🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 1 …
“Cough!”
A sudden retch. As he expelled what had surged within him, a thick metallic taste of blood lingered in his mouth.
“Damn it. My luck’s filthy.”
Even in the throes of dying pain, Luden cursed.
He couldn’t help it.
Because his life had been a complete disaster.
As a child, Luden had been a member of a noble family with nothing to envy.
Not an exceptionally prestigious family, but well-treated enough that no one could criticize him even if he acted arrogantly.
Because of this, he had grown quite spoiled—but Luden didn’t care.
Isn’t that what being a noble is all about?
But that became his problem.
Luden had a younger brother.
Unlike Luden, his brother was talented and diligent, earning the expectations and admiration of everyone around him.
Inevitably, Luden was constantly compared to his brother, and over time, he developed feelings of inferiority.
This twisted his behavior even further.
He was arrogant toward his brother and looked down on the servants.
In retrospect, he had been immature, but at the time, he didn’t realize it.
Ultimately, his father, disappointed in him, named his younger brother as heir.
“I should have just stayed quiet back then.”
It felt like the world was collapsing.
Everything had been taken from him.
And to think that his own father, the one he trusted, had abandoned him—he felt a sharp sting of betrayal.
Desperate, Luden fled the family estate that day.
He couldn’t bear the misery.
After that, he became a mercenary and truly lived a harsh life.
Risking his life for a few coins became daily routine. The noble pride he once had was gone; he had to bow to others just to survive.
Pride as a noble?
He had thrown that away long ago.
Could pride or honor buy a loaf of cheap bread in the streets?
Only when he was about to starve to death after going without food for a week did Luden finally let go of everything.
But after surviving so desperately, what awaited him was a miserable death.
“Why now…”
His luck was terrible.
He had completed a mission and thought he could finally rest at a fine inn in the capital—but that very night, a rebellion broke out.
The once splendid and beautiful capital became an inferno within hours, and the streets echoed not with laughter, but with screams.
Amidst it, Luden was crushed under the debris of a collapsed building, dying.
It was an accident in every sense—sheer misfortune.
Who could have predicted that an explosion set off by the rebels would demolish the very inn where he stayed?
He had been asleep and couldn’t escape.
He was so frustrated that he wasn’t even angry.
“Ha… damn it.”
He regretted it.
If he hadn’t acted like an idiot back then, he wouldn’t be dying so senselessly now.
“If only I could go back…”
Through his fading consciousness, Luden had a vain wish.
Regrets of an irreversible past flashed before him, and finally, death arrived.
And then—
[Congratulations. You have become a new Quest Player.]
[Some quest functions are now activated.]
These words didn’t reach Luden, who had already lost consciousness. Yet the voice continued, uttering words he couldn’t understand.
[Checking Player inactivity.]
[You may restart the play as a special bonus.]
[Time will reverse.]
The moment the voice finished, the world itself changed.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
But no one noticed it—not even Luden, who had already died.
“Hmm.”
Luden relaxed against a soft feeling behind him.
Used to sleeping on cheap beds or on the roadside as a mercenary, this comfort was unfamiliar.
It was something from a past that had now grown faint in memory.
“Like the bed I used to sleep on as a child…”
At that thought, a strange feeling ran through him, and Luden suddenly opened his eyes.
“Where… am I?”
He was in a luxurious room.
Unlike any inn room he had ever visited, yet there was something familiar about it, making Luden frown.
“My room?”
Faint memories quickly returned, leading him to an unbelievable conclusion. Though decades had passed, this was unmistakably the room he had used as a child.
Everything was exactly as he remembered.
The red carpet on the floor, the painting of vast plains on the wall, even the white wooden table and chair—all perfectly matched his memory.
Most importantly, a deep, nostalgic feeling told him that what he saw was not an illusion.
“What? How… ugh.”
As he tried to understand the situation, a sudden, splitting pain hit his head. Running his hand over it, he felt the softness of a cloth.
“Hmm… I think my head was fine when I was crushed.”
What on earth had happened?
Frowning, Luden got up and walked to a full-length mirror in the corner of the room.
Instinctively, he needed to see himself.
And then—
“Oh my god!”
He was shocked.
The reflection showed a boy with bandages wrapped around his head.
Between the bandages, dull golden hair peeked through. A youthful face, perhaps twelve or thirteen years old, wide-eyed and open-mouthed in shock, looked somewhat silly.
Yet Luden recognized this face as his own. Could this really be happening?
If his memory was correct, he had died crushed under an inn building.
Even the legendary saint couldn’t have saved him.
So how could he be alive now? And younger? That was impossible.
“A dream? Am I dreaming?”
[Tutorial Quest has been created.]
“Ugh?!”
