Side Story – Regression (The End
by Afuhfuihgs
Side Story – Regression (The End)
*
Mela’s holy prayer and blessing flow into Ed through their clasped hands.
“Can I let go now?”
“Yeah… no, hold on a little longer.”
Mela’s brown eyes and Ed’s amber eyes met for a long moment.
Soon, Mela nestled into Ed’s arms.
Ed gave an awkward smile and stroked her hair.
Robin watched the whole scene from afar.
He didn’t remember it clearly, but he felt like he had definitely seen this scene before.
Robin spoke to Jennifer, who was preparing an invisibility spell beside him.
“It’s definite.”
“Hmm?”
“I think I remember. No, it’s more like déjà vu. Whatever it is, this perfectly matches a situation I know.”
Jennifer nodded, put her wand in her arms, and murmured.
“… It seems it really was a premonition.”
“Yeah. It seems so.”
“Ha, so Ed’s bloody revenge fails so futilely.”
Jennifer scoffed as she spoke, but her voice contained a bit of bitterness, or guilt.
Robin glared at Jennifer and slowly closed his eyes.
Honestly, it’s not that he doesn’t feel guilty.
But, Ed is just a lowly thief after all.
He wasn’t given a hidden royal bloodline or a destiny to save the world.
In this world, the hero, Robin himself, is a more important human than him.
Above all, this world, which is trying to twist even Ed’s terrible revenge, which the current choice might cause, in the form of premonition, was proving it.
So, I wasn’t wrong.
Robin curled his lips as if chewing and spitting out his voice.
“I will never go back to that terrible darkness. Never,”
Jennifer didn’t bother to reply.
She, who was calmer than anyone else when the battle started, was just calmly confirming the information she knew.
“You said that when the Demon King dies, he emits so much magical energy that humans can’t withstand it, right?”
“Yes, so after killing Ed and the Demon King, immediately cut off Ed’s limbs and bring them out. It’s clear that the magical energy influenced Ed to turn into an undead.”
“… Won’t Mela go crazy?”
“It’s just a torn corpse, but if she has that, she can hold a funeral, so Mela will be satisfied.”
Robin and Jennifer watched the terrible conversation they were having from a step away.
Both of them were clearly aware of how disgusting their schemes and plots were.
But at the same time, they already knew how to distance themselves from that side of themselves.
Turn a blind eye to your own heart, and think mechanically as if doing work.
If I’m doing something wrong, would the Goddess just stand by and watch?
Nothing happens.
Rather, seeing that she’s even using a method called premonition to protect me, that’s even more so.
This world is just a stage for the existence called the hero to play an active role.
An unfortunate childhood, guardians who were just sons of bitches, kids who ignored me.
Even that arrogant thief bastard who butted in without knowing his place and stole the hearts of the Saintess and the Archer.
All of them were just firewood needed for the hero Robin to shine.
The world has provided decorations to decorate himself, so he’ll have to put in the effort to decorate them himself.
So, this uneasy premonition that keeps ringing in my head must just be guilt.
Robin forcibly ignored the warning bells ringing in his head and the goosebumps rising on his arms.
He decided to think of it as just the discomfort he felt when he slaughtered the horse he used to ride and ate its meat.
After that, his endlessly generous conscience will take care of the rest.
Jennifer spoke to Robin, who was trying to shake off his 잡념 (japnyum – distracting thoughts), in a calm manner.
“… Ed was hit by the Demon King’s magic, his limbs were torn apart, and he died instantly. That’s how we’re going to agree on it, right?”
“Just in case, immediately burn Ed’s affected area with fire. If an expert sees it, they’ll immediately realize he was attacked by a sword.”
“Will there be that level of expert among the people who will check Ed’s body?”
“… There is. The blue-haired crazy bitch.”
“Ah, the Knight Commander.”
Jennifer nodded and looked up at the sky once.
It was almost time.
Jennifer walked towards Ed and Mela.
“Ed, are you ready?”
*
Carefully crossing the side path leading to the collapsed stone wall,
Secretly approaching the gargoyle guarding and pushing it off the wall,
Carefully removing the iron bars from the small window that served as a ventilation hole and entering the Demon King’s castle, the suffocating tension was so great that they were careful not to carelessly drop the sweat that flowed like rain onto the ground.
Their skin tingled from the magical energy filling the air, and their eyes became sore and bloodshot, but no one complained.
Knowing what kind of consequences a small mistake could bring, Ed, Jennifer, and Robin couldn’t even breathe carelessly and just silently moved forward.
Robin also stopped thinking about his evil plan.
If they can’t subdue the Demon King first, all worries become useless.
Even if they catch the hunting dog after the hunt is over, they must be careful not to be bitten to death by the prey first.
It didn’t take long.
Of course, it felt like a long time due to the suffocating tension, but in reality, it didn’t even take an hour for Ed to sneak up behind the Demon King and slit his throat.
The enraged Demon King’s red eyes gleamed eerily.
Jennifer’s magic was barely fending off the fierce pillars of fire and ice.
