EP.127 Plans Exist to Be Broken
Even to me, who couldn’t read thoughts, it was obvious that she was pretending to have severed the synchro. But how would it look to a sensitive regressor?
With a deep sigh, the regressor grasped Cheonaeng in her hand.
“Fine. If you can’t bring yourself to sever it, I’ll do it for you.”
『…!』
Pop.
This time, the attachment doll really did sever the connection and went limp. Its short limbs dangled helplessly under the pull of gravity.
I clutched the attachment doll, which looked as though its soul had departed, and wailed.
“Nooooo! My attachment dolllll!”
“Who names their own doll ‘Attachment Doll’? Stop making such a fuss.”
But I had to lighten the mood somehow if we were going to endure the serious conversation ahead!
Despite my desperate efforts, the regressor put on a solemn expression.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“Will the sun rise in the west tomorrow? Shay is seriously asking me for a favor. What is it? Let’s hear it.”
I had already read all of his thoughts. I knew what he was going to say and why he was saying it.
Yet the person before me was squeezing every last scrap of eloquence out of himself to make this request.
Was it meaningless? No. That was precisely the problem.
This meant I would have to face the regressor’s wishes head-on. It would be difficult to refuse him.
“This time, when everyone reaches the source of the Abyss under Jiseon’s guidance…”
The regressor remembered the welcome Jiseon had received only a few hours ago. Most of the people here seemed to know who Jiseon was and what achievements she had accomplished, and looked ready to spend the entire day explaining them.
By comparison, no one knew what things had been like in the previous round, but the current regressor was merely an unknown newcomer with no connections or accomplishments.
‘The other side is Jiseon, renowned and famous for her kindness to everyone. Unless she becomes the woman remembered as a calamity in the future, she must be far more famous and trustworthy than an insignificant person like me.’
The regressor knew how to objectively assess herself.
And she knew who her opponent was, as well as how extraordinary and dangerous she was.
She was well aware of the strength of Jiseon, the Earth Serpent of Reversal who heralded the coming of calamity.
The original wielder of Jizan, the Sword of Earth. The tragic protagonist who had lost her life after being defeated by the Holy Sword Brigade and the Saintess. At the same time, she was the nightmare of the Holy Imperial Church—the starting point of its downfall.
Her earth magic, combined with the Sword of Earth, possessed the power to split the ground and tilt mountains. Armies were no match for her. Even considering how short her preparation time had been because this was still early in the regression, the regressor had yet to achieve a single victory against her in one-on-one combat.
But now, she had to challenge that impossibility.
“I’ll probably end up fighting Jiseon. So…”
She was afraid, but that was a separate matter. In any case, to achieve meaningful results in this round, the regressor had to defeat her.
Only then could she learn Jiseon’s plans and hatred, obtain information, and decide how to respond.
The only thing that mattered was the result. There was no need to stubbornly insist on training or indulge her pride.
What the regressor needed was victory over Jiseon. Nothing more.
But—
“Help…”
Before she could finish the words, the regressor swallowed them and firmly closed her mouth.
‘Whose side would he take? Probably not mine. I thought of this as a disposable round, and I haven’t earned anyone’s affection here.’
The regressor had never made an effort to win people’s hearts.
No, that wasn’t entirely true.
She had once tried to persuade the progenitor of the vampires instead of assassinating her, in an attempt to turn the vampires’ hearts. She had succeeded. At the time, they had needed to unite against an approaching threat, and the regressor had possessed the strength and qualifications to share a bond with the wounded progenitor.
She had also cooperated with the Resistance. She had succeeded. By strangely exploiting the military state’s weaknesses and rampaging without regard for the consequences, she had brought the military state down.
Although they had not governed the country satisfactorily—no, they had instead ruled it even more terribly… in any case, the regressor had obtained the most reliable political backing of her life.
But regression brought all of that to an end.
It was not only failure that ended. Even the small successes she had achieved met their final end. Like water being sucked down a drain, even the small kingdom she had tended so beautifully disappeared.
No matter how diligently she had built it, no matter how much effort she had put into it.
No matter how attached she had become.
‘The only person I can ask right now is this man at the center of everyone. But will he really help me?’
Success achieved through relationships demanded far too much to lose compared to the effort required to build them. Even the outcome varied wildly depending on when one met someone.
This regression was the clearest example.
Tir, who had not been wounded, paid little attention to the regressor.
The Beast King was different from the one the regressor had seen in previous regressions.
Naturally, the regressor’s attention had turned toward power and weapons rather than relationships.
Tools did not betray you when you held them in your hand.
Even if you grew attached to a tool, you could cast it aside soon enough.
But perhaps this was the price of neglecting relationships.
‘Even if he won’t help me, I hope he won’t deny me, at least.’
Whether that was because she feared failure or because she did not want to be hurt, it was impossible to say.
“When I fight her, make sure no one interferes.”
The regressor made her request with more desperate determination than ever before.
I read wishes. It was a kind of occupational hazard—or perhaps a side effect of my ability—that made it impossible for me to refuse especially earnest and desperate requests.
But wishes did not always blow in a single direction. Sometimes winds blew from different directions, and the two would quarrel and squabble like cats and dogs.
A wish for someone to defeat another person was inevitably destined to be scattered by a headwind.
But if the request was simply not to interfere—
“What? Why would we interfere?”
I accepted the regressor’s request as though it were nothing of importance.
