Nothing or Everything!
Right now, I was in Hyeji's room. I'd originally been staying in the guest room, but Hyeji had said she had something urgent to discuss and summoned me over.
[What do you suppose she called you here for?]
'Beats me. I haven't the foggiest.'
That was how I ended up kneeling obediently on the floor in front of Hyeji. Her earlier display had been so intense that my instincts had taken over, leading to this current situation.
Hyeji told me to sit comfortably. "Shinwoo, make yourself comfortable."
"I'm fine like this."
"There's no way kneeling is comfortable. Sit properly."
"No, really, this is comfortable."
I truly was comfortable. There wasn't a single uncomfortable thing about it. Yet Hyeji, apparently worried about me, tried to persuade me a little.
- Smack!
"You look a bit more comfortable now."
"......Thanks."
'Very comfortable.'
[......My legs won't move.]
Moved by Hyeji's persuasion, I quietly sat down. My legs seemed to be trembling, but it was probably just an illusion.
Once Hyeji saw that I was seated, she brought over a small table and sat across from me. Once again, we were facing each other. Perhaps because of that, a slight awkwardness began to settle in the air.
'It's awkward because this isn't even my room.'
[Aren't you feeling a little excited?]
'Oh, I'm excited all right. My heart rate's spiking from sheer terror.'
Hyeji broke the silence. She took several deep breaths before speaking.
"Shinwoo. Be honest with me."
"Sure. But you have to be honest too."
Another silence. This one didn't last long.
"Shinwoo, do you know what regression is?"
"You mean returning to the past with only your memories of the future?"
"Yeah. Then—"
Hyeji hesitated for a moment. But only briefly. She finally voiced her true purpose.
"Can you regress?"
"No."
"O-oh, really?"
"But—"
"But?"
[Are you going to tell her everything?]
'No, just part of it.'
Even mentioning the word "regression" was risky, yet Hyeji had trusted me enough to bring it up. I decided to live up to that trust.
"I at least know who can regress."
"Huh?"
"And Hyeji, I also know that you can regress."
"...Really?"
Hyeji gave me a suspicious look. Then, sensing something off in my words, she asked urgently, "Wait a second? What do you mean by 'you too'?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Everyone except you can regress."
"Don't lie to me."
"If you don't want to believe it, don't. I'm just telling you how it is."
"...I thought I was the only special one."
Hyeji looked quite dejected. She must have believed regression was her exclusive privilege.
"Even that bull we fought last time could regress. Damn it."
"....I see. So that's why you said that back then."
Hyeji finally began to accept my words. But her gloom only deepened. It was because she'd learned that not only people, but even monsters could regress.
To console her as she grew visibly more depressed by the second, I tried a few different approaches.
"Still, among the people around me, no one except you can regress frequently."
"......How do you know that?"
"When someone regresses, there's a sign. I can tell just by looking."
"What about Jung Ayeon or that elf girl?"
Hyeji, clearly conscious of the two, asked right away. Since a detailed explanation would be difficult, I kept it brief.
"Jung Ayeon regresses less often than you, and Elsia doesn't seem to manage it many times."
"Really? Still, I beat the elf."
[Aren't you going to tell her how far into the future they regress from?]
'We'll save that for later. Even shock therapy needs to be done in moderation.'
Hyeji showed a small spark of joy. She seemed pleased that she was better than Elsia in at least one regard. I had no intention of ruining that mood, so I stayed quiet.
Before long, Hyeji wore a refreshed expression, as if she had no more lingering attachments.
"So, Shinwoo. You can't even regress, yet you still fought like a total brute?"
"......Your sarcasm is a bit much."
"Anyway, let's keep this between us."
But then I remembered—Jung Ayeon had been there too.
"Didn't Jung Ayeon hear it back then as well?"
"If we just brush it off, she won't dig any deeper."
"Yeah, I guess."
With that, our conversation ended. Since there was no more reason to stay in this room, I tried to leave. It was getting a little embarrassing to linger in a girl's room, after all.
Just then, Hyeji stopped me and showed me a photograph.
"Shinwoo, want to see this?"
"What is it?"
It was a photo of an adult woman holding a child. Both had the same bright red hair, but there was a difference—their eyes. The child in the woman's arms had golden eyes, while the adult woman had eyes that sparkled like lapis lazuli, gazing at us from beyond the photo.
Hyeji pointed at the adult woman and spoke in a somewhat wistful voice.
"That's my mom. And the one she's holding is me."
I nodded in response and began examining the photo more closely. The woman looked incredibly young. At her waist hung a three-section staff decorated with a red rose. And her chest was—
'She didn't inherit a single bit of the chest gene.'
[You'll die if you say that out loud.]
She was different from Hyeji. Quite significantly so.
At that moment, Hyeji seemed to notice where my gaze had landed and spoke menacingly.
