The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

Fortunately, Grace was subdued by Asel’s hand before she could act any more shamefully.

A hangover-curing magic and sleep magic with concentrated magical power. Thanks to the magic that appropriately combined these two, Grace slept for a short time and then woke up, blinking her eyes clearly.

She had clearly drunk more than 5 bottles of alcohol like crazy, but her head wasn’t dizzy at all, only clear. Rather, it seemed even clearer than before drinking.

‘This is Asel’s room.’

She could quickly grasp this from the smell filling the surroundings. Grace casually brought the blanket she had been covering herself with to her face and sniffed. As she did so, her mind began to calm down more and more. The corners of her eyes drooped and her lips twitched.

“……”

She remembered the shameful acts she committed while drunk. The 5 bottles of cider she drank after returning to the dormitory. As she drank with the past as her side dish, before she knew it, midnight had passed. Stars twinkled in the sky, and the moon shyly hid behind clouds as if embarrassed.

It was the perfect time to be immersed in sentiment. So Grace, after tidying up all the bottles, looked out the window and reminisced about the past while still drunk. She could recall more vividly in a slightly dizzy state than when sober.

It was at some point while reminiscing about the past like this that she visited Asel’s room.

Honestly, Grace’s past wasn’t that happy or harmonious.

A life of failing in her family, barely graduating while struggling at the bottom in the Academy, with only the nanny who raised her as a friend. Nevertheless, desiring her family’s acknowledgment and love, she strived and barely managed to master all the blood-inherited swordsmanship.

But it was a futile act.

It was because her family was exterminated. No, more precisely, the empire itself perished. One day, with the sudden advent of a plague demon waving its hand, most of the nobles including the imperial family melted away. Afterwards, as the plague spread more and more, and lawless areas within the country gradually expanded, the empire’s collapse was instantaneous.

Those who barely survived all turned to other countries.

Grace was the same. She lived day by day working as a mercenary in the Kingdom of Kidwin, ruled by corrupt royalty.

Fortunately, her swordsmanship skills, which she had raised through painful efforts, allowed her head to stay attached to her body for a long time. As time passed, her reputation grew even greater, and she received the recognition she hadn’t particularly desired from people other than her family.

There was no excitement. Everything was irritating. So Grace didn’t form teams with anyone. When requests ended, she shut herself in her lodgings and didn’t come out.

A life of just repeatedly killing, receiving payment, drinking alcohol, and falling asleep.

It was on one day while living such a life that she met Asel, who was famous as a magician hunter and spell hater.

“Are you awake?”
“…!”

Her reverie was broken by the voice she heard. Grace was startled and hurriedly lowered the blanket she had been holding to her nose. Asel, who entered the room with a glass of cold water, let out a hollow laugh seeing that sight.

“…What are you doing?”
“Ah, no, this is… that…”

It was a strange sight for anyone to see. Even a monk would doubt the intentions if someone showed a wistful expression while smelling the blanket others sleep under. So rather than make excuses and receive strange looks, she attempted a frontal breakthrough.

“It smells good and makes me feel comfortable!”

She regretted it as soon as she blurted it out. Grace turned her face bright red in the blink of an eye and completely covered her face with both hands. Then she twisted her upper body back and forth wildly. She was writhing in embarrassment.

Asel muttered quietly while watching this:

“…Is there still alcohol in her system? But no, the magic manifested well.”

He had never failed at magic since becoming a magician. But for magic to fail in this situation now? It was nonsense. Moreover, he had already confirmed that the magic had properly taken effect.

Then, what did Grace’s current reaction mean?

“……”

Not wanting to think about it particularly, Asel lifted Grace’s body, which was twisting as if to kick off the blanket, into the air.

“…Hup.”

Grace dangled in midair. She desperately avoided Asel’s gaze with a tearful expression, as if embarrassed. But she didn’t resist the magic. She just quietly waited for her emotions to settle. Asel also waited for her while reading a book he had roughly put down.

After about 5 minutes passed like this, Grace quietly opened her mouth.

“Um… Asel…?”
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
“Yeah… I think you can put me down now…”

Her voice was much clearer than before. Asel closed the book, nodded, and put Grace down on the floor. She needlessly dusted off the pajamas she was wearing and glanced at Asel.

“So.”

Asel opened his mouth while staring straight at Grace.

“Why did you suddenly come? And why did you drink so much?”
“…Just. Something bad happened.”
“Is it related to Saya?”
“…A story that was related. It’s all in the past now. She doesn’t know at all, but I remember it clearly.”
“I didn’t bring this up to have a Zen dialogue now.”

Asel said this and let out a deep sigh. Grace’s shoulders shrank.

He could understand that she had circumstances she couldn’t talk about. He could tell that much just by looking at her reactions and behaviors.

However, he had no idea how big the lump in her heart was because of it. He could only vaguely sense that it was too enormous to dare describe.

‘If I just send her away like this, this kind of thing will happen again.’

That was clearly not good for either Asel himself or Grace. For the sake of the future, he needed to unravel Grace’s inner demon at least a little right now.

He had succeeded in lifting it slightly through their conversation in the tent, but that was still extremely weak. For several days, she might have looked fine on the outside, but inside she was probably rotting away.

“When we first met.”

Asel brought this up and stared at Grace standing stiffly. Eyes of the same color collide in midair.