“I don’t know why you’re trying to fight her, but work it out yourselves. Preferably, settle it peacefully.”
“…You’re not going to stop us?”
“Why would we stop two adults from fighting? Oh, are you a minor? You do look kind of small.”
“T-There’s no way! I’ve been an adult for a long time!”
‘W-Wait, I’m nineteen right now, aren’t I? After the regression began, I picked up Cheonaeng and a few other things, then immediately jumped into the Abyss…!’
To be honest, I wouldn’t have cared even if she were a minor. That made things even less of a problem.
Rather, there was another issue. She had only picked up a few things, yet treasures of that caliber had emerged? Just how much would she have if she took everything?
In any case, I dug my pinky into my ear and said,
“If you’re both adults, that settles it. You’re both tremendously strong, too, aren’t you? Then wouldn’t interfering be idiotic unless you want to get caught in the middle and have your back broken?”
“That’s true, but…”
“And Lady Jiseon is a good person, so take it easy. She won’t try to kill Shay either… What? It’s actually a sparring match? If it’s a spar, can’t you do it even now?”
“N-No. The fight itself is serious, so…”
“Is that so? Well, I suppose you have your reasons.”
I had never intended to interfere in the first place, so her request not to interfere was convenient. I waved my hand dismissively.
“The others probably feel the same way. Tir isn’t the type to get actively involved in other people’s affairs, Aji will hole himself up if humans fight, and Rashi will be too busy protecting Kalis.”
“Is that… so?”
“Oh, surely you don’t expect Nabi to interfere, do you? Then you’re a truly terrible person. Who raises a cat hoping it’ll fight?”
“I don’t! And I’m not raising Nabi! I’m only looking after her for a while!”
In any case, the matter was settled. The regressor spoke with visible relief.
“Anyway… thank you. That’s enough.”
“Come to think of it, I’m a little offended.”
“What is it this time?”
“Surely we’ve built a relationship over the past few months. Do you really think that if the two of you suddenly started beating each other up, we’d immediately take Lady Jiseon’s side? Would we rush in shouting, ‘How dare you attack the esteemed Lady Jiseon! Die!’ and attack you without a second thought?”
The regressor mumbled before answering.
“…You wouldn’t?”
You’ve done it before, haven’t you? You’ve suddenly jumped into a fight shouting, “How dare you attack someone I know!” and picked a fight with someone.
The person on the receiving end must have felt so unjustly treated. This was why regressors were like this.
“Of course not. Even if I know that you go berserk whenever you see a right arm and try to cut it off, and even if I know that you’re a loner who never reads the mood and just keeps hovering around the edges…”
“…That’s an insult, isn’t it?”
“Even so, I know that although you may be clumsy, whenever a problem arises, you’re the first to come running to solve it. That would be impossible if you truly didn’t care about other people at all.”
“Is that an insult or a compliment?”
“If you want to split hairs, half and half? Anyway.”
I patted the regressor’s shoulder.
She hated people touching her body more than anything, but perhaps she was grateful that I had readily accepted her request. She stayed still even when I firmly grasped and shook her slender shoulders.
Or perhaps she had grown attached enough that being touched by me no longer bothered her.
“In its own way, these three months have meant something.”
Come to think of it, less than three months had passed since we first fell into the Abyss. People had invaded, we had fallen, we had fought. It felt as though so many enormous things had happened, yet the gaps between them amounted to barely a month at a time.
Like me, the regressor muttered as though entranced.
“…It’s only been three months. So much has happened.”
Strange. We felt the same way, so why did hearing her say it make me want to tease her?
I said,
“Only three months? Three months is an entire semester. In one semester, Shay could go from graduating elementary school to dropping out of middle school.”
“You really won’t let this go!”
The regressor flared up and shouted.
“It’s too humiliating! Next time, I’ll come after graduating! Just you wait. I mean it!”
“Next time? Where exactly is this ‘next time’?”
‘Oh, no. I can’t reveal that I regress…’
Wait, didn’t you say you were eighteen at the beginning of the regression? Then wouldn’t you be unable to attend even after regressing? You’d already have graduated from middle school.
My objection was cut short when the regressor came up with a truly unique solution.
“I just have to lie about my identity!”
“Why would you falsify your identity just to attend middle school?”
“I can do it! I’m also highly skilled at disguise techniques!”
‘With the Heaven-Observing Bone-Shrinking Art and Agartha’s Mask, I could probably pass for a male student who matured a little early…!’
It was less surprising that she could do it than that she had thought of doing it in the first place.
“This isn’t a question of whether it’s possible. Isn’t there something morally wrong with it?”
“Shut up! This never would have happened if it weren’t for you!”
“Wouldn’t this have been avoided if you’d gotten good grades in elementary school?”
“Everyone and their dog goes to the Military Middle School! Don’t act so proud of something like that!”
“If even dogs and cows can go, then why…?”
“Yaaaah!”
This was an unbeatable technique in this society. If you had Cheonaeng, then I had the education system. How does it taste, elementary-school graduate?
I had succeeded in teasing the regressor to my heart’s content, but I had learned nothing.
Since even the regressor had failed to discover what lay behind Jiseon’s actions in her previous rounds, there was no way for us to know.
In the end, there was only one conclusion.
We would know nothing until we reached the bottom.
Please, let nothing happen.
Forgetting even that this place was the Abyss, I prayed to the Mother Goddess.