One thing Leon could not deny was his privilege. He was not the heir, but being the second son of House Serpentine still had its benefits.

His elder brother, Levyn, managed most of the family's territory alongside their father, Duke Valerius. With responsibilities constantly piling up, Levyn was almost always buried under a mountain of paperwork. That left Leon with the operational tasks his brother did not have the time to handle.

Most of those tasks involved managing active escort duties.

“I still don’t understand why you sent an official offer to the Armathorne Dukedom, Young Master.”

Mai leaned in from behind and handed him a heavy red envelope.

Leon sat at the edge of the stone training ground, his practice sword resting by his side as he watched the house knights spar.

Clang! Clash!

It was an unusually cloudy day. The downpour hadn’t stopped since early morning, turning the dirt sections of the yard slick and uneven with mud.

Leon’s gaze shifted to the envelope in his hands. At its center was a golden wax seal shaped like a rising phoenix—the official symbol of the Armathorne Dukedom.

“Young Master, will you really be fine?”

Mai asked, her voice laced with worry.

“Master Levyn hasn’t noticed it yet.”

“Noticed what?”

“Erm...! Master Levyn explicitly rejected a request from Armathorne before. But now, you’ve gone ahead and sent them a direct re-offer. If Master Levyn comes to know about this...!”

‘Ah, right,’ Leon paused, remembering the details. ‘There was that.’

It was a piece of information he had uncovered during his last iteration. While searching through the family archives for any historical connections between the two houses, he had stumbled across a formal Letter of Rejection signed by his brother.

Before the main storyline of the game even started—well before Seraphina joined the academy—the Duke of Armathorne had sent out a highly specific request for an escort.

They wanted an Aura Knight of the highest order.

At the time, demon sightings were rapidly increasing along the imperial borders, and political tension among the high nobles was rising. For reasons Leon never fully discovered, Levyn had turned the lucrative request down.

But Leon had decided to send a re-offer for that same request.

Ever since he returned to this loop and accepted his final goal of killing Seraphina, he had been thinking about the perfect way to stay close to her while maintaining an air of complete indifference.

After thinking it through, he had reached a conclusion he would have actively avoided in any other life.

He would personally become her escort.

Leon let out a sigh. It was dangerous to stay within arm's reach of a future war criminal, but it was also the simplest way to control the flow of upcoming events and reach his goal. It was a little ironic, but compromising his own safety was necessary to get a clean shot at the target.

Besides, there was another detail bothering him. It was a factor that had taken him all his lifetimes to finally look into, and to confirm his suspicions, he needed direct access to the Armathorne estate.

“Young Master... Should I... erm... just send the envelope back?”

Mai asked earnestly, fidgeting with her apron.

“Master Levyn will be absolutely livid if he finds out, and I’ll get in trouble too, you know...”

“Hm... that would be a major problem.”

“Right?! So if you burn this envelope right now, then maybe both you and I can stay safe from Master Levyn’s wrath—”

“But, Mai.”

“Erm... yes, Young Master?”

Leon turned to her with a faint and pleasant smile.

It looked warm and comforting.

It was not.

“If we both simply keep our mouths shut, my brother will never know.”

“Eeek...!”

“Just cover it up with another excuse.”

“Erm... Um, yes, Young Master... as you wish... haa...”

Mai whimpered, stepping back into the corner with a dejected face.

Leon stood up and casually brushed the dirt and loose gravel from his trousers. He slipped the red envelope into his inner breast pocket and turned his attention back to the training ground.

Dozens of trainee knights continued to spar aggressively under the pouring rain.

Pit, pat, pit, pat.

The rhythmic heavy rainfall, mixed with the sharp clash of steel and splashing water, was oddly soothing to his nerves.

Clang! Clang! Clash!

Leon’s gaze lingered on the knights longer than it usually did. His eyes softened slightly as he watched the way they moved, correcting their stances on the fly and trying to push through the storm despite the slippery ground. Some of them were laughing and trading friendly banter between exchanges, while others focused entirely on countering their opponents.

