There were no living people.
No matter how far I walked, all I saw were corpses.
Limbs were torn off, or bodies were crushed beyond recognition. It was a gruesome sight.
Houses and buildings were engulfed in flames, and black smoke rose high into the sky.
Death loomed heavily over the city.
It seemed to symbolically depict the downfall of my homeland.
“I’m sorry… I couldn’t protect you.”
I held the cold, lifeless body in my arms and lamented endlessly.
Which regression cycle was this?
I couldn’t remember.
After passing through so many timelines, my memories became tangled, and my mind was in chaos.
One thing was certain: this was before I began to experience true failure.
That’s why I was able to cry.
It had been a long time since I last shed tears for someone else.
In the illusion, I was pure and desperate.
“Even if I can’t protect others, I’ll protect you. If not this time, then the next.”
In the nightmare, I made a vow with a promise I couldn’t keep.
With the special ability I possessed.
Through regression, I would ensure this tragedy wouldn’t repeat.
“Just wait. I’ll make sure this future never comes.”
The end wasn’t far off.
My death, and then a new beginning.
The moment of regression, which I had repeated to the point of exhaustion, was approaching.
I would plunge the dagger in my hand into some part of my body.
To carry the emotions surging within me back to the past, I would end my life here.
I watched my past self from a distance.
The village chief wasn’t wrong when he said the victims had nightmares.
This was undeniably a nightmare itself.
A malicious illusion that dredged up unwanted memories and reminded me of my trauma.
Dum-dum-dum-dum!
The sound of drums grew louder.
The enemy was approaching.
I turned back.
Though it was a place that didn’t exist, and going anywhere was meaningless, I still wanted to leave.
I wandered aimlessly through the burning city.
Then.
Bang!
A deafening explosion rang out, and an impact struck my abdomen.
My breath caught in my throat, and my knees gave out.
I crawled on all fours, writhing in agony.
“Hah… hah…”
I gasped for air, trying to steady my breathing.
The fog village came into view.
I had escaped the illusion and returned to reality.
Looking down, I saw that the abdominal part of the light armor I was wearing was dented.
“Nothing wakes you up like this.”
I had used a “time bomb”.
I had modified a clock and connected it to explosives, setting it to ignite after a certain amount of time.
By adjusting the power appropriately, it could forcibly pull my consciousness back to reality, like an alarm clock.
It was a strategy I had developed after visiting this village multiple times.
“…Of all things, why did it have to show me that?”
I had encountered a version of myself from a relatively healthier time.
A foolish guy making promises he couldn’t keep.
Pretending to be noble and resorting to suicide…
Remembering something I had long forgotten left me with an uneasy feeling.
By the way, the nightmares here weren’t just about showing past memories.
They also revived the emotions I felt at that time.
The reason I was relatively unscathed was simply because I had adapted.
I was used to pain and suffering.
After the pain subsided somewhat, I slowly got up.
All that was left was to find the source and eliminate it.
I took out a magic compass from my pocket.
It wasn’t an ordinary tool that pointed north, south, east, or west. It indicated the source of magical power.
With such powerful magic used, tracking it would be easy.
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
I had to deal with Claria before she returned to reality.
For the sake of the version of me who might be doing the same thing in another timeline.
To ensure my strategy wasn’t stolen, I moved swiftly and stealthily through the fog.
***
The place I arrived at was a nearby forest.
Holding the compass in my left hand, I pushed through the dense underbrush, and a small altar came into view.
On top of it sat a strange stone statue, about a hand’s span in size, sitting quietly.
“The games end here.”
The statue was the guardian deity of this region.
In the past, it was a local god worshipped by the village.
But as time passed, it was no longer revered, and eventually, it faded from people’s memories.
It must have felt anger at the ingratitude of humans.
To vent that anger, it showed illusions as punishment.
…Or so I guessed.
I drew Shadow Fang from my waist.
The fact that it was a guardian deity was true.
But the statue’s function was due to a spell cast long ago.
Whether this was divine punishment or not, I didn’t know.
When I brought the tip of the sword close, the aura shimmered, and the magical power was absorbed.
I could have smashed it recklessly, but the statue still had some use left.
“Heave…!”
I lifted the statue which weighed around 10 kilograms.
“To think I’d have to go this far.”
The hallucinations had disappeared, just like that!
If I put it that way, it would be hard to claim I had solved the problem.
The existence of the statue had to be revealed to the village, and like it or not, I had no choice but to show it to Claria as well.
Knowing her, someone who loved to take shortcuts, she would probably start looking for the statue outright in the next cycle.
She would ignore plausibility and use underhanded methods to avoid the nightmares.
“I can’t let that happen.”
So, rather than bringing people here, I needed to take the statue away to ensure this place remained undiscovered.
…Wait a minute?
“So that’s how it was.”
I let out a soft chuckle.
When Claria had arrived in the village earlier in the day, her clothes had been slightly dirtied.
I had thought it was from diligently exploring dungeons, but the truth was different.
