I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell-Chapter 319

Editor: echo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

◈ I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 319

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The Skeptic XII

I didn’t bother hiding information about Cheon Yo-hwa from my companions. In fact, I was quite proactive about sharing it. Arguing something like “That route is permanently closed, so we’ll never be able to meet her anyway” would be pointless. By that logic, I wouldn’t have needed to explain Old Man Scho either.

“Ho hum...”

As the one with an especially keen interest in receiving any and all intel for my autobiography project, Dok-seo listened to the whole story about Cheon Yo-hwa and tossed out one blunt comment:

“Isn’t she basically a defeated heroine?”

No one had asked, but as soon as Dok-seo decided something fell into her “area of expertise,” she would babble on like any good otaku.

“Look, mister. She had a bit of a childhood-friend vibe going on because she knew you even before the main story began. If we’re going off of chronological order, she’s the heroine who developed feelings for you earlier than anyone else. But guess what? She got Time Seal placed on her. You get what I’m saying? She’s stuck, and there’s no way for her love to come true in the real world. She’s a defeated heroine, no doubt about it.”

Dok-seo possessed a “magic eye” that transformed anything she saw into a subculture phenomenon. Considering she even tried to pair Do-hwa and me, you could guess how powerful that magic eye was.

True, from an outsider’s perspective, Cheon Yo-hwa did indeed lose. Her time had ceased its flow. In reality, though, she hadn’t given up on all time. She had only abandoned the “future,” removing herself from the timeline where we could have walked together, and in exchange, what she took hold of was the “past.”

To conquer me, a regressor, she realized that instead of seizing a future that stretched out infinitely, she should aim for a white canvas of a past that was still blank. Cheon Yo-hwa had grasped that truth more clearly than anyone else.

“I’ve been waiting for you, sunbae.”

A girl in a black sailor uniform sat on a classroom desk and gave me a bright smile.

“Of course, going by my own sense of time, it’s only been ten minutes since we said our eternal farewells and... well... kissed. But it’s good to see you again.”

Ji-won snapped her head around to stare at me. Beyond her deadpan expression, I could see her mind demanding, Did that person just say what I think she said?

I grimaced. “We didn’t kiss. I don’t know where you got that bad habit, but you sure twist history as easily as breathing.”

“Oh, did I?” Cheon Yo-hwa covered her mouth and giggled. “Don’t worry. Before long, our past will ‘change’ so that’s exactly what happened.”

I didn’t grace that with a response.

“If you came here alone, I’d guess you just wanted a little heart-to-heart. But now you’ve brought a companion, hmm? Maybe in other cycles it didn’t happen, but this is the first time in this one, right?”

I nodded as Ji-won took half a step forward, still holding my right hand. “Is this our first time meeting?” she asked.

“Hmm. Who knows?”

“Then I should at least give you a proper hello. I’m Yu Ji-won.”

“Sure. I’m Cheon Yo-hwa. Nice to meet you, sunbae’s adjutant. From my viewpoint, it’s not actually the first time, but let’s just say it is.”

Ji-won took a moment to process that. “I see. So this is what it’s like to meet someone isolated from the normal flow of time. It’s rather novel.”

With those brief introductions done, I wasted no time getting to the point. Letting this girl in front of me dictate the flow of conversation would be a bad idea.

“I’ll lay out the situation,” I began.

“Please do.”

Cheon Yo-hwa listened lazily, sometimes nodding, sometimes adding a little interjection as I talked.

“Leviathan has grown to the level of an Outer God,” I concluded. “Its mental corruption is so overwhelming that we can’t fight it by normal means. Our plan is to turn Ji-won into Leviathan’s Miko... And we’ve formed a temporary alliance with Go Yuri as well.”

“Heh. With Pinky, huh?”

“I have something to ask about that. I can’t figure out why Go Yuri is so wary of Leviathan.”

“Huh... Maybe you’re overthinking it, sunbae?” Cheon Yo-hwa swung her legs as she asked, “As you know, Anomalies fight for authority and dominion, right? Pinky’s and Leviathan’s powers revolve around distorting human perception, so they’re basically the same ‘genre.’ They’re competing.”

“So they’re just rivals?”

“Yup. Maybe there’s some deeper grudge involved, but from the surface alone, it’s clear they’re enemies.”

“So if Leviathan is defeated...”

“Pinky’s dominion gets bigger. A lot bigger.”

I clamped my mouth shut.

Killing with a borrowed sword. Go Yuri was simply using me as a blade to stab Leviathan. If I grew weaker because of the fight, she could enthrall me. And if Leviathan fell, she’d have free rein over the mental-manipulation sphere.

“In other words, for the time being, I can shelve Pinky’s motives and backstory.”

“And focus on beating Leviathan without getting caught up in Pinky’s schemes,” I finished. “That’s it.”

“Right. You catch on quick, sunbae.”

So turning Yu Ji-won into Leviathan’s Miko truly was the only real solution.

“Ji-won exhibits an almost invincible defense against mental manipulation. If she shoulders Leviathan, she’ll be able to manage it without succumbing to an Outer God’s influence.”

