Gregory
Until now, he had lived a life without regrets, confident that he had devoted everything to the kingdom.
The undefeated knight who seized victory in every battle.
Gregory, Commander of the 1st Knight Order.
That was exactly who he was.
A figure with a status no one could dare to challenge, a hero even in the kingdom.
That was why, no matter how much he mulled it over, he couldn't understand it.
Those bastards. The subordinates he considered his own and protected!
Why did they betray ?
Why did they try to kill ?
"ren!!"
He mustered what little strength he had left in his weakening muscles. With his own two legs, and if he couldn't manage even that, then at least supporting himself with his sword.
Gregory raised himself up.
His spirit was so fierce that the soldiers surrounding him involuntarily flinched.
But that was all.
Thud—
His knees buckled imdiately. His body, poisoned, would not obey his will.
"Commander, my eardrums are about to burst."
And among them was soone watching, mocking such desperate struggle.
The main culprit behind this betrayal.
The commander of the 2nd Knight Order, ren.
He spoke on with a relaxed tone.
"Could you not just quietly lay down and die? Look. Aren't your precious subordinates frightened?"
"You miserable worm, how dare you!"
"Please mind your words. I'm not a worm. I am now ren, Commander of the 1st Knight Order—the kingdom's first among knights."
Gregory ground his teeth, shouting with bitterness.
"You damned bastard. Do you think by killing you can inherit everything I have? Do you really think the king will let you be after you've killed ?!"
At those words, ren paused for a mont—then burst into laughter.
"Puahahaha! You're really oblivious... not a clue at all...."
Just as Gregory began to sense sothing strange in the way ren's words trailed off, the grin disappeared from ren's face.
"Have you still not realized? Who do you think I—and these n—are acting on orders from?"
It was only then that Gregory recognized the source of his unease. It was anxiety. The fear that the master to whom he had pledged his loyalty was now discarding him. And that dread finally beca undeniable reality.
"A secret order ca down. To execute Gregory, the traitor who has lost his place, rampaging and seeking to overthrow the royal family..."
"What... does that an?"
"You should've known when to keep your head down."
Gregory's subordinates' expressions caught his eye. What he thought had been respect and loyalty were, in truth, masks for their fear of him.
"Ha...."
A hollow laugh escaped Gregory's lips.
'An order... I see. I should've seen it coming.'
Co to think of it, there was no way it was just ren's decision to poison his drink. He never had the guts for sothing like that. Had it failed, he would have killed ren himself.
It all began to make sense.
Everything had been the king's command, and Gregory himself had been abandoned by the king. Only he who had stayed loyal to such a king beca a pathetic figure.
'So that's how it is...'
Having grasped the whole truth, Gregory no longer had any will to live. Now that all the subordinates he had trusted had turned their backs on him, his sense of loss was greater than any yearning for revenge.
But he had no intention of dying like this.
Creak— When Gregory, who seed unable to move anymore, suddenly began to act, all of his subordinates, ren included, flinched.
'Even if I die...'
Gregory wasn't standing to fight. He was standing to walk. To walk toward the steep cliff behind him, so he could end his life himself.
'I will die with honor.'
Even though he had been poisoned, his spirit still overwheld all present.
Realizing what Gregory intended, ren hesitated for a mont and finally knelt before his forr commander.
"For the infinite glory of the Blandi Kingdom."
At this, the soldiers all kneeled in unison.
"Loyalty!"
Gregory did not answer that tearful loyalty, which was enough to make him bitter with annoyance. He simply raised his middle finger stiffly and crossed a threshold that should never have been crossed.
This was the miserable end of Gregory's life.
Or at least, so he thought.
***
The pain of falling from the cliff was beyond imagination. Because his last mory was of pain, Gregory convulsed awake.
But sothing was wrong.
If mory served, he should have died on the rock bottom below the cliff. Even if by so miracle he had survived, he should have felt sothing cold and hard.
Instead, his body lay on a soft bed.
Gregory muttered in a small voice.
"Was it all a dream...?"
But before he could even process how strange his changed voice was—or how everything was out of place—
The door swung open, and soone entered.
"Young master, are you awake?"
It was a man in a butler's uniform.
Gregory did not reply, staring intently at the butler.
Seeing Gregory's narrowed gaze, the butler, Magnus, began to sweat nervously.
"Is sothing wrong, young master?"