“You clearly seemed to know me. You already knew my name too.”
“……”
“But that was the first day I saw your face. It was a bizarre situation where a complete stranger suddenly came and asked if I knew them.”
“…I’m sorry. I was thoughtless.”
“No, it’s not that you were thoughtless. You must have acted that way because there was a reason why I should know you, a cause that made you act like that. And our second meeting.”

As he continued speaking, Grace’s expression twisted strangely. Conversely, Asel felt like some puzzle was being put together in his head.

“You called me a ‘mercenary’. And you said I use a sword. But I’ve never held a sword in my life. Swordsmanship? I’ve never even seen basic or third-rate swordsmanship, and I have no intention of learning it either.”
“……”
“I brushed it off lightly at the time. To be honest, I thought of you as something like a skilled mental patient. It’s not that rare for those who show promise at a young age to go crazy. But you’re perfectly sane. You don’t seem like someone with delusions or schizophrenia either. Then what is it? What was your intention in saying such things?”

He checks one by one the facts he had buried in his memory, thinking they probably didn’t have much meaning.

Just recalling makes the situations and emotions he felt at that time, and the other person’s actions, vivid as if they happened just yesterday.

Asel continued speaking while recalling the image of Grace covering herself with a blanket and swallowing her tears.

“Why did you cry then?”
“……”
“What you said and did. What’s the cause, the reason for all of that? What’s the identity of the thoughts eating away at you?”
“…If I tell you.”

Grace, who had been silent until now, muttered in a low voice at Asel’s question.

“If I tell you, will you believe me?”
“I might not be able to believe it.”
“……”
“But whether I believe it or not, that’s a decision I’ll make after hearing the answer. It doesn’t seem like something for you to agonize over alone while suffering.”
“……”

No answer came back. Grace bit her lip hard and clenched her fist as if pondering. Her eyes shook back and forth, and her mouth opened and closed repeatedly. The desire to speak and the feeling that she shouldn’t speak collided, confusing her mind.

How big of a burden must it be for her to agonize like this? Asel was inwardly curious, but he quietly waited for Grace to open her mouth first. Rushing her now wouldn’t bring a proper answer.

Time continued to pass like this. But the situation remained the same. Asel calmly stared at Grace, and Grace, unable to hide the turmoil in her heart, swallowed her saliva.

After a long while.

Grace carefully spoke up.

“…I have a condition.”
“What kind of condition?”
“A condition I want you to accept in exchange for telling you.”

It was out of the blue, but Grace’s expression was so pitiful that Asel nodded obediently.

“Tell me.”
“Don’t think of me as a strange person.”
“……”
“Don’t avoid me. Even if you despise me, hate me, loathe me, at least let me stay nearby to watch.”
“…Grace.”
“Me… me…”

Love me like before.

Those words couldn’t come out of her mouth. It was too much of a burden to put on Asel. While Asel was a very significant existence to Grace, Grace wasn’t that level of existence to Asel.

In the end, Grace forcibly chewed and swallowed the sentence she was about to say at the end. She smiled bitterly and continued speaking.

“Forgive me. I’ll try hard.”
“…Is that all?”
“Yes. This is all.”

She nodded and answered. Asel replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“I’ll accept it.”
“…Really?”
“It’s not a difficult request. So, what’s the burden in your heart?”

Asel asked.

“…I remember them, but they don’t know me.”

Grace said in a calm voice as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“Those I fought together with, those I became close to while sharing our pasts. Not a single trace of the bonds we built remained, and only emptiness filled that place. Why was it me? Why did it have to be me?”
“……”
“The wedding with the person I vowed to love for life, the sweet conversations we shared, laughing while deciding on names for when our child was born. Now they’ve all become things that never happened. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much I struggle, they’re past events that will never return.”
“……”
“It was good that the deaths of those I loved and cherished became undone, but still, the fact that they don’t remember me at all… it’s quite hard to endure. To be honest, I just wanted to give up everything and collapse. But I couldn’t do that.”

Asel silently listened to Grace’s story. Then the puzzle pieces in his mind quickly fell into place, soon forming one picture.

Time, past, memory.

Three deeply related words. And the contents contained in Grace’s story.

Appropriately combining these, one word was created in Asel’s brain.

His eyes widened.

“Wait, Grace, you…”
“There were words my loved one left me before dying.”
“……”
“‘I entrust the next world to you. This is the end for me, but I hope that in the branch you drift to, an ending where you and I can be happy is waiting.”

Tears slightly welled up in Grace’s eyes.

“May our love be eternal there too.”
“……”
“Asel, I…”

Grace trailed off and recalled the image of that man dying with his lower body gone. She recalled the words he had spoken in a dying voice for quite a long time thanks to the demon’s grace.

-When you see me again, please pretend to know me. I might remember you too. Even if I don’t, don’t be too disappointed or sad. I don’t want to see you crying. You look best when you’re smiling.

“I…”

-And if I don’t remember you, don’t carelessly blurt out about what you’re going to experience from now on. Never, until you’re sure I’ll believe your words. But if you ever need to tell me due to unavoidable circumstances… say this.

“I’m actually a regressor. We were married in our previous run.”

A tear streamed down Grace’s cheek.

“And… you were, are, and will be the person I love for life.”

This time, I hope you won’t forget.