The Regression Of A Grand Mercenary

Deep inside the shadows of the Capital—where children starve, mothers are drugged, and bodies vanish into the black market—a faint laugh echoed through the sewers.

There, standing in knee-deep, foul water, a starving boy froze. His sunken eyes met the painted grin of a clown—its smile wide, its face cracked and smeared from time and rot.

“…”

For a moment, neither moved.

To any sane man, such a sight would spell the end. But in that darkness, death itself almost looked like mercy.

Yet, the clown didn’t kill the boy.

Instead, he offered him a choice.

In one hand—a piece of bread. Not ordinary, but glowing faintly, pulsing with demonic energy. Its scent was maddeningly sweet, irresistible to a body that hadn’t eaten in days.

In the other—a knife, its blade jagged and rusted, but sharp enough to draw blood.

“Choose the knife,” the clown said softly, his tone almost gentle. “And you may claim as many loaves as your hands can steal.”

He raised the bread. “Or choose this… and you’ll never know hunger again.”

The boy hesitated, trembling. “H-how can that be? How can one piece of bread make me full forever?”

The clown’s painted smile softened—almost kind. “It can,” he whispered. “I promise.”

That promise broke what little will the child had left. His mind clouded by hunger, he reached for the bread and bit into it with shaking hands.

For the first time in days, he smiled.

And then—he collapsed.

The water rippled around his lifeless body, his face frozen in relief.

The clown crouched beside him, sighing quietly. “Another failure…”

He brushed the boy’s hair aside, almost tenderly, before lifting the corpse and adding it to a pile of others stacked along the tunnel wall.

“Hopeless,” he murmured. “They all are.”

Because the truth was cruel:

The bread was cursed—crafted by his own hand, infused with the essence of famine.

Those who ate it would live eternally hungry, their bodies turning into flesh-eating husks until they devoured themselves.

The knife, meanwhile, offered survival through sin—murder for sustenance, crime for bread.

Two evils. Two choices.

And yet, the boy had chosen the only peace left in this world—death.

The clown stood there in silence for a long time, the faint sound of dripping water echoing through the tunnels.

Then, in the corner of his eye, he saw another child—this one crouched by the sewer wall, gnawing on something red and soft.

A severed arm.

The clown watched quietly, his painted grin faltering.

“Oh, evil exists everywhere,” he said, voice trembling with something between madness and sorrow. “Especially… among the desperate.”

He walked forward, kneeling beside the boy, and offered him a deal.

“Would you like a choice, too?” he whispered.

And once more, the cycle began.

***

Watching all of that, Velorria was saddened at such tragedy.

Before her very eyes, a black crystal ball was showing that very scene to her. And in the scene…tears begin to swell.

This happens day after day…and no matter what she does on her own personal power, evil is always replaced by another form of evil.

The kingdom does its best to handle this kind of situation…but it is never enough. Whatever they plan to do, a kingdom as large as this…evil will always find a way to slip past any crack of sin.

“How long has this clown been collecting corpses?” she asked a boy who was much younger than her, as he sat across on a small coffee table.

“It’s been a week at least. The guard hounds have been doing their best to capture the demon, but it always slips away before they could take action. Judging by what the hounds have seen, the clown always escape deep into the shadows and from there, they couldn’t track where it goes next. Even to their best tracker, it was impossible.” said the boy who was about 10 years of age. With hair as gray as ash and eyes as green as the grass, his appearance was about as unusual as what any special child with gifts were born with.

This child in particular was born with the gifts of management. A child known for his talents in seeing the biggest and smallest picture of every scene of the problem. One can say that he was a child gifted in critical thinking, capable of looking pass any faults and solving pass any issues.

And to wonder how Velorria was able to adopt such a child of gifts, it was simply thanks to the fact that she regressed back to her past.

The child before her was Edgan, and the people of the slums once called him to dumb-footed edgar because of his disability…which was that he was born with short-leg syndrome. A kind of disability where one leg was shorter than the other, making him somewhat special in another sense.

Yet despite this, Velorria grabbed him away from the slums and took him in because of his bright mind.

Using every advantage she knew from her first life, she would become unstoppable in this life.

‘This isn’t good…at this rate, the more this clown carries more corpses, the stronger he becomes. It won’t be long now before ‘that’ tragedy will occur. And what’s worse is the festival…this demon will surely take advantage of it and take even more victims.’

Thinking this, Edgar couldn’t help but sigh and pass to Velorria a cup of hot tea.

“Please rest assured mother. In time, we will figure out its pattern of escape and trap it. For now, try to relax and prepare for the festival. It won’t be long now before your brothers and sisters will call out to you.” he said.

“Hmm…if only he was here. With his sensitive nose, he can easily track down that demon.” said Velorria under her whisper.

“He? Who are you talking about mother?” asked Edgan.

“…I shouldn’t hide this to you since you are a bright child and soon you will come to know of his name, but know that…this person is very strong and very capable. Even when you think it’s impossible, he can make it possible.” she said.

“Who is this person?” he asked.

“His name is Thill Cicial…” and to the call of his name, Velorria blushed and remembered his face ever so clearly in her mind. For just yesterday, they have met again after so long.

