Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Shared Past Life (4)
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Theo looked at Hilda.
-You're a regressor, right?
-Yeah, I'm a regressor too.
The conversation they'd shared during the naming ceremony flashed quickly through his mind.
And in it, Hilda had said something he absolutely couldn't just let slide.
-Well, though all the cycles permitted to me have ended.
The word "cycles."
It implied that regression could repeat multiple times.
In fact, the visions Theo had seen also carried the nuance of continuously remembering past lives every time he turned twelve.
"How many times does regression repeat?"
So it was only natural that this was the first question Theo asked.
There was a huge difference between regression happening once and happening multiple times.
A smile tugged at Hilda's lips as well.
"You're jumping straight to that question the moment we meet? Not surprising, coming from Kyle's son—still as tactless as ever. Come on in first. Let's eat and talk."
Hilda rose from her seat and turned around.
Then the firmly shut castle gate slowly began to open.
Creaaak—
The space beyond the gate was somehow filled with darkness.
Theo slowly stepped inside.
* * *
Unlike the crumbling exterior, the inside of the castle was furnished with lavish furniture and decor.
To the point where he wondered if this was really an abandoned old castle.
It seemed Hilda was using it as her residence, contrary to the rumors.
The place she led him to was the dining hall.
Atop a long table over three meters in length were all sorts of delicacies steaming hot.
"Sit wherever you're comfortable."
Hilda sat at the head of the table and poured red wine into her glass.
Theo cautiously took a seat across from her, scanning the surroundings, and only a beat later noticed the chef placing the main dish in front of him.
It was a familiar face.
"Deung-ryong…… sir?"
"Heh heh, been well? Never thought we'd meet like this, eh?"
"Why is Deung-ryong sir here?"
"Why? Isn't it natural for a sword to guard its master's side?"
"……!"
"It's been a while since I last showed my skills—hope it suits your taste. There's plenty of food, so enjoy it to your heart's content before you go."
Deung-ryong winked at Theo with one eye, filled his wine glass with wine, then quietly left the room.
'I wondered why someone in seclusion suddenly appeared as a judge…… So this was the reason.'
The surprise was brief.
Once Theo's mind cleared, he had a premonition that his relationship with Deung-ryong and Hilda would grow even closer moving forward.
"Even though that old man looks like a grumpy codger on the outside, his cooking is good enough that I've kept him by my side through twenty-one lifetimes, so don't worry and dig in."
Hilda laughed as she tore into a piece of meat.
It might have seemed crude, but somehow it suited her perfectly.
But Theo latched onto something else she'd said.
Twenty-one lifetimes.
"So regression can indeed repeat."
Theo said as he cut into the steak Deung-ryong had brought.
He didn't have a habit of late-night snacking, but refusing the host's hospitality would be rude.
"Who knows. I told you I don't know, didn't I? Even last time."
"Please explain exactly what you mean. It's hard for me to understand."
"Why should I?"
Hilda grinned wickedly as she wiped the grease from her meat off her hands with a napkin and lifted her wine glass with her right hand.
"Why should I bother? You're the one who needs information, and I'm just being 'gracious' here. I have no obligation to answer every single one of your questions, do I?"
With every twirl of the wine glass, the wine inside danced.
Theo strongly felt that Hilda was testing him.
'The eye of a ruler.'
It was the gaze only someone who had lorded over others their entire life could have, piercing right through him.
"Yes. I'm in a situation where I have no choice but to rely on your grace, Lady Hilda. So if you don't want to tell me, what can I do? Nothing."
"Hm?"
Hilda raised one eyebrow in surprise.
Then, at Theo's following words, she let out a scoff.
"But in exchange, Lady Hilda won't learn anything either. About what the 'previous' world was like, or how the timeline will unfold from here on."
"Pffahaha! So you think I'd naturally be curious about the future. Why would you think that? I'm already over a hundred and fifty years old. Factoring in past regressions, I've lived for centuries. Of course I have no great lingering attachments to life anymore. So there's no reason for me to know any more about the future……."
"No. You'll definitely be curious. Because you're a regressor."
Hilda's lips curled up high.
