Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Defying the Flow

My mind feels hazy. Yet paradoxically, my thoughts are perfectly clear.

“Haha... Yeah, you want to die? No, wait, I should take you hostage? No, but killing you might be...”

I don’t know what the other guy is rambling about. All I can feel is the heavy sword gripped in my hand.

I can feel my heartbeat. I can also feel the mana channels that never existed in my previous life.

Blood is flowing. Life is draining away. But don’t rush. Stay calm.

“Whew... Haa...”

Exhale. Steady your breathing. Organize your thoughts. Swinging a sword isn’t everything. Who should the tip of your blade be pointed at?

I ask myself, and I answer. The questions and answers continue.

In that fleeting instant, thought moves faster still, enough for thousands upon thousands of exchanges.

What do you want to do?

“I...”

A sword swings toward me. A sharp blade wrapped in sword aura. How do you deal with something sharp? Meet flat with flat and gently divert it away.

“I want to become someone important.”

Unlike my previous life, when I struggled just to get through each day, this time I wanted to become someone who meant a little more.

What did you do for that?

“I...”

The sword thrusts straight toward me. To deflect it, I have to block it first, but sword aura will punch straight through. My body is too damaged to dodge properly. Then what do I do?

I move the mana in my body. I pour it into my sword, filling the empty spaces of the blade with mana. And I block. The sword aura is still piercing through, but I can hold long enough to redirect it. And finally, I do.

“I stayed beside the protagonist.”

With the greedy hope that it might make me special too, I showed Rose what made me different and told her what I knew.

Were your feelings for Rose a lie?

“I...”

The sword keeps thrusting at me. But the bleeding from my back makes my body sluggish. So I reinforce myself with mana on the spot, more thoroughly than ever before. I forcibly stop the bleeding from my back and move through the pain.

I dodge, redirect the attacks, and look for an opening.

“I was happy being with Rose. I was honored to be her friend.”

I understood why she was a romance-fantasy heroine. She was always bright, always approached people without hesitation, and I felt warmth from her. She gave warmth to someone like me, whose previous life had been nothing but loneliness.

But can you catch up to Rose?

“I...”

I can see the path of his sword. His realm is higher, and his swordsmanship is refined. But the drug has clouded his judgment, and his injuries have weakened his skill.

So I slip into an opening. Not one large enough to thrust my sword through. But if I twist my body, I can ram into him and knock him away.

“I can’t catch up to her.”

She is the protagonist of a romance fantasy. A possessor of overwhelming talent. Someone loved by the world. No one will ever truly catch up to her.

Then are you going to give up?

“I won’t!”

He rises again. His sword glows even more ominously, while the crimson light in his eyes burns brighter. He’s lost to his emotions and gone berserk.

“I won’t give up.”

Being with my friend was fun. Training together was fun. Telling her stories and sharing my knowledge was fun. She was my true friend. How could I possibly give up on a friend like that?

Then can you remain at her side?

“I...”

His sword begins to burn. A fragment of Stage 5. Unstable, but still destructive enough that I can’t block it as I am now. If I try, it’ll break through and cut me down. I can’t stay like this.

“I can stay by her side.”

I had been thinking about it all wrong. I thought I was baggage, that I couldn’t catch up to her and couldn’t become special, that I should only watch her from afar.

But I was wrong.

Light ripples. I weave and weave mana with the needle called will, forming a membrane over my sword.

I was already special. I had already found my fortuitous encounter.

The light climbs the blade. It wraps around it, becomes one with it, and fills it.

How could a reincarnator not be special? How could someone who knows even a little about the original story and understands the clichés of this world not be special? And how could the original heroine herself not be a fortuitous encounter?

I pull the crudely mana-covered sword toward my chest and grip it with both hands. I close my eyes, then open them with my will gathered inside.

I have grown stronger by following the heroine of a romance fantasy. I probably won’t catch up to her. But I can stand beside her.

It is a moonlit night. Moonlight shines down upon us, yet an even greater light illuminates the surroundings.

“I am Henry Green, and I am Lee Heejin.”

I pull the sword back, lower my stance, and hold the blade beside me. The energy surrounding it is no longer crude. My sword aura is complete.

“Therefore, I too am another protagonist, and I shall remain Rose’s eternal friend.”

Then I’ll ask again. What do I want?

“I’m human, so I have no grand cause. I’m selfish. I want peace in the future, I want to profit from it, and I want to be happier than everyone else.”

Then what should I do?

I see the man charging toward me to cut me down. Evil coming to kill me, to kill the me who died in the original story, to bring sorrow to Rose.

“I have to survive.”

The light flickers. But that flicker is only so it can shine even brighter.

My body surges forward and my sword swings. Like moonlight cutting through darkness, my blade cleaves straight through the night.

Light spreads outward, splitting the villain’s body in two. I slowly straighten and look up at the sky. The cloudless heavens pour moonlight down on me like a spotlight.

But ending it there would be a shame, so I raise my sword and point it toward the sky.

“Keep watching. I’m going to show you something amazing.”

