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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 178: Those Who Change and Those Who Don’t

After Sonia’s match concluded, the next contender to step onto the stage was Ride, the top student of the first-year S class, armed not with the Crimson Flame Sword, Kryush, used during the ranking battle, but instead with a regular sword.

“Not a magic sword.”

“Yeah. Maybe what you said struck home.”

On the day of the ranking battle, Ride had bothered Fiera, whom he had conceded victory to, and at that time, Fiera reprimanded him for flaunting himself with a magic sword when he hadn’t even tapped into half of its power.

Whether that resonated within Ride is unclear, but it seems he had decided to improve his skills using a regular sword instead of a magic one.

“What will you do? He might come back stronger and challenge you again.”

“Hehe, bring it on. I’ll be even stronger by then, so I’ll teach him defeat again.”

Fiera laughed happily at the thought and fixed her gaze on the stage, eager to assess Ride’s current capabilities.

Ride’s opponent was a second-year male student who seemed to wield a spear.

The opponent’s spear techniques were impressive, expertly keeping Ride at bay while launching swift, targeted attacks befitting an upperclassman, and it was clear that the second-year student had experience from dungeon explorations.

On the other hand, Ride was skillfully maneuvering his sword to deflect the spear strikes, dodging critical hits, but still, it was evident that he was the one on the back foot.

(If it were a magic sword, he would win easily… What a peculiar guy.)

In the past, since Ride never faced Fiera in a ranking battle, it was no surprise he used a magic sword during this tournament as well.

As such, he had smoothly progressed without much trouble, eventually slated to face Shudo and become friends from there.

However, the current Ride was participating in the tournament without a magic sword and was currently facing his opponent’s spear attacks, nearing defeat.

After being struck by rapid thrusts repeatedly, Ride was now kneeling and breathing heavily, clearly at his limit.

“Looks like he’s about to make a decisive move.”

“Yeah.”

Fiera, who was watching the match alongside me, noticed the change in Ride’s demeanor and sensed he was going all in on his next attack.

Ride stood up, positioning his sword high, and charged forward without any defense, closing the distance between himself and his opponent.

In response, the second-year male student lowered his stance and prepared his spear, patiently waiting for Ride to step into his range.

However, it was Ride who took an unexpected action, swinging his sword down hard from outside the spear’s range, throwing it directly at his opponent’s face.

Caught off guard by the unexpected throw, the opponent hurriedly turned his head, temporarily breaking eye contact with Ride, who seized the opportunity to enhance his legs to their fullest and dove into close quarters.

“Guah?!”

The opponent, unable to adjust due to the unwieldy spear, received a solid blow to the solar plexus and was then hit hard in the back of the head by a fully powered kick from Ride.

The opponent struggled to rise but Ride wasn’t one to let such a large opening go to waste. He surged forward, empowering his fist, and slammed it down hard onto the opponent’s head.

Knocked out by that strike, the opponent was unable to get back up, declaring Ride the victor of this match.

“Heh, ahhahaha! Who would have thought he’d throw a sword! Ha! How amusing!”

Having seen the entire match, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing, thoroughly entertained by Ride’s last-minute decision.

“That was a good strategy. It completely caught his opponent off guard, and he’s grown since before.”

“Exactly. Especially in his handling of magic. When he threw the sword, he infused his arm with full power first, then shifted that power to his legs. For us, that wouldn’t be too difficult, but for an ordinary person, that’s a pretty challenging technique.”

Just as Shuvina said, swiftly reallocating the full power of magic he had initially invested elsewhere is no small task.

Especially since Ride had focused primarily on swordsmanship training until now; to achieve that level of skill in such a short time deserves praise.

“This is getting genuinely interesting.”

Another person had begun to walk a path different from the past. It was genuinely fascinating and enjoyable. Not knowing where this outcome would lead felt like a harbinger of eternal death, but I was slightly looking forward to the future.

After a while, Shudo now stepped onto the stage.

(Alright. Let’s see if you’ve changed as well.)

