Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 142

“It’s just the magic starting! Hold on!”

He gave a weak excuse, and quickly used mana stones. Magic flared from his hands, one spell after another.

He attacked other soldiers now, not just Wiken Kalia, who he had first wanted to strike down.

On the castle walls, the Walterheim knights became very slow. They stumbled and their shields dropped. Their weaknesses were now obvious. The battle started to turn in our favor again.

‘Jordan, there’s no way you could do this.’

The advantages of a mage: being able to directly aid the war effort while protecting the prince.

No matter how much he was treated as a superhuman, Jordan Walterheim could never do such a thing.

‘So come out, Jordan.’

If Jordan, enraged by this, were to come out himself, the dagger left near those guys would strike the Second Prince’s neck.

Huan Douglas’s eyes gleamed, a cruel smile twisting his lips as he imagined Jordan’s anger.

“Wiken Kalia is already here?!”

No one answered Jordan’s question.

Unless one was looking down on the battlefield from the sky, it was impossible to grasp the entire battle situation.

Jordan didn’t expect an answer either, so he merely gave a bitter smile.

MacLane leaving meant he tried to save something for research. That was a mistake.

“I saved it for nothing. Use it!”

“Yes!”

“Keep pushing! We’ll end the civil war soon!”

“Yes!”

With Jordan’s command, several carts raced towards the base of the castle walls.

After a while, deafening explosions rocked the walls – Kawaaaang! Bang! Rumble! – shaking the ground and filling the air with the smell of smoke and burning stone.

“Break through! Keep advancing! Soldiers, hurry!”

Liberatio’s firepower once again turned the tide of the battle back in favor of the Second Prince’s side.

The Second Prince’s army continued their advance with momentum.

The First Prince’s army, despite Wiken Kalia’s addition and the high castle walls, gradually had no choice but to be pushed back.

However, the First Prince’s army also had a hidden weapon left.

“Detonate them all!!”

The moment the mages of the Glacier Magic Tower shouted from the castle walls, explosions of pure white cold air erupted, like frozen clouds bursting across the walls. A wave of biting cold swept over the battlefield, and the Liberatio explosions faltered, their flames weakened by the intense chill.

As a result, the amount of Liberatio that the Second Prince’s army possessed quickly ran out.

“Blizzard Scrolls!! They still had so many left. Sneaky bastards!”

“To have to use up all of our hidden cards here.”

Even as the two leaders on both sides spewed out similar curses, screams erupted from the castle walls.

Neither the attackers nor the defenders could back down.

“Their weapons are finished! Destroy them all!”

“They’ve used up all their tricks! Finish them off!”

The Second Prince’s army wanted to secure victory in the situation where MacLane was missing.

The First Prince’s army’s future was uncertain if they lost momentum any further.

The battle between the two factions, unable to back down, created the fiercest battlefield since the civil war began.

Eventually, when the battle of that day ended, both sides had no choice but to enter a state of confrontation once again, having suffered enormous damage.

However, the result of that day’s battle was more significant than any previous battle.

The great nobles of both factions, who had been fighting while avoiding damage to their direct forces as much as possible, suffered the greatest losses since the start of the war, without exception.

It was something that would naturally happen in a normal war where large forces of similar size clashed, but it was a damage so terrible that the great nobles could never have imagined, ‘only now’ had it occurred.

So much so that both forces were preoccupied with damage control immediately after the battle.

After that day, the direction of the civil war began to change once again.

After overcoming a major crisis, the information conveyed less than a day later made the MacLane father and son smile.

“Everything up to this point has gone as expected, or even better than expected. Now, because of the grudges piled up against each other, they won’t be able to fight moderately.”

Logan looked around at the dusty tents and tired faces. “Yes,” he said quietly. “So, it has come to this after all.”

Logan thought Roger Bipross would tell the First Prince’s people their plans. He expected an attack. Maybe by soldiers as strong as two border counts, or even a little weaker.

