Chapter 406

I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

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The Interpreter II

In retrospect, I suppose I was a rather bland and unremarkable person for an awakener.

Let's imagine, for instance, that there was a Protagonist Certification Association for genre novels, and an interviewer there asked me a question like this.

‘Oh! A regressor! How wonderful. But just being a regressor isn’t enough to be competitive among protagonists these days, you know?’

‘The key is a unique skill!’

‘Setting aside regression, which every Tom, Dick, and Harry seems to have these days, what powerful ability is uniquely yours?’

Hmm.

Despite being a professional regressor who had been through over 1,000 cycles, if they were to ask me that, I really wouldn't have had anything suitable to write on a resume.

‘That's certainly unique! But unless you get the other person's consent, it's useless.’

‘It's far from powerful. Man, this kind of thing isn't popular these days.’

A tremendous amount of aura?

‘Oh, I'll give you that. That is powerful. But reading your resume, it says you’ve entered an 'aura diet' phase...’

‘In the first place, aura isn't even a unique skill, is it?’

Interview result: Rejected.

That's right.

Except for the fact that my mentality was more flexible than anyone else's, and aside from my extraordinary love for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there was nothing particularly special about me.

But in a way, wasn't this also a tradition?

The cliché of the 'ordinary protagonist', which had long since devolved into an old joke. Perhaps the perseverance that had steadfastly preserved this beautiful culture like a fossil until now was the very identity of me, Undertaker.

At least, that's how it had been until now.

“I can hear the voices of the anomalies. It isn't just simple noise or static. I can decipher their screams just as if I were listening to a person's voice. Everyone, if you are with me, you will experience the days of conquering anomalies by devising highly sophisticated strategies.”

“Undertaker! Undertaker! Undertaker!”

“Woooooah!”

“Hey, hey! We believed in you!”

Receiving the fervent cheers from the awakeners, I raised both my arms high. The shouting, of course, grew even more intense.

The Undertaker.

A successful debut as a protagonist, after a grand total of 1,000 regressions.

Sometimes, life was truly coincidental.

“Suppose I had the ability to understand the voices of anomalies from the very beginning. Say, from around the 5th cycle.”

“Hmm.”

“Then I probably wouldn't have been able to face the anomalies with the same mindset I have now.”

I was walking with Oh Dok-seo, Sim Ah-ryeon, Lee Ha-yul, and the kids from the Regression Alliance.

Crunch.

The asphalt gravel from the crumbled highway scraped unevenly under the soles of our shoes.

The cycle was the 1,022nd.

The location was the Japanese archipelago.

“Why? Wouldn't that have been better?”

Oh Dok-seo, shouldering a backpack, tilted her head.

“Being able to understand the voices of all anomalies is a huge advantage only you have, Mister. If you had acquired it in the early regressions, I think you could have greatly reduced all sorts of trial and error.”

“I wonder. Ah, this is the spot.”

The broken highway led to a tunnel, which was half-buried in earth and sand. I pointed to a patch of bare ground near the tunnel entrance.

“Everyone, grab a shovel and dig around here.”

“Hweeeh. W-why do we have to do this manual labor...”

Sim Ah-ryeon looked like she was about to cry.

But with Lee Ha-yul, who was much smaller than her, taking the initiative and starting to dig, she couldn't afford to slack off. Sim Ah-ryeon also joined in the digging, whining as she followed us.

Soon.

[Ah.]

Lee Ha-yul's shovel stopped.

[Oppa. It's here.]

We immediately stopped working and gathered around Lee Ha-yul. After digging out a little more dirt, the thing we were looking for finally revealed itself.

It was the forearm of a child.

[It's an arm, not a foot.]

Lee Ha-yul muttered as if disappointed. To be precise, she wasn't speaking with her own mouth but moving the mouth of her maid puppet.

[It would have been easier if it was a foot.]

“You can't be full on the first spoonful. It's lucky we found it this quickly. Store it for now.”

[Okay.]

Lee Ha-yul lightly brushed the dirt off the child's forearm, then placed the remains into the refrigerated compartment of her yogurt cart.

We didn't have to worry about it rotting.

As you could tell just by seeing how its original form was preserved without a single insect bite mark despite being buried in the dirt, that was no ordinary piece of a corpse.