The sound of magic raging in the large hall echoed loudly.
Ed, hiding the sound of his footsteps in that loud noise, walked behind the Demon King, and Robin, who was watching for an opportunity without deactivating the invisibility magic, saw it.
Now is the time.
This time, it was the moment to seize the future he deserved without any worries.
Ed, dodging the wildly raging magic, approached the Demon King and firmly grabbed his body.
It was already hazy, but it was definitely the same as the scene he had seen in the premonition.
Robin drew his sword, deactivated the invisibility magic, and made eye contact with Jennifer.
Ed spoke to Robin.
“It’s… over now.”
Robin didn’t look at Ed’s eyes.
Do you know,
That this is the second time I’m killing you?
Ed’s words from the premonition brushed past Robin’s ears.
He really believed they were friends, he expected friendship.
A second chance came, but this time too, he ended up killing him.
It’s not like he regrets that now.
He just thought that this time, he would kill him so cleanly that no resentment would remain.
That was all he was thinking.
“Yeah, it’s really over. Ed.”
Robin swung his sword.
*
A sword swung thousands of times.
Complex swordsmanship is meaningless.
Those things are just techniques created to fight against people holding weapons.
In order to fight monsters with just a sword, you eventually have no choice but to swing the sword sharply enough to cut through any skin and powerfully enough to break any bone.
Robin had learned that from Deborah.
He was annoyed by her arrogant face and the way she treated him, but in the end, his sword resembled her a lot.
Putting aside her attitude, her teachings were correct.
Robin had been swinging his sword diligently.
If you were to count the number of times a sword has been swung in the world, he was probably the one who swung it the most.
It was a sword that he had swung relentlessly, almost ignorantly, to the point where he thought so.
Thanks to that, Robin had mastered excellent skills.
A state where the arms holding the sword felt as if they were teleporting downwards.
In the trajectory where the sword passed at an invisible speed, only a flash of light and a shower of blood scattered behind.
His sword, which cut through everything, sometimes felt like it hadn’t cut anything at all.
That’s why Robin was mistaken.
He didn’t even doubt that he had cut through Ed and the Demon King at once.
It was his skin, covered in goosebumps, that first noticed the anomaly.
He felt a chilling gaze that made all his skin stand on end.
Robin instinctively jumped back and looked towards Ed.
Ed and the Demon King, who he should have cut, were glaring at him with very cold eyes and stiff expressions.
The wide, expressionless eyes, the round yellow and red gazes, fell upon Robin.
It was expressionless, but the awkwardness, as if someone had drawn it and pasted it on, and the strange unpleasantness created by that awkwardness, tickled his instincts.
There were no cuts on Ed and the Demon King’s bodies at all.
Not only were there no traces of blood, but not even a single piece of fabric was cut.
As if the sword had never even touched them.
“W… what is this?”
Ed was still chasing him with that strangely rigid amber gaze.
Robin couldn’t stand the chills and looked at Jennifer, shouting.
“Jennifer! Magic… Je, Jennifer?”
But Jennifer wasn’t there.
As if she had never been there from the beginning.
“…Wh, what the hell?”
Robin realized that there was no echo in the place where his voice had passed.
A huge hall with only the Demon King’s giant jade throne as furniture.
His voice should have echoed, but only a terrible silence heavily settled around Robin.
Ed slowly released the Demon King’s body and approached Robin.
Robin swallowed, as chills flowed through his body due to something indescribably unnatural.
Ed’s appearance was unpleasant and bizarre.
Ed’s gait was strange, and his body didn’t shake up and down at all.
Like a ghost, Ed approached Robin straight and at a constant speed.
It seemed as if Ed was getting bigger and bigger.
Thanks to that, that chilling, expressionless face and the bizarrely large, wide-open yellow eyes seemed to be getting bigger and bigger as they approached.
“Oh, no.”
Robin shouted, even though he didn’t understand the situation.
It was instinct.
“Nooo! No! Uwaaaaa!”
Robin tried to turn around and run away.
But, there was no door.
No, to be exact, there was no wall.
No, no, to be even more precise, there was no background.
The surroundings were covered in pitch-black darkness.
A dark black that made the night in the Whirlpool Forest feel bright.
He was sweating cold because he was so familiar with that darkness that seemed to swallow all light.
Soon, even the floor Robin was standing on was gradually swallowed by the darkness from the corners, approaching Robin.
Only then did Robin realize.
Regression? Premonition?
What a joke, this was mercy.
It was tolerance, a test, an opportunity.
And Robin failed.
He understood everything when he saw that terrible darkness, but it seemed to be too late.
Ed was approaching him straight in the darkness where even up and down couldn’t be distinguished.
“Yeah… it’s over. Robin.”
“… E, E… Eeu, Ed,”
Robin stuttered.
It wasn’t because he was terrified.
It was because Robin’s chin, lower lip, and face were gradually disappearing.
“Aae… Aaaaeuaae Eueueu!”
His body was gradually disappearing.