It looked completely normal and more importantly… peaceful.

But Leon knew better.

In every single iteration that had led to the outbreak of the Great War, these same men had stood in front of him on the battlefield. Not because they were ordered to by the Duke, and not because they were forced by imperial law, but because they chose to be there.

They had chosen to protect him.

Again and again.

He remembered it clearly. He could still see the way enemy blades meant for his chest were intercepted by his men, and the way their broken bodies collapsed into the mud right in front of him. He remembered how their expressions never held a single trace of regret, even in their final moments.

It had never made sense to him.

Even now, after all these regressions, it still didn't.

A quiet breath escaped his lips.

“These idiots...”

They were far too loyal for their own good. And that loyalty was exactly why they always died.

Leon’s eyes hardened as he continued watching them train.

If nothing changed in his approach, the outcome would not change either. When the war inevitably began and chaos spread across the continents, they would do the same thing they always did.

They would prioritize his life over theirs. They would gather around him to form a human shield, and they would die for it.

Leon clenched his right fist tightly.

‘That won’t happen this time.’

That realization was one of the reasons he had decided to leave for Armathorne.

The Armathorne Dukedom was far from the familiar streets of Cofrenn, located on the distant, rugged continent of Zeraldia. When the war eventually broke out, the grand forces of Lesselhia would naturally converge at the central intersection where the Imperial Academy stood.

If he remained here in Cofrenn, he would naturally be placed at the center of the Serpentine family's military formation when the mobilization orders arrived. His men would gather around him out of habit, and nothing would change.

But taking an escort contract for Armathorne changed the variables entirely.

An imperial escort knight on active duty operated outside their House's military command. Their sole duty was to the individual placed under their protection, and their orders came through imperial authority rather than their family's chain of command.

That distinction mattered.

When the war began, Leon would no longer be stationed alongside House Serpentine's forces. He would be separated from them by things such as duty, distance, and military protocol. The knights who had repeatedly thrown away their lives for him would not be standing at his side when the fighting started.

More importantly, he would be surrounded by strangers who didn't know him.

Leon’s lowered his gaze to the wet stone beneath his boots.

If he were thousands of miles away, the flow of the battlefields would inevitably shift. The unit positions would change. The desperate decisions made in the heat of war would adapt.

He would no longer be the precious young master they instinctively rushed to protect.

He would simply be another knight on the field.

Another blade among countless others in the imperial army.

Leon released a slow breath.

‘That is more than enough.’

If he stayed here, they would continue to die for him.

If he left, that particular tragedy could be avoided entirely in this timeline.

For Leon, that alone was reason enough to break his brother's rules.

His gaze sharpened to a razor edge as he looked out at the courtyard.

‘This time,’ he thought quietly, ‘you all survive. Every single one of you.’

This time, for sure, he would take care of the variables himself.

He would get close enough to eliminate Seraphina before her awakening, prevent the progression of the Great War, and force the timeline into a scenario where the Demon King could be defeated cleanly by the Hero.

He would reach the true good ending where his people didn't have to become collateral damage.

Leon took a deep breath, filling his lungs with damp air.

Then, using the full strength of his lungs, he shouted across the yard.

“KNIGHTS OF HOUSE SERPENTINE!”

The sharp clashes of steel instantly ground to a halt. Every single trainee knight present on the muddy ground turned toward the sound of his voice, wiping rain and sweat from their faces.

“Young Master Leon?”

“The Young Master is here...!”

“Young Master, are you joining the sparring rotations?!”

Leon smiled faintly at their enthusiasm.

This was the second major benefit he had as 'Leon.’

His own background.

While he wasn't a prodigy like Seraphina, a natural monster like the Hero, or a chosen one like the Saintess, Leon was far from weak.

