Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: New Beginning
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◆
The world had crumbled... how many times now?
Anyway, it had fallen a lot. He couldn't even remember the count anymore.
Under the cracked, ash-gray sky, the stench of corpses hung thick in the air.
To add a bit more detail...
“Dark~ fantasy game~”
Humming the tune that popped into his head, Carlyle peeled off the chunks of flesh clinging stickily to his body.
It was the remains of someone who had failed to dodge the Archdemon of Gluttony's instant-death beam and met their end.
“Not possessing me with any abilities at all~ shitty life~”
To be precise, it wasn't that he had been possessed without any abilities.
[ Quest Info ]
♧ Main
- Assist the Hero and save the world!
[ Regression Count: 1 remaining. ]
[ If you fail to complete the quest within the given regression, you will die. ]
This status window had followed him around from the very first day he was dropped into the world of Demon Hunter.
As was typical of dark fantasy games, the world of Demon Hunter was a hopeless place devoid of dreams or hope.
Perhaps out of pity for an ordinary guy thrown in empty-handed, it had granted him the powerful ability of regression countless times.
Thanks to that, he had nearly completed the task assigned to him.
He had succeeded in killing three of the Archdemons, who embodied the Seven Deadly Sins and wielded divine powers.
Well, the humans who had come to wage war were all dead too.
“...”
Carlyle pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit the tip.
Looking around, he saw the symbols of the groups they had carried scattered in the mud among the broken spear shafts.
Imperial Knights, priests of the Holy Church, shamans, back-alley mercenaries, warriors from the Sand Kingdom...
Carlyle, who had been tallying the dead, suddenly flicked his cigarette away behind him.
“...Rest in peace, everyone.”
The eulogy mixed with the cigarette smoke rustled through the blood-soaked air.
Sweeping back his hair, he stood and began walking forward.
Every corpse tripping his feet was a familiar face.
All of them were people Carlyle had led to their deaths.
Under the guidance of a regressor who had looped through countless regressions, he had made them die in the most 'efficient' way possible.
The aftertaste was bitterly sour.
-!
A sudden burst of noise in his ears made Carlyle halt.
Someone was still alive in this hellscape, fighting on.
He could guess who it was right away.
In every loop, only one person had survived and fought to the end.
He let out a deep sigh.
Moving toward the sounds of fierce combat, he saw someone plunging a sword into an Archdemon's heart.
"-I salute you. You are the strongest opponent I have ever faced."
...These were words from an 'Archdemon.'
This terrifying being, which had traded blows with Carlyle and the remnants of the allied forces to take down barely three of its kind, was now praising a single human.
The recipient of that praise merely tilted her head indifferently.
Marble-white skin, snow-white hair, blue eyes.
She was a woman who could be called a peerless beauty.
Gray Chasefield.
The 'Hero' of the Demon Hunter world.
Soon to be this world's protagonist.
The guardian of humanity, bestowed with the Holy Sword and tasked with slaying demons.
And.
Her personal strength was monstrous enough to make even those titles pale in comparison.
Heaven above heaven, sole supremacy, above all others.
"For a human to slaughter multiple Archdemons alone... This feat will live on in myth-"
Before the words finished, the Archdemon's body collapsed.
Because Gray had roughly yanked out the sword lodged in its heart.
Carlyle looked around.
Three such Archdemon corpses lay nearby.
And the last one.
All taken down by Gray alone.
Though she was battered to hell and back, a human had slain four Archdemons and survived.
'Crazy bitch.'
Even judging by results alone, a simple equation held true.
The entire allied human force, led by Carlyle who had regressed countless times and given his all, had perished alongside three Archdemons.
This woman had slaughtered four Archdemons by herself.
In other words...
...She was stronger than all of humanity, including the regressor.
As Carlyle let out a hollow chuckle in exhaustion, Gray, who had been standing with her eyes closed, slowly turned her head.
"You. You're alive?"
"Somehow it turned out that way, Hero."
Carlyle replied hollowly as he staggered forward.
Both seemed completely drained; the moment he reached her side, Gray's body slumped down as well.
Even for the Hero, facing four Archdemons must have required every ounce of her power.
"...Did we win?"
They had won.
The Archdemons were all dead. The surviving humans could finally know peace.
The 10% of the population left after nine-tenths were wiped out in the long war.
On a continent where even the land and sky were corrupted by the powers of Hell.
“Do you think this looks like a victory?”
“...”
