A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 295 : Demon King (3)

“…It’s the opposite, actually.”

Answering Louis’s question about whether he was the Saintess’s spokesperson, U-jin recalled the Saintess’s final appearance in his mind.

『…It is you.』

『……!』

That aloof, holy, and transcendental voice.

No, strictly speaking, that couldn’t be called the end.

It was simply the last time U-jin had seen her; the Saintess’s actual execution had taken place some time after that.

Whether the Saintess’s actual end was aloof, holy, and transcendental.

Or whether it was mournful, undignified, and desperate.

Perhaps she had even wailed for her life, not wanting to die.

That was something even U-jin could not know.

Anyway.

The story he heard from the Saintess back then was something that even U-jin couldn’t help but be surprised by.

What the Saintess had whispered in his ear at the final moment was something that even U-jin—who had been through every hardship imaginable and wouldn't bat an eye at most things—found impossible to simply brush off.

『…It is you.』

It was certainly a shocking revelation.

Though there were no other additions or words beyond that.

Considering the context of that time and the fact that the speaker was the ‘Saintess,’ the meaning of those words was clear.

『…However, no one shall reach Resurrection except for me and those sent according to my will. Even the many stars in the heavens are by no means eternal; in the end, they shall be nothing more than a flicker for half a day before fading away.』

The figure in the prophecy left by the Messiah for future generations.

In other words.

The ‘one who reached Resurrection,’ sent according to the Messiah’s will, was none other than U-jin.

Of course, he could have denied it on the spot.

There was the hostile attitude the Saintess had shown when they first met, and there was no need to believe her just because she said it.

He could have dismissed it as a lie, and no one would have been able to say anything.

However, U-jin couldn’t do that.

The reason was simple.

When U-jin placed his hand on his heart and thought about it, he honestly had moments where he thought, ‘Perhaps that’s true.’

『…Then.』

『Are you truly the Resurrected One spoken of in that “prophecy”?』

『…No comment.』

『…I didn’t think you’d tell me easily, though.』

In the conversation he had shared with Loxy during the brief special leave he obtained from Louis before entering the Darkest Dungeon, his vague answer of ‘no comment’ had been in a similar vein.

U-jin still didn't know the difference between ‘Resurrection’ and ‘Regression,’ even after having experienced ‘Regression’ himself.

After repeated thought, he wondered if it was because Resurrection and Regression weren't actually different.

But U-jin had intentionally avoided such thoughts whenever he felt like he might be the ‘person in the prophecy.’

The reason was simple.

His shoulders were already heavy enough with the fact that he had returned in his past life at the cost of the lives of the suicide squad.

He wasn't sure if he could achieve what everyone relied on him to do, and the tasks he was already burdened with were incredibly overwhelming.

Any more pressure than that was far beyond the realm of what U-jin could handle.

The weight of the suicide squad—a relatively small number of people—was heavy enough, but to think he was the figure in the prophecy that all of humanity across the continent had yearned and waited for.

If other people relied on him and placed their expectations on him as the ‘person in the prophecy,’ he feared he might mess things up because of the sheer pressure.

…Well, to be a bit more honest, he was the type who did things ‘because they had to be done’ in the first place, not the type who moved out of a sense of mission.

But the brief whisper the Saintess had given him eventually triggered a certain ‘realization’ in U-jin.

Unlike his abstract guesses, there was no grand, visible ‘realization.’

U-jin had originally imagined that an image of the Messiah or an angel would appear before him and deliver a message, as he had mentioned to Louis and Ludwig, but the realization occurred very slowly and gradually.

The thick fog in his mind cleared, and at some point, the thought ‘Ah, I see’ came naturally.

The person in the prophecy was said to save the world at its end, and U-jin had also regressed for that purpose.

In that case, not much changed.

The task he had to do was the same anyway.

Of course, a strange sense of dissonance didn't leave his mind for a long time after realizing that fact, but that level of shock was all he could say about the ‘realization’ he experienced.

Well. The conclusion U-jin reached was simple.

Just because something was shocking didn't necessarily mean it was important, and U-jin decided not to pay much mind to it.

He still didn't know what the Messiah meant by that prophecy, and honestly, even without the encounter with the Saintess, U-jin would have done the same thing.

Regardless of how shocking it was, he just had to do the task at hand.

“I don’t know about Resurrection, but I’m a regressor.”

Since the topic had come up, U-jin decided to reveal the fact he had intended to hide until the very end.

“……!”

“You might not believe it, but I’ve already died once and came back from the future.”

Louis’s pupils dilated.

* * *

It was a truly absurd story.

If it were simply Resurrection, as the Messiah said, he would have tried to understand it somehow, thinking, ‘Ah, it’s that person from the prophecy.’

