Chapter 3 …
At this moment, with everyone’s attention fixed on us, my voice rang out clearly through the unbearably unnatural silence.
“…If you awaken that power right now, you’ll definitely regret it.”
With so many eyes suddenly focused on me, it would’ve been natural to feel pressured—but surprisingly, I was fine.
I was used to attention like this anyway, and what mattered to me right now was Azel’s reaction.
“So please, stop.”
“What’s with you?”
Oddly enough, I felt a thrill at Azel’s cold response.
The fact that he answered me meant that, at the very least, he was willing to talk to me.
While my heart pounded with excitement, I deliberately bit my lip as if hurt. Soon after, Azel’s voice followed.
“I have no idea what nonsense you’ve been spouting.”
“It’s not nonsense.”
I paused on purpose, hesitating mid-sentence.
“…No, it’s not nonsense. If you use that power now, you’ll definitely regret it.”
“And you think you know what this is?”
“I do. I know.”
“……”
“I know what that power is, and what you want. I know everything.”
I could feel Azel’s incredulous gaze on me—but all of this was true.
I knew that Azel would regret awakening, and that he desperately wanted to stop his own regression.
This wasn’t a lie.
I even know worse things than that.
There was a secret in this world.
—I don’t know who wrote this story, but seriously, what an absolute bastard lol.
The hidden truth of a game that once set online communities ablaze.
Azel wasn’t, strictly speaking, an infinite regressor.
Azel’s life was tragically cursed, as if drawn that way from the start.
Everything began with a single sentence:
Born the heir of a powerful family, he was framed for rebellion, and his entire house was destroyed. Young Azel survived only thanks to his mother’s sacrifice, but afterward lived a life of misery.
Then, one day, a chance finally came to him.
The Stone of Gaspata.
A mysterious gem, also known as the Reversion Stone, that he obtained by chance.
But that was the beginning of true misfortune.
Even after completing his revenge following eight regressions, the regressions didn’t stop.
Ten, twenty, thirty… and then one hundred.
After going through ninety-nine regressions, Azel completely lost his sanity. And the infamous hundredth run was the setting of this very game.
And the developers even added some trash-tier settings on top of that.
The Stone of Gaspata—the cause of Azel’s endless regressions.
That mystical jewel actually had a limit.
After ninety-nine regressions, the regressions stop. And they only reveal this setting right before the world’s destruction? Are these people actually sane?
In other words, from the very start of the game, Azel’s regressions were already over—but no one knew it, which caused this entire disaster.
To make matters worse, this cursed setting is revealed only after Azel awakens.
“Your regressions have already stopped, Azel. So please, stop this!”
“It’s already too late, Yulia. I can’t even control this power anymore.”
Consumed by corrupt power, Azel loses control and destroys the world himself.
In the end, the structure guarantees nothing but a bad ending.
Thinking about it again just pisses me off.
Anyway, if I wanted to survive, I had to exploit this truth starting now.
So should I just blurt out, “Azel Biots’s regressions are already over!”?
As if. There’s no way that lunatic would believe that.
More importantly, I had no proof.
In the end, to stop Azel, I had to make him believe on his own that his regressions were over.
Which meant the only thing I could do was—
“Nonsense.”
At that moment, a frigid voice cut through my long train of thought.
Cold eyes, just as icy as the voice, glared at me with open irritation.
“You’re annoying.”
He didn’t trust me, and my presumptuous claim of understanding him had offended him.
Azel despised anyone who dared to say they understood him.
Sure enough, he reached a hand toward me.
What he intended to do was obvious.
“You can’t kill me.”
“There’s no reason I can’t.”
“If I die, you’ll never find peace. Ever.”
My back was soaked in cold sweat, but there was no time to hesitate.
Seizing the brief pause in the death looming right before me, I hurriedly spoke.
“You want to stop, don’t you? That’s why you’re trying to destroy everything. You think that’ll end it all… idiotically.”
“Don’t speak as if you know anything.”
“The Stone of Gaspata.”
“…!”
“Is that enough of an answer?”
The irritation vanished instantly from his face.
In that moment, Azel disappeared from my sight—no, he moved so fast my eyes couldn’t follow.
By the time I realized it, he was already gripping my shoulder. A burning pain shot through me, but I barely managed to suppress a scream.
Those utterly hollow eyes were staring at me as if they were about to kill me.
“…What are you?”
“No matter how many times the world ends, it won’t be over. Once you made a wish on that stone, your curse will repeat forever.”
Of course, that was a lie.
Azel’s regressions were already over.
But even if I told you the truth, you wouldn’t believe it.
So wouldn’t it be better to lie instead?
Humans are far more easily swayed by frightening words, after all.
“How… do you know… that.”
As expected, Azel’s eyes trembled violently.
He didn’t want to believe my words—words that sounded like a curse.
Now, what should I do next?
Time to drive the play to its climax.
“I’m asking you! How do you know that?!”
Prompted by Azel’s demand, I finally unleashed the emotions I’d been holding back.
“…How could I not know?”
“What…?”
“Why do you think I came all this way? …Why, and how, do you think I ended up here!”
“What are you—”
All of this was nothing more than a performance.
The ‘me’ on this stage had some sort of past connection with Azel.
But Azel couldn’t remember that ‘me.’ Despite the ache in my chest, this ‘me’ understood him—and stood in his way.
That was the role I was playing.
A tear slid down my cheek, catching Azel’s attention.
“No matter how many times the world ended, no one ever saved you. That’s why I came all this way.”
“…!”
“I know you won’t believe me. But I…”
When I whispered with a voice soaked in pain straight into his eyes, the grip on my shoulder loosened.
“I came here to save you, Azel. For you—and only you.”
At that moment, when his unfocused eyes wavered ever so slightly—
KRAAASH!
With a thunderous explosion, dirt and dust filled the air as the person everyone had been waiting for appeared before us.
“Stop this at once, Azel Biots!”
Yulia Francis de Fleur.
The heroine had entered the stage dominated by the hidden villain, the male lead, and the extras.
Yet Azel’s crimson eyes, unlike before, remained fixed on me.
As if a predetermined future were beginning to change.
“I came to help, Velrod.”
“Yulia!”
Of course, the protagonist wasn’t alone.
“You look better than expected. Thought you’d be half-dead by now.”
“I’m relieved you’re safe, Sir Velrod.”
“Is this really the time for pleasantries? Let’s rescue the hostages first.”
The casually rude one was Shane,
the polite one was Theodore,
and the only one concerned about the hostages was Anwen.
Like Velrod, they were all male leads of this game.
And it wasn’t just them. Since a terror attack had occurred in the heart of the capital, knights and soldiers were swarming in.
They’re finally here.
I already knew the protagonist group would appear around this time, so it wasn’t surprising.
Velrod, however, clearly hadn’t expected Yulia’s arrival, and he shouted with an anguished expression.
“Yulia, why would you come to such a dangerous place yourself?!”
“How could I stay somewhere safe when I knew you were here?”
“Yulia…!”
Disgustingly sweet.
Is this a Velrod-route world?
As long as it wasn’t the Azel route, I didn’t really care, so I dryly predicted the next scene.
The heroine will probably start spouting her overpowered protagonist lines again.
“Why would you do something like this, Azel?! Why! Why go this far?!”
Since Yulia was a textbook flower-field heroine, her lines were easy enough to predict—
“Besides, I heard that that disgusting piece of trash had the nerve to show his face proudly in the plaza. How could I possibly stay hidden?”
…What?
An icy silence fell over the entire plaza.
“I should chase him down and kill him immediately.”
Sorry, but this was not part of my expectations.