The moment Theo saw it, he was certain.
That he had hit the mark.
"Regressors know the future. That knowledge becomes the most crucial element in living life and making plans. It means a regressor understands the importance and utility of time better than anyone."
Hilda's smile deepened.
Theo continued.
"Moreover, someone who's undergone multiple regressions would have no choice but to 'rely' on the future even more. But you said all the cycles granted to you have ended. Meaning you can't know the future anymore…… so the frustration must be even greater. Separate from any lingering attachments to life."
"What if I lived through this exact timeframe in a previous cycle? Then I wouldn't need your information."
Theo shook his head.
"No. On the contrary, you'd need my information even more. Because of the butterfly effect, the flow of history would have completely changed."
The time Theo had regressed was a mere ten-plus years.
And yet, history's trajectory had already begun to shift dramatically.
Wellington and Erica staying in Ragnar instead of returning to their family was a prime example.
If time continued to pass like this, what would happen?
Even if Theo no longer interfered with history's flow, the already derailed timeline would unfold in a direction utterly different from what he knew.
In ten years, twenty years, there'd be no trace of the previous history left.
Let alone Hilda, who had rewound over a hundred years.
No matter how long she'd lived in a previous cycle up to now, that history's trajectory would have diverged completely.
'There's no guarantee the history I came from matches the one Hilda experienced.'
So for a regressor—especially one who's repeated multiple cycles—future knowledge was like a drug.
An addiction impossible to quit.
Theo was using that as bait to demand a trade from Hilda.
"Hahaha!"
Hilda burst into loud laughter.
Looking utterly satisfied.
"Looks like this cycle's regressor is a very clever kid. From what I see, this is your first regression, right? I didn't realize it myself until after my second or third time."
Hilda downed her wine in one gulp and slammed the glass down hard on the table.
Bang!
The wine glass shattered into pieces.
The fragments reflected Hilda's sharply gleaming eyes.
"Now I get why Kyle's just been watching over you."
This time, Theo's eyes lit up.
Talk of his father again.
From Lordbrock to Hilda now.
What secret about Kyle did they know?
"What connection does Father have with regressors, exactly?"
"A huge one. There's no one in this world who despises…… no, scorns regressors as much as your father."
Theo's face hardened at Hilda's words.
"Do you know how your father claimed his current position?"
"I know he seized the throne from the previous family head…… sir."
There was only a five-year gap between the retirement of the family head before last, Hilda, and the ascension of the current head, Kyle.
For one simple reason.
Kyle had staged a coup and dethroned his own father, the previous family head.
Some called it filial impiety.
But in Ragnar, where the victor takes all, it was seen as entirely natural—a monumental event.
"Right. Do you also know that the ousted previous family head was a regressor?"
"……!"
Theo's eyes widened.
Hilda grinned as she continued.
From her hand that had shattered the wine glass, red liquid—blood or wine, impossible to tell—dripped down.
Drip.
Drip……
"To me, he was also my nephew, and he was utterly mad. Too mad to be described merely as a tyrant or dark ruler."
Theo nodded.
-Mad Dragon Emperor.
The title of the previous family head, now just a footnote in history.
The five years of his rule were called one of the worst dark ages in Ragnar's thousand-year history.
Countless vassals and retainers died in wars or were purged.
It was then that the nine vassal families, known as the "Nine Snow Families," were reduced to the current six.
The problem was that no one could stop the Mad Dragon Emperor's atrocities.
Because he was too strong.
'If the Mad Dragon Emperor's strength was actually the result of regression, it all makes sense.'
But that raised a question here.
'Then what does that make Father, who pulled down such a grandfather……?'
"So Kyle finally couldn't take it anymore and staged a coup with his like-minded brothers. If your father hated and scorned regressors so viscerally, that's exactly why."
"Then Father is……?"
"Not a regressor?"
Theo nodded heavily.
"Yeah. He's not."
"……!"
"That's why your father's a monster. A guy who didn't regress. A guy who wasn't chosen by Lordbrock. A guy who doesn't even use the Primordial Dragon's relic. He defeated someone who grew strong through multiple regressions."
