I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell-Chapter 393

WeTried Translations

The Bereaved I

Now, the time to speak about Go Yuri is finally drawing near.

Yet before we can reach that point there are still a few unavoidable steps we have to tread.

For example,

an older sister and a younger sister,

twin shrine maidens,

the self‑proclaimed Yo-hwa Yo-hwa☆Sisters.

“…”

Someone who, although it was a lie, once tried out a “happy ending” in the previous episode.

Someone who watched that manufactured happy ending with faint dissatisfaction until the very end.

The elder sister who was trapped inside stopped time.

The younger sister who was set adrift in the flow of hours.

Let us tell their story.

Imagine for a second what sort of news would leave an ordinary person most bewildered if it landed out of nowhere.

“Aliens have invaded.” After the apocalypse modern humanity has suffered, aliens are hardly fresh news.

People at the market would simply nod “Well, that can happen,” then turn back to arguing over fruit prices.

That very spirit of “Well, that can happen” is the slogan that defines our era.

Humankind wiped out, could happen. A staircase you never built appears in your house, could happen.

You step into an elevator and every button reads 4F—what, you rode an elevator without thinking in this day and age? Then just die.

Exactly.

The Babylonian proverb “Kids these days have no sense” has, after four thousand years, finally taken its first loss.

By now it is almost impossible for any ordinary incident to punch through a modern mind’s armour or topple that “could happen” attitude.

“Yo-hwa, there’s something I need to confess.”

“Ah, is this finally the moment you confess your love for me? I… I am ready, teacher!”

“The truth is, you have an older sister you cannot remember. A twin, in fact.

Your name is the same, Cheon Yo-hwa, the Chinese characters differ a bit.

Your sister was caught in a Time Seal, so from your end the memories became things that never existed.

Sejong City is stable now and the northern front is quiet, so I thought this would be a good time for us to go and meet her.”

“…”

One second. Two. Three. Four.

“Huh?”

The sound effect that plays whenever Cheon Yo-hwa’s mental defence wall is breached is a faint “Huh.”

And thus the regressor gained yet another fragment of knowledge about the world.

Experience Points up—Level up.

“Teacher, what kind of nonsense is that?”

“…”

Experience Points revoked.

Cheon Yo-hwa written 天寥化 and Cheon Yo-hwa written 千謠話—hang on.

Because the two names sound identical, it is terribly confusing to anyone listening.

Putting Chinese characters every time is tiresome, so from now on I will call the elder sister “Cheon Hwa” and the younger one simply “Yo-hwa.”

Cheon Hwa and Yo-hwa.

A spur‑of‑the‑moment idea, but it works rather well.

Anyway, about my Separated Family Reunion project, here is what the elder twin—

the strategist caught in a Time Seal, the girl who mangles polite and casual speech at will, a heavy dopamine addict—Cheon Hwa had to say.

“Er, I would drop it if I were you, Sunbae.”

Rather unexpectedly, she shot the idea down without hesitation.

“Why?”

“Hmm‑mm.” Cheon Hwa smiled vaguely.

“From my angle the real mystery is why sunbae thinks reuniting us is a good idea.”

“Because you are family.” My brows knit.

“To the younger sister, her twin vanished without warning. Seeing each other again would help.”

“Hmm‑mm, I am not so sure.”

“Well, of course I would love it if my kid sister got over her trauma and came all the way here to greet me. I do love her to bits, I am her big sister after all.”

“Oh, I knew it.”

“But Sunbae, is the Yo-hwa we have now mature enough to accept me?”

I tilted my head.

“Mature? Does a reunion between sisters require maturity?”

“I have been trapped in this classroom by the Time Seal, so I have no idea what is happening outside.”

She looked toward the window.

“All I can do is inhale the information you bring me like oxygen and deduce the situation beyond.”

“I know.”

“So I can only imagine with my head how frightened my cute little sister must be.”

She pulled her legs up onto the desk and hugged her knees.

“You know, Sunbae, the Yo-hwa I remember was always as fresh as a spring breeze.”

“She still is.”

“She never burned with jealousy, never fought to prove herself, never wore a perfect smile while something inside her died.”

“…”

“Yo-hwa with a sister and Yo-hwa without a sister are very different people.”

Family, however close or distant, shapes a person deeply, and for twins that influence is beyond dispute.

“My sister and I were born twisted, so if anybody had mental shadows, it was me.”

