Chapter 2: This Insult Feels Familiar (2)
Ghislaine, momentarily stunned by the title of Grand Duke, frowned and said,
“A Grand Duke? Do you dare to imprison the Mercenary King here and mistake him for someone else?”
“Hah, where in the world is there such a king? Are you in the mood to play king this time? What on earth is bothering you now?”
Overwhelmed by the soldier’s irritated tone, Ghislaine unconsciously expressed his honest feelings.
“…I don’t like being here.”
“Oh, then please just go back! Why are you suddenly acting like this after taking a nap?”
“Just leave? Do you, of all people, think you have the right to let me go?”
“No, what right, what right! Didn’t the Grand Duke follow on his own? You can just go!”
His voice was far too sincere to be acting. Only then did Ghislaine feel something was off and cautiously asked,
“…Where am I?”
“Where else would it be? You came to hunt the orcs that appeared near the territory, didn’t you?”
A vague memory tickled the back of his neck.
“…How did they suppress my mana?”
The soldier chuckled in disbelief.
“What mana are you talking about when you haven’t even been training? Do you even know what mana is?”
“…”
Being so openly dismissed felt oddly familiar.
Ghislaine, flustered, glanced around again. Then he spotted a flag hanging on one side of the barracks and widened his eyes.
A white wolf emblem on a black background.
Why is the symbol of Perdium, which has already fallen, hanging here?
“Why is that here? Are you trying to laugh at me, seeing me shocked… or something?”
The soldier, now fed up, abruptly shoved Ghislaine’s arm away, knocking his sword aside.
Dumbfounded, Ghislaine was about to comply when he noticed his hands in his line of sight.
“Whoa, why are my hands like this?”
His hands, covered in messy wounds, appeared white and smooth. It looked like he had never trained a day in his life.
Curiously examining his hands, Ghislaine hurried over to a water basin in the corner.
“Uh? Huh?”
He was taken aback by the reflection of his face in the water.
Lustrous golden hair, fair and clear skin, refined features.
The face was not that of the scar-riddled Mercenary King, always bleary-eyed from liquor.
“Ughhh!”
Seeing his own face caused Ghislaine to jump back in shock; the soldier clicked his tongue in response.
‘He’s lost it. He’s finally completely lost it. I knew there would come a day like this.’
Ghislaine had taken a step back in shock, only to approach the basin again cautiously and be shocked once more.
The Grand Duke was certainly good-looking, but being that surprised at seeing his own face was a bit too narcissistic.
Seeing my face and being that surprised is really too much self-love.
Regardless, Ghislaine was busy checking my face from side to side.
“… You look younger?”
Even after checking again, I only looked like I was in my late teens.
Could this be a dream?
Ghislaine pinched his arm lightly. The sharp pain snapped him back to reality.
‘This isn’t a dream!’
Then, was the memory of becoming the Mercenary King the dream?
He shook his head inwardly. It was too vivid and cruel to be just a dream.
‘It can’t be a dream.’
All his senses screamed that this situation was real.
Everything was true, not a dream. He had returned to the past with the memories of living in the future.
“Ha!”
Ghislaine stared at the soldier with a dazed expression, covering his mouth with his hand.
The soldier’s outfit and the emblem on it were clearly from the Perdium Territory.
Pointing at the soldier with trembling fingers and only mumbling, Ghislaine finally blurted out one exclamation.
“Wow.”
The soldier sighed, looking up at the ceiling with an expression that said he was losing it.
“You should have a meal and return to the castle. You don’t seem well.”
The soldier turned to leave. Ghislaine urgently grabbed him.
“Wait! Wait!”
“Why is that?”
“So, um… right, what’s your name?”
“Ricardo.”
“Hmm, that’s a nice name. You’re quite handsome too.”
“Yes, thank you. You are also handsome, Grand Duke.”
Hearing this, Ghislaine waved his hands in embarrassment and laughed.
“Ah, I haven’t heard that in a long time. Since I got all those scars on my face, nobody has told me I’m handsome.”
“…”
Ricardo looked at Ghislaine’s smooth and fair face and fell into brief contemplation.
