The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations (light Novel)

“……”
Ghislain awoke, staring blankly into the distance for a moment before letting out a small chuckle.
“It really is just nonsense.”

How could Julien possibly appear there? It didn’t make any sense.
Ghislain knew better than anyone the kind of life Julien had lived. For him to show up in some ancient war of an unknown era was absurd.
“This necklace really is cursed.”

There was still no guarantee that what the necklace showed him was the truth. For all he knew, it could be mixing his memories and showing him fabricated lies.
Ghislain only kept the necklace and these dreams around to gather clues.
He needed to understand the Salvation Order's obsession with holy relics and uncover the true purpose behind Ernheart’s disappearance.

“I plan to see this dream a few more times… but if it keeps up like this, its reliability will drop significantly.”
Even if he managed to uncover answers through these dreams, what use were they if he couldn’t trust their authenticity?
He briefly considered discussing it with someone, but today’s dream made him abandon that thought entirely.

— “Julien, you appeared in my dream.”
If he uttered something like that, there’d be no end to the misunderstanding. Especially with those mercenary-turned-knights who’d tease him mercilessly.
Claude, of course, would be the worst. That bastard would absolutely find a way to exploit it.

Then there were Kaor and Alfoy. They’d never let him hear the end of it. All of them were lunatics dying for a chance to mess with him.
“There’s no way I’m letting that happen. Absolutely not.”
Even Ghislain, who normally couldn’t care less about his reputation, refused to let this one slide. The people around him were far too deranged.

— “Pffft! What is this, master? Why’s that guy showing up in your dreams? Julien? Seriously?”
“……”
There it was—one of them already started.
— “And what about that priest guy? You sure you didn’t just imagine him? Huh? He looked way too similar to how you look when you’re using your aura amplification.”

“……”
— “So what’s the story, huh? Why’d you and him meet in your dream? Why as enemies? Because it’s more entertaining that way? Huh?”
“……”

— “Even if it’s just a dream, don’t you think this is too much? Pfft! If you wanna see him, just go look at him in real life. Don’t tell me this is your… preference—KYAAAAAH! I’M SORRY!”
Dark, who had been teasing relentlessly, was quickly sealed away in the prison of Ghislain’s mind, where he would suffer for some time.
Shaking his head, Ghislain stood up.

“This isn’t important. I shouldn’t dwell on it.”
He was only digging into something irrelevant because of his own curiosity.
And truthfully, the dreams had become entertaining in their own way. He was genuinely curious about what he’d see next.

So he’d simply continue to observe the dreams as they came, crush the Salvation Order when he encountered them, and gather real information as he went.
“If it gets more confusing later, so be it.”
That wasn’t his primary objective anyway. Ghislain’s true goal was to eradicate the Salvation Order and bring order to the continent.

Rising from his bed, Ghislain issued orders to the entire army.
“We move out now.”
The mobilized forces of the Ruthanian Army and the Mobile Army began to march.

The operation had been delayed slightly due to Helgenique, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. More allied forces had joined the coalition during the wait.
Now, a massive force of 300,000 troops advanced toward the Kingdom of Atrode. The allied forces were divided into four corps of 50,000 each, while the 100,000-strong Ruthanian Army moved as a single unified force.
“We’ll strike through the center.”

The Ruthanian Army had chosen the most brutal and contested path.
No one objected. After all, the Ruthanian Army was the strongest force within the coalition.
Julien had split off to join the Turian Army, but there were still plenty of powerful individuals among the Ruthanian forces.

“We will occupy every stronghold without fail. Think of it as hunting down every last cockroach hiding in the house.”
Ghislain had warned Ernheart before: not a single one would be left alive.
Now, it was time to turn that warning into reality.

The Kingdom of Atrode had prepared for battle at their forward fortress, knowing the allied forces were coming.
Standing before the fortress, Ghislain ordered,
“Execute Operation Meteor.”

This would be the first time Ruthania’s full might had been unleashed against humans.
With 100,000 soldiers, their movement was slower, but they made up for it with overwhelming numbers of siege weapons.
Ghislain planned to deliver a devastating shock to both allies and enemies alike.

