A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 200 : Declaration of the Beastkin Nation (5)

Starting work with certainty seemed quite rational on the surface, but in reality, that was often not the case.

The human mind tended to lose its way in ambiguous situations, and the flow of the world wouldn't wait for it.

It was the same Pre-regression.

The Suicide Squad had countless tasks to do, and as guerrilla warfare was their primary mission, unexpected incidents occurred frequently.

Variables were numerous, and in such situations, what was important was the ability to quickly grasp the gist and make judgments through improvisation, rather than demanding evidence and reasons for everything; doing so would ultimately lead to nothing.

It was like stopping your limbs when you didn't know the direction in the water; you'd simply sink.

If you thrashed your arms somehow, you'd move forward in some direction, but if you stopped, you'd sink.

The Saintess's matter was no different.

No matter how important the matter was, requiring much thought, what took precedence was the given situation.

Three months until the Saintess's execution.

A decision had to be made somehow within that time, and considering the preparation time, the deadline was even more pressing.

Pffft—

"...Nothing's changed."

It was quite laughable that even after Regression, he was again faced with a situation requiring improvisation.

He hadn't really put off anything he needed to do, but perhaps it was because he was overwhelmed from the very start.

He thought his plans weren't wrong and he was diligently executing them, yet somehow he was once again pushed into a situation where he had to rely on his improvisational skills.

Recalling the pile of unresolved tasks before him, U-jin shook his head.

"......"

Abandoning the Saintess was difficult due to her importance.

Then there was the witch hunt.

No, if he tried to stop the 'Saintess Hunt', there would be countless additional problems to solve.

It was akin to adding more weight to an already overwhelming situation.

After a long period of deliberation, U-jin reached a conclusion.

"...Shall I give it a try after a long time?"

Improvisation.

It wasn't a method he particularly liked, but it was something he was quite familiar with and good at.

It meant bringing the task right up to his nose, so to speak, and making choices based on the intuition that his head and heart pointed to.

So, in this case.

He would meet the Saintess in person, then decide. Whether to save her or not.

Meeting the Saintess itself wouldn't be easy, but he thought he could manage that much somehow.

For that, what was important was to finish the matters related to the Beastkin Nation somewhat ahead of schedule.

Everything was uncertain, but one thing was clear: it was impossible to handle both tasks simultaneously.

Originally, he had planned to proceed with the coronation and other processes after some time, but it seemed he would have to expedite everything.

Within three months.

Even if it was a bit sloppy, the guild needed to take shape to some extent.

* * *

A secluded jungle where even sunlight barely reached.

Three figures wrapped in blankets were looking at a cave.

"Then. Shall we go in?"

"......"

The identities of the three figures were none other than Tom Hardist, Valencia, and Shim Cheong.

After destroying the first stronghold-detention center and transferring all the Beastkin slaves held there to the Guild House, they had moved towards the next stronghold.

The distance was considerable, but the coordinates were accurate, and Tom Hardist took the lead, clearly demonstrating his veteran status in jungle travel, allowing them to reach the second stronghold without much difficulty.

It was the same at the first stronghold-detention center; there was no particular strategy.

Because they had Tom Hardist, an invincible destructive tank, it was enough for him to simply enter the entrance and lay waste to the place, while Valenci and Shim Cheong blocked anyone trying to escape.

Therefore, Tom Hardist was about to enter the cave directly this time as well, but—

"...Wait a minute, Thomas."

"......?"

Valencia stopped Tom as he was about to take the first step.

Tom Hardist, turning his head with an expression that conveyed his lack of understanding, asked Valencia.

"...Is there a problem, Princess?"

Shake, shake—

"No, it's not that there's a problem..."

Shaking her head once at Tom's question, Valencia brought her hands together in front of her and raised her head.

"There's something I want to confirm. Tie these up for me."

"...Huh?"

Tom involuntarily questioned the request, whose intention he couldn't grasp, but Valencia did not back down.

"Infiltration."

It was a brief word, but the context of the situation and the experience from the first stronghold filled in the missing information.

"...I can't hide my ears. You have to do it."

Valencia was asking Tom to tie her hands, to make it seem as if he had captured her after she ran away.

Valencia wasn't accustomed to complete anthropomorphization, so she couldn't hide her ears and tail.

Tom, who was relatively more accustomed to it, could handle anthropomorphization to the point where he wouldn't be recognized as a Beastkin from his outward appearance.

"...Even so."

"Just do it."

"...Princess."

"I said, just do it."

"......"

Tom was about to refuse, asking how he could possibly do such a thing, but it seemed the decision wasn't his to make.

Thomas had never once coldly refused Valencia's request.

As he tied a loose rope around her wrists with a sigh, Shim Cheong asked, seemingly unable to grasp the sudden situation.

"What should I do? I don't know any spells to make my ears, but I can make horns."

