Chapter 13: A Spark Of Hope

Regina Strelachia’s hand was, unlike its pale appearance, quite warm and soft. I carefully helped Regina up. I wiped the tears from her face, which was wet from crying, and held her hand until the trembling in her legs stopped.

“Are you, are you feeling better now? Regina?”

“Ugh, um, Sian…Miss.”

“Yes?”

“You can…speak casually to me…”

Regina spoke in a voice that still trembled, almost whispering. In Regina’s voice, I could feel the anxiety that had not yet been resolved.

So, I answered carefully so as not to trigger Regina’s trauma.

“Um? Oh, I’m just more comfortable speaking formally…”

“We, we’re friends…right?”

“Of course. You and I share a secret that only we know. You think so too, right?”

“Yes, yes! But, um…friends usually speak casually to each other, but Sian…you don’t want to call me that…?”

“Oh.”

Only then did I understand why Regina was anxious.

The heart of a girl broken by endless regressions must be stained with numerous betrayals and heartbreaks.

It seemed that Regina needed something to hold onto me firmly. So, I asked, mixing more friendliness into my tone.

“Then, should I call you Regina?”

“Ah, yes…! Thank you so much…!”

“It’s nothing. Compared to the hardships you’ve been through, it’s nothing.”

Saying that, we approached the entrance of the safe zone.

As soon as we got close, a foul odor wafted through the air. A terrible smell, mixed with the thick hostility of the monsters.

“Ugh…”

I shuddered involuntarily at the dense mana felt from within. As if threatening that they would eat us if we entered, a thick concentration of mana enveloped us.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes. Of course, I am.”

“Then let’s go.”

However, that alone couldn’t stop us. I was already a seasoned veteran adventurer who had experienced countless life-and-death situations, and Regina was already used to this kind of situation.

I asked Regina in a calm voice.

“Regina, have you ever been here before?”

“Oh, no…This is my first time in a place like this. I didn’t even know there was a dungeon here…How did you know about the dungeon, Sian…?”

“…I found it in the library. There’s a book in the library about the war 500 years ago, you see?”

Of course, that book was absolutely impossible to obtain through normal means.

You had to first clear the hidden quest [An Archaeologist’s Will] to open the [Tomb of the Ancient Lich] dungeon.

“As I said, I came from another world.”

“Yes.”

“So I wanted to know more about the history of this Arcana continent. As I was looking through the history books, something fell out from between the old books?”

I slowly explained the contents of the [An Archaeologist’s Will] quest. Excluding the fact that this place was in a game and the existence of the protagonist.

“I see…I’ve never experienced this in my 998 lives. Are you really a special existence…?”

Regina, who was muttering to herself, gripped the hilt of her longsword tightly and shouted in a confident voice.

“D-don’t worry…! If anything strange comes out, I’ll take care of them all!”

“Thank you. Then I’ll be counting on you, Regina?”

“Yes, yes…!”

If the main monsters that appeared in the level 30 [Tomb of the Ancient Lich] were skeletons, the main monsters in this level 55 [Ancient Lich’s Mausoleum] were Death Knights.

Skeletons were low-level trash mobs made from the corpses of ordinary soldiers. Death Knights, however, were level 45 high-level monsters made from the processed corpses of knights.

Therefore, a Death Knight was a disaster itself for an ordinary first-year academy student.

…That should have been the case.

I swung my mana-coated sword, cutting down a Death Knight along with its greatsword, and turned to look at Regina. While I was dealing with one Death Knight, she had already cut down five.

Swoosh- With a light friction sound, the body of a Death Knight would invariably crumble. Patter. With a light leaping sound, a brilliant sword path adorned the space.

Along with that, three incapacitated Death Knights fell powerlessly.

“…There’s no, end to them.”

“I know.”

However, the Death Knights still rose again. Pain, fear, survival instinct… They had lost all the things that made them human. For the specters wandering the tomb of the already dead lich, there was no retreat.

“Grrrrrr…”

“Kyaaaak?!”

“Grrr, grrrrr…”

The Death Knights approached, making unpleasant groaning noises. Even if their arms were cut off, even if their legs were severed, they still approached.

