A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 174 : Beastkin Faction (1)

Back at the Guild House.

Cheong-yi, who had been holding down the fort, and the newcomer Valencia were sitting opposite each other at the dining table.

It was a somewhat awkward picture, but,

“Ahem.”

With an incredibly awkward cough, Cheong-yi spoke.

“Welcome. I have heard much about you.”

“……”

I had just arrived and given a brief explanation, so where on earth could she have heard ‘much’ about her?

“This is Young Miss Valencia, who will be staying with us from now on.”

Striking a pose that didn’t suit her at all, she offered Valencia a benevolent smile and greeted her.

“I am Shim Cheong-yi, the mistress of this house.”

“……”

When exactly she had become the mistress of the house without being asked was also a mystery.

If anything, considering the role I’d given her, she was closer to a security guard than a mistress.

Wondering if he might know, I turned my head to look at Jerry.

“…I don’t know.”

“Really?”

“…Wasn’t this territory supposed to be run under your name in the first place?”

“Well, that’s true, but.”

“…I have never bestowed such a title.”

It didn’t seem like he knew the circumstances either.

“Hmm.”

It looked like she was trying to start a power struggle, seeing as they looked to be about the same age.

And just as I expected.

“Young Miss, may I ask of your age this year?”

“My age…?”

“Ah. I am asking how old you are. It is an old-fashioned way of referring to the years that pass through spring and autumn.”

Cheong-yi’s words, using old-fashioned terms she never used, were tinged with an awkwardness that made her intentions obvious.

It was sort of like the existing youngest member of the group hazing the new youngest member.

In contrast to Cheong-yi’s higher-than-usual tension.

Valencia wasn’t very talkative.

‘…….’

It was somewhat to be expected.

She was someone who had lived her life distanced from society, and it wasn’t as if they were on smiling terms until just recently.

Even if this was the conclusion they’d reached, after such a sharp conflict, it would surely be embarrassing to suddenly change her attitude and act friendly.

But perhaps because Cheong-yi’s positive energy had an effect, Valencia cautiously opened her mouth and answered in a quiet, short reply.

“…One hundred and four.”

“……!”

…Well, of course.

It didn’t seem to be the answer Cheong-yi had been expecting.

Haha.

Letting out a somewhat sheepish laugh, she seemed to ponder for a moment, her brow furrowing slightly, before spouting some nonsense.

“You are similar to me.”

“…Really?”

“Why, is there not a proverb that says one becomes a child as one gets older? If we take the age of fifty as the midpoint and you have become young again, then we are more or less peers. Truly, a good age to become friends.”

“……”

I had no idea when such a proverb came into existence, but the logic seemed to be that since you’ve aged so much and I’ve aged so little, we’re ultimately similar.

Since there was about an eighty-year difference between Cheong-yi, who had just passed twenty, and Valencia, according to that strange logic, it didn’t seem entirely wrong.

“So, what family do you hail from, Young Miss? I am not too familiar with the families on my man’s side, but…”

“……”

“You have a certain noble air about you, so you must surely possess a fine bloodline. For your reference, I am the successor to a place called the Eastern Demonic Cult…”

“The royal family of the Beastkin.”

“……”

“The heir.”

Ugh.

With a groan and a look of displeasure, Cheong-yi’s eyes shifted to the side.

It seemed she wanted to establish herself in a superior position, but it wasn’t going as planned.

‘…….’

It felt like I was seeing a side of her I didn’t know.

…No.

To be precise, rather than a side I didn’t know, it felt like a part of the pre-regression Cheong-yi—one I was all too familiar with but thought I wouldn’t see just yet—was showing through.

That petty pride that would activate when she got fixated on something strange, even though she showed a bold and gallant side elsewhere.

…And it was, if anything, a little more intense than I remembered.

Ssk-

“…Was she always like this?”

I turned to my side and asked Eliya, who shrugged.

“Like what?”

“…The type to needlessly try and enforce discipline.”

Tilting her head, she mumbled as if she wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know.”

“……”

“After you, Hero, I’m the one who’s been away from here the most, so I wouldn’t know for sure… but last time, after you went into the Darkest Dungeon.”

Ssk-

“When you brought that half-dog person over there, she did mutter that the Demonic Cult’s position was being threatened.”

“……”

“Ah! I think she also added that the Demonic Cult’s standing must be solidified.”

Pfft-

It seemed that since she was still young, she was concerned with useless things like hierarchy.

It was like how, when kids just enter middle school, they get into pointless fights to measure who’s stronger out of childish bravado.

