Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

The Reinhart family—a family settled in the western part of the Kingdom of Liberé, known as a prestigious family with great influence.

‘In the past.’

Not now.

Over the last three generations, the family slowly began their decline.

The number of merchants in their territory decreased, and their exchanges with the surrounding nobles became steadily sparser. Nobles applying to work in their manor as well as the houseguests staying there gradually vanished.

The Reinhart family was now politically isolated.

‘It's true that it’s dying.’

In other words, if they declined any more than they already had, they would collapse from within, leaving only their formerly glorified name behind.

The reason behind their decline may be due to a combination of unfavorable factors, but the biggest reason was related to experiments conducted throughout the past three generations of the family.

‘An experiment to use a Sacred Tree.’

Sacred Trees were special trees.

Just by being in their presences, the surrounding plants grew healthy. They formed a sort of safe zone wherein monsters could not invade. The elves communicated with the Sacred Trees to cultivate the forests around them and produce a huge amount of food, from which they accumulated enormous wealth.

The Reinharts’ estate was close to the Great Forest neighboring the Michellant Mountains.

So.

‘It was a stupid choice.’

Wasn’t it a lie that only elves could communicate with the Sacred Trees?

If they could use the Sacred Trees as they so desired, then why wouldn’t they have acted bolder? Wasn’t it all a trick to monopolize the Sacred Trees?

These questions and desires, which had been accumulating for decades, passed a critical threshold, driving the Reinharts to devise a plan to steal the nearest Sacred Tree—and try to corrupt its power.

They had to have been confident.

They had thought, after observing the elves for hundreds of years—studying them in secret—that it’d be enough.

If their experiment was successful, they would’ve known that they could break out from having to rely heavily on food sourced from the elves. Success was right in front of them, so how could worldly criticism pose a problem?

In fact, if the Reinhart family had succeeded at manipulating a Sacred Tree, they would have achieved both inordinate wealth and power, all at once.

The same goes for the protests and threats from the elves. If the experiment were successful, it was obvious that the Kingdom of Liberé, which would share the benefits, would block the elves’ protests.

The elves wouldn’t be able to wage war with humans for the sake of the survival of their race, so their ancestors’ predictions were ruled to be quite accurate.

‘Yes, if the experiment were successful.’

But it failed.

How could research that arose out of greed succeed?

Many people, including sorceers and researchers who participated in the project, were killed in accidents during the various stages of the experiment, all for the Sacred Tree to be later recovered by elves.

Because all of the leaders who’d planned the exploitation experiment on the Sacred Tree had perished in the process, the elves did not decide to retaliate at the risk of worsening their relationship with humans—however, this was already after the capitol and other nobles had already turned their backs on the family.

Since then, the family’s wealth and influence had gradually begun to decline.

And there must have been other reasons apart from this.

‘But my father is hiding it.’

Allen could figure out exactly what later. However, he couldn’t deny that this incident served as a sign of the beginning of their collapse.

So…

“How should we behave?”

In a way, it was quite natural for the family to have this reaction.

“The elf in question had passed out, leaving only a ‘request for assistance’. He’s currently in a state of emergency and will therefore require about a week to return to consciousness.”

If it was any other family, it wouldn’t have been an event to be taken so seriously.

“How does everyone believe we should respond?”

But, because it was the Reinhart family, the news of an elf’s arrival was an important matter requiring immediate action.

Gaielle’s grave eyes moved towards Allen and Julius. Presently, Allen had moved to the manor’s conference room.

With them, a large Knight Commander stood with his eyes closed, and Gardell, the head butler, stood with his head down.

The nature of the situation was urgent enough that the meeting, unable to be postponed even a minute, proceeded with only a small number of people. 

Allen carefully examined Gaielle’s expression.

‘Did he not know of this beforehand?’

Judging from his father’s reaction and Gaielle’s current attitude, it was possible that he didn't know about this.

‘Does that mean that his insiders don't know everything?’

No, maybe they just didn’t tell his father. Information was more valuable the fewer people knew about it.

‘But wouldn’t you have asked for their assistance in advance under this type of situation?’

If they’d had already told Gaielle, it would have been easier to resolve the situation.

Allen’s lack of information about them made it difficult to gauge how many or how powerful they were.

Even so…

‘There's no problem with me taking the lead in this situation.’

He’d been developing a plan since he’d read about future abilities in the black book a few months ago. The lack of information about them did not throw a wrench in his prearranged plan.

Allen opened his mouth one step ahead of Julius, who was reading a quest blankly.

“First of all, Father, we don’t know anything about the assistance they spoke about.”

‘This used to be Julius’s go-to argument, but…’ 

This time, Allen Reinhart would be the one known to have proposed and insisted on this plan first.

