Chapter 73: The Homunculus' Dilemma - Continued
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 73: The Homunculus' Dilemma - Continued
In a classroom on the 4th floor of Tantalus, the Regressor was preparing to revive the Undying.
Even for an undying who couldn't truly die, a curse that ate away at the body was fatal here, disconnected from Mother Earth. It was possible that the immortal corpse golem, which had once devoured dozens of villages in the past, could reappear.
It was still a mystery where such a vast number of corpses had come from, but that wasn't a reason to neglect the Undying while trying to solve it.
Therefore, the Regressor decided to use up all her healing items to lift the curse consuming the Undying’s arm and restore his body.
‘If I intervene and the Undying wakes up now, it’ll deviate from the original history… but things are already twisted enough. It’s sufficient to know how the Undying was cursed.’
Discovering that the Undying and the vampires were connected in this way was a huge gain in itself.
She could dig deeper, but… at the moment, the Regressor was preoccupied with another question.
‘What is his deal?’
Even as she brewed a precious healing potion using a recipe learned from the Doctor Sage in a past timeline, even adding leaves of the World Tree, the question lingered in her mind.
‘He’s definitely hiding something. The way he deflected Chun-aeng, saw through my disguise, and dodged Finlay’s attacks like it was a circus trick. None of that is ordinary. But.’
Her intuition told her there was something more to him. Something that even she, who had seen all sorts of things over thirteen timelines, did not know.
However.
‘How should I put it… Why don’t I feel any pressure from him at all? At a glance, he just looks like a weakling!’
Hold on, time out.
A weakling? Even if it’s true, you’re just going to say it like that?
‘He’s slow at running. His reactions are sometimes so fast they startle even me, but for someone like that, his movements are so sluggish they’re yawn-inducing! Is he strong? I don’t think so. He’s never shown any swordsmanship. Even with the Undying’s right arm, he just poked with it like a rapier; he never even swung it properly!’
Huh? When I smacked Finlay at the end, I really did put all my strength into it. I even knocked out one of Finlay’s teeth.
She saw the best swing of my life and says I didn’t swing it properly?
‘Ughhhhh. I’m going crazy with curiosity. If I could just spar with him once, just once, I think I’d figure it out! Or if I just had a chance to examine his naked body!’
What in the world is going through her head?
Before her thoughts could stray any further, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I ran down the hall and threw the door open.
“Trainee Shei. Are the preparations complete?”
“Huh? Yeah, more or less.”
The Regressor answered dismissively, looking me up and down. Her eyes narrowed, as if she believed she could see right through my clothes just by staring.
‘A standard supply shirt… Hmm. As expected, I can’t see his body above the shirt at all… Damn Military State. They make these Clothing Packets unnecessarily well.’
Seriously, she should be thankful people can’t read minds. If they could, she’d be the first one locked up somewhere. It’s only because of my benevolent nature that I let it slide after reading her thoughts…
‘Piercing Sight only shows bones when used on people… Imperious Gaze can’t see through covered areas… Then I guess the only way is to peek with Farsight when he’s changing or bathing…’
Correction. I can’t let this slide either.
This won’t do. I need to apply some shock therapy before this voyeuristic Regressor’s thoughts fly off to outer space.
I shouted at the Regressor, who was still staring holes through me.
“Trainee Shei!”
“Huh? What? What’s with the sudden shout?”
After calling her name, I immediately crossed my arms in an X-shape, shyly averted my gaze, and said.
“Um, excuse me. Could you please refrain from looking at me like that? It’s embarrassing. I feel like I’m being defiled just by your gaze.”
The Regressor’s head creaked as it turned. Her reason was momentarily paralyzed by the sudden overload of information.
‘…What kind of bullshit is this? Why is he blushing? What’s with that creepy pose? What? Embarrassing? Defiled by my gaze? I was just trying to get a peek at his physique. Huh? Wait a minute. Was my gaze… too obvious?’
