I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell-Chapter 391

WeTried Translations

The Suicidal IX

The meeting was quietly entering its final stretch.

From Dang Seo-rin’s point of view the last few days had been nothing short of chaos.

First came the bombshell that Undertaker and Noh Do-hwa were dating, then the revelation that Undertaker was actually a Regressor, and on top of that the real reason he had never “regress-outed” until now was the sealed will her tenth-cycle self had left behind. Taking three fastballs to the head like that would have rattled anyone.

Even so,

“…It feels cowardly, you know. I ought to be angry that you hid it from me all this time, but in the end you were keeping the secret because of a promise you made to me, not anyone else.”

After hearing the whole story Seo-rin could only sigh as though she had no other choice.

“Do you realise how foolish that is? Promise or not, who on earth tries to keep faith with something agreed thousands of years… Wait. Was it thousands of years ago?”

“No. It was tens of thousands of years.”

“Good grief. How does anyone honour a promise that old to this very day?”

Her expression was a tangle, anger and joy, sorrow and wonder, all vying for the front seat.

She would need time to settle those feelings.

So I voiced only the question that had to be asked now.

“Seo-rin.”

“…”

“As Oh Dok-seo pointed out, I have followed the will your tenth cycle left behind. No, I have tried my best to keep it. I believed doing so would prove that someone called you once existed in that distant past.”

Silence blanketed the room.

The Saintess at the table, Yu Ji-won, even Sim Ah-ryeon, who chased dopamine wherever she went, all held their tongues.

“And now that we have reached the thousandth cycle, I want to ask for your decision again.”

“…”

“May I keep telling the next you, and the one after that, that I am a regressor?”

The silence lingered.

“Tenth-cycle me must have… I do not know exactly, but I think she trusted very little.”

After letting the weight of my question sink all the way down, Seo-rin finally opened her mouth.

“All sorts of things. Faith in myself, whether I could fight anomalies without burning through my whole lifespan… Faith in you, whether you were as precious as this world.”

“…”

“But you waited tens of thousands of years for me. If I could not even hold out and watch how this world ends, that would be pathetic.”

“So.”

“Right.”

She clasped my hands.

“I will endure, no matter what.”

“…”

“I have no idea how much lifespan you have already stacked on me, but that span does not belong solely to me. It is yours as well, the result of you guarding my will. Therefore,”

Seo-rin smiled,

“The life you protected, I want to spend it when you want me to. My lifespan, I leave it in your care.”

Warmth flowed through our palms.

“Bravo!”

Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap!

From the judges’ dais Oh Dok-seo sprang to her feet, hammering her hands together, tears streaming for some reason.

“Yes, this is it, sniff, absolutely moving. See, all you have to do is talk. If you just talk you can move forward, so why, why not talk, huh? I despise stories that drag out conflict you could solve with an honest conversation, it is manure, total manure. If you claim to care for each other why must hurting each other be inevitable? Only conflicts that survive true dialogue are real conflicts. Hrk, uncle, sob, I always trusted you, dang it!”

“…”

Except for Dok-seo and one single other person, no one in the chamber joined her standing ovation.

Rather, the prevailing mood was “for the love of all things, do not lump me with that one.”

In short, it ended in a way everyone could accept.

“Tch.”

Cheon Yo-hwa still rested her chin in her palm, looking somehow hollowed out.

Her head and her heart never stopped rubbing each other raw.

Stories about Yo-hwa could wait for another time; a heavy emptiness still draped over her and that shadow deserved its own episode.

Therefore,

my gaze fixed on a single person.

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

“…”

With a flawless smile, no shade over her face, no shadow at the corner of her lips, she applauded right after Dok-seo.

Only Noh Do-hwa.

An epilogue had to be told.

This one was not short.

Quite a long one, in fact.

Let us go through it step by step, in order.

“Brothers and sisters, please calm yourselves.”

The first piece of cleanup was, of course, soothing the Awakener mob in Tower of Babel Plaza that looked ready to lynch me on the spot.

