After a morning of training, I ate until lunch, but I didn't know why. It wasn't until the break that I realized this situation wasn't a fantasy, but a reality.
Just a few hours ago, I was fighting a decisive battle against the Demon King's army. I had suffered severe burns in a previous accident—burns that melted the skin all over my body. My back was slightly bent, and I lived as a hunchback. But now, I was the same as I was before the accident.
The moment I looked in the mirror, I saw my old appearance again, and I felt the lightness of my body. My skin was smooth, and my back was straight. This was the body I had before my life fell apart.
And it wasn't just my body that had changed. The timeline I was living in had also shifted.
This young body was twenty-four. I had definitely gone back in time.
"I'm back!"
"Are you finally crazy?"
As soon as I raised my arms and shouted, a high-pitched voice came from the side. It was Ray, the chef at the restaurant. She had come out to get some fresh air from the kitchen, sweating profusely, and she looked puzzled to see me smirking to myself.
Ray was a cute, 21-year-old woman with brown pigtails. She wore plain clothes and no makeup, which made her look like a cute statue. But beneath her clothes, she had a moderately large bust, a slim waist, and wide hips. If you looked closely, you could see that she was a beauty. I knew her true face because I knew the future.
"What's wrong?" Ray asked.
"Nothing."
It was a chance. A chance to fix everything that was broken.
"What?"
No one would understand what I was doing, so I decided to continue my thoughts, leaving Ray behind as she stared at me with a confused look.
I am Daron, a twenty-four-year-old. Just one of the most common foot soldiers in the Empire. Originally, I didn't want to become a soldier, but I didn't have any special skills. I had parents to support, so I was looking for a job and ended up with this one. I spent my days normally, receiving my fixed salary. This was the life of the twenty-four-year-old Daron.
From now on, things would be different. Because I had regressed, I knew the future.
If I had known that the Demon King was going to invade the continent, I would have been too scared to become a soldier. Of course, I wasn't the cowardly fool I was back then, so there was no reason to quit my job just because I knew the future.
I thought about it again. This future was the worst, but I was also convinced that going through it would be of great help. In a time of war, quick and accurate judgment determines life and death. The habit of making rational decisions without being swayed by emotions had been passed on to my present self.
So I considered my options. Would I live through this episode? I looked back at everything I had accumulated in my previous life. Since I could only feel a little magic, I had mostly learned sword skills. I also knew a lot of desperate ways to survive.
But my greatest asset was knowing what the future held. The course of history would change depending on how I behaved differently, but the pivotal events would not.
I, Daron, would never live like a fool again.
I roughly decided how I would live. I wouldn't wait until the entire continent burned up like before. If I could dismantle the Demon King's schemes one by one, I would naturally be able to kill him. But first, I would get revenge on the people who had prevented the union from coming together properly. They had been in a hurry to stop the Demon King, but I didn't like that they were fighting each other for power and calculating losses and gains.
Furthermore, there were those with whom I wanted to settle personal grudges. I had no intention of killing them all. There was no need to kill if there was a chance for them to change. I was just a soldier. I was about to leave. It wasn't intentional, but in a way, I definitely gave them a chance. However, they had completely failed, even after the hero had died.
So, from now on, I would do as I pleased.
First, I knew what I needed to do. There was one challenge ahead of me.
"Ray!"
I heard a voice calling Ray from a distance. I saw soldiers coming toward us with arrogant strides. They were a group deeply embedded in my memory.
"Tyke!"
Ray greeted Tyke with a bright face, different from the one she had shown me. Behind him were the thugs who always followed him. Even though they were of the same class, the word "Fallen" suited them well because they always trailed behind him.
"What are you doing here?"
Tyke, who was the same age as me, was a soldier in the next platoon. He was a handsome man with strong muscles. To be honest, as a man, he was probably more likable than I was. He was also about to be promoted soon.
"What? I came because I remembered Ray."
They didn't have a dating relationship, but the atmosphere was a little romantic. These two never got together for some reason. I knew this because it was the future I had lived through.
"How long have you been with this bastard, Ray?"
We hadn't been together. I was just there. I didn't like the way he had said that. The two thugs following Tyke snuck up on me and made a face. Looking at it now, it was childish enough to make me laugh, but if it had been me before, I would have been scared.
