A Villain's Will to Survive

Chapter 109: The Record of Regressions (1)

Chapter 109: The Record of Regressions (1)

I opened the underground door and stepped forward. Yet, I hadn't taken even a single step before realizing there was no ground beneath me. In an instant, my entire body plunged into a seemingly endless descent. It was like bungee jumping without a cord, or skydiving without a parachute.

My clothes fluttered wildly as the air resistance pressed against my entire body. With my eyes closed, I focused on the rush of the wind. Silently, I endured the pull of gravity. The fall continued for what felt like an eternity, until, just as I began to adjust...

Thud—!

I landed. My body, stretched out straight, slammed into the ground. I lay there, struggling to manage the pain in my lower back. Whether it was my tailbone, ribs, or both, something was certainly fractured. Yet, the body of the Iron Man began to heal quickly. As I waited, I gazed up at the sky. It was clear and blue, with the letters of the status notification flickering above.

[Darkness of the Imperial Palace—Demon’s Mirror: First Cycle]

? Quest Overview: Explore the Demon’s Mirror within Sophien’s regression.

It was the first cycle, Sophien’s first life—one in which she had never regressed.

"... Hmm," I murmured.

The area around me appeared to be the Imperial Palace’s garden, though not a single person was in sight. The world seemed eerily empty. However, upon closer inspection of the ground...

Rustle— Rustle—

With the sound of sweeping, scattered leaves were neatly gathered. Then—

Clip— Clip—

The pruning of the garden’s shrubs continued. The trimmed branches floated into the air and settled into a sack. Tasks that should have required human hands were happening on their own. Suddenly, I noticed a shard of glass on the ground. Using Telekinesis, I lifted it and held it up to the light. ... Indeed, there was no one in my world.

"Retel, are you done pruning?"

In this glass—no, in this world beyond the mirror—many people existed. Every sound originated from within the glass.

"Finished. Her Majesty prefers everything tidy, so making it perfectly square should do," replied Retel, the gardener of the Imperial Palace.

"Really? Don’t you think it’s a bit too square?" the other gardener asked.

The gardeners of the Imperial Palace were discussing the state of the garden when one of them noticed the shard of glass I was holding.

"Oh? Why is that glass floating over there?" the gardener said, startled, pointing at the glass moving with Telekinesis.

"... I see," I mumbled, quickly grasping the situation after dispelling the spell.

The medium of this quest, the Demon’s Mirror, encompassed this entire place. In other words, I had entered the world within the mirror. From their perspective, I was invisible, and if I moved something, they would mistake it for the work of a ghost.

At that moment, I was nothing more than a being of the hidden world—a presence within the mirror.

"If that’s the case, the demon must be inside," I said, as the mere thought of it sent a heavy weight settling in my chest.

I exhaled deeply to release the heat and walked through the garden toward the Imperial Palace.

Crunch, crunch—

No one blocked my path. In this first cycle, no one had been able to see me without a mirror, and I couldn’t see them either.

The scene in the palace was not much different from the future I remembered. Marble tiles covered the floors, rows of magic stone lamps lined the walls, and the ceiling was adorned with the royal symbol, a golden lion.

I began my search for Sophien. She was the most important figure in this quest, a fact known not only to me but also to the demon.

"Is this the location?"

At that time, Sophien had likely been a princess, not yet the Empress, and the heir’s room wasn’t far from the Emperor’s private chambers. The door, lavishly decorated with embedded jewels, stood before me.

Thud—

I opened the door and stepped inside. The room was empty. No, it only appeared empty. I turned to the full-length mirror on the right side of the spacious room. In the reflection, I saw Sophien.

"Who opened the door?" Sophien demanded coolly.

She hadn’t been addressing me but the escort knights instead. It seemed they had been stationed outside her room.

"We assumed Your Highness had opened the door," one of the escort knights replied.

"Myself?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Our apologies, but neither of us opened the door. We wouldn’t dare."

Eight-year-old Sophien furrowed her brow and glared at the two guards before closing the door. As she turned, she glanced at the mirror on her right. I was there, in the reflection. Her frail, sickly body stiffened, and without a word, she swallowed hard.

