Chapter 12: A Promise In The Abyss

“…So, right now…right now is Regina’s 999th life…?”

The more I mulled over Regina’s words, the heavier my heart became. 999 playthroughs. And 999 regressions. The image of a girl who had gritted her teeth and lived through the playthroughs that I had abandoned for the sake of rerolling came to mind.

Because of that, I couldn’t bring myself to shake off the pale hand that gripped my arm so tightly.

If I forcibly removed this hand, it felt like Regina would truly break. Even if it wasn’t intentional, I was ultimately the cause.

“Yes, yes! I’m also a Stigmata user, here’s my Stigmata, you see the Stigmata, right? The number below this is the number of lives I’ve lived so far, wait a minute, if you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it myself…!”

Regina’s voice trembled even more than when we first met. The sight of the girl, sobbing and trying to somehow make me believe her, was truly pitiful.

That’s why I couldn’t speak carelessly. She seemed to be half in a state of panic, and I should have said something to comfort her, but because I thought it was because of the playthroughs I had abandoned without thinking, my mind went blank.

Regina’s expression darkened, perhaps because of how she interpreted my hesitation. Gritting her teeth, Regina condensed mana at her fingertips.

“Sian. Y-you know that even if you dig out the part where the Stigmata is engraved, it’ll regenerate, right…?”

“W-wait a minute…!”

Whoosh-

The distinct sound of aura activation echoed through the dark cave. It was an amazing feat to coat one’s bare hand with aura, let alone a sword.

However, I didn’t have the luxury to be stunned by such a sight. Regina was about to dig out her own flesh in her right mind.

I quickly twisted Regina’s wrist. Despite her overwhelming mana control ability to generate aura at the age of seventeen, her delicate body was easily overpowered.

Regina’s body trembled as if having a seizure when her wrist was grabbed. Her unfocused red eyes fixed on me.

“Ugh…! Don’t stop me! You won’t believe me anyway! Everyone said that, they said what nonsense is regression, that such a Stigmata couldn’t exist…! No one, no one was on my side!”

As if her reasoning had been completely paralyzed, Regina just poured out the pent-up emotions in her heart. I pulled her into a tight embrace.

I had never studied psychology or anything complicated like that. So I didn’t know about empathy and affirmation for the client that psychology teaches until one is sick of hearing it.

But instinctively, I felt like I had to do this. I felt like if I left the girl alone, she would shatter.

“Hngh?!”

“…I’m sorry.”

So, until Regina’s seizure stopped and her sobs subsided, I held her in my arms.

It took a while for Regina to calm down. The girl in my arms buried her face in my embrace for a while, as if craving warmth.

“Are you, feeling a little better?”

“Hngh, sniff…sob…I, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to do this…but, please believe me…”

I carefully patted Regina’s back and whispered softly in her ear, hoping to ease her mind a little.

“Yes, I believe you, Regina.”

“B-but…even if you say that, you won’t believe me. I was deceived by people who said that, and I was trapped in a mental hospital for 7 years…!”

However, the wounds engraved on Regina Strelachia’s heart were too deep to be filled with a few sweet words.

Regina, who seemed to have calmed down a little, started to struggle in my arms again as if having a seizure.

“”

I silently held Regina tightly.

Even if it was unintentional, Regina had been broken because of my actions. Because of how I had lived through the playthroughs I had thoughtlessly abandoned.

How could I abandon such a girl?

How could I let a fragile girl who had forgotten how to trust people, yet who craved human warmth, be broken?

Murmuring to myself, I slowly revealed the secret I had kept since I was possessed, a secret I had never told anyone.

“No. I’m different from those guys. I really believe you, Regina.”

“Why…”

“Because, this isn’t my first life either.”

“?”

Receiving Regina’s suspicious gaze, I quickly organized the story I would tell her.

I absolutely couldn’t say that this world was in a game. If Regina realized that the 7,000 years of suffering she had endured were just someone’s entertainment, her mind would completely break.

“Um. This is my secret, but since you also told me your secret.”

I answered and slowly began to speak.

“I was born in a country called the Republic of Korea. A world very different from this Arcana continent, where we lit fire with science instead of magic, built huge cities, and flew in the sky.”

“What are you…?”

The words ‘don’t lie’ almost reached Regina’s throat, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them.