The plan was to trick them. They would set a trap, beat the attackers, pretend they lost badly at the eastern gate, and then leave the First Prince’s group. That was McLaine’s first idea.

However, everything changed when Bipross’s army directly followed them.

Bipross’s information led to a big problem. The soldiers sent to stop them were led by Wicken Calia himself! And the Calia Knights were with him. This was a surprise and very dangerous. But luckily, they won without losing too many people.

In the end, it was even better than they first hoped.

Now, it felt like they could really end this civil war. Logan felt a rush of excitement. He told his father about the next part of the plan.

However, throughout the entire discussion, Padric’s expression remained grim.

“Logan…” Padric’s voice was weak. “Could we… could we just stop fighting? Leave this war now?” His face was still pale and tired from his wounds, making his question sound even more worried.

Logan shook his head firmly. “No,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who wins – the First Prince or the Second Prince. Neither of them will ever leave us in peace.”

“But… what about the Second Prince’s group?” Padric asked, his voice still hesitant.

“Jordan Valtermaim is the kind of man who remembers when you hurt him, but forgets when you help him. Even if things go perfectly, he will still make things very hard for us.”

“…Yes, that’s probably true,” Padric admitted. “But… is your plan really going to work?”

“It has to work,” Logan said, his voice firm. “We have to make it work.”

“Hmm…” Padric thought for a moment. “Maybe… maybe we should just watch and wait for a while, like you planned at first. Do we really need to take these big chances now?”

“…I’ll think about that more after I go to the capital city. And anyway, there’s no promise that the plan I told you will even happen exactly as I said.”

Padric looked down at the ground, thinking hard. After a long silence, he nodded slowly and heavily. “Alright,” he said, his voice rough. “Then that’s…” He suddenly coughed, a harsh, dry sound. Cough. Cough.

“Father!”

Logan, startled, jumped up, but Padric waved his hand, stopping his son.

“Ah, it’s nothing,” Padric said, trying to smile. “Just these old wounds inside me acting up again. I’m getting better, almost.”

“…Didn’t the best healing potion fix it completely?” Logan asked, worried.

“You’ve fought people who use Aura, right? That power is terrible… It’s amazing I’m not worse after being hit by it.”

Padric forced a smile with his pale complexion, but Logan, watching him, couldn’t bring himself to smile.

“We’re out of the best healing potions. We need to go back soon so you can see a healer priest.”

“I will, I will. Don’t worry so much. I can manage until then.”

“Still…” Logan started to say. Padric cut him off. “Don’t worry about me! You look hurt too. You probably have bad wounds inside as well. Aura is even more dangerous than you realize.”

“Me?” Logan’s face was also pale, but he tried to sound strong. “I think I’ll be fine in a day or two. No potion needed for me.”

“…Hmm. Maybe your inside wounds are worse than mine then. Being young is a great thing, isn’t it?” Padric said, a little sadly.

*Maybe not just youth*, Logan thought. *Maybe it’s something else.* He felt the faint hum of the poscore in his chest. *That’s probably helping me heal faster.* He sighed quietly.

“When we get back, make sure you call for a priest. Don’t try to deal with it yourself.”

“Of course, you cheeky boy,” Padric chuckled weakly. “Your father isn’t too proud to ask for help when he needs it.”

*Was he really?* Logan thought, doubting his father’s words. He quickly changed the subject to hide his worry.

“I’m thinking of heading to the capital right away.”

“Now? Immediately?”

“Yes. The sooner, the better.”

“Alright. Go then. I’ve trusted you up to now, so I have to keep trusting you, right to the end of this.”

“Thank you, Father.”

“Thank you? Weren’t you going to go anyway, even if I said no?”

“Ah… Haha. N, no way.”

Logan looked sheepish and did not meet Padric’s eyes. Padric chuckled softly. Then, he spoke again about his worries.