She pieced together the fragmented information, connecting her situation with my words and actions.
Finally realizing the true meaning behind my words, the Regressor snapped and yelled.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?!”
“You were just looking at my body! From head to toe, every nook and cranny, with lewd eyes that said you wanted to strip me if you could!”
“I was not looking with lewd eyes!”
“So the part about wanting to strip me is true? Everyone! Look over here! Trainee Shei is trying to strip me!”
“Hey!”
As I took off running and shouting, the Regressor, despite not fully grasping the situation, instinctively chased after me like a cat hunting a mouse.
“Wait! Stop!”
“No! Stay away! Help me!”
“Stop saying things that’ll cause a misunderstanding!”
“Waaaaaaah!”
When I didn’t stop screaming, the Regressor gritted her teeth, closed the distance, and gripped Chun-aeng.
‘This isn’t working! First, I’ll sever the air to stop the sound from leaking, then I’ll deal with him!’
How cowardly! To think she’d resort to such cheap tricks in the middle of my fair and square public smearing campaign.
If she draws her sword, I’ll lose, won’t I? I screeched to a halt in mid-flight and spun around. The Regressor, who had been about to sever the air, nearly crashed into my chest and hastily stopped.
“Hey now. Don’t overreact to a little joke, Trainee Shei. You’ll make me think you’re serious.”
“…What? All of a sudden?”
“Surely you weren’t actually trying to sneak a peek at a plain body like mine, right? Even you have a shred of decency, Trainee Shei.”
“O-of course.”
“No matter how much you like men.”
“That’s not it!”
The Regressor shrieked. I tilted my head and asked.
“Huh? Didn’t you say you liked men last time? That’s why you washed Azzy.”
The Regressor, having unwittingly been saddled with a bizarre persona, couldn’t quite deny it and tried to talk her way out.
“No, it’s not that I don’t! I mean I don’t like you! To me, you’re…! Right! You’re no different from a toilet bowl!”
“…Well, that’s suggestive in several ways.”
“That’s not what I meant! I meant you’re that filthy! Ugh, how should I put it?!”
‘A passerby? That makes it sound like I care! A rock on the side of the road? There are no rocks in the Abyss!’
“Um, does it really matter what you compare me to?”
“Whatever! You’re something insignificant!”
“Yes, yes. For now, let’s go back to the classroom, shall we? We need to revive Mr. Rasch, to whom we’re indebted for borrowing his arm.”
“What do you mean ‘we’? You’re the one who used it!”
I soothed the fuming Regressor and led her back to the classroom.
Only then did her thoughts return to the healing potion bubbling away in the large cauldron, and she finally remembered what she was trying to do.
“Ah, right! Where’s the Undying’s right arm?”
“Here you go.”
I handed her the box filled to the brim with collected flesh. The Regressor checked the contents and scrunched up her face in disgust.
“Ugh. Horrifying. He must be the first undying in the world to end up in such a state.”
“Can it be regenerated?”
“It’s possible. Once the curse is lifted, the rest should reattach on its own as long as it’s supplied with the earth’s essence… though I don’t know how long that will take.”
Taking the box and setting it down next to the cauldron, the Regressor suddenly looked around.
“Where’s Tyrkanzyaka? Didn’t she say she was going to pick this up?”
“Trainee Tyrkanzyaka has returned to the underground armory for now.”
“Really? Is she tired? Well, I suppose that’s possible.”
“And Trainee Shei, I have a favor to ask.”
At the word “favor,” the Regressor reacted with suspicion.
“You? What is it?”
“This.”
I handed the Regressor a note I had prepared.
“I’ll be gone for a bit, so please read this while I’m away.”
By the time I finished speaking, the Regressor had already unfolded the note and was reading the first sentence. Looking back and forth between me and the letter with a slightly apologetic expression, she said grumpily.
“You were too slow. You should have warned me before I started reading.”
