24-Hour Hoebinghwan Consultation Office: Episode 9
Rora briefly fell silent.
But the silence was short-lived.
She soon pointed toward the mansion.
“Welcome, Customer! I am Rora, head of the Rien family who has inherited the will of the god Ririen, who governs time and fate, and a Hoebinghwan specialist consultant.”
Sorinte stared blankly for a moment at Rora, whose suddenly wary demeanor vanished as she put on an elegant, bright smile, but—
“Please, follow me.”
Seeing Rora turn toward the mansion as if nothing had happened, Sorinte had no choice but to follow after her.
‘She wasn’t surprised by the word “regression.”’
The image of Rora, who hadn’t shown the slightest agitation upon hearing the word “regression,” kept coming to mind.
‘Damn it!’
But contrary to his thoughts, Rora’s heart was trembling severely.
Especially while walking with Sorinte behind her, Rora’s expression gradually crumpled like paper soaked in water. It was completely different from her resolute back.
‘This makes no sense!’
Just last night, the customer “Possessor Ion” had come and gone.
And he was from Joseon—no, the Republic of Korea, and moreover—
‘He was the Crown Prince!’
The Crown Prince himself had come as a customer.
‘And now a regressor appears here too?’
In Hoebinghwan, after “Bing” comes “Hoe”?
‘…Strange.’
It felt as though cold sweat was trickling down her back.
Rora felt as if the surrounding temperature had strangely plummeted.
‘Something is going strangely.’
The Rien family, which had continued its history for thousands of years.
That family’s law had been broken for five hundred years.
Because customers hadn’t come.
But just when customers finally appeared and she thought the law would be fulfilled!
‘Instead, events that completely shatter the law are happening!’
Did something happen to Lady Ririen? Or did Lady Ririen cause some kind of accident?
Thinking such blasphemous thoughts toward a god, Rora felt she needed to pull herself together.
“Please have a seat, Customer.”
Pointing to the seat the Crown Prince had sat in yesterday, she sat across from him.
A gentle smile on her lips, a calm voice filled with trustworthiness in her throat—that was Rora. But her eyes were quite sharp.
Sorinte Cheoseu.
The madman judged to eventually ruin the ducal family.
‘…Different.’
Definitely, the Sorinte facing her now was different from what she had heard up until now.
‘Calm.’
For one thing, the madman wasn’t holding liquor in his hands.
His clothes were a bit haphazardly worn, but at least all the buttons were fastened.
‘But he looks spaced out.’
Sorinte looked somewhat dazed.
His greatly confused eyes wandered as if he’d lost his soul, his face was haggard as if he hadn’t slept for several nights, and moreover, the corners of his eyes were slightly red. As if he had been crying.
‘Did he cry?’
Rora suddenly realized he was one of the typical regressor customer types.
‘Spaced out, but not a face plunged in despair.’
Rather, his eyes were full of vitality.
He was definitely different from the possessing Crown Prince Diante.
“As I mentioned, I help Hoebinghwan customers by inheriting the will of the god Ririen. Of course, I receive appropriate compensation for that.”
Red eyes, stained red around the edges, stared at Rora.
Rora held out a cup filled with warm milk.
“Customer, you’ve regressed?”
“…That’s right. If—if this place is not a dream.”
Rora could see Sorinte’s hands trembling finely.
They were beautiful hands without a single scar.
His fingertips shook, unable to find direction. They trembled finely.
“I—”
Even without Rora asking, the regressor opened his mouth first.
“I was the famous madman of the ducal family before my regression. Thinking only of my own pain, I didn’t know the preciousness of the family who stayed by my side without change. Only I mattered to me.”
His voice trembled more and more.
Unable to even look at Rora, he fixed his gaze somewhere on the table.
His eyes shook.
“I pretended not to see those who consistently tried to approach me, and I tried to bring down the ducal family. I should have stopped, yet in the end, I brought down the ducal family.”
Hmm.
Rora swallowed a groan inwardly without showing it.
“I should have stopped there, I should have stopped there—”
Sorinte ran his hands down his face.
“Too late, I realized I had destroyed precious people with my own hands, and I tried to repent for it.”