Clank! Clank! Clank!
The Mobile Army began assembling portable Galvanium Trebuchets.
Rumble!

In the rear, massive Dwarf-built Trebuchets were assembled and rolled to the front lines.
Once all preparations were complete, Ghislain stretched out his hand and smirked.
“Destroy everything.”

At his command, hundreds of trebuchets unleashed a torrent of stones toward the fortress.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
No other army on the continent possessed this many siege weapons. It simply wasn’t possible to fund and produce such a force.

Only Ghislain’s Fenris domain, which had poured years of resources into war preparations, could achieve this scale. He had even "borrowed" siege weapons from other domains.
The sheer number of stones hurled began to obliterate the fortress.
Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Kingdom of Atrode’s forward fortress was rapidly being reduced to rubble.
The fortress commander, Count Gailen, watched the overwhelming attack in shock.
“Wh-What are we supposed to do?”

There was no way to retaliate. The forces defending the walls had already been pulled back.
Not only that—they were now scrambling to avoid the relentless barrage of stones raining down inside the fortress.
“Why do the stones keep coming? How much did they bring?!”

Unless the 100,000 troops had been mining stone non-stop, there was no way this bombardment could last so long.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
There was nowhere to hide. The indiscriminate hail of stones destroyed buildings and defenses alike.

“Count, you must move!”
Even Count Gailen wasn’t spared. With the command center destroyed, he was forced to flee like everyone else.
At least he had knights protecting him. That was the only difference.

“This is insane… How many trebuchets do they have? Fire back! Fire back, damn it!”
His order was little more than desperate whining.
At first, they had attempted to return fire with their own trebuchets. But for every stone they launched, the enemy sent hundreds.

The fortress’s trebuchets were destroyed before they could fire more than a handful of shots.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As stones smashed everything to pieces, Count Gailen clutched his head in despair.

“This… This is impossible.”
How could such an attack even exist? It was so one-sided that there was no point in calling it a battle.
While Count Gailen staggered about, light suddenly began flashing in the sky.

Crackle!
Bolts of lightning flickered briefly before vanishing.
And then—

Boom!
Lightning struck down from the heavens.
“Aaahhh!”

It was already impossible to dodge the falling stones, and now magic was raining down as well.
Count Gailen screamed in panic,
“W-What are the mages doing?! What’s wrong with the mages?!”

This was a front-line fortress; it was protected by highly skilled mages who had successfully erected an anti-magic barrier.
So why were enemy spells being cast?
He looked toward the mage division and understood why.

“Take cover!”
“Hold the line!”
“The barrier’s down!”

The mages were in complete chaos, unable to focus due to the hail of stones. With their concentration broken, the barrier collapsed.
The fortress mages were far outnumbered by Ruthania’s. Even a minor lapse was enough for the enemy mages to overwhelm them.
In truth, the Ruthanian mages could have broken through the barrier with brute force, but they had held back until now.

Vanessa, leading the mage division, instructed her troops,
“Don’t overdo it. We’ll need to clean up afterward. Jerome’s already handling the next step alone, so pace yourselves.”
“Yes, ma’am.”

With the anti-magic barrier shattered, Vanessa’s mage corps unleashed spells on the fortress with ease.
Boom!
Pillars of fire erupted, and bolts of lightning struck down.

The Atrode mages were unable to mount any real counterattack. The smarter ones quickly fled.
Count Gailen clenched his teeth in frustration. There was no way to fight back.
“We should have just gone out and fought them directly.”

They wouldn’t have won, but at least they wouldn’t be sitting ducks like this.
The fortress’s mages scattered, and its 30,000 defenders fell without putting up a fight, crushed by stones and magic.
Watching the fortress crumble so easily, Ghislain smirked.

