He saw Pialu below the mountains. Flickering torches revealed parts of the city’s landscape in this darkness. Glen glowered at the city that looked like an eyesore as it stood intact when monsters should have stomped and destroyed it. Furthermore, the city’s citizens who called and cheered Zich’s name whenever they had the chance annoyed him. Glen wanted to destroy the city.
‘If I get the chance, I will demolish this place and not leave even a single pebble behind.’ The fact that they praised the name of another instead of a true hero like him made them deserve such destruction.
Stomp! Glen heard footsteps from behind him and turned around. People were approaching him from behind in this darkness. They were all robed figures with their hoods heavily pressed down over their faces. They were clearly Glen’s subordinates, but the aura they gave off was different from the robed figures that had appeared before.
“Master.” The person standing in the front stepped forward and took his robe off.
“What is it, Ultel?” Ultel was the one who had met Glen near the area where Zich’s party’s statues were at Vioulwin. He had also been at the ruin where the World Tree was located. Although Glen treated the robed figures mostly like supplies, he treated this man differently. It was because Ultel was the leader of the robed figures’ organization and an important figure in accomplishing Glen’s goals. However, even Ultel was nothing more than a subordinate to Glen. Not hiding his displeasure, Glen said, “I told you to not look for me if you can.”
“I heard that things haven’t been going according to plan recently.”
Glen scowled. “Have you been trailing me?”
“I wouldn’t dare, sir. Yet, since my mission is to help you fulfill your goal, I receive periodic reports from my subordinates. Don’t you also know of this, Master?”
Of course, Glen was aware of this. He had simply spat out words to take his anger out on the man, and the way Ultel kept retorting back to all his questions annoyed Glen even more.
“Of course, I know Master would have his own plans. I worry that I failed to read your mind in this aspect from my foolishness and made a mistake in my way of supporting you. I beg you to relieve yourself of anger and free me from my curiosity.” Ultel bent his body low to the ground. Glen appeared to be very annoyed, but Ultel wasn’t too worried.
‘There’s just one way to deal with this puppet,’ Ultel thought. Just like a seven-year-old kid, Glen Zenard was the type of human who relieved his anger once anyone placed him on a pedestal and praised him. The robed figures had used this method to mold Glen into what they wanted from him many times before. Thus, Ultel thought Glen would quickly let go of his anger even if he did pout about it long afterward. Yet, contrary to his expectations, Glen took a step forward in Ultel’s direction. Ultel was taken aback when he saw Glen’s eyes. They appeared hollow and empty.
Clasp!
“Kuh!” Glen grasped Ultel by the collar of his neck and lifted him. The other robed figures flinched. All of them were Glen’s subordinates by name, but no one actually believed this. Glen was simply a puppet for Ultel’s goals, and a mere doll had grasped their master. However, no one moved beyond that. They had to continue their theatrics until Ultel gave his command.
“Hey, Ultel. Tell me. Who am I?”
“Y-You are… our master…” Even though he couldn’t breathe well, Ultel answered urgently.
“Yes, I am the master, and my orders are absolute. All you guys have to do is shut your mouths and follow what I tell you to do. So, how dare you guys act on your own? Are you guys planning to hinder my plans too?”
Glen was reaching the limit now. Like this time, Ultel had always visited Glen from time to time. Even when his heart wasn’t truly loyal to Glen, he tried to minimize the things Glen could nitpick about.
‘This bastard! He must have something going on!’ Ultel was sure of it. From what he knew, there was not a time when Glen had behaved like this. Something had seriously gone wrong.
“I-I’m sorry! I will be more careful in the future!” Ultel begged for forgiveness, but Glen’s anger showed no signs of quelling. It was only natural since Glen was simply taking out his anger on somebody else, and Ultel became sure that the reason why Glen was angry was unrelated to him. This annoyed Ultel. It made him want to push Glen to the ground and stomp him relentlessly, but considering Glen’s usefulness, he resisted the urge.
‘Damn it! What should I do?’ Ultel thought he might die at this rate. Of course, this didn’t matter much since even if he died, this bastard hero could simply revert time again. However, there had been too many changed variables in this timeline for him to simply accept this death, and the abnormal response the system had shown recently occupied his mind. He thought it shouldn’t be possible, but…
‘I can’t just dismiss the possibility that something might have happened to his regression ability.’ If that was the case, all their plans would go to ruins. ‘At worst, I might have to kill this bastard!’ Thankfully, the situation didn’t reach the worst-case scenario.
Thud!
“Cough! Kuh!” Ultel breathed in the fresh air as he collapsed onto the ground.
“Well, whatever. I need you in this current situation anyways,” Glen murmured.
‘He still pulled that shit when he needs my help?’ Ultel had an intense urge to slap Glen across the face but suppressed it and bowed his head even lower.
“Please tell me if you need anything.”
“I am going to use all my power-ups now.”
“Sorry?” Ultel blurted out loud and looked up to see Glen. However, when he saw Glen’s eyebrows wiggle, he quickly bowed his head again.
“You have to use those power-ups step by step, Master! Or the side effects will be too serious!” Ultel cried. He thought inside his mind, ‘Stop being so obstinate, you fucking trash! Shouldn’t you know best what happens if you use them rashly!’
