TRSDICI 02

Chapter 2 

Want to Die?

Ever since I was young, people often called me hard-headed.

After all, it was normal for me to teach annoying people manners with a headbutt.

And even now, nothing had really changed.

Thud—

The bastard collapsed backward and twitched.

‘Did he die?’

No, he had only fainted.

First, I took his dagger and cut the ropes binding my hands.

Bang! Bang!

“Hey! Don’t kill him! It’ll ruin the plan, so don’t go too far!”

Someone knocked on the warehouse door.

I prepared to rush out immediately, but perhaps out of laziness, the man did not enter.

‘In that case…’

I ran my fingers across the unconscious man’s throat and sent magic power through it.

At that moment, I felt an unfamiliar energy inside my body, but I ignored it for now and examined the structure of his vocal cords.

“Did you kill him?! Why aren’t you answering? I’m busy!”

The moment I finished analyzing them, I manipulated my own vocal cords with magic.

Crack—

The vocal cords are thin muscles.

Which meant if I changed their structure, I could imitate another person’s voice.

Just like this.

“I only beat him up a little! That pretty-boy bastard kept talking shit about my face!”

A voice that was not mine echoed through the warehouse.

I quietly waited for a response.

“Tsk tsk, they said he was a troublemaker, but he’s just an idiot who can’t read the situation.”

The man muttered to himself as his presence slowly moved farther away.

It seemed he had no intention of coming inside for now.

Only then did I return my vocal cords to normal.

“Ugh…”

The unconscious bastard groaned.

I covered his mouth with one hand and stabbed the dagger into his chest.

Stab!

“……!”

He instinctively tried to scream, but my hand muffled the sound.

His body curled like a shrimp before going limp.

‘Alright, now that I’ve bought some time, let’s organize the situation.’

I casually sat where the moonlight reached.

‘The reason they kidnapped me was to draw attention away from my family.’

And when the knights and mercenaries hired to rescue me left the estate, they planned to attack my family.

‘In my previous life, I was trapped by them for nearly a month before escaping and returning home.’

But by then, everything had already ended.

The screams filling the territory.

The corpses of residents scattered everywhere.

The mansion swallowed by flames.

My parents pierced by swords.

And my missing younger sibling…

I never regretted running away from home.

Even if I had stayed back then, the result would not have changed.

I knew that better than anyone.

‘But now things are different.’

This time, I could return home a month earlier than before.

And all the experience and knowledge I gained in my previous life still existed inside my head.

If I used them properly, then surely I could stop my family’s destruction.

‘To do that, I first need to escape this place and return home.’

However, one enemy still remained outside.

I may have lived like a delinquent, but I was still educated as a noble.

The fact that they kidnapped me without a scratch meant at least one of them was skilled.

In my previous life, I barely managed to kill him.

The one I just killed was nothing special, but the other bastard was strong.

‘Now that I’ve regressed, I doubt I’d lose to him… but before that, there’s something I need to confirm.’

Since earlier, another energy besides magic had been flowing inside me.

I closed my eyes and looked inward.

A bright energy drifted throughout my body.

It felt unfamiliar yet strangely familiar, as if it were washing away all darkness within me.

‘As I thought…’

I calmed the energy down in surprise.

‘Holy Power.’

Holy Power.

A power only granted to those chosen by the Goddess Ella.

A force that blessed the descendants of Ella and destroyed all evil.

I knew how terrifying it was because I had suffered through Rudian’s holy power countless times.

‘Currently, only the Twelve Holy Knights and the Five Saintesses possess Holy Power.’

And yet I, someone who returned to the past, possessed it.

Did that mean the one who sent me back was the Goddess Ella herself?

After all, she was the only transcendent being capable of both granting Holy Power and reversing time.

‘Though I don’t know why she chose a heretic like me instead of Rudian…’

There was no point thinking about things I could not know yet.

If I continued living however I pleased, maybe she would eventually speak out of frustration.

I pulled the dagger from the corpse’s chest and wiped the blood off on his clothes.

Then I walked toward the door.

‘Hm?’

