Chapter 4 …
I already had a perfect picture drawn in my head.
Azel, thrown into confusion by my sudden appearance.
Then Yulia’s group shows up, throwing the situation into even greater chaos.
And here, the defining trait of a regressor comes into play.
‘Their mind may be half gone, but their crisis-response speed is insane!’
Whenever faced with a new development they’ve never experienced before—something completely outside their knowledge—a regressor always makes a lightning-fast judgment.
At this moment, there was only one decision Azel would make.
‘Rather than Yulia’s familiar group, he’ll prioritize talking to me.’
After all, I had mentioned the Stone of Gaspata—his secret.
On top of that, I’d made several suspicious remarks that clearly hinted there was more going on.
‘Once it comes to this, awakening doesn’t even matter anymore! Awakening can be done again later, anytime!’
Anyway, that aside.
In other words, Yulia’s group’s role in this plan was simply to “increase confusion.”
To make the situation even more chaotic and push Azel into making an impulsive decision.
But then…
What on earth was this?
“I was foolish and did not understand before. I did not know why the Lord bestowed such precious power upon a lowly servant like me. But now I know. It was His holy will—for me to cleanse the world of filth like you.”
“……”
“So please, die quietly by my hand, Azel Viots.”
Can someone please explain why the female lead suddenly job-changed from ‘pure, innocent saintess’ to ‘deranged heretic inquisitor’?
‘…Am I dreaming?’
I asked her to stir up the villain’s confusion, and instead the protagonist decided to stir up my confusion for no reason.
What was even more shocking was that I seemed to be the only one flustered by this.
“You’re still all talk. So noisy, too.”
Azel replied lazily, as if annoyed—like this situation was nothing new to him.
After staring at me for quite a while, Azel finally removed his hand from my shoulder.
I staggered slightly from the recoil.
But what followed—the sharp exchange between the two of them—made me stagger in a completely different sense.
“As expected, there’s no reasoning with you. I’d get more out of talking to a beast.”
“So the esteemed Saintess can converse with beasts as well? How astonishing. The Lord truly bestowed you with a most precious gift.”
What the hell is wrong with you two?
Just as I was barely holding myself back from blurting that out, a memory suddenly flashed through my mind.
‘Come to think of it…’
Right before I possessed this body.
That is, the very last time I played this damn game.
“Whatever, it’s already like this! I don’t care anymore! Everything goes to hell! Hahahaha!”
As I remembered myself repeatedly choosing the worst possible options, the image on the monitor back then resurfaced.
There it was—Yulia’s illustration, glaring at Azel with madness-filled eyes.
“Ah.”
My face drained completely pale.
That’s right.
This was all my karma.
Thump!
Panicking, I slapped a hand over my mouth hard enough to make a dull sound, barely holding back a scream—when suddenly I felt someone’s gaze.
Azel, who had been facing Yulia, was now looking at me.
“You—”
“I don’t think there’s any need to continue this meaningless conversation with you.”
Azel’s words were cut off.
Yulia stepped forward, delivering a line befitting a heretic inquisitor.
My sense of dread skyrocketed.
‘We’re screwed!’
If this really was my last playthrough, then Yulia was about to draw the absolute worst aggro imaginable.
“To someone who wears the shell of a human yet doesn’t even understand human emotions, any further conversation would be a luxury.”
The atmosphere grew so cold it felt as though the surrounding air itself had chilled.
‘…Wow.’
I had no idea where to even begin cleaning up this mess.
Talking about “human emotions” to Azel was basically the biggest trigger possible.
In a typical otome game, that line would’ve deepened a love-hate romance—but Azel was different.
‘This guy literally doesn’t remember human emotions at all!’
Sure enough, Azel’s crimson eyes darkened to a blood-red hue.
The perfect sign of an imminent explosion.
‘What kind of monster has such a ridiculously low ignition point?!’
The destruction button I’d carefully postponed began flashing before my eyes again.
