The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations Chapter 833

Episode 833: It’s Not About Saving the World (2)

Deneb’s mind soared.
She gazed down at the cities and villages below.
The architecture was unfamiliar, and the location was different from the era she knew. Yet, even amidst the changes, she occasionally saw familiar traces.
The same place, but far more developed and vast.
That’s how she knew. This was the future world Giselle had spoken of.
She felt a distinct sense of connection with someone. She instinctively knew that someone was Giselle.
“Why did she connect with the departed Giselle?”
Deneve speculated.
Perhaps Giselle remained in Astion’s consciousness. No
, she was certain of it. Giselle must have reappeared, having realized her friends’ danger.
But unfortunately, it was too late. Yulien had already fallen into the darkness.
So, Deneve couldn’t understand why she was there. She
could only assume that Giselle’s consciousness had served as a conduit for her arrival.
Then, suddenly, she felt a strong ripple from a direction. Something was calling her.
So, Deneb headed towards it.
“The battlefield…”
Corpses piled up like mountains, and blood flowed like a river.
It was a brutal battlefield, even the sky dyed crimson.
And in the center of that sea of ​​blood… …
a man clad in a red cloak was kneeling, covered in blood.
Deneb gasped.
“Giselle!”
It was the same figure she had seen on the platform moments before.
Now, Giselle was on her knees, defeated in battle.
Deneb couldn’t believe it. How could someone as strong and brilliant as Giselle have been defeated!
A man clad in beautiful armor stood before Giselle.
He thrust his sword forward and said,
“You fool, it’s over now. You should have lived a life worthy of being a mercenary. ”
Paaah!
The sword flashed and flew.
The moment Giselle’s throat was slit, Deneb screamed.
“No—!”
Paaaaaaaah!
A fierce light emanated from her body.
Deneb couldn’t understand. She was merely a spirit. She couldn’t even use divine powers.
But why did the light emanate?
No, perhaps it didn’t come from her. The entire world was momentarily bathed in light.
Then all the lights went out, and the world was plunged into absolute darkness.
She saw nothing.
She heard nothing.
A void where nothing existed.
Was this what it felt like to be sealed in a demonic realm?
In that darkness, Deneb trembled with fear.
An endless fear consumed her, and even the sense of time passing vanished.
It felt like ages had passed, yet at the same time, it felt like an instant.
“Pfft!”
A burst of light opened the world again.
And she saw a man lying on a bed.
“Giselle!”
Deneve greeted her, approaching Giselle.
But she simply passed through Giselle like a ghost, unable to interact with her.
Giselle stood up, looked around, and muttered something. The door opened, and a handsome soldier entered, and Giselle grabbed him.
The two struggled for a moment, before Giselle was startled by the sight of a water bucket.
“Ahhh! You’ve gotten younger!”
Even Deneb was startled by those words. Giselle had truly become younger.
And then the scuffle with the soldier ensued.
Giselle earnestly declared that she had died and come back to life, but the soldier named Ricardo only laughed.
Afterwards, Giselle went outside the barracks, laughing heartily. To anyone who didn’t know, she must have looked like a madman.
But it was the laughter of someone who had found a new world.
Deneve was dumbfounded, watching Giselle.
“Giselle… died and came back to life? So she came back to the past?”
It was hard to believe, but strangely enough, it made sense.
Giselle had always been someone who mocked common sense.
Deneb took a deep breath and looked at Giselle.
She felt that this scene wasn’t just an illusion.
“This can’t happen for nothing.”
Perhaps she might find a way to save Yulienne. If this was her last hope, she couldn’t let it go.
After that, Giselle performed incredibly well.
He defeated the orcs who had attacked and defeated the assassins who had targeted his sister.
Deneve was impressed, but not as surprised as before. It was only natural, since Giselle knew the future.
Armed with her knowledge and skills of the future, Giselle pushed forward relentlessly. She
predicted, prepared, and realized.
