Ch.109Try your best.

# 1.

Immediately after deciding on a private audience with Duke Hallorand.

The first thing Nahan did was modify the artifact Ruby had given him.

“It should look the same on the outside, but appear like a corpse that’s been dead for quite some time.”

“That’s easy… but you might experience some pain while disguised. Is that alright?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The result was perfect in performance.

An artifact that couldn’t be detected even by Aura users’ intuition or high-level magic.

Of course, as Ruby had explained, it forcibly locked his joints in place.

Crack! Crunch!!

Snap!!

“Ho, hermit…!! I’m so-sorry for the dis-distur-disturbance. I heard you tal-talking!”

“Ugh, damn!! Wh-what is this?!”

“I…!! I, ugh, ARGH…!!!”

It was quite painful, but he successfully managed the private audience with the Duke without any major issues.

Snap!

After putting his dislocated jaw back in place, Nahan extended his right hand toward Hallorand.

“Regression. I’ll end it for you.”

He had figured out the entire truth thanks to Hallorand’s habitual muttering.

Hallorand seemed to notice this as well, calming his startled heart and smirking.

“I can’t remember the last time I was this emotionally stirred.”

“So, will you accept my proposal?”

“Since you’ve managed to surprise me, I’ll at least hear you out.”

Both sides maintained composed reactions.

Nahan sat down naturally and watched Hallorand brewing tea, thinking to himself.

‘He said he’s a regressor.’

He wasn’t sure how many regressions this was, but judging by the earlier lament and detached reaction, it must have been an unfathomable number of repetitions.

‘First, I need to emphasize my usefulness.’

Nahan naturally accepted the tea Hallorand offered and asked:

“Does the regression end when you save the world?”

“My, you really did hear everything, didn’t you?”

“You were soliloquizing like a theatrical monologue. If I heard it and didn’t understand, I’d be a fool.”

Hearing Nahan’s calm words, Hallorand nodded silently and picked up his teacup.

“Regression, possession, reincarnation, savior… there must have been many difficult concepts to grasp. Yet you understand them well without additional explanation.”

“I just told you. If I heard it and didn’t understand, I’d be a fool.”

In truth, he didn’t fully understand everything.

He only grasped that this world was destined for destruction, and three saviors—regression, possession, and reincarnation—had intervened to prevent it.

‘But now I need to prove my usefulness.’

Nahan naturally continued speaking based on what he understood.

“Anyway, the leader of Ilsik, the reincarnation savior. His method of salvation seems to be annihilation before destruction. Is that right?”

“Well, broadly speaking, I suppose so.”

Broadly speaking…?

At Hallorand’s vague answer, Nahan leaned forward.

“I’d like to hear more details.”

“You’re asking for quite a lot while in the heart of enemy territory.”

“Perhaps. But isn’t it still unknown? Whether I’ll be an enemy or an ally.”

Nahan’s eyes gleamed red.

Facing Ian Red—the possession savior—Hallorand found himself nodding unconsciously.

“You’re cunning. Cunning yet bold when needed. I’m glad that in this cycle, neither the reincarnation nor the possession savior is stupid. Perhaps we really can end this damned regression…”

“You’re talking to yourself again.”

“It’s a habit, try to understand. If I hadn’t talked to myself, I would have gone mad long ago.”

Click.

Hallorand set down his empty teacup and began speaking again as he refilled it.

“Since you eavesdropped, you must know. My only wish is to escape this damned regression. And the reincarnation savior promised me. That he would free me by annihilation.”

Except for his initial surprise, Hallorand had been consistently expressionless.

But when speaking of his promise with the reincarnation savior, a glimmer of hope was visible.

Catching that light of hope, Nahan set down his empty teacup and declared:

“I’ll make you a promise too. That I will end your regression.”

“…Really?”

“Yes. And I’ll do it through proper salvation, not through extreme methods like annihilation.”

“Hah!”

As soon as Nahan finished speaking, Hallorand burst into laughter.

Chuckling, he picked up the teapot and filled Nahan’s cup, his eyes flashing.

“How?”

