The Nine Hundred and Ninety-Ninth Loop
"So... what you're saying is that right now is... this is your nine hundred and ninety-ninth life... Regina?"
Every time I turned Regina's words over in my mind, a crushing weight settled deeper into my chest. Nine hundred and ninety-nine playthroughs. Nine hundred and ninety-nine regressions. The memory of all those save files I had casually rerolled and discarded suddenly overlapped with the image of this girl, gritting her teeth and struggling through every agonizing loop.
That was why I couldn't bring myself to shake off the pale, trembling hands clutching my arm with desperate strength.
If I tore her away now, I felt she would truly shatter into pieces. Even if I hadn't done it on purpose, in the end, I was the cause of it all.
"Y-yes! I really am a Stigma Bearer! Look, you see my Stigma right here, don't you? The number carved beneath it is the count of lives I've lived so far... P-please, if you don't believe me, I can prove it right now—!"
Regina's voice shook far more violently than when we had first met. Listening to her tearful plea as she scrambled desperately to make me believe her was agonizingly heartbreaking.
I couldn't find the right words. I needed to say something comforting to a girl on the brink of complete hysteria, but the sickening realization that her suffering was born from the playthroughs I had tossed away without a second thought left my mind utterly blank.
Misinterpreting my hesitation, Regina's face drained of what little color it had left. Gritting her teeth, she focused an intense condensation of mana at her fingertips.
"Sian. Y-you know that even if you gouge out the flesh where a Stigma is engraved, it... it regenerates, right?"
"W-wait, stop—!"
Whirrr—!
The sharp, piercing hum of Aura resonated through the gloom of the cavern. Not channeled into a sword, but cloaking bare fingers—a terrifying display of martial mastery.
Yet I had no time to marvel at such prodigy. Regina was genuinely about to dig into her own living flesh in cold blood just to prove herself.
I lunged forward and twisted her wrist aside. In stark contrast to the overwhelming mana control capable of manifesting Aura at seventeen, her slender body yielded with tragic ease.
The moment her wrist was pinned, Regina shuddered violently, as if struck by a seizure. Her hollow, unfocused ruby eyes locked onto me.
"Ugh...! D-don't stop me! You won't believe me anyway! That's what everyone said! They called regression a delusion, told me no such Stigma could ever exist...! Nobody was on my side! Not a single person!"
Her reason had completely buckled. She was merely vomiting out the poisoned anguish that had festered in her chest for centuries. Seeing her like that, I pulled her straight into my arms and held her tight.
I had never studied psychology. I knew nothing of the empathetic validation or unconditional acceptance that counselors prattled on about.
My instincts simply took over. I knew that if I let go of this girl right now, she would crumble into dust.
"H-hyuuh?!"
"...I'm sorry."
And so, until Regina's tremors ceased and her ragged weeping softened, I held her quietly in my embrace.
It took time for her to calm down. Buried against my chest, the girl huddled into my warmth as if it were the only tether keeping her alive in this world.
"Feeling... a little better?"
"Hic, ugh... *sniff*... I-I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean to act like this... But please, please believe me..."
Gently stroking her back, I leaned in and whispered softly against her ear, praying it would bring her even a shred of peace.
"Yes. I believe you, Regina."
"B-but... you're saying that now, but deep down you don't believe me, do you? Someone told me that once, and they lied... and I ended up locked in an asylum for seven whole years...!"
The scars gouged into Regina Strelitzia's heart were far too deep to be mended by a handful of kind words. Just when she seemed to settle, she began thrashing in my arms once more in blind panic.
"..."
I tightened my hold around her, refusing to let go.
Even if it had never been my intention, Regina had been broken by my choices. She had clawed through all those cycles I had thoughtlessly discarded, desperate to survive.
How could I ever abandon her?
A fragile girl who had forgotten how to trust people, yet still starved for their warmth... There was no way in hell I would let her fall apart.
Swallowing hard, I slowly brought forth the secret I hadn't shared with a single soul since transmigrating into this body.
"No. I'm not like them. I really do believe you, Regina."
"Why...?"
"Because this isn't my first life either."
"...?"
Under Regina's doubtful gaze, I rapidly sorted through the explanation in my head.
I could never tell her this world was just a game. If she discovered that the seven thousand years of hell she had endured were nothing more than someone else's casual pastime, her mind would snap beyond repair.
"Mm. This is my secret, but since you opened up to me, it's only fair I share mine."
Taking a slow breath, I continued.
"I was born in a place called South Korea. A world completely different from the continent of Arcana—one where science brought light instead of magic, where colossal cities scraped the clouds, and people flew across the sky."
"What... do you mean...?"
Please don't lie to me. The words hovered on the tip of Regina's tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to voice them.