She listened to his words quietly.
“But then I came to know. That it wasn’t a ducal family that would collapse by the hands of a mere madman. That there was a force instigating me which had actually destroyed the ducal family.”
His voice rattled with tremors, but Sorinte didn’t stop speaking.
“So as atonement, I tried to take revenge on those forces. I had a fair bit of talent with the sword.”
Pff.
It was a desperate smile mixed with self-mockery.
“In the end, I took up the sword. And became a madman, trying to bring down this country.”
Rora had already realized that the madman before her was neither drunk nor joking.
‘…He’s a real regressor.’
Because that kind of trembling couldn’t be acting.
Facing Sorinte, who raised his head, she didn’t hastily reveal any emotion on her face.
She simply nodded to show she was listening well.
“I—I thought I was dreaming while dead. The reality I faced when I opened my eyes this morning, this moment, I couldn’t believe it was real at all.”
Unlike his young face, his red eyes looked extremely tired.
At those red eyes that seemed to have sunk into abyssal darkness, Rora swallowed a groan inwardly.
“But I realized this place was neither a dream nor a delusion, but my past. And—”
Rora saw a certain light seep into his exhausted eyes.
“Moreover, I realized the future wouldn’t necessarily flow according to the past I remember. That through my regression, I can change the future with my actions.”
A brief but coldly rational thought crossed Rora’s mind.
‘He’s fast?’
For someone who had regressed today, the customer before her had gained enlightenment remarkably quickly.
‘How is that possible?’
The moment Rora held that question, a deep light settled in Sorinte’s red eyes.
“Because the Crown Prince, who should have died in the original past, is alive.”
Sorinte added.
“In the previous timeline, he died after being poisoned and struggling at death’s door.”
Ah.
Rora realized.
‘In the life before Lord Sorinte regressed, there was no Lord Ion who possessed the Crown Prince.’
In other words, organizing the situation based on Sorinte’s words:
In the timeline before regression, the Crown Prince died.
But in the present timeline, Ion had taken residence in the Crown Prince’s body from which the soul had departed.
‘In conclusion, a regressor and a possessor exist together in the same era.’
Rora’s mouth opened.
“I see.”
It was a simple and short answer.
But surprise swirled in Sorinte’s eyes.
“…You believe me?”
“Of course.”
Having already met a possessor, there was no reason Rora couldn’t believe Sorinte’s words.
Besides, he had read “Hoebinghwan” and come to find the Rien family.
“Customer, it must have been quite a shock to suddenly regress.”
“…That’s right. I was surprised.”
Unlike Ion, who had shown some wariness, the madman regressor before her honestly laid bare his emotions.
At that, Rora recalled the records related to regression.
[In the case of regression, compared to possession and reincarnation, the customer’s adaptation to reality is the best.]
[However, the probability of causing the biggest accident is highest among the three types for regressors.]
Her grandfather had once said that he would have been a bit more worried if his customer was a regressor.
[This is because the ripple effect of the goals a regressor holds when starting life anew after returning to the past is enormous compared to other types. Especially since the regressor knows the future that the consultant cannot know, there is a high possibility that the consultant will be dragged along by the regressor.]
To give a few examples regarding regressors:
[In one case, a regressor had sought to conquer the world before his regression. But he was killed by the betrayal of his closest retainer and regressed to the past.
He immediately killed the traitorous retainer upon returning and promptly started a conquest war that covered the entire continent in a sea of fire.
As a result, numerous kingdoms collapsed, and people had to fall into the misery of war.
He was later recorded as a tyrant.
And the consultant could neither stop nor defeat the regressor, so in the end, they had to flee.]
Rora recalled what Sorinte had said moments ago.
“So as atonement, I tried to take revenge on those forces. I had a fair bit of talent with the sword.”
“In the end, I took up the sword. And became a madman, trying to bring down this country.”
He had also said.
“That through my regression, I realized I can change the future with my actions.”
Rora’s mouth went dry for no reason.
Her heart pounded.
Suddenly, tension began to rush in.
She calmly settled her mind and asked as nonchalantly as possible.
“From what I’ve heard, it seems you want to change the future. Is that right?”