If what Eliya relayed was true, it seemed that as the heir to the Demonic Cult, she unconsciously felt the need to have the most renowned name among the group.

The reason she was doing this to Valencia, something she hadn't done to others, was probably because she instinctively sensed that Valencia exuded more of a monarch's aura than the others.

And according to Eliya’s addition, she seemed worried that the influx of other factions would lower her and the Demonic Cult’s standing here.

Knowing what the Demonic Cult was like in the past.

She would instinctively know that the fate of a minority is rarely a good one.

But.

‘…She’s making a fuss over nothing.’

From my perspective, it looked like she was just making a fuss over nothing.

The day when either of them became unnecessary would never come, and hunting the Demon King wasn't so easy that we could afford to worry about internal hierarchies.

To hunt the Demon King, it went without saying that both Valencia and Cheong-yi were necessary.

Even if, over time, the relative importance of one might decrease, it didn't mean they would cease to be a key part of our forces.

Besides.

Cheong-yi was the Demonic Cult in and of herself, while the Beastkin were an already existing faction.

If we were to be particular, the Beastkin were obviously ahead in terms of immediate faction growth and support, but thinking about the future, it was a different story.

The loyalty towards the Beastkin royal family was certainly formidable, but the unique binding force of the Demonic Cult that Cheong-yi possessed could exert a coercive power that surpassed it.

Once the vessel of her potential grew large enough, and she reached the level of her pre-regression self where she commanded a force so massive that the title ‘One-Person Demonic Cult’ wouldn't be strange, she would boast a military might that would inspire more fear than any army in this Upper Plane.

Moreover, since her situation was better in many ways this time compared to before the regression, she had even greater growth potential. Given enough time, it was a foregone conclusion.

Well.

In the first place, since their capabilities and areas of expertise were different, I couldn't choose one over the other.

Nor did I need to.

Thus, after quietly observing her pointless hazing, I finally stood up and put a stop to her actions.

“That’s enough, Cheong-ah.”

“…What do you mean? Brother.”

She answered, feigning ignorance.

But the fleeting, startled expression on her face proved that she was aware, to some extent, that she was hazing the newcomer.

It was somewhat understandable.

…It wasn’t as if I hadn’t experienced such cases myself.

Just from my own experience, when I first joined the Suicide Squad, there were guys who pulled rank needlessly in the name of discipline.

Of course, my personality was even worse back then, so I just went ahead and clashed with anyone I didn't like, regardless of who came first.

Even in a place where people had supposedly gathered for the greater good, such authoritarian attitudes constantly emerged.

When our lives were on the line from one day to the next and it wouldn't be strange if the world ended tomorrow, it was human nature to needlessly try and establish one's authority.

This was cute enough to be let go lightly.

…But that said.

It didn’t mean I was just going to let it be.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“……”

“It’s all pointless.”

Perhaps she didn’t like my added words.

This time, she tried to refute me with a more blatant look of displeasure.

“But… to establish the authority of the Demonic Cult, we must do this at the very beginning…”

Her aggrieved expression made it seem like persuading her with words alone wouldn’t be easy.

In terms of stubbornness, she was stronger than me even before the regression.

She was so bull-headed that if something didn’t go her way, she would push through with her own will even if ten thousand people tried to stop her.

I had already experienced it firsthand and knew all too well that a matter that went against her will couldn't be resolved with just a few words.

Therefore, I.

Snap-

I snapped my fingers before she could finish her sentence.

After all.

Actions were easier than words.

[ is activated.]

She looked at me with a questioning expression at the snap of my fingers, but with the subsequent change in mana, her arms were lifted up.

Whoosh-!

“……?”

Valencia wore a look of confusion at Cheong-yi’s sudden action.

It was understandable, since it wasn’t exactly normal for someone who had been striking poses just moments ago to suddenly raise both arms in a ridiculous posture.

I asked Cheong-yi, who had a look of utter disbelief on her face, a short question.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“…Brother, don’t tell me……”

Her face colored with horror as she tried to deny reality.

“Let’s shake it for old time’s sake.”

No explanation was needed.

Instead of an answer, I snapped my fingers once more, and her arms began to wave from side to side.

A blush of embarrassment began to creep up the face of the girl who had been putting on such airs until now.

“Eek!!!”

She let out a voice full of indignation and tried to resist somehow, but the Blood Demon Art of a 2-star Vampire possessed a powerful restraining force.

Flail-flail-

Flail-flail-

Her arms moved vigorously from side to side.

Before they could swing even three times, a scream-like declaration of surrender erupted from her, and the situation was resolved.