The intuition she had honed across nine hundred and ninety-nine loops—a sense capable of discerning truth from deceit—was screaming at her that the girl before her was speaking nothing but absolute fact.
In Regina's hollow, weary eyes, a spark of life flickered for the first time in centuries. A single, fragile strand of hope, woven from the fabric of an endless loop.
Determined not to betray that hope, I spoke with unwavering conviction.
"That's why I believe you. Considering how bizarre my own experience is, I have no right to dismiss yours as a lie."
"R-really...?"
"Yes. If someone like me could be reincarnated, there's no reason someone else couldn't regress. Besides, cloaking your fingertips in Aura isn't something an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl could ever pull off."
"You... you really... believe me...?"
"Of course. You're the only person in the world who knows my secret, Regina. In exchange, I'll protect your secret with my life... so will you promise to keep mine safe too?"
I smiled softly and raised an index finger to my lips.
"Y-yes...! I swear it! So please... Sian, just you... please never leave me...!"
"Don't worry. I won't. Even if the entire world turns against you, I will always take your side. We share a special secret now, don't we?"
"Ah..."
Letting out a faint, overwhelmed murmur, Regina buried her face back into my chest. Her muffled voice drifted up from between my arms.
"Just a little... please hold me just a little longer..."
"As long as you want."
"Thank you... thank you so, so much..."
A tangle of complex emotions swirled in my chest as I gently brushed my fingers through Regina's dark navy hair. Held like this, she looked like nothing more than an adorable, fragile little sister.
Vowing to protect her no matter what came our way, I leaned close and whispered into her ear.
"You've suffered enough, Regina."
"So... you're fated to die this year, Regina?"
"Y-yes... No matter how hard I struggle, no matter where I try to run... I can never escape this fate."
Having finally regained her composure, Regina quietly recounted her past loops in an even, hollow tone.
Bizarrely, Regina had never been able to leave the academy.
Whenever she attempted to skip the entrance ceremony to avoid her death, she would suddenly snap back to reality standing before the academy gates. Whenever she tried to flee the campus grounds, she would instantly find herself back in her dormitory room. An endless chain of inexplicable phenomena.
After repeating the cycle several times, she naturally came to understand: something was terribly wrong with this world. An invisible, coercive force was deliberately locking her inside the academy walls.
"...So, I will probably die... right after the second semester final exams. My 'role' is to die protecting the other students when the devil worshippers invade the academy..."
"..."
Hearing her speak of her own death with such flat detachment left me speechless.
I knew exactly why she had been shackled to that role. But I had no way of explaining it to her.
Under normal circumstances, whenever a game rolled over into a new playthrough, every character had their memories wiped clean—except for Regina Strelitzia, who possessed the Stigma of 'Regression'.
Because of her continuous loops, the canonical story had begun to derail. In response, the narrative plausibility of the world had reduced this seventeen-year-old girl into a hollow puppet, stripping away her free will so she couldn't take unexpected detours.
Then... during all those playthroughs where I saw Regina in the game, had she been forcing that smile? Forcing herself to act cheerful and bright while screaming inside?
"So... I'm going to die soon..."
Her voice, which she had tried so hard to keep steady, dragged into a miserable slur at the end. Without her realizing it, the tremor was creeping back in.
"...Ah? W-why am I... acting like this? My death is inevitable, it's what has to happen, but... what if you aren't there in the next cycle, Sian...?"
"Stop it!"
Clap!
I brought my hands together around hers with a sharp smack, cutting off the dark spiral dragging her under, and gripped her pale, trembling fingers tight.
"Regina. You will not die in this life."
"B-but it's always been that w—"
"I wasn't there for your nine hundred and ninety-eight lives. The very fact that I appeared before you in this nine hundred and ninety-ninth loop was already outside that 'fate' of yours, wasn't it? Just like this Double Dungeon right here."
"Th-that's true, isn't it...?"
"So don't let yourself be bound so tightly to that fate this time."
Holding both of Regina's hands firmly, I locked eyes with her and spoke with iron resolve.
"If fate tries to kill you, I'll twist its neck with my own two hands. I will always, always stand by your side."
The original story had already fractured the moment I stepped into this world. Yelena Frost, who was supposed to claim the top rank, had lost to me, and countless dominoes had fallen because of it.
"So trust me. 'Fate' has already been broken once—there's no reason we can't break it a second time, right?"
With an encouraging grin, I held out my hand to Regina, who was still sitting limply on the stone floor.
"To do that, let's start by getting the hell out of this dungeon. On your feet, Regina."
"...Yes."
Perhaps suddenly self-conscious about how much she had wept, a vivid blush bloomed across Regina's cheeks as her trembling fingers wrapped around mine.