The Northern Saintess ascended the podium, showing off the saintess robe she had changed into ahead of time, a holy smile on her lips.

“There is no doubt about Sir Undertaker’s feelings. He loves me, and that love is not some vulgar romance but the pure Mo Gwang-seo style compassion that embraces my entire being.”

– What.

– Wait, really?

– See, told you so!

Murmurs swept the crowd.

The paladins who had been one step from declaring a crusade downgraded at once into woodland critters.

I, a man of common sense, had no idea what “Mo Gwang-seo style love” was, but apparently it carried profound meaning for them.

Sim Ah-ryeon beamed.

“Yes. It is just that Sir Undertaker’s boundless compassion has taken root in many people besides me, like the Guild Leader of Samcheon World or the Commander of the National Road Management Corps.”

“…”

“I sincerely support and bless this man’s love.”

She hopped off the stage, trotted over to me, looped her arm through mine and flashed the brightest grin imaginable.

“So please, brothers and sisters, bless him as well, amen.”

“…”

From that day on the Eastern Holy State had a single archenemy, not heretics, atheists, anomalies or even the Road Corps, but one man called Undertaker.

Every dawn when I made my patrol through Inunaki Tunnel, I found the entrance on the Holy State side piled high with anonymous letters.

[Die.]

[Miss Saintess is so innocent that she was momentarily deceived by your devilish tongue, but my eyes will not be mocked…]

[Die.]

[I have relatives in Busan. Just last month they sent me a photo of you having lunch with the Great Witch of Samcheon World. If you still possess the conscience God grants to all men—]

[Die.]

“…”

Paper was not a resource one could squander freely in this era, so the sheer waste made it clear how sky-high their hatred rose.

“Ah-ryeon.”

“Y-yes?”

“I can endure no longer.”

“…?”

At last I made my decision.

–ZERO_SUGAR: ☆★ Great shock! The true identity of OldManGoryeo the vile troll! She is actually the Northern Saintess! Exposé! ★☆

It was, without exaggeration, a nuclear move.

If anyone thought this Guild Leader would stay passive forever, they were sadly mistaken.

I curled a bitter smile.

The post was perfect.

The fact that OldManGoryeo and the Northern Saintess had never been active at the same time, that assuming they were the same person solved every mystery, the copious evidence attached—everything immaculate.

Even the title was crafted to bait clicks no matter how you tried to resist.

‘How long did you think you could rule the forum as a tyrant? Die for once, Ah-ryeon!’

Comments began to pour in.

The greatest scandal in SG Net history. The fanfare of doom, its overture blaring.

–Anonymous: Ignore the troll.

?

–Anonymous: What is this now…

–[Baekhwa] PressClub2: Do not feed.

–[EasternHoly] KindSoul: lol, this jerk used to spin fake homeland stories, now he smears the Saintess for attention, what a life.

└Anonymous: What bait is it this time?

└[Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: I said ignore the troll, 400m.

└[EasternHoly]KindSoul: sry sry

–Anonymous: You fools realise giving him attention is exactly what he wants.

–dolLHOuse: Not easy, 1 200m.

That was all the reaction to my magnum opus.

“Uh…”

One-hundred-and-twenty-one downvotes.

Only two upvotes, one of which was mine.

–OldManGoryeo: Hooeheehee! Turns out I was the Supreme Being of the Eastern Holy State all along? While I was not looking I became the Northern Saintess and was out there saving lives >_<)!!

–OldManGoryeo: As expected the only one who cares about me here is ZeroCola-chan, people are so cold! Big like. Let my love reach you, ZeroCola-chan, take my hearttttt ♡

–OldManGoryeo: Starting today, I am dating ZeroCola-chan! Day 1 ♡♡♡ (D-1)

The other upvote was from Sim Ah-ryeon.

“…”

Why? How?

Enraged, I posted again.

–ZERO_SUGAR: Come on, guys. Set emotion aside and look at the evidence. OldManGoryeo equals NorthernSaintess, I am telling you.

└Anonymous: Ignore the troll.

