22. Two Regressors
22. Two Regressors
The air itself felt keen-edged, as if they might drive their blades into each other at any moment.
Rus Spero held the Dark Sword. Adult Chloe had gathered mana at her fingertips.
The hostility between them wasn't surprising. If their relationship had been different from the start, her future self would never have died by Rus's hand.
But the two of them clashing here was another matter entirely.
"Wait, hold on! Have you both lost your minds?!"
"......Chloe Pisti."
"Right now, my future self's magic and Kassandra's magic have mixed and flung us all the way out here. And this is the Elven Forest... you know."
"............."
"We don't even know how to get back to the academy from here—don't you think fighting each other is a little premature? Let's get a better grasp of the situation first."
"It wasn't a teleport."
"......What?"
"Closer to the spell working too perfectly than a teleport. Originally, only Adam's residual thoughts were supposed to manifest, but it brought us all the way here—to the very moment of Adam's death."
"Huh...?"
"So this isn't reality. It's closer to a mental world. Nothing more than a reenactment of the past. Of history that's already happened."
At Adult Chloe's words, Chloe finally registered the dissonance—not about the Elven Forest as a mental world, but about Adult Chloe herself.
Adult Chloe, who should have been a mental construct, had materialized—and was even confronting Rus Spero.
Because this place was akin to a mental world, Adult Chloe's mental body could take physical form and manifest.
Rus studied Chloe intently.
"I knew it."
"Wha—what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's different from what I expected... but you regressed too, didn't you? You called it a residual thought? Did the residual thought clinging to the Dark Sword awaken?"
"What, are you pleased that your guess was right? Don't tell me this is the first time you've hit on something since regressing. Spoken like the eternal dead-last."
"......Your mouth hasn't changed, witch."
"Though I haven't exactly had much use for it since you took my head off."
".........!!"
She'd been too flustered to remember, but Chloe belatedly reeled at the realization that Adult Chloe's existence had been exposed.
Adult Chloe had been a presence that could offer immense help to Chloe without her existence being discovered. And now she'd been found out by the one person she should never have been discovered by.
Rus Spero looked back and forth between Chloe and Adult Chloe.
"You came back clinging to the Dark Sword like dregs, then. And now you've attached yourself to this Chloe."
"I didn't know things would turn out this way either. I never even knew you could use a method like regression in the first place."
"......So that's why the future I knew kept getting slightly warped. That's why your actions were so different."
"What, are you planning to mock me? If you hadn't brought the Dark Sword near me in the first place, my residual thought would never have awakened. I'd still be chasing after Adam's shadow."
"The Dark Sword... touched you?"
"I'd say that was the trigger. Even without that, though, just the existence of the Dark Sword was already influencing me. The same probably goes for the others."
"............."
"You didn't know, did you? Well, of course. Who's ever actually carried a Dark Sword and tried something like regression?"
Even under Adult Chloe's sneer, Rus remained frozen.
A residual thought left on the Dark Sword. Because of it, the present Chloe and Adult Chloe now coexisted.
Strictly speaking, the instability in the regression was something Adult Chloe herself had caused—and Rus couldn't suppress her bewilderment. As Adult Chloe had said, it was something she had never even imagined.
Then, in that case...
"Adam too...?"
"Are you serious? If it were the future Adam, he would have grabbed a dagger before anything else—finances be damned—and gone straight for the traitors' throats. Starting with, say, the self-proclaimed pope?"
"Milia."
"But right now she's taken a leave of absence and is helping out in the Finance Department. The very fact that that bitch is still alive is proof that Adam doesn't have any future memories, isn't it?"
"......Then you must have awakened after whatever happened in that forest."
"Correct. Want a compliment?"
"W-wait! If you provoke her too much...!!"
"She and I being at each other's throats was our everyday. While we chased and were chased, I was the one who stopped her in Adam's place more than a few times—Adam being a 1st Rank and all."
Snorting, Adult Chloe moved beside Chloe as if to shield her. It was only natural—this place resembled a mental world, so Adult Chloe could manifest, but her very existence was only possible thanks to Chloe.
And, more importantly, the current Rus Spero was not the 6th Rank she'd once known, but a 7th Rank.
