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“Congratulations on your descent, my disciple.”

A man’s farewell ought to be cool. Repenhardt silently turned away and began to run across the open ground. Before long, the noisy steps grew distant.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

With his silver beard fluttering, Gerard laughed heartily.

‘Master, I can finally repay the grace you’ve bestowed upon me.’

Gerard looked up at the chilly winter sky. It seemed as if his master was smiling down at him from above with satisfaction. He then turned his gaze back to the figure of his disciple.

The disciple’s running pace began to slow.

He kept looking back as he went.

It was understandable. Gerard could deeply feel what his disciple, who had finally gained strength after all the hardship and suffering, might be feeling as he descended the mountain. The mixed feelings of excitement and regret were something he had experienced himself 60 years ago.

“Go forth, my disciple!”

Gerard thrust his fist into the air.

Kwaang!

A golden aura surged from his entire body, shooting high into the sky. With a pillar of light, he blessed his disciple as he ventured into the world.

Go forth, my disciple.

Do not lament our parting.

Run forward like a man.

You are the disciple of the greatest transmitter of teachings on earth!

‘Is this truly the end?’

Even as Repenhardt moved on, he kept looking back.

‘Is it real? Have I truly been released from here?’

Having been through so much hardship, it was hard to believe that he was actually descending the mountain. It felt like a dream he had longed for and lived in was still ongoing.

Thus, Repenhardt continued to look back as he went down the mountain. It seemed as though that demon-like master of his might chase after him, grab him by the neck, and burst into maniacal laughter saying, ‘Hahaha! I was just kidding. Actually, there’s the next phase of training!’

But then, suddenly, wasn’t his master flashing his fist in the air and striking the innocent sky?

Boom!

A punch was thrown into the air, and thunder roared unexpectedly. Indeed, that man was no ordinary human. The pillar of light shone brightly, illuminating even here.

‘Oh, mother!’

A chill ran down his spine instantly. Somehow, it felt like an invitation to stay a bit longer if he didn’t want to descend. Repenhardt, pale as a ghost, turned around and started running.

Thud thud thud!

Even as the log house (read as hell) disappeared over the hill, the pillar of light still shone brightly. He ran like mad, not looking back.

Crossing two hills, leaping over three brooks, and traversing an entire forest, it was only when Repenhardt reached a place where not even the pillar of light could be seen, with only the distant blur of a golden sky in view, that he finally stopped his sprint.

It was then that it truly hit him.

“I’ve, I’ve escaped.”

Tears welled up uncontrollably.

It was real. He had truly descended the mountain. He had truly escaped from that hell.

“Uwahahahaha!”

Standing there, Repenhardt burst into laughter. After a while of laughing like mad, he finally regained some semblance of sanity.

‘Now, there’s much to do.’

He needed to reclaim the power of ancient magic and check on what had become of his younger self, Repenhardt. Preparations to rebuild the Antares Empire were also necessary.

But above all…

‘My Siris, I will see you soon.’

With a twinkle in his eye, Repenhardt descended the mountain. Lightly hopping from tree to tree, he swiftly disappeared beyond the forest.

* * *

In the southern part of the Vasily Kingdom, Chrome City.

At the Blue Mane Inn’s second-floor room.

There, a young man stood shirtless, gazing at his reflection in the full-length mirror in the room. Suddenly, he muttered as if lamenting,

“I’m sorry, Siris… I’ve become like this…”

Repenhardt sighed deeply, thinking back to a time that was both a memory from 35 years ago and a future 25 years hence.

Seeing his body, reminiscent of an ultimate weapon rather than a finely honed sword, not unlike a brutish stone golem, he couldn’t help but sigh.

‘Even if I meet Siris again, would she still like me?’

Yet, there were aspects he appreciated. Elves were naturally taller than humans on average. Siris, being a female elf, was no exception, possessing a perfect figure with a tall stature in her previous life.

Put simply, Siris was a finger’s length taller than Repenhardt in her previous life.

Of course, he was already at an age where he wasn’t swayed by external perceptions, but being a man, he couldn’t help feeling a complex about being shorter than his lover.

‘Now, I’m much taller, hehehe.’

However, realizing he liked this animalistic aspect of himself, Repenhardt fell into despair again. It seemed he had been too influenced by the teachings of Gym Unbreakable.

‘Ah, I need to snap out of it.’

With a click of his tongue, he got dressed again.

Having arrived at Chrome City in less than a day, he had booked a luxurious room that cost a silver coin a day and was taking a rest for the first time in a while. Having a human meal for the first time in ages and relieving mental fatigue truly made life worth living.

Looking out the window, he saw a few pedestrians passing by on the street. People wrapping their clothes tightly against the winter cold and walking briskly. It was an ordinary scene with nothing special, but to him, who had lived in the mountains for nearly six years, even this seemed fascinating.

“Anyway, coming down to the world is indeed pleasant.”

Suddenly, Repenhardt rummaged through his belongings. He then pulled out a small, rolled-up piece of parchment.

“Anyway….”

He murmured as he examined a traveler’s map of the continent he had bought from a nearby general store.

“At this time, surely Siris must be here….”

