The Savior Who Brought Her Down (2)
"I think it'll take about a week longer."
Olivia spoke into the gold-glowing crystal orb.
She didn't give a detailed explanation for why the schedule had been delayed, but Melina simply smiled faintly.
[Don't get hurt. Take your time coming back.]
The sense of melancholy Olivia felt was surely not just her imagination.
"...I'll get there as fast as I can."
Melina shook her head as if she genuinely didn't need her to.
[Teaching a dragon has its own entertainment value, I've found. No one comes looking for me all day, and the quiet is nice.]
Of course, it couldn't have been sincere. She was someone who was poor at faking emotions.
Even now, the image in the crystal orb showed her mouth smiling, but her eyes drooped like a melancholic puppy's.
Watching Melina grow despondent stirred a strange feeling.
'...'
Olivia lowered her gaze. At her feet, Galdur lay sprawled out, charred black. How would Galdur react if he saw Melina looking like that? Wouldn't he throw a fit, insisting that Melina would never make such an expression?
[Is something on the floor?]
"No. I was just spacing out."
[...]
Melina stared at Olivia with a silent face, then let out a single sentence.
[No matter what anyone says, I believe in you.]
At those words, which were close to a vow, Olivia, who had been about to cut off the communication, froze in place.
[So, cheer up.]
With that final remark, the crystal orb lost its light. Olivia looked between the orb and Galdur with guilt written across her face, then sighed briefly.
'...This isn't easy.'
Olivia shook her head vigorously. Then, after shoving Galdur into a trash bin, she quietly sorted out her thoughts.
Even if she left him like that, Galdur wouldn't be able to reveal her existence.
Being beaten by a witch and having his life spared was, in itself, a disgrace.
Of course, there was a possibility he might reveal it despite the shame, but if he did, he would have to acknowledge the existence of Melina's disciple.
Galdur, who had nothing but his pride, would absolutely never do that.
Just then, she sensed a presence behind her back.
She thought they might be back-alley thugs, but they weren't.
In the stillness, the splashing sound of footsteps echoed. At the familiar yet ominous noise, Olivia's shoulders flinched.
'...Why that sound.'
At that point, Olivia was torn over whether to look back or not. She couldn't run away. After all, the entire reason she had come to Ikail was to meet Esti.
'But I didn't expect to meet her in the middle of the city.'
The original plan had been to have a decisive confrontation with Esti in the middle of the ocean, where there would be no witnesses. But now that Esti had come into the city, that method was no longer viable.
'...Why?'
Olivia's brain spun rapidly and arrived at its own conclusion.
'Was it because of the lightning?'
She had thought she used a fairly low-level magic, but apparently, it wasn't enough. Olivia swallowed her breath and turned her head back.
"A truly revolting place. Don't you think?"
Esti smiled, lifting the corners of her mouth.
It was a smile far too radiant for someone who had lost their emotions.
"Who are you?"
At Olivia's words, Esti's eyes widened.
"Hmm... I didn't predict this situation."
She tilted her head to the side as she approached Olivia.
Red hair, a shade deeper than ruby, cascaded down to the floor. Her green eyes, brimming with ennui, were very different from what Olivia had seen in the 'Clue.'
They were more vibrant, and a faint madness swirled within them.
"Well, whatever. Whether you remember me or not isn't important. What's important is what you can do for me. Right, Olivia?"
Esti bared her teeth in a grin.
"..."
Olivia couldn't answer rashly. The current situation was something even Olivia, who had been through all sorts of hardships, had never experienced before.
A Regressor who didn't reveal any hostility.
Olivia immediately checked Esti's Status Window.
[Esti Aquar]
Level: 93
Favorability: ???
Class: Wave Sorcerer
Titles: Regressor, Ikail's Wave Catcher, Princess of a Ruined Kingdom
...Question marks?
How could favorability be question marks?
"That blank expression... You're definitely a little different from the you I knew."
As if stroking a stray cat, Esti slowly brought her hand toward Olivia's cheek.
"Cute. Maybe this version of you wouldn't be so bad, either."
Olivia pushed Esti's arm away.
"...What are you doing?"
"See? I told you, you're cute."
Olivia glared at Esti with sharp eyes. Receiving that gaze, Esti let out a giggle.
Olivia couldn't control her confused emotions.
