The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

Regression.

Asel knew that word very well himself.

One of the extreme high-level time magic spells. A technique of reversal that turns back the timeline of the world and returns everything to the past. Therefore, it was not permitted, and existed only in theory as a miracle of the gods. It’s a realm that even the time magicians said to have existed in the past couldn’t reach.

Grace was saying that she had directly experienced such a miracle.

Some deny the possibility of regression itself. They don’t believe that such an impossible thing could happen. Moreover, if the person claiming regression is neither a transcendent being nor a high-level magician, but a swordswoman, it was an even harder story to believe.

But Asel didn’t dismiss her words.

An absurd story. Such nonsense that it’s meaningless to even listen to. A secret that can’t hope for anyone’s understanding, that must be kept alone.

Asel already had one such secret himself.

‘I can’t outright deny regression when I have memories of a past life myself.’

So rather than pondering the possibility of regression, he first thought about the connection between regression and Grace’s actions.

Pretending to know him at their first meeting. Rambling about mercenaries and swords at their second meeting. And calling Saya “Youho” (fox spirit). If all these were based on experiences from the previous run, it could be understood. It means they weren’t words spoken suddenly, without any background or basis.

However, all of these required the background explanation that she was a “regressor”. To someone who knew nothing, it would sound like nothing but the ravings of a madwoman.

Even Asel himself had seen her as a mental patient until she revealed the fact that she was a regressor.

“……”

A secret that can’t be revealed to others.

A fact known only to oneself can sometimes become a dagger, but other times it can become a curse that eats away at oneself. Just looking at Grace’s unstable appearance, one could tell which way the secret of regression was acting for her.

Regression and past lives were both contents likely to be treated as mental illness the moment they were blurted out. But in the case of past lives, since it’s a story of a different world not immediately related to the present, there was no need to tell others about it.

At most it might be used as a joke sometimes. Except for specific cases, there’s no reason to reveal the fact of being a past life transmigrator while showing off knowledge from another world.

On the other hand, regression was deeply related to the present. Everything Grace had experienced in the past became present events, and to prevent the same tragedy from happening, she had to run around like crazy.

In that process, she couldn’t hope for others’ understanding or shake off the lumps built up inside. She could only silently prepare for the coming end.

One didn’t need to think hard to know which would inflict a more severe blow to the mind. Asel let out a small sigh and stared at Grace.

“Hoo… huu……”

Grace was breathing heavily while looking down at the floor. She was anxious, worried that she might receive Asel’s disbelief or contempt after revealing that she was a regressor. It was because Asel had momentarily fallen silent to organize his thoughts.

So as soon as Asel had somewhat organized his thoughts, he immediately opened his mouth.

“Grace.”
“…! Uh, yes.”

Grace suddenly raised her head and met Asel’s gaze.

Their images are reflected in each other’s pupils.

Grace tried her best not to avoid Asel’s eyes, but she couldn’t stop her head from turning to the side repeatedly.

If he were to say words denying her, she probably wouldn’t be able to look him straight in the eye. And she would probably live like that for the rest of her life.

It was the worst outcome. But if that was Asel’s choice… she was prepared to humbly accept it.

However, the terrible words Grace was imagining didn’t come out of Asel’s mouth. Instead, with a slight smile and in a soft voice, he casually blurted out:

“You’ve been through a lot.”
“…Huh?”
“I don’t know how long it’s been since you regressed, but it couldn’t have been easy from then until now. You’ve worked hard.”
“…You believe me?”

Grace asked with wide eyes. Asel smiled and nodded.

“I have no reason not to believe you. And I also… have a similar secret.”
“That you’re a past life transmigrator?”
“…How did you know.”
“You told me. In the previous run.”
“……”

They were married, so he even told her about that. Asel scratched his head needlessly and sat down next to Grace. Grace’s body flinched, but she didn’t avoid him.

Anyway, what’s important right now is the story about Grace’s regression. It seemed better to have a conversation about past lives later.

Thinking this, Asel opened his mouth.

“Anyway, I believe you. Don’t worry too much.”
“…Thank you. Really, really thank you.”

Grace started shedding tears as she answered. It was a natural reaction as the tension and anxiety she had been holding in slowly melted away. Asel patted her shoulder and waited for Grace to calm down.

Just when he thought she had stopped, she started sobbing again, so the wait lasted quite long. But Asel didn’t show any sign of dislike and killed time by thinking about various things inwardly.

How much time passed like that? Grace, who had been sniffling, turned her head towards Asel and said in a voice wet with tears:

“…I-I’m okay now. I’ve calmed down. And… I’ll say it one more time. Thank you for believing me.”
“Alright.”

Asel smiled faintly and removed his hand from her shoulder. Grace’s eyes twitched as if disappointed. It had happened before, but this time Asel could clearly understand where such reactions of hers came from.

