Chapter 56

EP.56 Prologue (6)

“……?”

When the time reversal phenomenon ended, I found myself standing still in a crude and narrow room.

A faint smell of wood. The scent of earth flowing in through the slightly open window. It seemed that the rain had just stopped.

Looking out the window, the vast expanse of greenery and the sky clearing up from the dark clouds came into view. A rainbow stretched across the world.

A familiar scene. A familiar scent.

Even though it was a place I had never been to before, I felt increasingly at ease, as if I were a person lost in nostalgia.

Where am I? I instinctively knew the answer to this question.

‘This is home. Isaac’s home.’

Due to the time acceleration, my time had also reversed, and I had traveled back more than two years.

I was dressed in a shabby light brown shirt. When I lifted the hem, I saw my already frozen abdomen.

Judging from the fact that I couldn’t return to the tunnel where the snowstorm was raging, it seemed I hadn’t passed the trial.

‘Not yet.’

Not yet, not yet.

I had an intuition that this was the place where the trial would end. The time acceleration, the time reversal, and Isaac’s past—all these events were the correct path to pass the trial.

Stopping the resurrection of the evil deity was merely a process to reach this final gateway.

Suddenly, a piece of paper on the desk caught my eye. It read, "Don't hate your sister," a plea from someone.

I didn’t know whose handwriting it was, but it felt very nostalgic.

I opened the door and stepped into the corridor. A narrow corridor. A young woman with silver hair leaned against the wall.

Red eyes. They resembled mine.

“Go on if you’re ready. I can’t bear to watch.”

A low voice. The sensation of knowing who she was was deeply etched in my mind.

Isaac’s older sister, perhaps.

She closed her eyes tightly. Her one sentence clearly indicated that she had no intention of speaking to me further.

I didn’t know the exact story, but I respected her wishes and began to cross the corridor alone.

The wooden floor creaked with each step. It was a very old house.

─ ‘What can I do…’

A man’s sobbing voice faintly echoed in my mind. At the same time, I felt a pull towards the stairs.

I walked forward, stepping on the wooden stairs that had been repaired in places, and climbed upstairs.

─ ‘A good-for-nothing like me, I…!’

I clutched my aching head. Though I had never heard this voice before, it was familiar and intermittently echoed in my mind.

─ ‘What’s so great about a guy like me, Mom? I’m useless, Mom. Useless, useless… I’m just an extra in a farce, with no talent at all…’

The white silk curtain fluttered in the early autumn breeze.

In front of it, on an old, worn-out bed,

A middle-aged woman with silver hair lay still, staring at the ceiling like a corpse.

Her thin arms lay on top of the blanket covering her body.

She was emaciated. There was no sign of life or vitality in her thin, gaunt body.

─ ‘I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry…. I’m sorry for being just this kind of person…’

“Isaac, is that you…?”

My heart ached. It wasn’t my emotion but Isaac’s inherent emotion. The intense memory of regret left in this body reacted to those words.

The woman with silver hair looked at me and managed to smile. She gestured for me to come closer with her bony hand.

I slowly walked towards her. A walnut chair was placed beside the bed, ready for someone to sit at any time.

“I’m sorry for calling you…. Why aren’t you sitting…?”

The woman’s voice was as dry as a cracked rice field.

Perhaps I had traveled back to the time when she called me. I sat down on the chair.

It wasn’t difficult to guess who the woman in front of me was. Silver hair, red eyes. Isaac looked just like his mother.

Through the window, a maple tree of moderate size came into view. The maple leaves, swaying in the wind, looked as if they were about to fall at any moment.

“Can you hold my hand…?”

I clasped the woman’s thin hand.

“I called you because there’s something I really wanted to say….”

The woman, as if even blinking was a luxury, tried to take in my face, cherishing every moment.

“You must have been about eight years old….”

She reminisced, her face reflecting a precious memory.

“At that time, I made a joke. I asked you what you would do if I became a great magician or a splendid knight and had to leave to protect people….”

