Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 51

The office door opened, and Patrick greeted Logan quietly.

“It’s been a while, Logan.”

Patrick’s eyes looked brighter, even with his slightly longer red hair. Logan felt their power more strongly than before.

‘He’s become stronger.’

He had expected it, but he hadn’t truly believed his skill would actually improve.

The genius knight from over twenty years ago had finally overcome his stagnation of the past decade and become one of the best knights.

‘This increases our chances even more.’

A faint smile touched Logan’s lips.

The sharpest sword of the McLaine family had been made even sharper.

Until Logan, who was still lacking, and the future Aura users, Ronian and Viktor, grew stronger, Patrick would be good enough protection.

He couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

“You’ve achieved something great. Congratulations.”

“Yes. It’s all thanks to you. Thank you, my son.”

“Excuse me? Lord McLaine, really?!”

Dwayne, who hadn’t noticed the change in Patrick’s abilities, was surprised. Patrick smiled gently at him.

“I think I can be a slightly more reliable Lord. Thank you for your hard work, Dwayne.”

His voice and smile held a newfound ease.

Dwayne looked at his lord with admiration.

“Congratulations, Lord McLaine! You always abandoned your work to train, and you’ve finally achieved something. I’m so glad that my hard work over the past decade hasn’t been wasted. Congratulations, Lord McLaine.”

Logan wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or an insult. But Dwayne looked so happy, he couldn’t say anything.

Patrick gave an awkward smile, barely nodding before changing the subject.

“Has anything unusual happened in the past three months? If there’s anything I need to know, the documents are…”

Thud.

Before he could finish speaking, a huge pile of documents was placed on the desk.

Patrick stared blankly at the mountain of paperwork for a moment.

“Lord Logan has been quite busy. Please review and make your judgment.”

Dwayne welcomed the true lord’s return with a bright smile.

And three hours later.

“Distributing food to the territory’s residents, mobilizing them for that dam construction, developing the gold mine, and reclaiming wasteland that can be cultivated… Huhu.”

Patrick looked at Logan with disbelief, chuckling in disbelief.

“Is all of this really true?”

Patrick asked, looking as if he couldn’t quite believe it, and Logan’s response was short.

“Yes.”

“…Let’s go. Let’s see it for ourselves.”

For Patrick, it felt like everything had changed in three months. He couldn’t believe it just from reading papers.

Logan smiled silently and followed his father.

Patrick remembered that, after passing through the western outer gate of McLaine Castle and riding a horse, one would only see sparse patches of grass in the dry, useless land.

But now, after only three months, not even three years, a completely different scene unfolded.

“A waterway. Huh, water flowing in this wasteland. Really, really…”

He stared. Water channels crossed the fields every few hundred steps, like silver lines on brown earth. Green grass, soft and new, was already growing. The air smelled fresh and damp. It was like a dream, a beautiful dream in a place he thought was hopeless.

Small wooden buildings were being built. Massive walls of earth were also going up. Eleven mages and thousands of people from the land were working. Patrick stared in wonder.

“We are building a large village where the territory residents who will cultivate the plains will live. It will be dozens of times larger than the existing small villages. I plan to call it McLaine Town.”

“Huhu…”

Looking at the wondrous change, Patrick was speechless, seemingly moved.

“Once the town is completed, we will start clearing weeds and cultivating the land for farming before next spring. I expect that the yield will be greater than the McLaine Plains that our ancestors lost.”

“…Is that so? But will the territory residents easily move their homes?”

“Yes. I plan to give priority to the territory residents who live in the town. Also, the new houses we will build will be better than the thatched-roof houses that most of the territory residents currently live in.”

“…I see. That’s right.”

It was a question he had asked, but it was clear to everyone that Patrick was not focused on the answer.

He was too busy looking around in all directions, forgetting his pride.

“Let’s, let’s go see that dam. How could such a miracle…”

A tremor ran through Patrick’s voice.

Logan stopped explaining his future plans and silently guided his father as he wished.