His gaze moved to the top of the map. The Duchy of Chatan in the northern part of the continent, a trade nation that thrived on being an intermediary, located in a tributary of the Setellad Mountains. It was also the place where slave trading was most rampant on the continent.

‘Siris…’

Repenhardt recalled her past that he had heard about from time to time.

His lover from a previous life, the High Elf woman, Siris Valencia.

She had grown up among Elves who barely survived in the wilderness of the continent’s outlands and was captured by slave hunters at the age of twenty, which would be about five or six in human years.

The slave trader, deeming Siris too young and thus of lesser value, had sent her to a training camp first, and she spent her childhood there, from what he had heard.

“She was just under a hundred years old in her past life, so now she would be around seventy? In human terms, that would be around seventeen or eighteen.”

Eventually, when she came of age, Siris, who had been living as a sexual plaything sold to wealthy humans, met Repenhardt. It took almost three years for her, both body and soul battered, to smile again.

Holding the face of his beloved in his thoughts, Repenhardt clenched the map tightly and frowned.

“Rebuilding the empire and reviving magic are all well and good…”

But this is the most urgent. Knowing what fate Siris will face, how could he just leave her be? Saving her is the top priority.

“It’s the year 984 in the continental calendar. If Siris is to be sold, there’s about a year left… She’ll still be in the Duchy of Chatan.”

His course was set. Repenhardt roughly stuffed the map back into his pocket and pondered for a moment.

“What should I do? Should I go to the Chatan Duchy now, smash the auction house, and rescue Siris?”

If it were the Repenhardt of old, he could have easily done it. Additionally, he might have been able to save other elves suffering in the process. But now, without the power of great magic, that task was too burdensome.

Well, even now, it’s possible to destroy an auction house and save Siris with just the power of a martial artist. However, doing so would mean living a life constantly on the run. To regain the power of magic, it’s better to avoid troublesome matters as much as possible.

“Maybe it’s better to handle this quietly, huh?”

In the end, Repenhardt decided to buy Siris. The thought of buying his beloved woman with money was truly unpleasant, but there was no other choice given the situation.

‘I’ll need money.’

And a tremendous amount of it. The price of elven slaves was beyond imagination. And right now, he was nearly penniless.

However, Repenhardt wasn’t overly worried about money. He might not have been strong enough to change the situation drastically, but he certainly had the power to rescue at least one elven slave from the clutches of fate.

With an aura-awakened strong body, martial arts skills that had reached a high level, and most importantly, his knowledge of the future!

“Let’s see, if it’s the year 984 of the Continental Calendar, then surely Todd…”

A faint smile appeared on his lips as he recalled his memories.

“Yes, it was definitely here.”

Located in the central part of the Vasily Kingdom, slightly off the main road leading to the Chatan Duchy, the Hattan Mountain Range.

Looking at the place marked on the map, Repenhardt’s eyes shone.

The small mountain village at the foot of the Hattan Mountains, Cattle Village.

Like most villages of slash-and-burn farmers, this place was also built by those who fled from the harsh exploitation of a wicked lord. Barely making ends meet by tilling the narrow farmlands, and occasionally struggling to survive through hunting and gathering. However, being deep in the mountains yet slightly away from the monsters’ territory, it was relatively a peaceful place.

The people of this Cattle Village, who were poor but had been living in peace, encountered an unprecedented disaster two days ago.

In front of the village hall located at the center of the village.

“It’s dangerous, Chief.”

Calling it a village hall sounds nice, but it was nothing more than a log house, a bit larger than the other homes. Yet, it stood as the most splendid wooden building in Cattle Village, in front of which four middle-aged men were standing. And in front of them, an old man with a resolved expression stood. An elderly man who had aged thoroughly, his face filled with the hardships of life, looking quite unsightly.

“I’m fine. Even if the opponent is a noble, shouldn’t we say what needs to be said?”

“Village chief…….”

Leaving behind looks mixed with worry and respect, the old man waited silently, bowing in front of the village hall. After a while, a middle-aged man dressed in shimmering armor walked out. This middle-aged man, turning forty-three this year, was Sir Edward, a knight serving the Altion Ducal Family, a lineage of great prestige within the Vasily Kingdom.

“What’s the matter, village chief?”

The old man swallowed hard, and he looked up at the ‘unexpected disaster’ before him.

A group of knights in splendid armor, who suddenly appeared in the peaceful Cattle Village, brought their warhorses deep into the mountains, introducing themselves as from the prestigious Altion Ducal Family of the royal capital and bluntly demanding accommodations and provisions to be prepared for a brief stay.

Facing these fierce knights, the simple mountain villagers could hardly resist. They vacated several homes and gave up all their food prepared for the winter. Occupying five large houses and the entire village hall among the less than twenty log houses in the village, these men continued to deplete the village’s food supplies while settling in. They were practically no different from bandits, except for perhaps not coveting the village women as knights might.

Naturally, the village was in uproar. Those who were driven out of their comfortable homes might have temporarily stayed in others’ houses, but without the food consumed by these visitors, the villagers would all starve. Had it been summer, they might have survived on hunting or gathering berries, but it was the middle of winter.

Thus, the village chief had come to find this knight, even in a state of fear.

If they couldn’t get compensation for the food from these men, Cattle Village would be annihilated.