“What came here was all the military might humanity had left to muster. And now, only you and I remain?”
“Everyone... all dead?”
“Yes.”
Her gaze swept over the hellscape of piled corpses and seas of blood.
"Carlyle."
"Yes."
"Can I say something pathetic?"
"I've heard it countless times from you already—what's one more now."
Carlyle gazed quietly at Gray.
“I should have listened to you sooner. If I had...”
Then this catastrophe might not have happened.
This devastation is largely my fault.
"..."
Carlyle nodded silently and pulled out another cigarette.
"At least you listened in the end. That's something."
He meant it.
Across all those regressions, Carlyle had faced countless variables, but one unchanging law was this Hero.
A monster.
Humanity's pinnacle. A genius beyond genius—a calamity.
And.
Humanity in exact inverse proportion to that.
Perhaps because her innate power was so overwhelming, she lived a life molded from pure arrogance.
She despised the weak. Treated others like insects. Rejected any beliefs differing from her own.
Other humans existed solely to 'assist' the world's strongest being, the Hero herself.
The worst part? She was right.
In all those loops, no matter the route, no human stronger than Gray Chasefield could ever be born. As if her supremacy was a fixed law of this world.
The moment she was sidelined, humanity stood no chance against the Archdemons.
Thus, victory in every regression boiled down to aiding her.
Given her pivotal role, her unruly temperament caused exponential collateral damage whenever it flared.
In truth, Carlyle's regressions had essentially been spent reforming her temperament across the entire world.
And this was the result.
At the very last moment, she had finally cooperated—moving in sync with others.
They could slaughter all the Archdemons because this stubborn Hero had finally heeded Carlyle's words.
"Do you hate me?"
"Immensely."
Carlyle answered instantly.
"Drexler, Panhima, Vespa—all died because of you."
Drexler had a wife and kids waiting desperately for him at home.
“If you had ever thought to share that strength and talent with others, even once.”
Panhima longed to find her long-lost sibling. She had said with a sparkling smile that if she made a name in this war, they might come looking.
“If you had even a shred of empathy.”
Vespa, who had attended the Hero longest, worried about her until her dying breath.
Fearing the Hero would truly isolate herself without her. Even as her own guts spilled out, she spoke only of Gray.
...The Hero hadn't cared about her end.
"They'd all be alive."
Not just them—she cared for no one.
Until she met Carlyle.
"You're right."
Gray murmured.
"Yes."
Her tone brimmed with regret.
“If only I had come to my senses sooner.”
There had been countless chances to avert this.
Disasters she could have prevented by following Carlyle's lead.
If only she had snapped out of it sooner.
Before her father died.
Before the Chasefield Ducal House fell.
Before the knights were annihilated.
Before the Holy Church corrupted.
Before the Empire crumbled...
Before that, even before.
Countless times.
“...”
Carlyle gazed quietly at Gray.
Beneath her usual blank expression, tears flowed.
In that liquid, Carlyle glimpsed something he had never seen across all those regressions.
Even when her solo rampage trashed every plan and killed hundreds of thousands.
Even when she wiped out an entire race just because they displeased her.
The Hero had never shown even a fragment of it.
A piece of 'emotion.'
If he had to name it.
Regret.
He pretended not to notice, exhaling smoke into the void.
A choice out of consideration for the Hero's pride. He had some minimal camaraderie.
He loathed her intensely for the torment she put him through, but in every loop, she was key to saving the world.
As she said, it would have been better if they had met sooner.
When everything was still intact, with more time to spare.
'We didn't have time.'
His regressions always began after the Empire fell and the world started crumbling.
In a world toppling like dominoes, taming the Hero in desperation was his only option.
What lay before them now was the best outcome.
"Carlyle Bellfast."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry."
Carlyle turned to Gray.
He snickered.
"Now you say it?"
With everyone dead, what use was an apology?
Yet even to that, Gray replied.
"I want to say it now, at least. We made it to the very end because of you."
“...”
“...Without you, I wouldn't have even this scrap of humanity. We should have met sooner.”
Carlyle gazed quietly at her.
"Too late for that now... but if there's any atonement I can offer, I'll do anything."
“...”
Carlyle nodded silently.
No words to give in return.
As she said, it was all too late now.
Lost in thought, he stared blankly at the sky. He didn't want to think anymore.
Until something appeared before his eyes.
[ System Message ]
[ All ‘Archdemons’ have been killed. ]
[ Entering the ‘Final Act’! ]
“...?”
