Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 1417. Aina Peneloti (8)

‘Jeez, this jerk’s so petty.’

“Come on, why are you taking away what I was eating?” I complained.

“...”

‘He’s not even answering anymore.’

I clearly remember the mood being good until just a moment ago. It had definitely felt warm like a vacation spot, yet now, it felt as if the place itself had grown chilly.

It was obvious that he wasn’t pleased with what was happening right now, and I was sure he understood the feelings of First Life Commander Jin, who had claimed that Aina Peneloti had nothing to do with him.

Sure enough, he soon blocked off the window that allowed us to look outside. Of course, with the Telescope I could still examine the surroundings, but that no longer felt meaningful.

Things were settling down, even if only a little.

The officials of the Republic departed, and the personnel of the Union of Kingdoms and the Empire began what could be called cleanup work.

The scene was utterly miserable. Survivors and the injured were being rescued, the dead were being identified, and the preparations to return them to their families were being made. Some cheered that everything was finally over and that they had ultimately prevailed, but the people who remembered Aina Peneloti, whose body couldn't even be recovered, revealed sorrowful faces and hesitated to leave.

— What happened to Lady Peneloti?

— It’s difficult to know for sure, but all traces of her have completely vanished. It’s presumed that her body was destroyed when that demon was recalled.

— ...

— ...

— The Union of Kingdoms has lost a hero.

They spoke lines like those.

The young ladies stared blankly in the direction of the Black Rose Salon, where the other young ladies were, and reinforcement troops from outside finally arrived.

The survivors spoke with the officials, and with the start of the full cleanup, the situation gradually drew to a close.

Lady Pastel, Lady Paint, Lady Palette, and Lady Brush were all leaving the castle.

‘It would be nice if she came to her senses.’

I had hoped she would exert some influence during the cleanup, but Lady Paint was on the verge of madness, so there was no way she still had the strength for that.

Today wasn’t the only day, so there would likely be another chance. They would probably set up a camp nearby or secure lodgings to take part in the investigation and testimony together.

Neither the Union of Kingdoms nor the Empire could possibly overlook this incident, and everyone wouldn’t be able to avoid a thorough investigation.

If she were to recover before everything was concluded, she would be able to exert some degree of influence.

In the midst of this, Kim Hyun-Sung caught my eye as he wandered around the area.

Despite being in desperate need of rest, he was devoting himself to rescuing the wounded alongside the reinforcements.

When someone who looked like a superior occasionally approached, he would speak with them seriously about various matters. Naturally, it didn’t take long for him to discover Song Jung-Wook’s corpse.

[Seventeen Heroes Who Saved the Empire.]

It wasn’t the masterpiece Jung Jin-Ho had mentioned, but it was still a piece of work.

‘It really is creepy.’

Kim Hyun-Sung’s face turned pale when he saw it.

It wasn’t because the scene was grotesque, but it was likely because it struck a nerve.

— Count Kim Hyun-Sung, could you possibly identify this person?

— ...

— Count Kim Hyun-Sung?

— ...

— ...

I thought this was probably the moment Kim Hyun-Sung finally acknowledged First Ki-Young’s existence. Naturally, I had no choice but to summon Commander Jin.

“Commander! Hurry and come here. This is an important moment! Kim Hyun-Sung just saw the Seventeen Heroes Who Saved the Empire. He looks like something’s bothering him, but he’s not reacting much.”

“You can watch it alone,” Commander Jin said.

“Come on, that whole thing earlier is over. First Life Commander Jin went home. He’s moving without saying anything, so it doesn’t look like anything is going to happen... I think a pursuit unit is on him, but he’s shaking them off very well,” I told him.

“It has nothing to do with me,” Commander Jin replied.

“No, you still need to see this,” I urged him.

‘He pretends not to care, but he keeps looking...’

“You at least know what’s going on, right? The cleanup incident. I think he realized something,” I said.

— It’s probably Song Jung-Wook of the Small Stone Guild.

