Restarting from zero. Test runs and preparations

<Loop 2>

Realizing that Mordred looped properly and that he was the only one among Subaru and him that experienced it, Mordred eventually brought Subaru and Glen to an empty alley again, and then Glen left soon after.

Looking sternly at Subaru, Mordred took off his sword from his shoulder with a swing and reversed his grip. Holding his sword with both hands and pointing it downwards, Clarent struck the stone floor with its tip with a clang.

At the same time, with a crimson flash of light, a full-plate heavy armor appeared on Mordred's body this time.

Holding his sword in front of him, Mordred announced proudly: "I am Mordred Pendragon, the one and true heir of Arthur Pendragon."

A smirk appeared on Mordred's face as he looked at Subaru with suspicion, saying, "Now then, I have some questions for you, Natsuki Subaru - just who the hell are you and how do you know about Britain?"

Subaru was completely casual in front of Mordred's act and only smiled. 'Cool! It's almost like in the anime! This armor is really badass. Too bad Mordred didn't ask if I'm his master. But, how do I know about Britain? What should I say?'

For the second time, Mordred and Subaru then had a short talk with things going similarly to the first timeline - Mordred introduced himself as Mordred from another world.

"Then let's split up," Mordred said. "This way we'll cover more ground."

"Split up?" Subaru parroted, raising his eyebrows. "Well sure! See you later, Mordred!"

Just like in the first timeline, Mordred and Subaru split up.

Given that Mordred is able to loop, on this first loop he firstly wanted to spy on Subaru and see when, how and where he met Emilia. Thinking in his mind, whether he decides to invest this girl or not, he could still make good connections with her for various reasons, and it would only help him on his path to the throne.

…

With superhuman eyesight and hearing further enhanced with mana, Mordred continued tailing and observing Subaru from the distance - among other things, he watched as Subaru wandered around randomly, walked into a women's bathroom, walked into a pub for demihumans, was chased away from the pub and then fell into a river.

Mordred had to say that it was a good show!

There were people that clearly noticed that Mordred was acting somewhat suspicious and threw him strange looks, but he didn't care - this world was a test run anyway.

In the distance, Mordred could hear Subaru's murmuring: "Damn, I came here from Earth as one of the heroes, but what's the point if I didn't get any skills? How do I unlock my abilities? Mordred was already strong in the first place before he came here, this isn't fair."

He then heard yelling: "And my starting gear is way too shabby too! Mordred at least brought his sword along. Then where is my Excalibur or something?! More importantly, where is the cute girl that summoned me? Did she summon me only to leave me here?"

"Ah, is she finally here?! The cute girl that summoned… me," Subaru's voice was suddenly cut.

Mordred continued spying quietly. 'The thugs attacked Subaru, Felt ran over and disappeared, and then Subaru fought the thugs, before getting beat up. Is someone playing a joke on me? It was almost like re-watching the anime in real life.'

"Aaarh! MORDREDOO!"

'Oh, fuck. He's calling for me!' Mordred gulped from behind a corner. Should he come up and be the hero? But… The entire point of this loop was to only observe.

Mordred stayed down while the thugs kept kicking Subaru all over. He's able to re-do everything, so he was not anxious to take action this time around.

As if to respond to Subaru's cries of hope, the main heroine appeared to save him: "That's enough!"

'It's obviously Emilia that appeared. So this is the spot that they met at. Next Emilia will probably heal Subaru just like in the novel and stay with him there,' Mordred thought to himself while Emilia argued with the thugs.

'Once Puck appears he might be able to detect me? Should I just leave now, keep observing and risk being found out or join them?' Mordred thought for a while, but he still decided to stay down.

Soon, Emilia chased away the thugs and chose to stay behind to heal the unconscious Subaru with Puck. It seemed that even if Puck detected Mordred, he didn't take action and only stayed on guard.

After a while, Mordred left - there was no point in staying there anymore. He then went into a random side alley to use Mana Burst to call in Reinhard to train with him for the reminder of the loop, but before Mordred even had a chance, a certain young man suddenly entered the alley.

"I am Reinhard. May I know your name?" a red haired young man asked.

Mordred said, "My name is Mordred."

