Hm? Something disrupted me when I was sleeping.
My body is tied up and is being carried in a leather bag. How did I not detect this?
Luckily the dagger in my pocket is still there, I take it and cut the rope before enhancing it with mana and burst out of the bag.
?!?
The one carrying the bag is a group of Kobolds.
"Human is awake!"
I slit the throat of the Kobold carrying the bag before escaping. There are around 10 of them, and 2 of them are in the Nascent Soul.
Some force attempts to grab me, I engulf myself in a barrier and cast an inferno spell below me.
?!
The intensity of the flame is a lot more fierce than the spell I cast when I regressed.
The chaos provided cover for me as I run away.
Huff huff...
The capital... Where am I?
An explosion answered my question.
I look in the direction of the explosion to find elves riding dragons assaulting something.
The capital is in that direction. After the battle of sacrifice, an attempted diversion, every race was trying to overtake the core stronghold of the other races. It was a disaster.
I sprint towards the Capital at full speed.
------------------
When I reach there, the elves are temporary retreating.
"Who's there!?" Calvin shouts at the woods. I reveal myself.
!!
"You?!" Says Calvin. "Weren't you sent to that battle? What happened? Where are the others?"
I shake my head.
...
"Hey, Loi! What happened to Carl?! Where is he?" Says Kim. Following behind him is Lily.
"Dead," I answer.
"What..." Says Lily as she widens her eyes in shock.
"...You bastard, Is it because of what we've done to you in the past?!" Kim shouts as he grabs my collar.
I grab his wrist and pry it away. "W-What the... How are you so strong... I am a core formation..."
"Don't touch me," I say, glaring at Kim.
"You..."
He backs off. Calvin walks to me. This is the "real" Calvin, the one created by Lydia on the first loop is fake. The real Calvin would be in the capital trying to fend off the attacks of the elves.
"Follow me, you will be part of my squad for now. The elves are weakened and the citizens are evacuated, we need to take this opportunity to fight them head-on. Vicious will be in the Capital to fend off any other attacks." Says Calvin.
"Wait what did you say?"
"I said the elves are weakened and the citizens are evacuated."
"Where are the citizens, specifically do you know where my family is?"
"What? Why are you-"
"I want to see them, my family," I say.
...
"Look, everyone does okay? If you want to protect them, you can do so by-"
"I. Don't. Care."
"This disrespectful fucker! Do you think we do not care about our family?" A mage behind Calvin says. He walks past Calvin and to my face. "Stop being so self-entitled."
I sigh. "Don't waste my time. Are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?"
!!!!
"Arrogant shit! You are just trash who is lucky to be an adventurer and survived the war!" He clenches his fist and swings it to my face. I appear behind him as he punches my afterimage and kicks him in the spine. A loud crack can be heard as he flies towards the trees.
!!!!
"What? I thought he is F-rank trash?! I couldn't even see his movements!" A knight exclaims.
"Hey! That's...going too far." Says Calvin.
"What if I'm the one who was punched? Won't I end up with a broken jaw or nose? What would you say? Besides, I'm merely small cannon fodder, I will drag the team down. Just tell me where my family are." I say.
Calvin clicks his tongue as he scratches his head. "Fine, but you do know the consequences of your action right? It is a capital offence to abandon your duty and serve in the war."
"I know."
Calvin gestures at a knight and whispers something to him. "Follow him, he will bring you to Ken, that guy knows where the citizens are evacuated."
I follow a knight back into the capital as an army of knights and a few adventurers follow Calvin towards the east.
Ken is another SSS Rank adventurer but his field doesn't involve combat, his skills specialize in management, healing, and gathering information. He is one of the main pillars of the backlines.
We walk into the capital. It is empty. Aside from occasional knights patrolling, nothing is to be seen. The buildings are untouched with furniture gathering dust.
We walk to a white tent in the second section. Everything is as I remember, the assault started with an attack on the mountain top. The third section collapsed and everything there transferred to the second section.
The knight points at the tent. Another knight is carrying a crate of bottles into the tent, placing it beside a table and leaving.
The tent only has one bed, a chair, a table and tons of documents scattered around. In the middle of the tent, there is a pole. A board is attached to the pole, showing a picture of the map of the country.
Ken looks up at me in frustration. His messy curly brown hair and dark brown eyes with two dark circles under his eyes glared at me before ignoring me.
"Sorry, I need to ask where my family is," I say.
"Even if I bring you there, you need a key to unlock the barrier and a way to get through the traps. Give up."
I shake my head. "Just tell me."
Ken stops scribbling something and sighs. He turns his chair to face me. "I am busy. Don't waste my time and cause unnecessary trouble, what if you give away the locations of the citizens? You don't know what other races are capable of."
...
I throw a glance at the paper he is scribbling on. It's a report about a poison devastating the knights."
That "poison"...isn't a poison.
"If I help you dispel that curse, will you tell me where my family is?" I ask.
"What, curse? Are you talking about this? It's a poison, not a curse-"
"I can assure you it's a curse, if it is a poison how can you not cure it?"
"T-That's because I haven't found the right...materials. But the symptoms point to signs of poison."
"It's not that difficult to change the symptoms of a curse to look like poison."
...
"Fine, I can't figure out how to help them anyways. But if you waste my time..." Says Ken.
"I won't, where are they?"
Ken stands up and stretches himself. He brushes the dirt off his white coat and gestures for me to follow him.
We walk to the imperial hospital, miraculously, it survived the attack. From the entrance, there are already several laid-out blankets and mattresses all over the place. Most of them have a knight lying on them.
Those knights have green pulsing pimples on their bodies. Part of their body is dark green with their veins becoming blackish.
"This is only the first level, above us, there are thousands of knights infected with this poison... Or curse. If you can solve this, that will be great."
I walk to the nearest knight. He weakly opens his eyes as he gasps for air.
"Wa...ter..." He mumbles.
Ken cast a water spell but I stopped him.
"What are you doing?" Ken exclaims.
"Just do what I tell you to, I will explain everything later. Help me hold him down." I say.
Ken sighs and holds down the knight.
I place my hand on his shoulder and start manipulating the mana inside him.
!!!!!
The knight starts to jerk in anguish and roar as he attempts to break free.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" His piercing scream echoes throughout the hospital before it calms down.
Something similar to the sound of glass breaking can be heard in his body as the green pimples pop and the green skin subside slowly back to its original colour. The black veins slowly lose their darkness and become less visible.
"I-It is a curse?!"
"Just use Dispel and it is easily solved," I say.
...
Ken smiles as he lets a huge burden off his shoulder. "Haha... Fuck."
He is angry that the solution was this simple but glad at the same time that it was over.
"Go back to my tent and wait there for a while. I will give the instructions to the healers and magicians here before bringing you to your citizen. I will even overlook that you abandoned your duties and put in a word for you."
"Sure, thanks," I say.
This is an illusion anyway.