‘This is so strange.’
After taking his top off, Zich scanned his entire body. Toned muscles outlined and shaped his entire form, but they weren’t even close to the muscles he had gained as the Demon Lord — during those days, he had pushed his body to its utmost limits. Even the huge scar on his back that was as big as the world map was gone.
Zich sat on the bed and organized his thoughts.
‘I’m sure that after I fought that jerk, Glen Zenard, I also lost to his companions and was on the verge of death.’
No, it was funny to even say that he had been on the ‘verge of death.’ His body had been split into two while his neck was sliced off, so it was more accurate to say that he had died.
‘But I am alive and well.’
Moreover, as if he had actually gone back in time, he was younger too.
‘It’s not a dream.’
He had checked multiple times already. His cheeks still stung from slapping himself so many times. Zich tried to recall what happened right before his death.
‘After losing to Glen and his companions, I had to listen to that jerk’s rambling. Then…’
As if he had realized something, his eyes shone.
‘I pierced that guy, Glen, with the ‘Key that Distorts Destiny.’ Is it because of that?’
He thought that it was a magical tool that only changed the future of the person it pierced, but looking at his situation right now, it was the only thing he could think of.
‘Where did I get that?’
Zich’s expression hardened.
‘I don’t remember.’
It wasn’t only the location. He didn’t remember the time or place he found the item, nor did he remember when he had placed the object into his index finger. There wasn’t any information about the ‘Key that Distorts Destiny’ in his brain. He was only aware that the magical tool was stuck in his finger before he realized it.
‘No, let’s calm down, Zich Moore. Maybe I just forgot.’
Zich forgot small details easily. Maybe that was why he couldn’t recall anything about the item.
‘But what if someone altered my memories?’
Zich stared at his index finger which used to hold the ‘Key that Distorts Destiny.’
‘For now, I should find out more about this key.’
He had a goal now.
And with this decision, his seriousness completely disappeared.
‘Hm, what should I do from now on? I can’t live the rest of my life searching for information about a magical tool.’
Zich didn’t want to put all of his efforts into finding traces of an item without any clues. He needed another goal. He liked the idea of following a bloody path as the Demon Lord like before, but he also liked the idea of living a completely different life. After all, wasn’t this an unexpected second chance at life?
‘It will be my loss if I don’t enjoy this.’
Zich thought hard. He felt that he needed to figure out what period he was in first.
‘Let me see. If I think about my surroundings, it seems like I haven’t left my family yet.’
In contrast to his wild nature, Zich was surprisingly from an aristocratic family, and a pretty noble one at that. Moore was the last name that he had given to himself, and his original family name was Steelwall. Matching their name, the Steelwall family had protected the kingdom like an impregnable fortress for a long time.
‘Since I am the eldest son, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to inherit the family’s name.’
In the past, he left his family to wander around the world. Furthermore, he only pursued power to the extent that he gained the title: ‘Demon Lord of Strength,’ but this time, Zich thought it wouldn’t be so bad to succeed as the next heir of his family and act like a noble.
‘What was my reason for leaving?’
It was at that moment.
Crick!
The door opened without a knock. Disturbed from his thoughts, Zich scowled and stared at the person who came in.
‘Can they just barge into the room of the eldest son of a noble family like this?’
Although Zich had abandoned all noble manners and etiquette since he left his family, he knew at least this much.
‘Is it my parent or sibling?’
He was surprised to see that the man who had barged into his room looked like a servant.
‘He must be a servant, right?’
Zich thought he might have been mistaken, but the man was definitely wearing servant clothing. The servant stared at Zich. Surprisingly, the servant scowled at him, and Zich became speechless.
A servant had scowled while looking at a noble.
“You were still in your room, sir?”
‘Thankfully, he still uses honorifics.’
Because he was so rude, Zich thought that the servant would also speak to him informally. Zich also wondered if he should be thankful for something like this.
“You are usually out early in the morning. Have you given up on that now too? I don’t think you are in the position to be lazy.”