Her instincts, honed through 999 regressions, to distinguish between lies and truth, were screaming that this girl named Sian was only telling the truth.

Regina’s unfocused eyes regained life for the first time in hundreds of years. A single strand of hope in the endlessly repeating time.

To not betray that hope, I spoke in a confident voice.

“So, I believe you, Regina. I can’t doubt your words as lies, because what I’ve experienced is also a little too unrealistic.”

“R-really?”

“Yes. There are people who have been reincarnated, so I don’t see why there couldn’t be someone who has regressed. Besides, a normal seventeen-year-old girl wouldn’t be able to coat her fingers with aura.”

“You, you believe, you believe me…?”

“Yes. you are the only one who has heard my secret. Instead, I will keep your secret too, so please keep my secret safe too, okay?”

Saying that, I raised my index finger to my lips.

“Yes, yes…! I will, so please, Sian, don’t…don’t leave me…”

“Don’t worry. That won’t happen. No matter what the world says about you, I will always believe in you. We share a special secret, after all.”

“Augh…”

Making an unintelligible sound, Regina buried her head in my embrace. A soft voice could be heard from within my arms.

“Just a little, just a little longer, please hold me…”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Thank you…really, thank you.”

With a complicated heart, I slowly stroked Regina’s hair. Like this, Regina just looked like a cute younger sister.

Vowing to take care of Regina no matter what, I whispered in her ear.

“You’ve suffered a lot, Regina.”

“So, you are destined to die this year?”

“Yes, yes…No matter how hard I try, no matter how much I run, I can’t escape this fate…because that’s my ‘role’.”

Regina, who had calmed down a little, spoke in a subdued voice, slowly unraveling the events that had happened so far.

Strangely, Regina couldn’t escape from the academy.

Even if she tried to skip the entrance ceremony because she didn’t want to die, she would find herself in front of the academy gate at some point.

And the moment she tried to escape from the academy, she would return to her dormitory room.

A series of strange events.

As those events repeated a few times, Regina naturally realized.

Something was strange about this world.

An unknown force was keeping her trapped in this academy.

“…So, I’ll probably die after the second semester’s final exam…

My ‘role’ is to die protecting the students from the demon worshippers who invade the academy at that time.”

“…”

At Regina’s subdued voice, I couldn’t give any answer.

I knew why Regina was tied to that role, but there was no way I could tell her that.

Originally, when the game moved on to the next playthrough, everyone forgot the memories of the previous playthrough.

Except for Regina Strelachia, who possessed the Stigmata of ‘Regression’.

Thus, the original story began to twist little by little due to the regressed Regina, and in the end, the consistency made the seventeen-year-old girl a puppet so that Regina could not act out of line.

Then, the Regina I had seen in the game so far was being forced to smile.

She was forced to act bright and cheerful.

“So, I’m going to die soon…”

The girl’s voice, trying to feign indifference, drooped at the end.

Her voice started to tremble again without her realizing it.

“…Huh?

Why, why is this…?

It’s natural for me to die, that’s how it should be, but in the next playthrough, Sian might not be there…”

“Stop!”

Slap!

Cutting off the girl’s thoughts that were spiraling into a strange place, I held her trembling pale hands tightly.

“Regina.

You won’t die in this life.”

“But, but all this time…”

“In the 998 lives, I wasn’t there.

From the moment I appeared in front of Regina in the 999th life, it was something that wasn’t in the ‘fate’ that Regina spoke of, right?

This double dungeon is also like that.”

“Th-that’s true…?”

“So, don’t be so tied down by that fate in this life.”

I held both of Regina’s hands tightly and slowly opened my mouth, solidifying my resolve.

If they try to kill Regina, I will somehow twist that fate.

I will always be on Regina’s side, because.

“…“

The ‘original story’ had already been twisted by my existence.

Yelena Frost, who should have taken the top spot, was defeated by me, and because of that, many things had changed.

“So, trust me.

The ‘fate’ has already changed once, so there’s no reason why it can’t be changed twice.”

I answered in a confident voice and held out my hand to Regina, who was sitting powerlessly on the floor.

“To do that, let’s first escape this damn dungeon.

Get up, Regina.”

“…Yes.”

Perhaps because she had cried too much, Regina’s cheeks flushed red as she took my hand.