Gregory was wary of Magnus. It seed this 'young master' address was directed at him.
'Young master? Am I the one he's talking about? Why would he....'
Gregory could not make sense of what was happening before his eyes. So he began to look around.
The high ceiling was nothing like what he was used to. Had it been the Blandi Kingdom, the buildings would never have been built like this.
After glancing around for a while, Gregory caught sight of a mirror and approached it.
The mont he saw his reflection, he realized—
An innocent face, small stature, unusually handso features, and an abundance of black hair.
'Just whose face is this supposed to be?'
He touched his body all over, even slapped his cheeks hard, and could feel the pain. It wasn't a dream.
His arms and legs were extrely short; even when he forced his voice, it was unmistakably the body of a child not yet through puberty.
To make matters worse, not even a trace of mana was flowing in his body.
At that, Gregory suddenly felt as if a choking, acrid sll filled his lungs, making it hard to breathe.
He thought to himself—
'Have I co back to life? And in the body of a kid I don't even know? Then what about my original body?'
What kind of nonsense was this?
The butler asked cautiously,
"Young master Gregory, are you feeling unwell?"
"What? Young master Gregory? Who are you! How do you know my na? Speak up at once!"
"Hiiik! Young master, what are you doing!"
The butler scread, stumbling backward, while Gregory's body suddenly stiffened.
Because he felt it.
The presence that was now coming this way.
Its imnse power.
'Strong.'
As his wariness grew, the butler stood upright and bowed deeply.
"S-sir, have you arrived? You ca all this way yourself... I should have sent young master to you earlier."
Sir?
Gregory, hesitating, followed the butler's lead and bowed politely.
At the sa ti, he stole a glance at the face of the man called Sir.
Sohow, that face looked familiar. Searching his mory, Gregory recalled the personal details he'd read about a key figure from a forr enemy nation.
'Is that the Ashborn family head?'
Fad in the Ar Kingdom as the most skilled swordsmanship family, Ashborn.
Thinking back carefully, it fit.
He looked much younger than in the photos, but the similarities were nurous.
'So I'm Ashborn's son? And my na just happens to be Gregory, too?'
Just as he was piecing together his thoughts, Hemingway spoke in a heavy tone.
"Trying to run away again?"
His body trembled. It was not a tremble of his own choosing. It was a fear so deeply imprinted into the body that even the soul could not control it.
"Pathetic."
Though those words weren't ant for him, Gregory could not help but clench his jaw. Grit. He bit down hard.
'Pathetic?'
Suddenly, a mory from long ago surfaced.
A ti just like this—or perhaps even worse.
And so, Gregory's current physical condition ca into sharp relief once again.
'Yes, you...'
He was beginning to make sense of the situation.
He had woken up as a kid with the blood of the fad enemy swordsmanship family, Ashborn. Coincidentally, in a boy with the sa na and physical constitution as himself.
'Did the previous Gregory in this body run away?'
He had no mories of the boy who had possessed this body before. He didn't know why, but perhaps the boy simply couldn't withstand this oppressive pressure and ran off.
Of course, Gregory had no way of knowing the detailed story of this father-son relationship.
He just knew that he disliked everything about this situation.
The arrogant gaze of the man above, a Swordmaster like his past self, who now lood over him as his so-called father—and this frail body that trembled against his wishes. All of it.
Perhaps that was why.
Although Gregory's body resisted, trying to stifle his will, he had already blurted out words filled with defiance.
"I did not...."
"Hm?"
"I did not run away."
The defiance grew, fed by the sense of loss and thirst for revenge from his previous life, swelled uncontrollably.
"Ti, please give ti."
He didn't understand what was going on, but this was the only answer Gregory could give. With ti, he could learn more about this strange reincarnation and this frustrating father-son relationship.
At Gregory's request, Hemingway was silent for a mont. But before long, he responded in a tone filled with scorn.
"Fine. I'll give you one last chance. A week. Complete your task within a week."
With that, the family head left the room.
All that remained were a bewildered butler, who dared not move, and Gregory, who remained silent.
The butler tried to slip out quietly.
But his attempt was imdiately thwarted by Gregory grabbing him by the collar.
"Aigo... Young master, what's wrong? I'm sorry, I was wrong, please let go."
"You. From now on, answer my questions."
No matter what kind of misunderstanding the butler had, Gregory had no intention of correcting him. He simply questioned him coldly.
"What is the task I've been given?"
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