Chapter 3

Episode 3. I Found a Reason to Live (2)

Reynaldo Hero School.

500 years ago, the Five Great Heroes who sealed the Devil God.

Among them, Reynaldo Helios, the leader of the party and a legendary swordsman revered by all, personally founded this school. Blessed by the seven gods, it was an educational institution that gathered 18-year-old youths who had awakened the “Holy Mark” and, through four years of training, turned them into proper heroes.

A hero is an important existence, each one capable of influencing the national power of a country.

Currently, the three powers dividing the continent—the Empire, the Holy Kingdom, and the Republic—would enroll anyone who had awakened the Holy Mark into the school without question, all in the hopes of securing even one more outstanding hero.

Naturally, problems arose.

Cramming youths of different nations, statuses, and backgrounds into a small school led to endless conflicts among them.

Eventually, after much deliberation with numerous heroes and the three nations, Reynaldo Hero School was declared a completely “neutral zone.”

In other words.

“At least within the school grounds, no discrimination based on nationality or status is allowed.”

“…So?”

“It means that even if Iris is the Saint of the Holy Kingdom, here she is merely a candidate.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“A month is too long. Let’s reduce it to four days.”

“Hey, you…!”

Professor Lucas, who had been quietly listening, clutched the back of his neck in frustration.

“You were originally suspended for a week!”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“But after causing trouble during your suspension, you’re asking to reduce it to four days?”

“When negotiating, you should aim high, right?”

“Who in their right mind would cause trouble and then ask to reduce their suspension period?! And what? Negotiation? Do you think you’re in a position to negotiate with me?”

Professor Lucas glared at me with a look of disbelief.

I smirked slightly and nodded quietly.

“Professor Bianca’s birthday is coming up soon, isn’t it?”

Professor Bianca, in charge of the Magic Department.

She was a female professor notorious for her poor relationship with Professor Lucas.

“…Why are you suddenly bringing up Professor Bianca’s birthday?”

But I know.

I know that Professor Lucas, who seems like a beast, secretly has a crush on Professor Bianca.

“Don’t you want to know what Professor Bianca would like as a gift?”

“Hah. Why should I care about that?”

“Is that so? What a pity. If you gave her that as a birthday gift, even if your relationship has been bad, she might see you in a slightly different light.”

“……”

Professor Lucas’s pupils trembled faintly.

Creak.

I pushed my chair back and stood up.

“Well… since you don’t seem interested, I guess there’s nothing I can do. I’ll quietly accept my punishment for the crime I committed.”

I bowed politely and turned to walk out of the professor’s office when…

“…Wait.”

Professor Lucas’s voice called out.

I turned around with a faint smile.

“What is it?”

“I’ll reduce your suspension period, but on one condition.”

“If it’s about what Professor Bianca would like…”

“No, not that.”

Professor Lucas continued with a sharp gaze, as if piercing through me.

“Participate in tomorrow’s Warrior Department sparring class and win. That’s the condition.”

“Hmm. Who’s my opponent?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

The sudden sparring proposal.

It wasn’t hard to guess why Professor Lucas made such an offer.

‘No matter how you think about it, it wouldn’t make sense.’

Being knocked out by a single punch from a candidate who had just woken up, despite being called the “Bloodthirsty Hound.”

Camila Bediche, who is considered a candidate for the next Holy Kingdom’s sword and ranks high among the candidates, being subdued without even drawing her sword.

A bottom-ranked candidate doing something unbelievable even for an average candidate would naturally make anyone want to see it for themselves.

“Alright.”

“…Confident, aren’t you?”

“It’s just a sparring match. No reason to worry, right?”

“Hmm.”

Professor Lucas swallowed a low sigh and crossed his arms.

What could this guy have eaten wrong to change so much in just one day?

If that’s the case, then unfortunately, I can’t answer.

I don’t even know why I regressed.

“Then I’ll be going now.”

“Wait.”

“Do you have something else to say?”

“Ahem! Cough!”

When I turned to look at Professor Lucas, he let out a series of awkward coughs and cautiously opened his mouth.

“So, what was that thing Professor Bianca would like?”

“……”

As expected.

Despite his appearance, he’s a romantic at heart.

* * *

The next day.

When I woke up in the morning, I lay in bed for a while, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“It doesn’t seem like the life flashback before death…”

Perhaps it was because I had wandered the continent alone for so long, chasing the Primordial Flame.

I still couldn’t fully grasp that I had regressed.

“Phew.”

I got out of bed, quickly washed my face, and looked at the wet mirror.

Ash-gray hair and green eyes.

It had been a long time since I last saw my own face.

‘My face hasn’t changed.’

