Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Boyfriend Reconciles with Tomboy Childhood Friend
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Song Seong-yeon was staring at the skill from across the table from me.
It wasn't visible in my field of vision.
I had turned my head away in case seeing it might make my head explode.
"...Did you make anything out of it?"
"The rank dropped, that's all. Aside from the skill description being heavily garbled, everything else is intact."
"Garbled?"
"Broken, you could say. It feels like the Tower Lord deliberately shattered it."
"So you don't know how much of it you can explain?"
"No, I know it all. When the light flowed in just now, it left a warning message for me. The conditions have loosened up a ton—now I just have to keep one thing."
"Which is?"
"The most important secret to me, aside from the regression. Even if seeing you lets me forgive everything, it said to leave one for you to struggle with to the end."
"I see."
I decided not to curse her out.
I was scared of getting caught badmouthing her behind her back, and her reaction made it feel like almost everything had been unlocked anyway.
"So, we can finally talk about it?"
"Yeah. Finally."
I pulled a bottle from the wine rack at the back of the room.
Seong-yeon's expression, now freed, was endlessly soft.
"On the 131st regression, I've finally reached this point."
It was a toast to liberation.
*
……One drink, then another.
We shared drinks just like when we reunited with this girl.
But this time was different.
In the truest sense, we had reunited, and we savored the buzz together.
"Ahem..."
The story I was hearing alongside the alcohol felt fake yet overflowing with realism.
"I kept dying like a flatfish?"
"Yeah. There were too many cases where people around me figured out my secret and told you about it. Mom, guildmates, colleagues... Even when I begged them to keep it secret, they couldn't shut up, and the moment it reached your ears, I'd be dead before I could do anything. One day I woke up to you screaming that I was dead, so I regressed... That one really drained me."
She didn't say what the secret was.
It was the final riddle left by Tower Lord Aphrodite.
Everything about [regression] except that had been unlocked, and I absorbed every detail of my friend's hardships.
"The quicker we reunite, the higher the probability gets. So I decided to meet you as late as possible. From the elementary school days after you got burned and moved... up to now, age 27. I've repeated life up to this point."
"So that's why no contact until now. In the previous regression, quick contact got me killed again?"
"It might sound like an excuse, but it's true. I've even gone to the same high school as you. Or completely given up and told you not to become a hunter. I even rushed up the tower alone thinking I'd clear it solo."
I knew that.
"But Mom spilled it. I told her never to say anything, but she called you and blabbed everything. Or it was a friend, a teacher, even your parents..."
It was one of the memories the constellation showed me.
"A secret so easy even your mom knew... and only I didn't?"
"Exactly. You have to figure it out on your own, Chang-gi. It really is simple, but the curse on my skill makes it hard to notice. Actually, during that conversation with Lady Aphrodite earlier, there were several spots where my secret almost came out, but you didn't catch any."
I hadn't noticed at all.
To think it was even in that short exchange...
"...Ugh!?"
"Don't think too hard about it. The curse has loosened, but it could still blow up."
"Got it..."
For a moment, my head throbbed.
A sharp resonance in my skull.
Probably a sign of explosion.
This must be what it means—you can't realize it from info others give you.
"...What a bizarre curse. Even when I hid it thoroughly, it got out somehow. My secret leaks somewhere and reaches your ears. Even when I resorted to threats. It's like someone's manipulating people."
Might be the Tower Lord's power.
With her personality, she'd totally do it.
But it didn't scare me.
'Feels good to get it off my chest.'
Just knowing Seong-yeon had spilled everything made the fear vanish and the anger dissipate.
I simply enjoyed my drink and took the chance to ask what I was curious about.
-What made you climb the tower first?
"You're my benefactor, so I wanted to give you a good skill. I thought conquering the tower would let me get one. Then I got greedy and got you killed... and by chance got the regression skill. But in exchange for the curse, I ended up regressing infinitely without aging to death."
-Condition to escape the infinite regression curse?
"Just offer you something useful, like my original goal. But I don't know how big the offering needs to be. EX-rank skill? Or a woman? So I tried to prepare a lot."
-Then you cheesed the Golden Tower and got cursed again?
"Yeah. Foolish words from a fool. It was all because of my circumstances and desires that I killed you over and over."
-And the result? Killed me 131 times?
"I did. And I did kill you. I'm truly sorry."
...No real sense of it.
She's saying I died, but it wasn't me who died.
The Hong Chang-gi she saw as a colleague is already gone from this world.
Maybe he's someone else...
"But I felt relieved."
"About what."
"What Lady Aphrodite said just now. That traces of your soul remain."
"…………."