“Oh? You’re putting a lot of trust in that unnie, huh?” A sly smile tugged at Cheon Yo-hwa’s lips. “You know what it means to become an Outer God’s Miko, right? It’s like gaining near-complete control of Leviathan’s authority. Unless you seal it away with something like Time Seal, it’s basically a giant time bomb right next to you. You think you can handle it?”

“I’m fine with it.”

In some ways, Ji-won was more dependable than Dok-seo.

I added on to Ji-won’s affirmation by saying, “She knows how strong I am. She’s also aware that Go Yuri is an opponent, and she just learned about you, who could be a wild card... Plus, compared to you or Go Yuri, I’ve already shared more goodwill with her on multiple occasions. We can talk it out. There’s no reason for her to betray me.”

If I ever grew weak, Ji-won would chew me up without hesitation, but I would never let that happen. As long as I remained strong, there was no reason for Yu Ji-won to turn on me.

“Exactly, Your Excellency. How could I possibly team up with such a shady individual and dream of usurping your position? If only Cao Mengde had followed my example, he would have gone down in the record books as a loyal subject of the Han, a timeless exemplar.”[1]

Cheon Yo-hwa waited for a moment to see if I would reply, and when I didn’t, she said, “Huh... So you really trust that unnie so much?”

I turned my gaze aside.

What else could I do? If I didn’t have warriors like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, I had to form a decent battle line with whomever I had.[2] People had to make do with what was given to them.

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: echo

https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

“So far, it looks like Leviathan hasn’t chosen a Miko,” I said while jotting down notes in a little notebook. “But Outer Gods don’t just make a Miko for no reason. If they want to intervene in the real world, they have to designate a single agent on Earth.”

“But Your Excellency, Leviathan’s been meddling in the world just fine on its own so far.”

“That’s true. Which leads us to this possibility.”

I scrawled a line of text in black ink: Maybe Leviathan has chosen a Miko, but that fact has been hidden all along?

I looked at Cheon Yo-hwa, seated next to me.

“We don’t know who this Miko could be. There’s even a chance they themselves don’t realize it.”

“Hmm. Like with Dok-seo?”

“Yeah. And judging by the circumstances so far, the Miko was probably chosen from those close to me.”

Leviathan had specifically singled me out in this cycle, so it followed that it would have picked someone who had substantial influence on me.

“And so, I’m going to rewrite things so that the Miko is—and always has been—Yu Ji-won.”

The would-be Miko in question tilted her head. “I’m sorry, Your Excellency, I don’t follow. Do you mean I won’t ‘become’ a Miko from this point on, but that I was one from the very beginning?”

“Exactly.”

“That... seems strange,” she admitted, her brow furrowed. “I am not Leviathan’s minion, Your Excellency. I’ve never corrupted anyone’s mind or brainwashed them for my own benefit.”

“No, you have done that.”

A blink. “I beg your pardon?”

“You’re actually Leviathan’s Miko. You’ve been hiding it from me all along. You’ve even contaminated people’s minds before. You just concealed that from me or twisted part of the truth.”

No response.

“We’ll make it so from here on out.” I glanced the other way. “Hey, Yo-hwa.”

“Yup, sunbae.”

“You’ve got the power to color my past in any way you please, right?”

“Well, it’s more like a data-mining Infinite Void and certain Mastermind simulations, but yeah. I can.”

“In that case, it should be possible to set things up so that Ji-won and I actually met before the apocalypse—back when I wasn’t yet a regressor.”

Cheon Yo-hwa’s smile broadened, and for a second, I could have sworn that the four seasons drifting outside the classroom windows trembled.

“Of course it’s possible,” she chirped, “as long as sunbae wants that from me. And if unnie here agrees to it.”

“What do you think, Ji-won?” I turned back and locked eyes with her. “If you consent, we’ll define the past between us. We didn’t first meet in that convenience store after the world fell, we actually knew each other before that.”

“Hmm.”

“We may go pretty far back, but starting from then, we’ll build up a timeline in which you were actually Leviathan’s Miko the entire time.”

She propped her chin on one hand. About a minute later, she parted her lips and said, “I have no reason to refuse. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to cement my bond with Your Excellency, and also to secure my position as an Outer God’s Miko.”

“I’ll ask again. You’re fine with having your past changed?”

“I have no special attachment to my past, anyway. All I really remember is killing people,” she revealed without a hitch in breath or pitch. After a moment, when I didn’t respond, she added, “Oh, it’d be a bit of a pity if you go too far back to when I was younger than a high-schooler. I did have to put some effort into learning Latin and Ancient Greek back then.”

We had her agreement.

Cheon Yo-hwa and I exchanged glances. She nodded.

“Great! Well, it’s been a while, or in my own sense of time, barely an hour since last time, but either way, I’ll tweak sunbae’s precious past once again, so this time it’s got you and that unnie woven into it as well.”

Then, she let out a deliberately exaggerated laugh, one that belonged to an old man rather than a young schoolgirl.

“Sure you’re okay with this?” she repeated. “The price for borrowing my power is pretty big, y’know, sunbae? You ready?”

