Chapter 522: Rising Light (5)

Regressor Instruction Manual

“Are you awake?” Kim Hyun-Sung asked.

“Ugh…”

“Mr. Ki-Young, can you hear me?” he asked.

“Ah…”

I opened my eyes and saw people looking at me. After being sucked away somewhere, I had to have momentarily lost consciousness. When I heard Kim Hyun-Sung’s voice, I became convinced that he dismissed the ridiculous thought of fighting the demons on his own, which meant that…

‘The contract was signed.’

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be standing with the guild members.

I looked around again, seemingly confused. I started seeing faces that I hadn’t seen for quite a while. They were on top of the wall where the fierce battle had taken place.

As expected, I heard Park Deok-Gu’s voice.

“...”

“Hyung-nim, can you hear me? Say something, bro! Does he know who I am?” Park Deok-Gu asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Deok-Gu. So… right now… I…” I mumbled.

“Hey, don’t think about anything. They said that your mind has to stabilize. Hey, Miss Elena! Hyung-nim is awake. He’s… awake! Hurry up and come here! Check his condition! Hurry!” he shouted.

“Mr. Lee Ki-Young!” Elena called out.

I definitely heard Park Deok-Gu calling for Elena, but the person who came rushing toward me was Sun Hee-Young.

‘What’s wrong with her? She usually doesn’t act this way.’

Of course, she would express her emotions, but she had never been this open about it.

If my memories were serving me correctly, then she was the type of person who would observe the situation from behind everyone else, so I didn’t expect that she would push the guild members away just to hug me.

I was sure that she was worried about me, but I was dumbfounded by her cries.

Sun Hee-Young was crying like she was at a funeral, and the way her shoulders trembled as she buried her face into my chest made her look pitiful. She looked so sad that I felt a bit ashamed.

Her face was covered in snot and tears, and she looked so weary, as if she had been carrying all the burdens of this world.

“Heuuuuuuuung…!”

“...”

“Heuuuuuuuung…!”

Yoo Ah-Young, Lee Chang-Ryeol, Ahn Ki-Mo, and Kim Ye-Ri weren’t any different. I started to feel proud when I saw my friend Jo Hye-Jin, Park Deok-Gu’s girl—Hwang Jung-Yeon—Kasugano Yuno, and Elena.

Of course, Kim Hyun-Sung, Jung Ha-Yan, and Park Deok-Gu were here as well.

Jung Ha-Yan still looked anxious, while Park Deok-Gu was crying so much that his eyes had become swollen. However, their lips were curled up ever so slightly as they wept.

The situation wasn’t over just yet, but they were definitely relieved that they managed to rescue their precious sub guild master. I could see them starting to relax as well.

“It’s a relief, a relief… Oh god, thank you. Oh god…”

“...”

“Hyung-nim, are you okay? Hee-Young noonim, Is hyung-nim…” Park Deok-Gu paused.

“H-He seems… fine physically, and his head is fine as well. He’ll probably experience short-term memory loss, but if he rests up, I’m sure he’ll recover in no time,” Sun Hee-Young replied.

“What do you think, Miss Elena…” she asked.

“Thankfully, I don’t feel any demonic energy, but I need to watch over him a bit more… to give a more accurate diagnosis,” Elena answered.

“What do you mean, short-term memory loss? Right now, aren’t we…” I paused.

“...”

It was a bit funny to see them looking at each other in astonishment upon hearing the confusion in my voice. They looked like they had no idea how to explain the situation, and I probably would have reacted the same way if I were in their shoes.

‘Ah… you see, you became corrupted, and you ended up ruining Lindel. We’ve never seen a demon as strong as you. Can you see the wounds on the guild master? You did all that, so you should be proud of yourself.’

They couldn’t possibly say that to me.

The guild members displayed a variety of expressions in the proverbial blink of an eye. A few of them were staring at each other while the others avoided my gaze.

Park Deok-Gu and Kim Hyun-Sung even walked away to talk to each other.

“What should we do? We should probably tell him…” Park Deok-Gu suggested.

“He won’t be able to accept it that easily…” Kim Hyun-Sung pointed out.

“He’ll find out eventually. It’s better to get the worst out of the way first, and then we can tell him what happened. Based on his personality, I think he’s going to do something drastic if we don’t talk to him about it in the right order,” Park Deok-Gu said.

“But…”

‘I can hear everything, Deok-Gu.’

It was a bit difficult for me to pretend to be groggy and hard of hearing.

“We also need to think about what we’re going to do afterward. I’m sure this won’t happen, but the Sacred Democratic Country and the other guilds might try to bring him down. If that happens…” Park Deok-Gu paused.

“I won’t let that happen, so no need to worry,” Kim Hyun-Sung reassured him.

“What should we do if the worst imaginable situation comes true?” he asked.

“We will have to leave the Sacred Democratic Country,” he replied.

There was an extremely low chance of that happening.

Saying that Father Basel would want to kill me was no more convincing than saying that Kim Ye-Ri didn’t like acting. I even had Benigoa’s support, so I would probably be known as a hero rather than as a public enemy,

It was cute that they were imagining various scenarios, while the two were having their conversation, the other guild members tried to buy time by talking about useless things to me. I couldn’t help but think that I really killed it this time when I saw that they were afraid of telling me the truth.