Looking at those Death Knights, Regina silently drew a magic circle. A beat later, Regina’s warning could be heard.

“Sian, be careful….”

With those words, the magic circle drawn by Regina began to glow. An intricately designed magic circle floated in the air, and the temperature of the dungeon instantly soared.

A smaller version of the mass destruction magic, [Hellfire], usually used by dozens of mages working together, appeared in the narrow corridor.

Boom!

A beat later, an explosion could be heard. Suddenly, flames shot up from the air, engulfing the approaching Death Knights and causing a huge explosion.

Clang, the sound of melted metal pieces falling. The Death Knights, melted beyond recognition, did not rise again.

“Sigh…”

Regina lightly dusted off her uniform and smiled at me.

“It seems, like, it’s all taken care of, here.”

“Thank you, Regina.”

However, for some reason, Regina’s condition didn’t look good. Her legs were trembling, her body swaying, and her speech was slightly slurred.

Unlike before when she seemed mentally unstable, now Regina looked physically unstable. I quickly approached her.

The moment I supported Regina, her body collapsed almost simultaneously.

Regina was panting, as if it were difficult to believe she was the same person who had just sliced Death Knights like tofu.

“Regina?!”

“Ugh, I, I’m fine. Just…just wait a moment, haah, please…”

However, even in that state, Regina struggled to get up, holding onto my arm. She insisted she was fine, even though she clearly wasn’t.

“No, this isn’t fine!”

“Hngh, haah, this. This…will get better soon…! So…”

Unlike Regina, who tried to deny her condition, her body was honest. Her heart was beating dangerously fast, and her limbs had completely lost their strength.

Regina inhaled with difficulty and barely managed to continue speaking.

“Hngh, this is, because of the regression…because of the regression, it’s like this. Compared to the power I wield, my body is too weak…it’ll get better soon, this kind of, thing…”

Even though she had excellent mana control thanks to her regressions, Regina’s body was ultimately that of an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl.

Having used aura excessively with such a body, and even casting a large-scale destruction spell, albeit a weakened version, it was natural that her body wouldn’t be in a normal state.

“For now, let’s rest here for a bit.”

“No, I can’t. Then because of me…Sian will fail the test…”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind failing that. It’s not like I have to get into Class A anyway. And you’re more important to me, Regina. We’re friends who share a secret.”

Unlike others who were obsessed with grades, I was just an extra who had been dragged into the academy.

Good grades at the academy were just a bonus. Taking care of the girl who had been broken because of me came first.

I carefully tidied Regina’s hair as she leaned on me powerlessly. Only then did fatigue slowly begin to set in, and Regina slowly closed her eyes.

“If you’re tired, get some sleep. I’ll protect you.”

“…Thank you…really, thank you.”

“It’s nothing. It’s what I should be doing.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at Regina and answer, so I just stared blankly at the ceiling.

Regina was broken because of me, so was it really right for me to be thanked? I started to have such thoughts.

The sensation of being held by someone, the touch that gently embraced me, the warmth of another person, and the feeling of my face turning red with an unknown emotion.

For the regressor Regina Strelachia, everything that was happening in this dungeon was so new.

At this moment, she wasn’t a marionette bound by ‘fate’, but a person named ‘Regina Strelachia’ who could act with free will.

The cool and damp air of the dungeon, the stench that stung her nose, even the sticky blood of the Death Knights that clung to her didn’t feel unpleasant at this moment.

No, the freedom she tasted for the first time in thousands of years was so sweet. The warmth she felt for the first time since being trapped in endless regressions was so, so warm.

Regina could feel it instinctively.

She couldn’t let go of this girl named Sian, who had confidently declared that she would change her fate.

If she let go of this hope that had come after thousands of years, she would truly break. Her mental strength had already reached its limit hundreds of years ago.

So, even if she had to give up everything. Even if she had to offer her body, she had to somehow keep Sian by her side. So that Sian wouldn’t abandon her.

If she didn’t want to be controlled by ‘fate’ forever, with her mind broken. If she didn’t want to be a human in name only.

‘I will never, ever let go of Sian.’

Regina murmured to herself as she held Sian tightly.