* * *
This regression was strange in many ways.
Normally, whenever it was clear that he had failed, or when Kim Minsoo willingly gave up, he would regress immediately.
The timing had always been the same.
It would reset to the moment Kim Minsoo first possessed Karon Luavis’s body.
But this time, the regression hadn’t happened right away.
Instead, the ancient gods, displeased with his repeated failures, had imprisoned his soul for what felt like an eternity.
The prison was too luxurious to be called a cell.
In there, anything he wished for came true.
If he thought of food, it appeared.
If he imagined a landscape, it manifested before him.
Yet, he could not leave.
If he tried to move forward, an invisible wall blocked his path.
At first, Kim Minsoo thought it was just another one of the gods’ whims.
But as time dragged on, he realized something was eroding within him in that strange place where time did not move unless he willed it to.
He had no way of knowing how long he had been trapped.
Then, one day, the prison doors suddenly opened.
The figure standing before him was not Noah, but a sharp-eyed ancient god with deep blue hair—Poseon, the ruler of the seas.
Following Poseon, Kim Minsoo met ancient gods he had never encountered before.
As always, they offered no explanations.
But it didn’t matter.
He already knew what he had to do.
Stop the Demon King’s resurrection.
The only way left was to kill Raizen Pantheon without leaving any loose ends.
As he reaffirmed his goal and opened his eyes, he found himself back in a world that had become all too familiar.
Only, this time, something was different.
He was dry, not soaked from drowning, and he wasn’t at the Luavis estate.
He was a student at the Royal Academy.
‘At first, I thought it was just another regression… Until I realized Sean Kreveta was here too.’
Not only had the point of regression shifted forward, but something else was strange.
The final villain, Raizen Pantheon, was attending the Royal Academy as if nothing was amiss.
At first, Kim Minsoo hadn’t known about this.
His regression and possession had always happened after graduating from the academy.
However, after repeating the world several times, he naturally acquired certain knowledge.
One of those things was that Raizen Pantheon had never once left the duchy before coming of age.
But now, that absolute rule had been broken.
And that wasn’t all—words like Alpha and Omega, concepts that had never existed before, had suddenly appeared.
And finally, at the moment he saw Sean Kreveta alive and well, Kim Minsoo realized—
‘This isn’t just a regression.’
It was a reset.
Or perhaps, time in this world had been rewound much further back than when he had first possessed this body.
And, strictly speaking, he had been isolated in a prison of souls before possessing Karon Luavis’s body at an earlier point than before.
‘But I never expected him to be a possessor too.’
At first, he had thought of him as just another irritating variable.
An intriguing one, perhaps, but Kim Minsoo was too worn out to recklessly place his hopes in anything.
Knock, knock.
Before Kim Minsoo could even turn his head, Margaret had already risen from her seat.
She exchanged a few words with the visitor at the door before approaching him.
“Young Master, His Grace is calling for you.”
“……Is that so?”
Kim Minsoo smiled softly. It was a dry smile, completely devoid of sincerity, yet outwardly flawless.
A perfect mask he had crafted after going through multiple regressions, a skill he had honed after being dragged into this world with no prior knowledge.
‘He probably wants to ask about what happened in the Pantheon Duchy.’
Duke Luavis was a troublesome man—one who always wanted more than what he was given. He didn’t even have the patience to wait for it.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have started a rebellion while Kim Minsoo was off subjugating the Demon King as a so-called hero.
At that time, he had briefly believed the man to be a father—only to hate himself for ever entertaining that foolish thought.
Moreover, Duke Luavis was paradoxically both incredibly foolish and disturbingly sharp.
And with his status and power, simply getting rid of him wasn’t an option.
The only way to handle him was to use him as much as possible before discarding him.
He had considered dark magic—brainwashing, even.
But a restriction prevented him from using black magic himself.
So he had taken a different approach.
He might not be able to wield it, but he could control those who did.
Conveniently, beneath Duke Luavis were dark mages who still considered themselves subjects of the fallen Roite Kingdom.
Kim Minsoo rose from his seat and stepped out of the room.
As he walked through the hallway, the servants lowered their heads in unison.
Unlike before, their gazes no longer held disdain or indifference.
Instead, there was curiosity, admiration, and a belated realization that aligning with him might improve their lives.
Margaret, following closely behind him, glared at them sharply, lifting her chin as if she were the center of their attention.
In contrast, Kim Minsoo’s face remained utterly indifferent.
No—perhaps there was even a faint trace of contempt.
Humans were more foolish and easily swayed than they liked to believe.
One day, they would hail him as a hero, only to turn around and call him the spawn of a demon the next.
They had said he was no different from Raizen Pantheon, the one who had resurrected the Demon King.
‘I should have killed the one who said that back then…’
But in the end, that incident had taught him something crucial.
People were weak to what they could see and believed whatever they wanted to believe.
If he just provided them with a bit of the illusion they craved, they would worship him like a god.
That was why, despite the inconvenience, he had started playing the role of the perfect heir.
Unaware that, in doing so, he had begun to resemble Raizen Pantheon more than he realized.
∗ ∗ ∗
[Spread it wider!]
I’m going to die.
“Seriously, I’m sorry, but can’t I rest for just a bit—”
[No!]
The tiny fluffball barked out its refusal with surprising fierceness.
It looked like it would dissolve if I poured water on it, yet when it came to training, it was even harsher on me than Noah.
“My heart really hurts, okay? I think something bad’s gonna happen to me if I keep going.”
[It won’t.]
God, I miss Noah.
[You practiced a lot when you were giving me divine power! You know you can’t draw out too much at once!]
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
[Spread it as much as you can! You said you wanted to control shields!]
‘Right…’
Back then, I had no idea it would be this hard.
The funny thing was, even as I complained, my body was still obediently following orders.
Just as I had infused divine power into the Divine Beast’s egg, I carefully extracted a thin layer of divine power and spread it out before me.
Calling it “spreading” was an exaggeration.
It was more like drawing a large rectangle and filling it with divine energy.
“Haa, huff….”
The sharp pain in my heart subsided, but breathing became increasingly difficult.
I could feel cold sweat forming on my forehead.
[Now solidify it! Make it firm! Hold on!]
“Argh…!”
A strange sound escaped from my lips.
This was on a whole different level from simply pouring out energy.
Maintaining divine power outside my body required far more effort than I had expected.
‘No wonder I couldn’t do it alone!’
I wasn’t sure if I should be happy about my progress or not.
Fighting off the urge to let go, I forced myself to focus again.
‘Harden it. I have to solidify it.’
I recalled the shield the Divine Beast had deployed when it saved me.
I couldn’t reach that level yet, but I had to aim high if I wanted to get anywhere close.
Suddenly, I felt as if all the blood in my body had dried up.
Then, before my eyes, the thin, barely-there layer of divine power began to harden.
“Haa…!!”
But that was as far as I got.
The moment I realized it had worked, the divine power cut off completely.
My exhausted body collapsed onto the floor.
‘This is seriously brutal…’
Other than exhaustion, I had no thoughts left in my head.
I lay sprawled on the ground when something soft, warm, and fluffy plopped onto my chest.
[You did great! You did great! ■■!]
“……? Wait, what did you just call me?”
I had definitely heard something. But I couldn’t understand it.
Even so, I instinctively knew—
The name the Divine Beast had just called me was the name I had long forgotten.
* * *