After seeing the dam and the floodgates, Patrick couldn’t hide his surprise, wondering how he had come up with such an idea.

On a roll, he even visited the mine and checked the gold ore, constantly patting Logan on the shoulder and amazed.

‘At this rate, recruiting soldiers should be easy…’

Logan watched his father with a pleased smile, feeling that things were going to work out more easily than he had thought.

“You are definitely better than me.”

“That’s right.”

“……”

“Ah, well, just based on recent achievements, that is.”

“Haha. No, no, you’re right. What you’ve done in three months is better than what I’ve done in 30 years. I was blessed with a good son. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Words that he could never have imagined coming from his father’s mouth poured out.

He couldn’t help but feel pleased, but suddenly strange words followed.

“I can leave all the lord’s duties to you now. I should focus on thoroughly training the knights.”

“…Excuse me?”

What was he going to do?

“Let’s have breakfast together tomorrow for the first time in a while. We’ll have a lot to talk about.”

Before the confused Logan could react, Patrick turned around with a bright smile.

‘I also have a lot to talk about….’

His father’s back looked so carefree as he went down the mountain path that Logan couldn’t bring himself to stop him.

And the next morning.

At the table where the entire McLaine family had gathered for the first time in a long time, Patrick made a bombshell announcement.

“I will designate Logan as my successor and entrust him with most of the lord’s duties starting today.”

“Cough! Excuse me?!”

Was it too much to hope that his mind would change overnight?

Logan, who had hoped it was just empty words, nearly choked on the meat he was chewing.

“So, be aware of that, and help Logan do his job well.”

“…Yes.”

Even his enemy, whom he had believed would definitely object, nodded with a somewhat pale face.

‘Why is she backing down so easily this time?’

Logan looked at Merian with disbelief.

“I believe my brother will do a great job.”

His brother, whom he had thought had become a little more reliable, added fuel to the fire.

‘Hey, that was originally your position!’

Logan clutched his trembling eyebrows and screamed inwardly.

Patrick McLaine had finished most of his work as the lord of the family. Now, he felt it was time for a change.

“From now on, I will take charge of training the Knights, making our family’s knights the best fighters,” Patrick said.

“Father, are you sure about this? I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Logan, ensure that the McLaine family regains its past glory in your generation.”

Logan’s mouth opened, but he couldn’t find the words to reply. He was too surprised.

Patrick said seriously, “I know this is a lot to ask.”

“But why me? Why now?” Logan asked.

“It’s time for a new generation to lead,” Patrick replied.

“Why now, of all times…?”

“And I know you will do a great job,” Patrick said.

After dinner, Logan tried again to change his father’s mind during a private meeting, but his father was still completely decided.

Logan rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache start. ‘He’s so stubborn!’ he thought, letting out a long sigh.

“I know you don’t really care about being the lord,” Patrick said.

Logan’s head snapped up, surprised by Patrick’s blunt words.

“You see the family as something you have to carry, like a heavy weight.”

“Not a burden, but…”

“Until now, the family has greatly benefited from you. Now, enjoy the benefits of the family that has grown, or will grow, thanks to you in this position. I want to think I’m giving you a right, not a burden.”

Logan’s heart softened at the unexpected sincerity and warm eyes of his father.

“I realized something for certain during this training,” Patrick said.

Logan thought, ‘So, that’s why he’s talking about this now. He feels he’s reached his limit.’

Logan nodded a few times silently.

“I am getting old,” Patrick said, his voice tinged with a hint of sadness.

“Yes?”

“I managed to handle the sword techniques of the Sword Demon’s Iron Blood Sword somehow, but I can’t seem to master its secrets.”

Unexpected words followed.

“If I had learned that secret when I was young, when I first awakened my inner power, it might have been possible. But with the passage of time, my inner power has become set in its way, and I can’t even create that, what was it, crystal? Even if I forced it, it would only strain my heart, so I had no choice but to give up.”

