WDPF Chapter 006

The Final Regression (2)

 

He rolled his ruby-like eyes and furrowed his brow slightly.

“I have given you the same explanation twenty-nine times, and you do not remember a thing… So now I have to explain it for the thirtieth time….”

‘Ah, how annoying,’ He grumbled inwardly, then stepped back from Elysia and steadied his breathing.

“Alright, listen carefully. Elysia Creed, you have lived through your twenty-ninth life, and it just ended. In a most disgraceful, miserable, and tragic way.”

A disgraceful death, an unhappy life. It was something she already knew, yet layers of shadow gathered over Elysia’s face.

“Not reincarnation, but regression. You have heard of it, haven’t you?”

“Re…regression.”

“Yeah! Regression! Return!”

Ralke seemed annoyed, but he continued explaining eagerly.

“Right now, I am tied to you, unable to be free, for nearly four hundred years. After your first regression, you died for the first time at fourteen, then at three. No, seriously, what the hell did you even do to die at three? Then at fifteen, eleven, thirteen, eighteen, six… Even the ages you die at are all over the place, right?”

Elysia could not make sense of a single word coming out of this man’s mouth.

This…

“It is a dream.”

Elysia’s inner thought slipped out of her mouth without her realising it.

“…It is not a dream, though?”

Ralke said, clenching his teeth in disbelief, his face full of irritation as he continued.

“You only needed to live happily, but every time you went and fucking died… no, because you died, you could not resolve your resentment, and I, on my end, ended up getting shackled to you. That is what I am saying. You get the gist, right?”

When he finished, Elysia spoke in a subdued voice.

“So you have rolled my life twenty-nine times, trying to make me happy?”

“No, ‘rolled,’ you say. Even the way you put it…”

“And you will keep doing it until I am happy?

“What, I guess so?”

Elysia let out a small sigh and laughed.

“So basically, this is the Gods’ joke.”

“…Huh?”

Ralke, as if confused by her words, glanced upward.

“Uh, well… That is an uncomfortable thing to say… I think?”

Whether it made him uncomfortable or not, it did not change the fact that it was not normal for someone to die twenty-nine times for different reasons.

What? Twenty-nine regressions? If that is not a curse, I do not know what is.

Until you are happy? Who in their right mind would want that?

Elysia instinctively realised that the man before her was determined to send her back again, whether she wanted to or not.

She had to tell him what she wanted right now. She could not go back without her memories.

“Give me my memories.”

“What?…”

“I want my memories, all of them.”

“……”

Seeing Ralke speechless, she continued.

“After twenty-nine times, you must be tired too.”

At her words, Ralke came to his senses and sighed.

“No, look, that is not something you or I can decide on our own…”

“I’ll make this the last time.”

“…Huh?”

Ralke’s ears perked up at the word ‘last.’

Look at this? Even so, every three years at the shortest and every twenty-one years at the longest, you come looking for me, crying, fussing, and whining, and it has been annoying…

Compared to that, Elysia, now returning after wasting her twenty-ninth chance, was calmer and more composed than ever.

Weird, is this the same person?

As Ralke frowned and tilted his head, Elysia repeated herself.

“I will do it one last time, so let me return with all my memories intact.”

“……”

To her, returning without memories was meaningless.

Without her memories, she would merely drift through life in ignorance, awaiting death once more.

And she would have to watch those who tried to protect her die over and over again, bearing the burden of their unjust deaths.

I do not want that.

Those who had died for her, twenty-nine times….

This time, I want to protect them with my own hands. I will save those precious and pitiful ‘my people.’

The person who had the power to oppose the one trying to kill her was Deilroc, the head of the Creed family.

Her father, Deilroc, had turned away from her and never loved her.

Without the ‘mark’, it would be impossible to be loved by him, but if she could just gain the strength to protect herself and the lives of those she cares about from that person who constantly tries to kill her…

Even if she remained unloved, she wanted, at the very least, to protect her life and prevent her people from dying unjustly and without meaning.

For that, she needed her resolve and her memories. She had to obtain those memories, even if it meant making the condition that this would be her final regression.

Elysia furrowed her brows and clenched her fists. Ralke watched her, his eyebrow twitching slightly, and smirked as though he had found something amusing.

“Alright, young lady. I am sick and tired of being stuck here like this, too. Memory seal? Fine, I will break all twenty-nine if I have to.”

“Huh?”

She did not need all twenty-nine memories. Just the memories of the twenty-ninth life were hard enough.