Up until now, most of the protagonists’ companions, including Iris, had started walking different destinies from before, and the Shudo I had met previously wasn’t fully consumed by his sense of justice yet.

Considering that, I had hoped perhaps Shudo had changed as well, but nothing had altered.

(I see. You haven’t changed at all.)

As soon as the match began, he unleashed a bright white magic power and charged at his opponent, sending them flying with a single strike laced with magic, ending that match in an instant.

Though the opponent was merely a first-year B class student, defeating them with one blow was still an impressive feat.

However, what piqued my interest wasn’t that single strike but the white magic he had unleashed.

(In the end, he awakened after all.)

Shudo’s awakening is an event that always occurs before martial arts tournaments, including in my previous life.

Originally, his magic color was red, but after going through the awakening event, it turned white, after which he would be chosen by the Holy Sword.

Under normal circumstances, a person’s magic color doesn’t change halfway, but it seems he is destined to wield a Holy Sword, hence transforming into a magic suitable for it through the awakening event.

The event in question likely refers to the bandit extermination quest we previously accompanied him on; normally, he would have awakened at that time, but since we were involved, he didn’t awaken then.

However, the Shudo fighting on stage was undoubtedly awakened, meaning that an alternative event must have occurred after our involvement.

“Sigh. How boring.”

“Where are you going?”

I stood up, bored with the lackluster results, but Fiera stopped me.

“I’m just handling a little business. You all stay here.”

“…Understood.”

Though Fiera seemed keen to follow, she quickly nodded once she sensed my unwillingness to meet her gaze.

—Side Wilhelm—

“Sigh. It seems he isn’t participating in this tournament after all. What a waste of time.”

In a corridor deep within the arena, a man who served the king of the Magic Kingdom, a member of the Demon Race named Wilhelm, expressed this with a sigh.

“It has been about three months since I arrived in the Empire, but I’ve gained little in terms of results. Ideally, I would have liked to gather more information about their combat methods and weaknesses…”

Wilhelm had come to the Empire on instructions from Bagira to gather information about a certain youth.

“I need to report back soon, but it’s troubling.”

“What’s troubling you?”

“Excuse me?”

Wilhelm had used mana concealment, recognition blocking, and even illusion magic around him to ensure that no one would notice or enter the space he occupied.

Yet, despite this, someone managed to slip into the magical barriers without the caster noticing.

“You are…”

“Long time no see, Demon guy. Since the Magic Kingdom, right?”

The one who spoke was the youth tagged as Wilhelm’s observation target, who was also the one responsible for thwarting Bagira’s previous operation.

“What are you doing here…”

“Honestly, if someone picks up on such blatantly unnatural mana fluctuations, I think some people would notice, don’t you? The academy head is probably aware of it too.”

“Eh?”

Certainly, at first glance, the absence of people here was unnatural, but considering the recognition blocking and illusion magic made it so that no one acknowledged anything was amiss, even a court magician shouldn’t be able to notice this place.

“The academy head is aware? That’s a joke. To be sure, that magician’s magic and mana are extraordinary, but they haven’t done anything, have they? If they were aware, they’d take action, right? Since they’ve done nothing, it means they don’t know, doesn’t it?”

“Ahaha. Is that really what you think?”

“…No way.”

Upon hearing Wilhelm’s words, Lewis chuckled and squinted, returning the question.

“Finally catching on? You’ve just been left completely unattended. Well, initially, there was some wariness, but once it was clear you wouldn’t act, the academy head probably decided it was fine to leave you be. That’s why you’re being overlooked this time too.”

“Wait a minute. All this time?”

“Yeah?”

Both Wilhelm and the academy head had been aware from the very start. Since Wilhelm had enrolled at the academy, they had known someone was keeping an eye on him. However, because there was no harm, and given that they recognized him as a Demon, they had simply let him swim along like a fish caught in a net.

“Such…!”

Not knowing where he was or which country he was in, Wilhelm had been gathering information while searching for Lewis, ultimately ending up in the Empire when Lewis enrolled in the academy.

From then on, he had been secretly gathering information on Lewis, never suspecting he had been detected, and while shocked, he also realized he needed to escape this situation.

