Chapter 20
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Traveler III
Shin No-a
6
Dang Seo-rin's story has an aftermath.
No, actually all of my stories belong to aftermaths. At least until I go to the 1183rd iteration.
So strictly speaking, Dang Seo-rin's story had many aftermaths, and it would be more accurate to say I'll mention only a few of them.
"Oh my. Undertaker, you're awake?"
The day after the victory celebration for the Ten Clans subjugation.
Everyone had passed out drunk. Those who could hold their liquor got drunk proportionally, and those who couldn't got drunk proportionally too. The Ten Clans' heads were worthy side dishes.
When dawn was fading into blue, unable to forget night's lingering traces, Dang Seo-rin stood beneath a white pine. Alone. Her shadow was seeing off the night that had already passed rather than waiting for the sun.
"Yes. I'm awake."
"Head doesn't hurt? You were drinking incredibly hard with the Sword Saint."
"I'm the type who gets drunk quickly and wakes quickly. I naturally have little morning sleep. How about you, Alliance Leader? Are you in good condition too?"
"Of course. I'm always good."
Dang Seo-rin's voice saying so was still hoarse. No wonder—yesterday she had chanted magic for 41 minutes straight on the battlefield, and at the afterparty she'd even sung passionately. Even a singer with vocal cords made of steel wouldn't have escaped without losing their voice.
"Guess hearing 'Alliance Leader' from you is slowly coming to an end. A little sad, that."
"Well, the Ten Clans are dead, but we don't know what other monsters might pop out. There's a high probability another guild alliance will be formed then. You'll have to be Alliance Leader again then."
"True enough."
Dang Seo-rin quietly looked up at the dawn sky.
"True enough."
I too hadn't fully shaken the alcohol from my head yet, so expecting the blue sky to disinfect the booze, I absently joined the lineup of spectators.
I doubted the sky had such disinfecting functions, but what did it matter.
When the day sky received people's sweat and the night sky received people's dreams, the thoughts that still hadn't found direction were dawn's portion to receive.
"Hey."
The wind beside me opened its mouth.
"Want to hear what my dream is?"
"I know. Conquering every famous restaurant in the world."
"Ah, that's right too. Right. Can't give that up."
Dang Seo-rin nodded seriously.
"But what I'm talking about now is a different dream."
A different dream?
I tilted my head. Was there another dream? From the 4th iteration to the 6th, I served under Dang Seo-rin as guild master, but I'd never heard of another dream.
"Ah. Are you perhaps talking about the ambition to truly raise three thousand elite guild members and live up to the name Three Thousand Worlds?"
"Oh. That was there too. What is it, Undertaker?"
Dang Seo-rin looked at my face as if seeing me anew.
"You always have this vibe like you're not interested in other people at all, but you unexpectedly know me well? Are you a Dang Seo-rin otaku? But sorry to say to a fan, that's not it—that's a different dream."
"Then I really don't know. What is it?"
"Railway travel."
Dang Seo-rin slightly raised her heels toward the dawn and reached out her hand.
Five fingers steeply grasped the sky.
"I want to travel by train through this world that's ended up like this."
"...By train?"
"Yeah. Don't need some grand train. A junk train. Just a single car that I customize myself."
She hummed as if singing.
"Something that breaks down all the time and won't even roll its wheels unless I take care of it, where I can eat, sleep, travel, and even hang laundry. Like a camper or yacht."
"I'm not sure proper railways remain. Even the KTX trains that Three Thousand Guild uses as temporary lodging can't operate, can they? Single-lane roads are maintained in the Busan defense line, but."
"Well that's. Somehow with mysterious magical power."
Dang Seo-rin made yak-yak sounds while miming boxing.
"I go forward in this world, fixing broken railways one by one. From station to station, forever. Behind where I pass, pretty rails are always laid down."
"Hmm."
"Going and going and going... and then. When I can't go anymore and arrive at some shabby train station on a beach. When I arrive at a station where a single utility pole stands like a lonely station attendant."
"...."
Dang Seo-rin didn't continue speaking.
Suddenly feeling something strange, I looked at Dang Seo-rin's face.
It was an odd thing to say, but I felt like she might collapse at any moment.
"Alliance Leader?"
"Hmm."