“Just tell me what the price is.”

“Ah, I’m not going to demand it verbally.”

I blinked. “Then how—”

Cheon Yo-hwa was cupping my chin, then without hesitation, she pressed her lips to mine.

Crimson eyes.

Soft warmth brushed over my lips, a breath and then some. As I tried to say something, she pulled my chin even closer.

A beat later, an orange scent grazed my teeth.

Time seemed to drag on. The classroom windows, each tinted by a different season, showed trees swaying in four distinct breezes.

Finally, our lips parted.

“You...”

“What? I already told you, sunbae. This is how it would go.”

Still inches away, Cheon Yo-hwa whispered to me.

“You decided to borrow my power on your own, thinking that since I’m Time Sealed, it’d be ‘relatively safe.’ That’s on you... And there are three prices to pay, not just one.”

“What?”

“Don’t call me shameless. I’m actually trying to be as fair as possible, okay? You’re the one requesting an absurdly powerful ability.”

She tapped my chest with her forefinger.

“First price is that kiss just now.”

Her middle finger joined in, pressing my chest.

“Second price is that, from now on, our history will say, ‘When I confessed my love to sunbae, we actually kissed.’” Her giggle tinkered between us. “Hard to forget that sensation, right, sunbae? You only just did it.”

Sure enough, I was already picturing the scene with the moment she was Time Sealed and we shared a kiss. Whether it happened from the start or was newly inserted into my memories, I couldn’t tell anymore.

“And the last, third price is...”

Her ring finger pressed into my chest.

“Sorry, sunbae. One more time... because I liked it.”

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She leaned in once more, connecting our lips again.

This time, the kiss wasn’t as hurried as before. Instead, it was a bit softer, and it lingered just a little longer.

Her three fingers on my chest slowly began to move. They were tracing letters with her nails. Even with just the feeling, I could make out the rough shapes of the words—I’d gotten used to reading letters with my skin thanks to the Saintess. Thus, I could decode it.

Actually, a long time ago,

I wanted to tweak our timeline so that we stole a kiss back when you tutored me.

That was my mistake.

I couldn’t hold back.

I feel kind of underhanded too.

After all, I’m going to forget this in a day, anyway. Silly me, right?

But at least you’ll remember it, sunbae.

That’s not so bad.

Only her crimson eyes filled my vision now.

Her nails scratched over the very spot in my chest where my heart was beating.

Off you go, sunbae.

Here’s a little hint:

Make use of perfume.

Perfume?

Before I could ask what that meant, one of the four windows—the second one, where summer sunlight shone—flared with blinding brightness.

It was so bright that I reflexively had to close my eyes.

And then.

And then—

When I opened my eyes again...

“Huh?”

I found myself standing in the middle of a road.

No more sign of Cheon Yo-hwa’s classroom, her Divine Realm, or the person herself who’d just scratched my chest.

Instead, what I faced was an old neighborhood on a narrow downward slope. Alleyways and walls seemed to wrestle for the slightest bit of space. A neglected flower pot perched forlornly to provide the only bit of greenery. The summer sun was scorching the anemone’s leaves, baking the uneven layers of concrete underfoot.[3]

“Excuse me.”

I heard a voice from behind. When I turned around, there stood a slight girl with black hair, looking up at me with arms loaded with trash bags.

“If it’s not too much trouble, could you move aside so I can get by?”

Because the alley was so narrow, she couldn’t pass unless I stepped away.

“O-oh, right. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Thank you for granting my request.”

She bowed her head politely, despite carrying two heavy trash bags. The angle of her bow was so impeccable it felt oddly out of place with her shabby outfit.

That perfect bow could only belong to one person, someone whose greetings were always impeccable. Her hair color was different, her eyes were different, and she was definitely a lot shorter. Still, considering I’d just been yanked into this “rewritten past” by Cheon Yo-hwa’s power...

Could this polite, grown-up-sounding girl in front of me be...?

“Yu Ji-won?”

“Sorry?”

“Oh, uh... Is your name Yu Ji-won by any chance?”

The black-haired girl’s eyes fluttered twice in two blinks.

“Yes. I’m Yu Ji-won, Class 1-2 at Shinseo Middle School. Do... Do you know me?”

I was at a loss for words.

Holy crap.

Sure, we’d said we’d rewrite the past so that Yu Ji-won had always been Leviathan’s Miko. But this? Come on, Cheon Yo-hwa, you’ve sent me too far back!

In that cramped alley, 14-year-old Yu Ji-won tilted her head in confusion.

The cicadas were in full chorus.

It was summer.

Footnotes:

[1] Cao Cao, or Cao Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty, allowing his son to eventually usurp the throne after his passing. His cruelty and success as a conquering warlord have led him to be vilified over time, due in no small part to the antagonistic role he takes in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[2] Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were key generals and statesmen of the early Three Kingdoms period who both shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei, the ruler depicted in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as an example of a humane and benevolent ruler.

[3] In the language of flowers, anemones can symbolize passionate love or stand as the flowers of the dead.