‘…Is he mocking me? There can’t be any hidden meanings behind his words, right?’
The situation was so ridiculous that Zich started thinking about all kinds of things.
“Ha!”
Zich let out a forced laugh, and he beckoned the servant to come forward with his finger. The servant’s expression worsened, but Zich continued to gesture while smiling. Thus, the servant unwittingly walked to his side.
“What is it?”
The servant acted like he had walked up to Zich out of pity even though he didn’t have to, but Zich’s smile grew wider.
Then, he got out of bed with much care.
It was as if a mountain was rising — that was how enormous his physique was. Zich was a head and a half taller than the servant, and even though a normal servant would’ve been intimidated by the difference in their physiques, the servant continued to glare at Zich.
Zich didn’t say anything for a while and looked down at the servant.
“You called me. Why aren’t you saying anything…?”
The servant was complaining when—
Punch!
Zich’s fist flew out. The moment it contacted the servant’s cheek, a loud sound rang out.
“Ugh!”
Clatter!
Like a paper doll flying in the wind, the servant’s body flew out and collided against a small, luxurious-looking shelf. He made a loud cry as the shelf fell, and the servant toppled over like a garbage bag.
“Ahhhhh!”
The servant squirmed on the ground in pain. Along with a few perfectly white teeth, blood dripped out his mouth, and his cheeks instantly swelled up.
“Waw-Wawth are yaw….!”
With tears flowing out of his eyes, the servant glared at Zich and struggled to speak. It seemed like he was trying to say, ‘What are you doing?’ but because his pronunciation was off, it was hard to tell.
Zich approached the fallen servant. With this movement, the servant, who had been glaring at Zich with a childish rage, backed off for a moment. The smile on Zich’s face was gone. It was replaced by a murderous intent that was colder than the Northern winter winds.
Zich raised his foot.
‘Maw-Mawdam wan’t aproof…!”
Crunch!
“Urggggggh!”
Zich began to step on the servant relentlessly. The servant seemed like he was trying to say something along the lines of, ‘Madam won’t approve!’ but this didn’t matter to Zich. He continued to step on the servant without mercy.
The servant, who had been busy shouting as if he had someone strong backing him, was now filled with terror before Zich, who was like an expressionless machine with the sole purpose of stepping on the servant. Even the thought, ‘He won’t really kill me, right?’ had changed into ‘He will really kill me at this rate!’
“S-Sowry…!”
With swollen lips, the servant begged for forgiveness.
Drop!
Zich stopped his kicking.
As if he saw a rope fall down from the sky while the world was ending, the servant hurriedly bowed to the ground. He was so low to the ground that it seemed like he was stuck to the floor.
“S-Sowry! I was w-wrang!”
He urgently begged for forgiveness as tears and snot ran down his face. Zich let down the raised foot.
“Have you figured out your place?”
The servant nodded senselessly, and Zich laughed in satisfaction.
‘Since today is a good day and I got younger, I should stop here.’
Zich thought he should forgive the servant at this point but—
Slam!
“What happened?!”
The person who slammed the door open completely changed Zich’s mind.
Zich saw a man with a uniform and a sword hanging at his waist.
‘A knight.’
The man seemed like he would at least be a bodyguard for the family. Since he looked quite young, Zich predicted the man must have been called a genius a couple of times in his life.
‘Did he come because of the screaming?’
The knight darted his eyes back and forth from Zich to the servant and frowned.
“Kniwght B-Bwyner!”
As if Byner was his savior, the servant crawled towards him.
“What happened?”
Byner asked the servant attached to his leg.
“T-thawt guy…!”
‘That guy?’
Zich’s eyebrows twitched. The servant was begging for mercy like a bug just a moment ago, but now that he had somebody to lean on, he was cocky again. Zich made his way towards the servant once more.
“Eccck!”
The servant hurriedly hid behind the knight.
Chuck!
