The Regressed Magic Swordsman Devours the North - Chapter 63

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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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Episode 63. The Gears of Fate (1)
Baharos, the capital of the Central Empire.
A woman in a black robe drawn up over her head walked through the busiest street on the continent.
Click, click.
After a few paces, the bustling thoroughfare vanished, replaced by a forest path.
Click, click.
A few steps more.
Now a mountain peak rose before her.
In that instant, wind swept in from the west—autumn wind, carrying a chill.
The woman tilted her ear toward the sound. The breeze carried more than the turning of seasons.
Mana Spirits drifting on the currents whispered to her.
The west is at war. A Demonic Beast Wave. Reinforcements dispatched from all quarters. Yet. The situation grows dire.
“……A Demonic Beast Wave, then.”
The woman drew another breath, and soon tidings arrived from the east.
Civil war. The Revolutionary Army fractured. The Kingdom Army. A noble coalition. Blood and battle.
The woman paused and exhaled slowly.
Next, wind came from the north. She listened intently once more.
Sion Carsen.
A new star rising in the frozen north.
Purges. The scent of blood. Reformation. Flame.
The Mana Spirits chattered excitedly.
About some intensely powerful presence.
“…….”
The woman’s gaze grew distant and deep.
Click, click.
The scenery shifted once more.
The robed woman passed through a doorway into a chamber.
At once, small creatures of brilliant flame—phoenix-like birds—fluttered down and carefully removed her robe, hanging it on a stand with practiced ease.
The whole sequence moved with an air of habitual grace.
As the robe fell away, hair white as snow was revealed.
Yet the woman’s beauty rendered even that snowy crown colorless.
She walked to a chair and sat. On the desk, a crimson salamander stirred, lifting its head in response to her mana.
“Yes. Brillis.”
A voice deep and measured—incongruous with the form of a flame-salamander—echoed through the room, and the woman answered with a smile.
“I’m back, Salamander.”
“How was the gathering?”
Brillis Arcadin, the Archmage of the Black Tower, shook her head as she regarded Salamander.
“There’s a sorcerer who reached the 4th Circle in an impossibly short time. Pinpointing their location proves difficult. Yet…….”
“You sense flame, then. You’re certain.”
“Yes. Every flame in the world rejoices in unison—I feel it all. It seems a sun has been born.”
Brillis Arcadin’s smile carried a hint of melancholy as she suddenly shifted her tone to something heavier.
“Spirit of Flame, Salamander. Truly, you feel nothing of this?”
The atmosphere grew dense in an instant, but Salamander answered with the ease of long familiarity.
“It appears certain that a being blessed by the Sun God has appeared in this world. Yet something shields them, making discovery difficult.”
“······So it seems. I shall have to act myself, then.”
“Are you troubled?”
“Yes. The elders of the Black Tower have grown far too shrewd.”
The old ones of the Black Tower—they were beings who had transcended mortal lifespan itself, honing Magic across centuries.
Each one was a walking history of sorcery, having lived more than three hundred years.
The problem was that they could not overcome their fear of death; they had fallen into corruption.
At some point they ceased to advance Magic and began instead to seal it away, growing deeply averse to any new change.
And Brillis Arcadin despised this.
“One day I shall burn every obsolete thing with my own hands. But before that day comes…….”
“You mean to entrust it all to this new flame.”
“……I wait only for that day.”
A name flashed suddenly through Brillis’s mind—a new star that had appeared in the cold north.
Sion Carsen.
Brillis turned to her familiar, Salamander.
“It seems I must journey north. Will you come as well?”
“If you permit it.”
Brillis smiled faintly at Salamander’s response. Her tone shifted again, becoming brighter and more casual.
“All right. I’ll head to the meeting and be back.”
“Understood.”
Brillis rose from her seat once more.
Heavy, authoritative speech.
Light, familiar speech.
As though it didn’t matter which was true, the phoenixes approached and dressed her in a robe.
Tap, tap.
The scene changed once again.
This time, the highest chamber of the Black Tower.
The place where elders gathered for council.
Robed figures in black sat in a circle around a long table, and one elder spoke.
“Lemiel’s library has been detected.”
Lemiel. One of the three Great Sages said to exist in all of human history.
The magical world held a legend concerning him.
That he had left behind a library containing all his magical knowledge.
