2
It was the sensation of waking after an incredibly long dream.
As if I had pulled an all-nighter, an overwhelming fatigue wrapped around my head the very moment I awoke.
After barely steadying my exhausted mind, I reflexively cast Refresh, a 2nd Circle wind spell, toward my head out of habit.
“…….”
…What the hell? Why isn’t it working?
The moment the spell that had been no different from a daily convenience failed to activate, a feeling of confusion briefly blossomed in my head.
Fortunately, however, the reason the spell hadn’t activated wasn’t difficult to figure out.
“…Where did all my circles go?”
My magic circles, which I had pushed all the way to the 9th Circle through every hardship imaginable, were all gone, leaving behind nothing but a single 1st Circle.
As if everything beyond the 1st Circle had never existed from the start. They had vanished so cleanly that not even a trace of destruction remained.
I also realized immediately that this strangeness wasn’t limited to just that.
The moment I raised my head and looked around, I became aware that this place was an all too familiar sight.
The end of the third floor of the Perdalros Estate. The private chamber of the firstborn son, Conrad Perdalros.
If the black-haired man reflected in the mirror was truly my appearance, then this room undoubtedly meant it was my room from the past.
Furthermore, I could tell that my physical age had become considerably younger as well.
The only conclusion I could draw from the information before me was one thing.
“Time regression…?”
The domain of divine providence that one must never dare to touch. Time regression magic.
During my time reaching the heights of a 9th Circle Archmage, I hadn’t properly grasped so much as the theory behind time magic itself, let alone time regression.
There was simply no other way to explain this situation than that I had traveled back in time.
I had thought it was merely a strange artifact of a type I had never seen before.
If it was an artifact related to time magic, I could understand why its method of use had been so incomprehensible.
That aside, it wasn’t simply rolling back the world’s time while excluding me— to think it even made my own physical body younger.
As expected, there was a reason why forbidden ancient magic was never passed down.
The moment such magic became ordinary magic that any mage could use, the chaos that would ensue would be beyond comprehension.
What’s more, it was truly fortunate that I had been the one to discover it.
Because having regressed to the past when I was merely a 1st Circle nobody meant I had returned to a time quite long ago.
The tragic and hopeless future I had witnessed in my final moments was also something that hadn’t happened yet.
It was the same as saying I had been given exactly one chance to change the coming future.
The reason I said “exactly once” was none other than because my instincts as a mage told me so.
For one, if I were to get my hands on that unidentified ancient artifact that had activated by chance again, I couldn’t guarantee that I would be able to reactivate it.
Above all, if I performed time regression even one more time, my soul would undoubtedly fail to endure it.
Although my body had returned to the vigorous health of my youth, my soul alone, having been unaffected by the time regression, must have taken the backlash of using the artifact head-on.
If I attempted the same time regression even once more, I probably wouldn’t succeed properly, and my soul would wander the rifts of time for eternity.
“…So, what year is it exactly?”
Looking out the window, the season seemed to be winter, and seeing that my 2nd Circle was not yet open, it was highly likely to be the winter vacation of my first year at the Academy.
“…Let’s open my circles first.”
My mind felt as if it were dying, but regardless, my body had woken up after a deep sleep.
I could probably unlock my 2nd Circle even in this state.
After drawing a 4-step magic formula in a 2×2 grid in the air, I activated the chain magic of Light-Water-Wind-Void.
Immediately, I felt the aura of mana enveloping my body.
The 2nd Circle magic circle, which I had failed to obtain for the longest time in my previous life due to my idle days, was absorbed into my body in an instant.
“It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt this.”
The first thing I did the moment my circle was unlocked was, of course, the Refresh spell I had just failed to cast.
As soon as the spell activated, the fatigue from moments ago faded to some degree, and I recovered enough to come to my senses roughly.
“Since I’m at it, I ought to create my 3rd Circle as well.”
In my heart, I wanted to restore all nine circles at once and return to my original realm, but without any special reagents, the limit for creating magic circles was at best the 3rd Circle.
Beyond that, I would need an environment rich in mana sensitivity, as well as the necessary reagents required to raise my circles.
I decided to create only up to the 3rd Circle, which could be made with nothing but my bare body.
The awakening method for the 3rd Circle was a 9-step chained magic formula.
A 9-step magic formula in a 3×3 grid was required.
The first was Fire. The second was Light.
I constructed the seven remaining elemental magics in the form that connected most smoothly, visualizing a chained magic formula leading to 9 steps.
On the first day of my regression, having returned as a prospective second-year at the Academy, I became a 3rd Circle mage.
? ? ?
Having restored my magic circles and regained some measure of my senses, the first thing I needed to do now was determine exactly what month and day it was.
I had somehow succeeded in returning to the past through the power of the ancient artifact that had activated by chance, but if I sat still doing nothing, I would merely repeat the tragedy of my previous life.
To correct the wrong future, I needed to correct things one by one, starting with what was within my reach.
Stella was one such matter, but there were many other things to do as well.
Especially regarding the Perdalros family and the territory, there was no shortage of past events that needed changing.
Since this was the winter vacation of my first year at the Academy, the time when I had temporarily returned home to help manage the territory, I would have to resolve things one by one, starting with what I could do now.
After changing out of my pajamas into everyday clothes, the moment I opened the door and stepped outside, I was met with a face I had missed, feeling as though it had been several years since we’d last met.
“Have you been coughing, Brother?”
My younger sister, whose hairstyle—half braided and half loose—seemed to capture both the refinement of a noble and the practicality of a manager, greeted me with a faint smile, her light blonde hair resembling our father’s.
