The Regressed Magic Swordsman Devours the North - Chapter 66

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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 66. The Gears of Fate (4)
At four in the morning, before dawn had even broken, I made my usual visit to the Underground Ruins.
There, I spent an hour absorbing the flame dragon vein, another hour honing my Swordsmanship, and a third hour practicing Magic—from fundamentals to advanced theory.
It’s what I do every day, but……
It’s genuinely grueling, day after day.
Once I adapted to the strain, I’d ramp up the intensity, so it was only natural—but it still wore on me.
After training concluded.
I returned to my quarters and washed up.
Once I’d finished the whole routine and arrived at the office, I checked the clock: eight in the morning.
Back in early October, I’d have thrown myself into work and pushed hard into the late hours, but now it was late November.
While bitter wind swept across the Northern Region, biting at the skin.
My workload had begun to taper off—things weren’t as frantic as they’d been at first.
Catching criminals in succession had reduced the amount of active cases, for one thing.
And the knights, now accustomed to my methods, had begun moving independently without prompting.
If I’m being honest, the Special Operations Bureau’s role had become less “action” and more “supervision.”
Instead, other responsibilities had multiplied.
First: establishing living conditions and supplying necessities for the blacksmiths I’d brought in.
Handle this wrong, and you’ll have apprentices storming upstairs with mallets in hand. When that happens…… the only solution is to hand them a bottle of liquor.
The bright side? I can commission top-tier equipment as much as I like.
Second: Mana Stone distribution and Mana Stone Engine Train development.
The business between Seed and me thrives the better it does.
It lets us employ countless Northern Region residents, which in turn solves the employment gap created by the Special Operations Bureau’s activities (?).
I hear Roman’s been helping tremendously. I should arrange a bonus for him soon—a hefty one.
Third: Laboratory management.
Providing assistant researchers to Crombel, coordinating with them, and supporting various invention developments.
My role here is to supply ideas drawn from knowledge I possessed before my Regression.
Recently, I commissioned a long-range airship, for instance.
What else?
Looking after Crombel’s health.
She skips meals at every opportunity.
Fourth: information exchange with Black Eagle.
The advantage of Regression is simple: information.
An information network is a blade honed sharp.
And finally.
Preparing for the expedition to Manbingdong that looms in the future.
If the expedition fails, it leads to the Black Mage’s rise. I need to prepare as thoroughly as possible, and more than possible. And to do that, I need two key figures.
First.
A Magical Device Craftsman.
My sword, Ignil, is a knight’s weapon, but with a magical tool fitted into its hilt, it can function as a mage’s staff—I need a Magical Device Craftsman who can leverage this capability.
Second.
A Chief Administrator to handle tasks one through four.
If work continues to pile up as it has, I won’t be able to leave for any expedition, let alone this one.
I leaned back into my soft chair.
Sink——
My body settled deeper into the cushion.
And my mind sank with it.
One by one, memories surfaced—memories from before the Regression.
My comrades in the Resistance came to mind.
“For Chief Administrator, I think…… Abile would be ideal.”
Abile was a woman seven years my junior, and she’d once said to me:
-I came out of the Northern Orphanage. Back then I heard stories about you. Damn, you were trash. So I wondered—and sure enough, you were a fool.
Rough-tongued. Foul-mouthed.
Ash-grey cropped hair.
Blue-green eyes.
A workaholic.
And.
“A mad dog.”
Beyond her vile temperament, she was one of those rare people who deemed their benefactor—the one who’d shown kindness to her and the orphanage—as her “master,” and served them with the loyalty of a hound until death.
‘She was one of the few who’d joined the Resistance out of loyalty to a fallen master.’
Abile and I didn’t mesh well.
She couldn’t stand the sight of others resting while she worked, and I’d always retreat to the roof to lose myself in thought.
‘Come to think of it, I didn’t have many colleagues whose temperaments matched mine.’
Her voice still echoes in my ears.
—Argh! You, damn it! Where’s that lazy bastard? Ugh! Idiot! Always brooding on some rooftop again, aren’t you? Instead of wasting time with that pathetic nonsense, get one more weapon made!
That woman didn’t understand what contemplation even was—I remember finding her insufferable.