Byner’s hands blocked Zich from moving forward.
“What are you doing?”
‘What? The way this bastard talks…’
He was definitely the family’s knight, but he showed no respect for the family’s eldest son. Instead, he even showed a slight contempt for Zich.
“Move.”
“I asked what you are doing.”
“Are you asking me what I am doing? Didn’t you hear that bastard say ‘that guy’ to me? Isn’t the way he talks too cheeky for a lowly servant addressing the family’s eldest son?” Zich’s reason was clear. A bad-tempered noble would have cut off the servant’s tongue already.
Byner should have known this as well, but he still didn’t move from his spot.
“I will take care of this.”
“No need. I will educate him personally.”
“I said, I will take care of it.”
Zich stared at the knight and saw the servant rise behind him. Even while he was in pain, the servant was smiling. It was as if he was taunting Zich, ‘What are you going to do now?’
“I thought of this before, but you are cheeky as well.”
Byner smirked and said, “What are you going to do about that? Are you going to beat me up too?”
“Nothing is stopping me. A bastard who fails to recognize his own master will submit if you beat him enough times.”
Byner looked at Zich with scorn and thought, ‘Since he seemed like he knew his place and stayed quiet, I was lenient on him. Did he decide to just do whatever he wants now? And where did he learn to talk so vulgarly? He really isn’t fit to be the next heir.’
“Then, go ahead.” Byner stepped forward as if he was encouraging Zich to take the first punch.
Whish!
Zich flung out his fist.
Byner flinched. He didn’t think that Zich would actually hit him. But he had also not become a knight by pure luck. Byner bent his back and avoided Zich’s punch.
‘That was pretty good.’
Byner knew that Zich regularly kept his body in shape, but even with that, Zich’s punches were too fierce.
‘But it’s not enough.’
Zich wasn’t strong enough to beat a knight like him yet.
‘I should use this chance to put him in his place.’
When Zich put his fist out, Byner used that chance to aim for Zich’s stomach, but Zich twisted his feet and escaped Byner’s attack.
Bam!
After rolling in a circle, Zich lifted his body up next to the bed.
The distance between them widened, but Byner had no intention to end this scuffle easily. He swung his fist at Zich, who had now been trying to get up. Byner planned to end this fight with a light smack on Zich’s face.
Flap!
Byner’s view became covered in white. ‘What!’
It was a blanket. With his hands, Byner swiftly flicked the blanket that was about to cover him, but by the time his view was clear, there was nobody in front of him.
“Sir Byner, behind…!”
With the servant’s urgent voice, Byner quickly turned his back.
Crash!
“Ugh!”
Byner felt a great shock on the back of his head.
Thud!
Byner fell to the floor. Beautiful flowers, water, and vase shards scattered around his bleeding head.
“Skills aren’t everything, you bastard.”
After planting a vase on top of Byner’s head, Zich spouted insults at him.
The younger the opponent was, the weaker they were to irregular attacks.
‘Dickhead. Did you think I was crazy enough to fight you fair and square?’
Even if he had been once called the ‘Demon Lord of Strength,’ in his current situation, there was no way he could fight a knight head on. He wasn’t even used to his current body yet. But still, the memories and experiences he had gained as the ‘Demon Lord of Strength’ were still inside of him. After overcoming countless battles and experiences, it was easy for Zich to knock down a young knight who hadn’t even pulled out his sword yet.
‘Since he is unconscious, I should step on him later.’
Zich shifted his attention back to the servant. The servant’s swollen face was full of fear.
“Weren’t you happy when your guardian angel showed up? But what are you going to do now that he looks like that?”
“H-Have mewrcy…!”
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”
Zich raised his feet again. Then, suddenly, he remembered what Glen Zenard had said to him.
[If you are born again, I pray that you will be someone who does good!]
‘Ok, I will do that starting from tomorrow.’
And for a long while after that, a servant’s screams filled up Zich’s entire room until another knight finally came running into the room after hearing the commotion.