"So it's Mordred," Reinhard said without taking his eyes away from Mordred. "As for why I'm here? Well, I saw you follow a certain person around and felt that it's a bit suspicious."

It appeared that Reinhard noticed Mordred spying on Subaru, which was not that surprising.

Mordred chose to speak truthfully, "The person that I followed is my acquaintance that I recently met, his name is Subaru. I felt that he was strange, so I spied on him for some time. I didn't have any evil intentions toward him."

"I see," Reinhard said, his expression slightly easing. Smiling, he asked, "Mordred, can you tell me where you come from?"

Bit by bit Mordred introduced himself to Reinhard, except that this time his helmet wasn't a part of his armor and Reinhard seemed to have detected his royal or dragon blood early. Not long later, Reinhard hurriedly dragged Mordred to the registration.

Soon, there was huge commotion in the registration office when Mordred turned out to be the prophesied knight candidate.

But Mordred brushed it aside for the time being and only requested to spar with Reinhard. Reinhard, naturally, agreed. Once they were on the training field, Mordred admitted that he was mostly a beginner and requested Reinhard to guide him, which he did.

For a few hours, Mordred practiced various sword strikes, foot work and also sparred seriously with Reinhard, polishing his combat skills and mana usage. When it was getting dark, Mordred decided to have a practice fight with Elsa.

This time around when facing Elsa, Mordred didn't use any tricks or Mana Burst in the beginning that could attract Reinhard, but used Elsa as a polishing stone to improve his true swordsmanship, parrying ability and how he handles pressure, fighting her purely with his physical body and instincts.

In the end, Mordred used one more Mana Burst and split his skull again, ending his own life in a millisecond nearly painlessly.

***

<Loop 3>

'I can't read this.' Subaru squinted his eyes, looking at one of the price plates.

"You can buy several different kinds of fruits to try, I'll package them for you, misters," the fruit merchant said with a warm smile, seeing Mordred's spaced-out expression and Subaru's dull expression as the two of them looked at the fruits on his stall.

"Sir Mordred, did something happen?" Subaru asked, seeing how Mordred's visage turned to a spaced-out one and then shocked all of sudden. Some kind of special event?

Mordred opened his eyes wide, before he smirked. He lightly said, "No, it's nothing. Let's go."

He waved his hand and proceeded to walk toward the alley again.

There was one thing that Mordred never understood about Subaru in the show and that annoyed him - Subaru had the ability to turn back time that relied on him dying, but he NEVER made any preparations that could give him a swift and painless death. There was only a single time where Subaru jumped off a cliff, dying instantly, but other than that it was as if the author hated him and there were always new and more gruesome ways for Subaru to die for the reader's entertainment.

What about some sort of poison that he would carry? What about a meteor mana-bomb that could instantly blow up his entire head and reset the world painlessly? Not mentioning more intricate methods such as curses or the like, Subaru didn't even carry a simple slim dagger with him that he could use to impale his brain through his eye to end it instantly! Or he could at least stab his heart to speed up the process. No, Subaru obviously had to wait for the rabbits to slowly eat him alive or die gradually in other ways, as otherwise it would be too boring.

Mordred felt that the majority of Subaru's 'suffering' was completely unnecessary only for the readers to pity him, and Subaru brought it on himself purely due to his incompetence in preparing suicide options and due to getting himself into troublesome situations.

Due to his repeated foolishness Subaru even destroyed his own mana Gate - his main and only chance at that time of ever having any decent strength in this world! If not for destroying his gate, Subaru wouldn't actually be as defenseless and weak, and wouldn't suffer half as much in the later parts of the story.

Mordred respected the novel's Subaru for his perseverance and will to endure, but he didn't pity the stupid.

As for his own situation, Mordred found that using a simple Mana Boosted chop to his head could let him reset the world with little pain or discomfort, so with such a simple reset button he will certainly abuse the crap out of Return by Death in the future!

…

Another loop.

With a crimson flash of light, a full-plate heavy armor appeared on Mordred's body. Holding his sword in front of him, Mordred introduced himself to Subaru again: "I am Mordred Pendragon, the one and true heir of Arthur Pendragon."