Terribly, his mind remained here.
Robin screamed and waved his arm, which was already half gone and dangling.
He tried to stop Ed by wildly swinging the Holy Sword, which emitted white flames with all his might, even though it had no strength at all.
But Ed grabbed the blade of the Holy Sword with his hand without even frowning and easily took it away.
Robin blankly looked at the Holy Sword that had left his hand and jerked his neck in vain.
“Uh, ah, eu, ah.”
He wanted to say something.
He was wrong.
He made a mistake.
He was sorry.
But it was too late.
All he could do was tighten his throat and make a sound that was as unintelligible as possible.
He didn’t know when he would be able to do this again.
This might be his last chance to make a sound.
The pain of being crushed by a giant gear began from the skin that had disappeared first.
Robin, who was frantically chasing his body parts that were gradually scattering into the air with his eyes, regretted it again.
When his body was still there, the target he should have swung his sword at was not Ed, but his own neck.
Then he could have at least escaped with death.
But, the Holy Sword was already in Ed’s hand, burning with white flames.
Finally, as his eyeballs began to disappear, his vision gradually faded.
No,
Aaaaaah!
A dream, a premonition, how could he have made such a foolish mistake!
How could he have forgotten, how could he have judged that he had not experienced this pain?
His throat had already disappeared into the darkness, and only a few remaining teeth and his tongue were pathetically twitching.
How much time had he spent in that place?
100 years? Or 1000 years?
Robin was sure that it had been at least 50 years.
“The perceived time is different from the outside world, so it’s meaningless… but according to the world’s standards, it’s been about a year since I last saw you.”
1 year…?
At Ed’s words, Robin shook his remaining eye wildly and trembled his tooth fragments.
That was the most he could do to express his intention.
No, maybe he was just writhing in pain.
It hurt so much, tears gushed out.
Of course, that liquid disappeared without a trace before it even hit the floor.
Robin prayed.
To give him one more chance,
Please, just one more time.
If he was given just one more chance, and if he ruined that chance again, he wouldn’t resent why he was given such terrible pain.
This time, he would repay everything he had done wrong and more.
But Ed looked straight at Robin, who had only one pupil left, with those wide eyes and said.
“No.”
*
“I told you it would be the same. Ulgaros.”
Ed said bluntly to Ulgaros and swung the Holy Sword that emitted white flames, clearing away the surrounding darkness.
As the darkness cleared, a splendid and antique palace appeared, not the ruined castle with only cold stone walls left.
It was Ulgaros’s newly renovated Demon King’s castle.
The place where the Demon King died a long time ago, and the place where he woke up as an undead.
But the traces of that time could no longer be found.
Ulgaros clicked his tongue as if he was dumbfounded and grumbled.
“Tsk… it’s really absurd. To the point of being nauseating.”
“Ha, you can say that again. Anyway, my bet is my victory.”
“Okay. I’ll abolish that plan to create an Undead Dragon as promised… But still, how can I not win even once?”
Ed nodded and inserted the Holy Sword into his sternum and absorbed it into his body.
Ulgaros scratched the tip of his horn with his index finger and shook his head, saying.
“No, really, it’s three times. Three times, how can the same ending happen every time?”
“You can say that again.”
It had already been 10 years since Ed woke up and took revenge on Robin.
Three years ago, after marrying Ellie, Ed, for Ellie who was troubled whenever a dispute arose between humans and demons, visited the Demon King’s castle once a year and proposed a bet to Ulgaros.
The content of the bet was about what choice Robin would make if he was given a chance to go back to the past.
And Ulgaros always accepted his friend’s proposal.
Of course, even if Robin made a different choice now, he wouldn’t let him go, but surprisingly, Robin had never deviated from expectations even once.
He had never tried not to kill Ed even once.
Ed didn’t feel anything about that fact now, but Ulgaros was different.
He was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t close his mouth.
“No matter how much he forgets his previous memories, how can he not even once… Ugh, never mind. Next time, I should bet on whether I’ll change or not.”
Ed chuckled and said.
“No, it’s over.”
“What?”
“I’m not going to bet with Robin anymore.”
“No, why?”
“I think I need to make my emotions a little cleaner and clearer from now on to raise our daughter who will be born soon.”
“Ah, that’s right, was it next month already? What should I give as a congratulatory gift?”
“Do you think I’d give my daughter something covered in magical energy?”
Ulgaros slapped Ed’s back with his palm and laughed.
Ed stroked his hit back and said.
“So until next month, no, until our daughter finishes breastfeeding, don’t do anything weird. And stop trying to use dragons, Ellie almost had a miscarriage because she was stressed.”
“As the number of demons is small, it’s an unavoidable choice to maintain our power. Of course, I have no intention of antagonizing humans while you’re here, Ed, but being peaceful and looking weak are different.”
“Yeah, I know… but the problem is that the rural villages along the way are being destroyed every time those winged reptiles move. Stop it, I won the bet today, so just stay still for a while.”
“…I’m going to
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