate.

Night came.

I lay on the bed, continuing my meditation.

But I didn’t fall asleep.

Time passed, and eventually dawn arrived.

At this hour, there were far fewer people wandering outside, and only the sounds of insects crying out in the forest echoed in the silence.

Listening to those sounds, I wondered how long I had stayed still.

“Hmph.”

I slowly opened my eyes.

The discordant sound of wind in my ears was beginning to unsettle me.

‘…Why is this sound here?’

The important thing was that I had heard this sound before and knew exactly what it was.

I gradually felt the discordant wind drawing closer.

But the sound was so faint, perfectly blended with nature, that it was barely audible.

‘…No wonder it goes unnoticed.’

And just as the dissonant wind was about to strike my head,

“Gotcha, you bastard.”

I quickly turned my body, which I had been deliberately ignoring, and caught the attacker trying to ambush me.

“Eek?!”

The man caught in my hand was fully revealed.

The magic that had been hiding him was completely broken.

I frowned quietly as I looked at the shoes he wore.

“Well, my ominous hunch wasn’t wrong.”

With that, I twisted the man’s wrist.

“Gah… ugh?!”

I struck his throat to silence the scream he was about to let out, then knocked him out with a blow to the back of the head.

Taking off the shoes he’d been wearing, I frowned even deeper.

“Wind God’s Gait.”

That was the name of these shoes.

They were one of the national treasures of the Kingdom of Lumin, and right now, there was only one person who could have them.

Reinhardt Graves, Captain of the First Knights’ Order.

The cockroach was supposed to be equipped with these.

‘…This bastard. What the hell is his relationship with that guy?’

There was no need to suppress my curiosity, so I immediately took him and jumped out the window, heading deep into the forest.

Since there was no way he could escape, I roughly threw him by the stream and dunked his head underwater.

When his body flailed roughly after a brief pause, I lifted him by the hair and asked,

“Name.”

“Huff! Huff, who… who the hell… ugh!”

He hadn’t come to his senses yet, so I dunked him back underwater.

After about four seconds, I lifted him again and asked,

“Name.”

“W-Who do you think you are… pft!”

“Name.”

“Sa-save me… pfft!”

“Name.”

“Re-Revan! It’s Revan!”

Good. Now we could talk properly.

“Who sent you?”

“W-Who sent me? What the hell are you talking about…”

This bastard still didn’t get it and was trying to spin some ridiculous lie?

“Don’t play dumb, you bastard. You tried to kill me earlier.”

“I c-cannot say! If I do, I’ll die!”

“Is that so?”

I dunked his head underwater again.

When his struggling began to weaken, I pulled him up.

“Ugh! Cough! Gah! cough cough!”

“Get your head straight. If I don’t like your answer, you drown right here.”

“I told you, if I say it, I die!”

“Either die by my hand or die after telling me. One of the two.”

“W-what kind of… pft!”

After a few more “washings,” he finally seemed willing to talk.

“I-It was about the money! I was just doing what I was told!”

“The Captain of the First Order sent you?”

I splashed his head in the water a few times.

After a few tries, I was getting a bit entertained.

“I c-can’t say.”

“Alright.”

I nodded at that one word and struck the back of his neck.

His eyes rolled back as he passed out and collapsed.

But it didn’t matter.

That brief silence before his failure to answer was already the answer I needed.

‘Why the hell did that cockroach bastard target me?’

The problem was, at this point, I had absolutely no connection with him.

I hadn’t even set foot in the Order during this timeline.

Yet, he pinpointed my location and handed over his equipment to a thug barely worthy of being called an assassin and commissioned the hit.

For what reason?

‘No, even before that, it’s ridiculous that I died by such a guy.’

The Hero’s body was tougher than expected.

One stab with a sword wasn’t enough to kill me instantly.

And yet, I supposedly died because of this pathetic bastard?

‘…It’s too big a price to pay just for letting my guard down.’

Not sensing an assassin while asleep?

That was plausible.

After spending so long on the battlefield and returning, it was true I had relaxed for a moment.

Still, this was a bit much.

‘Hmm, I’ll deal with this later.’

As always, getting stuck on elusive clues and wasting time worrying wasn’t my style.

I calmly looked at the cockroach’s shoes that the thug had.

‘For now, the best thing to do is go ask in person.’

The Wind God’s Gait had the power to seek out its designated owner.

Sure enough, the shoes slowly rose into the air after separating from the thug, then began flying at high speed.

I immediately ran after the flying shoes.

Wearing only a tattered cloth at midnight, running frantically through the city center while staring at the sky—anyone would find it suspicious.

So I deliberately jumped onto rooftops where no one’s gaze could reach and moved that way.

After running for some time, the shoes flying through the sky entered the royal palace.

