Youngest 260

Episode 260

Through the magic of regression, Khalid traveled back to the past.

He coerced the Dragon God into sending him to the site of Duchess Zevert’s carriage accident.

Clatter, clatter! Whinny!

‘Damn.’

From atop the cliff, what he witnessed was a carriage already running wild.

‘Why now, of all times?’

If only he’d gone back further, he could have prevented the accident from the start!

But there was no more time to hesitate.

On the opposite cliff, he glimpsed the silhouettes of mages, cleverly concealed, peering down from above.

Were these the Mage King’s children the woman had spoken of?

‘The first, the third, the fifth…’

Kal quickly hid himself in the shadow of a tree.

All of them were disguised as villagers from the nearby settlements.

‘When the carriage overturns, they’ll approach pretending to be witnesses.’

Then, they’ll move Rosetta to a prepared cabin, induce early labor, and switch the baby.

This was a deep, secluded gorge, far from people.

How long would it take Leviathan to arrive after hearing news of the accident here?

Surely not as quickly as those mages keeping watch from above.

‘…I always wondered where they found the dead baby to switch in.’

Kal caught a fleeting glimpse of another heavily pregnant mage at a window, and it all made sense. It was a filthy plan.

Most likely, in a previous life the scheme had succeeded. The Mage King switched the dead child for the seventh, brought the baby to the Mage Kingdom, and raised her as his pawn.

‘First, I need to save this woman, Rosetta Zevert.’

He summoned his mana.

Blue energy coursed through the earth, a portion of it shooting off toward the north.

“Who’s there!”

A mage standing a little further away shouted.

“This mana… what is it?”

Kal instinctively recognized that the man cloaked in black robes was the Mage King.

Khalid suppressed his mana, concealed his presence, and hid deeper behind the trees. Fortunately, the Mage King did not seem to have spotted him.

“Damn!”

Sensing that something had gone awry with the plan to steal the child, the Mage King immediately changed his course.

‘As I suspected… Since earlier, I’ve sensed mana from that unborn child. Clearly, something out of the ordinary. Is that why this mysterious force showed up to protect the child?’

He couldn’t easily read the aura of Khalid, fused with the Dragon God.

Had it been another mage, at least the Crest’s mark would have been detectable.

But not even that was present—making Kal a mysterious, fearsome presence to the Mage King.

And so, the Mage King assumed the unborn Rosetta’s child was exhibiting powers as if blessed by a god.

‘I was originally planning to stop here, and simply steal the living child once born…’

If he couldn’t take that power for himself,

‘I’ll have to kill them all.’

He would wipe out both Rosetta and her child.

Leviathan must not be allowed to gain any further strength.

Mana tinged with bloody ferocity surged up.

Whinny!

The frantic horse took a sharp turn and, unable to withstand the inertia, the carriage shot out over the cliff.

Below was an endless abyss.

Kal poured his strength into the earth.

Thanks to his intervention, the tumbling carriage slowed, and it appeared Rosetta would survive—but that was not the true problem.

“No.”

He sensed that, at this rate, the soul of the unborn child within Rosetta Zevert was at risk of annihilation.

In other words,

It was a life-and-death crisis.

‘…’

Of the spells Khalid had glimpsed from the Dragon God’s memory, only a few remained.

Aside from a few low-level spells, at best there was the Oath Sigil and beast summoning magic.

Kal hesitated no longer.

‘Even if I lose everything for this one spell—’

If I can save you, that’s enough.

Tampering with a human soul would demand a harsh price. Would he abandon all his infinite memories here?

He felt the power within him writhe violently.

“No regrets. I’d welcome eternal death like this.”

It was not the same abandonment of life as before.

It was another way of choosing to live.

Blue mana erupted.

A massive magic circle unfolded beneath the tumbling carriage.

The Mage King collapsed on the spot, then crawled half-mad to the edge of the cliff.

“Impossible, this… this is impossible…”

A lump of radiant blue light shot into the air.

The world went white, and a gentle breeze stirred from somewhere.

At that moment, Kal smiled faintly.

‘Hello—it’s you, isn’t it?’

A soul as fragile and tender as a newborn beast.

My savior.

If only we could have grown up together from the start, it would have been better.

But I know this miracle is too much to ask. So he wished with all his heart.

“Whether goddess or Dragon God… I beg you.”

His consciousness flickered.

Under the aftershocks of the magic, his memories began to scatter—flying away one by one, as if pages from a book turning blank. Perhaps he was dying.

“I’ll give everything I have—just send that child to safety and protect them.”

Please.

