The Regression Of A Grand Mercenary - 19 - Amelia Daklis!?

Back in the past, there were times of war where anyone who was willing to participate were paid in righteous amounts.

From adventurers to mercenaries, anyone with the skill could join. And among those many who did, I was one of them. It was before I attained the book of the Tempest Blades of the Gale.

In that moment, I was nothing more than a warrior with no recognizable skill. Just a lowly mercenary on my own.

As I joined this event, the kingdom came face to face with the enemy known as the Umbravor Empire. A empire-like country of species filled with demons united under one colossal, ancient evil ruler with the goal of overtaking the continent after continent.

With an army of all sorts of demonic species, the kingdom was hell-bent on wiping them off from their territory.

Against the Kingdom versus the Umbravor Empire, they named this war the Holy Grand War with how the main use of weapon against the enemy was holy magic.

And at the leading front of the war was none other than Amelia Dakles herself who charged up-front with her holiest powers.

She alone could wipe out an entire battalion, and through her efforts, she won the war, but lost a lot of men in return.

Over half of the followers capable of using holy magic from the church were killed in the war, but that didn’t stop Amelia from ever achieving something more greater than the victory against the demons. What she did next was something way beyond the means of a normal person.

Out of hidden means, she became a true heavenly angel that took the life of the Emperor himself of the Umbravor Empire. By losing her identity as a mortal, she gained the strength to vanquish a true demonic ruler.

No one knows how she attained such a divinity, but all that was certain was the fact that after killing the emperor, she was said to have ascended into the heavens. After that, no one was able to see her ever again.

Now, if I remembered correctly, the great holy demonic war started when I was around 23 years old. Meaning five years from now, a war will start to invade the kingdom.

Now, the question lies with the fact that she was here in our village.

‘What is she doing here?’ I asked myself.

“Hello? I’m sorry if I’m being a bother, but can you please point me to where the church is?” she asked.

“R-right, it’s just near the village center. You can’t miss it.” I said.

“I see…but umm, would you mind if you take me there?”

“What? But the village center is just over there…the church isn’t really that difficult to find once you’re standing there.”

“R-right…” feeling hesitant, she made her way to the village center…

But five minutes later, she found herself back to my doorstep.

“…Umm, hello can you please tell me where the church is?” she asked.

And this time, the person who she was asking was my sister, Theresa.

‘Don’t tell me she’s actually bad with directions, right?’ as I thought this, I could hear Theresa giving instructions on where the church was. It was the same kind of information I gave her.

But to her own folly, she somehow made it back to our home yet again in just the exact amount of time.

‘This is the second time…my god. She really is bad with directions.’

Feeling a bit worried of her, I decided to help her out.

For some reason, she always makes it back to our front doorstep.

With three knocks on our door, I opened it and came to meet her again.

“Hello again, please forgive me for this disturbance, but if you could, can you kindly guide me to the church?”

“…are you bad with directions?” I asked.

“Hahaha…no, It’s not as bad as you’d think. For me, it just takes a while to get used to new places. Because of sister Eclaire’s passing, I was tasked by the church to guide this village in its path to proper education.” she said as she smiled quite softly to me.

“…Hmm, okay. I’ll take you to the church.”

As I took a step outside, I noticed the luggage she was carrying and how red her hands were from carrying it all day.

“Would you like me to carry your luggage?” I asked as I offered a kind gesture.

“Hmm? Oh thank you…I really appreciate it.” she happily accepted my gesture.

And once I took her luggage, I quickly noticed the weight of it.

‘…it’s heavy.’

Around probably 35kgs at most.

This much is like carrying a sack of rice and she’s been carrying it since before. She must be crazy strong to not look so discomforted by the weight of it.

As we walked to the village center, i started observing her up close.

“…”

“The village is really beautiful. Not only do the gardens put an aesthetic to the beauty of this village, but I can tell that the people here are kind.” she said.

“Well, unlike the city, the village is not so problematic. We don’t have bandits waiting by the alleys or scum loitering around, waiting for an opportunity to attack. it’s a policy here to always keep the streets safe enough for even the children to play by themselves.”

“How does the village manage ruffians?” she asked.

“Well, since our numbers aren’t as big as the city, most of the people here know each other by name. And if we see something that’ll possibly cause a commotion, we can quickly take action by sending a report to the elder directly. It won’t be long before the elder gives an order and we take care of an issue.” I explained.

“I see, that’s quite a wonderful system.”

“Well, it has it’s appeals. But in times when certain issues that are too much for the elders to handle, pop up, say for example, a sudden rise of diseases caused by a plague, we simply follow suite by the orders of a higher authority.”

“I see.”

“No place is ever a perfect paradise. I mean, despite the beauty brought upon by this village, every two months, a storm comes by and hinders the people’s work. It’s one of the downsides of this village.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of that. Its such a tragedy that the people here get to experience the storms on a daily basis, but have the people ever thought of wondering why such an event happens? It’s quite unnatural if you ask me.”

“Hmm, true. It may seem unnatural that a storm passes by at exactly two months of an interval, but the people here have grown accustomed to such an event. To us, we see it as a normal day just like any other.” I said.

“I see. It’s fascinating to think that you’re people have learned to adapt against a natural disaster.”

“Yes, I think so too.”

After a while of talking, we finally arrived at the church. As we did, she thank me.

“Thank you for helping me…umm, sorry, where are my manners, I never even got to know your name.” she said as she expressed embarrassment.

“Ah right, Thill, my name is Thill.”

“And my name is Emily, I really do appreciate the help you’ve given me. I hope I didn’t caused you any trouble.”

‘Emily?!…Why Emily? Why is she hiding her name from me as of now?’ a lot of questions came to my mind as I was bewildered by such a lie.

