The word ‘Regression’ carried a rather incredible specialness.
Because no matter how ordinary a person was, if the word ‘Regressor’ was attached to their name, they felt like a completely different person.
To put it simply. An immeasurable gap existed between just ‘Seo U-jin’ and ‘Regressor Seo U-jin’.
…That difference in feeling was, of course, based on the expectations that ‘Regression’ brings.
A Regressor would know everything.
Therefore, they can become the strongest.
Therefore, they can achieve everything they desire…
A vague sense of expectation, something like that.
『Orabeoni.』
『What is it now.』
『…Must I have a reason to come see a comrade’s face? I just came by this time. We won’t be able to see each other many more times anyway, so wouldn’t it be sad if you forgot my face?』
『Sad, my ass. I’m the sadder one. I don’t want to do something as grand as regression either.』
『…….』
『…I do it because I have to.』
…But it wasn't something that fell into place so easily.
As the only Regressor in this world, I knew it best.
『Even if you were to give up and bite your tongue now, it is not too late. If it is your position, Orabeoni, I could even take your place myself.』
『…Can I really do that?』
『Ah. Speaking of which, here.』
『……?』
Ssk—
『Taffy. Have some.』
『…….』
『I brought it for you to eat, Orabeoni. I made it myself.』
Pfft—
『…You’ve improved a lot. To think that innocent Cheong-i is even making jokes now.』
『…It was the first joke of my life.』
『It shows. It wasn’t funny at all.』
A Regressor certainly returns with all their memories.
But to say that meant they ‘could do anything’ was a gross oversimplification.
The memories I brought back were, at the end of the day, memories limited to my ‘past life’.
Some events with strong independence and inevitability would happen as they were, but the dependent variables created by ‘Seo U-jin’ changing into ‘Regressor Seo U-jin’ were countless.
The butterfly effect was a given.
There would be a butterfly effect of the butterfly effect, and the resulting typhoon would surely be enormous enough to overturn the world four or five times over.
Moreover, I knew for certain.
That even if I regressed, I couldn't become the strongest.
That even if I regressed, I couldn't achieve everything I wanted.
That perhaps, even though I regressed.
I might not be able to change anything.
…I even knew all too well that this possibility was not as small as one might think.
So, a Regressor is nothing special, really.
They just know a little more.
Ttak—
『This taffy is good.』
『…That is a relief. I learned it directly from Master Satgat, but it did not turn out as I wished, so I had some trouble.』
『I don’t want to do it.』
『……? What is it you mean?』
Pfft—
『…This shitty regression.』
Just a slightly shittier person.
* * *
Stabbing, dodging, getting hit.
Stabbing again.
Into the red shackles of infinitely repeating combat, a pure white impurity intruded.
“Ouch!”
A voice too thin and familiar to be an Oni's.
When I came to my senses and looked ahead, instead of the red, burly forearm of an Oni I thought I had grabbed.
A slender human wrist was there.
“Ah.”
“…Isn't this a bit much, even for you? Mistaking a human for an Oni.”
“Loxy……”
Belatedly coming to my senses, I looked around to see that the Oni who had filled the car were now sprawled on the floor.
The corpses of the monsters lay motionless, as if they had been like that from the very beginning.
Only the warm blood pooling on the floor proved that these Oni had once been alive.
…It seemed I had killed them all.
“……”
The dazed feeling had not yet faded.
It wasn't because of the shock of slaughter or compassion for life.
It wasn’t due to such lukewarm humanity.
I had thrown things like that away a long time ago.
It was more like my completely shut-down brain needed to warm up before it could function properly.
After a fierce battle, there was always this period of haziness.
Wiping the bloodstains from around my eyes, I checked the messages that had appeared on the system.
[Numerous Constellations feel thrilled by your combat prowess.]
[A few Constellations question your combat power that has crossed the line.]
[The Constellation, ‘Olympus’s Ruffian’, feels an inexplicable thrill at your groundbreaking fighting style.]
[The Constellation, ‘Olympus’s Ruffian’, promises you the title of ‘Ruffian’ and suggests you head to the North.]
[The Constellation, ‘Dog-headed Judge’, catches a glimpse of a ‘Judge’s’ talent in you.]
Tiring—!
[You have succeeded in the quest, ‘Oni Eradication (☆)’. The reward will be sent to your Lair.]
Tiring—!
[You have failed in the quest, ‘Guardian Train (☆)’.]
[The participation rights for Satellite Magic will be changed from <All Constellations belonging to The Order> to <Constellations of the jurisdiction>.]
[All Constellations except those of the relevant jurisdiction will be ejected from the channel.]
With the failure of the main quest, ‘Guardian Train’, the access rights to the Satellite Magic changed, and the noisy messages from the Constellations fell silent.
‘…….’
Looking out the window, the dark scenery that had been rushing past at high speed had come to a quiet stop.
As if she realized what I was thinking from my gaze.
Loxy shrugged and added an explanation.
“We’ve been abandoned.”
“……”
“Including this car we’re in, the three cars at the rear were detached just like that.”
Nod—
“…Anyway, I told you we should’ve just cut them loose, regardless of what you ‘had to do’. You don’t seem like the type to act all nice, but you have this idiotic side to you.”
After a moment of thought, I asked.
“Is that a compliment?”
“…Yes. It’s the highest praise. You idiotic human.”
Loxy, who had let out the criticism in a slightly smaller voice, wrung out her blood-soaked hair and handed me a piece of paper.
“Go wash up. My dog gave it to me.”
“Your dog?”
“Ah, that. The Acolyte Priest.”
“……”
I nodded at the strangely fitting descriptor and took the paper.
It was a Memorize Paper containing Clean magic.