For all her verbal composure, Adult Chloe was a veteran mage, and she'd already prepared every spell she could in advance. Enough to respond no matter how Rus launched a preemptive strike.
The standoff dragged on. Rus, still visibly unsettled. The two Chloes, feigning calm while having readied countermeasure after countermeasure.
The silence didn't last long.
"......You said your spell was aimed at Adam's residual thoughts."
"Yeah."
"[Last Words of the Dead]. So you even dabbled in necromancy?"
"......I've never used it before this."
"Of course you haven't. You must have planned to bring him back if Adam ever died. You were already called a witch—touching forbidden arts wouldn't have bothered you. But."
She seemed to have composed herself.
Rus's gaze, now fixed on Adult Chloe, was ice-cold.
"Did Adam know, I wonder?"
"......."
"The mage traveling beside him had learned necromancy just so she could resurrect him if he died. Anyone would find that repulsive. In the first place, it's less 'resurrection' and more creating a corpse-puppet that only obeys the mage's commands, isn't it?"
"......Shut up."
"Why? Did you think that way Adam would forget the Chairwoman and look only at you? Fine, he probably would have. Though whether you could call whatever came back 'Adam' is another question."
"I don't want to hear it from the person who killed Adam herself. The great and noble hero."
Adult Chloe's jeering words didn't so much strike at the heart as dig straight in and twist. Even Chloe, honestly, had been wondering the same thing.
Just what had the future Adam done, that Rus killed both Adult Chloe and Adam?
And how could Rus Spero—who had killed Adam—cling to him so shamelessly now?
Chloe, still sheltered behind Adult Chloe's protection, turned her gaze toward Rus as she slowly readied the [Jade Shackles] she'd been training.
And then she saw it.
'...Is she sneering?'
Not anger. Not tears. Not an expressionless face.
Rus's face held a look that seemed to mock ignorance itself.
"It's laughable, hearing someone who died first and knows nothing run her mouth like that."
"What?"
"The reason you think that way is obvious. Adam's residual thoughts were in the Dark Sword too. Yes—Adam died by the Dark Sword."
"Then what."
"But... it was a death I never wanted."
"Wha-what?"
"......Follow me. You used a necromantic spell to see this anyway."
Rus, who had been sneering at the two Chloes, turned her back first. She moved as if she didn't care whether Adult Chloe or Chloe attacked her by surprise.
Her footsteps led toward a small cave that had formed beneath the World Tree.
Staring at the entrance, Chloe's eyes flew wide.
"......Me?"
"More precisely, me. This is when Adam died... so naturally, I'm already dead."
Adult Chloe followed behind Rus, keeping her guard up, and frowned. Anyone would have, seeing their own decapitated corpse.
It wasn't her first time seeing a body. But seeing her future self's corpse was more repulsive and terrifying than she'd imagined.
While Chloe dry-heaved, Adult Chloe studied her own body with a complicated expression.
"I was stupid."
"Wh-what...?"
"If I hadn't let my guard down at the very end, I could've turned the tables, killed that dead-last bitch, and survived with Adam. But I dropped my guard at the final moment and ended up like that."
"............."
"You be careful too. The moment she draws her sword—do not let your guard down."
What showed on her face wasn't fear or disgust. It was regret, and something almost like wistfulness. At first Chloe couldn't quite understand, but soon she felt she could grasp what her future self was feeling.
Because she'd let her guard down here, Adult Chloe had died. Because she'd let her guard down here, she hadn't been able to protect Adam. Because she'd let her guard down here, she was left as nothing but a clinging residue, forever chasing after Adam.
If she hadn't let her guard down—then Rus Spero would never have regressed in the first place. She would never have died. Adam would never have died.
"Let's go."
"......Yeah."
Watching Adult Chloe step straight into the dark cave, Chloe paused for a moment before the corpse and bowed her head. She prayed this would never become her own ending.
The Chloe of this past had failed. The Chloe of now would not. After steeling herself with that vow, Chloe followed into the cave.
"More importantly, what is this cave?"
"A hideout Adam and I used. The Elven Forest is all dead trees and burned-out land, so people don't come near it at all. The magic that used to repel intruders is gone, but it was still good for hiding."
