The Hero’s Disciple Has Returned

I was a mercenary who had gained quite a reputation. Without even realizing it, I had earned the grand nickname “Jade of Steel.” That’s how I was able to reach the rather high position of A-rank mercenary. Normally, one would aim for S-rank, the pinnacle of the mercenary world… but I retired.

I didn’t particularly want to reach a high position. I just hated being powerless. I hated being weak. But that doesn’t mean I wanted to be the strongest. It was enough to be just reasonably strong. In fact, by my standards, it was strange that I didn’t retire at B-rank. After all, B-rank was already considered reasonably strong. But when it came time to quit, I found it difficult because of the relationships I had formed with certain people….

In the end, I retired when most of those people either died or retired themselves.

It was during the time I was living in seclusion, having moved to an area where people rarely came.

“Is this really true?”
“Yes, it is.”

An imperial knight came to visit. Usually, knights looked down on mercenaries, but that only applied to those C-rank and below. From B-rank, they were skilled enough to make even knights nervous, and from A-rank, they were at a level where ordinary knights wouldn’t dare to even make eye contact. Moreover, since I had built up quite a win record in real sword fights against knights during my active years, the knight in front of me was maintaining perfect etiquette.

That doesn’t change the fact that it soured my mood, though.

After all, he was an uninvited guest who ruined my daily life of pursuing a quiet existence in retirement and seclusion. Moreover, the content he brought was utterly disgusting.

“So while I’ve been in seclusion, an oracle came down. And now they’re selecting hero candidates and having them become disciples of masters. And I’m included in that?”
“It’s a special order from His Majesty the Emperor.”

In other words, there was no right of refusal. Well, I can understand that. If an oracle came down and its content mentioned a Demon King, even I would have gone to extreme lengths. But still….

“Hey, does that little kid look like a hero candidate to you?”
“…We have confirmed that she is an exceptional talent.”

Despite my question, I didn’t get a proper answer.

‘She’s clearly outside the norm.’

The look in the eyes of the little girl that the knight brought as my disciple and a hero candidate was clearly beyond the line, a look that could never come from an ordinary person. Having taught quite a few clueless youngsters during my mercenary days because I couldn’t stand seeing them die right in front of me, I could tell. This kid had the potential to somehow survive and eventually reach S-rank even if she entered the mercenary world empty-handed and started from scratch. But that doesn’t change the fact that the girl in front of me is just a kid. A child who should be by her parents’ side, receiving more than enough love and care….

It was clear as day that the emperor, terrified by the possibility of being killed by the Demon King, was just gathering any kids who showed potential and pulling this stunt. After gathering too many, they started sending them one by one to those classified as masters, and finally, it came down to me, who was barely at the bottom of the master ranks.

In simple terms, this disgusting story is about a decrepit old bastard who has enjoyed all the power in the world for his entire life, living comfortably, now pulling this stunt by rounding up innocent kids who should be with their parents, all because his own life is precious. It’s truly nauseating.

“What’s your name?”
“…Sera.”
“Sera, that’s a nice name. I’m Jade. From now on, I’ll be your….”

Teacher? Master?

Rather than such expressions….

“Guardian.”

Yes, this is the right expression.

♤♤♤

As I expected, the kid had talent.

A true genius.

It’s not that I’ve become biased towards my disciple just because I’m her teacher. When it comes to teaching mercenaries, or more precisely, training mercenaries not to die, the most important thing is to objectively analyze and evaluate that mercenary’s level. Incorrect analysis and evaluation will only lead to that mercenary’s death on the next battlefield.

And that was no different for this kid. No, since this child might even have to fight the Demon King, I analyzed and evaluated her even more strictly than I did with mercenaries. Even with such strict standards, the fact that this child was a genius didn’t change, which proves her genius.

But even so….

‘…It’s not enough.’

I spent half of my retirement funds, which had been more than enough for a comfortable secluded life, to gather as much information as possible about the Demon King. The information guild guys know that their talk is worth money, so they charged ridiculously high prices, and because the appearance of a Demon King was such a rare event, it was difficult to find materials about it, so I had to spend money. Somehow, I negotiated with the information guild guys, grabbing them by the collar, and gathered and analyzed the most plausible materials I could find….

No matter how much of a genius the kid is….

Defeating the Demon King seemed impossible.

Because the Demon King is literally a monster among monsters that humans cannot handle.

Something that can only be dealt with by far surpassing human limits….

Even an ordinary Sword Master can’t handle it.

With an ordinary human body….

With ordinary methods….

The Demon King absolutely cannot be defeated.