Though it was merely legend, anyone who dedicated themselves to the study of magic could not help but desire it once.
Even just once.
To enter that library.
And now.
After centuries of research through ancient texts by the disciples of the Black Tower, pinpointing the location and conducting their search,
it had been detected in the Eternal Ice Cave within the Northern Heaven Mountain Range.
Brillis found something odd about the news.
“Then we must find it.”
“However, the Eternal Ice Cave rejects mages of fifth rank and above. A powerful barrier is in place.”
“What about breaking the barrier?”
“The entire cave is structured to collapse and sink. It appears Lemiel designed it himself.”
“Then, could we not simply send fourth-rank mages?”
“We already did.”
“And what came of it?”
“They all died.”
…….
The atmosphere sank for a moment.
But the silence did not last long.
“We shall make a request through the Central Empire to the Northern Region.”
“The knights of the North, familiar with that terrain, should be capable of securing the Eternal Ice Cave.”
“Afterward, send disciples to confirm the library’s existence and secure it safely.”
There were no objections.
Only Brillis stepped forward.
“I shall take this matter personally.”
“……?”
The elders seemed somewhat surprised, and none spoke. She rarely volunteered for such tasks.
But as always, they assented in silence. There was no dissent.
The highest chamber of the Black Tower decided to request an expedition to the Eternal Ice Cave from the Northern Region, and Brillis Arcadin became their delegate.
***
Director of the Inspection Bureau Special Investigation Division.
Sion Carsen.
He did not hesitate to draw his sword.
Against corporations, administrative bodies, associations, and cartels controlled by nobility across every industry.
He raided them indiscriminately, so long as there was evidence. He was relentless.
He struck with minimal proof
and achieved maximum results.
And his investigative methods passed directly to the knights of the Special Investigation Division.
“You bastards think you know who I am? Knights arresting nobles? That’s insane!”
Julin Piel, son of Count Dorin Piel, screamed in fury.
He was a noble who brokered mining rights in the Akham region of the Northern Territory.
He was now leveling a blade at the knights who had suddenly burst in, bellowing at them.
Lui spoke.
“You’ve been illegally selling mining concessions and pocketing bribes. All the while, miners have been dying in the field without safety equipment.”
“Shut your mouth! How dare you lay hands on the house of a count? My father is Count Dorin Piel!”
“Yes. Yes. Of course.”
Lui Daiken spoke as though such things had become routine.
“Drag him out half-dead.”
“Yes, sir!”
Meanwhile, Bwindol raided the residence of Baron Marco Baren.
“Public lands, parks, roads, plazas—all privatized and converted into a meeting hall for the aristocratic social club. Every expense covered by tax funds, of course.”
The baron pulled his ponderous frame upright.
His voice slick with indignation.
“Our family’s connections reach all the way to the imperial capital! And yet you dare—”
“Yes, yes.”
“Wait, just a moment! No, stop! Aaaaagh!”
The Special Investigation Division’s arrests weren’t limited to nobility.
Fernan Rosueto, the land commissioner, was caught after doubling the taxes levied on farmers and pocketing the difference.
He’d thrashed about claiming “This is custom! Everyone does it!”—only to be thoroughly beaten by Bill and his men before being hauled away.
Arbelo Shutan, deputy director of the Trade Management Bureau, had accepted bribes from foreign Central Empire merchants and sold Northern Region specialty goods at rock-bottom prices… until Sylvia caught him.
Those who survived their apprehension faced trial in the Northern Region courts and were soon sent to labor camps.
Corrupt officials.
Rotten merchants and entrepreneurs.
All of them arrested.
As the sweep continued indiscriminately, the quicker-witted officials, merchants, and nobles began turning themselves in and requesting leniency.
Some received it.
Some were arrested anyway.
The Territory transformed rapidly. Its people began to feel the change.
The newspapers kept publishing articles about Sion Carsen and the Special Investigation Division.
The printing presses no longer knew a day of rest.
Among the members of the Special Investigation Division, who felt a satisfaction beyond words, came a newfound appreciation for Sion Carsen’s brilliance.
“The young lord had been concealing himself all this time for this very moment.”
“At this rate, isn’t the young lord going to inherit the house?”
“I’m already convinced that’s how it will go.”
Such talk began to spread.