“Aren’t you just a bit too impatient? Well, there’s not much to it, so you might as well read it now that you’ve opened it.”
‘What’s this? He hands me a note, so I thought it was something super important.’
After glaring at me sullenly, the Regressor began to read the remaining half.
‘Feed Azzy three meals a day. Regenerate the Undying. And importantly, until someone comes out from inside, do not, under any circumstances, open the door to the underground armory…?’
The note ended there. The Regressor waved it at me and asked.
“What’s this last sentence mean?”
“Ah. It’s exactly as it says. A very important ritual will be performed in there, so you must not open the door or disturb the ritual.”
“…You said Tyrkanzyaka is in there now.”
“Yes.”
“What kind of ritual?”
“The ritual of reviving the heart.”
“And who’s performing it?”
“Me.”
Hmm-hmm. The Regressor, who had been nodding slightly, immediately sharpened her gaze and interrogated me.
“What are you planning to do?”
As expected, she wasn’t just going to let it go. I saw this coming.
The Regressor’s interference was to be expected. She wouldn’t just stand by and watch me and a vampire be isolated together.
Besides that, I needed someone to guard against others approaching, as the ritual must not be disturbed.
Persuading the Regressor was essential.
With no other choice, I lowered my voice and began to speak.
“Trainee Shei. What would you do if I told you I was going to make Trainee Tyrkanzyaka’s heart beat again?”
“I’d declare you a con artist, you con artist.”
As expected, the Regressor immediately called me out.
“Because of that dilemma?”
“…Why ask if you already know? You should know this. All vampires are homunculi. The most famous kind of homunculus in the world, desperately forcing their bodies to move by receiving the Progenitor’s blood in place of their own stopped hearts, even though they’re dead.”
“And because of that, they are bound by various restrictions. Such as being unable to defy their blood, or being unable to use any magic besides blood magic.”
The answer flowed smoothly from my lips. The Regressor questioned me with a puzzled look.
“You know all that, and you still made such an offer to Tyrkanzyaka? Are you serious, or is this a joke? I really don’t know what you’re after anymore.”
“I sincerely wish for Trainee Tyrkanzyaka’s revival.”
“It’s that attitude of yours I don’t get. I can’t bring myself to trust you.”
‘…But, he’s been periodically touching Tyrkanzyaka’s heart all this time and hasn’t done anything. In fact, he warned her of the danger and even protected her from Finlay… He probably doesn’t have any ill intentions. If he did, he would have made his move before Finlay.’
Though she was still on guard out of habit, her wariness toward me had lessened. It seemed that fighting alongside me against Finlay had a positive effect.
Having lowered her hostility, the Regressor shared what she knew with me.
Her tone was ambiguous, as if she herself didn’t know whether she was trying to persuade me or just inform me.
“The moment you overcome death with magic… it’s over. It can never be reversed. The moment the Arcane that sustains life ends, that body will meet its delayed death… It will turn to dust without any time for healing or revival. Because you can never save yourself with another’s magic…”
“Yes. That’s exactly it.”
You said that to emphasize the impossibility, Regressor, but that’s a good point.
Because the clue is right there.
“The Homunculus' Dilemma. It contains the truth that one can never save oneself with another’s magic.”
“…? Why are you stating the obvious?”
“Like all old sayings, a warning hides a piece of advice.”
“Isn’t it just to be careful with magic?”
“Haha. No. If everyone in the world thought as simply as you, Trainee Shei, what use would dilemmas or proverbs be?”
“…Are you trying to pick a fight?”
Of course not. I’d lose.
I raised a finger for emphasis.
“One cannot be saved by another’s magic. In other words, the only person who can save you is yourself.”
“Well, that’s obvious.”
“Now, I’ll tell you one more thing.”
I raised another finger, a relaxed smile on my face.