"Tyke. I was going to come out and rest for a while, but he was just here."
"What? Hey, do you like Ray? You, of all people?"
I was a soldier just like him, but Tyke looked down on me completely. He led the way, and the thugs also giggled and sneered. What Ray said was the truth. I was here first, and Ray came out to take a break from working in the kitchen. I had come to a quiet space behind the restaurant where people didn't go often. He might have thought I had a hidden intention.
"Are you laughing right now?"
"What? Did you see the corner of my mouth slightly raised?"
Unlike before, my eyes were now clearly open, so it must have bothered him. Maybe it was because he was trying to win a woman's affection, so he wanted to show her that he was a strong man. If I didn't talk and just smiled, he would get frustrated.
"Are you crazy?"
He used the same expression Ray had used earlier. "Crazy." Yes, the old me was crazy. I remembered. It was around this time. For a different reason, I was in this very spot. It was true that I had a crush on Ray. But I didn't want to get involved, because I felt jealous that Ray was closer to another man. I had come here to tell Ray a secret about Tyke.
At the time, I was filled with a sense of justice and I said this:
"Ray. Do you know that these bastards are murderers?"
"…What?"
It seemed like an unexpected statement. Behind a bewildered Ray, Tyke and his thugs were seen in confusion.
"You know that the reason Tyke is being promoted is because he made a big contribution to the monster sweeping operation a few days ago, right?"
"Hey!" Tyke tried to stop me.
"Kill the monster? I knew it from the side. He killed his comrades and threw them to the monsters to save his own life. Thanks to that, he survived, and after that, he somehow managed to kill a monster. Oh, did he even kill the boss who killed the monster?"
"What nonsense?"
"The one who originally killed the monster was Hackerd, the twenty-seven-year-old leader who was said to have died in battle. You were threatening to punish Tyke, who survived by killing his comrades during the battle, and the two thugs behind him after the operation. Maybe that's why Tyke was scared. When Hackerd chased the fleeing monster alone and managed to kill it, it was this guy named Tyke who chased and stabbed him first."
The whole story was as I said. I was a coward, watching from behind a tree, trembling with fear. It was a fear that came from the fact that I could be killed if I did something wrong. So, originally, I should have reported it to the captain this morning and then mustered up more courage and told Ray. However, because of the fact that I had returned, I was organizing my thoughts, so I couldn't report it to the captain.
"Tyke. I'll report it to the captain later."
"Won't you shut up?"
Tyke grabbed me by the collar and raised his fist. It looked like he was trying to hit me with a red face.
"Are you going to kill me now?"
"You son of a…"
Originally, if it had been me from before, that fist would have pierced my face, but to me now, it was a pathetic punch. Before the big man's hand could even reach me, I thrust my fist into his abdomen.
"Ugh!"
Seeing Tyke crawling on the ground, not breathing properly, made me laugh.
"Are you okay, Tyke?"
When their leader was knocked down in one shot, the other thugs didn't dare to attack me. All they could do was support Tyke.
Tyke's gang quickly left for another place, explaining that Ray had framed them.
I came back in a refreshed mood, straightened my clothes, and remembered what had happened during the day. I had just knocked him down, but it felt so good. How thrilling would it be to give back everything I had received? I thought I would have gotten my revenge long ago.
"Daron. Did you get a letter?"
As expected, the letter had arrived.
"Thanks, Hamil."
When I opened the letter Hamil, who shared the same room, gave me, it was a letter from Ray. It said that she wanted to talk about what had happened during the day and asked me to meet her. It was late in the evening, but it wasn't a controlled time, so it didn't matter if we met.
If it had been the old me, who had a brief crush on Ray, I would have happily run to her. The problem was that this was a trap. Lured by Tyke, who had sent this letter, I had suffered severe burns. An unfair false accusation was a bonus.
"Daron. Anything exciting?"
"Wait, I'm going out."
I needed to learn how to manage my facial expressions. I changed into my street clothes and left the room. The incident that had marked the beginning of my painful life was tonight. Of course, I had no intention of doing the same thing this time.
It's time to give everything back.