This time there was exactly one reply.

“What? Why?”

Unbelievable.

Had the public finally lost all ability to distinguish fake news from real?

Very well. I hated to stoop to this, but I had no choice except to post side-by-side photos of Ah-ryeon cosplaying in the Holy State and slacking off in our guild base, showing how different she looked—

[Mr. Undertaker.]

[Forwarding Mr. Sim Ah-ryeon’s exact message. I left out the stuttering.]

[‘Guild Leader! I just wrote a post claiming ZeroSugar equals Undertaker and I am playing press-submit-or-not-submit, do you want to join the fun?’]

[That is what she says.]

“…”

[What should I tell her?]

With a long press I quietly tapped Delete Post on my screen.

This was not just my defeat.

It was the defeat of the last truthful voice of journalism in this age.

In other words, the thousandth cycle was so peaceful that I had the spare nerves for SG Net drama.

It was not only my feeling.

“Wow, the thousandth really is different, incredibly calm,” Oh Dok-seo agreed.

“You call it record-breaking calm? How would you know what other cycles were like?” I asked.

“Ah, actually I set Infinite Metagame in mirror mode and whenever I am bored I use my Side Story Creation ability and enter V-Tuber mode.”

“Oh?”

“I mainly possess ‘past-cycle me’. I ask what I was thinking back then, what situation I faced, how I acted, what results came, what I regret. It is fun research.”

I nearly quipped that spending all her free time like that must be why she never sits still to write.

“The other cycles were absolute chaos. Stuff you never saw behind your back. For the honour of my comrades I will stop there.”

“…You went through a lot.”

“Eh, the others take things too seriously. I, on the other hand, see them as ‘characters’ in the Undertaker saga, so there is fan affection mixed in, not that stressful.”

She scratched her cheek.

“Anyway, ever since the last meeting the back-room friction has practically vanished.”

“Hmm.”

“Look at Samcheon World and Baekhwa Girls’ High, they hardly bicker any more, right?”

Now that she said it, true.

It had been too trivial to detail in the main text, but in reality and on SG Net Samcheon and Baekhwa fought every other day.

Guild Leaders for the title of strongest magic Awakener on the peninsula, guild members for the honor of strongest guild.

“Indeed, I have not watched Seo-rin and Yo-hwa jab at each other on the forums for quite some time.”

“See?”

Dok-seo chuckled.

“If I had known things would improve this much when I spoke up, I would have done it sooner, not waited till the thousandth cycle. Ah, I feel like I lost a thousand years of possessor life.”

“Mm. Dok-seo, you occupy a position similar to a ‘book possessor’ but strictly speaking you are not one.”

“Hey, you get it by feel, right? By feel!”

She laughed, nudging my ribs, looking truly happy. Apparently she had suffered more quietly than I realised.

“Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, tra-la-la, tra—”

In high spirits she hummed The Song of the Birds while clacking away on her typewriter, promising to write a story for the first time in ages, and left.

As I savoured the cocktail of pride and self-reproach that came from recognising that tune—

[Mr. Undertaker.]

The Saintess contacted me the moment Dok-seo was gone.

[I have something to tell you.]

“If Ah-ryeon is pestering you to relay another message, please, I beg you, just tell her to spare my life.” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

[No, that is not it.]

Her voice was low.

[Ms. Dok-seo is truly enjoying herself for once, so I chose this timing to avoid interfering.]

“Yes?”

[I am sorry to say, but the reason relations inside the Regressor Alliance have improved is… not Ms. Dok-seo.]

[Of course I believe she provided the first push, at least I believe so. However…]

[People, that is, relationships, rarely change with a single declaration.]

I blinked.

“What are you saying?”

[Someone else has been moving quietly behind your back, adjusting opinions, allocating time, patching rifts between the alliance members as much as possible.]

“Who would that be?”

[Ms. Noh Do-hwa.]

My heart lurched.

Independent of my will, the Saintess’s voice flowed in.

[It is Ms. Noh Do-hwa.]

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