I threw the hoe I was holding, piercing both the flying shoes and the palace wall.

Since I had to break into the royal palace, I briefly looked up with reverence.

The beautifully shining full moon illuminated the palace.

“O Goddess of the Moon, make me a righteous thief today.”

Matching the Hero’s prayer, the moonlight lent me its power.

The sound of footsteps vanished, my movements quickened, and the winds blocking me parted to the side.

Along with the Blessing of Stealth I often used when assassinating demon commanders, I entered the royal palace in a covert and magnificent form.

I soon pulled the hoe from the wall and freed the shoes, which moved on their own again.

Following behind them, I soon found a hidden underground staircase near the palace’s outer edge.

Keeping some distance, I slowly descended.

After a while, a door appeared right in front of me.

Judging by its condition, it seemed the Wind God’s Gait had opened it as it passed through.

I quietly entered, and a long corridor appeared.

“…I’ve definitely seen this corridor somewhere before.”

As I traced the path and followed the traces, a conversation I once had with Ryuk flashed through my mind.

‘Why was this made?’

‘It’s the last stronghold.’

‘Last stronghold for what?’

‘Obviously to reclaim the lost lands.’

‘…Destroying the entire Capital is how you reclaim the land?’

‘Yeah. It’s better than letting the Demon Army fully occupy it and turning it into a demon realm.’

‘Wow, my friend is a Great Sage, but sometimes he seems crazier than me.’

‘Take that as a compliment.’

Why did this conversation suddenly come to mind?

I wondered briefly, but soon understood.

‘It had to come up.’

Because this corridor I was walking was the path leading to the Core Room, the center of the Self-Destruct Magic Circle that would destroy the entire Capital.

“…This is crazy.”

I could immediately sense how serious the situation was.

Five years ago from now.

Ryuk, my childhood friend, and I had to leave our village and head to the Royal Family when we turned eleven.

The reason was that he was a magical prodigy.

And when we reunited after a long time, Ryuk confessed that the very first magic he created in the royal palace was the Capital’s Self-Destruct Magic Circle.

That magic circle was made when he was fifteen—about a year ago.

‘But Ryuk doesn’t exist in this world anymore.’

The problem was that this happened before my first regression.

So why was the Core Room still intact now, even though Ryuk’s existence had presumably vanished?

‘Ah, my head hurts.’

Unfortunately, I had no information, so my speculation had to stop here.

‘Anyway, the important thing is that the Core Room still exists.’

Obviously, since this was a dangerous magic circle capable of destroying the entire Capital, multiple layers of security had to be passed to enter it.

But the path I took?

No security whatsoever.

I just found the hidden entrance and opened it.

What did that mean?

‘An external force breached the Core Room’s entrance.’

That external force was skilled at concealing information enough to open a path secretly from the Royal Family, and it was no exaggeration to say they had deeply infiltrated the palace.

…Crazy…

Strictly speaking, it was impossible.

The King of the Kingdom of Lumin was a Sword Master.

To hide one’s presence and sneak into the palace undetected by his magical senses was only possible for named commanders of the Demon Army—or for someone like me.

Naturally, breaking a path to here inside the palace was impossible even if the best tunnel craftsmen came.

No matter how well you hide, you can’t silence the noise made when breaking through.

Yet, they managed to do it?

There was only one conclusion.

“The tunnel was built in sync with the King’s absence.”

In other words, one of the King’s closest aides who arranged his schedule or knew it was a spy.

‘This is dizzying.’

I had been thinking too long.

Lowering my head to clear my mind, I soon heard voices up ahead.

“Is that true?”

“Yes.”

…

Hah.

One voice was hoarse from dehydration, and the other was one I already knew.

‘Found you.’

The Captain Cockroach of the First Order.

Reinhardt Graves.

He sighed and asked softly,

“That’s unfortunate. I never expected that person to foresee my failure.”

“Don’t worry. The Demon King foreseeing a failure means it actually succeeded.”

“…I don’t understand. Well, I suppose the Demon King has his reasons.”

I immediately drew my sacred sword.

“Come on, you bastards.”

Kraaaang!

I swung my sword once and shattered the Core Room.

The so-called Captain of the First Order spoke of the Demon King?

“W-Who are you?!”

“That’s none of your business.”

I swung my sword again, cleaving the demon who split its voice in two.

Looking closely, it was a ghost-type demon.

To completely eliminate it, I had to strike a few more times, so I put more strength into it.

Kaching!

Without even a scream, the demon vanished, and the Core of the Capital’s Self-Destruct Magic Circle was destroyed.

Since the demons almost took control anyway, it was fine to get rid of it.

“W-What the hell are you… who even are you…?”

“Reinhardt Graves.”

I stabbed the sacred sword deep into his abdomen.

“You have no right to question one who is allied with the Demon Army.”