#The Regressor's Notebook — Episode 14
Memory (3)
“……*Hss.*”
When I opened my eyes, wiping away saliva, it was already break time.
I looked around the classroom blankly.
—Want to rest at my villa this weekend?
—Your family’s yacht is nice. Let’s go sailing sometime.
—I’m hosting a ball at the mansion today; want an invitation?
The precious young masters and ladies of distinguished families were chattering away with noble gestures and tones.
“Hey. You really don’t have a textbook?”
Then Raye called out to me.
“I said, don’t you have a textbook?”
She asked, resting her chin on her hand.
“……”
I ignored her lightly. Instead, I looked at the seat next to mine. A textbook was spread open on the desk, but the person was gone.
Must’ve gone to the bathroom.
“Ahem.”
I glanced around furtively and stealthily picked up that textbook. *Shrrrrsh—* After flipping through it, I placed my hand on the cover.
I definitely didn’t have the luxury to waste a thousand Ren on a textbook, so I was going to try [Memory] in my Notebook.
“……Memory.”
I didn’t necessarily have to say it out loud, but it was simple autosuggestion. Similar to shouting during training.
“*Kuk!*”
But at that moment, my magic was violently drained. An unexpected headache surged. Heat flared up behind my eyelids, and a stream of blood trickled from my nose.
I covered my nose. Wiping the blood with my sleeve, I opened 「Notebook」.
[77 / 100]
■ Diary
■ Memory
└Perion
└Heart
└Untitled
Recent 24-hour capacity history: +14
A single book took up 9 capacity. And the magic consumption just now had been quite severe too.
“What the hell.”
Does the more expensive it is, the greater the consumption cost?
No, even so, 1,000 Ren isn’t that expensive, is it?
I rubbed my temple and changed ‘Untitled’ to ‘Latine I’.
“Hey, Sion. Why did you sign up for Latine?”
……But there was this guy who kept talking to me from the back seat since earlier. Even though I hadn’t responded once, he was incredibly persistent.
“Hey. I asked why you signed up.”
At Raye’s words, I replied shortly.
“Why do you care?”
“What?!”
Raye furrowed her brows.
“ ‘Don’t bother with such a pathetic human.’ ”
Just then, Elije’s voice suddenly seeped into my ears.
That language was definitely not Edsilla Common Tongue, but I understood it instantly.
I flinched and turned to look that way.
Raye grinned.
“ ‘Sion. That. Guy. Us. Saw. What. Looking. Hey you. You. Latine. Don’t know.’ ”
It was certain.
It was ‘Latine’.
Raye’s sentences were somewhat awkward and fragmented, but I could hear it anyway.
Why is this happening?
I tilted my head, but soon caught on.
……So that’s why it took 9 capacity.
It seemed to be the effect of [Memory] on the textbook. There wasn’t any transformation of the textbook beyond what Elije had said in Latine.
*Ding-dong-dang—*
Break time had just ended.
The students who had left returned, and Lady Beache fluttered in through the front door.
“Ah, student. Did you sleep well?”
The noblewoman smiled brightly at me first.
“Huh? Ah—”
“It’s fine. You can sleep. However.”
Then she held out a piece of paper. I was slightly flustered. The document’s title was too brutal.
[Elective Withdrawal Form]
“Student, submit this to me when class ends today.”
“……”
I looked up at her. Her expression was benevolent, but somehow my temple throbbed.
She said:
—This is a class unsuitable for a commoner like you.
At that, I was slightly surprised. My eyes widened, and my ears perked up like a rabbit’s.
It was admiration.
Her voice as she recited Latine somehow sounded like she was singing a song. Its intonation was hardly different from a harmonious melody. It was like the chirping of birds.
It was beautiful pronunciation.
“……Whoa.”
Was it true that you see as much as you know?
Before I [Memorized] the textbook, it had felt like some alien language, but now that I could understand Latine to some extent, I could see why this was a noble’s education.
“Make sure to submit it by the end of class?”
I remained silent.
Beache raised her eyebrows stiffly and urged.
“Alright?”
Sorry, but I can’t do that. Giving up is no different from failing, and the credit loss is no joke.
“……”
I quietly moved my mouth.
When this noblewoman had spoken in Latine just now, when she had recited aggressive sentences like song lyrics, I had watched her mouth.
It was a very important observation.
Language pronunciation is formed by the interaction of the tongue, lips, vocal cords, and other parts of the mouth, and they are clearly part of the body.
Therefore, ‘foreign language speaking’ could broadly be considered within the scope of 「Luxido」.