“Huh…”

“I thought as I gave up. Now, it will be the era of you or children like Ronian. Well, thanks to that, I was able to break through a barrier that had been stopping me for a long time. I want to step down and be a guide, opening the way for you.”

Seeing a side of his father he had never seen before – a side that was tired and a little sad. For the first time, Patrick seemed old, Logan could no longer object.

A slightly uneasy feeling still lingered, but he decided to accept it since it was already decided.

‘Right. I can pass it on to Dwayne when I need to move separately,’ Logan thought.

However, he wouldn’t be able to train during work hours, so he would have to force himself to create more personal training time.

‘Or usually to Dwayne, too…’

Unaware that the large retainer nearby shuddered with an inexplicable sense of unease, Logan soothed himself.

‘Haaah…’

And after a long sigh, Logan came to a decision.

“Yes. I understand.”

Creak.

As he turned away, seeing his father’s satisfied smile.

Logan thought about everything that had just happened, feeling many different emotions at once, but soon encountered someone who seemed to be waiting for him.

“Mother?”

“Grand Prince, shall we talk?” she asked.

Hearing the formal title for the first time, Logan could not refuse her request.

He too had questions.

“Earlier… why did you stay silent?”

“If I hadn’t stayed silent? Would the wife of someone from a family seen as traitors have the right to speak about family matters any longer?” she asked with a harsh tone, blaming herself. It was known that there was a war and her family was involved as traitors.

Logan was surprised by her harsh words. He didn’t expect her to talk about herself like that.

She looked slightly more at ease than immediately after the war, but her still pale complexion showed that her mental state was still uneasy.

“The Grand Prince’s achievements are enough to make him the one to take over. Now, I only hope that Ronian does well. No, I always have. That’s why I was disagreeing with the Grand Prince.”

“I’m sorry.”

“The Grand Prince has no reason to be sorry. Rather, I should apologize.”

“Yes?”

“The Grand Prince apologized to me before. I’m sorry I couldn’t accept it then. I was being too stubborn, so I hope you can understand.”

Unexpected words continued, leaving Logan speechless.

“I heard you’re teaching Ronian swordsmanship these days?”

“Yes.”

Fortunately, unlike his father, Ronian created a Force Core in just a week and was already practicing a sword move called Wave Slash.

Perhaps because he was a natural genius, he didn’t experience the stronger senses or physical changes like Logan, but the sensations he felt were different, and he was very excited about training.

In the awkward situation, a good topic of conversation came up, and his mouth opened easily.

“Ronian is a genius, so his skills are improving easily…”

“It’s been years since that child looked so bright…”

Logan stopped talking, realizing that wasn’t what she wanted to talk about.

“Please, take care of Ronian, your brother, in the future.”

The last words his stepmother left with a bitter smile brought back a memory Logan had almost forgotten.

A baby who would cry loudly but stop as if by magic when he held him.

The image of the newborn baby wiggling his small hands and feet and smiling brightly was still vivid.

His stepmother, with her long black hair, looked much younger and happier then, watching the scene with a slightly jealous look, but she was smiling.

“Our baby seems to like his older brother more than me.”

“Hee hee. Mother, I will protect my brother for the rest of my life. I swear to God!”

“Okay, Logan. Please take care of your brother.”

Memories of a peaceful day.

Memories of those beautiful days that he had ruined with his ugly jealousy.

Grip.

His fists clenched involuntarily out of shame.

‘I can create them again now.’

But now he could undo everything.

A moment where he felt grateful for this life he had gained once more.

Without realizing it, Logan shouted loudly as his stepmother walked away.

“Parents don’t use honorifics with their children!”

He felt his stepmother falter.

“From now on, please speak comfortably to me again, Mother!”

It was even more touching because it was simple.

His stepmother lowered her head and quietly shed tears.

When the middle-aged man heard his son’s voice from inside the room, he smiled quietly.

Her face turned red, and she looked surprised and happy as she turned around and hurried away.