“Next is a tunnel 40km from here.”

“Hweeeeng. Guild Leader, I-I want to ride in the cart too...”

“Do you really want to take the ride from a kid with no legs?”

“B-but! She has the Director's special prosthetic legs equipped, so she has legs now! Guild Leader, you only dote on Ms. Ha-yul...”

“Sigh.”

The three of us, excluding Sim Ah-ryeon, shook our heads and headed for the next destination.

“Eh. W-wait for me! I'm coming too......!”

For a full fortnight, we scoured the Japanese archipelago.

Here, a left leg. There, a few fingers.

Like that, the corpse was assembled piece by piece in the cart's refrigerated compartment.

“Ha-yul.”

[Roger.]

After neatly arranging the scattered body parts, Lee Ha-yul drew out her puppet strings.

The puppet strings burrowed into the corpse like living parasites. Squeeze. Before long, the severed sections of the body were stitched together with the puppet strings.

[Complete.]

The corpse shot up to its feet.

If you looked closely, the severed sections were attached so cleanly you wouldn't even notice. Just like the marionette maid that Lee Ha-yul always had with her.

There was one difference from the maid puppet.

“Ugh.”

Oh Dok-seo was repulsed.

“They really messed up the face badly. What kind of bastard did this?”

Thanks to Ha-yul's puppet strings, the limbs were intact, but the face was so severely damaged that it was impossible to recognize.

If this had been before the fall of civilization, the kids gathered here would have gagged several times.

But now, since they observed corpses whenever they were bored, everyone just furrowed their brows a little, with no intense reactions.

“Ah-ryeon, it's your turn.”

“Mmm... Okay.”

Sim Ah-ryeon furrowed her eyebrows and opened her sketchbook. She seemed to have a lot to say, but her tone suggested she wouldn't complain since it was ‘the Guild Leader's request’.

“...”

However, once she actually began the task of drawing, the residue of emotion vanished from Sim Ah-ryeon's face completely.

“Please turn it around.” “Sitting pose.” “Please spread its arms wide,” and so on.

Sim Ah-ryeon constantly made requests in a low voice. Lee Ha-yul received those requests and manipulated the doll accordingly.

“Mm... Well, yes. I'm done drawing.”

Her tone was tinged with the sentiment that it wasn't particularly satisfying, but the quality was somehow acceptable.

What was drawn in Sim Ah-ryeon's sketch was none other than the full body of a child.

The ruined face was also properly ‘restored,’ and it was smiling brightly on the drawing paper.

“Yes. Good job. You must have had a hard time following us around, so rest for a while now.”

“Ah. Ehehe...”

When I patted her head, Sim Ah-ryeon smiled with a silly grin.

My heart ached at her smile, which seemed to say that this simple gesture relieved all her hardship.

It wasn't that I wasn't happy. It was just that I knew the ‘□’ cut out with scissors in Sim Ah-ryeon's heart was just as empty.

‘This is a problem I'll have to solve someday. Someday.’

For now, I had to focus on the anomaly in front of me.

I attached the portrait of the child drawn by Sim Ah-ryeon to the face of the corpse doll assembled by Lee Ha-yul.

Then I picked up a mask I had prepared in advance and covered the corpse doll's face.

The terribly mangled face and Sim Ah-ryeon's portrait were both swallowed and buried by the mask.

“Oh.”

Then, something amazing happened.

“Ah, Mister. It disappeared!”

Just as Oh Dok-seo said, the corpse doll wearing the portrait and mask had vanished in an instant.

It hadn't run off somewhere with footwork that far surpassed my own. It had literally just, vanished in the blink of an eye.

Lee Ha-yul tilted her head.

[Was it eliminated?]

“No.”

I shook my head.

“Probably not. I'll be right back.”

[Be right back? Where are you going?]

Inunaki Tunnel.

The plaque at the tunnel entrance, faintly engraved with ‘犬鳴隧道’ (Inunaki Tunnel).

Beneath it, a child wearing a plain white mask stood hesitatingly.

– Ah.

Had it spotted me?

The masked girl flinched and trembled, but spoke cautiously towards me.

– Uhm. M-mister.

“What is it?”

– I have to, um, get through that tunnel. It's too dark, so I'm scared to go alone. Could you possibly go with me?

