episode_0017

I ran. As if someone was chasing me from behind. Then, at some point, I stopped running like crazy.

The reason was simple. Before I knew it, my breath had reached my chin. I felt dizzy. My head was spinning. I needed something to lean on. But when I tried to find something to lean on, the world was shaking and I couldn’t tell what was there. Eventually, I found something that looked like a wall or something, and I staggered toward it. I leaned against it. Then something inside me rose up.

“Ugh···! Woofweeek!!”

I poured it out on the floor. With my eyes half-released and trembling, I looked down. The liquid that came out of my body was very clear, and it looked more like pure gastric juice than vomit.

“Haa······ Haa······”

My throat is sore. But after throwing up once, I feel much better. My head starts spinning. I wipe my mouth, which is covered in unpleasant liquid, with my sleeve and think back to the situation from earlier. The situation before I ran away.

She was being dragged away by a slave trader, bound in chains. And I was turning a blind eye to it.

I ran away, leaving her behind, even though I knew that if I were dragged away to the slave traders, she would die.

I couldn’t stand it without running away. I was afraid of her. The feeling of my heart being ripped out in the previous episode was still vivid.

To describe how I felt at that time,

A pain so intense it’s hard to express.

And at the same time, extreme confusion.

Yes. I felt pain and confusion at the same time. Why did she kill me? That question tormented me. I kept thinking about it in my mind. However, no matter how much I tried to understand her actions logically, I could not figure out the reason. Her actions were unidentifiable, even to this day…

Was there anything I didn’t do for her in the last episode? I can say for sure that I did better than the first episode. I treated her, fed her, clothed her, and educated her. There was nothing I didn’t do. I did everything. Even my biological parents wouldn’t have done that. Even the first episode, I felt bad for being so cruel to her, so I treated her well until the end······

How could you do this to me? How dare you do this to me?

Something was boiling inside my chest. That unidentifiable emotion was painfully gnawing at my heart, while also burning my head. I had trembled and peed myself earlier, but now that I was standing in front of her again, I was confident that I could slap her without mercy. The emotions boiling inside me were that strong.

How should I express this feeling?

Betrayal? Yes. Betrayal seems appropriate. I felt like I was going to explode with betrayal from her.

I think I gave her my heart too much in the last episode. It hurt so much when the axe I trusted got my foot kicked. I might have trusted her deep down. In this episode, I thought, “There’s no way that’s going to happen. This kid has successfully reformed.” In the first episode, I was being cruel to her, but in reality, she’s a good kid.

Human emotions are like the flow of water that cannot be controlled, and even if you want to suppress your feelings, you cannot.

I’ve hated her for decades, but in just ten years I’ve found love for her again.

The human heart is not as easy as words say. It just became that way.

Even now, I was gripped by the contradictory thought of being afraid of her, yet wanting to run straight to the slave market and rescue her.

It was truly a stupid thing to do.

I shouldn’t have made that choice last time. Why did I raise her? I should have just run away on the first night.

If that were the case, I wouldn’t have to feel this way······

I felt a needless sense of pity for her… and old memories came to mind… and I couldn’t bring myself to abandon her.

What should I do now?

The eyes she had last seen lingered. Those empty eyes that seemed to have lost hope. It seemed like a dream. Should I run over right now and give her some burn treatment and then break up? Or maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to just throw her some medicine and then break up… No. What are you thinking? You’re a damn bitch who doesn’t even know the kindness of those who raised you…

A lot of thoughts are clashing in my head.

under···

Every time this happened, the point of regression was really tricky.

Why did you have to regress to this time and confuse me?

If I had gone back a long time before I visited the slave market, I could have just closed my eyes and let it pass…

?

No, wait…!

Now that I think about it···

Me… why did I return to this time?

It was strange, considering that the regression point of the last episode was only a few days from now.

Usually, the point of regression moves back at some interval. Although it tends to be a bit arbitrary, the interval never exceeds one or two years. Let alone a few days······

At this point, isn’t it almost like we’ve returned to the same time zone?

I don’t understand. Why on earth? Is it okay for the regression point to be so irregular?

Come to think of it, there was only one exception among the 11 regressions.

That was during the second regression.

At that time, the interval was one month······

ah!!

Suddenly, I felt a great sense of discomfort. Strange. Very strange. There was something strange and bizarre, like a doppelganger hiding among humans. Why didn’t I know about this?

A chill is creeping in.

A question that I had forgotten because I thought it was so obvious······

Why on earth did I···

…Did you regress to the point where you were just about to abandon her?

Looking back, it was a strange thing.

There are 365 days in a year, and 24 hours in a day. Even an hour is divided into 60 minutes. But out of all those hours, what are the chances that I will return to the time just before I abandoned her?

What are the odds that I’ll go back to the moment I first met her, just at the right time?

I came to my senses as if I had been splashed with cold water. Goosebumps ran down my entire body.

I was obsessed with the idea that I was sitting on a giant chessboard that someone had created.

What the heck?

At first, there was a time when I thought that the regression was a dream. It wasn’t reality, that I was just having a long dream. And even after I realized that it was reality and acknowledged the regression, I just accepted it as nothing serious. I didn’t know why, but I thought that something mysterious was happening.

But that wasn’t it. It wasn’t that simple.

I guess my reasoning was disturbed by the extremely abnormal phenomenon called regression. I couldn’t even notice this absurd sense of discomfort.

Someone’s will was upon my return.

I turned around.

I guess I’ll have to go to the slave market again.

I’ll have to confirm her death or meet her and ask her.

About all this.

******

But there was something strange about the road leading to the slave market. For some reason, it was very noisy.

Was it like this before? I was running like crazy so I don’t remember.

But no matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t seem like this happened.

No matter how I looked at it, it was strange to see so many people running towards me, dressed like slaves.

Black smoke is rising from afar. It’s right in the direction of the slave market. Something feels ominous.

I hurried my feet.

Arrived at the slave market.

Somehow, the slave market was on fire. Corpses were strewn everywhere.

Judging from their attire, they were slave traders. They were torn to pieces here and there, and the floor was dyed red.

and······

In the middle of all that chaos, she was standing…

In a world filled with blood and flames, a small girl stands alone.

It was definitely her.

Her appearance was so pious that it almost seemed as if she was performing some kind of ritual.

At that moment, she, who had been standing still with her hair down, felt a presence and turned her head towards me.

She confirms my presence.

His eyes widened in surprise.

And then, after staring blankly for a while, she suddenly started to shed tears with a subtle expression that seemed to be either moved or sad. It was hard to tell because she was covered in burns. All I could tell was that she was shedding tears.

She opens her mouth.

“Ah, Master······. Why did you come back···? What a kind person···”

She called me ‘Master’. From her perspective, I was just someone we met briefly a while ago.

Now it is clear. She remembers. All the past episodes. And she has hidden that fact from me. She has lied to me as if she is not regressing, as if I am the only one regressing······

Why is that? The reason was obvious.

Because she is the culprit.

It’s her. She was sending me back in time.

Probably from the beginning······