Sera is a genius. I’ve seen many superhumans on the battlefield, but Sera is a genius who doesn’t fall behind those superhumans. But even so, Sera had a limit. The limit of time. According to the oracle, the Demon King and his army will appear in the human world in the not-too-distant future. Until then, the possibility of Sera reaching the realm of superhumans was very low, and a kid who couldn’t even reach the realm of superhumans had no chance of surviving a battle with the Demon King.

“Huff! Huff!”

Today too, Sera swings her sword with all her might. But as her teacher, I know. That there is nothing in this child’s sword. No will to live, no heart dreaming of the future, not even hope for tomorrow. There is nothing in her sword. Not a trace, not an echo. It’s just cold like a blade, sharp and hollow.

A young child shouldn’t have such eyes, shouldn’t swing such a sword.

But even as a teacher, I’m not given enough time to do much for this child. Perhaps in this child’s life, I’ll be just a brief moment, not strange even if I’m considered a light existence that she might later think, “Ah, did I have someone I could call a teacher?” That’s how short the time I have to influence this child is.

‘The fact that the kid can’t be a kid anymore probably means there weren’t any proper adults around her.’

Just as no one despairs because they want to despair, and no one gives up because they want to give up, a kid doesn’t stop being a kid because they want to. It’s just that there was no other way but to become that way. That means there were no proper adults around to protect this kid. And yet, the country slaps on the label of hero candidate and forces such a kid to fight.

‘…What a disgusting story.’

I was living in seclusion, away from the world, because I didn’t want to see this kind of thing again. Or is this punishment from God for trying to be comfortable alone? Whatever it is, the fact that I’ve become this kid’s guardian doesn’t change.

Then I should take responsibility accordingly.

That’s what being an adult means.

Just because the world is full of trash without proper adults, doesn’t mean I don’t have to be a proper adult, right?

After all, I’m this kid’s guardian.

♤♤♤

“From now on, what I’m going to teach you is our family’s secret technique.”

It’s a lie. To begin with, I’m an orphan who lost my parents. I barely remembered my name. In times of chaos, people without family names were common. Usually, when people earned some money, they would buy a family register and attach a plausible family name, but I wasn’t interested in such things. I didn’t think anything would particularly change by doing so. Therefore, the family talk is just a means to deceive this naive kid who doesn’t know the ways of the world. …Saying it like this makes it sound like I’m trying to do something bad to my kid. On the contrary, I’m trying to give her an incredible gift.

“So, drink this and take a short nap, then wake up.”
“…Yes.”

The kid, as always, drank the medicinal brew with sleep-inducing effects that I gave her with an expressionless face and fell asleep. She could do this not because she trusted me. It was because she didn’t care what happened to her.

For this child, reality was probably not much different from hell. Otherwise, there’s no way she could have lost things that should naturally be present in a human being to this extent. I don’t want to know what happened to this child. Even if I knew, there’s nothing I could do for her, and I can’t go back in time to undo the things that happened to her. So I’m just doing what I can for this child. How she uses it is entirely up to her will and discretion.

As an inadequate adult, this is just a story of doing what I can for a child who has been burdened with too much.

♧♧♧

Sera was tired.
Sera was horrified.
Sera had given up.

At first, there was a time when she was passionate, feeling a sense of mission. But after repeating failures in the name of death over and over again…. In the end, nothing was left.

She was a regressor.

She always returned to the moment when she was selected as a hero candidate. No matter how miserably she died, no matter how much betrayal she faced, no matter how big a failure she made…. When she died, she always regressed to that moment when she was selected as a hero candidate. At first, she thought this was a blessing. But only after repeating death and regression so many times that she gave up counting did she realize that this was a curse.

As she gained experience, she came to understand how to become stronger as quickly as possible. Through countless experiences, she fully grasped how to break through the Demon King’s forces. She thoroughly memorized who would betray humanity and side with the Demon King for their own desires.

And yet….

She failed, died, and regressed.

The Demon King

No matter how much experience she accumulated, she couldn’t find a way to defeat that monster. No matter how favorably she set up the situation, no matter how strong she became, no matter how strong companions she gathered…. Everything just became futile in front of the overwhelmingly powerful Demon King. Everything became meaningless.

In the end, she gave up.

If there was any possibility….

‘Unless I have two Aura Hearts in my body, it’s impossible….’

And it couldn’t just be any Aura Heart. It had to be at least an Aura Heart of someone who had reached the ranks of a master, if not the realm of superhumans. But that was nonsense. To reach the ranks of a master means they’ve spent their entire life building up their skills to reach that level. It contains their whole life. Who would give that to a little girl just because she asked?