The woman chuckled.

“You were such a lively child, so… I knew you would laugh and say it was impossible. But do you remember what you said then…?”

I shook my head.

“…You didn’t say anything. You just… had tears in your eyes.”

The woman smiled brightly, her face radiating happiness.

“At that moment, I felt so blessed…. To have such a lovely son by my side….”

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes.

“Thank you for being born, Isaac. To me, you were a very proud son….”

“…….”

As I walked down the creaking corridor and climbed the stairs, the voice that had echoed in my mind resurfaced.

It was Isaac’s voice.

In response to the woman’s words just now, Isaac had only cried and belittled himself. He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving his mother, who was about to depart, with the impression of an unremarkable son.

In my memory, the woman had only stroked Isaac’s head and shook her head with a smile, no matter what he said.

To her, he was the most beloved and proud son.

Isaac’s regret and trauma, like mud sticking to his body, were the final hurdle of this trial. It was about overturning the deeply regretful moment in his heart.

The last words he said to his mother before she left were self-deprecating.

This fact was unbearably painful for Isaac.

What should I say? There was no need to ponder.

Because the words Isaac had always wished he could have said began to list in my mind. I just had to recite them.

Holding the woman’s hand, I smiled faintly.

“Yeah, Mom, you were really blessed. You even had a great son like me.”

I laughed playfully.

“Have I told you this before? I’m planning to enter the best academy in the country, the magic department. A place where only the best gather. I want to hone my magic there and become a great magician someday. Even the empire won’t dare touch me.”

“…….”

“Because you gave birth to someone like me, Mom, you are truly an amazing person.”

I smiled brightly.

“To me, you were the most loving and proud person in the world. Thank you for giving birth to me, Mom.”

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes, making her lifeless eyes sparkle.

As she smiled brightly for the last time, the transparent tears on her eyelids smoothly rolled down her cheeks.

A look of complete peace.

The sound of the early autumn breeze, the fluttering of the curtain.

Silence.

A maple leaf from the tree outside fell naturally with the passing wind. That’s the way of nature.

In "The Magic Knight of Merchen," the end of an ordinary extra might be as insignificant as a falling leaf.

Someone who leaves no impression on anyone.

Worthless, nothing.

A life that isn’t a protagonist.

But even those who don’t get the spotlight in the story have their own stories.

Isaac’s story is etched in my mind.

Before his mother passed away, Isaac, who had been crying and belittling himself, gathered his will and began to aim for Merchen Academy.

Since he had no talent for magic, he studied theory intensely to aim for the theoretical excellence program.

Through this focused effort, Isaac successfully entered Merchen Academy.

However, this was just a stroke of luck. At the academy, he hit his limits and realized how weak he was in the face of the students’ ridicule.

Especially when he saw Ian, who had the same E-class mana, growing at an incredible rate, he felt even more discouraged.

Ultimately, during the academy’s winter break, Isaac embarked on a journey to follow his mother into the afterlife.

The reason Isaac disappeared from "The Magic Knight of Merchen" halfway through was because he had gone missing.

Just an extra. Isaac was just an extra.

But he had his own story, the story of a man named Isaac.

This moment was the prologue of the story that Isaac, who wanted to be the protagonist, couldn’t finish.

The woman smiled and closed her eyes. I gently pressed my forehead against hers and closed my eyes, savoring the gentle autumn breeze.

I bid farewell to the woman on her final journey.

.

A cold, piercing wind pierced through my winter coat, assaulting my entire body.

Despite the pain of being cut by a knife, I continued to move forward.

My vision was filled with pitch-black darkness and a raging snowstorm.

But I could see a beam of light, so I moved towards it without hesitation.

I overcame Isaac’s trauma and passed the trial. The world had collapsed, and when I opened my eyes, I was back in reality.

My face was stiff, my lips likely blue, my body shaking violently, and a cold chill had seeped into my bones.

I could only