“…”

“Meanwhile she is the textbook picture of mental health—jealousy, grudges, gloom, she fixes those with a game of basketball and a nap.”

Sometimes I wondered how such an angel was born into a family as crooked as ours.

“That,” I said carefully, “does not match the student‑council president I know.”

Her bright smile faded into bitterness.

“Sunbae, I have no regrets about the Time Seal. It is the correct answer, the only clear route.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. Waking up to find you here like today even makes me happy. But when it comes to my sister… I am not confident.”

The wind through the window ruffled her hair, and for the first time I saw her unsure of herself.

The regressor’s advantage is that, no matter the failure, we can keep pressing the retry button.

“Yeah, I am not confident, but like you said, Sunbae, it is worth a shot.”

The amnesiac’s advantage is that the scars of failure never last more than twenty‑four hours.

“Even if it fails my day always resets, so I can just keep at it until it works.”

“The outside might stabilise more later, but if I sit on my hands I doubt my sister’s mind will heal by itself.”

“Then this too is a strategy.”

Right, retry and scar immunity meshed and set the gears of time turning.

“I am sorry, Sunbae. You already saved her once, but please, help my sister one more time.”

“Do not worry. The fee was already paid in advance as your tutoring bill.”

“Ahaha, right, my tuition was steep.”

Clap—a high five. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“Yay, Yo-hwa Yo-hwa☆Sisters reboot, Separated Family Reunion Project, begin!”

“Alright, for my precious students who give me headaches just by existing, I will give it a go.”

And then it went to ruin magnificently.

The start was not bad.

Even though the cliché “You have hidden blood relations” briefly possessed Yo-hwa with the soul of SG Man, her trust in Teacher had long since passed one hundred percent.

With calm explanation her horror began to thaw.

“…Well, Teacher, you do have the Time Seal ability, and you would never feed me nonsense. Hmm.”

“Then will you meet her?”

“Hmm. Yes. But to be honest, it feels completely unreal.”

She tilted her head at an awkward rhythm.

“The world has gotten so weird I let most things slide with a ‘could happen,’ but this is unbelievable. A twin sister? Me? Then she was supposed to inherit our order?”

“We will unravel all that when you meet.”

“Hmm, alright.”

I led her to the rooftop of the Tower of Babel. At the centre, as always, sat the crystal stele.

“Cheon Hwa!”

I stuck only my right foot through the invisible boundary, poking my head inside. Yo-hwa’s hand was still in mine, so she could not yet enter the Time Seal.

“Eh, Sunbae?”

“Why are you coming in like that?”

“I brought your sister.”

“Huh?”

“I struck a deal with yesterday’s you. Let’s meet her.”

“What? Ah, ah, wait, I am not ready!”

Crash, thump.

She nearly fell over a desk, frantically checking her clothes and hair.

“Is my hair sticking up?”

“No sister on Earth fusses over hair to meet her sister. Just meet her.”

“Aah… I always kept the brand of a dignified, unreadable, therefore admirable big sister!”

“…”

“Um, Teacher,” came a voice from behind me, beyond the translucent door only I could see.

“Huh?”

“Forgive me, but you keep shouting by yourself. Are you alright?”

“Cheon Yo-hwa, because of your namesake I am about to look insane in front of my student!”

“Ye‑yes?”

“No, not you, Yo-hwa. Cheon Hwa, big sister, I am coming in!”

“Aaah, the dignity I tended all my life…”

Since the very idea of a twin who worries about such dignity is anomalous, I pulled Yo-hwa in without hesitation.

A short “Ah—” and tap—

just like that the heel of the younger sister’s shoe touched the elder’s classroom floor.

“…”

“…”

Their eyes met.

Two people utterly identical except that one uniform was white and the other black, both wearing the same orange ponytail and the same crimson eyes.

“…Welcome, my sister.”

A breeze blew in through the window.

This Divine Realm is entirely under Cheon Hwa’s control, so the open window, the perfect timing of the breeze, the gust that tousled her hair, and the way she swept it aside were all handmade touches.

“Congratulations,” she said, smiling like a mastermind.

“To transcend the fetters of fate, to cross the boundary of time, and to arrive at this promised spot at last. I, Cheon Yo-hwa written as the lonely empty sky, greet you, my one and only sister.”

“…”

Ah, that sort of roleplay.

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