2nd Rank Has Returned

Prologue

My mother was a mercenary.

It was also a fairly prestigious mercenary, a mercenary who was often called by famous nobles even though he was a woman and a commoner.

However, as a mercenary, he was also quick to die.

Because he died when I was about 10 years old.

It wasn’t really sad, I just went out to find my job.

Perhaps I resembled my mother, and I ended up living as a mercenary.

His aptitude suited him well, and he was called a mercenary that I knew quite well.

Up until this point, I thought I was a genius.

He was quick to learn, and he was also good at applying it to practice, so it may have been a natural mistake.

And when I was 13,

“You are weak.”

I met a real ‘genius’.

A young girl from a noble family, and also from a warrior family.

From my ancestry to my talents, I was on a different level.

I cut down orcs when I started mercenary, and when I was the same age as me, I killed the wyverns.

class difference.

she had it

For the first time in my life, I felt jealous.

What I’ve accomplished with the effort of plucking my nails, she does it as if breathing.

as if it were natural.

like that’s the default.

I did it so casually.

I wanted to win. I wanted to face her on an equal footing somehow.

‘Are you going to become a servant of the Reinhardt family?’

As I endured the humiliation of becoming a rival’s clan, I honed myself.

and

‘I won.’

‘We won again.’

‘This time again.’

all lost 200 out of 200. It was a complete defeat.

There was one thing I learned from that defeat.

At this rate, even if I go on for the rest of my life, I can’t defeat her.

After that, I left the Reinhardt family.

He ran across the continent on his feet and learned various martial arts.

He crossed a dead line that was not strange even when he died.

When I was satisfied at the age of 25 and went to her again.

‘Ariaspil is already dead.’

She had long since passed away.

***

“…I don’t understand.”

“What the fuck…”

The sage’s cave, the guardian there glared at me with his eyes wide open.

“Why are you trying to get stronger when you’re so strong?”

“It’s crazy… If you’re strong, why would you fall behind you?”

The mana core has already been smashed. The bones cracked at every node. As a loser, I have already lost.

“I suffered too much, though.”

That was true. The Golem Guardian’s right arm was completely cut off, and a bunch of daggers were stuck in his chest.

“therefore…? Do you pick…?”

“I don’t have that feeling. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“So what…? Before you die, don’t change your mind and tell me…”

The Guardian, who tilted his head for a moment, revised the question again.

“Why are you aiming for the wise man’s stone?”

“I want to be strong…”

Eyes are dazzling

“Then why do you want to be strong?”

My head is cloudy, so I move my mouth at will.

“It’s just… there’s a bastard who couldn’t win…”

“I think you would win now.”

I laughed at that.

“…I can’t win. After all, he went first.”

Now my eyes are completely closed.

“…master?”

Now, all I can hear is the nonsense of that living wooden bastard.

“… hand over the wise man’s stone to this man?”

what?

“I don’t care, but are you okay, Master?”

What are you talking about? Where’s the master here? More than that, handing over the wise man’s stone…

“All right. We start transplanting.”

What kind of dog from a while ago…

Pak!!

“aah!!”

Something stuck in my chest, my heart.

My body and brain seem to burn.

Eyes flash and suddenly open.

“You bastard!! Are you even insulting the body now!?”

“…what are you talking about all of a sudden?”

It was a very familiar voice.

And it was a very familiar sight.

“You haven’t even fought yet, so when did you say you died?”

Ariaspil Reinhardt, there was a rival that I so desperately wanted to overcome.