The person she had married before regressing. In a situation where he no longer remembered her and couldn’t act the same as before, it was perhaps natural for her to like even a little skinship.

She’s probably somehow suppressing her desires and urges in everyday life.

The kiss on his nape while drunk was likely due to these suppressed desires finally overflowing.

He could understand. Even Asel felt his heart breaking just imagining if Ena didn’t remember him and acted hostile or treated him like a stranger. Grace was experiencing such imagination as reality.

He could sufficiently understand how painful it must be without needing to gauge it.

However, separate from understanding, he couldn’t act as she wanted.

‘After all, I’m not the me she knew.’

It was a sad reality, but that was how it was. If they had regressed together with memories, it might be different. But the current Asel had to live his own life. He didn’t want to become neither here nor there, bound by a regressor’s memories.

“How did you end up regressing?”

Asel asked. Grace was silent for a moment before answering.

“I don’t know. While fighting a demon, you died first, and as I was struggling after being left behind, my neck was cut off, and when I came to my senses, I was at home. I woke up in the Bydel mansion of the already devastated empire.”
“Wait a moment.”

Asel’s eyes widened at the sudden unbelievable content. He looked at Grace with a serious expression and continued speaking.

“The empire becomes devastated? It falls?”
“…Yes. A plague demon descended and 40% of the empire’s population died from disease. It’s not just the empire. The entire continent suffered from the plague, and the overall population sharply decreased. The land all rotted too.”
“…Huh.”

Asel let out a hollow laugh.

The current era was the first peaceful era after going through the racial war and the holy war against demons. It had been several decades since wars between countries broke out, and even different races were living harmoniously without invading each other’s territories.

Although demon worshippers or the group Virsia, which criminals belong to, occasionally cause chaos, their voice wasn’t that loud compared to the past. There were no signs that such great chaos that could swallow the entire continent was likely to occur.

But suddenly she says a plague demon descends and overturns the continent. She says the empire, a great power, collapses in an instant, the entire continent becomes corrupted land, and the population is halved.

Is this even plausible?

“Is this reliable information?”
“It’s not information. It’s what I experienced.”
“……”
“Originally it happens after graduating from the Academy, but in this run, the demon worshippers started acting earlier than then. Maybe… it could happen even before graduation.”
“Damn it.”

Asel already knew that demon worshippers had started acting. Even Ena hadn’t received the summons from the alliance because they were rampant near Weiheim.

At the time, he hadn’t paid much attention to it, but hearing Grace’s words now, various possibilities started flooding his mind. Asel frowned deeply while worrying about Ena’s safety.

“…Can it be stopped?”
“…There are precursor symptoms. If things like all the livestock in a village suddenly getting sick and dying, or an entire village suffering from plague happen, it means the descent has ended, if not completely, at least partially.”
“We should aim for that time?”
“Yes. Because it’s impossible to prevent the descent. We have to kill it when it appears incompletely like that.”
“The Holy Country will need to help.”

Asel said.

From ancient times, demon subjugation wars were conducted under the leadership of the Holy Country. This is because their unique holy power is effective against demons. But conversely, the demons’ demonic energy also acts as a fatal poison to clergy, so they needed external manpower to drain the demons’ power.

“What about other demons besides the plague demon?”
“The plague starts it off and they keep pouring in. Among them, the last two to appear.”
“……”
“Benevolence and Possibility.”

Possibility.

The moment Asel heard that word, he felt his heart thump once. A sense of hearing something he shouldn’t have heard. A feeling of his instincts screaming that he must not be entangled with that. He frowned deeply and covered his heart area with his hand.

“Unlike Benevolence, which killed almost all the remaining survivors, Possibility didn’t carry out separate massacres. Instead, it wandered around various parts of the continent as if doing some kind of work… Asel? Are you okay?!”

Grace, who had been continuing to speak, noticed Asel clutching his heart and hurriedly asked. Asel immediately nodded.

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt. Just… something feels strange.”
“What feels strange?”
“…I don’t know.”

It wasn’t a lie.

Unlike his instincts which had gone crazy with excitement, his reason was utterly calm. There were no abnormal phenomena in his body or mind right now, and the flow of magical power was all normal.

Then, what on earth was that?

“……”

He pondered, but no answer came. His body had only reacted to the word “Possibility”, which seemed too specific to be just a vague fear of demons. He felt nothing for the other demons.

Moreover, even when thinking about the demon of Possibility again, his body, which had already reacted once, no longer felt any sensation to that word. It felt like waking up from a nightmare.

‘…I’ll have to investigate this.’

Asel thought this and removed his hand.

He shook off his thoughts for now. It was right to focus on the conversation with Grace at the moment.

“To get back on topic, anyway, you’re saying the plague demon is the start of everything.”
“…That’s right. But there’s not much we can particularly do. Except for subjugating demon worshippers or ruining rituals.”
“So in the end, we have to wait until the precursor symptoms appear.”
“Yes. But, but there are many things different between the run I experienced and the current run, so maybe the plague demon might not appear. The terror that should have been at the entrance ceremony didn’t happen either.”
“Such things tend to come back in an even worse form.”
“……”

Her words meant to provide a little reassurance were hit right on the mark. Grace pouted and hunched her upper body.