Someone who said their calluses were developing and wasn’t training properly, how could they possibly have scars on their face?
He had always been a bit dim, but now he seemed clearly out of it.
When Ricardo didn’t answer, Ghislaine awkwardly slumped into a chair.
“Ahem, anyway, that’s the thing….”
He hesitated, unsure how to explain the situation.
But soon he seemed to make a decision and looked up at Ricardo with a serious expression.
“Ricardo, um… it’s hard to believe, but I actually died and came back… I think I’ve returned to the past.”
“…”
“… You don’t believe me?”
After a moment of silence, Ricardo showed a pitying look.
“Do you want to go to a monastery or a tower?”
When nobles go crazy, they usually get locked away in monasteries or towers.
Ghislaine had already ruined his reputation, and with his status as a Grand Duke, he had barely escaped so far, but if it was known he had gone insane, he would be captured immediately.
Understanding what he meant, Ghislaine tried to conceal his panic and laughed loudly.
“Ahahahaha, just kidding, just kidding. This guy really doesn’t get jokes. Ha, how can a person go back to the past? Ha, how can they come back to life? Hahaha.”
“… Then I’ll be heading out.”
“Oh, okay. Go get your work done. I won’t wander far.”
The moment Ricardo left, Ghislaine dropped his head.
“Haah, this is driving me crazy.”
Of course, nobody would believe it. Even the person who actually returned to the past couldn’t believe it, so how could others?
“Anyway, this means I haven’t run away yet.”
In his previous life, he had boldly decided to run away around this time. But seeing the soldier from Perdium still with him, it seemed he was still before that escape.
“Let’s try to revive those memories for now. If I poke around too much, I might really get locked up.”
“I’m seriously going to get locked up.”
Ghislaine organized his thoughts and cautiously stepped out of the barracks.
“Oh….”
The other barracks around him and the soldiers standing guard suddenly caught his attention.
The fabric of the barracks was almost in tatters, looking more like trash than anything else, but that was precisely why Ghislaine could be certain he had indeed returned to the past.
The Perdium Territory was truly impoverished during this era.
The soldiers who spotted him saluted as they passed by. While they were being courteous, their faces were filled with subtle contempt.
The blatant disregard only served to affirm that he had indeed traveled back in time.
“Hehe.”
Laughter escaped him at the unbelievable situation.
“I really did come back to the past.”
He didn’t know what kind of phenomenon it was, but the reason didn’t matter.
At this moment, his heart was racing uncontrollably.
“Hahaha!”
Ghislaine threw his arms wide open and looked up at the sky, laughing madly.
The soldiers around him shook their heads, looking at him as if he were a fool, but he didn’t care at all.
“I can fix everything!”
The regrets and mistakes of the past, and the despair of the future.
The burdens he had suffered his entire life had yet to happen.
The people he had always missed, the ones he loved, were still alive.
“But it’s not safe.”
As that thought crossed his mind, a glint of determination began to shine in Ghislaine’s eyes.
Duke Delphine, who had destroyed the territory, and those behind him.
The despicable bastards targeting Perdium deserved to be torn to shreds.
“I’ll kill them all.”
Things were different now than in his past life.
His mind was filled with information he had accumulated about the future.
With that, he could become stronger faster than anyone and prepare for all dangers.
“Yeah, if it’s me now, I can do it. No need to get excited. I just have to take them one by one.”
Ghislaine took a deep breath, calming his heated body and mind. The priority was to assess the current situation.
“They said orcs, right? If we’re hunting orcs……. Yes, it surely happened then!”
He clearly remembered. How could he forget that near-fatal experience?
He had once endured their dismissive stares and boasted about joining the hunting party to earn merit.
The hunting party consisted of just one knight and about thirty soldiers.
There were only three orcs spotted near the territory. Everyone thought that was enough firepower.
“But that wasn’t the case.”
In reality, there were over twenty orcs in the area.
The hunting party was utterly decimated by the orcs who ambushed their fortress. Ghislaine nearly lost his life too.
At the time, his overzealous desire to take command had compounded the damage.
