Saul lowered his head and stared at the diary, still not fully recovered from the death he had just experienced.
âWhat just happened? Could it be that the golden pageâs function is resurrection?â
The
Dead Wizardâs Diary
⊠capable of resurrecting a wizardâ
That⊠kind of makes sense?
Just as Saul was inspecting the diary, a carriage brushed past his arm.
Saul looked up, and the moment he saw the passing cart, his pupils shrank sharply!
A plainly dressed farmer was driving a flatbed wagon piled high with straw. Sticking out from the top of the pile was a pitchfork.
âWhoa!!â The farmer pulled the reins and halted the cart. He turned around and apologized to Saul, âSorry, young man, I was lost in thought and nearly hit you.â
Saul stared at the farmer. He didnât say a word. He simply raised a hand, then brought it down.
A black shadow blade silently formed behind the farmer and in one swift stroke, cleaved his head clean off.
The farmer had been sitting. His head rolled from his shoulders and hit the ground, while a fountain of blood sprayed from his neck, quickly splattering the straw behind him.
âItâs not resurrectionâitâs a reset.â
Saul walked forward cautiously and examined the farmerâs corpse.
Dead. Very dead.
âWhy wasnât he afraid of my spell the first time? Does Dark Spirit Blade actually work in this illusion-like space?â
Saul had ambushed the farmer. If the sneak attack had been blocked by some mysterious power, it wouldâve meant the farmer never even noticed it had happened.
But to Saulâs surprise, the Dark Spirit Blade worked perfectly, cleanly severing the manâs neck.
After confirming the farmer was indeed dead, Saul walked to the back of the straw pile and pulled out the pitchfork.
âWho dares commit murder in front of us?!â
Two burly men appeared at the village entrance, seemingly out of nowhere.
They were dressed a bit better than the farmer, with short swords at their waists and sturdy boots on their feet.
They looked like village guards.
Both men had drawn their swords and were sprinting toward Saul.
Saul casually flicked his wrist, and the Dark Spirit Blade split into two, shooting toward the guards.
Meanwhile, Saul used the pitchfork to lift the straw, searching for the body of the âbrotherâ who had once lain beside him.
But after turning the whole strawstack upside down, he found no corpseânot even a severed head!
[Herman: Strange. Whereâs the corpse of that red-haired boy?]
[An: Master! Look over there!]
Saul turned his head.
The two guardsâwere both completely unharmed!
It was as if the Dark Spirit Blade had never struck them. They were now only fifty meters away.
The spell⊠had failed again!
Saul immediately turned, pitchfork in hand, and braced himself.
One of the guards suddenly threw his short sword at Saul.
It was a reckless move. He had no backup weapon and threw away his only iron blade.
âBut his aim⊠isnât bad.â
Watching the blade sail toward him, Saul raised the pitchfork to deflect it.
But the moment metal met metal, the pitchfork was sliced cleanly in half like tofu!
Saul failed to block it. He instantly tried to retreat but the next second, the sword accelerated midair and in the blink of an eye, pierced through his abdomenâblade and hilt!
âCanât block it⊠canât dodge itâŠâ
The stabbing pain engulfed Saul, and he immediately lost control of his body.
He collapsed to the ground, limp and helpless. But this timeâhe wasnât dead. Not yet.
The two guards rushed up.
âHe killed Uncle John!â one of them said, grief-stricken.
âSomeone this vicious⊠maybe heâs responsible for Little Claudeâs disappearance too.â
âI say heâs definitely the one who killed Little Claude!â
âYeah! Letâs lock him in the cellar and wait for the village chief to decide!â
âBut the chief is so soft-heartedâwhat if he spares him?â
The other guard suddenly slashed Saulâs neck.
âDonât worry. Now, even if the chief gets soft, he wonât be able to spare him. Weâve finally found the one who killed Little Claude. The village can stop living in fear.â
âSo ruthless,â Saul thought, unable to move, enduring the pain in silence.
With his willpower, he couldâve taken three more stabs and still stood back up.
But in this strange place, just one wound sent him into a near-death state. All he could do was blink.
[Agu worried: Could this be some kind of worldside where death always triggers a rewind?]
[An, unimpressed: Then this worldside must be really boredâwasting all that energy!]
The two guards hauled the cart back, now carrying both the dead farmer and the dying Saul.
Once again, Saul shared the flatbed ride with the farmer.
But this time, the diary only gave a warning after they reached the cellar near the village entrance.
[You are about to die from blood loss.]
Here it comes.
The death warning.
The two guards unceremoniously threw Saul into the cellar, slamming him hard against the ground.
Then they locked the cellar door and disappeared.
Saul figured they went to get the village chief, but theyâd surely stall, ensuring Saul would be dead before the âsoft-heartedâ chief arrived.
And he was indeed dying fast.
With his vision going black from blood loss, he weakly turned his headâ
And saw a pair of wide, staring eyes.
They belonged to someone hiding inside a large wooden crate.
The head was upside-down, only the eyes and a tuft of red hair beneath them were visible.
Red hair?!
Saul widened his eyes, trying to get a clearer look. The personâs nose was obscured by the crate lid.
But even with only part of the face showing, Saul was convincedâ
It was the red-haired, big-nosed âLittle Claudeâ the farmer had said had gone missing days ago.
Had the boy been hiding here all along?
No⊠that canât be right.
Saulâs mind was foggy, and thoughts crawled slowly.
âIf itâs this angle⊠then Little Claude must be⊠curled up headfirst in the box⊠or maybe itâs just⊠a headâŠâ
Darkness swallowed Saulâs vision once more.
[You have died.]
âŠ
Saul opened his eyes again, finding himself outside the village.
[Herman: Master, the rules here are too twisted. Letâs turn around and leave immediately.]
Saul looked back. As expected, there was no Marsh or carriage behind him.
âNo. The moment I stepped into a certain boundary, escape was no longer an option.â
He wasnât panicked. Instead, he immediately summoned the diary and flipped to the golden page.
He was now certain the diary would save him butâhe didnât know what each rescue cost.
If he had already died twiceâŠ
Did that mean he had used up two golden pages?
Saul grimaced in pain at the thought.
But fortunately, the price wasnât so high.
Only the first golden page had changed.
The image had shiftedâfrom Saul dead in the straw pile to Saul dead in the cellar.
In the drawing, even in death, he was staring at the crate in the cellar corner.
Saul closed the diary and nodded slightly to himself.
âSo itâs not this bizarre village that rewinds timeâitâs the diary. But that still doesnât explain⊠why the corpse in the straw pile ended up in the cellar the second time.â
[An: Also, hereâs something odd. At first, they all said Little Claude had gone missing. But suddenly, they started insisting he was deadâand believed it completely!]
[Agu, finally peeking out from behind the book where An had been blocking his view:âŠRight, I was going to say that too. And the farmerâs strength was different between the two encounters. That could be due to some rule. Master, you need to be careful.]
Saul nodded. âYeah, Iâve been thinking about that too. Why canât I attack them? Is it that I have to ambush them?â
He had ambushed the farmer the second time.
Butâit didnât feel that simple.
Just then, another flatbed cart brushed past his armâŠ
â
Poor Saul. Itâs been a long time since heâs been this miserable.
(End of Chapter)
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