Devourer's Legacy: I Regressed With The Primordial Crest
Chapter 76: Hope

Chapter 76: Hope

The Martial King Hobbren Corvalis.

He was a legend among mercenaries, someone who was looked up to by mercenaries all across the Astralis continent. Fifteen years ago, he had been at the peak of his career—taking on dangerous missions that others thought were impossible.

They called him "One Man, Thousand Arms" because of his mastery with every weapon imaginable. Swords, axes, spears, crossbows, daggers—it didn’t matter what he picked up, Hobbren could wield it like he’d been training with it his entire life. Other mercenaries would watch in awe as he switched between weapons mid-fight, adapting to whatever the situation required.

His reputation was built on a simple fact - Hobbren never failed a mission. Ever.

Other mercenary companies would turn down jobs that seemed too dangerous or impossible. But when clients came to Hobbren, they knew the job would get done, no matter what.

What made his achievements even more impressive was the fact that he always worked alone. Most mercenaries traveled in groups for safety, but Hobbren preferred to operate by himself. It made him faster, quieter, and he didn’t have to worry about anyone else getting in his way or slowing him down.

The money he earned was incredible. Clients would pay ridiculous amounts just to have the famous Martial King take their job. He could have bought a castle, started his own mercenary company, or lived like a noble for the rest of his life.

But Hobbren spent most of what he earned on getting better gear and new weapons. He was always looking for sharper swords, stronger armor, more accurate crossbows—anything that might give him an edge in his next mission. What money was left over, he used on himself. Good food, decent rooms at inns, quality boots that wouldn’t fall apart during long journeys.

He took the jobs because he was good at them, because they challenged him, and because he genuinely enjoyed the thrill of facing impossible odds and winning.

That was his life for years—traveling from one dangerous mission to the next, building a reputation that made him famous across the entire continent.

But that changed.

It was during one of his missions that he met the love of his life.

She wasn’t some noble lady or a princess, but a simple girl who was the daughter of a couple running a small inn in the remote region. Her name was Elena, and she had brown hair that caught the sunlight and eyes that sparkled when she laughed.

It was love at first sight. He had fallen for her completely.

She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, nor was she particularly striking in any obvious way. But something about Elena had drawn him in like nothing else ever had. Maybe it was her kindness to strangers, or the way she hummed while she worked, or how she never seemed afraid of anything.

So he started courting her.

He was an incredibly simple man when it came to matters of the heart, so it didn’t take long for Elena to realize his feelings. After some awkward conversations and a lot of nervous stuttering on his part, he managed to convince her to give him a chance.

Their courtship was the happiest time of his life. He would take breaks between missions to visit her inn, bringing her small gifts from his travels. She would cook for him and listen to his stories, and slowly but surely, she fell in love with him too.

They were married within a year.

For the first time in his life, Hobbren had something more important than fighting and money. He had a wife who loved him, a warm home to return to, and the promise of a future that didn’t involve constant danger.

When Elena became pregnant with their daughter, Hobbren realized that there were more important things in life than being the greatest mercenary alive. The moment he held his newborn daughter in his arms was the day he decided that he wanted to be there for his child, to watch her grow up, to be a real father instead of a man who was always away on dangerous missions.

So he decided to quit working as a mercenary.

But there was a problem—they needed money. A lot of money. Starting a new life, raising a child, maybe buying their own inn... all of that required more gold than they had saved up.

So Hobbren decided to take one last mission. One final job that would pay enough to set them up for life. After that, he would hang up his weapons and become a simple innkeeper alongside his wife.

It should have been easy. He was the Martial King, after all. He had never failed a mission in his entire career.

But that’s when everything went wrong.

The mission was a disaster from start to finish. His clients had lied about the dangers involved, the target was far more dangerous than they’d described.

Hobbren managed to survive, but barely. The mission was a complete failure—the first one in his entire life.

He was devastated, but he told himself it didn’t matter. He was alive, and he was going home to his family. There would be other opportunities to make money. Maybe he could take a few smaller, safer jobs to build up their savings.

But when he returned to the inn, what awaited him was the cold corpse of his wife.

Elena had been murdered.

Hobbren was shaken to the very core of his being. His beloved wife, the woman who had given meaning to his life, was gone. But if that wasn’t enough devastation for one man to bear, he couldn’t find his daughter anywhere.

His little girl was missing.

Hobbren lost all reason and sanity in that moment. No one could stop his rage. He stormed through the town like a man possessed, grabbing every person he could find and demanding answers. Where was his daughter? Who had killed his wife? Why had no one protected his family while he was away?

He broke down the door to the mayor’s office and demanded to know why nothing had been done to find the killers. The mayor tried to play dumb, claiming he knew nothing about any murder or missing child.

Enraged beyond all control, Hobbren killed the mayor with his bare hands and went on a killing spree through the town. Anyone who might have information, anyone who might have been involved, anyone who simply looked at him wrong—they all died.

He only stopped when he ran out of people to kill and still had no answers about his daughter.

Then began the desperate search.

For months, he followed every lead, tracked down every rumor, investigated every possible clue about what had happened to his daughter. But every trail went cold. Every hope turned into another dead end.

Slowly, Hobbren started to lose hope. The man who had never been defeated by any enemy was being destroyed by his own failure to find his child.

He turned to alcohol, trying to drown the pain that ate at him every waking moment. But even drinking himself unconscious every night didn’t help. The pain was always there when he woke up.

Eventually, he gave up on everything. He stopped searching, stopped caring about his appearance, stopped caring about living. He thought there was nothing left in this world worth fighting for, and he decided to drink himself to death in some forgotten corner of the continent.

That was when Zain had appeared with news about his daughter.

Now, sitting in this room and listening to Renard explain where his daughter was being held, Hobbren felt something he hadn’t experienced in years.

Hope!

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