Chapter 66
What, so she really was a regressor.
Only then did I understand why she had been acting so strangely.
Huh? You think I accepted that way too quickly?
Having already heard the current state of this world from that unidentified boss who was presumably a dragon, I was in possession of an understanding as broad as the sea.
Besides, I had been reincarnated into this world myself, so it wasn't strange for a regressor to appear here.
'She was the protagonist, after all...'
What people commonly call a regression, possession, and reincarnation story?
Regression, possession, reincarnation.
It was hardly strange that she possessed an element one could call essential to a protagonist.
It was just then, while I was accepting that Ariel was a regressor.
Grab.
"Huh?"
She suddenly reached out and started gripping my hand tightly.
Squeeze.
She clutched my hand so tightly that I could hear it creak, then spoke in a trembling voice.
"H-How?"
"Huh?"
"How are you perfectly fine?"
Why was I perfectly fine?
At Ariel's sudden reaction, I looked at her as if I had no idea what she was talking about.
Perhaps seeing my reaction, she slowly began telling me about her past.
Should I call it the miracle of regression and the curse she received as the price of that miracle—or perhaps a side effect?
It caused any information related to regression to be heard in distorted form by other people.
Words and writing, of course, as well as pictures, codes, telepathy, or even metaphors—it was all the same.
"But how..."
Grab.
Having finished speaking, Ariel began caressing my hand with both of hers.
It looked as though she couldn't believe it—or as though she was desperately struggling to avoid the possibility that this entire situation was a lie.
"Please, please..."
"..."
"The side effect—or rather, the curse—isn't taking effect, is it? Is it?"
Please tell me that's true.
Her body began to tremble little by little.
Slide.
I placed my hand over the one gripping mine and spoke quietly.
"Yes."
"Ah..."
"The side effect didn't activate."
"..."
"You heard me correctly. You're a regressor?"
How much suffering would she have endured to react like this?
I didn't know how much she had suffered.
Of course I didn't. How could I presume to speak about something I hadn't experienced myself?
But.
"You've been through a lot."
"..."
"Yes. You've really been through a lot."
I had a great deal of respect for Ariel.
She was the kind of person who would endure any inconvenience of her own to save someone else.
I couldn't do that.
Honestly, if there were a faster route, I was the kind of man who would use other people as stepping stones to get there.
But she was different, wasn't she?
If someone like that looked exhausted and vulnerable, I could tell her she had been through a lot.
"So keep your chin up."
Saying that, I smiled at Ariel.
So that, at the very least, this warmth might offer her a small measure of comfort.
...
"..."
Ariel blankly felt the warmth of Abel's hand wrapped around hers and looked at Abel, who was smiling warmly.
It was the first time.
She had never imagined that someone who always smiled languidly or gave off a dangerous aura could make such an expression.
That gentle smile of Abel's was etched into her mind with startling clarity.
Thump.
Her heart pounded roughly once again.
'Huh?'
This heartbeat was completely different from the one that had pounded violently because she had just understood that Abel was a regressor.
Thump.
What was this feeling?
Her heart raced, and the warmth from the hand Abel held began coursing through her entire body.
A strange sensation, as though all five of her senses were focused on Abel.
'Abel. Abel. Abel...'
I don't know. I really don't know.
She had never felt anything like this even before her regression.
It was truly the first time she had felt this strange urge for Ariel herself to be wholly dominated by Abel.
'Huh?'
Only then did Ariel's mind, which had been intoxicated by Abel's warmth and smile, begin to return to its senses.
What had I just been thinking?
What?
I want to be dominated?
Flush!
"Uaa..."
.
.
.
"Huh?"
While I had simply been comforting her, she suddenly stared blankly at me, then her face turned red.
Looking at her face, which had changed so suddenly, I spoke with concern.
"Is something wrong?"
"...No, I'm fine."
A little while later.
"Phew... Thank you for comforting me."
"..."
"Shall we talk now? How is Abel able to remain unaffected by the side effect of this regression?"
She looked at me as though she was genuinely curious.
Why was I free from the side effect of her regression?
"Hmm. Could you have received some holy relic or blessing...? But I don't sense anything like that at all."
Honestly, I had an idea.
It was one of my secrets, but she had told me that she was a regressor, so there was no reason I couldn't tell her.
If she was a regressor, then I...
"It might be because of something else."
"?"
"I think it's because I'm reincarnated."
Because I was reincarnated, you see.
Reincarnation.
The phenomenon of being reborn as another person after dying.
Looking at Ariel, whose eyes had gone round at my sudden words, I slowly began telling my story.
The story of how I had been born and raised on a planet called Earth, in a dimension entirely different from this world.
Of course, I didn't tell her that I had been a black agent of the NIS.
It was too long a story, and it wasn't exactly an honorable profession to tell people about.
"..."
Ariel's expression began changing from moment to moment as she listened to me.
When she heard about a world with no mana whatsoever, she looked utterly unable to believe it.
A story about humanity, which had advanced science instead of magic, traveling great distances and even venturing into space.
For the record, I didn't tell her that she was the protagonist of a romance-fantasy novel.