"......You fled here?"
"We fled, and fled, and fled, and this was where we ended up. The original plan was to treat Adam's wounds here and move on."
"Wounds? Adam was hurt?!"
"From running from a certain 8th Rank's hands."
"8th Rank?"
"Someone you know well. Born of this very forest."
"............."
For a moment, Chloe was at a loss for words at Adult Chloe's remark.
Soon after, they caught up with Rus, who had gone ahead.
She was standing motionless at what looked like the deepest end of the small cave.
And before her was—
"......Rus Spero. And—"
"Adam."
"That... is Adam? B-but."
No matter how she looked, it wasn't the Adam she knew. It wasn't a matter of appearance or age.
On the surface, he looked exactly like the Adam she knew. But the air around him was fundamentally different.
The Adam who had always been so resolute and yet somehow gentle, who laughed so readily and sighed so often—the Adam who had shown her every human expression—
...showed her a sunken, submerged figure with dead eyes, and it was simply too alien to bear.
"Then the Rus standing in front of him..."
"That's my past self. The me who killed the witch who was also you, and then arrived at the end of the cave."
Before Rus stood another Rus. Though this one looked slightly different.
Her white hair was far more haggard; her eyes were dead, much like Adam's; and a gloomy pall hung over her. The only thing unchanged was the black sword in her hand.
"The timing's perfect. Or maybe it's been paused until we got here."
"What does that mean?"
"There may have been irregularities, but this space is ultimately the result of [Last Words of the Dead]. And the voice can't be heard until the spell's caster stands before the spell's subject—Adam's residual thoughts."
"Meaning that witch there had to come all this way just to see Adam's final moments."
[You made it, Adam.]
[.............]
"───Talk..."
The moment the present Rus finished speaking, the other Rus opened her mouth. It felt disjointed—the sudden speech after total silence—but this was a scene conjured by magic; there was no helping it.
Soon the slightly awkward voice grew clear. And then emotion seeped in.
[Do you know what's up ahead? Chloe's body. There's nowhere left to run.]
[......Chloe.]
[The Empire's in chaos. They finally killed the Guardian Dragon that was holding the western wilderness at bay. 8th Rank monsters must be turning the Empire into a living hell by now.]
[It's just revenge.]
[What about the people in the Empire? In the little kingdoms? The ones living their lives elsewhere, knowing nothing? Are they targets for revenge, too?]
[I'm pretty sure I've said this before.]
[.............]
[Burning down the thatched cottage to kill the bedbugs inside is madness—but at least it guarantees the bedbugs died too. That's all.]
[You're insane, Adam. You finally went insane.]
Clang.
After the short exchange.
The past Rus pressed the Dark Sword against Adam's throat.
Chloe flinched involuntarily, but this was only showing her events from the past. She couldn't intervene now, and even if she did, nothing would change.
Still, watching Adam in the moment just before Rus Spero killed him───
[Yeah. You're right. I'm insane. Have been ever since the day the academy burned.]
[Adam.]
[Back then, you were wandering the continent. I misjudged things. I wasted my attention on nonsense like protagonists and whatnot. This world isn't even a real game.]
[......You've truly lost it.]
[And my revenge isn't finished yet.]
[What? But the ones who attacked the academy that day—]
[I killed them all. Burned down the cottage and killed every last bedbug. But there's still one left.]
Chloe couldn't stop the cold sweat.
Because from the conversation just moments ago, she could hazily envision what must have happened in that future.
Because she could imagine her future self—the self who had fled alongside Adam after the academy burned and he set out for revenge.
Chloe could—
[The sons of bitches who killed Chairwoman-nim. The ones I could never forgive even if I chewed their flesh and crushed their bones.]
[W-wait!]
[And the stupid, helpless shitstain who got himself captured without putting up any resistance—who made sure Chairwoman-nim couldn't fight back at all.]
[Adam!!]
[Is me.]
Thunk.
Right then.
A sharp dagger—not the Dark Sword—sank deep into Adam's heart.
Rus hadn't killed Adam. The truth was different.
Adam. Adam Caines.
...Had killed himself.