Trembling slightly, she finally whispered, "... Who are you? An assassin?"

I shook my head in response.

At that moment, Sophien yelled, "Guards!"

I stepped back, moving out of the mirror’s line of sight.

"Yes, Your Highness! We have arrived!"

"There was an intruder here...?"

"Where, Your Highness?!"

Their voices had given me clues about the situation.

"That mirror..." Sophien muttered.

"The mirror, Your Highness?"

Neither the guards nor Sophien saw any intruder. She appeared confused and muttered, "... There was someone in the mirror."

"We shall break it."

"What? ... No. Forget it. Just go."

"Yes, Your Highness," the two guards replied, then exited the room.

Even after they left, Sophien continued to stare blankly at the mirror. I reappeared before her.

"... You," Sophien said.

This time, she didn’t call for the guards. Instead, she calmly asked, "Who are you?"

"I am..."

"Where—!" Sophien exclaimed, sharply turning her head to look directly where I stood in the mirror.

However, she couldn’t see me and shifted her gaze back to the mirror.

"What is this? Why can I see you only in the mirror?"

I stayed silent.

"Damn it. Is this just a hallucination from my headache?" Sophien muttered.

"I am not a hallucination," I replied softly, shaking my head. Sophien’s eyebrows twitched. "It’s unfortunate, though. This way, we’ll never truly face each other."

"Unfortunate? How dare you speak of meeting me face to—"

Sophien’s words were cut off by a fit of dry coughing. As she tried to compose herself, I took in the grandeur of the room. There wasn’t a single thing that lacked luxury.

Then, something outside the window caught my eye. It was a garden where all the world’s springs seemed to converge. The Imperial Palace Garden, the most famous magical space on the continent, was a place where all four seasons coexisted, but in the southeast corner, spring reigned eternal.

Petals fluttered in the breeze, brilliant buds bloomed, butterflies and bees danced, sunlight streamed down, and vivid colors filled the lush garden. Meanwhile, Sophien, so close to that beautiful garden, struggled to breathe. She noticed the blood on her hand; she had coughed it up.

Seeing the clear sign of her impending death, tears welled up in Sophien’s eyes. This Sophien, in her first cycle, had never experienced regression and didn’t know she would be reborn. To her, this death felt final.

"... Greetings, Your Highness. I serve as a professor," I said.

"A professor?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

Sophien looked at me, wiping the tears from her eyes and the blood from her mouth, and asked, "A professor from the university or the Mage Tower?"

Without any change in expression, I replied, "Yes, from the Mage Tower. We will have many conversations from now on."

***

Meanwhile, in the Roharlak region of the Yukline territory, the Red Garnet Adventure Team visited the Roharlak Concentration Camp. They had arrived to fulfill a request to procure up to 50 milliliters of venom from the Harlak Scorpion.

"This place is huge..." Ria muttered as she took in the vast expanse of the concentration camp. She tried to remember if it had been this big in the original story, but she couldn’t recall exactly.

"Right? Maybe the Professor made it bigger after that terror incident," Ganesha suggested gently, causing Ria to fall silent.

Professor Deculein’s influence had grown unchecked, and Ria had learned of his power through countless media reports. Fortunately, the concentration camp had been built in Roharlak. After all, Roharlak wasn’t entirely a land of despair. It had the potential to be reclaimed, and perhaps even...

"Red Garnet Adventure Team," a cold voice broke into her thoughts. "So, we finally meet?"

"Oh!" Ria exclaimed, flinching as she turned toward the source of the voice.

It was Yeriel. Though she was currently Deculein’s sister, they were not related by blood. In the future, she would become a well-known named character, infamous for being blackmailed by Deculein because of this fact, a situation that would ultimately lead to one of them killing the other.

Now, she stood before them, her face etched with displeasure as she glared at them.

"Miss Yeriel?" Ganesha said, her eyes widening in surprise.

Yeriel crossed her arms and asked, "Why haven’t you been responding to my messages? Did you put me on some kind of blacklist?"

"Ah, well~ You see~" Ganesha started, hesitating as she searched for the right words. She couldn’t exactly tell her it was because she wasn’t Deculein’s real sister.