Deneb knew that this wasn’t simply a result of knowing the future, but rather the result of her action and determination.
However, those around her could never keep up with Giselle’s pace. Whenever they hesitated, Giselle was already taking the next step.
Watching them, Deneve’s face was filled with longing.
“…We were like that too.”
Yes, that was it. And those days… …
were perhaps the most joyful and happy times for us.
Time passed incredibly quickly.
The scenery changed quickly, and seasons flowed like the wind, but Giselle’s actions were etched slowly and clearly into Deneb’s consciousness.
And as Giselle prepared to subdue the Forest of the Beasts,
Deneb finally knew exactly where Perdium was.
“The Demon Realm…?”
Perdium was a territory bordering the Demon Realm.
What had once been a wasteland gave rise to villages, cities, and fiefdoms.
Giselle’s path became more rugged with each passing day. His
life was threatened countless times, but he overcame every crisis with his knowledge of the future and his own strength.
The Ferdium territory prospered, and Giselle grew stronger along with it.
Deneb watched Giselle’s journey, always cheering him on. She
continued to watch as Giselle’s world grew.
“Giselle, you are truly amazing…”
Certainly, Giselle was weaker than the group of warriors who had triumphed in the war against the Demonic Realm. But they had grown under Giselle’s guidance.
Giselle, overcoming every obstacle alone, seemed stronger than any hero… and lonely.
Giselle would never know it. Deneb had always been by his side. Even
when he had fallen in battle against Blood Python in the Forest of Demonic Beasts, even when he had fallen in battle against the Seventh Circle Mage Delmud, even when he had fallen in battle against the Kingdom’s First Sword, Kaien Balzac.
And whenever she suffered a life-threatening injury, Deneb would pray at Giselle’s side.
“Goddess…”
She couldn’t heal or protect Giselle, but she couldn’t stop praying fervently.
Each time, a faint light, unnoticed even by herself, would seep into Giselle.
And, miraculously, Giselle would always rise again. That’s why Deneb couldn’t stop praying for Giselle.
If her heart could bring about a small miracle, that would be enough.
One day, when Giselle met Erenes,
Deneb’s heart ached at the sight of her.
“Erenes…”
The elf friend, always bright and proud, was now colder than anyone else.
She could guess why he had changed. Iraniel had betrayed him and lost his friends. Erenes must have been deeply hurt. Moreover,
all the elves of this era were enslaved. Erenes couldn’t possibly feel at ease.
“But why…”
Erenes felt strange.
It wasn’t strange that she’d endured a thousand years with the World Tree. She’d said so herself.
But it was strange that she didn’t recognize Giselle.
Erenes acted as if she’d never heard of her name before.
She’d longed for him, sealing herself away for a thousand years.
“Could it be…”
Several hypotheses raced through Deneb’s mind.
But she couldn’t be certain yet. So, she put her worries aside.
Even when Giselle fought Erenes, posing as her adversary, Deneb wasn’t surprised.
“Dark…”
She knew it was Dark’s power, and now she knew what Dark was.
Deneb simply looked at Dark and smiled sadly.
Time passed again.
Before she knew it, Giselle had become the absolute ruler of the North.
He was waging war against the powerful kingdom’s enemies and the revived Salvation Church.
In the midst of this war, where both sides were bent on destroying each other, Giselle, disguised as a soldier for the kingdom, had stolen their treasure.
Deneb was shocked to see this.
“My… necklace? The Holy Grail?”
It was the necklace she had been wearing all along. The Holy Grail, the empire’s treasure and a medium of divinity, was also there.
When she placed the necklace in the Grail, divine power gushed out.
It was her own divine power. For some unknown reason, her divine power remained in the necklace, resonating with the Holy Grail.
At that moment, Deneb realized something.
“Ahh…” She
began to understand what was happening.
It would take a little more observation to be certain, but everything that happened in the future was not unrelated to her.
