Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

They arrived at one of the gardens outside the Academy.

Flowers bloomed near quaint spots to enjoy teatime. Behind the splendor lay the hard, daily work of a gardener.

Elijah was there in the center of the garden. Despite the hot noon sun, the atmosphere around him was cold.

'He didn't bring anyone else.’

There were no other people in the garden.

Elijah was silent.

He didn't turn his head once, even as he felt Allen enter the garden. Such ignorance continued until Allen came close, to which he quietly opened his eyes.

"Thank you for accepting my invitation, Your Highness, Elijah."

"Does the host arrive later than the guest these days?"

Elijah's eyes darkened. His temper seemed unstable.

"I was busy preparing something."

No wonder.

From his attitude alone, Elijah seemed close enough with Benjamin for him to return to the empire with Benjamin after graduating from the Academy.

"The customs of the Kingdom of Liberé seem to allow it.”

"It would have to depend on the gravity of the situation.”

"If there’s so much to prepare, shouldn't it be done in advance?"

"It simply means that the preparation was important."

"Ha, good one. Yeah."

Elijah smiled triumphantly as Allen lightly brushed off his sarcasm.

‘He’s emotional, huh.’

However, even considering the situation surrounding Benjamin, he seemed a little more emotionally fragile than expected. Sensing the strange atmosphere, Allen began cautiously. "…So, did I do anything to put you in low spirits?"

Elijah’s answer to Allen's question was as strong as his tea. "Isn't it too late for that?"

"I came on time."

"Shouldn't you have come at least half an hour ago? Doesn’t this show how little you value this meeting?”

"I thought the meeting was important, so I wanted to make it as perfect as I could."

Allen realized that the second heir’s anger over not knowing his reason for being late was due to cultural differences. 

In the Kingdom of Liberé, the more important the meeting, the more crucial it was to be punctual. Doing so sincerely demonstrated that the meeting preparations were carried out to the utmost extent. The Aldenian Empire, on the other hand, was different. Only those who failed to prepare arrived on time. They demonstrated their respect by arriving as early as possible. The more important the meeting was, the more thoroughly prepared they must be, and far in advance. Thus, the earlier one arrived, the more sincerity one showed.

From Elijah's point of view, he very well could have mistaken Allen’s timeliness for a lack of respect to his person and a lack of importance placed on the meeting.

Allen took a step back first.

"I sincerely apologize. It's my fault that I didn't notice the difference in customs between my homeland and yours. If you feel disrespected, I would entirely understand if you were to leave your seat. However…”

Elijah also realized that they had different perspectives of the situation.

"Even if it was an inconvenience, I'd appreciate it if you could listen to me for a moment."

Elijah tapped his leg unconsciously, lost in thought, then spoke after a few minutes of silence.

"…Yeah, I'll lend you an ear. Allen Reinhart, why did you want to see me?" His tone of voice was much kinder.

"I have something to tell you about Benjamin."

"What?"

His eyebrows twitched around with a flurry of seemingly unspoken thoughts, but when Elijah remembered what he had just been told, he closed his mouth.

"I understand that Benjamin was terribly injured by my brother."

"…Yes."

"It is often difficult to find a method that could fully heal such an injury."

"And?"

Whether in the form of money or assets, there could be no shortage of financial capital for him as a member of the imperial family. Even if his personal financial power was not enough, he could ask the empire for help, so one day, Benjamin would be sure to recover.

Even so…

"Won’t it grow more difficult for him to fully recover from the injury as time goes by?"

Allen involuntarily dipped his chin low.

His body could certainly regenerate and recuperate. The problem was his mana circulation.

"Now that a full week has passed… we'll have to do something in the next four days to fully restore his mana circulation…”

“……” Elijah clenched his fists at his peaceful tone. "Have you found a way to force it to recover?"

Allen's eyes stared straight through him.

Elijah's face hardened.

"What are you trying to say? Do you mean you’ve found a way to cure him now?"

His tone was calm, but Allen could feel that he was holding back his seething anger.

"Did you make me come to this place to make fun of me? Do you know your place?"

Elijah twisted his lips in a sneer.

"I shouldn't have come here. If I’d known you would do this, I wouldn't have come.”

The second heir made to get up. "I will not forget this…”

Allen watched him vent his anger and declared in an unwavering tone, "There is a way."