Gaielle’s eyes were set on Allen.

“How is that related?”

“That’s why…”

Allen thought of a few lines that influenced his plan, which made him decide to take action.

「In the Heavenly Forest, there lives a certain god.」

「A god who grants the wishes of, and gives opportunities to, those who come to the forest.」

「Should they pass his reasonable trials.」

‘The god that Julius called the ‘hidden boss’.’

Allen needed that god’s abilities.

“…We must accept their request for assistance.”

That’s why Allen needed to take the initiative in this.

In addition to his hopes of finding his brother’s whereabouts, Allen could trace Julius’s whereabouts without him having a clue.

Furthermore…

“This could be an opportunity for us.”

Doing so could override what Julius did and prevent him from expanding his influence.

‘What did Julius say before?’

Did he say that if you helped them first, that the elves would repay you?

Allen laughed at the fact that, in the end, his argument wasn’t much different from Julius’s.

“…Why do you think that?”

After hearing Allen’s enticing pitch, Gaielle asked Allen about his intentions rather than answering immediately.

“The place where the elves are asking for assistance is towards the edge of our territory, closer to a neutral zone. There may be some danger. Would you like to proceed in spite of that?”

“Yes.”

Gaielle stared at him with a strange look on his face. Allen wouldn’t have been the type to say such nonsense.

Allen laughed bitterly at his reaction.

‘If this had happened before…’

He might not have made this decision if he hadn’t regressed and Julius hadn’t been taken away.

No, he wouldn't even have had to think about this, either.

Their relationship with the elves had already gone awry, so Allen would’ve chosen to keep a quiet eye on the situation rather than give useless assistance—because that was the sensible choice.

* * *

* * * 

But…

“We should, rather, offer our support because we don't know anything.”

That was not what was happening right now.

“…Because we really don’t.”

The Knight Commander remained silent, as if he would follow anything Gaielle had decided, and Gardell’s wrinkled eyes threw a sharp look at Allen.

“On the contrary, it means supporting the elves even though you know nothing.”

“Is there a reason why your play on words is meaningful?”

Gaielle was right.

No matter how you presented it, whether it was offered with a funny little play on words, the dangers associated with the deed were unchanged. But if you knew what was going to happen—if you knew the risks that may occur…

‘Winning becomes a sure bet.’

Allen nodded at Gaielle’s words.

“Yes, it’s meaningful.”

“What is?”

“We can’t completely reverse the damage done to our relationship with the elves, however, it may be sufficient for the elves to see us again.”

The elves would realize that the family was different from their ancestors.

Therefore, there would be elves who had a favorable outlook on their decision to help—made despite the chance of there being a threat, despite the vagueness of the request.

It was a plausible, dream-like story.

It was something you could only say, understanding that you didn’t truly understand reality.

Did you even know who that elf is? Even if you went to help, what would that elf even need? Would you actually be able to help them? What would you do if you went to support but were stopped at the door?

‘All of that…’

…Was all unclear, uncertain.

But if there were someone who just so happened to know about the future, and if there were to be any hope of finding out the whereabouts of his real brother…

‘But for me…’

There was no reason to hesitate. Allen faced Gaielle’s gaze with pride.

“This will have a huge impact on our relations. An elf, a member of a race that despises our family, was sent to ask us for help directly.”

The fact that the elves were willing to ask for assistance meant that they must have desperately needed help even if their only option was the Reinhart family—a relationship that was almost in the worst state possible.

But would the Reinharts thrust themselves into peril with no information?

“This could be the beginning of the recovery of our relationship with the elves, or, at the very least, it will give us a foot in the door to begin mending that relationship.”

Gaielle listened to Allen’s argument without saying a word.

“We have no information, so should we blindly send them troops, regardless? No, that would clearly be a foolish choice.”

How strong the enemy was, how many there were, what the current situation was, and even what had happened—they don't know anything, so what reason would they have to send aid?

Gaielle, however, with an unsatisfied face, said:

“But is it worth walking into potential danger to get but a chance to improve our relationship with the elves?”

Neither Gardell nor the Knight Commander viewed Allen’s argument to be unrealistic.

“Considering our relationship with them, in particular, it may be better to wait it out a bit. But—”

Allen interrupted momentarily.

‘If there were no facts to back up this evidence, it’d be no different from forcing ourselves into war.’

But…

“What if we could figure out, to some extent, how to evaluate the state of things?”

Allen wasn’t as sloppy as Julius was in pushing things.

“If we could better know who the enemy is—if we could figure out what the situation is…”

Allen smiled coolly as he savored Julius’s enraptured expression.

“What would you do?”