Meanwhile, at the center of every issue, Sion arrived at the Visaer Clan.
The Visaer Clan had engaged in so much corruption that it seemed they had a hand in every kind of misconduct.
By Sion’s reckoning, they were people who “needed to be eliminated.”
But when Sion and the Special Investigation Division raided the family estate, they found only an empty mansion.
“He fled.”
Sion considered whether to pursue Bolgran Visaer, the head of the Visaer Clan, but decided against it.
The reason was that he’d sensed Dark Magic in the traces left behind.
Bolgran Visaer was a mage.
His official rank was three stars.
But he was likely a Dark Sorcerer.
‘In reality, he’s probably far stronger…’
Fighting him now would be dangerous. And the place he’d fled to was probably—
The Barchess Clan.
Sion turned the name over in his mind, and the taste it left was anger.
Before the Regression.
After the collapse of the Central Imperial Court.
When the Resistance was defeated by the Demon King’s Army and forced to flee.
There had been an incident where the 4th Dark Demon Corps launched a surprise attack on the temporary base.
And the man leading that Dark Demon Corps was Draken Barchess, the head of the Barchess Clan.
Everyone from the Northern Region in the Resistance couldn’t hide their shock.
He had been a man who alone upheld integrity in a world ruled by corrupt nobles and officials.
Honest. Noble.
A paragon for all the nobility.
And yet he had been a traitor to humanity.
‘Probably he and his conspirators are the ones who led the Northern Region to ruin.’
He wanted nothing more than to investigate the Barchess Clan immediately, sweep them away.
But without at least some evidence, he couldn’t even justify a raid—and the Barchess Clan bore not a speck of dust.
A man performing virtue.
That was Barchess.
Which meant—
“……Not yet.”
I’d already devised a countermeasure.
That’s why I brought Doctor Crombell on board—to catch these kinds of vermin.
The completion of the Dark Magic tracking device was within reach. Now it was time to expose humanity’s traitors to the world.
The stage to draw them out would likely be
‘the expedition to the Eternal Ice Cave in the Northern Heaven Mountain Range.’
So. No matter what, I had to participate in that expedition.
***
The Special Investigation Division knights had worked around the clock for the past three weeks.
They’d barely eaten, barely slept. All of it because of the investigation Sion had forced through.
Of course, none of the knights resented him. The work was urgent enough to justify it, and it had been worthwhile.
Then one day.
When the Special Investigation Division knights finished their work and returned to the office, they found white envelopes sitting on their desks.
The white envelopes had written on them. The knights’ eyes went wide.
A bonus—something none of them had ever received before. They immediately opened the envelopes to check the amount.
Soon.
Gasps erupted throughout the office.
Lui Daiken even trembled as he held the envelope.
The average monthly salary for Inspection Bureau Special Investigation Division knights was 6 million Jeni. Considering that the annual average income for residents of the Northern Region was 35 million Jeni, it was quite generous.
But these men always found themselves short of money. Their families waiting back in the remote reaches of the North looked to them alone.
Most Special Investigation Division knights came from barren mountain villages.
After discovering their martial talent in childhood, the vast majority had received wholehearted support from their families and come up to Seiren.
That’s why money meant everything to them.
It meant they could buy their families nicer clothes, better food.
Lui Daiken needed money more than anyone.
His parents’ medical bills, his siblings’ tuition—it was all mounting.
“This is…….”
The envelope contained a staggering 300 million Jeni.
In that moment, Lui Daiken and every other knight all thought of the same person.
Sion Carsen.
He never forced duty upon his knights.
Knights were people too.
Knights had lives.
He acknowledged that.
And he proved it through action.
They had sworn to devote themselves to the peace of the Territory until death, but seeing such extraordinary compensation with their own eyes felt different somehow.
“Thank……thank you.”
The words came naturally.
And. In that moment.
Sion felt through Magic Sense the knights’ joy radiating from his office.
He spoke to himself.
‘They’re that happy?’
-Yes!!!
A cheer seemed to answer him.
The Regression Swordmaster Devours the Northern Region
Author
: Bang Sim
Publication Date
: June 16, 2026
Publisher
: ACE Systems Media Inc.
Editor
: ACE Systems Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACE Systems Media Inc. under contract with the copyright holder.
Without permission from the company and author, the contents may not be used in any form or by any means.
This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260615032

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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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