“You don’t need meteors when stones rain down from the sky. That’s the same thing, isn’t it?”
That’s why the operation was named Meteor.
“……”

The mage standing beside Ghislain, tasked with assisting him, fell silent. He wanted to refute the statement, but there was nothing he could say.
Looking at the state of the fortress, it truly seemed like the 9th-circle spell Meteor had been cast.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The fortress had been reduced to rubble. Calling it a ruin would be an understatement—it was now just a mound of shattered stones.
Ghislain, satisfied with the destruction, raised his hand.
“All right, let’s clean it up.”

As Ghislain spurred his black steed forward, the waiting Ruthanian forces charged with him.
“WAAAAAHHH!”
There was no need for ladders or battering rams. They simply climbed over the collapsed debris and entered the fortress.

Ghislain was the first to arrive. He leapt over the rubble, sweeping his spear in a wide arc.
BOOM!
Nearby soldiers didn’t even have time to scream before being torn apart. The fortress was already littered with bodies.

The remaining Atrode soldiers had no means of stopping the advancing Ruthanian forces. Most of their troops had already been killed by the relentless bombardment.
“R-Retreat!”
“Run, quickly!”

“We can’t win this!”
Atrode soldiers threw down their weapons and fled in all directions. None of them wanted to fight against such a monstrous army.
As their forces scattered, Count Gailen could only stare blankly in despair.

“How… How could this happen…?”
Rumors about the strength of the Ruthanian army had been rampant. Still, his orders were clear: delay them as long as possible.
Even with fewer numbers, they had 30,000 soldiers and a formidable fortress. He believed they could hold out for a reasonable amount of time.

But not even half a day had passed before they crumbled completely.
Clop, clop, clop.
The slow sound of hooves approaching made Count Gailen turn his head.

A young man sat atop a ferocious black horse, exuding an overwhelming aura.
There was no doubt—this was the infamous Duke Fenris.
“Y-You must be Duke Fenris?”

“That’s right.”
“I… I surrender. By the noble code, you must—”
“Cockroaches,” Ghislain interrupted, raising his spear.

“Are exterminated to the last.”
Slash!
Count Gailen’s head flew off before he could finish his plea.

Satisfied with the thorough destruction of the fortress, Ghislain turned to his soldiers and commanded,
“Rest for a day, then move to the next stronghold. Leave some troops to clean up the area. And… gather all the stones.”
To ensure the enemy was completely annihilated, they needed to secure the surrounding region as well. There could be no escape or hiding places left for the remnants of the enemy forces.

Everything had to be swept clean and pushed toward the Kingdom of Grimwell.
“WAAAAAHHH!”
The battle ended so swiftly that the Ruthanian forces raised their weapons and cheered. With Ghislain leading them, war had never been easier.

The knights who had followed Ghislain since the early days wore expressions of nostalgia.
“Back then, we really had to fight with our bodies.”
“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

“I can’t count how many times I nearly died.”
In the past, they lacked this kind of overwhelming firepower. They’d resorted to desperate measures—jumping from castle walls, launching surprise attacks at night using hot air balloons, and more.
Lucas, resting his spear on his shoulder, grinned.

“All that hardship was probably for this moment, huh?”
They’d done anything and everything to win back then, and now, with this level of overwhelming force, it felt surreal.
After resting for just one day, the Ruthanian forces advanced to the next stronghold. They weren’t even tired—barely any effort had been required.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The next fortress fared no better. The Atrode soldiers floundered, unable to do anything but endure the relentless onslaught.
Watching another fortress crumble, Ghislain’s expression remained indifferent.

“It seems they’ve pulled all their superhumans elsewhere.”
No fortress could withstand the Meteor operation without the support of powerful individuals. To counter such an assault, they would need a similar number of trebuchets or an overwhelming magical force.
But no fortress had that many trebuchets, and no army could outmatch the Ruthanian mages, who boasted the continent’s strongest magical force.

The only viable response was to send superhumans to the front lines, but most of Atrode’s elite forces were already deployed to the Kingdom of Grimwell.
As a result, fortress after fortress fell before the Ruthanian army with little resistance.
In the midst of this steady conquest, new news arrived for Ghislain.

“The Grimwell Royal Castle has been captured! The King of Grimwell has been taken prisoner!”
That meant one thing: Gatros had secured the holy relic he desired.