The Imperial Supreme Commander Has Returned - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Imperial Commander Returns — Chapter 39

[Royal City Pridan]

The capital of the Pior Kingdom.
The very ground where Delram’s feet had just touched down.

“Huh, so it was like this back then.”

Delram murmured, watching the city unfold before him.
The gap between the two versions in his memory: forty years.
Naturally, the capital forty years hence burned far more brilliantly.
It was, after all, the seat of the only empire to unite the continent.

“Come on, let’s go!”
“Kyahahahaha!”

A cluster of children dashed past him down the street.
The thoroughfares teemed with people, their faces bright with laughter.
The unremarkable, vital daily lives of commoners.

The future might boast greater splendor, certainly.
But the lives of ordinary folk seemed richer here, now.

“Ironic, isn’t it.”

He’d waged war for the kingdom.
Yet the harder he fought, the more the people’s lives withered.
So why had he thrown himself into such madness at all?
The king’s hunger for conquest? Or the nobles’ lust for power?

Before the Regression, there had been so-called Revolutionaries.
Who preached that war must end, and the entire royal house should be executed.
Back then, he’d wondered why they gorged themselves on expensive food while spouting such nonsense—now, something inside him began to boil.

‘Ah, so that’s why everyone does it. Revolution.’

Delram chuckled softly as he surveyed the capital.
The city hung suspended in an odd anticipation.
Women carried flowers plucked from fields and hillsides into shops; merchants’ faces glowed with the eager hope of an approaching harvest season.
They must be preparing for a triumph ceremony.

‘Perhaps a week from now?’

Waiting for a festival was always a pleasure.
All the more so when it honored the end of war.

After walking for some time, Delram found an inn.
A cheap establishment where mercenaries typically lodged.

‘Did I scatter too much coin back home?’

The accommodations were modest, but safe enough.
Or rather, not just this inn—the entire capital was like that.

It made sense, of course.
Draw a sword and cause trouble in a kingdom at war?
You’d be asking to be sent to the front lines.
No one fool enough to provoke the authorities would escape forced conscription.
Thanks to all this, security in the Royal City Pridan had reached an all-time high.

Thump.

Delram threw himself onto the bed.
The straw pricked his skin, but compared to the barracks, it felt like luxury.

‘First, I need to get to the bottom of this Regression business.’

Regression.

In all his years, he’d never heard of such a thing.
Nor had he ever heard anyone claim to have come from the future.
Or that someone could send you back in time.

Yet he had experienced it.
So then—why? Who sent him?
And what was the reason?

‘For now, I’m moving to stop the demon, at any rate.’

That was Delram’s primary objective at present.
Which is why he’d ended the war with the Shambala Tribal Alliance so quickly.
In the original history, hundreds of thousands of those people would have been annihilated and become fertilizer in the Delta Region—but he’d saved them and incorporated them into the kingdom’s forces.

The greatest change was the survival of the Rune Master.
Just before the Regression, hadn’t the Cardinal of the Church of Light said as much?

—You unified the continent by slaughtering all the heroes of every nation! That’s how humanity was destroyed!

That had weighed on him, so this time he made absolutely certain to keep the man alive.
The Hero—the Rune Master.
He’d been a spry old man who’d cut down kingdom soldiers in the previous timeline right up to the end, so he’d stay healthy until the demon invasion came this time too.

Still, doubt crept in occasionally.
Had he truly been sent back to stop the demon?
What was fortunate was that he knew someone who might have answers.

‘The Cardinal—something’s definitely off about him.’

He was there when Delram died.
And he’d seemed furious about it.
More than that, he possessed the kind of Power to make it happen.

That Power didn’t refer to the Cardinal himself.
Of course, the Cardinal lived a devout and righteous life—he was the very model of a true saint—and Delram knew he possessed tremendous Holy Power.
Even more than the Pope, as it turned out.

So where did Holy Power come from?
Right—from a God.
Behind the Cardinal stood the Light God.
If the Cardinal had wished something through Holy Power and the God had granted it, then Delram’s past Regression would certainly be possible—that was the assumption.

So he meant to meet with him and probe.
Whether Nuark had any connection to Regression.
Or whether it was a miracle that could be accomplished through the Light God’s Power.

‘But where exactly is Nuark at this moment?’

At least it was certain he was in the Royal City.
In his youth, he’d traveled the kingdom devoted to poor relief, and only returned to the Royal City Pridan when he reached middle age.
The timeline fit perfectly.

And he certainly wasn’t an ordinary priest.
Before the Regression, the priest who enjoyed the Light God’s favor was Nuark.
Even the Pope had been jealous of him—he must have shown promise from the start.

So he wasn’t a deacon, and too young to serve as an archbishop.
A bishop, perhaps?

‘Only one way to find out.’

Delram left the inn.
As it happened, the Church of Light Headquarters was nearby.

* * *

Church of Light Headquarters.
As the kingdom’s sole religion, its scale was staggering.
Multiple temples, an orphanage, a seminary, a paladin training grounds, and more sprawled across a compound that consumed one entire quarter of the Royal City.

‘Too vast to search on foot.’

In truth, Delram knew little of the Headquarters’ layout.
He’d always slipped past whenever Church of Light faithful appeared.
They pestered him endlessly about not waging war…….

And asking openly was risky too.
A stranger going around asking if anyone knew a certain bishop?
Perfect recipe for suspicion as a heretic.

