Chapter 1
Ah, it's a dream.
I realized it immediately. A dream I'd seen again and again.
"Hey, Roa, are you still poring over those old-fashioned books?" my roommate, Derik, teased.
"I'm going to bed soon," Yold said languidly with a yawn.
Derik was careless at work and loved playing around with women, but his natural sociability made him incredibly dependable whenever negotiations were involved.
Yold, on the other hand, was a serious, diligent worker. He was introverted and easygoing.
The three of us made a good team. As civil officials, we had quiet, peaceful days without a ripple. Once work was over, we'd occasionally have a drink, then lose ourselves in our hobbies.
I had thought those peaceful days would last forever.
How many times would I be forced to relive this nightmare?
Derik and Yold were still exactly as they had been in the past.
Only I was growing older.
Forty years had passed since then.
My homeland had fallen forty years ago. The comrades who had been in that castle, along with my colleagues and superiors, had all died that day.
Leaving me behind.
How many times must I have this dream before I can be saved? Or was this my punishment for surviving? If so... perhaps I should just...
〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜
"Hey! Roa! How long are you planning to sleep? You'll be late!"
A familiar voice jolted me awake. Derik was the one who had pulled off my futon.
"Huh? Derik? Why are you in my room? Have I finally died?"
Derik looked at me as though he were seeing something bizarre.
"... Is that it, Roa? Have you finally gone crazy from reading too many old books?"
"Huh? But you're already... Ah, is this a dream too?"
"Hey, Derik, isn't Roa still half-asleep?" Yold said with a laugh.
"Yold... even you..." Tears welled in my eyes. Yold looked at me with concern. "Are you really all right? You don't have a fever, do you? You need to take it easy with your hobbies..." Yold asked, bewildered.
"Roa must have read too many battlefield records and lost the ability to distinguish reality from fiction."
I gazed absently at the two of them as they talked. Then, suddenly, my eyes fell on my own hands.
The skin was firm and supple.
It certainly wasn't the skin of a sixty-year-old. I tentatively pinched myself and felt it clearly. When I squeezed harder, it really hurt.
"What year... what day is it?"
At my question, the two of them peered at me with growing concern.
"Hey, are you really all right? If you need to, take the day off..."
"No, Derik, I'm fine. I'm fine. But tell me—what date is it?"
"—The first day of the Ochre Moon, Year 138 of the Ureo Era."
What Derik told me was the date exactly two years before my homeland, the Kingdom of Rudek, would fall.
〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜
"Hey, Roa, are you really all right?"
As we walked together from the lodgings inside the castle to our workplace in a corner of the royal palace, Yold asked me worriedly.
"Yeah. I must have been half-asleep," I replied vaguely. But I hadn't been half-asleep. I had memories of the next forty-two years. There was no way those memories could be a dream from a single night.
I didn't know why, but I had "returned" forty-two years into the past. It might have been a dream. But it felt nothing like one.
Even if this was a dream—or merely a deathbed delusion—if I had returned to the past, perhaps I could change the fate that awaited us. If I could save my comrades as they died in that nightmare—
My own limited strength might not be enough to change anything. If so, then at least I could get those close to me to safety...
As I drifted endlessly through a sea of thoughts, Derik called out to me in exasperation.
"Honestly, how late did you stay up reading last night? We're all going to be busy soon, with preparations for the march."
As Derik said, my hobby was collecting records of battles from all times and places. I pored over old records and went around asking about recent battles. My name was somewhat well known among my fellow civil officials—though only as an eccentric.
"If you like battles so much, why not go on campaign?" A colleague had said that to me before, but I didn't have the courage for anything like that. I was bad with the sight of blood, too. It was best to enjoy battles as stories from somewhere safe.
The two of them must have assumed that I'd merely stayed up late reading records again and was still groggy. Once some time had passed and they saw that I seemed fine, they didn't pry any further.
In any case, Derik had mentioned preparations for a campaign. Had there really been a major battle around this time?
"A campaign...? Where?"
"Someone who loves battles as much as you do forgot that we're marching out in three days...? Are you really all right? You remember the bandit trouble near the village to the west, don't you? They're sending out a force to suppress it, aren't they?"
The operation against the bandits near the western village... Ah, yes, there really had been a battle like that back then. That's right, that battle was...
"It'll probably be a one-sided operation, so I doubt it'll interest Roa."
Shaking my head, I rejected Yold's words.
"No, this battle won't end so easily. The lord of that village is pulling the strings behind the scenes."
Those words I let slip would go on to dramatically change both my fate and the fate of this country.