Chapter 2
Time drifted by in a hazy, dreamlike blur.
Had a minute passed?
Or a year?
Even his sense of time had dulled, leaving him unable to gauge its passage.
In this world where everything was faint, only one thing was certain.
That he was dead.
It was unbearably unjust.
He had finally found a way to overcome the wall that had long blocked his path.
He had finally become able to fulfill the long-cherished desire of House Schnelden.
Most of all, the fact that he had been betrayed by the friend he trusted most and the rival he admired filled him with irrepressible resentment.
To think the one he had taken as his role model was such a hypocrite.
Had he died at the hands of the Demon Dragon, it would not have been this agonizing.
Perhaps because that grievance had reached its peak, Luke’s mind began to grow clearer.
“……-nim, ……young master!”
His hearing returned.
It was someone’s urgent voice.
His sense of touch returned as well.
Someone was patting his shoulder.
Finally, his sight returned.
A man was looking at him with worried eyes.
“Young Master! Do you know where you are?”
Was that man asking him now?
His eyes were directed precisely this way, so it seemed to be the case.
‘Am I alive?’
That couldn’t be it.
Until the moment his breath was cut off, he had been glaring at Meolbin.
Thus, he vividly remembered the process of dying.
Without a doubt, he had died.
Then where was this place, and who was that man?
“Do you recognize who I am?”
Luke still could not understand the situation.
Judging by the man’s reaction, he seemed to know Luke, but conversely, Luke did not know him.
In times like this, it was better to remain silent than to open his mouth needlessly and draw suspicion.
When Luke shook his head, the man despaired.
“Is it not I, Torbin? Torbin, your butler, Young Master. Do you truly not know me?”
Butler Torbin…
Had there been a butler by that name in the house?
No matter how he searched his memory, it was a name he was hearing for the first time.
Had that thought shown on his face?
The man called Torbin let out a deep sigh.
“You’ve gone completely out of your mind. That’s what happens when you climb up to such a high place….”
From the looks of it, it seemed he had fallen from somewhere, but contrary to the man’s worries, Luke’s body was perfectly intact.
To say nothing of injuries from the fall, even the wounds from his battle with the Demon Dragon, and even the heart pierced by Meolbin—everything was perfectly fine.
“The physician is on his way, so please wait just a moment.”
Scarcely had those words ended when a physician came rushing in from behind.
“You said head trauma? What are the symptoms? Is the patient conscious?”
“It is quite serious. He has woken up, but he cannot remember anything.”
“We should administer emergency treatment first, then move the patient to the infirmary.”
From then on, a chaotic time passed.
The physician repeatedly asked about his memory and applied medicinal herbs.
But Luke wanted to say both were useless.
He had neither memories to recover, nor injuries to treat.
He simply ignored the physician and decided to first grasp his current situation.
‘So this is…’
Luke turned his gaze toward the mirror in the infirmary.
The black hair, the fierce-looking eyes, the similar air given off by the corners of his lips brimming with displeasure—but this man was clearly someone he had never seen in his life.
‘Though my memories are perfectly intact.’
He clearly remembered that he was Luke Schnelden, the Lord of House Schnelden, and that he had fought and defeated the Demon Dragon for the fate of the Theron Continent.
Ssk.
When he even recalled what happened with Meolbin afterward, and saw himself grinding his teeth without realizing it, he knew these memories were his own.
The problem was this unfamiliar face and his frail, weakened body.
‘Have I been reincarnated or possessed?’
It seemed that was the only way to see it.
For a very brief moment, he wondered if it was Meolbin’s scheme, but Meolbin, a knight who pursued the Ruin Swordsmanship, wouldn’t even glance at something like illusion magic.
Had they not said that once the impossible is excluded, what remains—however unbelievable—is the truth?
Perhaps now was the moment that saying fit best.
“Barring a high priest’s blessing, there is presently no way to restore his memory.”
Probably, even a high priest’s blessing would not bring back any memories.
But thinking of the physician’s efforts until now, he nodded his head anyway.
“It may be due to temporary shock, so please do not be too anxious and wait to see.”
Not long after the physician left, the butler called Torbin entered.
“How is your body? Has your memory returned?”
While being moved here, he had heard Torbin speaking with the physician.
Torbin had said he was the butler of House Schnelden and someone who attended him.
‘Then does that mean I’ve possessed the body of a child bearing Schnelden blood?’
It could not be anything but a bizarre affair.
He had obtained a new life, only to return to Schnelden once again.
‘I suppose it is rather fortunate I was not reborn in some random place.’
“Young Master?”
It seemed he had been lost in other thoughts for too long.
Torbin’s face darkened.
“The physician says there is nothing wrong with my body, but my memory is all jumbled.”
For now, he decided to maintain the amnesia concept.
That way, he would not draw suspicion and could obtain information more easily.
“How far back do you remember?”
“I don’t know. Listening to stories, I feel like my memory might return….”
“The physician says it can happen from a sudden shock, so please don’t worry too much.”
Seeing him worry about Luke first in this situation, he seemed like quite a decent person.
“They say tracing your memories one by one helps, so try that. Starting with your name.”
“Luke Schnelden.”
“Oh? Just now you did not even know your name; it seems your memory has returned a little.”
“It seems so, for now.”
It was a lie.