“…Cicial?”

“Hmm, and treat him kindly if you ever meet him my son.” she said as she patted him in the head.

“O-okay…but from the looks of your expression, you seem to be in love with this person.”

“Pffftt!!!” tea begins to spill from her mouth as her adopted son spoke so plainly in front of her.

“Mother?”

“T-There you go again, talking so straightforward-like. I told you to mind your words when talking to topics around relationships and love…”

“But was I wrong?” he asked.

“…!” Velorria was taken aback, and she looked away.

“Although its not my first time seeing an expression that was similar to yours, it is the first time I saw you make that expression.” he said.

“…geez, go back to your room and get dress as well. We’ll be leaving soon for the parade.”

“Okay.” said Edgan with a soft smile.

Having see the boy get up and leave, Velorria sighed again and turned to the black crystal in front of her.

“Now then, lets see what he has been up to since this morning.” she said.

And as she peeked close into the black crystal ball, it showed her the image of this person walking alone in the alleys of the slums.

“Hmm? What’s he doing here?” she asked.

And as she peered deeper into the crystal ball, it was there that she witnessed the sight of that man carrying the head of an already dead clown. With its makeup smeared away from its lips and blood dripping from its mouth, as well as the absence of breathing, the clown was obviously dead.

And seeing it so, Velorria couldn’t help but be taken aback by this kind of development.

In just mere minutes ago, the clown was seen tempting another child to take the bread…but then, now she finds it dead and on the hands of him nonetheless.

As she listened in to the crystal ball, she heard his voice.

“Sigh…I should have taken care of your meddling last night. And fuck, there’s about two dozen corpses already.” having stared at the pile of corpses, he couldn’t help but look guilty. For those faces reminded him of his past sins.

Still, he killed the clown and with that, he avoided a tragedy that would have risen to unrestricted heights.

“Still, with this taken care of, this minimizes the risk of the parade’s dangers.” seeing it settled, he turned his eye to a certain direction and spoke again.

“I’m sure your watching me right now Vel…Since you were already dealing with this clown in the first place, I’m leaving the rest of his mess in your hands.” he said to the air.

“…” and Velorria…having hear him call out to her in such a cute nickname, she couldn’t help but blush even more.

As if the two were staring at one another face to face, one party simply couldn’t help but look away out of embarrassment.

but in her abilities…she spoke.

“Okay…I’ll deal with it.” she said.

And to her words, the crystal ball was able to manifest her words out to the person on the other side.

“…As I thought, your using another piece of ancient artifact. Is it the Eye of the Wandering Fairy King?” he asked.

“Hmm…you don’t have to worry Thill, I’m not doing anything bad as of this moment.” she said.

“Whatever you plan to do…whatever it is, try not to drag me into it.” he said in a coarse…almost dragonic voice.

With the clown dead, this man left the alleys and vanished into thin air.

“…I’ll try, but it’ll be impossible either way. Whatever the king has planned for this festival, it will inevitably involve you…no matter the case.” she said.

And to this exchange, the crystal ball was turned off and she looked relieved.

“Hmm, he looks cute as ever.” she said.

***

The artifact she used…the Eye of the Wandering Fairy King, for her to be able to claim such an artifact, she must have spent a lot of resources to raid the fairy king’s dungeon.

To think that she would monopolize her knowledge of the past to this extent…what is she planning?

Even to me, although I know many artifacts around the world…I don’t intend to claim them. Because if I did, it’ll probably disrupt the flow of the original timeline of my knowledge.

Certain adventurers won’t be able to claim certain artifacts if I claimed them first…and it’ll change certain aspects of history.

My talents alone are enough to survive in this world and protect my family.

But for Velorria to take action and deliberately take these artifacts…she clearly has a plot lined up.

And although the eye of the wandering fairy king did belong to the Goldensun Kingdom, it only happened a few years after…but now that she has a claim for it, she will have a clear advantage of anything. Especially information.

The Eye of the Wandering Fairy King has a special ability that almost makes it God-like.

The ability to see into things that are far away…

An artifact that peers into the wants and needs of the user. No matter where and no matter how deep…as long as it is within the domain of the fairy king’s.

With it, people can easily spy on other people…and what’s even more effective of this artifact is the fact that it can communicate to the said person who they are spying of at that moment.

Its one of the greatest communication artifacts known to man.

The only downside is that…once it is used on certain masters, they can easily determine that they are being spied upon. I know, because it was used on me many times by the guard hounds to track me down.

One of the counters to the artifact is to use a concealing spell formed by magic, but that is only temporary.

Another way is escaping the domain of the fairy king…but that in of itself is almost impossible since his domain covers almost every inch of the world. The only way to escape his eyes is to escape the domain of humanity…to reach near god-hood.

“…”

What should I do?

And other than this certain artifact…its also possible that she has other artifacts as well in play. I don’t know how long it has been for her since she was put to the same regression as me, but…knowing her talents, she can be capable of almost anything.

So I have to be careful.

Whatever this festival have in store for me…I need to be careful.

Because it isn’t just her that I have to be aware of…but also the king.