Dang Seo-rin blinked. She leaned against the broom she always carried (she claimed it was a witch's essential item).
Her complexion was the same as always.
"Undertaker. Still won't join my guild and become vice guild master? As you know, our guild is going places. An opportunity like this won't come again. You'll regret it later and it won't do any good?"
"...I thought it was something else. I won't accept the conical hat."
"Really? Then it can't be helped, I guess."
Dang Seo-rin walked away.
While lightly waving her hand behind her back.
"Bye-bye—I'm going to take a little walk and go back. I'm going to enjoy the atmosphere alone so don't follow."
"When will you return?"
"Let's see. About an hour?"
One hour passed, then two hours, and Dang Seo-rin didn't return.
The guild alliance urgently dispatched a search party.
Three hours after her disappearance, Dang Seo-rin was found collapsed on a forest path.
Since that day, Dang Seo-rin couldn't rise again.
7
"How is Guild Master Three Thousand's condition?"
"That is... strange."
The medical team's faces were dark.
"Overall bodily functions have declined. We checked thinking it might be curse-type, but that's not it either. I can only say it's truly strange... I'm sorry to convey such words, but it wouldn't be strange if she closes her eyes at any time."
"I see."
I mentally prepared myself and entered the hospital room. One of the few hospitals in Korea still operating normally—a private room.
My eyes met Dang Seo-rin's by the window.
She was reading a novel. Not the train she so loved, but with her body weight entrusted to wheelchair wheels.
"...."
"...."
Silence flowed for a while.
About 30 seconds passed. Dang Seo-rin closed the novel with a tap and placed it on her knees.
"It's lifespan."
The first words from someone I hadn't seen in two weeks.
"Lifespan?"
"Yeah. That's the main point anyway, right? I hate this kind of atmosphere. Let's just say it quickly and talk about something else."
Dang Seo-rin shrugged. That expression and gesture were no different from usual Dang Seo-rin, so if I hadn't seen the wheelchair, I couldn't have believed something was wrong with her.
No.
It wasn't just the wheelchair. The conical hat hung on the hospital room hanger, and the broom leaned against the wall not as a witch's essential item but like a mere old cleaning tool.
I felt this hospital room was an insult to the person called Dang Seo-rin.
"My magic grows stronger the more remaining lifespan I burn. Not just magic—it's an ability I awakened. I named it magnificently [Equivalent Exchange]. Well, it's not an unfamiliar ability, is it?"
"Then..."
"That's right. Wow, that Ten Clans kid was really terribly tenacious. What kind of monster survives until I chant the 10th Melody? I thought I'd die right there—I don't know how I survived until now. Anyway, I didn't catch a disease."
I couldn't easily speak.
Not because words to comfort the other person didn't come to mind. I was simply feeling no small shock.
'She never revealed it even once.'
That Dang Seo-rin was a multi-ability awakener.
That besides magic-type abilities, she had an ability to temporarily gain firepower by burning her own lifespan.
Even when I served beside her as Three Thousand Guild's second-in-command, Dang Seo-rin never revealed her secret weapon.
Because.
"...In the fight to subjugate the Ten Clans, did you intend to die anyway?"
"Yeah."
Dang Seo-rin nodded refreshingly.
"It was an enemy that couldn't guarantee victory without risking my life. Right? You too, the Sword Saint too, the awakened ones who participated in battle too, the soldiers and civilian volunteers who supported backup too. All of them."
Those words couldn't be denied.
Hadn't I myself thrown away 7 lives?
Suddenly, words Dang Seo-rin had said in previous iterations came to mind. Words she'd murmured with Ten Clans subjugation before her eyes.
- 30 minutes. Just hold out for 30 minutes somehow. I'll construct grand magic and blow off the Ten Clans' heads.
- Undertaker. Sword Saint. By any means necessary, hold out for 25 minutes... no, 30 minutes.
At that time, Dang Seo-rin must have already been prepared for her own death.
Therefore, she had actually asked this:
- Hold out for 30 minutes until I die.
But the Ten Clans subjugation took 41 minutes.
It must have been a consumption of lifespan far beyond her limits.
"...."
I found it hard to calm my stirring heart.
To me, regression was also a tool to test others' possibilities. Most people changed their actions and results when iterations changed. But some things didn't change no matter how many times I regressed.
