episode_0001

In the darkness, I opened my eyes.

It was surprising that the vision, which until just now had been completely stained red with blood, was now a peaceful and gentle black.

Was I dreaming now that I was about to die?

Or had someone who survived put me in a coffin and buried me?

But for being trapped somewhere, this place where I lay was far too vast.

So where was this place? Hadn’t the world just been destroyed in a terrible darkness?

“What in the world is going on…” I muttered to myself in bewilderment.

The voice that came out of my mouth was so refined and gentle that it didn’t feel at all familiar, as if I were hearing someone else’s voice.

But it wasn’t just my vision and voice that were unfamiliar.

The gruesome wounds from the last fight of my life, and the pain that came with them, had vanished without a trace. The fatal scars accumulated like medals in my body from living a rough and harsh life for many years were also gone.

This wasn’t the sensation of a body that was truly dying on its own, where I constantly had to swallow bloody coughs when I stayed still.

Humans, in truth, do not know the afterlife.

If there was someone who died and then came back to life, resurrected, then they would no longer be human, but a living god.

If so, was this peaceful, quiet, and gentle time and space the rest after death?

I sat up to observe my death and the afterlife in more detail.

“So the world of post-death rest has a bed… It was a really nice place.”

First, I confirmed there was a white, fluffy bed.

“It’s not a top-grade bed, but a standard-issue bed I often saw at the academy. Well, considering how many people die, there’s no way they’d use top-grade beds…” I muttered nonsensical words while pressing down on the bed.

Top-grade, high-grade, semi-high-grade, standard-issue, mid-grade, low-grade, scrap-grade….

Amidst the meaningless flurry of words swirling confusedly in my mind like fruit flies, I suddenly felt something strange.

“Academy?”

A pattern, so familiar that I couldn’t forget it even in death, was clearly carved into the bed frame.

The majestic male lion crest was the symbol of the Imperial Academy, Leone. Leone was the continent’s best educational institution, founded to honor the founding emperor of the Sephiroth Empire, known as the Lionheart King, and it taught many things.

The school I attended when I was still a fluffy, downy sprout of a kid. And at the same time, the root cause that led my life to completely crumble and flow in an uncontrollable direction.

The world had been destroyed, yet death was taking the form of my academy dormitory bed. Wasn’t this too strange?

I frantically whipped my head around, checking my surroundings.

Looking again after my perception and judgment returned, it wasn’t just the bed that caught my eye.

There was no mistake. This was my room in the Leone Academy dormitory.

My roommate’s empty bed, carelessly messy, and his untidy desk were chillingly familiar to my eyes. In stark contrast, seeing my own neatly organized desk made me feel very strange.

Getting out of bed, I pulled open the blackout curtains with trembling hands.

“…….”

Bright sunlight poured into the room through the window.

Looking outside the window, cherry blossoms were fluttering everywhere, celebrating spring. Seeing students chattering and walking around in casual clothes on what looked like a beautiful April day, it was probably a weekend.

I stumbled into the bathroom and looked into the mirror.

In the mirror, there was no man with a cold, fierce expression, steeped in alcohol, blood, murder, and darkness.

Instead, there was only a naive young master who looked like he’d always be smiling and oblivious to the world.

I slapped my still fair and clean, glowing skin with a *splat* sound and pinched it hard. Feeling the pain so vividly confirmed it wasn’t a dream.

“I came back to the past?”

I muttered, feeling disoriented.

Could time truly go mad and revert to the past? I never thought the regression to the past, which I had yearned for so desperately back then, would only happen at the point when this world was being destroyed.

In truth, wasn’t this some kind of hallucination I was experiencing after dying?

But whether I had truly returned to the past or if it was a hallucination, it didn’t hold much meaning.

A hallucination was, from the start, a meaningless illusion, so it held no meaning…

Even if I had truly returned to the past, this world’s end was already set, so it still held no particular meaning.

This world was on borrowed time.

Not in a metaphorical sense, but literally, this world would be destroyed about 10 years from now.

A being with an incomprehensible and immense power suddenly appeared one day, trampling the lowly creatures existing in the world and bringing death.

That being, which had appeared so abruptly and announced the end of this world, had also delivered a merciless death sentence to me.

‘You… are the last…’ Leaving only that first and last single sentence behind…

Some might wonder if, having returned to the past, I couldn’t just prepare, whether for death or destruction.

