I Became the Martial God's Youngest Disciple

Episode 295

Let's calm down for now, I thought. I let out a hot breath and considered other possibilities. Maybe Ramon had gone to check something for a moment.

"Damn," I muttered as I quickly realized what a stupid thought it was. I shook it off and started packing my things. I shoved everything in the room into my bag in a rush.

Ramon's belongings were also around me. The difference was that his things were neatly arranged instead of scattered randomly like mine. It was as if he'd organized them so I could pack them easily.

I could do without this kind of consideration.

—If it is that goblin, he is already gone.

The words of the Martial God woke me up from my thoughts. I asked, "Did you see it?"

—I saw it.

The Martial God's voice was too calm. For some reason, I was annoyed by this and raised my voice. "If you saw it, why didn't you wake me up—"

—And what if I had?

The Martial God cut me off.

—Do you have some clever way out? Except for the plan that Ymir suggested, do you have a trick that would allow both of you to survive?

"That..."

—Hope is a good thing. Humans have no choice but to pursue it in life. The more difficult and desperate the situation, the more we yearn for a miracle that goes beyond hope.

"Is this a miracle if I have to step on the corpse of a colleague to create it?"

—Don't misunderstand.

The cold voice pierced straight through my chest.

—Do you think I stayed silent for your sake? That isn't the case. I just respected the determination of a warrior, and the wish of a man to achieve what he desired, even if it came at the cost of his life.

I opened my mouth, but couldn't say anything and closed it again.

The Martial God usually never showed his emotions, became agitated, or lost his gentleness when criticizing me. The fact that he was now using a harsh tone was almost like a rebuke. It hurt.

It wasn't that I was hurt by the Martial God's attitude, though. I was just sorry that I'd acted in a way that forced him to speak like this.

I stood there for a moment as if nailed in place. Then I came to my senses with a realization. My blessing.

I had a single blessing. It had erased the blood-soaked training camp, the nightmare where so many young and budding talents had died. I could just go back to the past.

From the beginning, there had been a lack of preparation and too little information. Now I knew the situation of the church, had a rough grasp of their forces, and was even starting to identify their purpose. That meant I could re-plan things based on that information.

I figured it would be best to go back to before Lanfero left. I didn't know what had caused him to return late, but it couldn't be more important than Ramon's death. It would be a great advantage if I charged through the stone door with the vampire clan leader.

So I thought to myself, I regret it now.

I didn't know if I was talking to someone, but I kept silently repeating it to myself. I regret it, blessing. You son of a bitch. Are you listening?

Dammit, this was the first time since my regression that I felt so disgusted with myself. After all, in the end, all of this was the result of my weakness, my hasty judgment, and my mistakes. It was a problem that I could solve by becoming stronger.

I would return to Spirit Mountain, undergo one hundred days of training, and become strong enough to crush the priest's skill as well as defeat the legion commander.

Send me back, I thought over and over, hoping for an answer. Send me back.

I stood there for a while and waited, whether for my blessing to be activated or to receive any response.

There was no change. In this cold land, only the snowstorm swirled quietly.

***

I wondered what it would have felt like to leave while knowing you were going to die. It was hard for me to imagine.

I placed Ramon's neatly arranged belongings into my bag one by one. It was amazing that he could carry so many items with such a small body.

Among the things that Ramon left behind was his pocket watch. So he left this too.

If it was a divine relic, it had to be a valuable item. I wondered if he meant that he wouldn't need it in the future.

Certainly, there was nothing more meaningless to the dead than time. He was already risking his life, so he didn't need to calculate the time. He just needed to know the direction to head in.

I checked the time. Then I realized the source of the discomfort I felt right before I fell asleep.

"Senior, how long has it been?"

"It has been around ten hours since entering. There is still some time. Rest your eyes a bit. I will wake you up."

I had checked the time back when Ramon was about to wake up. At that time, it had already been twelve hours since the expedition started. He must've told me that there was a lot of time left so I could rest without worry.

That meant Ramon had never been persuaded by me. No matter how slow I was, how could I not realize such a simple fact?

Ah. It was him. I realized that Ramon had slipped something into that tea. Of course, that wasn't an excuse.

Tick.