A smirk appeared on Mordred's face as he looked at Subaru with suspicion, saying, "Now then, I just used the last power of my Holy Grail to summon a powerful magus, but you just seem to be an ordinary human. Just who the hell are you?"

Subaru looked at Mordred in surprise. So Mordred was the one who summoned him! Regarding what Mordred just said, Subaru didn't doubt it - after all, Mordred was the first special NPC that approached him and even knew about his summoning.

After a moment, Subaru's expression returned to normal and he smiled. "I might be an ordinary human now, but I just need to unlock my magic. You summoned the best magus there is!"

Subaru sent Mordred a thumbs up. He then asked, "So, what's our first quest?"

***

Another loop.

With a crimson flash of light, full-plate heavy armor appeared all over Mordred's body. Holding his sword in front of him, Mordred introduced himself to Subaru once again: "I am Mordred Pendragon, the one and true heir of Arthur Pendragon."

A smirk appeared on Mordred's face as he looked at Subaru with suspicion, saying, "Now then, I just used the last power of my Holy Grail to summon a familiar, but instead it's you who appeared. Natsuki Subaru, what a strange name. What species are you? Is this your human form?"

…

A number of loops later. (no comedy)

Reinhard wasn't completely sure what to expect when the prophesied Knight candidate - Mordred - requested to have a spar with him. All of the discovered Royal Candidates so far were all outstanding individuals, so he thought that Mordred would have a similar level to Crush Karsten, Priscilla Barielle, or even one of the strongest knights Julius Juukulius, even if Mordred might be a little stronger. However, what Reinhard experienced was beyond his expectations - the newcomer Mordred might be the second strongest of the nation, second to him!

Reinhard was able to respond to Mordred's lightning-like attacks thanks to his inhuman instincts and Mordred ramping up the tempo gradually, but the Knight Candidate's bursts of explosive speed and monstrous strength still surprised him. When Reinhard was not prepared to use sufficient mana to block Mordred's attacks, he felt his arms going numb from the strikes!

There was also Mordred's swordsmanship - although it seemed crude and violent, it was extremely effective and dangerous in its own way. Reinhard's grandfather's swordsmanship might be more exquisite and beautiful, and Wilfhelm van Astrea was once even called the strongest swordsman of his era for that very reason, but Mordred would still come out victorious if they fought thanks to his explosiveness, and easily at that if his opponent was the current aged Wilfhelm.

'This speed and strength, these reflexes, he's just like Cecilus. If it was a true life and death battle, what level could he display?' A thought ran through Reinhard's mind as he gazed at Mordred in front of him with an incredulous look.

Reinhard understood that Mordred being comparable to Cecilus Segmunt the Blue Lightning that Reinhard once fought, the strongest of the Sacred Vollachia Empire, meant that by extension Mordred could very likely also defeat Reinhard's mother - the previous generation Sword Saint Theresia van Astrea. And it had to be mentioned that Mordred was still young, younger than him, a teenager - just what level could Mordred achieve in his twenties or thirties?

Mordred unrestrainedly smiled with his helmet off, enjoying Reinhard's surprised expression.

What was previously supposed to be only a few loops of the first day in order to gather some information and prepare for the final redo turned out to be over 300 loops spent on hardcore practice of his swordsmanship and combat.

And Mordred's current level was the result.

Mordred felt that he was now nearing his potential as a Saber. After around a year, due to various factors, he made tremendous progress and as he saw it - returned close to Mordred's original peak.

Throughout the loops, Mordred's improvements were very noticeable and rapid - the type of training that he engaged in simply couldn't compare to an ordinary knight's! After each loop, Mordred's mana and body's condition returned to their peak, and he was able to engage in hours of extremely efficient training, undisturbed by any worries or anything.

Mordred believed that one of the major reasons behind him reaching his current frightening level so quickly was very likely something like muscle memory that caused him to naturally gravitate toward making certain movements. It was as if his body had once wielded a sword, but he had forgotten all about it.

Another was Reinhard's guidance. Not only was Mordred able to receive instructions from Reinhard, but he was also able to spar with him and go all out, having serious daily spars with the Sword Saint - the most talented and strongest swordsman and also strongest being alive!