Of course, she was no longer the pure hero-dreaming child she once was. She was a veteran hero who would use any means necessary to achieve her goal. So she had thought about taking it by force. But she easily realized that an Aura Heart damaged in such a way would only become poison, so she couldn’t even attempt it.

In the end, she had to repeat endless failures and regressions. But no one gave her their Aura Heart. Some beheaded her on the spot, feeling insulted, while others pretended to listen only to use her and then discard her. She just mechanically repeated this hell-like infinite loop. Maybe someday, someone would give her their Aura Heart?

But….

Being human after all, she finally reached her limit.

She started to think that she didn’t care what happened anymore.

Too exhausted, she would now just sleep away her days, dying by burning in the Demon King’s fire or being stabbed by the Demon King’s army’s swords.

She had no motivation left.

Perhaps her true nature showed through, as she, who had always been considered an excellent candidate and entrusted only to superhumans, was now placed under an A-rank mercenary. He was certainly someone who had reached the ranks of masters, but the problem was that he was a mercenary. Sera had experienced countless mercenaries. They were the kind who would do anything for money, calmly betraying humanity and siding with the Demon King’s army. There’s nothing more meaningless than expecting anything from a mercenary. That was the one truth she had learned from experiencing mercenaries until today.

Still, this mercenary called Jade was a bit different. The mercenaries she knew used violence under the name of teaching, just to vent their feelings. But he never used violence on her and always calmly taught her. And within that, she could feel a kindness that hoped his disciple wouldn’t die. Ordinary people might not be able to feel it, but Sera, who had accumulated countless experiences, could easily sense it.

Was it because of that kindness?

She at least pretended in front of him.

To his eyes, it might look like a child following along quite well, but by her standards, it was merely “pretending.” Even that level would be enough to be classified as a genius considering her current apparent age.

For her, this time felt like entertainment she hadn’t experienced in a long time. What kind of end would be waiting for her this time? She was still resigned to everything, to the point of having such thoughts.

Then one day.

Suddenly, Jade brought her an herbal decoction full of sleep-inducing effects. Even a full-grown adult would fall asleep immediately after drinking this. Sera had experienced this countless times. Someone she believed to be a good person turned out to have ulterior motives. That was the tragedy she had experienced the most in her insanely long life of regression. So she wasn’t surprised. At least she thought she would die by the Demon King or the Demon King’s army…. With such thoughts, she drank the decoction. And pretended to fall asleep.

The moment she drank the decoction, she completely detoxified it with her aura. And she pretended to be asleep so perfectly that even someone at the superhuman level wouldn’t be able to notice. No matter how many times she had been backstabbed, pain was still pain. She wanted to know what this man was aiming for, what his ulterior motives were.

“She’s definitely asleep. She looks like a complete angel with this sleeping face. She’s going to break a lot of men’s hearts later.”

For Sera, it was just troublesome. There were times when she had to die because of all sorts of trouble caused by this face. When she thought about the trash who betrayed humanity and joined the Demon King’s army, doing all sorts of crazy things saying they wanted to possess her…. She had even burned her own face with fire a few times. She stopped doing that after realizing through repeated regressions that it caused its own kind of trouble.

“A kid should have a face befitting a kid. Tsk tsk. How incompetent the adults must have been…. Sigh.”

It seemed that putting her to sleep wasn’t because of any dark intentions after all, Sera thought.

At that moment

Sera felt a hot sensation in her lower abdomen.

And at the same time….

“Cough! Urgh! Haa. Haa. Fortunately, it didn’t get on the kid.”

…An unbelievable thing was happening in reality.

She felt a hot sensation in her lower abdomen, and at the same time, Jade coughed up blood.

Sera could easily understand what was happening now with the experience and knowledge she had accumulated through numerous regressions.

‘Jade’s Aura Heart is being transplanted into me….’

For Sera, she was getting what she had tried so hard to obtain but couldn’t, without any effort on her part. That’s why she couldn’t help but be dumbfounded at this unbelievable reality.

“Kid…. This world is disgustingly cruel. I don’t know how many times I had to shed tears of blood and despair. But you still have a long life ahead of you, right? It’s not good to have a face like you’ve already lived your whole life. No, no. That’s something you can do plenty of when you become an adult. A kid should live smiling and full of hope like a kid should.”

The hand that caressed her while saying these words was so soft and warm.

It was

the warmth of a person

that was so warm and gentle and even sweet

that Sera had forgotten for so long.

That’s why she shed tears without even realizing it.

“Oh no. Is she having a nightmare? Cough! Is it because I forced her to sleep with medicine? Should I have done it while she was naturally asleep…? Ugh! Cough!”

Even while coughing up blood, the teacher worried about his disciple, causing her to feel emotions she couldn’t even begin to express.