Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint-Chapter 536: When the Body Is Idle, the Mind Wanders

I returned to the mansion, passing by the napping Mountain Lord and heading inside. From the slightly ajar door, I could hear the sound of ragged breathing. When I entered, I saw Azzy tending to the regressor.

A faint holy light shimmered above Azzy’s head. It wouldn’t help much with internal wounds, but at least it was still a healing force.

No matter how I looked at it, that wasn't the kind of power a beast should have.

Fortunately, there was someone here who might know the answer—or at least a clue. I sat down beside the regressor and spoke.

“You heard everything we talked about, right? What do you think? Anything seem off to you?”

“...No. Nothing.”

Even as she groaned in pain, she answered diligently.

“So it really was because of the wolves... That’s a relief. I thought maybe he had come to take revenge.”

“Revenge? Revenge for what?”

“If a tiger lives in the mountains, people can’t build roads. So when they hunt for safety, tigers are often the first to go... Many tigers must have been killed, so I thought he came for revenge.”

“The ones I’ve killed coming back to take revenge? That’s such a human way of thinking. If that were the case, what about tigers? They hunt countless boars and deer—have you ever heard of them being targeted for revenge?”

“...I know. I was just saying.”

‘The Mountain Lord came because of the wolves. He has no reason to indiscriminately attack humans. Just knowing this is enough. As long as we stop the Wolf King, the Mountain Lord won’t become humanity’s calamity.’

The regressor played it loose, but she left no room for doubt. She acted as if she knew the future, but she was careful to never explicitly reveal her regression.

That’s why people suspected her of being a saint.

“Good. We dealt with the Wolf King here, so we’ve prevented the worst-case scenario.”

“Hm. Maybe you feel relieved, but I still have some concerns.”

“...What concerns?”

“Azzy. Look at her head.”

“Woof?”

At my words, the regressor glanced above Azzy’s head. Though faint, the halo still radiated light.

Her eyes widened.

“...What is that?”

“You tell me.”

“Don’t assume I know everything... I don’t know a lot of things.”

“At least you know you don’t know. That’s a relief.”

Azzy, noticing our gazes, rolled her eyes upward. Then, startled, she jumped on the spot.

“Woof?! Unidentified flying object!”

“You really didn’t notice something floating above your head until now?”

“The lamp’s base is always the darkest! Woof woof!”

Azzy reached up with her paws, trying to touch the halo. But since it was pure light, there was nothing to grasp. She even jumped, trying to bite it, but all she managed to do was somersault in place.

Leaving her to tumble around like a hamster on a wheel, I turned back to the regressor.

“Shei, you said you came to stop the King of Sin.”

“Yeah.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Just like how dogs symbolize kindness and wolves embody ferocity, even if concepts are emphasized, they can’t completely escape their original nature. And no matter how you look at it, the King of Sin must be human-based. No other creature would fixate on something like ‘sin.’”

This was something we both already knew. But there was one thing only she knew and I didn’t.

Today, I was going to provoke her until she let something slip.

“And I know a lot about the Kings of Beasts. Even the strongest Human King would only be around the level of the Mountain Lord. That’s not enough to destroy the world. Honestly, Shei, you sound like you’re overreacting—like some doomsday cultist.”

The moment I mentioned doomsday cults, the regressor’s expression twisted. In times of peace, doomsday preachers were treated as delusional lunatics who justified their madness. She had probably been accused of the same thing countless times. For someone who had actually witnessed the apocalypse, it must have been infuriating.

“...You’re wrong. The King of Sin really is that dangerous.”

“How could that be? Even the actual Human King says that’s not possible.”

“The King of Sin isn’t like you. It’s something completely different.”

Ah, right. The regressor had insisted over and over that the King of Sin was distinct from the Human King. I hadn’t been able to grasp the exact reason, but now she had finally let something slip.

“What kind of animal would concern itself with sin? Do you think beasts are out there staging revolutions in pursuit of freedom?”

“It’s not another Beast King... The King of Sin is a human king who absorbed the sins of all humanity.”

“Are sins some kind of magic potion? You can drink them? And even if you do, how would that make you powerful enough to burn the world down? If such a potion existed, I’d love to take a sip.”

“It’s a metaphor! It ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ means the concept became separate!”

Separate? Like the Kings of Beasts?

I held my breath, quietly waiting for her to continue.

“The Kings of Beasts are conceptual beings. But if you strip away the ‘beast’ part, what remains is pure concept. A King of Concept is even more powerful than when they had a physical form.”

“How?”

“I don’t know all the details. But when a being loses its body and becomes a King of Concept, it burns everything in pursuit of spreading its ideology. It stops eating, stops sleeping—it abandons everything to act solely as a vessel for that concept. The King of Sin disregards life, the future—everything. It only seeks to spread sin. It’s... the end of humanity.”

Beasts go through great effort to survive. They search for food, hunt, flee from predators, compete with rivals, rest, mate, give birth, raise their young. Their entire existence revolves around life.

The Kings of Beasts are no different. Azzy, Nabi, and the Mountain Lord all seemed simple and foolish because they were beasts.

