WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 127: Plans Are Meant to Be Broken

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Even I, unable to read its thoughts, could tell the comfort doll was only pretending to sever the sync. But how would it look to the sensitive regressor?

The regressor let out a deep sigh and grabbed Skywarbler.

"Fine. If you really can't disconnect, I'll do it for you."

『...!』

Thud.

This time, the comfort doll really did disconnect and went limp. Its short arms and legs dangled limply under gravity.

Clutching the comfort doll as though its soul had left its body, I wailed.

"Noooooo! My comfort dolllll!"

"Who names their own doll 'comfort doll'? Stop making such a fuss."

I needed to lighten the mood somehow if I was going to endure the serious conversation ahead!

Despite my desperate efforts, the regressor kept a grave expression.

"I have a favor to ask."

"Will the sun rise in the west tomorrow? Shei is seriously asking me for a favor. What is it? Let's hear it."

I had already read all her thoughts. I knew what she would say and why she was saying it.

Still, the person before me was mustering eloquence she had never possessed, all to make this request of me.

Did that make it meaningless? No. That was precisely the problem. It had meaning.

It meant I had to face the regressor's wish head-on. That made it hard to refuse.

"If, under Jiseon's guidance, we all reach the source of the Abyss this time..."

The regressor remembered the welcome Jiseon had received only a few hours ago. Most people here knew who Jiseon was, and they looked ready to spend all day recounting her accomplishments.

By contrast, whatever her standing had been in the previous iteration, the regressor in this one was merely a drifter with no ties or achievements.

'My opponent is Jiseon, renowned and known for being kind to everyone. That might not be true of the Jiseon who will later be remembered as a calamity, but right now, she is far more famous and trustworthy than someone insignificant like me.'

The regressor could assess herself objectively.

She also knew exactly who her opponent was, how incredible she was, and how dangerous she could be.

Jiseon, the Heaven-Defying Earth Serpent who heralded the coming of calamity, was immensely powerful.

The original owner of Jizan, the Earth Sword. A tragic figure who lost her life after being defeated by the Holy Sword Corps and the Holy Maiden. At the same time, she was the Sanctum's nightmare and the beginning of its downfall.

Along with the Earth Sword, her earth arts possessed the power to split the ground and tilt mountains. An army was no match for her. Even considering the short preparation time at the start of each regression, the regressor had never defeated Jiseon one-on-one.

Yet now, she had to challenge that impossibility.

"I'll probably end up fighting Jiseon. So..."

She was afraid, but that was a separate matter. To achieve anything meaningful in this iteration, the regressor had to defeat her.

Only then could she learn Jiseon's plans and hatred, gather information, and decide how to respond.

All she needed was a result. There was no need to stubbornly drag things out for training or to satisfy her pride.

What the regressor needed was victory against Jiseon. Nothing else.

But...

"Help..."

Before she could ask for it, the regressor swallowed her words and pressed her lips together.

'...Whose side would he take? It probably wouldn't be mine. I considered this a disposable iteration, so I never won anyone's heart here.'

The regressor had never tried to win people's hearts.

No, that was not quite true.

Once, instead of assassinating the Progenitor, she had tried to persuade her in order to win over the vampires. She had succeeded. At the time, they had needed to unite against an approaching threat, and the regressor had the strength and standing to find common ground with the wounded Progenitor.

She had worked with the Resistance. That had succeeded too. By striking at the military state's weak points in bizarre ways and running wild without worrying about the consequences, she had brought down the military state.

They had not run the country satisfactorily afterward. No, it had become even more terrible...

Still, at that time, the regressor had gained the most reliable political backing.

But once she regressed, all of that ended.

Not only her failures came to an end. Even the small successes she had achieved met their end. Like water being sucked down a drain, even the little kingdom she had carefully built disappeared.

No matter how hard she had worked to build it.

No matter how much effort she had put into it.

No matter how attached she had become.

'The only person I can ask now is this man at the center of everyone. But will he really help me?'

Success achieved through relationships came with far too much to lose compared to the effort it took. It also changed completely depending on when she met someone.

This regression had made that clearer than ever.

Tyr, who had not yet been wounded, did not pay much attention to the regressor.

The Beast King was different from the one the regressor had seen in earlier regressions.

Naturally, the regressor's attention turned toward power and weapons rather than relationships.

Tools did not betray you once they were in your hand.

Even when you grew attached to them, you could cast them aside easily.

Was this the price of neglecting relationships?

'Even if he doesn't help, I hope he won't at least reject me.'

Whether she feared failure or simply did not want to be hurt, I could not say.

"When I fight her, make sure no one can interfere."

The regressor made her request with more desperate resolve than ever.

I read wishes. The more earnest and desperate the request, the harder it was for me to refuse. Was that an occupational disease? No, perhaps it was a side effect of my ability.

But wishes did not always blow in the same direction. Sometimes they blew from opposite directions and bickered like cats and dogs.

A wish to defeat someone was bound to be swept aside by an opposing wish.

But a request not to interfere?

"Huh? Why would we interfere?"

