Chapter 128
“Friend, your expression has really changed. Even your actions are different now. Miss Cat’s Butt… she’s the missing piece you’d lost, isn’t she?”
Serzan pulled me forward as if telling me to ignore him, but I didn’t move. Instead, I slowly turned back.
Agrisen’s whole face was twitching, his limbs twisting.
“Whether it’s salvation or damnation, if it succeeds, your regression will end, right? Then my regression will end too. Even if I die, I won’t regress unless you do. So kill me here and now.”
If we killed him here, as long as we didn’t regress to a time before his death, he would be gone forever.
Maybe we could kill him. Living in this tiny cell for ten thousand years, endlessly regressing… no wonder he wanted to die.
It would also remove the risk of having another regressor around — a mutual benefit.
If he truly wanted to die, that is.
But to kill Agrisen, we’d first have to release him.
Right now, his magic flow was suppressed — if we killed him like this, his heart would explode instantly.
“Ignore him. We’ve already wasted enough time. We should go.”
“…Wait a moment.”
I unstrapped my bag from inside my cloak and pulled out a mirror. Blowing on its surface, I asked:
“Mister, do you really want to die?”
“How many times have you regressed, Miss Cat’s Butt?”
“About ten.”
Agrisen burst out laughing.
“It’s still fun for you then. You’ll probably enjoy it up to a hundred times. I didn’t, but outside this cell, maybe it would’ve been fun. But once you pass a thousand, ten thousand times… what do you think will happen? You’ll start wondering how much pain your body can endure.”
He laughed for a long while. Tears streamed from his bloodshot eyes, and he licked them away with his purple tongue.
“People say that if you think you’re insane, you’re not really insane. But that’s wrong. The truly insane know they’re crazy — and don’t care. Just like my friend here.”
His smile vanished.
“To me, that look was the most beautiful thing in the world… I wonder how beautiful you’ll be?”
I rubbed the mirror’s surface with my sleeve and walked up to him. Holding it so his face reflected in it, I said:
“If you pass my test, I’ll do as you want.”
“…What is this?”
“Shh.”
I pressed a finger to my lips, then adjusted the mirror’s angle so only Agrisen’s face showed — not mine.
“…Agrisen, this is a mirror that reveals what you’re hiding.”
His eyes turned to his reflection: messy black hair, overgrown beard, bulging eyes, deep wrinkles — a face once perhaps handsome, now ruined by years that no longer even existed.
“If you truly have no regrets left in the world, the mirror will only show your face. But if there’s anything you’re hiding from me or Serzan, it will appear in the reflection. If something else appears, it means you still have attachments — and in that case, I can’t free you from your chains. You might make excuses and run.”
Agrisen’s blue lips trembled.
His black pupils shrank sharply. The reflection began to change.
I stared into the mirror, holding my breath — then clicked my tongue softly.
“I gave you this chance because I once promised someone who suffered like you that I’d kill them. I thought if I didn’t give you the same chance, that person — who faces their own darkness — might get dangerous ideas.”
In the mirror, Agrisen still looked old. But behind him was a brown shelf that hadn’t been there before.
On that shelf were Winter Orsheus’s head… and my own head.
“Kekeke…”
Agrisen let out a short laugh, then shut his mouth. His shoulders shook like he was holding it in.
“You sick bastard.”
I shoved the mirror away, spitting the words.
Not even worth the insult.
“You can rot here for another ten thousand years. And so what if it’s ten thousand? That person endured far longer. How dare you beg for pity while mentioning them?”
Agrisen’s face flushed red.
I smoothed my own expression and went back to Serzan’s side.
His face looked strangely dazed. After a moment, I held out my hand with a smile.
“Shall we go?”
I briefly considered adding a playful wink but decided against it. Serzan looked at my hand for a moment, hesitated, then slowly took it.
Holding hands felt… oddly strange. I think the only other time we’d done something like this was when we exchanged flames during the proposal.
Serzan had carried or held me countless times, yet just holding hands like this somehow felt embarrassing.
Maybe I should’ve winked after all.
Instead, I shrugged and pointed at his ear.
“Your ear’s a little red — I think you’re touched.”
Serzan narrowed his eyes.
“More like impressed, but… sure, let’s call it that.”
…What?
“Your ears are red too. I wonder what touched you so much?”
My chest thumped. My face suddenly felt hot.
“…Tch.”
Then—
A noise came from the side. I turned, and a scream burst from my lips.
“You psycho — what the hell?!”
Agrisen was grinning, his teeth stained entirely red with blood. Pink flesh floated in the pool of blood below him.
“You bastard…”
I think it was the first time I’d heard Serzan swear.
Blood dripped from Agrisen’s mouth, accompanied by ragged choking noises.
“You’re… holding your breath?”
He was trying to kill himself.
And if he died… what about the bomb in his heart?
Before I could finish the thought, Serzan pulled me into his arms. Agrisen’s head slumped forward—
And then came a blinding white flash, heat that burned my lungs, and flames everywhere.
That disgusting heat.
And then—
I died.
…
“Ugh…”
When I opened my eyes, I clutched my throat and almost collapsed.
“It’s hot!”
Tears spilled out. The smell of smoke still seemed stuck in my nose.
It was nothing like dying to Serzan’s fire. This was a messy, clumsy flame — nothing but unnecessary pain.
“Kekeke…”
A laugh. I looked around — and I was standing next to Agrisen again, not Serzan.
Agrisen bit his tongue at me deliberately, his smile once again painted in red.
Before I could react, Serzan appeared and scooped me up.
“He’s got a little time left before he dies. We’ll leave the tower first.”
Yes, that’s right.
If it’s Serzan, he can get me out before the blast.
Yes — we just have to leave.
…But…
“Then what about the people in the tower…?”
If we escaped, everyone else inside would be caught in the explosion and die.
And if we survived, there’d be no chance to rewind the blast.
“They’ll die,” Serzan said coldly.
No!—
Before I could shout it—
The white flash came again.
I died.
***
I opened my eyes again.
“Kyaaa!”
Once more, I was beside the filthy psychopath. He smiled sweetly.
“I can do this for ten thousand years.”
He went to bite his tongue again — but Serzan reached him first, shoving a hand into his mouth to stop him.
“Good! Now keep his mouth shut—”
“This won’t be enough,” Serzan interrupted grimly.
Blood dripped from Serzan’s hand in Agrisen’s mouth. His jaw clenched.
“He’s holding his breath.”
What?
Agrisen’s face turned purple. His eyes rolled toward me, a strange smile forming— then his gaze went blank.
His body, weakened by long imprisonment, couldn’t hold out.
The white flash erupted again.
The same, all-too-familiar scene.
“Ahhh!”
When I opened my eyes again, I was already grabbing Agrisen by the collar.
“Heh…”
Everyone in the tower — including us — was now trapped.
Trapped inside the death Agrisen had created.