Elijah’s eyes opened wide, like he understood the meaning of the words a beat later.

"…What?"

His emotions were confusing him. It took time for him to develop a rapport with someone. However, with a spark from more negative thoughts, doing so took far less work.

Thus, this altogether fanned the flames of his anger.

"Shouldn't you take responsibility for the crime of your ugly little brother?"

Allen smiled leisurely, and took something out from his inventory.

"A certain low-grade elixir would be enough.”

Allen smiled.

It was a pure, well-intentioned smile.

* * *

* * *

Elijah could not get to work immediately because Allen held him up for some time.

"…An elixir that hasn't been released yet?"

"Yes, it’s scheduled to be approved by the School of Alchemy and released for general use in a few months."

The formulation of a low-grade elixir.

Allen had found the recipe for it himself while excavating some ruins before his regression. Thus, he knew where the information for its preparation had been buried, and he knew its intended effect quite well.

‘It's a waste to release the recipe, but…’

He could use its early release to make up for his lack of action earlier.

Plus, Allen had received a huge sum for providing the formula of the lower elixir to the School of Alchemy, and he would also be receiving a royalty every month following its release.

From now on, he’d find himself in no shortage of money while buying things at the auction house.

Dealing with all of that had delayed his meeting with Elijah for a week. 

It was hard to imagine that Elijah would receive a batch of suspicious items without requiring further verification.

"If you doubt the source of the elixir, you can investigate it for yourself."

"…No, there's no reason for you to come this far just to lie."

Elijah was surprised to have been given a low-grade elixir yet to be released to the public.

‘…Had I wanted to, I should have been able to keep it a secret.’

He knew the value of a product he’d had to himself. The more one understood a product’s worth, the harder one tried to hide it. Nevertheless, he had relinquished full control over this elixir with the mindset that he was responsible for what his brother had done…

"Is there anything you want in return?"

"I only hope this will give you peace."

"It is not me who is hurt."

"Of course, I'm going to meet with Benjamin separately."

Elijah shut up, realizing that Allen was dodging questions.

If ever there was a time to accept his help, it was now, even if his previous actions were questionable.

"I don't know what you really want.”

At first, he had thought of him as just a drop of talent in a sea of many. There were countless people like him in the empire, after all. Elijah just observed the older Reinhart’s behavior and thought he was perhaps a bit more experienced than his peers.

‘But to do all of this…’ Elijah thought.

What thought process would drive someone to do this? He was deathly curious. If he hadn't had to deliver the elixir to Benjamin, he would have stayed to converse a little while longer.

Could it be that he was trying to covet the power of the empire? Or to rise in the ranks of the Academy? He wasn’t sure if it was just an attempt to win him over, or…

Elijah gave up on trying to work through his tangled web of thoughts.

There was no time for this. Benjamin was still ridden with pain.

"If this elixir really succeeds in making Benjamin fully recover…” Elijah thanked Allen with serious eyes. "I shall see to it that you are rewarded. I promise."

Allen shook his hand with a humble smile.

"Shouldn't I take responsibility for what my brother did? And…" Allen mumbled for a moment with a nondescript expression before soon shaking his head. "No, nevermind. It’s nothing."

"…Is that so?" Elijah stared at Allen as if recalling something and replied, "I'll remember this."

Allen nodded with a slightly tired look.

"Thank you."

"Well, I'll get going."

As soon as Allen answered, Elijah took the item he had received from him and left.

He would have to determine the authenticity of the elixir through his own personal connections, and figure out how to evade the eye of the School of Alchemy in the meantime. Hence, he would be busy for a few days.

'This is the end of my preparations.’

Considering the second heir’s character, Elijah would not let Allen's troubles simply pass him by.

Combined with his kindness, his hesitation from their previous interaction, and his generally gentle nature, this act should positively impact their relationship to quite the extent. 

Allen looked up at Elijah’s back, now quite distant.

The blindingly bright sunlight pierced his eyes.

‘I made a connection to one of the magic towers through this elixir…’

Grandel had broken his brother's circle and also had a debt to repay.

Master of one of the seven towers—the Tower of Wind.

One of the living monsters of the supposed rank 8. 

‘Aside from that, the dark sorcerers, the forces helping Julius, the dark magic targeted at the city during the Thanksgiving festival, whoever granted me the power of the book, Heisel the former Demon Lord, and a hidden family secret…’ 

Why did the world help Julius and himself so much?