Deneb now knew she could intervene in this world, even if only a little. She realized that her divine power
still remained. She wanted to make her presence known immediately, but she couldn’t.
Giselle didn’t know herself. No matter how much she told him, Giselle wouldn’t understand.
So, she didn’t know how to utilize her divine power.
While she was agonizing over this,
Giselle met someone.
Deneve burst into tears at the sight of Giselle.
“…Julien.”
Julien stood before Giselle.
Deneve instantly recognized Julien as the reincarnation.
It wasn’t just their faces that were the same.
Now, thanks to the power of the Holy Stone, Deneb had become a semi-transcendent being. That’s why she could recognize his soul.
But at the same time, she felt it. He was no longer the Julien she had been. He
had the black hair and dark eyes of his adversary, and his cold expression seemed to have abandoned all affection for the world.
The gentle smile of his former self was gone.
“…So this is how it ended up.”
No one noticed, but Yulien still couldn’t escape the demon’s thoughts.
He simply couldn’t remember the past, and his soul was already steeped in darkness.
Deneb wept endlessly.
Her heart ached for Yulien, who had sacrificed his soul for her, and it felt as if it were being torn apart.
In response to her feelings, divine power emanated from the necklace. But Giselle and Yulien had no way of knowing why.
“We have to save Yulien, no matter what.”
Giselle must have the answer. She believed so. That was why she had come here.
Contemplating this, she decided to make Giselle stronger.
Giselle was weaker now than when she had taught them. She wasn’t even using the techniques she had taught them.
Perhaps that would be the solution. So she began to slowly intervene in Giselle’s mind.
However, she couldn’t teach her anything directly. She had neither the ability nor the means to do so.
“Then… let’s show her the memories.”
Giselle possessed a genius for battle. So she decided to show her the battle against the Demonic Mirror.
So that Giselle could see it and realize it for herself.
And what if… what if Giselle, now even stronger, were to return to the past?
“Perhaps she could make us stronger and help us overcome this crisis.”
Deneb didn’t know if that was possible. She was just trying, grasping at straws.
But she kept feeling like this was the right approach. This would definitely help…
“Why…?”
At that moment, an eerie sense of déjà vu gripped Deneb.
Why did she feel like she’d already experienced this?
Why did she feel like she was repeating the same choices she’d already made?
It was as if she was reliving a scene she’d already seen countless times…
This unfamiliar yet familiar sense of discomfort.
“Perhaps we… … have already done this several times…”
Deneb shook her head, shaking the thought away. In any case, there was only one thing she could do now.
“Gisselle… I hope this helps you…”
First, she showed Giselle the Great War.
A time when flames engulfed the sky, countless heroes and monsters clashed.
She recalled her memories and showed Giselle how people had fought, what sacrifices had been made.
Then she showed her own image, so she could return to the past and instantly recognize her.
But it wasn’t as easy as she thought.
The necklace’s divine power served as a medium, connecting her to Giselle, but Giselle was becoming immersed in the dream with a terrifying intensity.
Startled, Deneb pushed Giselle away.
“Don’t come yet.”
She realized she had been too hasty. She
needed to take her time, let Giselle become accustomed to this dream.
Deneb tried to move leisurely. Watching Giselle fight, she considered which memories she could show him that would be helpful.
Whenever the opportunity arose, she showed Giselle images of herself and Yulien, making sure Giselle gradually adjusted.
As she watched the battle of Giselle from so high above, she saw a startling sight.
A wizard named Jerome, fighting Gatros, had
consumed
himself with a single spell.
Kukuk …
It wasn’t a meteorite with a physical substance.
That light contained the order of the world and the providence of the universe. No, it seemed imbued with a desperate desire that defied all reason and even the laws of the gods. An
absolute magic that condensed and purified all pollution and distortion.
The moment its power faded, all sound in the world ceased.
Even the air seemed to stop breathing, and time existed only for that single moment.
Deneb realized in an instant.
That was…
a magic created to save Yulien’s soul.