Glen Zenard’s natural talents were truthfully not that great—no, it was very lacking to put it lightly. In terms of talent, he couldn’t compare to Hans and was lacking compared to even ordinary knights. The only way Glen became the leader of a party of heroes that eventually defeated Zich Moore (who could be said to have been born with the best talents) was thanks to the inheritance left from the Clowon Empire.
Thanks to this inheritance, Glen could raise his innately low mana and increase his physical abilities as well. Moreover, he used the experience and swordsmanship that he earned through countless regression. With all these factors combined, he became skilled enough to be called a hero with no faults. However, even then, he couldn’t catch up to Zich.
No matter how great Clowon’s ruins were, there was a limit. Since he was forcibly injecting strength that he wasn’t innately born with, he needed to take extreme caution. Glen needed to slowly increase his strength over time to cause not burden his body too much. However, Glen was saying that he was going to ignore all these precautions.
‘Doesn’t he know how many times his body burst because he got too impatient and recklessly absorbed more power to get stronger faster!’ Ultel knew this from Lyla’s memory, so he clicked his tongue and insulted Glen in his mind. He also mocked Glen for his lack of talent as a bonus.
“Ultel.”
“Yes, sir!”
“I said I’m going to do it.”
Ultel knew that Glen was going to be too stubborn to listen to him. Ultel had no choice but to agree in the end. “…I understand. I’ll make the necessary preparations.”
‘But even then, he won’t die right away, right?’ Since Glen had previous experience from his regressions, and he had absorbed a lot of power already, there was a low possibility that his body would suddenly burst and his regression ability would be activated like in the beginning.
‘Even so, there would be a significant burden on his body.’ However, Ultel already stopped thinking too much about this. The one who would be in pain was that hero idiot anyway. There was something much more important to Ultel than Glen’s condition—he needed to gain information about why the system was behaving strangely.
‘It might also be related to why this idiot is suddenly throwing a tantrum.’ With extreme caution, Ultel carefully talked to Glen to fish out information about the system. Fortunately, or because Ultel spoke carefully, Glen didn’t begin throwing a tantrum again. He just still looked annoyed.
They exchanged a short conversation and Glen looked at Ultel and coldly said, “Prepare all the power-ups in a few days.”
“Yes, sir!”
Glen left Ultel and began going down the mountain. ‘Yeah! I need power right now!’
Glen gritted his teeth as he saw Pialu’s city walls completely intact, which stood as evidence of his failure. ‘I can’t let Zich Moore steal any more of my possessions!’ Zich stole Lubella, Leona, Elena, and even Lara. Moreover, Zich was even looting his honor and fame. ‘I’ll never forgive him!’
However, there was also another reason why Glen wanted to immediately gain strength. However, Glen thoroughly ignored this reason and desperately suppressed any thoughts that arose in his mind. In many timelines, Estellade had always been his. It was to the extent that Estellade probably spent the most time with him, and the reason why he was called the Sun Hero was all because of Estellade. However, he wasn’t able to lift Estellade this time. Why?
‘Perhaps…’ He quickly suppressed this thought and erased it from his mind. However, he couldn’t erase his emotions. Every time this thought popped into his head, his heart felt heavy and stuffy. If he described it with one word, he definitely felt terror.
However, Glen strongly shook his head. He continuously erased all bad thoughts that crept into his mind and anxiously walked forward. He couldn’t even bear to think of it.
* * *
“…He left.” Even after Glen disappeared, Ultel had his head lowered for a while before he finally got up. His subordinate moved next to him.
“Sir, are you all right?”
“That bastard! He’s talentless and his personality sucks ass!” Ultel spat on the ground.
“When our plan is fulfilled, let’s give him all the pain that this world can offer and kill him.”
“No! That guy is mine.” Ultel had no intentions to give such a sweet moment to his subordinate. “Anyway, it’s good that I went to meet him. He’s a lot angrier than what I was reported.”
“Sir, did something like this happen many times?”
“No.” After they garnered a lot of information and systematically structured their conspiracies, there had never been a timeline with so many unexpected variables.
“Then, sir, what might be the reason?”
“Well, there’s one guy who’s often related to variables.” Ultel coldly said his name: “Zich Moore.” Ultel recalled the time when he saw Zich’s statue in Violuwin; as expected of a hero from the original timeline, he was able to achieve such a great feat in a short amount of time.
‘Did variables appear after he met up with the Core and began traveling with her? It’s really troublesome if he became a variable out of everyone else.’ Ultel was one of the many people who knew how headache-inducing it was to have someone so strong like Zich as their enemy. ‘I need to look more into it.’ Ultel led his underlings into the forest and disappeared into the darkness.
* * *
The day when Zich’s companion planned to leave Pialu arrived. Even though they were heroes praised by the city, Zich and his companions quietly left Pialu. When they told the mayor that they were leaving, the mayor tried to prepare a huge farewell celebration, but Zich curtly refused by saying that they already received enough.
“You mean that you’ve already received enough praises as a hero and you’re sick of it, right?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll get goosebumps if I got any more praises.”
Lara blinked her eyes at Zich’s reaction. “Why is he showing that kind of reaction?” Lara cautiously asked Hans, who was standing next to her, and Hans made a bitter smile.
“Sir Zich doesn’t like being called a hero.”
“He’s a strange person.” Wasn’t it an honorable title? Lara couldn’t understand Zich’s reasoning.
“Well, everyone has a different way of thinking of things.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Lara nodded.