"Even with regression, you're the Chang-gi I know. The one who always saves me. You saved me again this time."
...As I thought that, she denied my thinking.
A soul, huh.
Then am I the Hong Chang-gi she knows?
If the god says so, maybe.
If the soul led me here... that would be...
'Come to think of it, where'd my clear reward go?'
Right at that timing, she went full naked tease with her tongue, and the reward vanished.
Despite clearing the 10th floor, all I got were that mysterious phenomenon and fragmented memories.
"131 times—I was shocked when I heard the number, since that constellation talked like it hadn't died many times."
"Probably because the Tower Lord's authority is that strong. The constellation probably only vaguely knew and helped you out."
"Yeah. What a ridiculous constellation."
Another drink.
Seong-yeon was surprisingly well-behaved this time, unlike before.
I half-expected her to try something, but today she was like a borrowed cat.
"...Not mad?"
"Suddenly?"
"I killed you multiple times because I'm an idiot... plus stuck you with this curse..."
"Sure, it's scary, but it's eased now. As long as I don't hear nonsense from someone, I won't die. I've acknowledged it, and I know you're a regressor, so from my side, this is historically the best outcome, right?"
"True, but... your head exploded multiple times... I made you restart life over and over..."
"No memories, so I can't complain. If I had even fragments, I'd be pissed, but nothing."
What part should I even get mad about?
Her shoving me into the Golden Tower without explanation?
I already beat her for that.
Yelled too.
It's done.
"More than that, no contact all this time was for that reason. Cutting ties completely before reunion to prevent anyone spilling your secret."
"Yeah. Someone's definitely gonna blab it."
"Can't get mad then. You did good."
From my view, a long-lost friend handed me the glory of conquering Golden Tower floor 10 and a lovable lover as gifts.
Sure, no explanation and the bullshit plot pissed me off royally, but...
"...Hold up."
"Yeah."
"Now that I think about it, there was something I wanted to ask."
"What."
"That woman you introduced. Milky, I mean."
"Yeah."
"Did you meet her through repeating regressions?"
"………."
A brief silence.
I wondered if I'd asked something bad, but Seong-yeon countered with a question.
"In what sense?"
"Like, a woman innately slutty or masochistic by nature—you couldn't meet someone like that normally, no matter how many lives. But since you physically regress, maybe that's how."
"Ah..."
She scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
After pondering how to put it, she answered straightforwardly.
"Yeah. After endless regressions, I found out she's under a similar curse. That's why she's clinging to you."
"...For real?"
"Why else hide her face? She can't let anyone learn her identity. That's the curse."
Made sense when she put it that way.
Now I finally got why she said she loved me right off the bat.
"She likes me, but plastic bags are lame, so maybe ask her to wear a proper mask."
"I'll pass it on."
Oh, it works?
Cool.
How far had I asked?
Her reason for entering the tower = to give me a gift
Got regression skill and infinite regression curse = trying to save me, got cursed in Golden Tower = to resolve first curse by offering me better skill but failed = all because of me?
This girl really felt that deeply indebted to me.
"Whew..."
As I drank wine without even knowing the taste, a thought struck me.
My relationships weren't just with her.
"So what about Ceres?"
"………."
"I have memories of banging her. How'd that happen?"
"She was originally one of the women I planned to offer you."
"...Her?"
"Yeah. I played Cupid, then you died. Ceres spilled my secret to you."
"Her? With that personality?"
"I thought Ceres could keep a secret, but she must've been weak in front of the man she loves. Well, she's been through a lot. Emotionally heavy, and in other ways too... so maybe she depended on you more than needed."
That Ceres...
...Like traces of old me in my soul's fragments, did Ceres retain memories from back then deep inside?
Who knows...
"You get the gist?"
"Yeah. How much of a lunatic you are too."
We set down our glasses.
Time to wrap up the talk.
"Let's climb the tower. I'll help. I'll give you tons of skills and women. I'll offer you a lot and escape this damn curse."
"This time fair and square, careful not to piss off the Tower Lord?"
"...Yeah. So, Chang-gi ya. One request?"
"Shoot."
Seong-yeon swallowed hard.
"Even if I die sometimes and come back to this time, don't feel burdened."
"…………."
"If I suddenly know a lot about something, just roll with it."
"…………."
"Please."
A heavy request.
Still...
"Got it."
I didn't refuse.
I needed her help anyway.
No confidence tackling Golden without her.
"I'm real trash, huh?"
"Don't worry. The guy in front of you ain't no saint either."
I'm trash who permits a friend's death despite being worthless myself.
We chuckled that birds of a feather flock together and raised our final glass of the night.
The night of reconciliation had arrived.