I could remember with my eyes and follow with my body……
—No.
I recycled the phonemes she had spoken and followed them.
—I am indeed a student suited for this class.
My danjeon’s magic was consumed considerably, but I didn’t mind.
“……My.”
Her eyes widened.
I added, wearing a small smile.
—Your voice is truly beautiful, Lady Beache.
At that, the noblewoman’s rigid face went blank and softened, and a small commotion arose in the classroom.
From behind, Raye muttered.
“……What’s with his pronunciation.”
For some reason, it was an irritating line.
* * *
After Latine class ended, in the hallway at 1 PM.
Raye walked with her lips pouting.
“Ah~ why is there homework from the very first class……”
The Latine teacher had given some kind of writing assignment from the very first week.
“Ridiculous. The first week should be a breeze! Right, Eli?”
Raye, who had been complaining and seeking empathy, suddenly puffed her cheeks as if remembering someone.
“But where did Sion learn Latine?”
Sion Askal. The guy who received Lady Beache’s favor all throughout today’s class, suspiciously good at Latine.
“Right, Eli?”
But Elije was quiet. She had been silently working her lips, saying nothing since earlier. She seemed to be squirming, or perhaps biting at them.
Raye was curious about that.
Why wasn’t she answering?
“Strange! How could he be good at Latine? Right, Eli?”
“……”
She deliberately tried to prompt a response, but her lips remained tightly shut. Only then did Raye sense that Elije’s mood was unusual.
“……Strange~”
“……”
Raye turned her gaze and surveyed outside the window.
Students sitting on the stands eating lunch boxes, students running on the athletic field, and…… a flyer?
“Huh?”
A piece of paper was stuck in the window frame. Raye reached out and grabbed it.
[We Do It]
: Item acquisition, delivery, passing along, etc.
: From simple errands to complicated assignments.
: We help with everything.
: Please contact #05 001-3021-4302. It’s a secure number where neither party’s phone number is visible.
“What is this?”
“……”
Elije showed slight interest. Raye didn’t miss that gaze.
“Eli, there’s this thing.”
“……It’s trash.”
“You’d see this on the streets, but it’s here at Endex~ Amazing, right?”
“Throw it away.”
Elije shook her head sharply, but Raye was oddly intrigued.
Simple errands as well as complicated assignments, meaning they’ll do assignments for you……
“I should throw it away~”
Raye put it in her pocket. Elije furrowed her brows.
“What are you doing?”
“I threw it away. Into my pocket.”
“……”
Elije’s eyes narrowed.
“Well~ you never know~ Latine is boring. Rather than investing time in electives—”
“Do you think the kind of people who hand out flyers like this know Latine?”
“Ah. Right.”
Raye fidgeted with her earlobe.
“But just in case…… Huh? It’s Sion over there.”
A buzz cut was visible outside the window.
That kind of bright yellow buzz cut was unique to Sion at Endex.
Elije looked that way too.
“Eli. Didn’t he find some private Latine tutor somewhere?”
Sion. The guy suspiciously good at Latine.
Elije and Raye narrowed their eyes suspiciously at him as he exited the school gate.
* * *
“Good work, Sion.”
At Endex’s famous restaurant [Straying Meat] closing up at 11 PM after a day’s business.
The owner patted my shoulder and put out my weekly wage and a meat packet.
As they say, a full granary makes for a generous heart; the weekly pay was 500 Ren and the daily pay was 3kg of meat. Thanks to that, I was eating 3kg of quality protein every day.
This was different from before the regression. Back then, I started with hospital food, sweet potatoes weren’t enough so I scrounged for leftovers and even weeds, got a stomach ache and nearly died.
“Yes. Good work.”
“Alright. See you tomorrow.”
I came out of the store. The world was already dark, and the stars had vanished.
“Ah, but why isn’t there a text.”
Walking down the tree-lined road leading to Endex, I turned on my phone.
“Maybe the flyer isn’t any good.”
I took out the [We Do It] flyer from my inner pocket.
I wanted to start cancer treatment within April–May if possible. I needed at least twenty to thirty thousand Ren in hand to even get a diagnosis……
[Endex]
While worrying and walking, I had already reached Endex’s main gate. However, the entrance was coldly shut.
After 11 PM, not only outsiders but even Endex students are forbidden entry.
Of course, I had already thought of a method.
The wall surrounding the Endex grounds, about 3 meters high.
I just needed to climb over it. As quietly and carefully as possible, without being caught.
“Let’s see……”
I walked along the wall and hopped up at a suitable spot. Then I climbed up like bouldering and jumped inside.
