Chapter 457
Chapter 457
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 457
Chapter Title: The Theory of Regression
Just before returning to the outpost.
Destel pulled Lania aside separately. There was something they needed to discuss. Now that he was face-to-face with Raniel, Destel blinked in a daze.
"If I'm not seeing things..."
Destel reached out and pointed at Lania's face.
More precisely, at her perfectly restored eyes.
"...Weren't there holes in your eyes?"
"There were."
"And these fingers on this hand were all blown off."
"They were."
"So how are they fine now?"
Destel blinked.
He clearly remembered that body being a total wreck right before he collapsed from exhaustion. But now, it wasn't just not wrecked...
"You look even more full of energy than before the fight. What is it... like you've gotten younger?"
"...Really? You think so?"
"What's with shoving your face in mine all of a sudden? It's creepy. Back off."
"I'm asking if it looks that way."
Only after finally hearing "It does" from Destel's lips did Lania pull back. With a satisfied smile. Watching her, Destel let out an incredulous chuckle.
"So, how'd you pull that off?"
Destel pointed at Lania.
"No matter how I look at it, those weren't injuries that heal that easily. You know that too, right? The Hero's regeneration isn't all-powerful."
"I know."
It was true the Hero's regenerative ability was exceptional, but it had clear limits. Especially when it came to regenerating lost body parts.
"Even Kyle, with all that starlight, struggled to recover missing flesh."
Destel continued.
"And you don't have that much starlight yourself, do you?"
"That's classified for now, military secret."
Lania gave a wry smile.
Publicly, it was said that Lania had fully inherited Kyle's starlight, but that was a lie. All she had left was a handful.
'The minimum starlight needed to be called a Hero.'
She maximized that handful to its limits, blending it with mana for amplification, so it didn't show... but the absolute total amount she possessed was even less than Destel's.
"It's impressive how much you get out of that handful, but this is still weird. Did you pull some trick?"
"What trick."
Lania shrugged.
"It's thanks to a gift from my senior."
"...Senior? Did you get something from the previous Hero?"
Saying that, Destel tilted his head. Taking Raniel as the baseline, there shouldn't be any living Heroes from the generation before hers.
"Not a Hero. An ancient senior."
"...Well, if you say so."
She didn't seem inclined to elaborate.
Destel didn't pry. There was always a good reason when she kept something hidden. It was around then, as Destel was tilting his head.
"So," Lania opened her mouth.
"What did you want to say?"
She narrowed her eyes.
"You didn't call me out here away from everyone for chit-chat. To a place with no one around."
She gestured to their surroundings.
A dense forest. A spot a little ways from where the subjugation unit was resting. Lania threw out the question: what could be so important that they had to go this far?
"......"
A brief silence.
Opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, Destel irritably swept back his hair. Because it was such an absurd story even for him to say aloud.
"Hey, Raniel."
After much deliberation, Destel spoke.
"Just hypothetically..."
Recalling the scene he'd seen there, he continued.
"Is regression theoretically possible?"
2.
Regression.
The moment he heard the word, Raniel's eyes narrowed further. Raniel exhaled shortly and said.
"Why ask that all of a sudden?"
"...I went through something that only makes sense if regression, or maybe parallel worlds—one of those two theories—is real."
How do I even explain this? he muttered, glancing at Raniel's reaction. Contrary to his expectations, she was focused on his words. It meant she wasn't dismissing it as nonsense.
'...She has some idea, looks like.'
Destel took a long breath and began his tale.
"When I borrowed Gallahal's power and threw the spear, all the starlight drained out of me in an instant, and I saw this weird scene."
Digging through his memories, Destel continued.
"A barren world. Split earth. Long rivers of blood."
He described the scenes pooled in that blood.
Belnoa's death. Chloe's fall. His own endless descent. And at the very end, what he'd seen...
"At the end of that blood river, I was standing there. Me, looking about ten years older than now. He asked me."
"...What'd he ask?"
"If I had any regrets."
"......"
Raniel fell silent.
Destel kept going.
"At the time, I instinctively said no regrets, but thinking back, it was weird. For a hallucination... it felt too real."
It wasn't some delusion.
It felt like a flashback to scenes that had already happened.
"Absurd story, I know."
Destel shot Raniel a side-eye.
"But from your reaction, seems you have some inkling?"
"...Yeah, a bit."
Raniel let out a long breath and spoke.
"First off, no parallel worlds. Worlds splitting into multiples at branch points? Impossible. Stars, providence, truth—all must be singular existences."
"Then..."
"Regression exists."
Raniel spat it out bluntly.
As expected, Destel muttered, pressing the bridge of his nose hard. After agonizing for a long while, he sighed out the words.
"So, you really are a regressor?"
"Yeah, from the future... Wait, what?"
Raniel, who had been nodding, widened her eyes.
The response was way off from what she'd expected. But Destel, head bowed and still pinching his nose, didn't see her face and kept talking.