Furthermore, Mordred knew that Reinhard had the Divine Protection of Training Mastery and also others, making him very proficient at helping other people reach their potential. As Mordred recalled Arc 5 of the novel, Reinhard was even able to turn the useless thug trio from the capital into powerful warriors in just a year; in that case just how would Mordred react?

Other than that, Mordred also regularly had literal life-and-death battles with Elsa at the loot house in which he didn't rely on his Mana Burst but pure swordsmanship. Elsa might have much lower basic physical parameters than Mordred, but her talent and reflexes as a fighter were still incredible and left a long-lasting impression on Mordred. Even with a huge base advantage, Mordred suffered many wounds from Elsa in his attempt to polish his combat ability.

And in the first place, Mordred had an outstanding talent in swordsmanship that might not be inferior to Artoria's, but her inferiority might simply be caused by less experience. Mordred remembered the Fate Mordred's lore well, so he was aware that as a homunculus with rapid growth she became a Knight of a Round Table thanks to her outstanding self-taught swordsmanship just a few years after being born!

Naturally, under such favorable circumstances of Day 1 Mordred didn't need more time than a year to polish his combat ability to near-perfection.

Mordred smiled and said, "Reinhard, let's take a break. Can I take a bath in the manor? I haven't bathed in almost a year."

"..."

Reinhard blinked his eyes. Looking at Mordred, he wanted to say that it wasn't a problem, but then he felt absolutely speechless, the reason being - Mordred was telling the truth!

Mordred chuckled and came over to fist-bump Reinhard after their spar. He had spent so much time with Reinhard, and even received so much training and help from him, that Mordred already considered Reinhard his close brother.

Some time later, Mordred was enjoying a bath by himself in the Astrea Manor, in the same place as during the first loop.

At this moment Mordred's progress in swordsmanship slowed down to a crawl, so he decided to make it his last loop before an attempt at the final run.

Looking back, Mordred felt that he made the right decision to loop the first day and master his swordsmanship first.

At this moment Mordred was completely fresh in this world and didn't have any close relations to other people apart from Reinhard. Thanks to that, he felt that he could use this chance to enter a hardcore isolated training mode in a loop of the same day without going insane and without developing unreasonable feelings for others or turning straight-out apathetic and indifferent.

There would still be a need for looping in the future for other reasons like mastering magic that Mordred also planned to do, but thanks to already reaching near-peak in his swordsmanship with Reinhard, he won't need to loop nearly as much and his future relationships will also be more natural, all at the cost of growing close to Reinhard due to repeating day 1.

Apart from diligent training, during this time Mordred also spent a lot of time on introspection, thinking a lot about his own beliefs, his goals and his meaning behind living, as well as his attitude and view on Return by Death.

By putting a lot of thought into it, Mordred warned himself of the dangers to his mental state that this ability might represent, and he set things straight.

Return by Death was an incredible ability with amazing potential, and Mordred felt eternally grateful toward Satella for it, but he understood that it was also very dangerous for the user's mentality, especially since Mordred could hit the reset button very easily and was also a very greedy and ambitious individual.

Mordred realized that he definitely didn't want Return by Death to control him, making him feel forced to feel that he should always make things absolutely perfect just because he can redo a near infinite number of times.

Although Mordred was dedicated to his training and was very greedy, there was also a powerful slothful part of him that didn't want to redo things too many times as long as things worked out great. He was quite selfish, so as long as he and the few people he cared about, or maybe also those in his vicinity, have a great ending, then he wouldn't care too much about others. He didn't have a hero complex and didn't feel obliged to be the entire world's savior just because he could redo!

Thinking about it, Mordred felt that he was quite compatible with this ability, but just to be on the safe side, he sometimes reaffirmed his beliefs before using Return by Death. With his path seeming to be destined to be quite smooth in the future, Mordred's main concern, apart from Pandora, was his mental health.

'Testing every single option every time is a dangerous concept that can lead to madness and it takes the joy out of living. I cannot die anyway, so without some randomness how could life be fun?' Mordred thought in his heart as he enjoyed the warm bath. After a while, he smiled. 'Anyway, in a single day I looped for longer than Subaru during four arcs of the novel. It's time to move on with the plot!'