Chapter 279
“As you know, you are also not subject to the Seven Virtues and Seven Deadly Sins…”
Ah, right. I’m an exception.
I recalled his earlier remark that he didn’t need to restrain himself with me.[“Scales that Judge Souls” vehemently cheers, saying there’s no need to restrain other items besides gluttony.]
[“Eye that Oversees All Chaos” bites on a handkerchief embroidered with flowers.]As our eyes met, he trailed off, and I inexplicably felt warmth rising to my face.
Why? It feels somewhat embarrassing.
“Ahem.”
“Mmm.”
Unable to continue the conversation, I merely brought the wine glass to my lips out of a false thirst.
Though the wine had long been finished.
Tap. Tap-tap. Plink. Plink-plink…
It was a relief that it was raining. The sounds that filled the awkward silence between him and me became incredibly welcome.
Then I suddenly realized.
Up until now, I had only been intensely troubled, but now I was grappling with embarrassing thoughts.
This must be proof that I’d gained some leeway.
Perhaps it was because Tesillid’s conversion had swept away the biggest worry in my heart.
My heart became as peaceful and serene as a world after Doomsday.
“It’s good.”
I mumbled inadvertently.
Tesillid looked at me with eyes asking, “What’s good?”, so I continued.
“You, and this world.”
“I see.”
His smiling face, in response to my words, subtly held a faint, sad expression.
I knew the reason. It was because I said this world was good.
For him, it was no exaggeration to say that the world was a multitude of enemies besieging him.
His voice, whispering to me when I was asleep, was still vivid in my ears – Don’t leave me alone in a world like this… Perhaps he was enduring and bearing this world for my sake.
But now, things were different.
He no longer needed to confront the world alone, nor did he need to hide himself from me.
I wanted to make sure Tesillid knew that for certain.
To do so, I would have to temporarily break this current peaceful serenity.
“Terri.”
My voice calling him sounded different from usual, even to myself.
Tesillid could not have failed to notice this.
“Ail?”
The call served as a question of what was happening.
He put down his wine glass and stood straight towards me.
His upright posture, as righteous as his character, met my gaze directly.
Hoping my gaze resembled his, I opened my mouth.
“A god has appeared in this world.”
The world had changed as a result of completing the ‘Incantation Cult Master’s Mission Stage 7’ quest.
This world had become a normal world where a god existed. The distorted laws were restored and functioned correctly.
Since God was fulfilling God’s role, the hero only needed to fulfill the hero’s role. Therefore…
“If we deal with the Chaos Evil God and save the world in this timeline…”
Now, I could tell him with certainty.
“You don’t have to regress anymore.”
“…”
“You don’t have to be forced to be the axis of regression to sustain the world.”
“…”
“This time, saving it is truly the last.”
“…”
After saying this much, I observed Tesillid’s face. A distinct tension was conveyed from his slightly hardened eyes.
It was a natural reaction.
The world’s continuation.
The axis of regression.
Such information should rightly be considered a divine secret, beyond the grasp of a 17th iteration.
“Ail…?”
He awkwardly called my name, as if he couldn’t understand what I was talking about at all.
It was his best effort at acting. But alas, I could no longer be fooled.
“You knew I served the Incantation Lord. So now, will you tell me your story?”
“…”
“Tell me how many iterations you are.”
“…”
“I know you’re not the 17th iteration.”
“…”
At this moment, he gave me an honest answer.
Because he showed a rigid reaction, as if he had lost all breath.
Tesillid Argent in front of me is clumsy at deliberately deceiving others.
Indeed, he might not even remember what his 17th iteration self, whom he had to imitate, was like.
Because he had lived too long.
His clumsiness wasn’t just a matter of this moment; too much information had accumulated in my hands while I was with him.
A personality too worn down to be a 17th iteration.
Knowledge and information too well-known for a 17th iteration.
A power too strong for a 17th iteration.
All the evidence says he is a much older being than the 17th iteration.
Tesillid Argent.
The one before my eyes, the one I love, how many iterations could you be?
“…”
“…”
We remained silent for a long time.
The time of silence also served as an exploration. He tried to find out how much I knew, and I tried to find out how much he was willing to tell.
“I…”
He bit his lip as if to harm himself.
The look on his face was as if his single word would cause the world to collapse.
My seeking an answer was torturing him.
I don’t wish for him to suffer. In that case, I would have to figure out how many iterations he was on my own.
“Terri.”