I have no idea who I was speaking to, but with those words, my consciousness sank into darkness.

***

“I salute you.”

The Mercenary King slowly approached the fallen Henry.

A young body. A body without proper training. A body that had never consumed proper elixirs.

With that body, he broke through Stage 3 and reached Stage 4 in the shortest time imaginable. It was an impossible feat.

The Mercenary King knelt solemnly beside him and spoke as though whispering.

“So I’ll tell you honestly while you can’t hear me. You have no talent.”

From the Mercenary King’s perspective, Henry had no talent. This wasn’t a comparison with Rose, who overflowed with talent. He truly had none.

From the first time he saw him, Henry had been utterly ordinary, nothing more than a commoner.

And that was why the Mercenary King had watched him even more closely. With ordinary talent, he had forcibly chased after the goal called Rose. A tiny bird trying to follow a stork.

Calling it hidden talent or some reincarnator bonus, as Henry liked to put it, would be an insult to the magnitude of his effort.

So the Mercenary King chose to call it this instead.

“What you accomplished is a feat even the gods could never have predicted.”

A talentless person had caught up to talent through sheer will. He had created a miracle.

“Just as you said, you are a protagonist.”

To this man, respect and blessing.

The blood that had been spilling from his wounds was already gone. His breathing and pulse were completely normal.

“But your feat would draw far too much jealousy and attention.”

No matter how famous the Mercenary King’s name was, even he couldn’t block every storm that would descend upon the young lady and the boy because of what they had achieved.

But he could still praise what Henry had done.

“I promised to keep your secret. I never promised to lie.”

And so the Mercenary King thought.

‘A remarkable boy who held off a Stage 4 bandit trying to slaughter the villagers! What a magnificent accomplishment.’

He also made a vow. If, someday, a noble tried to oppress Henry solely because he was a commoner, then in the name of the Mercenary King, he would destroy that noble’s entire house.

***

A familiar ceiling. Did I die? Don’t tell me this is a time-loop story? No way.

When I sat up, Rose was sprawled asleep near my legs.

And leaning beside the door was a familiar male lead.

“The corpse got up?”

“My body’s too healthy to be a corpse.”

“Rose was really worried about you.”

“Looks like it. How long was I unconscious?”

“Two days. Don’t worry, it wasn’t that long.”

“Two days is long.”

“...I was worried.”

“Hah, hearing you say that is touching. Until a few days ago, you acted like you wanted to bite my head off.”

“I thought you were invading my territory. But now we’re friends, aren’t we?”

Friends. Hearing a romance-fantasy male lead call me a friend feels oddly strange.

“Right, friends. So what happened while I was unconscious?”

“A lot, actually.”

Apparently, the bandit subjugation itself ended quickly and easily. The problem was that the Mercenary King had vanished, so people were sent to search for him, and they eventually found him at this orphanage.

After confirming that I was stable, the Mercenary King went straight to the lord first thing in the morning.

“I’ve never seen Grandfather that serious before.”

“That serious?”

“Absolutely. He said very seriously that thanks to you, the village suffered no casualties.”

“Really? That actually feels nice. So what did the lord say?”

“He listened seriously and said he’d tell the villagers about what you did. He also wanted to give you a reward, but Grandfather said it was his mistake, so he would pay it himself.”

Eril shook his head.

“But the lord looked like he was planning to give you something separately, or donate it to the orphanage in your name.”

“That’s honestly embarrassing. I didn’t do it for money.”

“Ahem. Deeds should be rewarded. And I know this sounds strange, but I’m grateful too.”

“For what?”

“That bastard killed a lot of knights and mercenaries while escaping. And if you hadn’t been there, innocent people would’ve died too. You avenged them and protected the innocent. Thanks for preserving our honor.”

“Don’t say embarrassing things like that. So what about Rose?”

“Rose...”

Eril looked at Rose and shook his head.

“She must’ve overheard that you collapsed. I heard something drop, went outside, and she was already sprinting toward you at ridiculous speed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be.”

“Huh?”

“She cried all day before falling asleep. Anyway, I’m going to report to Grandfather.”

“See you later.”

“Yeah. I’m glad you’re okay.”

After Eril left, only Rose and I remained in the room. I stared quietly out the window, then reached out and gently stroked her hair.

“I’m sorry. Really.”

I don’t know how long I sat there like that, but Rose slowly raised herself.

“Henry...?”

“Good morning, Rose.”

“Henry... Henry!”

Tears welled in Rose’s eyes, then she immediately threw her arms around me and sobbed.

“Don’t hurt... don’t get hurt...”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t even apologize... I was stronger. I should’ve protected you.”

“I got stronger too, you know?”

“Be quiet. And Henry.”

After crying enough to completely soak my clothes, Rose pulled back to look at my face and smiled brightly in relief.

“Yeah, Rose.”

“Thank you... for staying alive.”

“You’re welcome.”

“From now on, I’m always going to stay by your side.”

With those words, Rose planted a quick kiss on my cheek.

Ugh, how embarrassing.