The lie that sets me free. Cale Henituse X Intkot

5.

Enjoy reading!

I almost forgot, does anyone know which chapter is best to start reading the novella from? I read the manga, but there's still no volume 2. And the fanfic can't wait! I need to read and understand, otherwise there might be plot holes...
___________________________________________

Time flies fast—too fast.

Four years had passed almost unnoticed, leaving behind a trail of victories and defeats.

Squad 314 hadn’t just grown; they had become a legend on the battlefield. They were feared, hated, respected, and envied—just like those who had first met Deon. They played the role of madmen who thirsted for blood and reveled in chaos, but in truth, it was all just part of their game. After all, what could be more terrifying than an enemy who doesn’t fear death? What could be worse than falling into the hands of a lunatic determined to destroy you in the most painful way possible?

Spreading fear—that was their true goal. To make their enemies believe that their lives mattered, that they didn’t want to suffer a torturous death. To make them flee, to break their resolve, to show them that they were at a disadvantage.

Deon had changed as well. His hair had grown back to its usual length. He kept meaning to cut it, but something always got in the way of visiting an actual professional.

(Once, when he was seventeen, he made the mistake of trusting his team with the task, and his hair grew so long it started obstructing his vision… Never again.)

But some things hadn’t changed, even after all these years. The ugly scars on his wrists remained, a grim reminder of a past life where his body had been covered in the marks of battle—of surviving an apocalypse. A reminder that no matter how many wounds and scars he bore, he still kept losing the people he cared about. Losing them again and again, no matter how hard he tried. No matter how much he suffered, no matter how much he sacrificed.

He hid them beneath bandages and gloves, and whenever he was in the sun, he always wore a mask. No one suspected anything—his skin was sensitive to sunlight, after all, so covering any exposed areas was just part of his routine. At least, that’s what he told himself.

Ahem. We seem to have gone off-topic.

Four years had passed, and now the moment he had been waiting for—yet dreading—had finally come.

An order from the Emperor.

Not just another military mission, the kind he could complete relying on his knowledge of tactics and experience. No, this was a special order—the kind that would grant him a single wish upon completion. The very same mission that, in the original story, had set Deon on the path to revenge.

But he wasn’t doing this for revenge. He didn’t thirst for blood, nor did he wish to kill his current family, no matter how many hints the manga had dropped about their unresolved conflicts with the protagonist. He wanted only one thing—understanding.

This was the signal. The sign that his "rest" was over and the story had finally begun. And it had begun with the very mission that was meant to unite him with the Hero’s party.

But something had gone wrong.

The story began a few years earlier.

It was supposed to happen when he was twenty-four, but here he was, getting an order at twenty.

Why?

What had he done wrong? Had he acted too soon? Had he changed the course of history? Where exactly had he made a mistake? Would his actions hurt people who were never meant to suffer? Was he ruining everything again?