How the Regressor Loves the Reincarnated

7. Don’t get me wrong

1.

“Just kidding… what you just said was a joke, right?”

With her timid expression, I asked her, hoping that I had misunderstood. There is a certain degree of avoiding getting involved in troublesome things, isn’t the end of the world unavoidable?

Because her life was short in her previous life, her goal was to live a short and long life in this life. I’m just trying to be embarrassed.

“Um… Unfortunately, I’m not kidding.”

“Huh.”

It gets complicated in my head. Why do absurd things like the end of the world happen? No, even if I wake up, why is it now?

In the first place, a regressor and the destruction of the world, even thinking about it again, is absurd. This is not a novel If this is really the worldview of a novel somewhere, could the ‘me’ whom Lady Ludmeier knew as a fool become a typical extra villain?

“…Young master, you don’t have to die like that. We can stop it this time… Oh, of course it would be great if Young master cooperated.”

Still, after all, a regressor is a regressor, but since she says that, her trust goes away quite a bit.

However, this is a story in case Adele Ludmeyer is really a regressor. Circumstances indicated that it was true with a high probability, but not yet enough to convince.

It was just that this conversation was being established because there was no reason for the only duke’s daughter in the empire to play pranks that could worsen the relationship between the two families.

“For now, let’s discuss the scope of the cooperation you mentioned later. First, I think we need to verify whether it is true that the princess really returned to the past from the future.”

“…Don’t you believe me?”

Lady Meyer, who had an expression as if she had been hurt for some reason, pouted and asked.

Actually, I felt her from the first time her side asked for her dance, but she is a woman who boasts her gorgeous appearance to the point where her breath is taken away. Seeing her make that kind of expression, she felt like she had become a guilty person for no reason, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Well, good. In fact, I feel more reassured if I have a thoroughgoing person like Young master as my helper.”

Before I could reply, Lady Ludmeyer snorted, “Hey,” And answered.

“It will take some time to verify the truth of the claim that I have returned to the past by telling you about the future, but I believe that Young master will be so kind to you?”

“You don’t even have to be sarcastic… Don’t you know enough that even the princess knows that this is a necessary process? If you’re upset like that for no reason, you can spread rumors that Ludmeyer’s Golden Jade Leaf has a very twisted personality.”

“Young master, do you think I would be surprised by such rumors?”

Looking at her questioning while raising one eyebrow, I am at a loss for words. Regardless of whether or not he took the joke seriously, he didn’t know what to say if he said something like that.

As if that thought was revealed in my expression, she shook her head with a clear smile on her side.

“Ahaha! What is that look! Anyway, if you’d like, I’ll give you one of the things I know about the future. Right now Duke of Isvant is out in Belleton Plain, right?”

“Ah, yes… I do.”

She gave a timid response to the sudden outburst of stories about her father. Could something happen to your father in the future?

“This year’s subjugation of orcs will fail. Duke Isvant, who met his formidable foe and squeezed his mana to the limit, saved the lives of his troops and collapsed on the spot.”

Your father is collapsing? My father, a wizard at a level that few people can follow even on the entire continent?

“Oh, you won’t lose your life. If the Duke of Isvant had lost his life this year, it would have been five years earlier for the Duke of Isvant to completely perish.”

At least, it’s fortunately out of misfortune. Knowing that he would lose his father as well as his mother, he was stunned for a moment.

“Is it possible that Isvant is ruined because of me, who was a fool?”

“Right. After he succeeded to the Duke’s throne, he was very revelry and did all sorts of depravity. Thanks to that, it is also one of the first territories to fall to the Zodiac’s machinations.”

“The Zodiac?”

“Yes. It’s a group with a seemingly lofty goal to purify the world. Although the reality of that church is nothing more than fanatics of the ancient confined Celestials. Their true purpose is to bring the imprisoned god to the present world and open a new world under the rule of that god.”

“If you look at history, there are many cases where people who are obsessed with religion cause trouble… Do religious countries know about the existence of the zodiac?”

“Unfortunately, I have no idea. No, it would have been better if I just didn’t know about its existence. There are people who share the will of the zodiac even among the high-ranking members of the Church.”

“If you are a group with that much influence, your home country won’t be free either.”

The silence comes out naturally. A development in which a dark organization that has spread its demonic powers in all directions is trying to destroy the world. Isn’t this too difficult?

“Hmm… I don’t think you need to worry that much. Since I’ve already stopped them once before I returned to the past, if Young master cooperated, wouldn’t it be easier to stop them compared to when I was alone?”

That makes sense. Indeed. Is this the reassurance that only those who sided with the regressor can enjoy?

However, I feel a strange sense of incongruity. I feel like I’m missing something.