Hadn’t she said she was wandering the forest looking for something?
Recalling Farne’s words, it was obvious.
She had been after the statue even before coming here.
She must have already known the cause of the hallucinations.
She probably had her own strategy prepared.
But the most important thing, the statue, was in a completely different place.
She had wasted her efforts searching in the wrong location, which I would falsely reveal to her tomorrow morning.
“I really got her good.”
I laughed heartily as I walked out of the forest.
***
I made sure to say that the statue had been found in a place quite far from its original location.
The me from previous cycles had probably done the same thing.
I must have obscured the truth so Claria couldn’t figure out the real location in the other cycles.
However, there was one thing to be careful about.
I had to give the same location in every timeline.
Even though it was the same me, I didn’t make the same decisions every time.
If I didn’t set rules in advance, I would naturally act differently in each cycle.
If the statue’s location kept changing, Claria would sense something was off.
She might even catch on to my secret.
But I had an amount of experience and know-how that she couldn’t even compare to.
Even though I had graduated from regressions now, when it came to regression, I was a veteran.
…
“There was a time in our village when we worshipped a guardian deity. This statue seems to embody the image of that deity.”
When I explained the details of the incident in the morning, the village chief nodded repeatedly in understanding.
“It seems it was discarded when the altar was destroyed. It was just lying around haphazardly.”
“It’s no wonder the deity would be angry. It’s only natural to face divine punishment…”
The villagers grew solemn.
Even though it was their ancestors who had made the mistake, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt.
“Don’t worry too much. Your guardian deity is merciful. If they truly intended to punish you, it wouldn’t have ended with just hallucinations.”
I added that it had all been nothing more than a mischievous prank, but even that was now over.
The magical power had faded, leaving it as nothing more than an ordinary stone.
Still, it seemed the villagers would clean up the statue and enshrine it again.
“Thanks to you, Sir Theo, we can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s a small token, but please accept it.”
The village chief handed me a ring embedded with a red gemstone.
“You really didn’t have to…”
“It’s a magical artifact we’ve been keeping in this village for a long time. It holds no meaning for us anymore. We’ve simply been holding onto it until the right owner appeared.”
The chief and the villagers insisted I take it, urging me not to refuse.
Out of courtesy, I declined once, but in situations like this, it’s proper to accept.
I took the ring and expressed my gratitude.
“I’ll put it to good use.”
After exchanging warm farewells, I left the village behind.
As I approached the main gate, I saw three familiar faces.
“Where did you find the statue?”
Claria was the one who abruptly threw the question at me.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure of the exact location…”
“Even a rough idea is fine. Tell me.”
She was persistent, wasn’t she?
No doubt she was scheming to outdo me in the next cycle.
I wasn’t going to give in so easily.
“I think it was near that big rock.”
I pointed to a rock several kilometers away.
It was a massive, striking rock, the kind that could serve as a landmark.
It might even have a name like “Such-and-Such Rock.”
It was the kind of rock you couldn’t miss when visiting this village.
“I see…”
Claria seemed to resign herself.
In every cycle, I must have said the same thing.
Because this line had been decided long before I even arrived in the village.
The plan had been set in motion from the moment I recognized Claria’s second regression after leaving the party.
Glancing over, I noticed Louis avoiding eye contact with me.
He looked displeased and his gaze lowered.
It must have been humiliating.
Three against one, and yet they had fallen behind someone they had underestimated.
“Well, then, I’ll be on my way.”
I walked past my former companions and left the area.
***
A well-manicured garden.
Rosary, who had returned to her family home, was enjoying a tea time and taking a rest.
Although her training as a healer was important, first and foremost, she was a noble.
Her overly free-spirited nature often earned her scoldings from her father.
She had heard phrases like, “It’s dangerous outside, so take a servant with you!” so many times that they were practically etched into her ears.
There had even been a time when she ignored his warnings and nearly died, but her innate nature was something she couldn’t change.
By now, it seemed her family had grown tired and had half given up on trying to rein her in.
“Lady Rosary, I’ve gathered the information you requested. It seems Sir Theo recently visited Fog Village.”
A short-haired maid quietly approached and reported.
“Fog Village… that’s the one to the east, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“What did Sir Theo do there?”
“He apparently resolved a strange phenomenon where people were experiencing hallucinations. There was a hero’s party involved, but it seems he handled it alone.”
“As expected, he’s amazing!”
Rosary clapped her hands together.
“I can understand why he left the hero’s party. He’s so capable that it must be hard to find companions who can match his level!”
Her eyes sparkled as she exclaimed.
“Lady Rosary, you’re getting too excited.”
“Oh my, I couldn’t help it when it’s about Sir Theo…”
She let out a small, awkward cough.
Hearing about her benefactor’s exploits had made her giddy without her realizing it.
Rosary gazed at the distant sky.
“I’ll go see him soon…”
She placed a hand over her chest and murmured as if she was making a promise to herself.
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