“Among the many, many vampires, there is only one who is not a homunculus. A being who revived her dying body not with the power of another, but with her own. Who could that be?”
She might not know everything, but the Regressor knew how to absorb unfamiliar knowledge.
Having encountered an unimaginable amount of information over her thirteen regressions, she had developed a personality where she would, at the very least, accept any information that made sense, no matter how unbelievable.
“The first vampire, Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka?”
Correct. Here’s your prize. I clapped for the Regressor who had answered brilliantly.
“Very good. That’s correct.”
“Since she moved her own body when death came for her, it’s possible for her to be revived again…? True, it’s not impossible. Her own power, even if returned, is still her own…”
But the Regressor’s muttering was brief. After calculating for a long time with a dark expression, she finally squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
“But just because it’s not impossible doesn’t mean it isn’t close to it. Even if her power is returned, the target she needs to return to vanished 1200 years ago. On top of that, Tyrkanzyaka’s power is Bloodcraft. With it, she has obtained, dominated, and ruled over countless things. The boundary between herself and the world has blurred to the point where she has no problem with her heart being outside her body…”
Death is the thinning of the boundary between oneself and the world.
Of all those not yet dead, Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka is the closest to death.
The Queen of the Sanguine, who spreads her blood throughout the world to increase her Kindred, dominating all that it touches. There is likely no other living being who has approached conceptual death more closely than her.
Therefore, for the Progenitor to reclaim her life… the distance she must return is farther than that of any other being in the world.
“It won’t work.”
It was a situation that would make a pessimist out of anyone, not just a Regressor who had seen the end of the world. It was, for all intents and purposes, impossible. That was how everyone saw this plan’s prospects.
But what about me?
“I’m going to try. So please, guard the door while I do. Don’t let anyone in.”
“…Go ahead and try.”
Just as she was about to agree, the Regressor was struck by a question.
“By the way, how do you know all this?”
‘This is something even I hadn’t thought of, yet a mere warden from the Military State, who isn’t even a mage, knows this…?’
Honestly, why does she think she’s the center of the universe? Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean no one else does.
Like a soul trapped in the valley of ignorance. Allow me to correct you.
Recalling the old days, I picked the most annoying expression I could remember and mimicked it. I let out a smirk and scratched my temple.
“Well, it’s something only the top student of the secondary military school would know. Someone who didn’t even finish grade school could die, come back to life, and still never figure it out.”
“Hey!”
As expected, the Regressor flew into a rage, and I scrambled away. Holding onto the cauldron, she only growled and didn’t follow.
That should get the message across. I waved as I left the classroom through the back door.
“It should take a day or two. I’m counting on you until then. Oh, and don’t stare too hard at the note!”
“Tch. Just get it over with quickly!”
Closing the classroom door, I headed for the underground armory where the vampire would be waiting.
*
‘If Finlay had come in the last timeline, would he have succeeded or failed? From here on, it’s completely unknown territory… But Finlay and the warden were at odds. Seeing as a war eventually broke out, it seems the warden failed. Hmph, I knew he seemed unreliable.’
‘In that case, was this attempt to revive Tyrkanzyaka a solution he devised after feeling threatened by Finlay’s appearance? It’s probably impossible, but… it’s true that the chance isn’t 0%. There is a possibility.’
‘If, and it’s highly unlikely, but just if… if it’s possible, then from the next timeline on, I’ll be able to win Tyrkanzyaka over a little faster. I’ll trust him and see.’
‘…By the way, what did he mean by not staring too hard at the note? More meaningless words. Huh? An indentation?’
‘…Don’t tell me, that bastard!’
‘Fathomsight. Using it on the indentations reveals hidden text. Why does he put so much effort into such useless tricks…? Ugh. Might as well read it.’
‘Don’t go to the cafeteria, don’t touch me carelessly even if I’m in a strange state afterward, and if by any chance supplies arrive, use them on yourself…?’
‘What? What in the world is he plotting?’