The sounds around me faded. Only the sound of the second hand of the watch faintly reached my ears.

I checked the time again. Roughly fifteen hours had passed since the expedition began. That meant I hadn't slept that long, perhaps an hour or two at most.

That meant Ramon was still alive. Even now, he was braving the cold snowstorm and heading to the place where the Giant Killer was.

Tick.

If I left now, maybe I'd be able to catch up. Ramon moved relatively slowly, after all. He hadn't learned any light footwork techniques, and he didn't have superior physical abilities like Araxad's. I could catch up quickly if I left now.

"Don't misunderstand."

And what would I do then?

"Do you think I stayed silent for your sake? That isn't the case. I just respected the determination of a warrior, and the wish of a man to achieve what he desired, even if it came at the cost of his life."

I looked around again, wondering how Ramon felt as he packed his belongings.

He must have been scared. He must have been annoyed. He might have even regretted it. It was natural, since he was going to die.

Nevertheless, Ramon had done it. Before I woke up, he'd organized everything, then left with heavy limbs and heavy steps. Was it really right to stop such a decision?

Tick.

I would have to go there without any countermeasures and tell my senior that he only had two hours left. Then what? In that amount of time, would we both somehow escape from the stomach of a giant, make it to the surface, and kill that unbelievably powerful legion commander? Was that what I was supposed to say?

It's impossible.

This wasn't a problem that could be overcome by being stubborn.

I was forced to start packing my bag again. All I had to do was shove the rest of it into my bag, yet my hand moved slowly. At that moment, I realized I was deliberately slowing down. free𝑤ebnovel.com

It was because once this was all packed, I would have to make a decision. Instead, what I chose wasn't one or the other. It was just postponing the possibility.

It was the ugliest choice.

Tick.

Time, time, damned time, I thought. Even at this moment, time was passing. I wondered what the correct answer was.

At that moment, the touch of paper brushed against my fingertips, to my surprise. There was a letter beneath the thick ledger that Ramon had left behind. His crooked handwriting was visible.

I had seen Ramon's handwriting several times. It had always been meticulous and neat, but this crookedness probably couldn't be helped. Even if there was a campfire, it wasn't easy to write with bare hands in this temperature. He had probably written this with trembling hands.

The letter started with an apology. That was just like Ramon.

I'm sorry, Young Master. I went off on my own.

Maybe there was a better way. Maybe I am making a hasty judgment alone.

But we can't miss this opportunity. You told me the same thing before you attacked the priest.

I also know the words you swallowed down at that time. "We don't have enough time."

I thought about all the time we had, but no matter how hard I tried, I decided that this method was the best. So don't worry. Please hold off on mourning for a while.

Also, could you talk to Brother Lanfero for me? Tell him to stop creating tabs all the time. The risk of the clan being disbanded is gone, so I hope he can be dignified as a clan leader. Sigh. There is no end to what I want to write.

Brother Lanfero is the type who won't even pretend to work if there isn't anyone beside him nagging at him. Honestly, it is a bit of a relief to think about finally being free from that troublesome role.

In the future, I will leave that to you, Young Master. I'm going to die, but can you do this much for me?

So, take care of yourself, Young Master. Thank you.

It was also like Ramon to worry about others to the end.

It was only after reading the letter that I was able to make a decision. I hadn't let go of everything, but even so, I finally found the resolve I had been lacking. If it hadn't been for Ramon's letter, I probably wouldn't have been able to shake off my hesitation to the end. Thus, I was once again indebted to my goblin senior.

I quickly packed my things, pulled up my collar, headed to where Mjolnir was located, and asked Ymir where the exit of his stomach was.

—To the north.

—It was once the warmest place, but now it is where the cold is the deepest, and where the boundaries of time and space blur.

—If the goblin pulls out the Giant Killer, the winter will end and the exit will be revealed at the end of the path.

"How long will it take?"

—Two hours.

How big was Ymir's stomach that I had to walk for two hours?

—However, human. The path to the exit won't be smooth. It isn't just the goblin who has to risk his life.

It meant I also had to risk my life, but I strangely found that okay. I couldn't help smiling bitterly at my disgusting mindset.