'...What is up with her? She didn't originally have this personality.'
A human like a machine that never thought.
Apathetic and inorganic in everything—that was Esti.
But this one was just a crazy bitch.
"Hmmm..."
Esti, who had been pacing around Olivia with a glint in her navy-blue eyes, looked toward the trash bin and spoke.
"Is that the Red Tower Lord? I wondered what that lightning from earlier was... You used it 'here'? But he's still alive?"
Esti stared blankly down at the rag-like Red Tower Lord, then snapped her fingers.
Boom! A stream of seawater shot out like a bullet, only to be blocked by the Shield and bounce away.
"Huh?"
"Don't kill him. I left him alive on purpose."
If Esti killed Galdur here, the No-Kill Ending would be over instantly.
It was because not only killing directly but also being involved in a killing was considered 'murder.'
That was why the No-Kill Ending was so difficult.
"..."
Esti, who had been silent, spoke up.
"You really are different. The you I knew didn't have this personality. Or did my perspective on you change?"
Esti smiled an unreadable smile as she looked at Olivia.
"You weren't this merciful of a person."
"..."
The method of Favorability Grinding was different for each Regressor.
For the Regressors up until now—specifically, Kiel, Melina, and Rebekah—approaching them with goodness was the effective tactic.
No matter how twisted their personalities were, they knew how to uphold their own sense of justice and fulfill their roles as members of society.
That was why she could become Kiel's friend, Melina's disciple, and Rebekah's big sister.
However, not all Regressors were like that.
There were those closer to evil than to good.
Those closer to chaos than to order.
And the first of them was Esti.
"You've been talking as if you know me, but I've always been merciful."
"No, you weren't..."
Olivia felt an inexplicable sense of incongruity from this Esti.
A look in her eyes that seemed certain Olivia wasn't a merciful person.
"Well, if it's not you, then it can't be helped—"
Esti, who had been speaking with a smiling face, stopped dead in her tracks.
It was because of the ceaselessly whispering 'voices.'
'Arrgh...!'
How long had it been since her last rest, for this to happen already?
Esti clutched her head and groaned.
Overwhelmed by the pain, Esti hunched her body.
Trembling, Esti grabbed the collar of Olivia's clothes.
Her pupils sank in real-time.
It was proof that she was losing consciousness.
Esti managed to speak.
"To the sea, take me to the sea..."
This was the reason Esti couldn't easily leave the sea.
The farther she got from the sea, the louder the voices grew.
The louder the voices grew, the more blind and mechanical she became.
"...Please."
In her wavering eyes, the trace of laughter from just moments ago was nowhere to be found.
Instead, tears had welled up.
"Ah, aah..."
Just as Esti's eyes were about to sink completely at the end of her death-rattling groan, sparks flew from the air.
Crackle!
Her vision flickered for an instant. Beyond the blurry sight, she saw the 'enemies' screaming.
Esti moved the waves on instinct. The sounds she had heard thousands of times echoed in her ears.
The screams of being swept away by the waves, sinking into the water, exhaling the last breath...
In exchange for snuffing out the lives of the 'enemies,' the 'voices' subsided.
Her focus slowly began to return.
"I told you."
Olivia spoke.
"I've always been a merciful person."
To Esti, Olivia was the Liberator.
A liberator solely for her.
*****
From an inexplicable sense of emptiness, Rebekah slowly lifted her eyelids.
It felt as if she had been dreaming a long dream.
The stone floor was hard and cold.
If she had sought sleep in a place like this, her entire body should have been stiff, but surprisingly, there was not a single hint of that. It felt as if she had been cradled in a warm, soft embrace.
Rebekah murmured in a voice devoid of reality.
"Big Sis..."
Had it truly been a dream?
Something wet touched her fingertips. It wasn't a puddle. It was far too sticky to be water. Rebekah slowly brought her hand before her eyes. The next moment, she inhaled sharply.
It was blood.
Though it had lost its warmth, it hadn't yet hardened.
Rebekah's expression immediately darkened.
'...It wasn't a dream.'
She had clearly been leaning against Olivia's lap.
- ...This time, that won't happen. Because I'll change it.
She thought she had heard those words, too.
Rebekah looked outside the Repentance Cave with a complicated expression.
'Big Sis...'