The moment I saw that face, for some reason, something strange welled up from deep within my chest.
“Delphina.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Let me hug you, just this once, after so long.”
“Yes…?”
Delphina tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand what I was saying, but my arms were already spread and approaching her.
Fortunately, Delphina neither avoided nor refused my touch. She came willingly into my embrace.
“Sorry, Delphina. Let me stay like this for a moment.”
“Did you have some kind of nightmare, Brother?”
“Yeah. A terrible nightmare I never want to have again.”
“If hugging me will soothe your feelings, you may borrow my back as much as you wish.”
Delphina, far more mature than her good-for-nothing older brother, didn’t panic even at my sudden childishness.
Rather, she calmed and comforted my confused mind.
Thanks to her, my confused heart, right after returning to the past, was able to stabilize before long.
“Sorry, Delphina. For suddenly acting strange.”
“No, Brother. Even you must have days when you wish to lean on someone.”
Despite being my younger sister, she was truly no different from an angel.
If I looked in a mirror now, I was probably making quite an unsightly expression.
Anyway, meeting Delphina was a good opportunity, so I immediately asked her for the information I needed most.
“Delphina, what is today’s date?”
“Since you returned from the Academy the day before yesterday, today would be the last day of December.”
“Thank you, Delphina.”
Realizing that fortunately it wasn’t too late yet, my steps moved immediately toward the stairs leading up.
“Brother? What about breakfast?”
“Sorry, tell Hadi that I’ll come down a bit late today.”
I had to execute an important matter so urgent that I might not have enough time even if I started right now; a meal was naturally a matter for later.
After climbing the stairs heading upward and standing before the bedroom door of Viscount and Viscountess Perdalros on the fourth floor, I knocked twice to call to my mother inside.
“Mother, may I come in?”
“Conrad? Come in.”
Having received Mother’s permission, I stepped inside. The first thing I saw was Viscountess Tanasia lying in bed.
Since morning, two maids had been attending to her by the bedside.
“What brings you here so early, Conrad?”
My mother’s face, which I was seeing after nearly ten years, was exactly as it had been in my final memories.
She was extremely gaunt and sickly in appearance.
It was only natural, as she had already been unable to rise from her bed for three years.
It was a tragedy that had occurred three years prior to this time.
My mother, an archmage and magic researcher, had been studying a new spell as usual when she failed to discover a fatal error in the mana formula she had mistakenly created and proceeded with it.
Unfortunately, it was a great spell that required nearly all the mana within the body to activate.
Having cast a wrongly-created great spell without any safety measures, the aftermath had become the tragedy that was destined to befall her.
My mother’s mana circuits, those of an archmage, were completely destroyed by the aftershock.
Due to the piercing pain throughout her entire body whenever she moved, she had become unable to so much as walk properly, let alone use magic.
As a fellow mage, I knew better than anyone the agony of having one’s mana circuits destroyed, even for a moment.
If anyone had suffered in that state for three years, it was only natural they would look like that.
“Mother.”
“Yes, my son.”
“I would like to speak with you alone for a moment, if that is alright.”
Upon hearing my words, Mother immediately signaled the maids.
“Mary, Biz, would you step out for a moment?”
““Yes, Lady Tanasia.””
She smoothly sent the two servants out of the room.
Unlike my father, who had been born a commoner, it was the neat dignity befitting my mother, a noble by birth.
With the sound of the door closing behind the two who had left, when only Mother and I remained in the bedroom, she smiled at me, shedding a layer of noble etiquette.
“My son, what is it you wish to talk about?”
“Mother. Could you give me your hands for a moment?”
“My right hand? Or my left?”
“Both hands, please.”
Holding the thin, pure white, delicate hands pushed before me, I gradually pushed my own mana toward Mother with one hand.
With the other hand, I took in the corrupted mana accumulated in her body.
“Son? What are you doing now…?”
“Please stay still for a moment, Mother. It will be over quickly if I focus.”
Restoring once-destroyed mana circuits wasn’t all that difficult in itself.
In my previous life, I too had once had my mana circuits destroyed, and I had the experience of being smoothly treated with a comrade’s help at the time.
Injecting another person’s mana into someone with destroyed circuits while simultaneously extracting and purifying the corrupted existing mana.
The treatment itself was possible with the skill to handle mana and sufficient mana.
The problem was that this treatment method was only passed down among the elves living in the World Tree’s forest, a secret technique virtually unknown to the outside world.
Fortunately, in this life, I had returned with knowledge of it, so there was no reason to hesitate to save my mother’s life, which I had once been forced to give up on.
“…….”
Fortunately, my mana and magical talent were inherited directly from Mother, so both the circulation and the purification of mana proceeded far more smoothly than they would have with anyone else.
When the ritual, which required about thirty minutes of concentration while holding hands, ended, my mother’s expression, which had been contorted in pain, was now far more comfortable than before.
“How do you feel, Mother?”
“Conrad, don’t tell me… Did you just fix Mother’s mana circuits?”
“Yes. Still, just in case, you must not use magic today.
Spend the day resting, and if you still feel any discomfort, tell me again tomorrow.”
“…….”
“I’ll take my leave now. I’ll tell Mary and Biz to bring breakfast when I come back in.”
Having lost her words for a moment at the small miracle I had performed, Mother stared blankly into space until just before I left the room.
“Conrad.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you, my son.”
With faint tears and a smile, she expressed her gratitude.
“It was nothing. Rest well, Mother.”
Meeting Mother’s eyes one last time, I moved my steps outside the bedroom.
Feeling deep satisfaction toward the first future I had changed since returning to the past.