But what if a King of Beasts burned its own soul to achieve something? What if it tried to engrave its ideology into the world, like a Demon God?

“The Wolf King would have become the same. If Azzy hadn’t defeated him, he would have turned into the embodiment of ferocity itself—an even stronger and more terrifying calamity.”

‘Like the disaster that once swept across the Enger Plains, leading not just beasts but even beastfolk.’

The regressor had said she needed to help Azzy defeat the Wolf King. That it wouldn’t be difficult.

But if killing the Wolf King had been easy, why involve Azzy at all? Sure, she helped, but in the end, she was just a King of Beasts. If it were only a beast, a single military division could have handled it. It wouldn’t have been a calamity—just a nuisance.

In another timeline, Fenrir must have become something other than a simple Wolf King.

It was hard to believe. But I couldn’t ignore it. Especially not when I had a real example standing right in front of me.

“So, you’re saying... they would turn into something like Azzy?”

“Azzy...?”

Azzy's entire body had grown hazy, a halo replacing her crown, and now she could even use inexplicable healing abilities. No one could look at her and call her a normal King of Beasts anymore. Though, to be fair, she still looked like a fool as she struggled to bite the glowing ring above her head.

Watching Azzy flip through the air, the regressor groaned in thought.

‘Yeah... Azzy’s current state is definitely strange. I never really knew what happens when a conceptual being changes. Does it happen by passing or stealing a crown? Azzy gave hers away, so she became the King of Kindness?’

A Beast King who had turned into a King of Concept... Hmm. Interesting, but I still couldn’t feel any real connection to it. Maybe because I had neither a crown nor any power? What I really wanted was for the regressor to think about how the King of Sin would come into existence—just a clue, at least.

‘Then what about Hughes? Like the dog and wolf, does he have to fight the thing waiting at the top of the Tree of Betrayal? No... Hughes doesn’t have a crown, and I’ve never seen him involved in past regressions. Has the separation of concepts already happened?’

“Shei.”

“Huh? Ah, yeah! Yeah.”

The regressor answered in surprise, then winced from the pain. I felt a little bad for pushing her while she was injured, but people tended to think more when they were in discomfort. This was probably the most she’d ever used her brain since she was born—I couldn’t waste this chance.

“After piecing things together, I think I get the general idea. I have a guess about what the separation of concepts is and what’s been happening. But there’s one thing that’s even more important.”

“...What?”

“Who did it, and why?”

I was sure of one thing. There was no way I couldn’t be. After all, I was the one this happened to.

A long time ago, so far back that I couldn’t even remember it. Back then, I wasn’t the King of Humans, but the agreement from that time still existed, binding me even now.

But what about the regressor? She had lived through countless timelines, accumulating knowledge and experience. She had to know. And if she didn’t—or if she had the wrong idea—there was only one explanation.

The Holy Crown Church deceived her.

Let’s see what excuse she has.

The regressor took a deep breath, as if steeling herself, then spoke.

“...Alright. Ugh. I think... I have to say it. I can’t be certain, but the one responsible for the separation of concepts is...”

“The one responsible is?”

Finally, she was talking. I’d waited long for this. I kept my expression neutral, carefully listening to both her words and her thoughts. Whether she was lying or telling the truth didn’t matter—whatever she said, my mind-reading would uncover the real memories tied to it.

‘It should be fine to say it now. The chances of Hughes being the King of Sin have gone down. He even helped prove it by siding with Azzy. Even if I reveal this, it won’t put him in any more danger than he already is.’

The moment the regressor made up her mind, nothing could stop her. She spoke the name she had been holding back.

“Nebida.”

...Right. Nebida. Nebida, huh...

Wait.

What? Nebida?

The completely unexpected answer made me tilt my head in confusion.

“Huh? The Grand Druid?”

“Yeah.”

“...Seriously?”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but that’s the only possibility.”

Why not the Holy Crown Church?

Couldn’t she see the glowing ring over Azzy’s head? That divine radiance was something only bestowed upon saints. Whether Azzy had truly been chosen as a sacred beast was still uncertain, but how could the Holy Crown Church not even be a suspect?

“What’s your proof?” I asked.

“At the top of the Tree of Betrayal... that thing is growing.”

The Tree of Betrayal—Nebida’s demonic power, the Tree of Origin.

After the World Tree in the ancient jungles of the Ten Thousand Nations burned down, the Tree of Betrayal sprouted from its ashes, bearing all kinds of fruit. Potatoes, corn, carrots, watermelons, lotus roots... Originally a ginkgo tree, its seeds were now replaced by an unnatural variety of produce.

And if one climbed to the top of that tree... they would see a creature they had never seen before, pulsing within the red flesh of a forbidden fruit.

The regressor recalled the giant flower she had seen from a distance. It had been too slender and beautiful for something at the peak of the Tree of Betrayal, yet there it was, drawing all the tree’s energy into itself—the forbidden Fruit of Knowledge.

“...The King of Humans, created by the Tree of Origin.”