I accepted the regressor's request as though it were nothing.

"I don't know why you want to fight, but handle it yourselves. If possible, settle it peacefully."

"...You won't stop us?"

"Why would I stop two adults from fighting? Ah, are you underage? You do seem a little small."

"T-that's impossible! I've been an adult for a long time!"

'W-wait, I'm nineteen right now, aren't I? I started this regression, grabbed Skywarbler and a few things, then immediately jumped into the Abyss...!'

I would not have cared even if she were underage, but this made things even simpler.

The real issue was something else. She had only picked up a few things, and one of them was a treasure like that? How much did she have if she took everything with her?

Anyway, I scratched inside my ear with my pinky and said,

"If you're both adults, that settles it. You're both ridiculously strong too, right? Wouldn't it be stupid to interfere unless you want to get crushed between the two of you?"

"That's... true, but."

"And Jiseon is a good person, so go easy on her. She probably won't try to kill you either... Wait, is this actually a spar? If it's a spar, can't you do it right now?"

"N-no. The fight itself will be serious..."

"Really? Then I guess you have your reasons."

Since I had never planned to interfere in the first place, a request not to interfere was easy enough. I waved my hand dismissively.

"The others probably think the same way. Tyr isn't the type to actively step into someone else's business, Azzy will hide away if humans start fighting, and Rashy will be too busy protecting Callis."

"Is that... so?"

"Ah, don't tell me you want Nabi to interfere? Then you're a really bad person. Who raises a cat hoping it will fight?"

"I don't! And Nabi isn't my cat! I'm only looking after her for a while!"

Either way, we had reached a conclusion. Looking much more relieved, the regressor said,

"Anyway... thank you. That's enough."

"Still, I'm a little offended."

"What now?"

"We've known each other for a while now. Did you think that if the two of you suddenly started fighting, we'd immediately take Jiseon's side? That we'd rush in yelling, 'How dare you attack the renowned Jiseon! Die!' and attack you without asking questions?"

The regressor hesitated before answering.

"...Wouldn't you?"

You had done that before, hadn't you? You had jumped into a fight out of nowhere, shouting, "How dare you attack someone I know!" and started one yourself.

The person on the receiving end must have felt incredibly wronged. This was why regressors were like this.

"Of course not. Even if you've shown that you lose your mind whenever you see a right arm and try to cut it off, even if I know you're a loner who can't read the room and keeps drifting around the edges."

"...That's an insult, isn't it?"

"Still, even if you can be clumsy, I know that whenever trouble arises, you're the first one to run in and try to solve it. You couldn't do that if you had no interest in anyone else at all."

"Is that an insult or a compliment?"

"If you look at it closely, half and half? Anyway."

I patted the regressor's shoulder as I spoke. She hated anyone touching her, but perhaps she was grateful that I had agreed so readily. Even when I firmly held her narrow shoulders and shook them, she stayed still.

Or maybe she had grown attached enough that my touch no longer made her uncomfortable.

"Those three months meant something, you know."

Come to think of it, not even three months had passed since I first fell into the Abyss. People had invaded, fallen in, fought... So many huge things had happened, yet only about a month separated each event.

The regressor muttered as if entranced, just like I had.

"...It's only been three months. So much happened."

Strange. I felt exactly the same way, so why did hearing her say it make me want to tease her?

I said,

"What do you mean, only three months? Three months is a semester. That's enough time for Shei to go from being an elementary-school graduate to a secondary-school dropout."

"You really go all the way to the end!"

The regressor snapped and shouted.

"Fine! Next time, I'll graduate before I come! Just wait! Seriously!"

"Next time? What next time?"

'Ah. I can't reveal that I regress...'

Wait, she said she had been eighteen at the start of the regression. Then even if she regressed, she could not attend it, could she? She would already be past secondary-school graduation age, wouldn't she?

That objection was short-lived, as the regressor came up with a very unusual solution.

"I'll just fake my identity!"

"You're going to fake your identity just to attend Secondary Military School?"

"I can do it! I'm quite skilled at disguise too!"

'With the Heaven-Reversing Boundary Bone-Shrinking Art and the Mask of Agartha, I could pass for a boy who grew quickly...!'

The fact that she had even considered it was more surprising than the fact that it could work.

"It isn't a question of whether you can. Isn't there something morally wrong with that?"

"Shut up! This would never have happened if it weren't for you!"

"What if you had gotten good grades in elementary school before that?"

"Secondary Military School is where every dog and cow goes! Don't act so smug over something like that!"

"If even dogs and cows go there, then why...?"

"Heyyyy!"

This was society's unblockable skill. If you had Skywarbler, then I had the education system. How did it feel, elementary-school graduate?

I succeeded in thoroughly teasing the regressor, but I learned nothing new. The regressor had not figured out what lay behind Jiseon in the previous iteration either.

In the end, there was only one conclusion.

We would know nothing until we reached the bottom.

I hoped nothing happened.

Forgetting that this place was the Abyss, I prayed to the Earth Mother.

Footnotes:

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