Strength of heart and firmness of conviction.
Until now, Dang Seo-rin had discussed Ten Clans subjugation and mentioned 30 minutes without a single exception.
In any iteration, her action principle of 'sacrificing her own life to destroy humanity's enemy' hadn't changed.
"If you consume lifespan, specifically how does Equivalent Exchange work?"
"Ah. When I awakened the ability, it showed my body's original lifespan was 85 years. Then now, if I think in my heart 'I'll use X years from my remaining 60 years,' firepower automatically strengthens."
"Then in the Ten Clans subjugation battle, did you consume over 60 years?"
"Hmm, well..."
Dang Seo-rin narrowed her brows.
"That's really strange, you know."
"Yes?"
"Did I tell you? I actually didn't expect to last over 30 minutes while casting Primary Song Chanting. If my calculations were right, reaching even the 6th Melody was barely possible."
Dang Seo-rin propped her chin.
"Originally, this Primary Song Chanting magic—the more melodies overlap, the more magic power consumed increases exponentially. Truly exponentially. No matter how much 60 years of lifespan was consumed, theoretically reaching the 10th Melody is impossible."
"But you sang it well."
"Right. Amazing, isn't it? Even while chanting behind you guys, in my heart I was constantly going 'why does this work? why is this working?' with lots of question marks floating around."
"...."
"Sigh, I was breaking out in cold sweat."
It was then.
A strange premonition—not anxiety or foreboding, but with waves infinitely similar—spread up my back.
"Alliance Leader. Then exactly how many years of lifespan did you consume in the Ten Clans subjugation battle?"
"Hmm? I was so out of it then I didn't count one by one. Let me see..."
"...Perhaps about 250 years?"
"Oh."
Dang Seo-rin nodded.
"Correct. Not exactly, but it was definitely more than 200 years and definitely less than 300 years. About 250 years. How did you know?"
Electric current, a realization, raced through my body.
For example. So really, let's assume hypothetically.
——What if Dang Seo-rin's unconsumed lifespan was 'inherited' to the 'next iteration'?
I don't know what ending Dang Seo-rin met from the 1st to 3rd iterations. Probably she fought the Ten Clans then too.
But without Old Man Sho and me, even if we entered the subjugation battle, the death squad would be annihilated in just 5 minutes.
Dang Seo-rin would have died without even a chance to cast Primary Song Chanting.
Dang Seo-rin's original lifespan was 85 years.
Subtracting her current age from this, and even deducting lifespan used here and there outside of Ten Clans subjugation, about 45 years of lifespan remained.
In other words.
From the 1st to 5th iterations where Ten Clans subjugation couldn't properly occur, Dang Seo-rin ended up leaving 40-45 years of lifespan intact per iteration.
From the 6th iteration when Old Man Sho joined, the Ten Clans subjugation gained speed. That much, Dang Seo-rin could leisurely burn her lifespan.
10 more years, 15 more years, 20 more years.
Dang Seo-rin's lifespans gradually 'accumulated' little by little.
Thus when reaching the 10th iteration, she had—without knowing—saved 250 years' worth of time in an account named lifespan.
'If this reasoning is true.'
The lifespans Dang Seo-rin had accumulated over past iterations were unfortunately all used up in this 10th iteration.
But my regression didn't end at the 10th iteration. It would continue on. And depending on circumstances, Dang Seo-rin might continue saving lifespan.
'If it accumulates past 250 years to 500 years? If 1000 years, 2000 years accumulate?'
I couldn't suppress the trembling.
"Guild Master."
"Yes?"
I called Dang Seo-rin Guild Master as before without realizing. Dang Seo-rin didn't seem to notice anything strange and tilted her head as usual.
"Why?"
"I have something important to say."
8
That I'm a regressor.
That perhaps your lifespan might have accumulated with each iteration.
"That's amazing!"
While listening to my reasoning, Dang Seo-rin was interested, surprised, and had twinkling eyes.
"Undertaker, you were actually my underling?"
"Is that the point you're surprised at...?"
"Of course! Then that's what to be surprised at. Wow, the other me in different iterations was amazing too. My eyes weren't wrong after all. A conical hat suits your physique. Hey hey, Undertaker. Want to be witch friends with me?"
What on earth are witch friends.