An official inquiry wouldn’t help either.
Using his rank as head of the Special Forces, he could probably arrange a meeting.
But Delram preferred to keep his situation hidden from everyone.
The fact of his Regression.
Not even the smallest clue.

“So then…….”

Undignified, but he’d have to resort to subterfuge.
Delram scraped together what coin he had and bought sweets in bulk.
Then he made his way to the Church of Light’s affiliated orphanage.

He’d never heard the Church of Light accused of starving children.
Still, children were eternally hungry for treats.

Besides, they ran around the Headquarters all day long.
They likely knew far more than one might expect.

“Nuark? That’s the Bishop’s name!”
“Oh, so he is a bishop.”
“But you can’t see him right now.”
“Why not?”
“Haven’t seen him in ages…….”
“Is he ill?”
“The priests say it’s not that. But when I went to clean the Prayer Chamber the other day, I saw him from far away and he looked so weak… sob, sob.”
“Don’t cry, now.”

Delram wiped sweat from his brow, trying to comfort the child.
The more he heard, the more sense it made.

Nuark had originally been affiliated with the Orphanage, or so the story went.
He was more compassionate than anyone else, and the children adored him for it.

But then this fatherly Cardinal had suddenly become a recluse, holed up in his room.
He’d retreated into the Prayer Chamber and hadn’t come out since.
And this had gone on for months.

“Well, that’s quite the predicament.”
“Sob, sob, sob…….”
“Here, have some more sweets. Stop crying, would you? I’m exhausted…….”

Delram handed over everything in his possession—snacks and all.
The boy’s tears dried up instantly, which told Delram the child wasn’t going hungry anywhere.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go ask him what’s wrong.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Which building did you say the Prayer Chamber was in?”
“Over there—that one.”
“Can I go look for myself?”
“Huh? Why not?”

The boy stared at him with a puzzled look.
Delram suddenly understood.

‘Right. I’m fourteen years old.’

Caught up in the business of killing on the battlefield, he’d forgotten.
He was presently a fourteen-year-old child.
He could wander through the Church of Light Headquarters openly without arousing suspicion.
In his tattered clothes, they’d take him for an orphan.

The temples of the Light God were generally open to all.
Of course, restricted areas were strictly off-limits.

But Nuark’s location wasn’t among them.
The Prayer Chamber was one of the most public spaces there was.

* * *

‘Here it is.’

The Church of Light’s Prayer Chamber.
The structure consisted of small compartments crammed closely together.
Individual worshippers would enter each booth to pray in solitude.

But the innermost Prayer Chamber was an exception.
It was reserved for the Silent Prayer.

Only priests and above were permitted entry.
A sacred sanctuary where no voice could be raised.
So it was said—a holy place where one severed all connection with the world and sought only the spiritual bond with the Light God.

‘No guards, though.’

Whether for days or years, anyone who’d tried knew that maintaining absolute silence was an unexpectedly grueling ordeal.
People muttered to themselves sometimes, and when mosquitoes buzzed, you’d think a few curses might slip out—how could anyone possibly stay silent through it all?

Only one again today.
Nuark knelt alone in the dim Prayer Chamber.
Before the statue of the Light God.

Wheeeee—

To one side lay food crawling with flies.
The scriptures commanded silence, not starvation unto death—surely the disciples had left it there—yet he hadn’t so much as touched it.
By the look of him, he’d been fasting for roughly a month.
The children had every right to worry.

“Bishop Nuark.”
“…….”

Delram called, but received no answer.
Instead, Nuark only bowed his head lower before the idol.
It was a wordless instruction to leave him be.
Silent Prayer was precisely such a discipline.

Should he simply turn back, then?
No—that was never his intention.
He had mountains of questions, and no time to waste waiting.
Most pressing among them was—

‘Has the Cardinal also experienced Regression?’

Nuark stood at Delram’s side until the very end.
Though privately, Delram thought the odds were low.
The child had said as much, hadn’t he?
Nuark had been absent for roughly a month now.

Whereas Delram’s own Regression occurred two years ago.
If Nuark had also regressed, then—
—the timing would likely have been similar.

So if he were praying out of turmoil from Regression, then—
—it should have begun two years back, not one month.
Conclusion: low probability of Regression.

But speculation was all it remained without direct testimony.
Since the man himself was right there, might as well ask.
The trouble was, he refused to speak…….

Then he’d simply make him speak.
Delram launched into whatever came to mind, whether Nuark listened or not.

“Truth is, I’m quite aggrieved.”
“…….”
“So I’m the one who killed all the Heroes, and that’s why things turned out this way? But if you’d known that much, you could’ve stopped me back then. You’re supposed to be a god—couldn’t you just call down divine punishment and cave in my skull and the Emperor’s together?”
“……?”
“To be frank, the real villain here is the Light God. If he’s truly divine, why not just erase the demons himself? Light, in the truest sense of the word—and yet this so-called god can’t even handle a bunch of dark creatures. Quite the impressive name, though—so resplendent.”
“……!”
“But he can’t manage even that, and now he summons people who want rest just to make them suffer……. Pfft, and this is the Empire’s sole faith? Is this actually real?”
“What sacrilege! Yooooou!”

Nuark shot to his feet with a roar.
Here was a man who hadn’t eaten in a month, yet still moved with terrible force.

“Blaming the Light God for this! Delram, if you possessed even a hair’s breadth of conscience, you could never speak such vile nonsense!”
“Hahahaha!”

The grip shaking him by the collar felt familiar.
Delram laughed softly and spoke.

“It’s been a long time, old man.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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