At that moment, a blue window appeared before his eyes.
Startled, Luden stared at the unknown window.
<Tutorial Quest: Adapt to the Second Run>
Assess the current situation.
▶Reward: Unlock status window
“Quest? Reward? What does this mean?”
Was he hallucinating? Perhaps.
In reality, he was still dying, and this was just a dream.
Once he woke, he would be crushed under the debris…
Knock, knock.
“Oh! You’re awake, young master.”
“Who are you?”
A maid entered the room. Luden didn’t remember her clearly, but she seemed familiar.
“Luckily, I brought your meal. Would you like some?”
“Oh… yes.”
Despite his startled gaze, she placed the meal on the table: a steaming soup and appetizing bread.
“Um… what’s your name again?”
“Me? Oh… I’m Erin.”
Erin.
Luden recalled the name—it belonged to a young maid from his family when he was a child. But the girl before him seemed even younger than he remembered.
“Could it be…?”
“What’s the date today?” he asked.
Erin looked puzzled but answered obediently.
“September 23rd.”
“And the year?”
“1782.”
Luden’s ears nearly didn’t believe it. He had died in 1802. If Erin wasn’t lying, he had gone back twenty years in time.
“Is this even possible?”
Frowning, Luden fell into deep thought. Erin, watching him with curiosity, quietly stepped out without him noticing.
His mind was in chaos.
Growl.
“Even now, I’m hungry.”
Sighing, Luden reached for the food.
“This is delicious.”
Eating the bread, he closed his eyes, savoring the familiar taste from his memory.
“I thought it tasted bad because I was full back then… such foolishness.”
He quickly finished the meal, satisfied.
“Ah… that was good.”
Lying back on the bed, he felt he could now face death under the debris without regret.
It had been so long since he had such luxury.
Tears threatened, but Luden couldn’t allow himself joy.
“This isn’t a dream.”
Everything was far too vivid.
And his death wasn’t a dream either. The pain, the slow suffocation—it was all real.
Then… he truly had returned twenty years into the past.
“Haha… how is this possible?”
Luden laughed bitterly. No one would believe him, least of all himself. Yet he had to accept it.
Everything clearly indicated he had returned to the past.
“And why… now?”
He untied the bandages and smiled bitterly.
This was the moment he had been knocked out after losing a fight with his younger brother, Kevin. The day after one of the most humiliating experiences of his life.
[Congratulations. You have completed the Tutorial Quest.]
[Rewards granted.]
[Status window activated as a reward.]
Another blue window appeared before him.
There was also the mystery of this unknown blue window to solve.
“Status window?”
[Name: Luden Caesar]
Title: Second Run Player
Strength: D― Agility: F Intelligence: C
Health: F Magic: E Potential: F
As he read it, new text appeared. Aside from his name, everything was incomprehensible.
It seemed to display Luden’s current condition.
“Quest… what is this?”
He suspected the quest was connected to his return to the past.
It was intuition—but it made no sense to return to the past without reason. Surely, quests and reincarnation were linked.
“I don’t know why I was sent back…”
Luden’s eyes gleamed.
This was his chance.
The chance to change the moments he regretted most and longed to redo. Nothing else mattered more.
Luden was the eldest son of the Caesar Count family.
A noble heir, destined to inherit titles and lands.
Although the Caesar family wasn’t prestigious, it was still a golden upbringing.
Why he became a mercenary in his previous life had deep, complicated reasons.
“Well… honestly, I just ran away.”
Luden admitted cleanly.
A rash decision in youth, followed by a lifetime of hardships, had shown him how foolish he had been.
Mad, even. Otherwise, how could he have stolen his family’s funds to run away?
This was one of the past mistakes Luden had made.
“By taking all that money from an already poor estate, I made the situation worse.”
Within about ten years, the land would suffer severe famine. Continuous droughts and royal succession struggles caused unimaginable devastation.
Farmers had no crops to harvest, women had to sell their bodies, and some parents even sold their children to survive.
Even some nobles fled or revolted. The Caesar estate, poor as it was, could not have survived untouched.
When Luden returned as a mercenary, nothing remained.
He later learned that even before the famine, the estate had massive debts to neighboring lands. Hearing this, his heart sank.
His foolish past actions had ruined his family and lands.
Even without his theft, survival would have been difficult, but his guilt was suffocating.
“So this time, I must prevent the estate from falling.”
This was the only way to atone for his past mistakes.
Several solutions already came to mind. There was still time before the famine.
[World Quest has been created.]
<World Quest: Turning Point>
Protect the family and estate from the disaster to come.
▶Deadline: 10 years
▶Reward: Random Item Box (Transcendent) x1
“And I’ll figure out the identity of that thing too.”
He was certain the secret could be uncovered through the quest.