By coincidence, the fact that he had the same name as in his previous life was merely something he had picked up from the conversation between the physician and Torbin.
The name Luke was common enough on this continent that it was not all that surprising.
“Then next, do you know what year it is?”
Luke shook his head.
“It is the year 204. March 5th, 204. Does anything come to mind?”
“Wait.”
“Did you remember something?”
“No, that is not it. Did you say it is the year 204?”
“Yes.”
“What calendar is used? If it is 204….”
“It is the year 204 of the Toma, of course.”
“Toma? What is that?”
“It has been 204 years since the Great Hero Meolbin slew the Demon Dragon.”
Torbin looked at him as if he could not believe even this was forgotten.
But such things did not even register in Luke’s eyes right now.
If it was the Demon Dragon, it could only mean Den Hog.
Luke had died right after Den Hog died, yet now it was Toma 204.
In other words, this meant two hundred years had passed since the body of Luke Schnelden died.
‘Not twenty years, but two hundred. It is so distant that it barely feels real.’
Luke let out a deep sigh of emptiness.
In truth, when he guessed he had been reincarnated, he thought it was a heaven-sent opportunity.
He could take revenge on Meolbin, who had stabbed him in the back, and pass on his new vision to the house.
But that expectation came crashing down.
Both Meolbin, the target of his revenge, and the family members he knew would all be in the underworld by now.
‘What am I supposed to do in a world like this?’
Just as his emptiness reached its peak, a sudden question arose in Luke’s mind.
“Schnelden.”
“Yes?”
“What happened to our house after the Demon Dragon was slain?”
Meolbin had monopolized the credit for slaying the Demon Dragon and had exerted enough influence to even change the calendar.
Luke had expected this much.
He had witnessed clearly in his final moments what a petty hypocrite that bastard was.
What he was curious about was what happened to Schnelden afterward.
Meolbin had said in his final moments that he was afraid Schnelden would surpass Cornelio.
Such a man would not have left Schnelden alone after its lord disappeared.
“That is….”
Torbin, who had answered every question smoothly until now, mumbled evasively for the first time.
The more he did so, the more fearful Luke became.
“Our house lost all its knights, including the Lord of that era, while breaking through the Demon Dragon’s Gorge. And then….”
“And then?”
“Things are not so good now.”
“Not good? How much so?”
“A little.”
“A little?”
“Quite a lot….”
He would rather Torbin had told him it was a lie.
But Torbin was looking around, afraid someone might overhear.
That behavior did not look like that of a liar at all.
“How did it come to that?”
Even if they had suddenly lost their lord.
Even if Meolbin had a hand in it.
A renowned house counted within the top two on the continent could not possibly topple so easily in a mere two hundred years.
“Will this really help the Young Master recover his memory?”
“It helps, so speak quickly.”
The Young Master, having hit his head, was suddenly pouring out strange questions, leaving Torbin bewildered.
But calming the Young Master down was the priority.
Look at those sharp eyes.
If he did not answer now, it seemed he would go on a rampage that very moment.
Once the Young Master calmed down, he could then figure out the situation.
Having judged thus, Torbin continued.
“After losing the Lord of that era, the successors fought over the position of the next lord. From then on, the household’s fortunes began to rapidly decline….”
Luke could not believe a word of it.
In the past, he had had six children.
They had naturally competed for the position of the next lord, but they were not fools who would fight to the point of toppling the household.
Had he not even designated the young lord before leading the punitive force out?
This alone was already shocking, but Torbin dropped an even bigger bombshell.
“Now, including Cornelio, we are maintaining our lineage with the help of several houses.”
“Schnelden is receiving support from Cornelio?”
“The Great Hero mediated the Schnelden civil war as well, and saying it was repayment for an old friend, began to help the house.”
“Heh heh, heh heh heh heh….”
Now he wanted to stop listening.
If he heard any more, he felt he would go dig up Meolbin’s grave that very moment.
“Hoo….”
Luke took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart.
Even he thought he had gotten too worked up.
If he showed any more reaction than this, he might draw suspicion.
But this anger simply would not subside.
Who could easily calm down when the house he had raised was said to be ruined?
It was not just some house in the remote frontier, but Schnelden, which had reigned as one of the continent’s premier renowned houses for hundreds of years—he could not believe it had fallen.
‘Rather than this, I need to verify it with my own eyes.’
Torbin did not seem to be lying, but he had to see it for himself.
Only then could he decide how to act moving forward.
“I will step out for a moment.”
“Where? The physician said you must rest.”
“My body aches from lying down here.”
Luke opened the door without listening to the answer.
Torbin stared blankly at his retreating figure.
“He’s suddenly changed so much.”
That ferocious tone and behavior were the complete opposite of the Young Master he usually served.
It was probably because he had hit his head falling from a high place.
‘This is really bad. But how does the Young Master know where to go when he’s lost his memory?’
It was around the time such worry arose.
Creak.
The door opened.
“Where is this? Outside is some alley.”
“Did you not come out saying you wanted fresh air, Young Master?”
“Really? Then let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the main house, of course. I’m a patient, so you guide me.”
Luke turned sharply and walked out again.
In his eyes as he left the room, emptiness no longer lingered.
All that was reflected within was worry for Schnelden and hatred for Meolbin.