As expected, Kim Hyun-Sung staring blankly at the corpse finally spoke. Even though the body was nearly impossible to identify, he pointed to a specific person without hesitation.

— Song Jung-Wook... does he perhaps have some connection to this incident... Could it be that they didn’t simply intend to disrupt the alliance between the two nations...

— ...

— ...

— I’m sorry.

He then excused himself, and this was the best thing he could’ve done here. Until everything became clear, the correct choice was to act as though he knew nothing.

After all, it would be difficult for him to say something like, “Actually, there was a cleanup incident in the Empire, and it seems there are lunatics who want revenge on the seventeen people who approved it.”

For now, notifying the Empire had to come first.

“He seems like he wants to avoid it,” Commander Jin commented.

“Avoid? He just looks like he’s completely lost his mind,” I said.

“That’s basically the same thing. I can’t say his decision is wrong... but it’s just as I expected. He’s almost too easy to read. He’s so boring it makes me yawn,” he said.

“So, what should I say to him there?” I asked.

“Didn’t I already say it? He didn’t do anything wrong, but I feel like he's being too pathetic. Despite that, he’s called a hero of the continent.

"I'm really wondering why you chose Kim Hyun-Sung in the first place. Weak-willed, full of useless ideals, scatterbrained, and the only thing he’s remotely competent at is using his body,” he answered.

‘Why is he suddenly cursing at Hyun-Sung when he was pretending that he didn't want to look at this?’

“He isn’t staying silent because he has some grand plan in mind. He’s not thinking he needs to report to the Empire first, or that this might harm the alliance between the two nations later—he just doesn’t want to deal with what’s in front of him.

"Doesn’t he look ridiculously small-minded for someone who was shouting about how we should all work together to find answers just moments ago? That man has no consistency and ho conviction. He doesn’t even understand what honor is,” Commander Jin complained.

“...”

“On the surface, he pretends to care about the greater good; he pretends he’s walking the path that benefits everyone, but that’s all there is to it. It's all a mere pretense. I’ve seen plenty of people whose ideals and actions don’t match, but Kim Hyun-Sung puts them all to shame.

"Whenever something he can’t handle shows up, he will always choose to run away. His tendency to avoid things is overwhelmingly high. Honestly, he’d be better off without that pathetic scrap of a conscience he clings to.

"He fools people into thinking he has ideals and drags them along with him... then, he collapses the moment it actually matters. For all his big words, he’s painfully small,” he added.

“What are you talking about? Didn’t you see him draw his sword just now when you transformed? Everyone else had already given up. That was heroic as hell,” I said, defending Kim Hyun-Sung.

“I’m not talking about fighting. Think of it as something like the trolley dilemma. He won't be able to choose anything,” he said.

“...”

“He wouldn’t be able to decide whether to save one person or save many, and I don’t mean he’d pick the option where he avoids pulling the lever and just watches. No, he wouldn’t even be able to put his hand on the lever.

"He wouldn’t have time to agonize over it. He’d run away. Take what happened earlier. What would you have done? Would you have let the soldiers of the Republic run away?” he asked.

“That depends on the situation,” I answered.

“I’ll say this clearly. If Kim Hyun-Sung had truly intended to kill them, he could have wiped every one of them out. Of course, he couldn’t have guaranteed the safety of the people around him, but he could’ve prevented a war, at the very least.

"And I don’t believe, even for a second, that he lowered his sword out of concern for the people there. It was all simply because he failed to make a decision and ran out of time as a result of it,” he said.

“...”

“It was the same right after the attack. He couldn’t shed any light on what happened, and he couldn’t even gather the people here the way you did. Do you really think Kim Hyun-Sung acted that way because he lacked the ability? He just didn’t want to take responsibility.

"He’s no hero. He’s a painfully ordinary man. He’s so dull that it's making me yawn. Someone who hates taking responsibility, runs whenever he can, and gets swept along by whoever’s next to him—that’s all he is. A boring man. That’s Kim Hyun-Sung."

“...”