“Still, be careful. You must be very careful. If people find out you are going to the capital…”

“Of course,” Logan replied. “Clayton will change my hair and eye color. I will only take what I really need and sleep outside as much as I can. I will only stay in cheap inns if I have to.”

“…Very well. Do that. But remember, people might still be watching. A wandering fighter and a nobleman act very differently, even if you just look at them quickly.”

Padric’s concern was valid, but Logan had to suppress a smile from escaping his lips.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Back in my day…”

“Back in your day?”

“Ahem, ahem. Well… I had good training from fighters who used to be mercenaries.”

“Yes. With your acting skills, there’s no need to worry, I suppose.”

“What about my fighting skills?”

Pfft.

Padric finally looked a little less worried at Logan’s joke.

“Yes, that too.”

Padric knew Logan was now a better fighter than him. He finished the conversation with a proud smile.

That night, a figure ran quickly out of McLaine’s camp. They disappeared towards the northeast, as fast as the wind.

McLaine’s army went back to their land. Rumors started among the soldiers. They said the young lord’s injuries from fighting the superhuman had gotten worse again. A supply wagon was emptied for him. No one was allowed near it, and people said he was getting special treatment.

To make the rumors seem true, elite knights guarded the wagon.

However, the soldiers, overjoyed at finally returning home, soon paid little attention to the unseen young lord.

“Let us in!”

“We are citizens of this nation too!”

“Open the gates!”

This was Grang, the capital of the thousand-year kingdom of Grandia. The fortress walls of Grang were huge and grey, reaching high into the sky. Even from far away, Logan could see the crowd gathered at the gates. It was enormous, a sea of faces all pressed together. He could already hear the shouts and cries carried on the wind, and he imagined the smell of sweat and desperation hanging in the air around the fortress.

The nation was in the middle of a civil war. Because of this, many refugees were trying to find safety in Grang, which people called the ‘safest city.’ The number of refugees had grown very quickly recently.

But the refugees did not know that Grang already had too many people living in it.

Grang was a huge city. Many people, called ‘residents,’ lived outside the city walls and struggled to survive. There were many more of them than the ‘citizens’ who lived safely inside Grang’s walls.

And even those residents were now unable to enter Grang.

Knights with a picture of a phoenix flying upwards on their shields were cruelly pushing back the people they were supposed to protect.

“Aack! Why! Why?!”

“If you approach any further, you will be cut down! Fall back!!”

Screams and angry shouts, even louder than the screams, sounded everywhere in confusion.

A mercenary with brown hair and brown eyes frowned at the unpleasant scene.

“…Since when has it been like this?”

“How would I know? Those crazy people won’t let anyone in, just trying to save themselves… I’m going crazy! I walked for two whole weeks to get here! Oh, I’m so angry and frustrated! Young man, are you a fighter for hire?”

“Ah, yes. Well, for now…”

“You’re lucky you got this far. They say the groups fighting each other have started forcing all the less important fighters from every area to join them.”

“Ah, is that so? I suppose I was fortunate then.”

The mercenary said he was lucky, but his face looked very serious.

‘It’s much faster than in my previous life.’

Then these crowds that are unusually large must be…

“It was okay when only the nobles were fighting each other. But now they are forcing people from every castle to fight and taking all the food. How are we supposed to live?”

Logan, the mercenary, looked sad as he listened to the tired-looking middle-aged man complaining about his problems.

The fact that the nobles were even forcing less important fighters to join them, fighters they usually ignored, meant one thing.

‘They are going to fight a big war and not stop.’ Logan thought, ‘All of this is because of what I did.’ The things that happened in my past life are happening two years earlier now. ‘But it had to be done. I have to stop this chaos faster.’

Logan’s lips tightened. Then, suddenly, he disappeared into the crowd, so quickly it was like magic.

“So, if you’re a mercenary, say something to those knights… Huh? Where did he go?”

Only the refugee who had been complaining about the bad situation looked around, confused. He was looking for the person he had just been talking to, who had suddenly vanished.