What is the System, and who is Kim Woojin?

There were a myriad of things to do, and there were even more things he couldn’t even begin to explain.

He didn’t have time to relax like this.

He raised his head again.

The sky was fortunately clear, not a single spot in sight, unlike the troubles that plagued him.

* * *

It had been a week since Allen met with Elijah and two weeks since Julius and Benjamin's initial confrontation.

After only a few days had passed, most people had already begun to forget about the fight’s outcome. So much had happened in that time that the period between those events now felt short. 

More interesting events than those had already occurred and subsequently attracted the students' attention.

"Heisel, did you see that you broke the school record?"

"…Really, it was only the intermediate one, but it's crazy that a freshman broke it…”

"You mean he broke Pierre's record, and now he’s the strongest of the empire, wow."

The first of these notable events was when Heisel broke a school record.

In the basement of the Academy, there were ruins simulations, where students could practice in environments like a mock large desert overflowing with relics.

These ruins simulations were divided into five grades: lowest, low, intermediate, high, and highest.

In addition, the artificial ruins consisted of real traps and monsters, and measured the time it took to successfully complete the run-through.

The technology was so refined that students began to be able to compete within it.

The highest marks achieved in the lower-ranking simulations were frequently beaten. Normally, such a thing wouldn’t have been much to gossip about. But that didn’t apply when Heisel broke the record for the intermediate ruins.

After all, the previous owner of this record was Pierre Bernaugh, who was now one of the Top Eight.

As a result of this, people had begun to view Heisel as a sure-fire candidate for becoming a member of the Top Eight in the future.

The second notable event was the birth of a god.

This wasn't originally as exciting of a topic compared to the first.

However, that changed when it was revealed that the owner of the newborn god was Julius. He’d become famous for defeating his senior only a few days prior. Along with that, the hatched being from the egg was an extremely rare god.

Students from other grades frequently came to see the new god, thus giving his name an opportunity to spread further. 

Due to these incidents, the fact that an upperclassman in critical condition had been discharged was not even close to becoming a topic of popular conversation.

But perhaps it was only natural, given that the upperclassman’s reputation wasn't all that good.

"Thank you. Thank you very much.”

But Benjamin was satisfied.

"Thanks to you, I was able to recover. Really… I really don't know what to say."

He might have been crippled for the rest of his life.

No matter how much he was willing to put in for the Academy, he wouldn’t have been able to come to terms with that result.

‘And…’

Nor would his parents, who had worked so hard to send him here from their small town in the south.

So Benjamin was so grateful to Allen for preventing that terrible future from coming about.

"Since it was my brother's fault, I had a duty to resolve it. I've only done what should be expected."

Benjamin came to see Allen with Elijah.

Elijah had left shortly after his arrival, busily splitting up his time across his various engagements. So only Benjamin and Allen remained.

"…Of course.”

Benjamin rubbed the bridge of his nose, watching Allen speaking so calmly yet again.

"That is absolutely not expected of you, not even a bit. I heard it all from His Highness. You said that what I was given was an unreleased elixir? And you gave me such a precious gift regardless? What could you ever mean by ‘of course’?”

"No, that's…”

As he tried to make excuses, Allen found himself at a loss for words.

He had used him to get closer to Elijah.

But he couldn’t admit that.

Therefore, Allen could only give a cliche answer.

"…After all, it's my duty passed down to me by my family."

"You…"

Perhaps Benjamin assumed Allen was trembling with humility and not guilt. The upperclassman spoke with serious eyes and bowed slightly.

"Honestly, I don't know how helpful I will be to such a noble man like you. But…"

He gripped Allen's hand firmly and continued, his resolve growing with every word as if swearing to himself, with the declaration, "If there is anything I can do to help, I will absolutely lend you my aid. Anything at all."

All Allen could do was kick him out quickly with a troubled look.

"Call me anytime! Okay? Call me!"

"…Yes, understood. So go ahead and get going."

"Hahaha, yes!"

No matter how thick Allen's skin was, it was hard to maintain an iron-hard expression in that situation.

After sending him off, Allen left the dormitory, watching the horizon that had already eaten half the sun.

It had become a habit for the last few weeks to go around this time.

Maria Caritas.

The time to meet with her was approaching.