No—forget destruction. At this rate, everyone here was going to die on the spot.
How do I know?
Because it actually happened!
“This run’s ruined anyway~ Fine, just die, all of you! Die! Whatever~ I’ll just quit after this!”
I remembered my past self, half-crazed and cackling.
But—
‘Damn it! This is real life for me now!’
I couldn’t just die meaninglessly like this.
Whether it was diverting Azel’s attention or sending those idiots away, I had to do something, right now.
My resolve was instant, and my body moved on instinct.
I sprinted desperately toward Azel.
Then—
Whoosh!
A sharp slicing sound tore through my eardrums.
‘…Huh?’
In the same instant, a powerful force grabbed my body, and a massive shadow loomed over me.
When I regained my senses after a heavy impact, I was already in Azel’s arms.
No—“in his arms” wasn’t quite right.
At the exact moment I rushed forward, Azel caught an incoming arrow, and we ended up in an awkward, half-embracing position.
‘Insane.’
By sheer coincidence, someone had fired an arrow at Azel at the exact moment I charged in.
Thanks to that, I now looked like some unhinged person who’d suddenly gone berserk and thrown myself at him for no reason.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Naturally, Azel’s expression as he looked at me was icy beyond measure.
*
Why did she do that?
Azel found the woman before him suspicious.
A hundred lives.
Across those long, grueling cycles, he had never once encountered a woman like her.
The curse had taken many things from Azel. Memory was one of them.
And yet, despite living through endlessly repeating lives over countless ages, he had never forgotten anything—until now.
In that sense, the woman before him was suspicious in every way.
“Azel.”
The way she gently called his name—
“You forgot me.”
Those fragile eyes, wounded by his gaze—nothing about her failed to unsettle him.
“No matter how much the world collapses, it won’t end. Once you made a wish on that stone, your curse will repeat forever.”
She spoke with the certainty of someone who had witnessed the end of the world again and again.
The reason Azel had spared someone who dared speak such words before him was simple.
“I came here to save you, Azel. For you—and only you.”
The woman knew something.
He couldn’t believe her claim of coming to save him—but it was undeniable that she knew something.
And until he uncovered what that was, he had to keep her alive.
But then—
“Why did you do that?”
Her act of rushing in to block the arrow confused him.
‘There was no calculation in that movement. No hesitation.’
An inexplicable desperation.
‘I can’t understand it.’
She had rushed forward with a desperate expression, with movements driven purely by instinct, to protect him.
As if she were afraid he might be hurt by nothing more than a single arrow.
*
‘Maybe I should just die.’
Enduring this suffocating silence might be worse than death.
‘But the bastard who fired that arrow—I’ll kill him first, then die.’
Trying to take down the worst villain imaginable with a mere arrow instead of some ultimate meteor-class weapon—what a joke.
Which only made how ridiculous I looked, charging in to block it, even worse.
‘Of course, that wasn’t my intention. But it sure looks that way now!’
I could feel not only Azel’s subordinates in the distance but also Yulia’s group staring at me like I was insane, which just pissed me off more.
“So she wasn’t a hostage.”
Yulia’s clear voice broke the silence.
“I hesitated, thinking an innocent civilian was being held captive—but it seems there was no need.”
You didn’t hesitate even a little!
But now wasn’t the time to argue. Yulia herself had opened the door—now I had to push through this crisis with sheer momentum.
“That’s my line. How dare you lay a hand on this person—right in front of me.”
I lifted my chin boldly, pretending my embarrassing moment from earlier had never happened.
“Hmm?”
Yulia tilted her head at my confidence. But seeing how weak I looked, she clearly had no interest in anything I said.
“For a mere subordinate of Azel Viots, you’re awfully fearless.”
But I knew exactly what to say to really get under her skin.
“I’m not foolish enough to fear a saintess who has lost her faith.”
Yulia’s expression froze instantly.
‘Of course, I’m the one who shattered her faith.’
But so what?
No one else knows anyway.