The other memories of twenty-eight lives were no less painful.

“Instead, just like you said, it is the last time. Regardless, it ends in happiness or tragedy, even if you die at three again, like last time. No matter what, this is your final chance.”

“…Alright.”

“Good, I am fine with it too. I will return every memory from this life. So, how old do you want to go back to?”

At his question, Elysia paused before answering.

“…Ten years old.”

“What?”

Ralke gasped in surprise. Elysia looked at him, puzzled.

“What is wrong? Is ten not allowed?”

Ralke let out a small groan and answered Elysia’s question.

“Hmm. Usually when I ask, ‘What age do you want to return to?’ you always said, ‘Of course, from the moment I was born.'”

“Ah….”

In truth, for a brief moment, Elysia had wondered if it might be better to return to her birth.

“This time is different. Are you certain? This is your final chance. If you start at ten, you are losing about ten years.”

“…Ten years old is enough.”

She would be strong enough at that age to move around without significant restrictions.

If she were to return as a newborn, she might not even have the ability to protect 

herself in a crucial moment and could end up dying helplessly.

And then, if she returned to ten years old—

That was the turning point.

As Elysia drifted into thought for a moment, Ralke spoke up, his ruby eyes gleaming with excitement.

“Alright! Ten years old. Then~here you go…, ‘Theron de Elysia Creed’”

“Yes….”

His playful voice suddenly turned surprisingly solemn. It was not just his voice that changed.

“By the oath sworn to the gods, I, Ralke Keon, hereby grant you the opportunity to return as their representative.”

Startled, Elysia looked up. His appearance had changed. His once red hair and eyes now glowed a brilliant gold.

“Do you accept that, in the thirtieth regression of ‘Theron de Elysia Creed’, the entirety of this life’s memories shall be retained and that this will be your last?”

“Accept… accept?”

At that moment, a scene flashed through Elysia’s mind.

“Theron de Elysia Creed, I sentence you to death”.

The solemn and frigid atmosphere filled the Emperor’s audience chamber. The Emperor’s voice, devoid of emotion, rang heavily in the air.

The Emperor’s words, promising to spare her family if she confessed to all charges, echoed in her ears.

“Elysia Creed, if you admit to all crimes and accept punishment, it will end with only you.”

“Do you accept?”

The Emperor had asked if she would accept the death sentence, and she had replied that she would.

“Yes….”

That was Elysia’s answer to the Emperor, who had given up her life for the sake of her family.

She would give the same answer today. But the meaning behind that short answer had changed beyond measure.

“’Theron de Elysia Creed, do you accept?”

At Ralke’s repeated question, Elysia’s blue eyes, returning from her memories, held a look of determination.

“…Yes.”

Seeing her firm gaze and expression, Ralke raised an eyebrow in surprise.

From the first to the twenty-eighth, Elysia, who had faced death and returned, was the same in every way, as if she had stamped a seal.

Even her appearances, whining and begging to be sent back, were in frustration.

But Elysia, who had ended her twenty-ninth life, made Ralke, much to his dismay, feel unsettled with an entirely different gaze and behaviour.

He had been too eager to end this tiresome situation as soon as possible, so he had added the extra benefit on a whim.

Neither Ralke nor Elysia could have foreseen the extent of change that small variable would bring.

The cool golden glow that had enveloped Ralke’s body soon gathered on his palm.

And there, a golden butterfly appeared.

The butterfly fluttered away from his hand and landed on the distant floor.

As it did, a sturdy-looking door materialised.

“Open that door and walk through. Then, Good luck. Young lady.”

As Ralke smiled with a look of relief, Elysia’s eyebrows lowered.

“Then, is this the last for us?”

“Uh, yeah? …. What, you are disappointed?”

“Well, if you ask if I am disappointed, it feels like I am, somehow…”

“….”

“Well, anyway, thank you. This time… I will do my best.”

“…Uh. Well, …okay.”

Ralke watched, dazed, as Elysia opened the door and disappeared into the light.

No way… can she change that much just from a single favour? Is she the Elysia Cred I have been dealing with dozens of times?

Did I bring the wrong person?

Seeing the completely different Elysia Creed, Ralke wore a troubled expression.

“What is with that look….”

Ralke ran a hand through his red hair, agitated, before turning to someone above him.

“Uh, well… I mean… I did not give her all the memories, so this much should be okay, right? Right…? God?”

Thus, the final life of Elysia, now carrying her complete memories, had begun.