I couldn’t help but wonder…

“N-no, it was no trouble at all. If anything, I simply helped because my sister is actually going to attend your lessons as well.”

“Is that so? If that’s the case, then I will surely give it my all in teaching the kids.”

“I do appreciate that. Now, I don’t want to hinder anymore of your time, I’ll be going now.”

I quickly made my escape once I learned about her lie.

I had to gather my thoughts.

Why did she lie about her name?

And more to that point, why is she here?

I don’t know much about Amelia’s history even then from the past, but I know that she takes pride on her own identity as Amelia Dakles.

To lead an army while shouting her name in the front lines, is nothing but a show of pride and authority.

It might be possible that the reason she is here is because of the fact that I disrupted the original flow of events. Because I eliminated the bandits before they could raid the village, it may have caused a shift in a different show of events. Maybe it was just the coincidence that she was brought here due to the changes and opportunities brought before her, whatever reason it may be.

And now on the more thrilling question, why is she hiding her name?

Is she hiding her identity?

That’s the only plausible reason that I could think of for her coming her in such a far-away village.

Or is it possible that in my past life, she was never Amelia Dakles to begin with. She might have only used an Alias name, on where she carried it with pride from then on. If so, In time, she might come to raise her holy powers again and she might bring forth the name Amelia Dakles against the demons.

Too many questions are not answered and only one person knows the truth, but I can’t do anything about it…or can I?

‘…Hmm, should I even do something about it?’

Should I just let her live her life as a nun here in the village?

Five years from now, the Great Holy Demonic War will commence with her upfront.

Five years…that’s a lot of time.

“…I can’t act rashly about this. I have a lot of time on my hand, so if possible, I  need to keep this slow and steady.”

Having decided this, I made my way back home.

***

Unlike yesterday, today we started early.

Despite the fact that I didn’t have a wink of sleep, I can still do work throughout the day and without so much of a tired expression.

I’ve lived this life over and over again in the past. With how in battle, we barely ever get the perfect rest before knowing that in the next minute, we are pushed again to the front lines.

As I arrived at the lot, already I could see them preparing themselves for the work.

And out of many of them, Andel was also there with his axe, where he was already ahead of everyone else.

“…How long has he been at it?” I asked one of the mercenaries.

“It’s been an hour since he’s been cutting down the trees. The tree he’s cutting now should be the tenth one.” they said as they looked quite bewildered by the sight of his prowess.

Not only was his pure core more efficiently used, I can tell that he had improved in using the axe by around 10 percent. It was a show of great progress.

Soon enough, we’ll probably end this job earlier than expected.

‘Hmm, it’ll probably take us two days before we finally clear away this area.’ I thought.

Knowing that, I started chopping down tree by tree in the same rate as yesterday.

Each tree I cut down, I lifted it up by myself and gathered it with the rest of the pile.

Each tree was heavy…heavy even for ten men lifting it up on their own, but with the proper use of my own pure core, I can manage.

“I can’t believe he’s done all of this on his own…not even Andel himself can lift the tree.”

“Yeah, who do you think he is to have this kind of strength?”

“It might be possible that he’s a knight in training. I mean, look at him, he’s younger than most of us, that could only be the reason why he’s so strong. He might be training to become a knight.”

“Really? But I heard that he’s just a blacksmith.”

“A blacksmith? Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, I heard it from the old man himself.”

“If that is the case, then how do you think he got to grow to use a pure core with just being a blacksmith?”

“Hey its not impossible. I know a few blacksmiths who have their own pure cores developed. They said that with a pure core, it makes it easier to create swords that have materials from harder elements.”

“Oh, now that you say it like that, that makes sense.”

As others were chatting about on their break, I rested by myself on one of the fallen trees I cut down.

Hmm, the entire team has been working for hours now and yet we still haven’t encountered a single monster from this forest.

It was strange to think about, but this forest is abundant with monsters.

It should have been normal to encounter three to a dozen monsters by now, yet we still haven’t encountered one yet.

I’m starting to get worried.

Feeling a bit of worry, I approached Andel to get his opinion.

“Andel, what do you think about the situation?” I asked.

“Situation? What situation?” he asked.

“The fact that we still have yet to encounter a monster here in the forest. I have lived in this village all my life and I know for a fact that monsters are common in this parts.”

“Hmm, maybe they feel threatened by our presences. I mean, it’s pretty common for monsters to move out when humans try to invade. It’s only their instincts to move away from larger invaders like us.” said Andel.

“That may work on smaller animals, but the abundant monsters here aren’t actually as small as you think they are.”

“Hmm…when there’s a large group of people clearing out a forest. It’s probably the noise or the scent that’s keeping them away,” Andel replied, hefting his axe over his shoulder.

“True, but even the more territorial monsters would usually come around by now,” I noted. “If not to attack, at least to see what we’re doing here.”

Andel shrugged, his focus more on the work ahead than on any potential danger. “Well, let’s just take advantage of it. No monsters means we can work faster. Less hassle, right?”

“Maybe. But keep your guard up,” I cautioned, scanning the treeline. “Something feels… off.”

As I resumed my work, the uneasy feeling persisted, creeping up my spine with each swing of my axe. I couldn’t shake the thought that perhaps something was afoot.

The forest may have been quiet, but I knew better than to ignore silence.

***

Unbeknownst to Thill, something was causing the disorder of the forest.

For out from the very highest points of the clouds, a certain winged beast was flying over. With its gray scales shining against the sun’s light and its red eyes gleaming under the pretense of finding prey, the very presence it brings was causing every form of animal and monster’s instinct to move away.

Danger was before them, and nothing could stop its colossal arrival.