Chapter 129
Once again, the blinding flash struck every cell in my body like lightning.
When I opened my eyes, I rolled on the floor, groaning in pain.
“Friend.”
Agrisen looked down at me and whispered softly.
He had bitten his tongue again, so I couldn’t hear his voice — but I could clearly read his lips.
“Miss Cat’s Butt will be just as beautiful as you. My eyes are never wrong. It’ll just take time. About ten thousand years, maybe?”
A faint hissing came from his throat — he was laughing.
“When you first came to see me, how many years had you already lived through? Ten thousand? Maybe even more. Let’s start with ten thousand for now. Friend, unlike you, I’ve already spent ten thousand years in this damned white room. You’re in a similar situation to me now, so let’s try living like this for ten thousand years.”
Ten thousand years.
“Just like you once did, I think that amount of time is enough for you to start begging me for death.”
He must be joking, right? Repeating this moment for ten thousand years?
“Tia! Tia!”
A desperate voice called my name.
I quickly looked up — Serzan was doing the same thing as before, forcing his hand into Agrisen’s mouth.
“I can heal the wound,” he muttered.
It must have been healing magic, because the blood flowing from Agrisen’s mouth seemed to stop.
But this time, blood was flowing from Serzan’s hand.
“Your hand…”
My mind went blank when I saw Agrisen biting down hard, tearing into Serzan’s hand on purpose.
Agrisen looked up at Serzan and grinned. Crack — the sound of bone breaking came from Serzan’s hand.
“It’s nothing to worry about. More importantly, Tia, you need to listen carefully.”
Serzan’s expression didn’t change at all, as if unbearable pain was something he was completely used to.
Because of the black gloves he wore, I couldn’t tell how badly his hand was injured.
Thud!
Serzan’s fist slammed into Agrisen’s stomach.
“Tia, this prison is designed to prevent teleportation magic, so it’s difficult to move Agrisen somewhere isolated before his heart explodes.”
Agrisen’s head slumped forward. But it was only temporary — he would soon wake up again.
And then he’d take everyone in the magic tower hostage, demanding his freedom.
“Tia, you should leave the tower. Just exit the same way you came in.”
I swallowed hard.
“If I give up on regressing, everyone in the tower will die right here.”
“There’s no need for both of us to die.”
“…What?”
Serzan ripped Agrisen’s clothes and shoved the torn fabric into his mouth.
“Our hearts are connected. There’s no reason for you to endure this pain here.”
…He was telling me to leave him here?
For me to wait outside while he stayed behind with that insane maniac and died?
“…Isn’t there a magic that can keep Agrisen unconscious?”
“There is a relic from the Northern Empire that could help, but we can’t get it right now.”
“What if we smuggle him out and then teleport once we’re far enough?”
“To do that, we’d need to get far from the prison first. This is the magic tower — if we create an unregistered teleportation circle nearby, they’ll track us immediately.”
Serzan shook his head firmly.
“And more importantly, to take him out of here, we’d have to remove those magic-sealing chains. Once he’s free, he’ll just use the heart bomb as leverage and escape instantly. We’d be at a disadvantage — unlike us, he has no reason to avoid using teleportation. He’ll do whatever it takes to escape, even if it draws attention.”
He was right — we were in a very unfavorable position.
Agrisen only wanted to get out, so he had nothing to lose. But we were outsiders who shouldn’t even be here.
We needed to quietly eliminate a top-class prisoner without causing any disturbance that could reveal our identities.
“I’ll find a way to delay Agrisen’s death and deal with him safely. In the meantime, you should leave the tower and wait.”
“But…”
When I trailed off, Serzan shook his head.
“This didn’t happen because you followed me. The moment I entered this room, this was bound to happen. You don’t need to feel responsible.”
His voice was reassuring, yet strangely cold. His expression as he looked down at Agrisen was icy.
So there’s no way to solve everything at once right now.
It was the first time I’d seen that look — I could tell easily that it was anger.
What could I even do if I stayed?
Part of me wanted to use his words as an excuse to run away.
Serzan was far better at magic and assessing the situation. He was the protagonist of this world.
He was also someone accustomed to pain — he’d once cooked calmly while a spear was stuck in his stomach.
Even now, he wasn’t treating his wounded hand — as if he’d forgotten it existed — and was just deep in thought.
So maybe… it would be fine?
“Hurry and go.”
The memory of the white flash came to mind.
Compared to that, Serzan’s red flames were almost gentle. The white flash felt like tens of thousands of sharp needles stabbing into my body.
And I’d have to endure that for ten thousand years?
The thought alone was horrifying. At that moment, I was already outside the prison. I wanted to run far away from the tower.
But after only a few steps, I stopped.
“…Why am I doing this…”
I looked down at my trembling hands and legs. I was clearly consumed by fear.
So why couldn’t I move?
When fear is too overwhelming, you sometimes freeze — was that what was happening?
But then…
Why did I also feel like I wanted to go back?
I didn’t want to be hit by that white flash ever again.
And yet, for some reason, I wanted to return to that prison — right to the heart of the explosion.
I placed my hand on the swirling black portal of the prison door. A pulling sensation — then I opened my eyes again.
The prison was even more of a wreck than before.
In the middle of a sea of red, Serzan lowered the hand he had raised toward Agrisen and turned to look at me.
The usual kindness in his eyes was gone, replaced by a sharp, almost feral glare.
“Why did you come back?”
I avoided his gaze and slowly walked over to the white wall, sliding down to sit against it.
“Well, I’ll just… stay here for now.”
At my weak words, his glare sharpened, as if he was now angry with me.
“You should leave — you’ll only get in the way.”
“…”
“Tia, if you’re here, I can’t focus. I already told you — my priority is your safety. If you’re in danger, I can’t think about anything else.”
I quietly stared at Agrisen.
Then I spoke with difficulty.
“…If you can’t think of any good plan right now, then that means beating Agrisen up won’t magically give us a better idea.”
I avoided Serzan’s gaze and tugged at the edge of his black glove.
When I saw his once-slender, pale fingers twisted and mangled, he quickly pulled the glove back on tightly.
“You didn’t come back out of pity for this, did you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then why?”
“I just… wanted to come back.”
For a moment, Serzan seemed frozen in time.
I took that chance to point at Agrisen.
“What I mean is — it might take time to come up with a good idea. And we’re in a strange situation where we have both too much time and almost no time at all.”
If we regressed, we’d have countless chances.
But delaying Agrisen’s death just delayed the moment of regression.
If we were going to regress anyway, it was better to do it sooner. We had important things to do — we needed to get back to the imperial palace as soon as possible.
“If Agrisen decides to kill himself, we can’t stop him. So either we negotiate with him, or we find a way to move him somewhere remote in the short time before he dies. But right now, the second option is impossible. So we’ll have to bring him back to the negotiation table.”
Agrisen’s face was turning purple.
He was holding his breath, quietly, so Serzan wouldn’t notice.
I gave a bitter smile.
“Agrisen doesn’t look like he wants to talk right now.”
“That’s exactly why you need to leave the tower.”
“No, Serzan — you’re avoiding the real answer because you’re worried about me.”
I closed my eyes tightly.
“We can’t refuse the game he’s proposing. We have to play it his way — and win.”
Agrisen wanted to trap himself, us, and everyone in the tower in an endless loop.
So we had to step into that loop and fight it out.
Until Agrisen collapsed first…
Or until I went mad and knelt at his feet.