Carlyle froze.
What? Final Act?
A chill slithered down his spine at the ominous words.
-!!
The next instant, Carlyle's body floated up.
Gray had appeared at his side, wrapped around him, and leaped far away.
“...What is this? Another Archdemon left?”
Seeing the black rift forming where they had stood, Gray muttered with narrowed eyes.
“No, not that—”
But she swallowed her words, and Carlyle nodded too.
This was something 'else.'
Dank black demonic energy leaked from the rift.
A sulfurous stench that burned the nose.
...The smell of death.
Even without fully manifesting, just seeing it made their skin blister. It filled the surroundings in an instant, making breathing hard.
Even they, veterans of countless battles, felt crushed by its presence.
Instinct screamed.
This was something beyond even the Archdemons.
'Fuck.'
A curse slipped out.
They took down the Archdemons that obliterated humanity, and that wasn't the end?
“-Run!”
With those words.
His vision went black—that was Carlyle's last memory.
◆
[ Quest Info ]
♧ Main
- Save the world.
[ If you fail to complete the quest within the given regression, you will die. ]
[ This is the final regression. ]
[ Special privileges granted. ]
-This was an unfamiliar ceiling.
The sound of fresh piss echoing through the Imperial Knights' recruit barracks jolted Carlyle awake in alarm.
'No way.'
This wasn't his usual starting point.
The Imperial Knights' recruit barracks.
Intact beds and buildings.
Not the rotten tent swarming with bugs and corpses where he always awoke at the start of a regression.
'I've gone back much further.'
He sensed it instinctively.
This was when the Empire still functioned normally.
Long before Hell's existence was widely known.
'This...'
He had seen the message about it being the last regression with special privileges.
Thanks to that, he had awakened far earlier than his usual regression point.
And.
This 'final regression' had more peculiarities than that.
“...”
Some time passed.
He looked at the sword in his bosom.
It had been there since he regained consciousness.
He knew what it was at a glance.
The Hero's main weapon, the Holy Sword.
And not just the sword alone.
“Why'd you come along too?”
[....]
The blade trembled.
As if it had a soul.
[Do you think I know?]
Gray's voice grumbled curtly in Carlyle's mind.
[At the end, I threw myself to shield you from that unknown thing... and when I came to, this is what happened. I have no idea what's going on either.]
“...”
Oh god.
Carlyle stared at the Holy Sword with a disgusted grimace.
He got it now—whatever soul or whatever was inside this sword, it contained Gray from the previous loop.
He had no clue how she had regressed with him.
“Hey, Hero.”
[Spare me the thanks.]
“Yes?”
[....Weren't you about to thank me?]
Ah.
Because she had shielded him, she thought he'd say thanks?
“Nope. Was just about to tell you I'm dumping you in the trash.”
[....]
“Oh, wait—no. Someone else might pick it up. Gotta find some lava and chuck you in there—”
[....Do you even have a conscience?]
“I'm seriously shocked right now. Of all people, coming out of your mouth?”
Carlyle snapped, hurling the Holy Sword onto the bed.
Honestly, facing her was stressful in itself.
'What to do...'
He had just confirmed in the last loop that to save this world, there was something above even the Archdemons.
To break through that, he needed a surer way to save humanity than before.
This was the final chance. Failure meant death.
And in that situation.
‘Taming the Hero was already giving me a headache.’
This timeline was one even Carlyle, with his endless regressions, had never seen.
The Gray here was probably still a kid, not even close to maturity.
He had somehow managed to reform adult Gray, but taming kid Gray? No ideas.
He knew nothing about her.
‘Thinking back to when we first met...’
She probably wasn't sweet as a child. If anything, worse.
The thought of taming that monster already made him want to die.
No intel at all. He needed something to even attempt—
‘...Huh?’
Suddenly.
Something flashed through Carlyle's mind.
Intel?
“...”
Hmm.
Hmmm.
Intel, huh.
He narrowed his eyes at the Holy Sword.
“Hero.”
[What.]
“You said you were sorry. That you'd do anything to atone. Was that sincere?”
The sword fell silent.
Sensing something ominous in his words.
[....It was.]
“Good.”
And his hunch wasn't wrong.
“Hero. If I don't turn you into a decent human this loop, we're really dead.”
[What?]
“So.”
He chuckled.
Well, if she wanted to change.
He could afford to give her one more chance.
“Tell me how to win you over.”