“As you know, I can also see the blue window. And the salvation conditions written there only require me to save a few people—”

“No, that’s not it.”

Nahan’s words were cut off sharply.

Hallorand’s blue eyes flashed as he calmly added an explanation.

“The regression savior is different from the other two saviors. Possession and reincarnation change people every cycle, but regression has been fixed on me alone from the beginning until now.”

And so he had met countless people.

The reincarnation savior always appeared as the leader of Ilsik, while the possession savior possessed various individuals who appeared before Hallorand.

“And they always made proposals to me. Some said killing the Emperor would end it, others claimed defeating the Black Wolf would end it, and some even said surviving for ten years would bring victory.”

The conditions for salvation varied for each savior and each cycle, and there were times when they almost succeeded, but…

“Looking at my current state, you can guess. They all ended in failure.”

So Hallorand gave up.

He believed he could never succeed, and neither could the other saviors, so he decided to simply live through the infinitely repeating time.

Not distinguishing himself in war, ignoring the coming calamity, and when he eventually got caught up and died, it would start all over again.

Tens of thousands of cycles, surrendering to the repeating time and living like a walking corpse.

“Right after this cycle began, the reincarnation savior came to find me.”

Just as the conditions for salvation changed for each savior, the abilities of the saviors also changed with each cycle and savior.

“The reincarnation savior. He demonstrated his ability and proved it. That when everything ends, he could end my regression. Unlike before, he proved it with 100% certainty.”

…Drip, drip, drip.

Nahan’s cup was overflowing.

“So, Ian Red. I ask you as well.”

Duke Hallorand asked pointedly with eyes that weren’t just gleaming but blazing blue.

“Can you prove it? That you have the power to end my regression with 100% certainty?”

It felt like talking to a slave broken by time, not a person.

“If you don’t have a definite method, if you don’t have the power to execute that method, if your proposal isn’t better than the reincarnation savior’s, I’ll kill you right here.”

His intense madness was evident, born from having gained hope through the leader of Ilsik after a time of complete hopelessness.

Facing this ominous pressure, Nahan pondered for a while before speaking.

“First, let me ask. Is the ability of Ilsik’s leader—the reincarnation savior—related to annihilation?”

“Yes. It was a power that could annihilate the regression itself even if salvation failed.”

“Since you obviously haven’t tried it yet, the 100% probability seems like an exaggeration, doesn’t it?”

“I admit that. Excluding emotional factors, it’s a probability exceeding 80%. Even this is an exceptionally high figure that has never occurred before.”

“I see. I understand.”

By the time the overflowing tea in the cup had settled, Nahan raised his head.

“My probability is 100%.”

At Nahan’s confident attitude, Hallorand unconsciously let out an impressed sound.

“Explain your method. If you convince me, I’ll help you with all my abilities.”

As an expectant Hallorand crossed his legs, leaned back, and sipped his tea, Nahan smiled slightly and leaned forward.

“If you don’t help me, I’ll kill you right now.”

“…What?”

“Why are you asking again? Did dust collect in your ears during all those regressions?”

Screech!

Nahan stood up and walked deliberately toward the bewildered Hallorand.

“You said it yourself. The other two saviors besides regression change with each cycle.”

So Nahan thought in reverse.

“If I kill you right now, won’t all this talk of annihilation just end?”

A Black Wolf’s smile inadvertently formed, forgetting he was in Ian Red’s body.

It was so extremely restrained that one might not recognize it as a smile unless looking closely, but to Hallorand, it was clearly visible.

“I don’t tend to make bets I’ll lose. Rather than lose, I’d flip the table.”

The clear and terrible abyss of malice blooming at the corner of the man’s mouth before him.

Becoming urgent, Hallorand quickly opened his mouth to regain control, but…

“…It doesn’t matter? I can just regress until a similar ability appears.”

“Go ahead then. With luck, it might appear in the next cycle; with bad luck, perhaps after eons of cycles. Anyway, I’ll take that as a refusal?”

Against such profound malice, he stood no chance, and Nahan, certain of victory, poured hot tea over Hallorand’s head and smiled.

“Good luck. Try your best.”

Perhaps next time.