I was currently in Hyeji’s room.
I was originally in the guest room, but Hyeji said she urgently wanted to talk, so here I was.
[What do you think I called you for?]
‘Well, I don’t really know.’
So, I was kneeling on the floor in front of Hyeji, trying to be respectful.
Hyeji’s earlier appearance was so intense that my instincts led me to act this way.
Hyeji told me to sit comfortably.
“Shinwoo, just sit comfortably.”
“This is comfortable for me.”
“You can’t be comfortable kneeling like that. Sit comfortably.”
“No, I’m really comfortable like this.”
And I truly was comfortable.
I had no discomfort at all.
However, Hyeji seemed a bit worried about me, so she tried to persuade me.
– SLAP!
“You look a little more comfortable now.”
“……Thanks.”
‘This is comfortable.’
[…Your legs aren’t moving, huh?]
Touched by her persuasion, I finally sat down properly.
Somehow, it felt like my legs were trembling, but it was probably just an illusion.
Seeing me settled, Hyeji brought a small table and sat down across from me.
We faced each other again.
Maybe that’s why there was a slight awkwardness in the air.
‘It’s awkward since it’s not even my room.’
[Are you feeling a little fluttery?]
‘I’m fluttering… My heart rate is increasing due to the fear.’
The silence was broken by Hyeji.
After taking a few deep breaths, she opened her mouth.
“Shinwoo, be honest with me.”
“Sure, but you have to be honest too.”
Another silence.
But this time, it wasn’t long.
“Shinwoo, do you know about regression?”
“You mean going back to the past with memories from the future, right?”
“Exactly. So…”
Hyeji hesitated for a moment.
Just for a moment.
Finally, she voiced her purpose.
“Can you possibly regress?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“But.”
“But?”
[Are you going to tell me everything?]
‘No, just part of it.’
Bringing up the term regression was quite risky, but Hyeji spoke about it because she trusted me.
I decided to reciprocate her trust.
“I know at least who regresses.”
“Huh?”
“And Hyeji, just know that you can also regress.”
“…Really?”
Hyeji shot me a suspicious look.
Then, feeling a discrepancy in my words, she asked urgently.
“Wait? ‘You too?’ What does that mean?”
“It means exactly what it says. Everybody but you can regress.”
“Don’t lie.”
“If you don’t want to believe it, that’s fine. I’m just stating the facts.”
“…I thought I was special.”
Hyeji looked quite gloomy.
It seemed she thought it was her exclusive privilege.
“Even that beef we fought last time regressed too. F*ck.”
“….I see. So that’s why you said that back then.”
Finally, Hyeji began to understand what I said.
But her gloom deepened.
She realized that not only people but also monsters could regress.
To comfort the increasingly depressed Hyeji, I spouted out various things.
“But still, among the people around me, you’re the only one who can regress frequently.”
“……How do you know that?”
“Whenever someone regresses, it shows. I just know from that.”
“What about Jeong Ahyeon or the Ear Goblin?”
Hyeji seemed to be aware of the two and quickly asked me.
Since explaining in detail would be difficult, I decided to keep it brief.
“Jeong Ahyeon regresses less frequently compared to you, and it seems Elcia can’t do it often either.”
“Is that so? But the Ear Goblin won.”
[Shouldn’t we figure out how far into the future they regress?]
‘Let’s save that for later. We have to pace the shock treatment too.’
Hyeji expressed some petty joy.
She seemed pleased to hear she was better than Elcia.
I had no intention to shatter that small joy, so I stayed quiet.
Before long, Hyeji wore a relieved expression.
As if she had no lingering thoughts.
“So Shinwoo, if you can’t regress, did you fight blindly like that?”
“……You’re a bit overreacting.”
“Anyway, let’s keep this our little secret.”
But I recalled.
Jeong Ahyeon was there with us at that time.
“Didn’t Jeong Ahyeon hear it back then?”
“If I just brush over it, she won’t dig any deeper.”
“I guess so.”
With that, our conversation came to an end.
I had no more business in this room, so I tried to leave.
I felt a bit awkward staying in a girl’s room for too long.
Just then, Hyeji grabbed me and started showing me a photo.
“Shinwoo, do you want to see this?”
“What is it?”
It was a photo of an adult woman holding a child.
Both of their hair colors were the same bright red, but there was a difference.
Their eye colors.
The child being held had golden eyes.
On the other hand, the adult woman had sparkling eyes that shone like lapis lazuli, looking at us from the photo.
Hyeji pointed to the adult woman and said,
“In a way that feels nostalgic.”
“This is our mom. And that’s me here.”
I nodded in response and began examining the photo closely.
She looked very young. A sword with a red rose decoration was tucked at her waist.
And her chest?
‘I definitely didn’t inherit any chest genes.’
[You’ll die if you say that.]
She was quite different from Hyeji.
It was a bit extreme.