But that was not something humans could stop, at least.

Because it was a being that I, of all people, couldn’t stop.

It’s a bit embarrassing to say myself, but I, who was once just a simple young man, had become an indescribably powerful being after undergoing countless experiences layered one upon another.

Under this vast sky, there was only one person who could stop me with their strength.

Yet, even I, who was so strong, and even my master, who was a great witch capable of controlling me, could not stop that apocalyptic being that had descended upon the mortal realm.

Faced with those empty eyes that looked down upon heaven and earth, and that overwhelming power, we all were ultimately helpless.

On that final day, at that final moment, we were defeated and all met our deaths.

Not in the distant past, but just moments ago.

However, that “just moments ago” has now become the world of 10 years in the future, so this world is truly unknowable.

Ultimately, because I had no idea about that being’s origin, the power it wielded, or why it came to this world, preparing for it was impossible.

Not only that… honestly, I didn’t particularly have the confidence to win even if I fought it again.

So, what should I do, having gained another chance at life?

Would it be good to despair over the foreseen death and tremble with anxiety, wasting my time?

Or should I desperately struggle, trying to become a hero who stops the approaching destruction, even if it means fighting tooth and nail?

No. Ten years is by no means a short time.

Enough time for mountains and rivers to change once [an idiom meaning a very long time, typically ten years], and for a person to change thousands of times. There’s no need to act under a noble mission to save the world, or to tremble in fear of the approaching destruction.

Rather, isn’t it more meaningful that I’ve been able to live again, whether for ten years or one year?

If the world has only ten years left – how important would it be to live those ten years to the fullest and most satisfyingly?

This is a regression that I surely yearned for like crazy at some point in my life.

There was a time when I would even think every day that I’d sell my soul to a demon if it meant I could return to the past.

Therefore, becoming a full and happy pig is important to me.

I will change the future to my liking, wherever I can.

Whether it’s my future, or the future of those who were precious to me.

So that even if we die when the apocalypse arrives in ten years, we can all smile happily until then.

First, the fact that I am still perfectly fine and attached to this academy, without a single injury, is truly important.

I don’t know the exact point in time I returned to.

But it’s certain that nothing irreversible has happened.

*Beep- beep-* As if on cue, the communication magic tool on my desk buzzed loudly.

It was an old model communication magic tool, one I hadn’t seen in quite a while, its existence having been forgotten for many years.

A communication tool that allowed simple contact with others whose magic had been registered.

I remembered that in the future, just before I died, this magic tool had undergone various improvements and developments, becoming a bit more advanced.

I was quite surprised to see it had developed enough to allow not just voice but even video communication.

However, since this was an early model, it was merely a magic tool that could only send and receive simple text.

Anyway, at this point in time, there weren’t many people who would make my old communication magic tool buzz so loudly with a call.

[Sender: Lizley de Gracia]

Seeing the expected name clearly displayed on the magic tool, I let out a hollow laugh.

When I pressed the sender’s name, a simple text appeared through the magic tool.

The content was as follows.

Lizley♥: Ras, you haven’t forgotten we were going to see the spring flowers today and are still sleeping, have you? If you’re late, I’ll really scold you a lot, okay?

Lizley de Gracia, this woman was once my fiancée.

A splendid woman, like a rose that filled my youth with her fatal beauty and fragrance, and my first love.

And an irreconcilable enemy who had plunged my life into ruin.

I chuckled, thinking how truly ironic and painful the date of my return was.

April 7th, 998.

The day Lizley and I went to see the spring flowers.

On the afternoon of that day, cherry blossoms and magnolias bloomed exceptionally profusely.

The world was filled with sweet floral scents, and Lizley granted me a kiss she had never allowed before.

The naive kid, whose mind was completely preoccupied with interest in the opposite sex, had his soul leave his body with that sweet kiss.

And on the night of this beautiful spring day.

Instead of refreshing evening primroses, sticky flowers of infidelity bloomed in her garden.

Even now, I cannot forget the unpleasant scent of that flower.

“The apocalypse can’t be changed, but the future can.”

I grinned, picked up the communicator, sent a reply, and quickly finished getting ready to go out.

At this time, I was so vibrant and full of life that I didn’t need any special adornments or styling.

It was time to take the first step towards ten years of comfortable and satisfying life.

It was a pleasant time to go meet an enemy.