"... Huh?" Carlos muttered, puzzled, at that moment.

Ganesha quickly took the opportunity and asked, "What is it, Carlos? What’s wrong?"

"I just saw something up there..." Carlos said, pointing to the sky.

Both the Red Garnet Adventure Team and Yeriel, along with her vassals, looked up at the sky.

"There’s nothing there, Carlos," Ganesha said gently.

"No!" Carlos quickly retorted. At eleven years old, he hated having his words ignored. "There was... something strange flying up there."

"Could you have mistaken it for a bird?"

"It was too big to be a bird..." Carlos murmured, still gazing upward.

Yeriel, however, turned her attention back to Ganesha and said, "Whatever it was, I have something to discuss. Why don’t you come to Yukline Castle?"

"Oh, hahaha, we’d like to, but we’re on a mission..." Ganesha replied with a strained smile.

Immediately after that moment...

"... Hmm? What was that?" Ganesha asked, her eyes suddenly widening in confusion, as if she had become a different person. "Leo? Ria? Ros? What’s happening, and why are we here? Why am I here?"

Everyone looked at her in confusion at her strange remarks. However, Yeriel narrowed her eyes again and said, "You’re acting strange. Just follow me."

"Oh? I, uh..."

"Hurry up! I’ll pay you whatever you want!" Yeriel commanded, as she and her vassals practically dragged the Red Garnet Adventure Team toward the castle.

***

[Darkness of the Imperial Palace—Demon’s Mirror: 1st Cycle]

The rules of this world within the mirror were fairly ordinary. Time passed here just as it did on the other side. Sophien on one side and myself within the mirror—we shared the same time. Neither moved faster nor slower. So, on the second day after entering this underground world, Sophien spoke.

"I am slowly dying," Sophien said. It was the sorrowful confession of an eight-year-old child. "It’s an incurable disease. The officials all know. They look at me with pity... Those damn eyes used to turn my stomach."

I held Sophien’s gaze as she looked into my eyes through the mirror.

Noticing this, Sophien gave a faint smile and said, "Your eyes don’t show any of that, which is a relief. ... But lately, there are things that bother me even more."

"What troubles you?" I asked.

"Every night, something like mosquitoes appears in my dreams..."

"Can you describe how they look?"

Sophien sighed and said, "They resemble bats. They fly around, but sometimes they look like flies, and other times like monsters. The only thing that stays the same is that they’re always flying."

I nodded and said, "They are demons."

"Demons?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

These demons flew around with no fixed form. I knew their nature all too well—both from Kim Woo-Jin’s memories and the instincts of the Yukline bloodline. The demon Nésc?us, which moved like a ghost, took on the form of whatever its target feared most. It had no fixed appearance, making it a difficult opponent.

"Demons, huh..." Sophien muttered.

I didn’t yet know the purpose of these demons, but I was certain they were connected to the Altar. After all, in the story, this Nésc?us had been a demon summoned directly by the Altar.

Sophien suddenly coughed, blood staining her hand. With a heavy sigh, she asked, "How do you know so much about these things? Well, I suppose it makes sense—you are a professor, after all... Anyway, last week, I chose my personal escort knights."

I looked at Sophien. Though she was only eight years old, she seemed more mature than the Empress she would one day become.

"His name is Keiron... but I don’t think I’ll need him for long. I’m going to die soon, maybe even tomorrow," Sophien said, pointing at me with her index finger. More precisely, she pointed at the mirror. "This might be our farewell, strange and arrogant professor trapped in this mirror. A professor who, oddly enough, can talk to me. A professor with a gaze I like."

As she said this, Sophien smiled, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

I shook my head and said, "Not exactly."

"... Not exactly what?" Sophien asked.

"This is not our farewell."

"What?"

"I will always accompany you on your journey, Your Highness. And when it concludes, I will still be by your side."

Sophien looked at me, shook her head with a bitter smile, and said, "I wish I could believe that, but you’re just a hallucination brought on by this damned disease. Hahaha..."

She laughed, but the effort made her cough up more blood.

"Arghhh—!"

Her pained groans echoed through the room as blood from the mouth of an eight-year-old child splattered across the mirror.

"Waaah..."