In truth, I had always thought about something.
The Regressor Who Saves the World was originally supposed to conclude as Part 1.
However, due to ‘Strict Order and Goodness’, Part 2 came into existence.
Part 1, which contained lives up to the 85th iteration.
Part 2, which collected abnormally branched timelines from the 86th to the 100th iteration.
Once I realized that fact, a possibility naturally arose.
If The Regressor Who Saves the World has a Part 2.
Then.
Could there also be a Part 3?
Beyond the original story.
Beyond the 100th iteration.
Could there be even more timelines?
“Ail…?”
My hand rummaged through my inventory. What I took out was a black sunglasses-shaped artifact.
As I brought the hand holding it close to my face, the artifact’s power was absorbed into my eyes.
I opened my empty palm and wiped my eyelids. Then I opened my eyes.
My lowered gaze slowly traced Tesillid upwards.
It passed his chest, the tip of his chin, his mouth and nose.
Inevitably, it met his shaking eyes, but did not linger.
At the moment it passed his forehead and aimed above his head.
“…!”
What appeared in my sight was an astronomical number.
The sins that even Reed had not committed were laid out in quantified form.
That was a number only possible at the end of Part 2.
“Ail…!”
Despite being prepared, I felt like I was suffocating. No, now that I looked, I really was suffocating.
A desperate voice hit my ears.
“Don’t look.”
“…”
“Please don’t look.”
“…”
“Ail, please…”
I realized belatedly.
Tesillid was hugging me so tightly I felt crushed.
Whoosh…
The rain outside intensified.
The sound of rain drumming on our world brought back a memory.
Rain had also fallen when I entered the Man-faced Tree Forest after collecting the Rosary Ring from Abyssinis’s Demon Territory.
Demonic rain that permeated the ground raised sinister beings from it.
Things clumped up stark white like clay dolls – those were the vengeful spirit phantoms.
The countless number of specters that avoided Tesillid now made sense.
“You mustn’t look…”
The arms pulling me into his embrace tightened further.
Pressed close to him as Tesillid intended, I couldn’t look up above his head.
But did he know?
That a ten-digit number was reflected on the brass crucifix over his shoulder.
His identity, having accumulated sins only possible after living through 100 iterations, was clear.
Reed, who saw the end of the world.
Then his exact iteration must be…
I suppressed the feeling that something was about to spill out, and barely managed to pull the question from my throat.
“Perhaps…”
“…”
“Are you the 117th iteration?”✠How? How on earth?
His mind felt like a blank slate. His thought circuits seemed paralyzed.
The strength drained from his arms that had been embracing her. His desperate, rejecting embrace instantly became powerless.
“How…”
The clumsy sinner unwittingly admitted his guilt. He belatedly clamped his mouth shut, but it was too late to retrieve his words.
She, who had somehow slipped out of his restraining embrace, turned to look at him.
It was the most terrifying moment for him.
Bewilderment, confusion, anxiety. Her sea-colored eyes trembled with various emotions.
But contrary to the imaginings conjured by his foreboding, the woman before him did not despise him.
Above the hand covering her mouth, verdant eyes, shimmering as if about to cry, were visible. It was a look he had never seen before.
“Ah…”
Even her gasp was a clear voice that resonated through the damp air.
With a face that was beautiful and lovely even in disarray, she sought to confirm her suspicion once more.
“I hoped it wasn’t, ah, I hoped it wasn’t.”
“…”
“Is it really true…?”
“…”
Had his agitation transferred to her?
Seeing her unable to hide her trembling, Tesillid’s own shaking stopped instead.
His eyes, calm and serene like a water mirror, reflected her.
He raised a hand and swept it across his face once.
Slowly, very slowly, he tried to organize his thoughts.
The exact iteration.
How did she know?
Did Reed tell her?
To hear an answer, he had to answer first.
“How did you know?”
“…”
This time, it was a confession he uttered of his own volition.
Even though it was just a reconfirmation, Aillet had to take a deep breath into her lungs.
Having barely composed herself, she looked above his head, then met his blue eyes.
“Actually, I saw it.”
“…What?”
“When I was caught in the vengeful spirit phantom rain in Abyssinis’s territory.”
“…”
Did she mean she saw the countless victims he had killed?
…His guess was wrong.
“There, uniquely, there was a specter that looked at me, not you. That was…”
“…”
“You.”
The one person she had killed.
It wore the face of Tesillid Argent.
Privilege for Possessors