Did I really think that I could ease the guilt I felt toward Ramon, who had to die, if I also risked my life? I hadn't realized I was such a pathetic person.

After going to Spirit Mountain and then to the past, at some point, I felt like I had developed a bit of self-respect. I thought I wasn't that bad.

It turned out that wasn't the case. The essence of a person was harder to change than I thought. Right now, I hated myself more than I ever had in the past when I was a loser.

I left the temple, heading north with a compass in my hand. The snowstorm swept over my body. I raised my collar and threw myself into the blizzard.

***

My life had changed after learning martial arts. I'd been through many hardships and pain, but I had improved in many ways. This was true even when setting aside my basic health, physical condition, and strength.

In my case, I'd become relatively resistant to the cold thanks to the First Fire Technique. Due to that, even the infamous northern cold, notorious for its freezing temperature, wasn't that painful for me. The journey to Snowville was definitely hard, but the biggest factor for me was hunger. As long as I had internal energy, I could be considered to be more resistant to the cold than Mir, who was from the north.

That was as long as I had internal energy, however.

I exhaled a pure white breath. I didn't have much internal energy left.

It was enough to maintain body temperature, but my ultimate goal wasn't just to leave this place. I had to be ready for the battles that would probably take place afterward. That meant I needed to save as much internal energy as possible. Due to that, I felt the cold truly enter my body for the first time in a long time.

There was only the sound of the snowstorm in my ears as I checked my surroundings. There were buildings on both sides of me. Of course, they had been broken and neglected for what seemed to be hundreds of years, so they looked more like ancient ruins than buildings.

The place looked similar to the temple where Mjolnir was. However, compared to the temple where the shape of the building remained, the level of degradation here was far more serious. As a result, I looked like I was walking along the road of a ruined village.

Ah. I realized something absurd: At some point in the past, Ymir's body had a village in it. I didn't know if it was during Ymir's lifetime or after his death.

Either way, it had to be in the unimaginably distant past. Then at some point, everyone here must've died or left. Perhaps the church members had destroyed it.

In any case, I didn't have to worry about getting lost. I just had to walk along this road. Of course, I still couldn't fully trust it, so I took out my compass from time to time to check the directions.

A cold wind penetrated through my collar. I felt the cold creeping up from my fingers and spreading through my entire body. How long would it take for this cold to reach my heart? Would I be able to reach the exit of winter before then?

No, this wasn't the time to wonder if I could reach it or not. I had to reach it. Only then would Ramon's death have meaning.

No matter how hard it was, it was only two hours. More than how I would get there, I needed to focus on how much internal energy I could save.

Honestly, I wanted to release my internal energy and run forward, but I couldn't afford to do so. I suppressed my impatience and continued walking.

What followed was walking, walking, and more walking. At some point, however, I realized something strange. Even though I'd walked for quite some time, the surrounding scenery hadn't changed. I was passing through the same place over and over again. I was still sharp enough to realize that.

I wondered whether to run, and how much time I had left. I reflexively pulled out the pocket watch to check and frowned. The watch was broken.

It had looked old from the beginning, so it wouldn't be strange for it to break down at any time. But this timing was especially inconvenient.

However, something happened the moment I stopped walking and looked at the watch.

Tick.

The second hand moved. It wasn't broken.

I had a premonition for some reason. Thus, I stared blankly at the pocket watch while starting to walk again.

Tick.

Once I walked around one hundred steps, the second hand moved again. By then, the feeling had become a sense of anxiety that was slowly creeping up the back of my neck. A divine relic couldn't break so easily.

Still, I started walking again. I didn't just count my steps, but also timed each one in my mind. One minute passed by the time I had walked around a hundred steps.

Tick.

The second hand moved again. A broken watch couldn't possibly tick so steadily at such precise intervals.

In other words, the passing of time had changed once again. It was the opposite of the ice cave. Here, what felt like one minute was only one second of normal time.

I finally remembered Ymir's words. I figured out what he'd meant by blurring the boundaries of time and space.

This is really bullshit.

I gripped the watch and swallowed my curses. If this happened, all my plans would be ruined. The time I'd originally expected to be two hours had increased by sixty times.

I had to walk through this damn cold for five days.