It was the final cry of a child who had been pretending to be an adult.

At that moment, the entire world plunged into darkness. Nothing was visible to my eyes. I watched as a status window appeared in the void.

[First Cycle]

The word First, flickered before changing to a new number.

[Second Cycle]

Sophien had just died.

"... Your Majesty," I mumbled.

The world that had plunged into darkness began to shatter with Sophien’s regression. Cracks spread like a mirror breaking apart.

Craaaack...

"We shall meet again soon."

Thud—!

The door to the underground chamber shut.

***

“Deculein!”

Keiron’s voice jolted me back to reality. I opened my eyes wide and quickly took in my surroundings. I was in the Imperial Palace—the real Imperial Palace. I had been expelled right after Sophien’s first cycle ended.

"Keiron, how much time has passed?" I inquired, now fully grasping the situation.

"Time? Not even a day has passed. But listen carefully, and don’t misunderstand me," Keiron responded, his usually composed demeanor unsettled. There was even a trace of fear in his expression. "I have returned from tomorrow, the second day."

I looked at Keiron, who appeared as puzzled by his own words, and I asked, "Are you speaking of regression?"

“... Ah! Yes, that’s the word. I’ve been searching for a way to explain what happened, and that term is perfect. Yes, I regressed—by just one day."

I quietly turned my gaze to the underground door, a plain wooden door.

Knock, knock—

I knocked on it and tried the handle, but nothing happened; the door remained shut. It wasn’t yet time for the second cycle to begin.

"Deculein, as hard as this is to believe, you must trust me. I regressed from tomorrow to today—"

"Yes, I believe you. It appears that Nésc?us has escaped from this underground chamber."

“... Nésc?us?”

"It’s a type of demon that takes on various forms. Did you, by chance, cut down an unidentified enemy?"

Keiron’s eyes widened as he responded, “Yes! Last night—no, tomorrow night—this is strange to explain, but something leaped out in the underground corridor, and I struck it down.”

I nodded and said, “Then that was likely it. The demon must have been carrying the power of regression.”

“Carrying regression?”

“Yes, much like a bee gathering nectar from a flower and delivering it to the hive.”

I began to understand the true nature of this quest—why the demon had interfered with Sophien’s memories and why the Altar sought her Authority.

“Explain it to me in detail,” Keiron demanded.

I looked at Keiron. In that moment, he was the most reliable person I had.

“This is the most certain way to resurrect their God,” I replied.

“A God?”

“Yes. The demons have been seeking a body. Now that they have one, the next step is to find a soul.”

The Altar must have commissioned Arlos to create a body. Whether Arlos crafted it or someone else provided it, once they secured the body, the soul became the next target.

I continued, “For an ordinary human, the body and soul are one. When the soul regresses, it pulls the body back in time with it, just as you did, Keiron.”

Keiron, having regressed from tomorrow to today, nodded and asked, “And what if they aren’t ordinary?”

“If they’re not ordinary—as if they’re already dead—the body and soul must be separate. So, if an artificially created body stays anchored in the present while only the soul regresses...”

If Sophien’s authority of regression were accumulated over decades, centuries, or even millennia, and then infused into a soul that had already passed on, what would happen? If the body remained anchored in the present, but the soul was regressed back to its living days?

“He would certainly be resurrected.”

This was the most crucial part of the main quest—The Resurrection of the God—and this was how it was to be accomplished.

“... But why did I regress? Did Her Majesty’s power somehow escape?” Keiron asked, now revealing that he was aware of Sophien’s regression.

“No. It happened because you struck down Nésc?us tomorrow night. The regression it carried spilled onto you. As I mentioned, the demon was merely a carrier, like a bee. You got some of the nectar on you when you killed it,” I explained.

“Aha!” Keiron exclaimed, his eyes widening in realization.

For a knight in his late thirties, it had been an unexpectedly charming reaction. I turned my gaze back to the wooden door of the underground chamber.

“Keiron, from now on, things will move quickly. When this door opens again, contact me immediately. And if you encounter Nésc?us again, continue to cut it down as you did. Use this to reach me,” I said, handing him the Message Paper.

“I will,” Keiron replied with a firm nod.