"Hey, you bastard, where the hell are you looking?"
"......I was just looking at the photo. Seriously."
Even though the angle should have made it impossible for her to catch my line of sight, Hyeji had instinctively sensed my actions. Since I still had a strong will to live, I denied it appropriately.
"So? What do you think?"
"She was beautiful. She looks exactly like you."
"......Yeah. We do look alike."
Hyeji, feeling oddly self-conscious, placed a hand on her own chest. But that was impossible. You need something there to place a hand on, after all. In the end, her hand, with nowhere to go, flailed uselessly in the air before dropping back down.
[Just what is it about that chest that makes you act like this?]
'It's nothing. And everything.'
Then, suddenly, Hyeji put on a serious expression and leaned closer to me. Her hands and lips trembled. Her breathing quickened. Her pupils shook. It was obvious she was nervous.
But instead of pulling away, Hyeji chose to move closer.
"Shinwoo. There's something I need to tell you."
"What is it?"
At that moment, the number above Hyeji's head rose, and a single mirror shard appeared.
[Are you going to look?]
'Not right now.'
Perhaps gaining confidence from the regression, Hyeji's trembling lips finally began to open.
"Actually, I—"
"Kids, have some snacks."
With impeccable timing, Kim Baekhong burst in, flinging the door open. Still, his offer to bring snacks seemed genuine—there was a tray with appetizing cookies and chilled drinks covered in condensation.
"I thought you might be hungry, so I brought some snacks."
"......Dad, put that down and get out."
"......Hyeji? What did Daddy do wrong this time?"
"Now."
With a bewildered expression, Kim Baekhong resigned himself and was dragged away. As Hyeji moved away from me, the mirror shard naturally melted and disappeared. The red number above her head vanished along with it.
A sudden curiosity rose in me to search through someone else's room. But the owner of this room was Hyeji. The terror that fact inspired devoured my curiosity whole.
Suppressing my shrinking courage, I grabbed a few cookies and quietly returned to the guest room.
From the training hall came the same small commotion as before.
"You bastard!! Did you really have to show up at the worst possible timing?!"
"Hyeji!! I'm sorry!!"
'It's nice to see a family bonding.'
[Now that I look at it, it's not such a bad scene after all.]
Once you're used to a drug, the old stuff stops giving you a kick. Your tolerance has gone up. Thanks to that intense stimulus earlier, we were now treating it as perfectly normal.
***
I'd eaten dinner at Hyeji's house and was on my way back home. Hyeji had told me to stay the night in the guest room, but—
'I didn't expect her to stop me that desperately.'
[She was more beastly than you were.]
Determined to show the dignity of a three-star general this time, Kim Baekhong had firmly declared that it was absolutely not allowed. His resolve had been so fierce that veins bulged in his eyes and his voice sounded as if he were coughing up blood. In the end, the moment I finished dinner, I was practically kicked out.
Just before the front door closed, the last thing I saw was the tiny head of the household being dragged back to the training room by Hyeji.
'Still, they really do get along well as a family.'
[Indeed. They have far more physical contact than your family does.]
The distance to my house wasn't far, so I arrived quickly. I tried to wash up and go to bed right away, but—
[......Your parents are truly remarkable in many ways.]
'......By the time this story ends, I wonder how many siblings I'll have.'
I couldn't sleep because of the constant sounds of sibling-making coming from the master bedroom. Sleep was clearly off the table. Instead, I asked Piece something I'd been curious about for a while.
'Piece. You said I could read other people's regressions.'
[Yes. You can read the future before someone else's regression, limited to a short period of time.]
'Then why do so many people try to act exactly the same as they did before regressing?'
It was something I'd always wondered about. The regressors in the novels I knew usually experienced some kind of accident in the future and then regressed. Their typical response was to take action to deal with it. Or they would thoroughly prepare from the beginning to monopolize some guaranteed future profit. There were even quite a few cases where they killed someone without hesitation—all to create a completely different future.
But the regressors I'd actually met were a little different from those novel regressors. Jung Ayeon, who had experienced a future where she won and returned with absolute confidence in that outcome. The Chinese guy who had experienced a future where he overcame my attack with a hidden technique and tried to replicate it exactly. Even the bull, who kept trying to do the exact same thing over and over even after being blocked multiple times.
'Honestly, the bull was tougher when he wasn't regressing and just charging in blindly.'
[Do you feel anything from this?]
'I don't know. It's quite different from what I've seen in fiction?'
[Hehe. It was indeed very different from what you expected.]
Even though I couldn't see her form, I could almost picture Piece covering her mouth with her hand and giggling.
When her laughter subsided, Piece's voice rang out clearly in my mind.
[You must remember this.]
'Remember what?'
A brief silence. Then Piece's voice came again, even clearer than before.
[Regression is never omnipotent.]