Asel chuckled softly seeing that.

Although they had been conversing in a serious atmosphere until just now, in the end, the conclusion was that there was nothing special they could do except wait.

If something different from Grace’s memories appears as more time passes, they might be able to act, but not yet. Until precursor symptoms appear on the continent, it’s right to live normally as usual.

Of course, they couldn’t not prepare at all. They had to maintain daily life while preparing even a little.

However, since there was nothing they could do right away either way, Asel opened his mouth in a slightly brighter voice to somewhat refresh the heavily sunken atmosphere:

“Well, anyway, there’s no use worrying about it right now, we’ll just get headaches. For now, it seems better to focus on Academy life while preparing.”
“…Is that so?”
“Becoming stronger is the priority. We need to quickly reach great magician.”

Asel said this and smiled, then tilted his head slightly at a fact that suddenly occurred to him.

“Come to think of it, Grace. You said I used a sword in the previous run?”
“Yes. You were exactly like me. Not only did you almost perfectly copy swordsmanship after seeing it once, but you were also famous as a magician hunter for cutting or twisting magicians’ magical power.”
“Hmm… Do you have a sword?”
“It’s in my dormitory. Should I bring it?”

Grace asked with a faint smile on her face. Asel chuckled and nodded.

A moment later, Grace returned from the dormitory with a sword. Asel immediately drew the sword and started swinging it with as much concentration as possible.

He slashes down from above, then immediately slashes up diagonally.

Just from that, Asel’s muscles trembled. Asel secretly manifested a strength enhancement magic while checking Grace’s reaction. Then he continued swinging the sword.

As time passed, Grace’s face, which had been full of anticipation, started to crumple.

The sword path is a mess. The blade shakes unstably, and the tip vibrates minutely. It means he’s not gripping it properly.

His swings are sloppy beyond compare, and although it seems like he’s trying to imitate something, she couldn’t even guess what it was.

Eventually, unable to bear watching anymore, Grace directly showed him basic swordsmanship and instructed him to follow, but Asel couldn’t do even that properly. If the room had been narrow, the walls or bed would have been cut long ago.

“…Asel.”

Finally, Grace spoke first. She looked at Asel wiping off cold sweat and closed her eyes tightly.

“Let’s not learn swordsmanship. You have no talent.”
“No, didn’t you say I used a sword in the previous run? Aren’t I doing well?”
“Not at all. Let’s just keep using magic.”

Grace’s voice saying this was so firm that Asel could only nod with a disgruntled expression. He sheathed the sword he was holding and handed it to Grace.

“I should have known from when you, who couldn’t use magic at all, became a magician.”
“I couldn’t use magic at all?”

Asel asked as he sat down next to Grace.

He couldn’t even imagine himself unable to use magic.

“You were good at detecting and cutting magical power, but you couldn’t actually use magic. You tried to learn but gave up quickly.”
“That Asel guy. Is that really me? It doesn’t seem like it at all.”
“It’s the same person. That’s for sure.”

Grace said this, then spoke with a playful expression:

“Or should I tell you our pet name? Then you’ll know for sure!”
“…Glen?”
“Ugh…! …A-ahem. Not that one. The name I used to call you.”
“Even if you tell me, I won’t know.”
“No, you will. Because it’s your past life name.”
“…What?”

The moment Asel asked with wide eyes, Grace spoke first.

“Sihyeok.”
“……”
“Right? Oppa Lee Sihyeok? You told me this.”

Although Grace said this with a broad smile, Asel’s mind wasn’t focused on her.

His past life name.

It was something Asel didn’t know.

Among the lost contents of his past life memories, his name and age were included. Thanks to this, it was Asel’s first time hearing his past life name today too.

Then why did he know his past life name before the regression, but not now? Judging by Grace calling him oppa, it means he knew his age too, so why doesn’t he know even his age now?

What difference is there? What branching point was there?

“……”

Questions continue one after another. His head throbs and his chest feels tight. But he didn’t stop thinking. He struggles not to miss the questions that arise, repeatedly asking and answering himself.

Then he reached one conclusion.

“…Ha.”

Grace’s regression. Or something equivalent to it.

And the mostly lost memories of his past life.

What these meant was one thing.

‘The price.’

The price to send Grace to the past, or somewhere. That was the memories of the existence called “Sihyeok”.

The moment Asel realized this.

Crack!

Simultaneously with the sound of tree roots rapidly growing inside his head, he felt someone’s gaze.

But it disappeared quickly. There wasn’t even time to confirm it.

He hurriedly turned his head, but all he saw was an empty corner of the room.

“……”

Asel’s eyes sank coldly.