*Tak-*
The landing was successful, but a flyer fell from my inner pocket. It fluttered and came to a stop at someone’s feet.
I looked that way.
My entire body went rigid with a crunch.
“……Uh.”
A person was there, just ten steps away.
Her untied long hair was red like flames, and before her lips, a small ember and acrid smoke wavered.
“Hmm.”
Solliet Arkune.
The sole S+ tier noble of Endex.
She watched me without a word, smoking her cigarette.
“……”
It was too sudden, but facing her like this from the front, old memories suddenly came to mind.
Certain 「Memories」 exploded in my mind like fireworks.
Thanks to that, my breath was slightly constricted.
This woman is really the same as before.
The hair she grows however she pleases, the eyes that droop indifferently, the firmly sealed lips—nothing has really changed at all.
Was that why?
Without realizing it, I blurted out a greeting.
“Long time no see.”
At that, Solliet slightly furrowed her brows. She exhaled the smoke in her mouth and asked.
“Hmm…… What is it? This is the women’s dormitory.”
“Uh, right. It is the women’s dormitory.”
I smiled blankly. I had mistakenly climbed over the wrong wall.
Solliet watched me quietly, then pointed to a forest path between the women’s dormitories.
“If you walk that way for five more minutes, you’ll reach the men’s dormitory. There won’t be a guard at this hour.”
“……Really? Thanks.”
My voice saying thank you shook oddly.
Solliet shrugged as if it was no big deal.
“Don’t mention it. In return, this is a secret too.”
Saying so, she tapped her cigarette. Not on the ground, but on a portable personal ashtray.
As I stared blankly, Solliet swiftly held out her cigarette case.
“Want one?”
“……Huh?”
“It’s quite good. Thirty Ren per stick, but it’s worth the price.”
I smirked and shook my head.
“I quit. Thanks to someone.”
There was a time when cigarettes—tobacco—were the joy of my life.
Since it was a body that would die anyway.
Whether I smoked a cigarette, drank a cup of coffee, took a pill of drugs, or injected amplifiers, it was a body that would die anyway.
No matter how hard I tried, a body that wouldn’t live long.
……And yet.
On some clear day, in that now-vanished time, I had done something a little strange. I had made a promise with someone to “live healthily.”
It had been too impulsive a decision.
“Is that so? Quitting. I’m jealous.”
Of course, promises are made to be broken. My body already had Perion, so I might have already broken it.
Even so, it’s “if possible.”
I intend to maintain “if possible” regular habits and a healthy diet.
“Khm.”
Solliet bent one knee and picked up the flyer. After skimming it, she handed it back to me.
“Take it.”
“Ah, but this is—”
“Yes. I know. They seem to be scattered randomly. I saw one nearby too.”
Randomly.
At Solliet’s words, I got a hint.
I shouldn’t do it ‘randomly.’
The strategy that would work on Endex students was going high-end, but my flyer was too cheap……
“Then I’ll be going.”
“You seem capable.”
I hurriedly added to her as she turned around. Solliet tilted her head.
“……About this flyer?”
“Yeah. They say they’re an expert.”
It’s true.
I’m an expert.
Stalking, background checks, driving, delivery, construction, cleaning, organizing, tracking, reasoning, inspection, searching, etc.—there’s nothing I haven’t done.
“I ground away at the bottom for several years.”
It’s true.
I lived a full five years in the ‘Underworld’ where murder is legal and monsters run rampant.
“Do you believe that?”
Solliet looked at me with slightly pitiful eyes, but she probably needed people right now.
“It’s no loss to believe, right?”
We have an unexpected commonality.
The fact that we each have an ‘enemy’ we want to kill even if we have to burn our souls, that we live for that revenge—we resemble each other.
“If you have any errands, contact me.”
I held out the flyer to her. Solliet waved her hand.
It was a refusal.
“Suit yourself.”
I let the flyer go in mid-air.
A single sheet of paper fluttering down. Solliet looked completely uninterested.
“By the way, you. That cigarette……”
Looking at her still smoking, I started to say something but paused to think for a moment.
Because I know.
At this time, she doesn’t need anyone or anything.
Whatever I say would merely be unnecessary meddling.
“Smoke moderately. Before you regret it later.”
But well, this is something you said to me first.
The one who asked me to live healthily was also you from some day in the future.
“……Do I know you? Why are you suddenly being impertinent?”
Solliet glared at me like that, and I smiled and turned around.
I walked the forest path she had told me about. Lush weeds rustled. Somewhere, owls hooted.
Strangely, I felt good.