Delay Of Death

I returned to my chamber.

The person with the hood was unfamiliar to me, and unrecognizable but I can make a few guesses about his identity.

But, that's not the problem right now.

The dark stain on my wrist throbbed like a parasite burrowing into my flesh.

It wasn't painful—yet—but I knew better than to be relieved.

A week. That's all I had.

I exhaled slowly. I had already died once; I wasn't eager to go through that again.

If I wanted to live, I had to find a way.

And since this world was based on a web novel, it was only logical to search for an answer in the story itself.

With that thought, I sat on the edge of my bed, closed my eyes, and searched my memory.

Firstly, Curses were unnatural distortions of life energy.

And in most stories, holy magic was the best way to counter them.

If I could find a powerful healer, they might be able to cleanse this affliction before it was too late.

And there was one—Seraphina Laurent.

A future Saint Candidate, destined to become one of the strongest healers in the empire.

I recalled her role in the novel.

She was introduced as a struggling student at the academy, unable to awaken her divine powers.

By the time she gained full control over them, it was already years after Lucian's death.

More importantly, she hated nobles.

In the story, she despised people like Lucian Kingston—arrogant, privileged, and cruel. If I begged her for help, she wouldn't even listen.

Even if she could heal me, there was zero chance she would try.

I think, I should avoid this method if at all possible.

Secondly , Cursed Energy Suppression

If I couldn't remove it, what about containing it?

In some stories, curses could be controlled instead of erased.

If I could suppress its effects long enough, maybe I could buy myself more time.

I searched my memory for examples.

Then I found one.

Veyron, the Cursed Knight, of the Ancient Great War.

A warrior who wielded cursed energy, using it as a weapon instead of a burden.

Unlike me, his curse was natural—part of his very being.

He had trained for years to resist its effects.

Could I do the same?

No.

I had no cursed energy resistance. My body was already rejecting this foreign magic.

It took years to master. I had days.

My curse was in its final stage. Suppression only worked when caught early.

If I tried this, I wouldn't be suppressing the curse—I'd just be dying slower.

So it's too late.

Not an option.

Thirdly, Life Extension Elixir

If I couldn't cure or suppress the curse, could I delay its effects?

Alchemy.

Many stories had potions capable of extending life—some even cheating death.

I scoured my memory for such an elixir.

And I found one.

The "Tear of Yggdrasil."

A legendary potion known to extend life at the cost of something precious.

In the novel, it was used by a dying king to prolong his rule, in the later parts of the upcoming Great War.

But then I remembered.

The potion's creator—Elias the Grand Alchemist—hadn't been born yet.

This elixir didn't exist in this timeline.

Even if I knew the ingredients, alchemy wasn't my skill.

I had neither the time nor the expertise to create it myself.

So, now this method would be completely useless.

Fourthly, Finding a Curse Specialist

Every curse had a creator.

And every creator had a countermeasure.

Surely, somewhere in this world, there had to be an expert—someone who had studied this kind of magic.

Then I remembered the horrifying truth.

The only known curse expert in the novel was already dead.

Executed by the empire five years ago for illegal experiments.

There were no other notable figures with his knowledge.

And even if I did find someone else, would they even help me?

Powerful warlocks weren't known for their generosity.

No hope here either.

I racked my brain out, to find a single piece of hint in the story REGRESSED HERO OF THE KNIGHT'S ACADEMY, to at least delay my time of death, during which I could work something out.

But it was futile.

Closing my eyes, I spread myself over the comfortable mattress of the large sized bed.

Flashbacks of my mother and sister surfaces in front of my eyes.

Wouldn't it be just as fine even if I died here?

Maybe I would be transferred to yet another world.

Or maybe I could go back to my home, to my family.

What am I even trying so hard for?

Living a cursed life is worse than death.

Yet, there was something propelling me to find out a solution, I couldn't point out what it was.

I opened my eyes.

Four attempts. Four failures.

No purification.

No suppression.

No elixir.

No expert.

I had exhausted every reasonable option.

That left me with only one last choice.

A method that was so absurd, so risky, that no one would even consider it.

A single line buried deep within the web novel.

---

During the Great War Arc, there was an undead general—a warrior who had died in battle yet continued fighting.

His body had rotted, his heart had long stopped beating, but he refused to die.

Why?

Because of an ancient battlefield technique—a Life-Binding Pact.

In this ritual, two people would share their life force. One could not die unless the other did.

In the novel, this technique was used strategically—the undead general couldn't be killed because his life was tied to a powerful knight.

And that's when it hit me.

I wasn't planning to fight a war.

I just needed a temporary anchor.

If I could bind myself to someone far stronger than me, then as long as they lived…

I would live, too.

---

Why Was It a 1% Chance?

The ritual was lost to history. No one practiced it anymore.

It required a powerful life force. Most people weren't compatible.

It wasn't tested. If I failed, I might die immediately.

But unlike the other options, this wasn't impossible.

It could work.

And right now, I didn't need a perfect solution. I just needed hope.

I exhaled.

If this was my only chance, then I needed to find a suitable knight—someone with a monstrous life force who could handle the ritual.

And where was the best place to find such a person?

The Royal Knight's Academy.

The strongest students in the empire trained there.

If anyone could withstand a Life-Binding Pact, it would be someone from that academy.

I couldn't stay in this mansion any longer.

I grabbed my coat, tightening the cloth wrapped around my cursed wrist.

Preparing to depart for the dormitories of the Knight's Academy, I tried finding out the best possible person in the academy to bind with.

Usually, you would say, the protagonist would be the most suitable to bind with, but as I said the title, he is a regressor.

Which implies that, he can die at any moment and return back to the starting point.

So that's a no go.

His friends are, well, they keep dying so many times, for which the protagonist regresses back to save them.

Professors of the academy are quite strong too, and they have more survival rate than the main characters, but convincing them would be a Herculean task, as they all are a stubborn piece of shit.

As I was eliminating the unsuitable or difficult ones to deal with, one particular character came to my mind.

If I had to describe them, currently they are undoubtedly one of the strongest Knights of the Empire, yet unknown.

Unknown because, they hide their strength, in order to avoid unwanted attention.

And they haven't died once till the upcoming Great War, if I recall correctly.

Well, the only problematic thing I would say about them is they are a psychopath type.

They are. ....

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A/N :

Please comment down your thoughts on the chapter and suggestions if possible.

I am open to criticisms.

Next chapter : The Great Gamble

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