After awakening the Blessing of Resurrection, natural aging had stopped, so it was only natural.

After staring at the mirror for a while, I changed into my candidate uniform and headed to school.

The uniform clinging to my body still felt awkward in some way.

Like the new life that had been given to me.

* * *

“Ha, are you seriously telling me to spar with that guy?”

A candidate with curly blue hair and a delicate appearance frowned in displeasure.

Felix Odman.

A fellow Warrior Department member and a 3rd-year candidate ranked within the top 100, a relatively high-ranking candidate.

“Do you have a problem?”

“No, it’s not that, but…”

Felix, who had been whining all along, immediately straightened up under Professor Lucas’s sharp gaze.

“Ha. Fine.”

Felix let out a deep sigh and picked up a wooden training sword.

“Hey, idiot. Hurry up and pick up your sword.”

Felix glared at me with nervous eyes.

Having attended a different class, he probably hadn’t seen me knock out Professor Lucas or subdue Camila during yesterday’s “Combat Training.”

But even though it had become a hot topic, he didn’t seem to be wary of me.

Well.

Even if he had heard that the perennial last-place candidate had suddenly knocked out Professor Lucas, known for his formidable skills, with a single punch or subdued the next Holy Kingdom’s sword with one hand, it would be hard to believe.

“Hey, did you hear? What Dale did yesterday?”

“Ah, that? Isn’t that just a rumor?”

“No! I saw it myself!”

The candidates who had gathered to watch the sparring between me and Felix looked on with interest.

‘Feels like being a zoo monkey.’

I looked around at the gathered candidates and swallowed a bitter smile.

In my past life, I had never received such heated attention during my four years as a candidate.

‘Well, I did gather some attention back then.’

But not this kind of heated attention—more like cold, icy stares.

“Phew.”

I exhaled a low breath and gripped the wooden sword.

The feel of the wooden sword in my hand, after what felt like thousands of years, wasn’t bad.

It felt like holding a childhood toy after a long time.

“During this sparring match, the use of magic power is prohibited.”

“Ha, do you think I can’t beat that guy without magic power?”

Felix let out a disbelieving laugh.

Magic power.

Also known as the breath of the gods, it was a power only heroes who had awakened the Holy Mark could wield.

“Lucky for you? You don’t even have enough magic power to be prohibited.”

Felix looked at me with a mocking gaze and shrugged his shoulders.

As he said.

The magic power I possessed was less than 10% of the average candidate’s.

‘Having low magic power has always been my chronic issue.’

Back when I was a mercenary, my magic power depleted as quickly as a rabbit’s droppings, earning me the nickname “Rabbit Han.”

I swallowed a bitter smile, remembering all the humiliation and hardship I endured due to my lack of magic power.

‘Well, what now?’

I tapped the ground with the tip of the wooden sword, lost in thought.

Yesterday, I was too out of it to think straight and just acted recklessly.

But now it’s different.

I have a reason to live.

‘Then I need to decide how to live.’

I listened to the sound of the wooden sword tapping the ground as I sank into thought.

“Hey, come at me.”

All my life.

I’ve lived chasing after others.

Walking while only looking at their backs.

“I said come at me! Can’t you hear me, you bastard?”

Tail-end hero Dale Han.

The label once attached to me followed me everywhere.

Even after gaining some skill through a long mercenary career and being counted among the “Last Five Heroes,” humanity’s last hope, it was the same.

“Ha, really. Look at this bastard. Scared? Huh? You scared?”

I was always too busy chasing after others.

Their paths.

Their footsteps.

I ran, panting, just trying to catch up.

“Fine, if you won’t come, I’ll go, you bastard.”

And at the end of that path.

In the end, only I remained.

Alone, all by myself.

On a cold, snowy plain where no one else remained, I cried my heart out.

“Drop dead, you bastard!!!”

Never once did I lead anyone.

Never once did I reach out to anyone.

That’s how I lived.

That was the life “Dale Han” had lived until now.

-Thud.

I lightly deflected Felix’s fiercely swung sword.

My stepping foot was the right foot.

Using my right foot as a pivot, I spun my body and swung the wooden sword from below to above.

Sun Sword.

First Form, Initial Eclipse.

Boom!

With a deafening roar that was hard to believe came from a wooden sword, Felix’s body was violently thrown to the ground.

“Gah, ugh, uweeeek!”

Felix, rolling on the ground, clutched his stomach, which had taken a direct hit, and vomited.

I tapped the ground with the tip of the wooden sword and spoke.

“What are you doing? You said you’d come first. Not coming?”

Well, then.

“I’ll go.”

Now.

I won’t live like that anymore.