Soon, Park Deok-Gu and Kim Hyun-Sung returned after their small meeting. They had to have decided to put all the responsibility on Kim Hyun-Sung for now because I saw everyone looking at him.

The atmosphere became tense, and Kim Hyun-Sung started talking, “I understand that you’re confused right now, Mr. Ki-Young. However, your recovery is the top priority right now. I’ll explain everything afterward, so…”

“But…”

“Please listen to my suggestion this time,” he requested.

“Okay,” I said.

He seemed worried about my mind, but my mind wasn’t as weak as he thought. He made a decent choice by avoiding the topic for now, but I was sure that he would simply suffer under the weight of hiding the truth from me.

Therefore, I was convinced that recovering my memories as soon as possible would be the best course of action for the sake of our lovely regressor’s mental health.

I nodded slowly while smiling, and their faces brightened up, seemingly relieved.

Of course, the battle behind them wasn’t a relieving sight at all.

“Now that I think about it, Benigoa…” I mentioned.

“I’ll also tell you that later,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

“Okay…”

They definitely had to explain to me what was going on. I could see two monsters fighting each other not too far away from us. In other words, it would have been strange if Kim Hyun-Sung had told me not to worry about it.

- The light will burn you!

- Do it if you can, you dirty bitch of light!

Belial manifested in his giant form, and Benigoa stood in front of him. The colorful light and the ink-like demonic energy that no one could see clashed. During the battle, our Benigoa was dividing her power to protect the injured humans, and I heard people everywhere praying and thanking Benigoa.

She was struggling while crying out for the injured creatures of the continent, and the sight made her look incredibly holy and noble.

And what about Belial? He looked even more frightening than the time he appeared in Laios, and the way he swung his large sword was enough to instill fear in anyone’s heart, regardless of their strength.

‘Wow… they’re just…’

A third party who wasn’t aware of what happened behind the scenes would definitely be convinced that this was a real fight with two sides fighting with all their might.

‘People will definitely think that this is a real fight. Seriously. Wow… they’re both trash.’.

Belial kept on talking about how he would destroy the continent, but he was also doing his best to satisfy the customers. Meanwhile, Benigoa was also doing her best while crying, and it wasn’t like she had any choice.

After all, she ended up signing the contract.

However, the scene was so ridiculous that my jaw dropped.

Thanks to the prayers from all over the continent and the fear that was instilled in everyone’s heart at the sight of Belial’s giant form, the two transcendent beings were definitely accumulating a ton of merit as they fought.

Unfortunately, their fight didn’t last that long because Belial ultimately had to return to Hell, while Benigoa could no longer stay here.

Soon, Benigoa took advantage of a gap to throw a holy spear into Belial’s heart.

- H-How could I… fall to you…!

- Return, Belial. I will no longer stand by and let your kind control the continent.

- Remember this, you dirty bitch of light and the creatures following her! I will return! Do not even think that you’ve won today! Today’s victory does not belong to you.

- I will protect this continent.

- Remember this, you pesky humans…! I’m your darkness, fear, and your nightmare…

‘Belial’s acting is on a different level, seriously. Wow… How does he keep a straight face while saying such a cringey line?’

[I appreciate your thoughts about me.]

‘Belial.’

[I know we said goodbye earlier, but it’s really time for me to go. Many demons here are sad that they couldn’t say goodbye to you. Anyway, I’ll make sure we can reach out to you in some other way.]

‘Do as you please.’

[It was fun, you disgusting human. No, our External Advisor of the 27th Legion. I’ll wait for the day we meet again.]

‘I’ll be waiting as well.’

[Hurry up and leave, Belial.]

[Aren’t you being too harsh, Benigoa? We’re partners now.]

[As if!]

[Whatever, that’s your opinion, but what happened just now won’t change. It was fun, Benigoa.]

[Don’t come back.]

The darkness disappeared, and the mysterious monsters returned to where they came from along with the remaining demons. The light was shining brightly once, and it seemed that Benigoa had truly run out of time because she couldn’t be seen anymore.

- You people are strong. Don’t give up, and don’t falter. Your pain today will become your strength and asset someday. Your pain and sacrifices today will make you even stronger.

Those were the words she left in her wake.

It was finally over.

The people hugged each other and cheered as they basked in the light of victory. Some of them rubbed their eyes as if they couldn’t believe what they just saw, while others collapsed with dejected smiles. I wanted to smile as well, but I had to act like I was suffering from a so-called short-term memory loss, so I stared at everyone with wide eyes.

I started thinking about how I should act from now on. Should I recover my memories and apologize right away while crying?

‘This is… Lindel…? I… did this?’

I couldn’t help but smile inwardly when I imagined myself saying such a scummy line while crying. I had many plans I wanted to execute, but I really wanted to sleep right now because I was too exhausted.

“Hyung-nim, hyung-nim! Hey… wake up!” Park Deok-Gu yelled.

“Mr. Ki-Young… are you okay…” Kim Hyun-Sung asked.

“Oppa… Kgh… Oppa…!” Jung Ha-Yan cried.

“...”

Their voices sounded faint.

When I opened my eyes once more, I found myself in a room with no windows.