"...Stay outside, kid. We'll be in and out quickly."

"The horns..."

"There are no horned Beastkin."

"...Understood."

It was unclear why she wanted to look around more when they had already inspected the entire interior of the first stronghold's detention center, but Tom and Shim Cheong complied with her request for now.

Pitter-patter—

Thump-thump—

Thus, Tom, disguised as a human, and Valencia, disguised as a Beastkin slave with dirt smeared here and there, headed towards the cave.

"Stop! Who goes there!"

"Remove your hood and state your identity!"

Two guards stood watch at the cave entrance, and upon spotting Tom and Valencia, they raised their gripped spears defensively.

Tom, removing his hood as requested, quietly stated his identity.

"...Hardist of the Northern Stronghold."

"Northern Stronghold...? There's another stronghold besides this one...?"

The guard's expression clouded with bewilderment at Tom's words.

"Stand aside. This is not a matter for low-ranking grunts who don't even properly know about the existence of other strongholds."

"......"

"If you don't even know my name, then you must be the lowest of the low-ranking grunts."

Tom was able to naturally reveal his disguised identity because he had learned the general system while dealing with the first stronghold.

As all strongholds were independently located, except for the general manager of each stronghold, they didn't even know of the existence, let alone the location, of other strongholds.

Everyone mistakenly believed that where they stood was the sole stronghold of the market maker.

He had exploited this to impersonate a high-ranking official of the related organization.

Flustered by Tom's natural condescension and the unfamiliar talk of another stronghold, the guard ambiguously tilted his spear, as if to lower it, and asked.

"...Th-Then who is that on the left...?"

Swoosh—

Tom naturally pulled off Valencia's hood and replied with a deep frown.

"Can't you tell by looking? She's an escaped Beastkin from your stronghold. She ran away during transport and almost led The Order right to us."

"......!"

"It's a good thing we captured her in our stronghold's territory; if the higher-ups found out, all of you idiots who pulled such a stunt would have been purged."

Tom's voice, laced with anger, sounded exactly like an executive of the organization.

The guards, preemptively frightened, hastily lowered their spears and changed their attitude.

"P-Please enter! Sir Hardist!"

"...What kind of guards are you, who can't even properly hunt down runaways?"

"S-Sorry."

"Rather, turn around. And make sure you catch any slaves who try to escape from inside, you fools."

"Yes, y-yes!"

Click—

As they turned their bodies at Tom's command, Tom put Valencia's hood back on and brushed past them.

He shook his head and whispered one more remark.

"Ha. To actually turn around just because I told you to."

"......!!"

"It's no wonder things are like this when they put such idiots on guard duty."

At the renewed reprimand, the guards turned their bodies, and this time, they trembled, unable to even properly respond.

Thus, Tom and Valencia were able to enter the cave without much difficulty.

Beyond the cave guards, a continuous hollow space stretched out.

An empty space designed for the stronghold's isolation and to prevent escapes.

They had confirmed this at the Northern stronghold-detention center, but all facilities that could be called actual prisons were located underground.

It was difficult to be certain if all other places were the same, but this place's layout seemed to be configured similarly.

Thump-thump— The two continued to walk in silence, following the hollow space where their footsteps echoed.

And after going much further in, only when they reached a staircase leading down to the underground hollow.

A cautious remark slipped from Thomas's lips.

"...I committed a discourtesy, Princess."

"No, it's fine. I asked you to do it. It's enough that we got in successfully."

Disguise was a fundamental part of infiltration, requiring no further explanation.

Furthermore, from Tom's perspective, who had experience disguising himself as a Demonic Species and even deceiving a baron of the Demon King's Army, tricking a single guard was no big deal for Thomas.

"...Even so."

"You'll have to do more of it once we go down anyway, so if you're going to apologize, don't do it now; save it all for later."

"......"

"More importantly..."

Shrug—

"You were good at it, though? Anyone would think you'd been a real slave trader, Thomas."

"...I wasn't."

"Are you sure I'm not actually being sold off?"

"...Huh?"

"Since I'm royalty, maybe I'd fetch a higher price as a slave."

Valencia, who had been chuckling and teasing Thomas, lifted her head and lightly shook it, as if frustrated.

Naturally, her hood came off, and unlike Valencia's voice, which was tinged with amusement.

The expression beneath the hood looked quite complex.

Bitterness, pity, bewilderment, responsibility.

A complexity that couldn't be described in a single word was interwoven across her face.

The reason was simple.

"...Thomas."

"Yes, Princess."

"I wasn't mistaken, was I?"

"...Yes, I didn't show it, but I was also flustered. At the Northern stronghold, they were clearly all human, but..."

The guards they had passed at the cave entrance.

If Thomas and Valencia weren't mistaken.

They were all Beastkin.

"...This wasn't exactly what I wanted to confirm."

Beastkin were helping to imprison Beastkin.