"Do you not consider the possibility that my words are lies?"
"Hmm? Why would I consider that possibility? We're comrades. If you're a regressor, then that's really how it is."
Dang Seo-rin laughed small while sweeping away a cough.
The vibration of her coughing trickled her remaining lifespan thinly into the air.
"Anyway, you have a similar dream to me."
"Yes?"
"You're going forward while repairing the rails broken in this world one by one. The rails the Ten Clans broke. The abandoned lines other monsters destroyed. If you fix them span by span like that, someday the tracks will connect from station to station, and other people will be able to walk that path too."
"...."
"Not bad."
Even if I didn't have [Perfect Memory Ability], I would never have forgotten the words I heard this day, this moment.
Dang Seo-rin grinned.
"And it's coincidental. I can't walk together on the rails you're going, but at least my lifespan will follow behind with the exact same stride as yours. We can't travel together while alive, but in death we're companions."
Dang Seo-rin reached out her hand while maintaining her smile to the end.
The novel on her knees slipped and fell. Chwaruk. White pages that couldn't become wings, bound by the formal wear, stopped mid-spread on the floor.
Dang Seo-rin's eyes were shining brilliantly.
Her five fingers gripped my forearm tightly. Someone who lost parents and younger siblings all to monsters, someone who therefore could only like witches and railways, someone who couldn't stop at being just a slightly strange person—she was grabbing my arm.
Strongly.
"Don't waste my lifespan carelessly. Use it well. Undertaker."
"...."
"I had to reach the 10th Melody to defeat the Ten Clans. This is too much waste. You need to become a little stronger."
It turned out that way.
"I shouldn't excessively consume my lifespan with Primary Song Chanting. This is just my hunch, but somehow I feel the Ten Clans aren't the end. Those guys might be stronger. I might need not 250 years but 500 years, 1000 years. My lifespan needs to be accumulated as much as possible to prepare for the monsters that will appear after the Ten Clans."
It turned out that way.
"And don't reveal to the next iteration's me that you're a regressor unless it's really necessary. I'm greedy and a follower of the spending god. I absolutely can't think 'let's throw away this iteration for the next one.' If I learn I have hundreds of years of lifespan remaining, I'll definitely use it up for the current iteration. Guide my lifespan to accumulate until the truly final crisis—really, truly the final crisis—arrives."
It turned out that way.
"And in other iterations too, always become my vice guild master."
That didn't turn out that way.
Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly.
"Let's get along well from now on. Traveler of my time."
That night, Dang Seo-rin died.
Dang Seo-rin's remains were scattered at sea.
Keeping her last will wasn't easy.
I grew stronger, and the Ten Clans could no longer force me into hard battles. The need for Dang Seo-rin to chant up to the 10th Melody in Ten Clans subjugation battles also disappeared.
But even with the Ten Clans gone, strong enemies continued to appear, and each time, Dang Seo-rin stood at the forefront.
She always stood at the forefront. The very edge of broken tracks was always where she headed.
Subtly backing her up when she kept trying to use her lifespan was harder than expected. Eventually, a disaster occurred midway where all the lifespans reset completely.
Of course, it was just a single mistake.
Now past the 1000th iteration, by my calculation, Dang Seo-rin's lifespan has accumulated to tens of thousands of years.
At the very least, over 30,000 years of lifespan.
'If she sings now, how far could she go?'
Sometimes while drinking coffee, I sink into imagination.
The scene of Dang Seo-rin standing on some battlefield, singing.
1st Melody, 2nd Melody, 3rd Melody... no matter how much they continue and overlap, her song doesn't end, eventually resounding to all beaches where this world's tracks connect, beyond the horizon.
Only then would Dang Seo-rin finally arrive at the beach she'd wished for. Wearing a conical hat, holding a staff in her arms, aboard a single-car train.
I hope to hear that song someday, while also secretly hoping that day never comes.
In recent iterations too, whenever Dang Seo-rin happens to form a connection with me, she asks like this. Exactly as when I first met her in the 4th iteration.
"Undertaker. Any thoughts on joining my guild? I can give you the vice guild master position."
Then I answer with a small smile.
"I won't join."
It can't be helped.
The conical hat is a bit much, isn't it, Guild Master?
- Traveler. End.
An infinite regressor telling stories.