“Of course, if those ordinary, infuriating traits are exactly what you like about him, then I suppose I can’t argue,” he added.

‘He’s not holding back at all.’

However, he was correct.

‘It’s true that he’s weak—pathetically weak.’

I couldn’t agree with everything he said, but still, he did pull the lever himself during the cleanup incident. Nobody knew exactly how things had unfolded back then, but the fact was that he had pulled the lever, approving the cleanup.

Perhaps he simply got swept up in the moment, or he probably had his own reasons for doing so.

Commander Jin called him this and that, slapped all kinds of labels on him, but people were always far more complicated than a few words slapped together, and he definitely knew that, too.

The fact that he had openly confessed to being a regressor already showed that he had a backbone. During the Doom Ki-Young incident, he threw everything aside, abandoning the Federation and all just to save me. That incident proved that he could take action when it counted.

Still...

‘His tendency to avoid things is true.’

At one point, I thought he became that way because he kept getting stabbed in the back during his first life, but now, I realized that he had always been like that.

“...”

“...”

That said, I still hated that he ruined the drama I was enjoying. I’d finally gotten immersed in the protagonist, but he started taking shots at the guy like he had some kind of grudge against him.

It was annoying enough that I almost wondered if he was doing it on purpose.

‘This bastard has no clue. Heroes are supposed to struggle. That’s literally part of the formula, man...’

“...”

‘Now Hyun-Sung is depressed.’

I felt like he heard Commander Jin insulting him, but he was staring off into nowhere at some isolated place. He looked grim and had a lot on his mind. It was so bad that I couldn’t even guess what was running through his head.

“Things should be mostly wrapped up, right?” I asked.

“Why are you asking me that, Ki-Young?” Commander Jin asked back.

“Well, Hyun-Sung is one thing, but the Black Rose Salon ladies are still on my mind... and First Life Commander Jin, too... I’m thinking maybe we should wrap things up. If Ji-Hye noona or Lonovera were here, they could jump into someone’s dream and drop a killer line before walking back out.

"Sigh... It feels like we’ve covered almost everything, but something about this gate is still giving me a bad feeling. Worst case, we can go with the "rise again in three days after death" plan and—”

“Stop the nonsense. We’re heading back right now,” he interrupted me.

“Hey, it’s not like I said I wouldn’t go back. I’m just saying the whole situation feels off, okay? And it’s suffocating here. Plus, I’m starving because you stole the mapo tofu I was enjoying earlier. Can’t we land somewhere already?” I complained.

“If I could do that, I would have thrown you out the moment I got the chance,” he said.

“So... we’re really stuck here?” I asked.

“...”

“It’s going to take over a week to clean up the castle. You’re telling me we have to stay here until then?” I asked.

“It won’t take that long. We’ll get an opening,” he argued.

“Seriously? How am I supposed to survive here for days?! You should think before you act!” I yelled at him.

“You think I want to be trapped here with you?! Hell no!” he yelled back.

“Wait, wait! Hold on. I think there’s no one around now!” I told him.

His eyes went wide, and of course, the next thing I saw was him gritting his teeth and trying to cast a spell. I really thought we’d be out of here any second, but...

“What are you doing? Hurry up and cast it!” I yelled at him.

“Wait, it’s not a simple spell,” he said.

“Oh, come on. What are you dragging your feet for?” I complained.

“Damn it...” he mumbled.

“Hurry up and cast it already!” I yelled again.

“Would you shut up, Lee Ki-Young?! Damn it!” he shouted.

“Hurry!” I shouted.

“I said I’m doing it! Just keep your mouth shut for one second!” he yelled.

“Damn it! Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!” I told him.

“Damn it!”

His face twisted. He was anxious in a way I had never seen him before. He even glanced at me like he needed help, which told me that something had definitely gone wrong.

“....”

“....”

And then he muttered, “...It looks like... there’s an error.”

“...”

“...”

We were trapped in a room that wouldn’t let us out until he had fixed the error.

“Are you... actually insane?!” I insulted him.