Now, looking back, Abile had been running the Resistance all along.
Because of that, after my regression, I tracked down the orphanage where she stayed and donated three hundred million Jeni. I’ve been making steady contributions ever since.
‘It feels like the time has come.’
“……If she doesn’t show, I’ll have to go find her myself.”
I skimmed over the documents on my desk again. There, everything concerning the Northern Region’s various matters was laid out in orderly fashion.
「November 28th
Guest visit from the Black Tower.」
The time seems to be approaching.
What good is preparing carefully for an expedition if I can’t even participate in it?
“I suppose…….”
I need to meet with Father.
I hurried through my accumulated work and left the Special Operations Bureau Building.
The time was 4 PM.
It might look like an early departure, but it’s not as if I’m going out to play, so there’s no harm in it.
‘I wonder what the Special Operations Bureau knights will think…….’
Surely they won’t file complaints about the director sneaking out, even if I am leaving during work hours?
***
The Special Operations Bureau knights watched Sion depart through the office window.
Sion’s black sedan pulled out of the Special Operations Bureau Building’s parking lot and headed outside.
As it grew distant, it turned in the direction of Karsen House Grand Mansion.
Clap-clap-clap-clap—!
The knights began to applaud.
“He’s finally taking a break!”
“Phew! Now we can leave on time without feeling awkward!”
The knights welcomed Sion’s departure, in fact.
And well they should have—Sion typically didn’t leave until after midnight every single day unless something exceptional demanded his attention.
How could his subordinates simply watch from the sidelines? Especially when they even received a <bonus>!
Of course they gave their all. Most nights found them working until two or three in the morning.
Not that Sion had demanded it. He actually ordered his subordinates to maintain balance between work and life.
But then.
How easy was that in practice?
A knight works for the peace of the Northern Region—how could one hold back? And when one’s commander labors so tirelessly!
Not that anyone wished to complain.
The Special Operations Bureau’s nature demanded thorough investigation without drawing attention, apprehending suspects before enemies caught wind of it……speed and efficiency were paramount.
Besides, the work held meaning, and the compensation was generous—overtime? Why not! Such was their thinking.
Though, to be fair, that had been the mindset for only the first month and a half.
But lately.
The past few days had genuinely not brought enough work to justify staying late.
When they uncovered embezzlement, misappropriation, fraud, or corruption, the Inspection Bureau stepped forward to assist.
Most paperwork fell to the administrative staff to handle.
“Finally, we can leave on time.”
“I’m taking leave. I promised my wife.”
“Huh. How miserable must it be for those of us without wives?”
“You unmarried lot—let’s gather and have a drink together. It’s been ages.”
“Sounds good!”
The knights seemed truly spirited for the first time in forever.
And.
Much later.
When Sion eventually learned of these Special Operations Bureau knights’ self-motivated(?) overtime sessions, the subsequent increase in mandatory rest days became something of an amusing incident.
***
After arriving at the grand mansion.
I walked toward the Central Mansion, where Father’s study was located.
The Karsen House estate was barely distinguishable from an actual fortress, for all that it bore the name ‘mansion.’
It took quite some time walking through the corridors that extended from the entrance before I could reach the building where Father waited.
Step—step—
I wandered through the mansion. Tapestries lined the corridor walls, catching my eye.
Each one stretched some fifteen meters long, and together they traced the history of House Karsen along the expanse of the hallway.
‘Now that I think about it. What connection does Lumen have to House Karsen?’
I’d pondered the connection before, but no clear answer had ever emerged.
Dead gods said to have vanished in the distant past. Among them, Lumen—called the Sun God and the God of Time.
When I was young, my mother told me about him like a fairy tale, but I was too small to understand what she meant.
As I grew, no one in the family seemed to know much detail about Lumen.
Even the antiquities eccentric Lorenzo had only spoken of ruins connected to Lumen.
‘If anyone would know, it would be them.’
The ones most likely to know about dead gods were surely the great mages of the Black Tower—those who’d lived over three hundred years.
The problem was how to make contact with them.
They were each a living history unto themselves, breathing witnesses to centuries.
‘Rash contact wouldn’t just leave me without answers—it could put me in danger.’