In fact, he was remarkably strong. His role in the original game was to serve as the main protagonist's primary rival.

He might not be a chosen one, but he was still considered the ‘golden child’ of House Serpentine.

“Joining you?” A mocking laugh escaped Leon’s lips. “I’d rather die than join a lot as pathetic as you.”

The trainees instantly stiffened, the lighthearted atmosphere evaporating.

“...Pathetic?”

“Young Master, what exactly do you mean by that?”

“Your words are a bit harsh, don't you think?!”

Besides, there was one more reward that he received.

‘Open.’

A familiar blue interface flickered into existence before his eyes.

[ Displaying Additional Rewards ]

Leon’s eyes narrowed as he focused on the icon hovering at the bottom of his screen.

This was the true compensation for a century of agony.

While his base physical attributes had been completely reset to match his younger self, the system hadn't sent him into this final loop empty-handed.

◈—◈—◈—◈—◈

[ Additional Reward: "Peak of Failure" ]

Choose one 'State of Being' from your previous 100 attempts. Your current vessel will be synchronized with the physical capabilities and specialized combat skills of that specific timeline.

[ Available Selections ]

⤷ The 100th Regression: Peak Physical Strength and Swordsmanship.

⤷ The 42nd Regression: Absolute mastery over poisons, traps, and stealth.

⤷ The 89th Regression: Unmatched Agility, Reflexes, and Lethality.

◈—◈—◈—◈—◈

Leon exhaled softly.

Then dismissing the text, he raised his voice to cut through the sound of the downpour.

“You swing your swords with passion, but your footwork is completely unstable on this terrain. Your breathing is uneven after simple drills. Your defensive focus is entirely scattered.”

He tilted his head, his expression turning cold.

“And you dare call this training?”

A vein twitched on the forehead of the senior trainee leading the drill. He took a heavy step forward, his boots splashing mud across the stone.

“With all due respect, Young Master, we’ve been running intense combat drills for hours under a literal storm. Anyone's form would break down under these conditions—”

“Excuses.”

Leon drew his steel sword from its scabbard.

Shing—

The ring of the blade was incredibly sharp and crisp, cutting through the sound of the rain like a formal verdict.

In one smooth, effortless motion, he raised the weapon and pointed it directly forward.

Not at a single challenger, but at the entire group.

“Come at me.”

“...What?”

“I said,” Leon’s lips curled into a smile, “come at me.”

The group of trainees hesitated, caught off guard.

A few exchanged uncertain glances.

“Young Master... all of us at once?”

“Young Master… are you serious?”

“What are you even playing at—”

“Is your pride only loud when I’m not holding a weapon?”

Leon taunted, stepping out into the open rain.

That did it.

The remaining hesitation among the knights cracked instantly under the blatant insult.

“You asked for this, Young Master.”

“Don’t complain to the Duke later!”

“Everyone—combat formation!”

Steel rang out across the courtyard as swords were drawn in rapid succession. Leon watched them arrange themselves, entirely unimpressed by the display.

‘Too slow... completely obvious... playing it safe, huh…’ he analyzed.

They were still thinking like sparring partners instead of desperate combatants fighting for survival.

That mindset was useless for what was coming.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Leon said, his voice dropping to an almost bored drawl.

The senior trainee took a deep breath, his knuckles turning white around his hilt.

“CHARGE!”

Leon watched calmly as dozens of blades were raised simultaneously.

The trainees surged forward in a synchronized wave, their heavy boots splashing violently against the accumulating muddy water.

Leon slowly lowered his center of gravity and took a stance.

[ Selection Confirmed ]

[ Merging the soul of Timeline 100 with the Current Vessel… ]

To make absolutely sure these loyal idiots survived this final loop, he was going to have to beat reality into them and whip them into proper shape.

[ Synchronizing: "High Knight of the Silver Order" ]

[ Synchronization Complete ]

A devious smile left Leon’s mouth.