At that moment, my reflection appeared in a long pane of glass.

Perhaps because I had wandered around pretending to be on a pilgrimage, my black hair had grown down to my shoulders.

This appearance resembled the one I had as Sword Demon.

Suddenly, I remembered what Rudian once told me.

“The Goddess does not solve problems for us. She only gives us the strength to overcome trials. Just as she granted me holy power.”

“……”

“In the end, it is our duty alone to harvest the fruit.”

If this truly was a chance given by the Goddess Ella…

And if these footsteps marked the beginning of my journey toward the future I wanted…

Then I would walk this long road once again.

Slice, slice—

I began trimming my hair with the dagger.

I had no intention of suddenly changing my beliefs.

I simply planned to think about life a little more than before.

After all, I had already thought enough about death.

‘This should be enough.’

My bangs now covered my eyebrows, while the sides and back were neatly trimmed.

Afterward, I gripped the dagger and stepped out of the warehouse.

‘That smells good.’

Following the sweet scent, I saw a man sitting with his back toward me.

He was carefully roasting sweet potatoes over a fire pit.

“Oh, you’re out. I roasted some sweet potatoes, so eat one.”

Without even turning around, the man pointed behind himself.

‘Does he think his companion came out instead of me?’

I considered throwing the dagger immediately, but since this happened so long ago, I could not clearly remember his skill level.

So instead, I picked up one of the sweet potatoes near the door.

More importantly—

I was hungry.

‘These bastards ate without me…’

I peeled away the leaves wrapping the sweet potato and removed the skin.

Its shiny yellow flesh appeared, and I took a bite.

‘Delicious.’

It was perfectly roasted without a single burnt spot.

The sweet potato master spoke while roasting more.

“How’s that guy doing?”

I swallowed the sweet potato and changed my vocal cords again.

“I beat him a little too much, so he passed out.”

“Heh, don’t overdo it. It’ll become troublesome if he dies.”

“Yeah.”

I took another bite before speaking.

“When are we moving?”

“Not sure. Probably about a month. They need time to prepare too, and nobody expected that delinquent brat to return home.”

The man quickly flipped the sweet potatoes.

As expected of a true sweet potato master, all his attention was focused on them.

“So get along with him. We’ll have to keep him around for a while.”

“Sure.”

I stared at his back and asked,

“Shouldn’t we at least feed him?”

“Heh, what, trying to win him over with sweet potatoes?”

“Well, he’ll stay quiet if we do.”

“No. Better to starve him a little so he won’t have the strength to resist. I heard he learned some swordsmanship, so there’s no reason to feed him well. For now, he only gets water.”

“……”

So that was why they starved me in my previous life.

“Besides, won’t he become uglier if we starve him?”

“I already beat him up, so he’s ugly enough.”

“Hahaha! True enough!”

The man leaned his head back and laughed.

I took the final bite of the sweet potato and tossed the peel aside.

Now only the dagger remained in my hand.

“Got any water?”

“Ah, here…”

The man pulled out a bottle while turning his upper body.

At that exact moment, his eyes widened.

I was chewing sweet potato while he stared directly at me.

“…What the fuck?”

I swallowed the sweet potato and answered in my real voice.

“Want to die?”

Silence filled the air for a while.

The fire crackled softly.

Still glaring at him, I gave a piece of advice.

“Your sweet potatoes are burning.”

“……”

The man steadied his shaking eyes and swallowed dryly.

I could feel his attention shifting from the sweet potatoes to the sword at his waist.

I gripped the dagger while extending my empty hand.

“If you’re not roasting sweet potatoes, then at least give me water.”

He stared at me before tossing over the bottle.

The moment I reached for it, he instantly drew his sword and closed the distance.

Slash!

As the blade cut diagonally, I lightly twisted my body.

The sword barely grazed past my chest.

He quickly pulled the blade back and swung again, but I had already stepped away.

“Hah… getting a drink sure is difficult.”

I shook the bottle in my hand.

I had given him the first move and still taken the drink.

That exchange was a complete victory for me.