“Ah.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize the identity of that sense of incongruity.

“Do you know how the princess herself was able to return to the past?”

“Yes? Oh no?”

I expected that maybe. But the important thing is not whether or not she knows the reason for her return.

“Then princess, did she come back to the past after she successfully thwarted the Zodiac’s plan?”

“Ah… then it is, but…”

She looks at me with a puzzled look on her face. Let our eyes meet like that for a moment. She sighs on her side and goes on with her words.

“To be precise, this is my second experience of returning to the past. For convenience, I played the first time before I returned to the past, when the world was destroyed by the Zodiac Church. And I’m calling it the second time that I returned to the past for the first time and stopped the Zodiac’s plan.”

My mouth drops open involuntarily at her words. Did you experience regression to the past not once, but twice?

“We succeeded in stopping the Zodiac in the second round, but the problem started when the earth and hell were completely connected, not their gods. In the end, mankind was destroyed again by demons who climbed up from the bottom of hell.”

“…”

I couldn’t say anything. It was even more so when I saw the self-deprecating sneer on her lips.

A woman named Adele Ludmeier took on the fate of a world. Seeing that she didn’t even know how she was able to go back to the past, she probably didn’t carry that burden because she wanted to.

So even if she failed at her last moment, she wouldn’t have to blame herself like that. She had no one, no one in her right to point the finger at her. Even if it is herself.

“In the last moment of the second playthrough, I made the decision to break down the passageway between Hell and Earth by bursting my mana. Since the main body of demons is subordinated to hell, if the passage disappears, they will have no choice but to be forcibly expelled from the earth. If someone survives and tries to live on. I thought that was the best I could do for someone.”

It may sound a bit funny, but what I felt in that moment was a sense of kinship with her.

The thought of wanting to get involved in her war for the fate of mankind, she couldn’t have been with her. Seeing that the country acted hastily because of a variable, it probably wasn’t a thing in the very distant future.

For her, going back to her past must have been a heavy burden, not a blessing. She might have had feelings of resentment about why she had to put such a burden on herself.

I was similar too. Because in my previous life, I was sentenced to death at a young age of less than 30, with more days to live than the days I have lived.

It was unfair. There were many things I wanted to do and many things I could do. But in the end, she accepted the irrationality for the sake of the people around her.

Of course, what I felt was nothing more than a sense of kinship. I can only speculate about what she went through and what thoughts she lived through.

“When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the past. Still, based on the experience of the second playthrough, she knew at least what to do in the future, so let’s do it again. That’s how I got my heart.”

“It must have been difficult.”

She is silent. But she couldn’t hide the fact that she was tired of all this. I had no intention of stopping there.

“Have you ever told anyone other than me that you have returned to the past?”

“…No.”

“Then, you worked hard all this time alone.”

“Ah…?”

“I hate troublesome things. So in fact, even if I had promised to cooperate, I would not have helped so hard.”

Seeing her expression darken noticeably at those words, I think she should hurry up before she gets any misunderstanding.

“But after hearing the story of her princess, I changed my mind.”

“In the name of Isvant, I promise you. In this episode, I will make sure there is no such thing as the princess having to carry all her burdens alone.”

“…Are you serious?”

“Then, I bet the name of my family, but I can’t be sincere. Adele Ludmeier, you are a hero no matter what anyone says, so take pride in that fact. Even if others don’t know about it, even if she doubts herself, it’s a fact that she will never change.”

I felt like my throat was burning after talking too long, so I poured another cup of tea lightly with magic. Lady Ludmeyer, who talked more than me, seemed to have already finished drinking, so I ordered her to pour her teacup as well.

“…Thank you so much for saying that. I didn’t know that Young master could paint people’s faces so well.”

“Luke.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t call me Gongja, just call me Luke. Actually, I don’t like being called Young master. I think we will see each other quite often in the future, but whenever I think of hearing Young master, I feel a sense of rejection. Well, it doesn’t matter if you say it comfortably.”

“Um… I get it, Luke.”

She seemed to be in a good mood before she knew it, and she smiled sullenly and added a line, tucking her light pink hair that was down in front of her over her shoulder.

“Luke can call me by my first name, too. Of course, I’m giving permission because I like what Luke said today, so don’t misunderstand.”

“Yeah, well. But misunderstanding, what kind of misunderstanding are you talking about?”

I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I said that as a joke.

“You don’t have to know!”

But Adele’s reaction was funnier than I thought, so I thought I’d play pranks from time to time in the future.

“I think the story will be longer, but shall we get her maid to serve her a light refreshment?”

“…Ah, yes. If possible, may I ask for something sweet?”

She replied shyly. Adele she likes sweets. I’ll have to remember this.