Please.

Kal repeated it, his voice trembling.

“Please, let that child have a future filled with happiness.”

May you be happy.

May you be loved to your heart’s content, and allowed to be as sweetly spoiled as you wish…

May such a future exist, somewhere.

Very well. I will.

Someone answered his prayer. The voice was warm.

Everything cannot be perfect, but I will protect that child. That was the promise I made to Zevert, long ago.

Khalid realized this was the goddess’s fragment left within the child’s body. He could feel the Dragon God raging furiously.

Woooosh—!

The blue radiance flashed one last time and vanished somewhere.

Everything has its time. In a safe place, until that day comes…

Khalid instinctively knew the soul had flown to a ‘safe place.’

Suddenly, a cry rang out. It was Rosetta Zevert—having realized she had lost her child.

From afar, the frantic sound of horse hooves came closer; the Mage King hurriedly wiped away all traces of himself and disappeared with his children.

A flood of white light.

Kal was swept into a tempest the likes of which he’d never known. It felt as if every nerve in his body had been severed and his blood was boiling with pain.

Those who trespass against the forbidden cannot remain human. You will suffer eternal torment in an unending hell.

Another voice rebuked him solemnly.

And yet you…

Khalid smiled. The power that had lived hidden in his shadow now revealed its piercing gray eyes.

I was no longer human, was I.

The Dragon God’s power was resisting something—perhaps the laws, or the order, of this world.

This child is mine. Begone.

The storm only raged harder.

I won’t let the vessel that will complete my reunion with Wisthal be taken from me.

Khalid felt himself being dragged into the storm. The roar of the wind grew ever louder.

He couldn’t hold out any longer.

His vision went blindingly white, pain lending him barely enough strength to clench his jaw.

Then—all sound ceased.

“……”

He opened his eyes somewhere.

“…Where is this?”

An unfamiliar place. Unfamiliar sights. Unfamiliar sensations…

He instinctively moved, and clank—a chain rattled.

“Shackles…?”

Looking closely, he saw pitch-black iron bars before him.

Why am I locked up in a place like this?

Who… am I?

Khalid.

Someone spoke the name. Kal started and looked around—but couldn’t identify the unknown presence.

“…What is this.”

I’m scared.

Though he wore a blank expression, he couldn’t suppress the thoughts flooding his mind.

As he pulled his knees up and shrank to the wall, he caught sight of a small puddle.

He peered into it.

“……”

Navy hair, dark as the evening sky, and eyes the color of blue-gray. Two tear marks beneath his eyes…

A boy, barely ten, maybe eleven at most.

Is this your idea of a joke, Wisthal? Is this what you meant by ‘the future where that child can be happiest’?

“What is it?”

Kal shook his head again.

‘There’s some inconsiderate brat whispering at my ear. Some pervert?’

Or maybe it’s another trick to get away from me.

‘Oh, what is it really.’

In this small, young body, my own power is more poison than strength… At this rate, we’ll both just disappear together.

Slap, slap.

Kal slapped his own cheek. Then, almost by instinct, he used his mana to suppress the Dragon God’s power.

He heard a grumbling mutter—sounded like someone about to go to sleep anyway.

‘If you’re going to sleep, just do it quietly. Scaring me like this…’

Kal rested his cheek on his small knee.

Whatever the reason, perhaps it was a great crime of his own doing that had landed him here.

Or maybe someone had tricked him, leading him into a trap…

He soon forgot the conversation with the Dragon God. Naturally, he forgot that power as well.

Everything that had brought him here—every past event, every emotion, all memory—vanished completely.

All that remained was the name Khalid.

‘If a human were to be likened to land—’

A person’s memories…

They might be the adornments that make that person’s land flourish.

People who carry many good memories inside must have plentiful wheat fields, dazzling flower gardens within.

‘Then, what about me?’

My own heart is probably nothing but a desolate ruin.

I have not a single memory to decorate myself.

‘…Will the day come when something blooms for me?’

Thinking thus, Kal shook his head.

‘No. If anything is to be planted, I hope it’s a fearsome sword.’

A sword strong and unwavering—one that protects something.

If such a beautiful sword were planted in the wasteland of my soul, how wonderful that would be.

“Ah…”

Now a true eleven-year-old boy, Kal looked up through the bars at the blue sky.

A brown hawk soared across the heavens with a piercing cry.

Clouds drifted lazily by.

A lonely breeze tossed his hair.

“…Won’t anyone come to rescue me?”

Kal closed his eyes.

It was a short nap.

End of Part 2, Sword Planted on the Ruins.