The Regressor and the Blind Saintess - Chapter 96

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈

Chapter 96: Confusion - 3

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Flinch.

Rene’s body trembled at the sudden voice. She quickly wove divine power into her cane and struck the ground.

Squelch.

With the sound, a wave spread out and returned, turning the space into information within Rene’s mind.

‘...There’s no one?’

The voice had sounded right before her, yet nothing around her had changed. Its owner was nowhere to be found.

Then the voice rang out again.

“See this liquor? You only have one job. Earn enough money so I can drink this ‘Vera’ every day.”

The voice cackled. Rene’s expression twisted at the malice it carried.

“...Yes.”

A very young voice followed, though for some reason, it was familiar.

Rene immediately knew whose voice it was. Shock crossed her face.

‘...Vera.’

She also realized what this situation was.

She recalled the book Vera had read to her in the library they had visited together shortly after arriving in the capital.

“Orgus.”

The traveler who walks through time. An ancient race that showed others visions from different points in time.

As she became strangely certain this was a trick Orgus had created, the voice continued.

“You’ve got no spirit in your answer, you little bastard!”

Thud!

“Urgh...!”

“What? Louder! Put some enthusiasm into it! Answer me properly!”

Rene’s face went pale at the voices. Her body moved on its own as she desperately searched around her, but her hands found nothing. The stench still lingered in the air, and thick air still clung to her skin.

“Vera, Vera, Vera! You just need to live up to your name. Huh? Earn back the cost of raising you by letting me drink this much!”

The voice was furious. It held rage, delight, and some thick, unknowable malice.

Rene realized what moment this illusion, this time, was showing her.

It was Vera as a child. It was showing her the origin of Vera’s name.

The name of the one she loved had been forged from such malice.

“Y-Yes...!”

Fear, despair, and pain filled young Vera’s voice. A stabbing pain ran through Rene’s heart.

Tick.

The second hand sounded. It sped up. Her perception and thoughts warped. When Rene steadied herself after staggering, another voice was already speaking.

“Boss... Tommy hasn’t come back.”

It was the tearful voice of a young girl. Then came the voice of a boy, cold as ice.

“They’re probably dead.”

It was Vera’s voice again. Rene felt as though she had stopped breathing.

She could feel nothing in Vera’s voice as he guessed at someone’s death, someone who had apparently been close to him.

Only dryness and cold filled his voice.

“Idiots die. If you want to live, run. Haven’t I always told you that?”

“Sniff...”

His mocking voice relentlessly pressed the girl with that coldness.

“If you don’t want to die, you run too. Keep bawling there, and you’ll be the one collapsing tomorrow.”

A thud sounded behind his voice, followed by the girl’s scream. Perhaps he had struck her.

Rene’s body flinched.

Tick.

The world tilted again. Her perception warped.

“Ghk...!”

She heard the groan of the man who had first given Vera his name.

“You vermin.”

Vera’s voice followed. There was... delight in it.

“That’s what happens when you don’t have any guts. You fucking idiot.”

Vera let out a slightly unhinged laugh, and then a crack followed. Rene’s entire body went rigid.

‘...He killed him.’

She could tell from the sound alone. It was the sound of a person breaking. Rene felt as though her breath had stopped.

Tick.

The second hand moved.

“V-Vera... We cleared out all the other sectors. So please, please, just let me liv...”

Crack.

Someone broke.

Tick.

The second hand passed.

“Boss. We brought Formil. This bastard was colluding with another cartel...”

Crack.

Someone broke again.

“...Yes, that feels good.”

Tick.

The second hand passed once more.

“Kroden siphoned off drugs. Boss, punish...”

Crack.

“...Punished. Yes, I have.”

Tick.

“Boss, Boss? Do you know how fucking loyal I’ve been...!”

Crack.

“That’s right. Why get greedy when all you had to do was listen? You fucking idiot.”

Tick.

The second hand passed, humans broke, and then the second hand passed again.

Before she knew it, Rene was lying facedown in the mud, staring blankly ahead.

The sins Vera had once spoken of were being revealed. The past of the always-stubborn paladin who claimed to pursue the light was finally taking shape.

Tick.

The second hand ticked onward.

“Marquis, I am certain I suggested a deal.”

“V-Vera. Hear me out for a moment. Please?”

Crack.

Once again, someone terrified broke.

Rene wanted to cover her ears. She did not want to hear anything more. She was terrified. Vera’s terrible coldness, the emptiness in his voice, and this situation where she could do nothing but keep listening to those moments all terrified her.