Walking with that thought in mind—
Someone appeared at the end of the corridor.
Tap, tap.
A figure wrapped head-to-toe in a black robe, the kind of appearance that practically advertised: ‘I’m from the Black Tower.’
‘Is this the representative they sent from the Black Tower? Smaller frame than I expected.’
But in that moment—
The figure in the distance raised a hand and pulled back the robe’s hood.
Brilliant white hair spilled free, luminous against the black cloth.
Sharpening my vision to see her face, I found a beauty whose white hair only enhanced her radiance.
Between copper-toned skin, her eyes gleamed like rubies.
Soft footsteps—
Tap, tap.
The distance between her and me narrowed steadily.
I watched her intently.
She watched me intently as well.
Was she… smiling?
To call her smile mysterious might sound strange, but it truly was—like a mirage made tangible.
Soft footsteps—
Tap, tap.
As the distance closed, our gazes met and held in the empty space between us in the corridor.
Yet neither of us stopped walking.
We simply continued forward, our eyes locked, but neither spoke a word.
Then, in the instant our paths crossed in the middle of the corridor—
A faint crackle—
The tiniest spark ignited between us, and suddenly my Star Wheel began to vibrate.
A low hum—
“…!”
Startled by whatever was happening, I spun around to look at her, but she was already gone.
No—not gone. She was now standing at the far end of the long corridor.
Tap, tap.
As she took a few more steps, she receded until she vanished from sight entirely—like a true mirage.
“…What was that.”
Had my Star Wheel reacted to meeting a mage? This had never happened before.
An enemy? It didn’t feel that way—my heart hadn’t raced the way it did when I sensed Black Mana.
An ally then? A mage from the Black Tower? On what basis?
Damn it. What in the world was that.
I couldn’t know. I hadn’t even used Mana Detection, just in case.
When answers are elusive, the response is…
“I suppose I’ll have to ask Father.”
I stood before Father’s study and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“Father, it’s me.”
“Come in.”
I opened the door and stepped inside. By now, entering Father’s study didn’t feel as daunting as it once had.
Though I wouldn’t call it entirely comfortable either. Still.
I found Father still absorbed in his papers.
“I’ve reviewed the proposal you gave me.”
“You’ve approved most of them. Thank you.”
In truth, Father had passed nearly every proposal I’d submitted.
There were rejections, but each time he’d written out his reasoning, and when I revised and resubmitted, he’d approve it.
“You’re preparing for war with beings that wield Black Mana.”
……
Just as I thought. Father had already anticipated it. Though perhaps not all of it. Still, I had to be honest with him here.
I couldn’t bring myself to lie to the father who had sacrificed his own life to help me escape before the Regression.
“Black Mages. Black Knights. The Demon Race. They vanished from the continent ages ago. Most of mankind today doesn’t even know they ever existed. But they will return. And when they do, they’ll seek to consume not just the Northern Region, but the entire continent.”
……
I laid bare my thoughts to Father. Of course, I said nothing of the Regression. It would lack credibility.
I spoke as though I’d merely inferred it from the Black Mana, and Father watched me in silence for a moment before speaking gravely.
“Is that your cause?”
I met his gaze with unwavering eyes.
“Yes.”
Then Father said something unexpected.
“Would you not shy away from danger in service of that cause?”
I hadn’t expected such a question, but my answer was already decided.
“I saw the tapestries of House Karsen as I walked from the main gate to this chamber.”
The history—or perhaps the legend—of House Karsen.
“Not a single one showed that greatness could be achieved by fleeing from peril.”
To avoid threat?
Only ruin awaited. How could I turn away?
“I will face danger. I will not flee. But that does not mean I will merely endure it. Rather—”
The Hashman brothers, Red Fang, the Golden Star Tournament, Travis, the Special Operations Bureau. All of those victories……
Now proved what I was saying.
“I will methodically dismantle it all.”
Father looked at me directly. Then, a faint smile crossed his face as he answered.
“So you shall.”
The Regressed Sword Master Devours the Northern Region
Author
: Bang Sim-shim
Production Date
: June 16, 2026
Publisher
: Aces Media Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief
: Aces Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Aces Media Co., Ltd. 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 reprinting or reproduction 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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