“...”

I smiled.

“Of course. That's fine.”

– Ah.

“I was just about to cross the tunnel myself. Even if you're scared, I'll be by your side, so shall we go together?”

– Th-thank you!

“But this tunnel. There are a lot of rumors that ghosts appear here.”

– G-ghost!

The child was startled. Even though its expression was completely hidden by the plain white mask, I could clearly feel that it was terrified.

“That's right. Even if you hear a voice calling you, never look back. And you mustn't lose sight of me until we get out of the tunnel. Got it?”

– Yes, yes. I'll do that.

I held out my hand. The child then raised its arm and firmly grasped my hand.

We entered the tunnel.

Thump, the sound echoed longer than usual.

It was probably because a slightly smaller footstep, pitter-patter, echoed after my own.

– Euh...

“Are you scared?”

– I'm not scared...

This wasn't the first time I had entered the Inunaki Tunnel. It was probably the place I had spent the most time in during my life of regression, so it was only natural.

So, I was able to walk through safely.

The sections where a wrong step would plunge you into invisible water up to your head, choking you. The sections where your limbs would be torn apart. The sections where your fingers would be splintered.

“Oh. By the way, I never asked why you're trying to cross the tunnel.”

– M-Melt is gone.

“Melt?”

– Ah. It's the dog we're raising at home. It's really big. But a little while ago, it suddenly started barking a lot and disappeared inside the tunnel.

“...”

– If Melt is gone, my dad and I will be very sad. Melt will be sad too. That's why even though I'm scared, I have to cross the tunnel and bring Melt back!

“You must be scared too, but you mustered up the courage because you were worried your pet dog would be more scared. That's very brave of you.”

– Hehe. Ah. I-I'm not scared!

Thump. Pitter-patter.

As always, the Inunaki Tunnel was terribly long.

It wasn't strange. A tunnel seen through a child's eyes was bound to be much longer than one experienced by an adult.

Why is it so rare to find an adult who will take the hand of a child when they muster a handful of courage and reach out?

– Melt shouldn't have gone far...

The masked girl muttered this the entire time we walked through the tunnel. It was partly to fight her fear, and partly because she was genuinely worried.

– There were flyers posted in the village, you know, asking to find lost pet dogs or cats.

“Is that so?”

– Whenever I saw those, I wondered what use they were. If Melt disappeared, I'd have to put up flyers too...

How long had we walked?

Woof!

The sound of a dog barking came from the other end of the tunnel. The child, who had been walking with its head down while holding my hand, was startled.

– It's Melt!

The child let go of my hand and, as if forgetting this was a scary tunnel, rushed towards the other end.

A faint light streamed in from the far end of the tunnel. The light settled in the puddles of water on the tunnel floor, then, Splash! it flew up with droplets of water at the girl's footstep.

– Melt! Melt! Melt!

The child kept calling its pet's name.

It seemed to harbor a slender hope that the dog would recognize it from that simple call, an expectation that a mere name would connect the two beings.

Woof woof.

Fortunately, it seemed to have recognized the voice.

To me, the sight of a puppy crying for its young master was completely invisible, but it seemed different for the masked girl.

The child plopped down at the end of the tunnel and hugged the empty air. As if the puppy that had been waiting for its master at the exit was right there.

– Thank goodness, Melt. I'm so glad. I'm glad you didn't go too far.

Woof.

– From now on, don't suddenly run off like that, okay? I was really scared. Let's go home quickly, Melt. Let's hurry home...

Woof.

And then, all sound ceased.

I exited the tunnel. The exit. The bushes were overgrown, and the concrete was broken. There was no sign of a puppy waiting for its master.

The child was gone too.

Instead, a mask lay on the ground. Beneath the mask, the picture Sim Ah-ryeon had drawn was pressed flat.

As I lifted the mask, I paused for a moment.

In the drawing, the girl was smiling. And next to the girl, something that Sim Ah-ryeon had not drawn was now there.

A large, brown-colored dog was drawn with a crooked crayon.

“...”

I carefully stored the drawing so it wouldn't get folded.

This time, there was no separate epilogue.

No. Not just this time, but the next time, and the time after that, there was no need to record a separate epilogue.

And that was only natural.

Because from now on, every story would become the epilogue of a certain regressor.

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