The image of Kyle floated in Theo's mind.
The massive beam of light slicing through the sky.
It wasn't a phenomenon a mere human could produce.
A miracle possible only for one encroaching on divine realm.
"Kyle's scorn didn't stop there. He cut down one of his brothers who'd been with him—a regressor—without mercy."
Someone came to mind.
'Wind Lord!'
-Kyle! Kyle, Kaaaaale! Robert! Robeeeeert! I hate you……! I hate you allllll!
The tragic hero chased out by Kyle and the Black Dragon, barely surviving only to fall into qi deviation.
His journal was filled with nothing but hatred and resentment.
If this was the cause.
Then the scorn for regressors that began with the Mad Dragon Emperor extending to the Wind Lord made sense.
The words Kyle had said while looking at him during the third awakening ceremony.
-That's right. To reach this seat, I crushed my enemies, the masters threatening this seat, the challengers coveting this seat…… The head of Ragnar is such a lonely position. Always under threat and challenge…… A seat where you can never let your guard down for even a moment.
-From now on, I'll treat you not as my son, but as a challenger.
-Let's see just how well 'her' teachings took root.
Kyle had noticed that Theo had visited Lordbrock's nest.
And with his heart sword, he slashed at Theo's mind.
For a mere awakening ceremony exam, it was a horrific strike.
What if Theo hadn't overcome it?
'I'd have died. Probably couldn't even regress. It was a direct strike to the soul.'
Kyle only declared him passed after Theo regained his senses.
His attitude back then was closer to "I'll watch a bit longer."
"I'd always wondered why he left a regressor—one he so despised—alone among his own children. That's why I wanted to talk to you like this."
Theo let out a groan at Hilda's words.
The newly revealed family secrets were so vast he couldn't even begin to organize his thoughts.
Then a sudden question arose.
"Didn't you say you were a regressor too, Lady Hilda? Then why……."
"Did your father leave me alone?"
"……Yes."
"I told you, didn't I? All my cycles have already ended."
"Ah."
"In Kyle's eyes, I'm no longer a regressor. Well, I'm no pushover either. You should know this: your father's scorn for regressors isn't just emotional. He sees them as a threat to Ragnar's prosperity."
Hilda lightly waved her hand in the air.
Then a wine glass from the shelf behind floated over and landed in front of her.
"As you know, your father's obsessed with Ragnar alone, right?"
"……That's why it makes even less sense. If it's for Ragnar's sake, wouldn't future information be even more necessary?"
She poured wine into it again.
"Regressors are usually full of arrogance and stubbornness. In their eyes, the world spins around them like a puppet show they can manipulate at will whenever they please."
Theo suddenly recalled the vision of Hilda's past he'd glimpsed in the forest.
With each repeating cycle, her humanity eroded, leaving only madness.
Perhaps.
The madness the Mad Dragon Emperor showed stemmed from a similar situation?
No matter how many new cycles he started, the outcomes barely changed.
No, the horrors only grew.
It wouldn't be strange if that drove him insane.
'So you believe the path a regressor must pursue can never coexist with the path you've set.'
Regressors prioritize only their own gain.
For Kyle, who put the family first, expulsion was inevitable.
'Maybe that's why he stole Lordbrock's heart too. To ensure no more chosen ones appear.'
Theo clenched and unclenched his fist as he continued his thoughts.
'And yet he left me alone…… Does that mean he plans to watch me a bit longer?'
The fact that Kyle's sword might target his neck at any moment sent chills down his spine.
That led to another sudden thought.
-Then why didn't the Mad Dragon Emperor or Wind Lord regress anew and dethrone Father?
A contradiction.
As the conversation dragged on, the meat went cold.
The blood from the steak pooled in the dish caught Theo's eye.
The face and gaze reflected on it stared back at him.
"……What exactly is a regressor?"
Theo realized he needed to bring the question back to square one.
Only by uncovering the root of all these events and secrets surrounding the family could he figure out how to plan his future.
"A chosen one."
Hilda said as she brought the wine glass to her lips.
"Also, the relic left by the Primordial Dragon itself."