"Thinking about it, it was always weird."
With an extremely serious expression, no less.
"Overturning the history of magic before you even hit twenty, racking up battlefield feats right after coming of age, toying with mages who've lived decades or centuries... Doesn't make sense."
"Uh, um..."
"And sometimes you act like you know the future. Especially back when Kyle fell—that was insane. How'd you know to come to the battlefield?"
Destel sighed.
Raniel broke out in cold sweat.
"It all makes sense if you're a regressor. That freakish magic skill, the way you occasionally peek into the future."
"No, hey..."
Destel whipped his head around to look at Raniel.
With a dead-serious face, he asked.
"How many lives is this for you?"
He's got the wrong idea, Raniel started to say, but Destel's words came faster.
"At least past the second round, I'd guess. Which means you, looking my age, have lived at least twice as long as me. Age-wise... hmm..."
Groaning, Destel sneaked a glance at Raniel.
"...Should I call you 'big sis'? Or 'big bro'?"
It was a genuinely serious question after deep thought on Destel's part. But for a certain age-sensitive mage, it was the worst possible thing to say.
Smack!
Raniel smacked Destel on the head.
"Why hit me! No, why hit you..."
"Listen to the end before you talk. Got it?"
Whacking Destel's head once more, Raniel launched into her explanation. It went on for a while, and once Destel heard it all, he wore a profoundly strange expression.
"So you're not the regressor?"
"Right. I haven't lived twice your age, and I'm not old enough to be 'big sis' or 'big bro'..."
"Meaning the one who regressed was you from ten years in the future? A goddess who came back from a destroyed world."
It was absurd.
Absurd, but the scene he'd witnessed was becoming evidence for this wild tale.
"Then..."
Destel groaned.
"Those scenes I saw... were things that should've happened originally?"
"Pretty much."
"...Guess I owe future-you my thanks. Seriously."
What he'd seen in that flowing blood was one man's path to ruin. Recalling the sight of himself—not just lacking in dignity, but unworthy even of the title Hero—Destel shuddered.
"Looks like I survived pretty long in that future."
"Not just pretty long."
Raniel propped her chin and said.
"You were the last one standing."
"...Me?"
"Yeah. She said you lasted till the end, watched the world end, then killed yourself."
"...Surviving to the end is surprising, but the suicide makes sense."
"What?" Raniel asked, and Destel answered.
"You survive to the end out of fear of death, but once it's that bad, living is hell already. Might as well be dead."
So that's why he asked that.
If you have no regrets.
If you're living a life different from the one full of regrets.
"Lucky break."
Recalling that future self, Destel smiled bitterly.
"Being far from that future."
"To get far from that future, I twisted my body to come all this way. Saw some unimaginable stuff too."
Raniel poked Destel's side.
"Never imagined you'd borrow Gallahal's power, or that it'd drain out like that. Thought I had a good eye for people..."
She smiled.
"But on you, I was wrong. I'll admit it."
"...What's this all of a sudden? You're embarrassing me."
"Sorry, kid."
"So," Raniel said.
"How'd it feel?"
"Feel what."
"How'd it feel to become the hero? First time, right? Charging ahead like that."
Trembling in fear, yet taking one step forward.
Shouldering terror, stepping forward again.
Recalling that self, Destel unwittingly smiled. He hadn't been in his right mind. Looking back, it was pure madness... but even so, it had been an experience for Destel. His first time overcoming fear.
The experience of being a hero.
"Not something you'd do in your right mind."
But, Destel smiled.
"Sometimes, being the hero ain't so bad."
3.
Having heard what needed hearing, the two chatted idly as they headed back to the outpost.
"Oh yeah, that sacred spear of Gallahal..."
"Feels like I can't borrow it again. I got the sense while borrowing it—just once. That's what makes it meaningful."
"Figured as much."
Crunch. Stepping on leaves as they walked, snow soon began falling. A sign they were crossing out of the demon realm back to human lands. As they left footprints in the accumulated snow on the ground.
"Ah, speaking of."
Destel spoke up as if remembering something.
"When I saw that scene, ash was scattering around, just like now. A bit different from the ash you scatter, though."
Raniel flinched to a halt.
Destel, leading the way, kept talking.
"But why could I see that scene? If what you said is right, the link between that future and this world vanished completely when the Goddess of Ashes disappeared..."
No footsteps sounded from behind, so Destel turned. He eyed Raniel, standing still.
"...What?"
"You saw ash?"
"Yeah. Scattering ash filling the scene..."
"Hey, Destel."
Raniel said.
"Try drawing up your starlight."
"Now? Here? Hey, I've already scraped the bottom, can't draw any up for a whi—"
"No excuses. Hurry."
Tilting his head but complying, Destel summoned his starlight. Tick, tick. Platinum starlight flickered up. And between the rising starlight...
"Huh?"
Ash scattered.
The leftover ash that had burned.
The ash that could burn no more.