I had never even read it and only knew its title, and I thought it would be a rather cruel shock to tell her that all the misfortunes she had endured were merely a story in a novel. It was a small consideration.
"Good heavens..."
It was something an ordinary person would never have believed.
But perhaps because she had experienced the miracle of regression, she seemed to accept rather readily that I was reincarnated.
"I see. So that's why you didn't seem very interested in the latest model typewriter back then?"
"Ah... Well, yeah. But aren't you believing me a little too easily?"
"...Hehehe. I was expecting something else."
Ariel laughed lightly and, with a careful gesture, caressed the hand of mine she was still holding.
For the record, throughout our conversation, she hadn't released my hand even once.
"You believed me easily enough, didn't you?"
"..."
Her hand gently stroked the back of mine.
Her touch was extraordinarily delicate, as though she were caressing some priceless piece of porcelain.
"It would be strange for me not to believe you after you believed me, wouldn't it?"
Hmm... Yes. Going by her words alone, she seemed as pure as could be.
The problem was that her cheeks were flushed red, as if she were inexplicably excited, and her hair had become slightly disheveled when she moved to grab my hand moments ago.
Finally, with the way she was stroking my hand so strangely, all of it came together into something that wasn't purity, but how should I put it...
'A little lewd...'
No, no.
I shook my head.
My mind seemed to be full of impure thoughts.
"Abel?"
Perhaps I looked strange shaking my head to clear away the distracting thoughts in my mind; I heard Ariel's flustered voice, but I paid it no mind.
She was a saintess.
How could the word "lewd" ever be associated with a saintess?
"Phew..."
"Are you all right?"
"Ah, I'm fine."
Just look at her now. She was gazing at me with concern.
Of course, I did wonder why she still hadn't let go of my hand, but since she was just staring into my eyes, perhaps it was fair to assume she had simply forgotten.
"Ah, but you said you were a regressor, right?"
I had strayed a little after telling her I was reincarnated, but I should return to the original subject.
"Then what happens to me? What does my future look like?"
Honestly, I was curious. About my future, that is.
I assumed the reason she had wanted to stay close to me was that I played an important role in her future.
You know how it is, right?
When a regressor protagonist establishes a relationship in advance with an important figure from the distant future.
"No."
But as if to betray my expectations, Ariel shook her head with a bitter smile.
"Abel, you didn't exist before my regression—in other words, in the future."
"Ah..."
It was a little disappointing, but not impossible to accept.
I already knew I was special.
No, if a reincarnated person wasn't special, what would be?
The enemy had clearly called me a singularity, so there was no reason I couldn't accept that.
Just as I was readily accepting that thought, I heard Ariel's slightly subdued voice, as though she meant to deny it once again.
"And I should tell you this first. The world we're in now is different from the one I knew."
"...What?"
Ariel slowly began her story.
In the world before her regression, she had lived as nothing more than the illegitimate child of a count's family, suffering terrible persecution.
She was eventually caught up in the flames of a sudden world war and, with no one left by her side, experienced the miracle of regression through the power of a holy relic.
As she said this, she showed me the rosary around her neck, hidden beneath her clothes.
"I regressed through the power of this holy relic."
'Ah, right. This is a romance-fantasy novel.'
That was what occurred to me when Ariel began her story.
I had never read a romance-fantasy novel, but I knew the general outline.
Apparently, she had been the protagonist of a regression romance-fantasy story.
An illegitimate child of a count's family regressing for some reason when she was on the verge of death was an extremely familiar plot, after all.
"The problem is..."
[Crocus Academy].
The academy itself had not existed in the world before her regression.
"It didn't exist?"
"No."
Ariel slowly nodded and said,
"In the world before my regression, there was no place called [Crocus Academy]."
It was unlikely that she simply hadn't known about it.
There was no way she wouldn't have known about an academy with this much influence around the world.
"So I was confused after regressing, too."
Wondering what in the world this place was.
"...Could it be a parallel world?"
"A parallel world?"
"Yes."
Another world that shared the same time and dimension as the universe we lived in, but existed alongside it after experiencing entirely different histories or choices.
That was what the parallel-world theory meant.
"It's a theory from Earth, my previous life."
And there was probably only one reason her world and the current one had ended up with different histories.
"It seems the world split over whether or not a hero whose name wasn't even recorded existed..."
"Hmm... I don't think we can learn anything more than this."
"Right."
Honestly, even if we engaged in armchair theorizing here, the odds of it being true were far too low.
Then we should gather information by meeting the person most closely connected to this story, shouldn't we?
"Then there's no helping it."
The being most closely connected to the hero who completely vanquished the Demon King in the past.
The nameless hero's sacred sword, Solaris.
And Solaris had gained a physical body and was currently serving as the chairman of [Crocus Academy].
For hundreds of years, no less.
"We'll have to ask the chairman."
It would be difficult to tell her outright that I was a regressor or reincarnated, but there ought to be information we could learn about the hero, so perhaps we should make that our top priority for now?
"What do you think?"
"Yes, I'd like that too."
For the record, she was still holding and caressing my hand.
Her hand did not let go until the divine art I had set up in advance rang to signal that Kairon's consciousness had awakened a little while later.