As I ripped it in half—‘bbuuk’—a magic circle appeared, and a warm stream of water covered my whole body.
Swaaaa—
Since my clothes were already soaked in blood, a little warm water wasn’t going to get rid of the red stains.
But the scent of blood that had been clogging my nose dissipated, relieving some of my fatigue.
Ukssin—
“……”
As if reacting to the warm temperature, nerve endings all over my body screamed as if they were being torn apart.
It was a complex pain, on a different level from simple muscle soreness.
Though there was nothing wrong externally, it was a fatal pain felt in an instant as the accumulated agony from nerve damage was experienced all at once during recovery.
The tips of my fingers on both hands trembled faintly, my muscles twisting of their own accord.
Budeul-budeul—
It was a side effect that came from sticking to a fighting style that forsook defense.
A familiar aftereffect I had experienced countless times in my past life.
There was no particular solution.
The pain was in a realm of intensity so high that even strong narcotic painkillers didn't work very well.
I just had to endure it.
Still, it wasn't all bad.
Having experienced the extremity of pain, I had the advantage-that-wasn't-an-advantage of not feeling much from most other pain…
There was a qualitative difference between ‘healing’ and ‘recovery’, so muscles and bones that broke and reattached like this would gain, albeit slightly, greater durability.
As I washed off the sticky bits of flesh and clots of blood stuck to my body, the hazy feeling also cleared up considerably.
Chalbak-chalbak—
Drrrk—
As I opened the sliding door to leave the train car, a cold night wind whipped around my wet body.
The night was as deep as it could get.
A dead of night where the only remaining light was the starlight.
That breathtakingly vast darkness reminded me of the weight of the role entrusted to me.
Huu—
“…Shall we go.”
As I muttered while looking somewhere in the dim distance, Loxy stuck her head out and whispered.
“Where are you going?”
“…Have to go pick them up. Even if I don’t really like them.”
“……”
As if she didn't understand, Loxy, frowning deeply, looked ahead.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just contact that Acolyte Priest? We don’t even know where we are, so where on earth are you planning to go……”
Seeing is believing.
I answered her question by pointing a finger at our destination.
Flinch—
That is, the severed front cars of the Guardian Train, stopped not too far away.
Loxy, following my finger with her eyes, soon scrunched up her face and rubbed her eyes.
“Why is that over there……”
And looking that way once more, she let out a hollow remark.
“Don’t tell me that thing stopped?”
“…They probably aren’t waiting for us. I suppose.”
“If they were going to abandon us, they should’ve at least run away properly……”
“……”
“…So there really are other idiots out there.”
“…Right?”
“So. You’re saying you’re going over there now?”
…The sentence was a question, but once again, her true feelings were written all over her face.
It seemed to be a question of whether I really wanted to go there, even after being stabbed in the back.
Of course, my answer was the same this time.
“…I have to go. There’s something I have to do there.”
Ahyu—
“…Fine, let’s go. Let’s just get it over with.”
“……”
Loxy, letting out a sigh, listlessly waved her right hand and followed behind me.
“…Pushover.”
“……”
“…Idiot.”
“……”
“…Fool.”
“……”
“…Moron……”
“I get it, so stop.”
…Though the path we followed was not exactly quiet.
* * *
- …I have no excuse.
- Anyway. You demonic(?) humans. How could you just abandon people and leave?
- It was an unavoidable choice for the safety of the passengers…….
- You’re full of shit.
- …Ye-yes?
“……”
As soon as we arrived at the train, Loxy headed to the front and began to pour a torrent of curses on the conductor, who had his head bowed low.
Something must have really displeased her, as she was putting all her passion into it, so there seemed to be no need for me to join in. I, for my part, went to find someone.
“Long time no see, Partner.”
As I raised a hand, he responded with his characteristic expressionless face.
“…Did you really know beforehand.”
“More or less?”
“…I cannot understand.”
“The world isn’t filled with only things you can understand.”
“……”
Jerry shook his head with his usual blank expression.
From his perspective, it was understandable.
In the first place, it was rare for a Guardian Train managed by The Order to be stranded like this.
And a case like this happening because of low-level Magical Beasts like Oni was practically unheard of.
Thinking normally, it was right that the current situation didn't make sense.
‘…That’s because this isn’t a normal case.’
It was an incident I had passed by without realizing in my past life, but the weight of this ‘Guardian Train Straggler’ case I later looked into was not light.
That was why I had gone out of my way to come back here.
“So.”
“……?”
“What happened? You were escaping just fine.”
Of course, the circumstances of the incident were already summarized in my head.
I feigned ignorance and asked him.
“…The engine stopped.”
“The engine?”
“An Oni with black horns broke into the engine room where the magic engine is.”
“……”
“By the time we found the engine room, even the Mana Stones prepared as reserve fuel had all been lost.”
The Guardian Train is powered by a magic engine.
And the power source that operates the magic engine is, of course, the ‘Mana Stone’, which can supply and store mana.
Although it varies slightly depending on the form and quality of processing, Mana Stones are generally used as its fuel.
That was precisely the reason the Oni had risked their lives to attack the Guardian Train.
To steal the Mana Stones used as fuel for the Guardian Train.
“…The Mana Stones used as fuel for the train are processed goods with low purity and are diluted, so there should be no use for them for a Magical Beast. Strange.”
Shrug—
“Well, I guess they had something that urgent.”
“…The direction of your empathy is strange.”
“It’s a joke.”
“……”
Jerry, who had paused for a moment, suddenly pointed his finger at my medal.
“With the magic engine broken, communication with The Order was also cut off.”
“……”
“Acolyte Priest. Can you contact him?”
It was a rational response.
“Yeah.”
“……”
“First, let’s find out where we are.”