“It’s definitely today.”
Looking at the landscape and the arrangement of the barracks confirmed it.
Before spending even a day here, they had been ambushed by orcs, suffering nearly complete annihilation.
“Wait, how much time do I have left?”
Ghislaine hurriedly looked up at the sky. It was past noon, and the sun was starting to sink a little.
“I need to prepare right now.”
The orcs usually charged in recklessly before sunset.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before the orcs showed up.
“They weren’t even planning their attack, so there’s a chance to win.”
Originally, the orcs had stumbled upon the hunting party by coincidence and attempted to attack.
If they prepared in advance, they wouldn’t suffer the catastrophic losses they had in his previous life.
“If I’m going back to the past, couldn’t I have come back a little earlier?”
Ghislaine sulked inwardly.
Suddenly returning to the past left him dumbfounded, and his thoughts were a jumbled mess.
He wasn’t even accustomed to the current situation yet, and now he had to face orcs out of the blue.
Facing orcs, huh?
“Well, I can’t just not do it.”
In his past life, many people lost their lives here because of him.
Ghislaine barely survived but couldn’t escape the blame from those around him. That was one of the reasons he decided to leave his family.
Now, he finally had the chance to correct the starting point of all that regret. Avoiding it would be just plain stupid.
“Alright, let’s think positively. This is the first step to change the future.”
From today, the future of the territory would be completely different from his past life.
There was no longer confusion on Ghislaine’s face. Only a firm determination remained.
“Well then, if it’s not three orcs but twenty, first let me…”
As Ghislaine headed to find the commander of the extermination squad, he paused for a moment.
At this time, he was considered a reckless fool and trash in the North.
But suddenly saying there were many orcs to prepare for would probably just get him insulted for talking nonsense.
“What should I do? I doubt I can persuade them.”
You need reasoning and trust to persuade people.
With his current status, it was obvious he would be ignored no matter what he said.
After pondering for a while, Ghislaine found a clear answer.
“I guess I have no choice. I’ll just have to take command myself. That’s probably for the best.”
He felt a bit uneasy that this was no different from his past life, but there were no other options.
“How did I lose command back then?”
Ghislaine racked his memory. Vague old memories began to surface.
– I’ll take command! There are only three orcs!
– You think you can talk back to me and get away with it? Do you think I will let you be when I inherit the territory?
– Are you looking down on me? I can do it! You have to give it to me!
…I just lay there, huh.
“Heh… I whined like a little brat.”
Ghislaine involuntarily let out a self-deprecating laugh.
It was just a pathetic struggle to avoid being looked down upon despite having no skills. It was definitely something to kick the blanket over while sleeping.
“Hmm, I suppose I don’t need to go that far.”
While I still needed to seize command, I didn’t plan to act childish like back then.
Unlike before, I was now mature and had gained a lot of experience.
“Okay, let’s start by asking politely and elegantly. I’m an adult now.”
Ghislaine walked lightly to find the knight leading the extermination squad.
The knight frowned as soon as he saw Ghislaine.
“What do you want?”
Faced with the blatant rejection, Ghislaine cleared his throat and calmed his mind.
“Wow, I haven’t seen someone make that face in front of me in a long time. Feels weird. But I need to speak gently and kindly.”
“Ahem, so, uh… what was your name again?”
“Skoban.”
Skoban clicked his tongue inwardly.
How could a Grand Duke’s descendant not even know the name of a knight under his family?
Clearly, this guy had no qualities at all.
Oblivious to Skoban’s inner thoughts, Ghislaine raised his voice deliberately.
“Oh, right. Sir Skoban, I urgently came to discuss something with you.”
“What is it?”
Even with the knight’s gruff demeanor, Ghislaine maintained his smile.
“Speak politely. I mean, shouldn’t you just give it to me if I ask?”
“Give it to me.”
“What?”
When Skoban asked back at the absurd demand, Ghislaine replied in a firm tone.
“Hand over command.”
By Ghislaine’s standards, this was a sufficiently polite request.
At least he hadn’t hit anyone yet.
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