“If I’ve been discovered, there’s no choice. I’ll take my leave. ‘Black Mist.'”

Upon activating the dark magic of Black Mist, the area was shrouded in darkness, obscuring the view of both Wilhelm and Lewis.

In that moment of confusion, Wilhelm attempted to escape but suddenly hit an invisible wall, halting his movements.

“What is this?”

“Oh, I forgot to mention, you can’t escape, you know? This place is now severed from the material world.”

“Severed? You don’t mean the spatial magic ‘Discontinuity World’, do you?!”

“Correct. You picked up on that fast.”

Discontinuity World is a spatial magic that cuts a section off from the reality one normally lives in. Simultaneously, by confining the target within, it is akin to a higher-tier sealing magic that can only be exited by another wielder of space magic.

“It can’t be. There shouldn’t be anyone left who can use spatial magic. Even within our Demon Race, there’s no one capable of using it. For a human to…”

“Don’t be so surprised. I finally managed to learn it recently.”

While less taxing than teleportation magic, Discontinuity World requires a significant amount of mana and is one of the most challenging spells because it takes a portion of space.

Even using all of Lewis’s mana and magic control skills, it could only be maintained for a few minutes, and it wasn’t perfected enough for combat yet, but even so, merely being able to wield that magic was enough to astonish Wilhelm.

“It seems this is the end of my journey here. If you’re going to kill me, please make it quick.”

Realizing he could not escape this situation, Wilhelm humbly knelt and presented his neck, but upon seeing him, Lewis merely tilted his head.

“Seems you have a misunderstanding. I don’t intend to kill you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Honestly, if I planned to kill you, I would have done so long ago. The only reason I haven’t is that I have something I want to ask of you.”

“Something you want to ask of me?”

Wilhelm showed a bit of wariness at Lewis’s words but Lewis didn’t seem to care and continued speaking.

“It’s a straightforward request. You can continue monitoring me, but in return, I want you to take me to the Demon Race nation.”

“To the Demon Race nation?”

“Exactly. You’ve been watching me for that power, right? I wanted to know about it too, and this works out perfectly.”

“…Looks like you’ve figured out my purpose.”

As Lewis had said, the reason Wilhelm had been watching was that he’d seen that power and had hoped to recruit him if possible.

“Furthermore, your ultimate goal involves the revival of the Demon King, right? I’ll cooperate with that too, so just invite me along.”

“Cooperate? Do you even know what is needed for the Demon King’s revival?”

“What’s needed to revive the Demon King is a vast amount of human magic power. I’m planning to wipe out a country during the long summer vacation, and I’ll hand that over to you all. Send in a group from the Demon King Cult and do as you please. Just don’t target other countries. If you do, I’ll obliterate you.”

“You’re aware of the Demon King Cult, are you?”

The Demon King Cult is a collective of humans aiming to revive the Demon King, often thought to be an organization exclusively for humans, but in reality, it’s led by those of the Demon Race who are plotting the resurrection.

“Understood. This isn’t a bad condition for us either, and if you’re willing to come to the Demon Race nation, I won’t ask for anything more.”

“Good to hear. I’ll be waiting for that invitation.”

After saying this, Lewis released the spell of Discontinuity World and turned his back on Wilhelm, starting to walk away, but for some reason, he stopped abruptly.

“Something else?”

“Oh, I almost forgot to mention. After the long summer vacation, there will be dungeon training. You should see something interesting then, so don’t leave early. Later.”

With that, Lewis departed for real this time, leaving a heavily sighing Wilhelm behind, relieved he was still alive.

“That guy’s a monster. I shouldn’t have gotten close so recklessly. But still, something interesting… I find myself a bit curious. I think I’ll stay a little longer.”

With his curiosity piqued by Lewis’s mention of something interesting, Wilhelm decided to remain in the Empire a bit longer and quietly vanished from the scene.

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If you’re interested, please check out the concurrently serialized “Former Hero, Becoming the Demon Monarch to Devote the World”!

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817330663836544021

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