At that moment, Hyeji seemed to catch on to my gaze and started speaking ominously.
“Hey, f*ckface, where are you looking?”
“……I was just looking at the photo, really.”
Even from an angle where she couldn’t possibly have seen, Hyeji intuitively figured out my actions.
Since I still had many lingering attachments to life, I half-heartedly denied it.
“So, so what?”
“She’s beautiful. You look exactly like her.”
“……Yeah. I do look alike.”
Hyeji, feeling a bit embarrassed, placed her hand on her chest.
But that was impossible.
You need a chest to place your hand on it.
In the end, her hand, with nowhere to go, kept flailing in the air before coming back down.
[What’s up with that chest?]
‘It’s nothing. It’s everything.’
Then, Hyeji suddenly got serious and came closer to me.
Her hands and lips were trembling, her breathing rapid, and her pupils shaking.
It was clear she was nervous.
However, instead of distancing herself, Hyeji chose to move closer to me.
“Shinwoo, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
At that moment, a number rose above Hyeji’s head, and a mirror fragment appeared.
[Are you going to look?]
‘Not right now.’
Maybe she gained confidence from her regression?
Hyeji’s trembling lips began to finally move.
“I actually—”
“Hey, kids! It’s snack time!”
Kim Baekhong barged in at the most perfect timing, bursting through the door.
But it seemed he was indeed there to deliver snacks, with delicious-looking treats and a steaming cold drink on a tray.
“I brought snacks in case you were hungry.”
“……Dad, put that down and come out.”
“……Hyeji? What did I do wrong this time?”
“Hurry.”
Kim Baekhong looked confused but resigned as he was dragged away.
As Hyeji moved away from me, the mirror fragment naturally melted away.
The red number that had risen above her head disappeared as well.
I suddenly got curious about rummaging through someone else’s room.
But the fact that Hyeji was the owner of that room.
The fear stemming from that fact devoured my curiosity.
I shook off my dwindling emotions and quietly headed back to the guest room, picking up a few snacks along the way.
A small noise similar to before came from the training center.
“F*ck!! Why does timing always suck so bad!!!”
“Hyeji!! I’m sorry!!”
‘It’s nice to see family bonding like that.’
[Looking back, that wasn’t such a bad scene, huh?]
When you get used to a drug, the previous stimulants don’t do much anymore.
The threshold for stimulation increases.
Thanks to the big thrill from earlier, we brushed it off as something natural now.
*
Having eaten dinner at Hyeji’s house, I was on my way back home.
Hyeji told me to sleep in the guest room, but…
‘I didn’t know she’d try that hard to block me.’
[You were more beastly than her.]
This time, Kim Baekhong hammered it down, adamant that it was absolutely not happening, as if he were showing off the prestige of a 3-star general.
His determination was so strong that his eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was as desperate as if he were spitting blood.
In the end, as soon as we finished dinner, I had no choice but to leave in a hurry.
Just before closing the front door.
The last thing I caught in my sight was the tiny figure of Hyeji being dragged back toward the training room.
‘Their family really gets along well, huh?’
[That’s right. Compared to your family, the physical closeness is really frequent.]
Since the distance to my house wasn’t long, I arrived quickly.
I tried to wash up and go to sleep in a hurry, but…
[……Your parents are truly remarkable in many ways.]
‘……By the time this story ends, how many siblings will I have?’
I couldn’t sleep as I kept hearing sounds of siblings being made from the master bedroom.
Sleeping seemed hopeless.
Instead, I decided to ask Piece about something I had been curious about for a while.
‘Piece, I mentioned I can read others’ regressions, right?’
[Yes. You can read someone else’s future before they regress within a limited time.]
‘But why do so many people try to act the same way they did before regressing?’
It was something I had been wondering for a while.
The regression characters I knew from novels usually experienced accidents that occurred in the future before regressing.
And it was common for them to take actions to counter that.
Or, they would prepare thoroughly from the start to monopolize the certain benefits confirmed in the future.
There were even cases where they killed someone without hesitation.
For a completely different future.
However, the regressors I had personally met differed slightly from the ones in the novels.
There was Jeong Ahyeon, who was certain of the outcome after experiencing a future in which she won.
The Chinese guy who tried to memorize my attack to overcome a future he experienced.
And even the beef who kept trying to act the same way repeatedly, even after hitting roadblocks several times.
‘I actually found the beef to be more challenging when he was rushing in thoughtlessly instead of regressing.’
[Do you feel anything after seeing this?]
‘Well, I guess it’s quite different from what I saw in the creative works?’
[Hehe. It seems it was quite different from what you thought, huh?]
Even though I couldn’t see its form, Piece seemed to giggle with its hand cupped to its mouth.
When the laughter quieted down, Piece’s voice rang clearly in my head.
[You must keep this in mind.]
‘What should I keep in mind?’
A moment of silence.
Piece’s following voice was even clearer than before.
[Regression is by no means omnipotent.]