As she hugged herself with trembling arms and squeezed her eyes shut,

Crack.

“Idiot.”

Rene felt something strange. She raised her head.

‘...That voice.’

At some point, Vera’s voice had become that of a grown man.

Vera had embraced the Holy Kingdom’s faith at the age of fourteen. Yet the voice she heard now was the Vera she knew.

What was happening? Was she not seeing the past? Then why did the voice she heard belong to an adult Vera?

As goosebumps rose along her body, something even stranger happened.

Tick.

After the sound of the second hand,

“-----.”

A strange beep rang in her ears. She could tell it was a human voice, yet she could not understand it at all.

Then a familiar voice followed.

“--, this is Vera’s territory. You should avoid this place...”

...It was Rohan’s voice.

“-----.”

“What? Oh, please! --! I swear His Holiness will kill me!”

Rohan sounded as though he was begging someone.

Only that person’s name remained noise, impossible to distinguish.

Rene’s face stiffened.

What was this? What was going on?

There was no one other than His Holiness whom Rohan would address with such respect. Yet the person he was speaking to was not His Holiness. Rene could not understand it.

“Ah, seriously! Don’t blame me! I warned you!”

After that shout, Rene felt the beep of noise take the form of laughter.

Tick.

The second hand moved again.

“Cough...!”

This time, she heard coughing. Rene felt every thought she had been having scatter away.

‘Vera!’

It was Vera’s cough. It was thick with pain, carrying the air of death.

“--...”

The voice was muted, yet Rene immediately knew Vera had made it.

Her expression twisted, only for shock to cross her face at the next words.

“------.”

She realized that the person Vera was speaking to was the same person who had spoken with Rohan moments ago.

Confusion rose within her, and the second hand moved once more.

Tick.

“-- is truly devout.”

“-----?”

Vera let out a hollow laugh. Whatever he found so absurd, his words were laced with mockery.

The temperature of his voice was cold.

Tick.

“Stop doing pointless things. Even you know there’s no hope, don’t you?”

“-----.”

There was anger.

The temperature of his voice was a little chilly.

Tick.

“In the Gutter, we call people like that idiots.”

“-----.”

There was mockery. Fear lay within it.

The temperature of his voice was lukewarm.

Tick.

“...Don’t you regret it?”

Vera asked that question.

Rene’s body froze.

There was something in his voice. An open sadness, a fear Vera had never shown her even once.

“...You’re insane.”

There was regret.

Tick. Tick.

The second hand moved faster. Her perception kept warping and returning to its place. Her breath stopped, then returned. Every sensation in her body sharpened.

At the end of it, Vera’s voice rang out once more.

“...What a pitiful sight.”

This time, crackling noise cut through the middle of his words until they were nearly impossible to recognize.

Even so, the emotions in his voice were branding themselves into Rene’s heart.

“What did I tell you? I said you were going to die.”

His voice was so frail it seemed his breathing could stop at any moment.

Its temperature was hotter than ever. It felt like rage that could burn the entire world, yet also like the scream of an eccentric burning himself alive.

“...I lived for myself. That’s how I lived. But then...”

There was regret as well.

Rene understood.

The emotion in Vera’s voice was regret. It was sorrow, despair, and grief. Those words, spilling from a voice that sounded ready to break at any moment, were like screams.

It was the voice of someone speaking of loss.

Tears flowed from Rene’s eyes. Unlike the mud of the Gutter, the liquid trailing down her cheeks was clear and transparent.

The chain of events made no sense. Neither did the situation.

Why did the voice she heard belong to an adult? Why did Vera sound as though he were dying? Who was the person Vera was speaking to, the same person who had spoken with Rohan?

She understood none of it. Yet amid it all, one feeling continued to grow and tear at her heart.

Vera had always spoken of regret and of light. Now, she could faintly see the shape of his life.

There had only been a few fragmented moments, so she could not claim to know everything. That only made her sadder.

His life must not have ended with just this.

The past Vera had so vehemently despised, these scenes that might have been past or future, must have been that desperate.

Rene found that unbearably sad.

Then she realized that the tragedy that had come to her life was only one among countless tragedies.

She was not the only one with a tragedy.

Everyone in the world had their own tragedy. Within those tragedies, they suffered, regretted, and rose again.

...Vera had risen that way.

Her warped perception returned to its place. The stopped world began to move.

“Sainteeess...”