But ‘Regression’ carried a different meaning for Louis.

The prophecies regarding the end of the world were very limited.

It was stated that there would be one sent according to the Messiah’s will and that he would save the world.

But what kind of abilities did he possessed?

What his gender was.

What his personality was like.

By what criteria was he selected?

None of that was recorded.

That was why everyone’s image of the Messiah was different.

And that was the reason why many false Resurrected Ones had appeared and been active since the founding of The Order.

Therefore, Louis had thought a lot about the Resurrected One, but he had never considered it from the perspective of ‘Regression.’

While the prophecy said he would reach Resurrection, the story of returning to the past and being resurrected was one step further.

‘…He has already experienced the future once.’

The sentence itself made no sense.

The sanctity of time was a domain that even The Order’s holy magic had failed to reach despite developing over eons.

Beyond simply being a great feat, it was a transcendental event outside the norms that could not be explained by common sense.

“That makes……”

But because of that.

“…sense. Finally.”

Louis was able to accept U-jin’s words.

Ironically, what proved the fact that U-jin had ‘regressed’ were the nonsensical things U-jin had shown in the Upper Plane until now.

『…If you don’t know, I’ll explain it to you.』

『…….』

『You are the most likely suspect in this “Succubus intervention in the Gate Zone” case. Other floor-transcenders have already confirmed the Succubus’s intervention itself… and circumstantially, you are the person presumed to be the Succubus’s final host.』

『…….』

『That’s why I, an “Inquisitor,” have been dispatched here.』

As their first conversation proved.

At first, Leonardo Louis Burton had suspected U-jin of being a potential rebel, comparing him to Isaac Einstein.

What he had shown in the Gate Zone far exceeded the limits of a normal Hero candidate, and regardless of immediate good or evil, that in itself could bring about the possibility of danger.

But at some point, U-jin’s track record began to surpass the level of simply being ‘comparable to Isaac Einstein.’

The events in the Murim Empire he headed to as soon as he became a Hero candidate; becoming a Hero-slayer, taking a deal from Louis, bringing back Primal Stones from the Darkest Dungeon, and bringing out Tom Hardest, whom no one else could retrieve.

Finding the Queen of the Beastkin Nation, whose location was known only to the UMC; the subsequent reconstruction of the Beastkin Nation; and obtaining a guild permit from The Order’s headquarters for the first time in 100 years.

In the Northern Subjugation War, solving the mutated Black Blood Disease.

The Veil of the Black Sea.

The fortified Orc Mountains.

Even right before coming here, summoning Divine Beasts through an unrecorded holy relic called the ‘Xuanyuan Sword.’

And using them to somehow block the Primordial Demons attacking from all sides of The Order.

Every single one of them was an ‘unprecedented’ record.

Even as Louis looked back now, it was enough to naturally make him say, ‘This makes no sense.’

‘…….’

It went without saying, but it was not easy for ‘Leonardo Louis Burton,’ the Inquisitor, and ‘Ludwig Allegro,’ the head of the UMC, to accept someone’s words.

Of course, it was partly because, as high-ranking priests, they were in positions to give orders rather than listen to opinions.

But it was also due to their nature.

One was a person who had to constantly doubt in order to catch the Demonic Species dwelling within humans, and the other was the head of The Order’s top secret organization, whose job was to suspect and peer into others’ backs as easily as breathing.

For such people to follow ‘U-jin’s words’ without doubt.

It wasn't simply because he used the title of ‘Saintess’s spokesperson.’

It was because U-jin had built up a record that was so trustworthy.

In the first place, the strategy to respond to the Primordial Demons that appeared, including this southern invasion, began with U-jin’s proposal for a ‘total war.’

The fact that all of The Order’s forces moved according to the words of a mere 1-Star Hero was something that made no sense logically, yet it was carried out.

It was proof of how much they trusted U-jin.

And the fact that he had succeeded in every single one of the aforementioned tasks without missing a single one was impossible to accept unless he had ‘regressed,’ just as U-jin himself had said.

There was no failure in U-jin’s record, and he had always achieved things beyond imagination.

“…So that’s how it was.”

“Yeah.”

“Then……”

Just as Louis was about to ask U-jin one last thing.

【Well, well.】

An uninvited guest appeared from the forest ahead.

【This is the first time we’ve met in person, isn’t it?】

A familiar voice.

A familiar appearance.

It was a person he had seen once before in Kunlun.

The current strategist of the Demon King’s Allied Army, who was giving The Order a hard time.

A traitor to The Order’s Allied Forces.

A heavyweight ranked within the top 10 of the Demon King’s Army.

The Count of Chaos, Isaac Einstein.