Glug, glug—

I opened the bottle and drank.

A burning sensation ran down my throat.

“What? It’s alcohol?”

So these bastards…

They were planning to enjoy sweet potatoes and alcohol without me?

“Even better.”

I took another gulp and carefully tucked the bottle into my clothes.

Ever since becoming Sword Demon, I had not drunk even a single drop of alcohol.

I was always drunk on rage instead.

So perhaps this counted as my first drink after years of abstinence.

“…What are you?”

“Kael.”

“Were you hiding your skills? When we ambushed you before, you couldn’t even react.”

He was probably talking about when they kidnapped me.

“You could say that.”

“Did you let yourself get captured to discover why we kidnapped you? Come to think of it, you even imitated his voice to ask when we’d move.”

“You’re smart.”

“…We let our guard down. We heard you were just a delinquent, so we didn’t expect you to be this clever.”

I nodded.

“I’m surprised too.”

“About what?”

“I didn’t know you were so good at roasting sweet potatoes. That was the best sweet potato I’ve ever eaten.”

The man tilted his head before answering,

“…Thanks.”

“As expected of a sweet potato master. You were so focused on roasting sweet potatoes that you couldn’t even recognize your own companion. Even if your ally were dying, you’d probably run over because your sweet potatoes were burning. Idiot. From now on, I’ll shorten sweet potato master into Gojang.”

I lightly clapped my hands.

Gojang looked briefly confused before killing intent filled his eyes.

Dash!

He instantly closed the distance and swung his sword downward.

Holding my dagger in reverse grip, I angled it against the longsword and redirected the attack.

Before Gojang could recover—

I lightly cut his wrist, then stepped backward to avoid the next strike.

Clang! Swish!

In the next instant, dozens of exchanges followed.

Just as his appearance suggested, Gojang fought wildly.

Meanwhile, I calmly redirected his attacks and steadily wounded him with my dagger.

‘He’s definitely not weak.’

Then again, it made sense.

These were men bold enough to kidnap a noble with only two people.

Most importantly, the difference in weapon length made it difficult to finish things head-on.

Still, I remained unharmed while blood flowed from all over his body.

The outcome was obvious.

Bang!

At that moment, while slowly retreating and blocking his attacks, I kicked the fire pit behind me.

Logs and sweet potatoes scattered everywhere.

I glanced at the now-blackened sweet potatoes.

“Gojang, your sweet potatoes burned.”

“Shut up!”

Enraged by the ruined sweet potatoes, Gojang swung his sword widely.

I quickly leaped backward.

“Huff… Huff…”

He panted heavily while bleeding.

Thinking about how to finish this, I simply strengthened my body with Holy Power and shot forward.

“……!”

As I thrust my dagger, Gojang hurriedly blocked with the flat of his blade.

The instant he stepped back—

I threw the dagger directly at him.

Clang!

But Gojang reacted quickly and knocked it away with his sword.

At that moment, I was unarmed while he still held a longsword.

But it did not matter.

Because in my hand—

Was a burning hot sweet potato I had picked up from the ground.

Whoosh!

The sweet potato flew through the air like a black meteor.

Gojang saw it—

But he had already swung his sword away to block the dagger.

Smack!

The sweet potato struck him directly near the eye.

“Ah! Hot! Fuck!”

The moment Gojang instinctively reached toward his face—

I grabbed the fallen dagger and rushed him.

“Get lost!”

Perhaps sensing me, he swept the sweet potato aside with one hand and wildly swung his sword.

But the blade moved before I reached him.

I slipped through the opening and severed the tendons in his wrist.

“Aaargh!”

His longsword fell to the ground together with splashes of blood.

I threw away the dagger and picked up the longsword.

Then I dragged over the chair he had been sitting on and sat down before stabbing the sword into the ground.

“From now on, I’ll ask you questions.”

Gojang, his face covered in ash, looked up at me with bloodshot eyes.

“If you don’t answer, next time I’ll shove burning firewood into that mouth of yours.”

At my killing-filled words, Gojang’s eyes trembled.

(To be continued)