#089

A fishy smell stung the nostrils. Fabio was tied to a chair, breathing heavily. Behind him stood Bishop Andrea. The knife aimed at his throat gleamed coldly. He looked poised to slice the throat the moment Athanas took a single step closer.

‘Before I use… Regression…’

…he had to gather as much information as possible.

Only then could he save Fabio.

Athanas grit his teeth, suppressing the urge to turn back time immediately.

“What do you want? I will grant you anything. Just let him go.”

“…Are you pretending to have a human heart? How laughable.”

Andrea pressed the blade closer. A thin red line appeared on the pale neck.

“First, throw all your weapons far away. If you are sincere about doing anything, you should at least show that much.”

Without any bargaining, Athanas followed Andrea’s instructions. He set down his sword and kicked it far away. Daggers, water canteens—he dropped everything he had in his hands. Checking Fabio’s condition came first. Only then could he properly save him after turning back time.

“Is that enough?”

“Hah.”

Andrea wore a look of sheer disbelief.

“Discarding your weapons in this situation. Are you truly the slayer? I simply cannot believe it.”

“…….”

Andrea lowered the knife slightly, loosening his grip.

Athanas could not take his eyes off Fabio. Fabio was slumped in the chair as if he couldn’t even support his own body. A blurred gaze was fixed on Athanas. He couldn’t tell what emotion was contained within it. Was it resentment, or…

“Still, a promise is a promise, so I suppose I should release him.”

Andrea stroked Fabio’s cheek with a blood-soaked hand and whispered something low. The ties binding Fabio slid away. What he had thought were ropes were actually black snakes. Athanas rushed forward and embraced Fabio, who was about to collapse.

Blood stained his clothes. The bleeding seemed more severe than he had thought. Considering the size of the pool of blood on the floor, it was a miracle he hadn’t lost consciousness. What should he do first in a situation like this? He felt he needed to find where the bleeding started. Athanas fumbled over Fabio’s pale face.

“Fabio, it’s okay now. I’ve come to save you. Fabio….”

He knew well how much a person had to be injured to die, and in which cases there was no hope. This wasn’t the first time he had seen someone dying. A cold judgment flashed through his mind that it was already too late, but his hands continued to grope for the wounds, struggling to stop the bleeding.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I….”

This entire situation felt like a terrible nightmare.

The part of him that calculated the best method in any given moment was commanding Athanas: Get up. Assess the situation. Grab your sword…

But Athanas couldn’t move an inch. He knew that hugging Fabio wouldn’t save him. However, he couldn’t bring himself to lay Fabio—who was barely breathing and slumped in his arms, still alive—back down into the pool of blood.

He knew that if he used Regression, this would all be undone. This scene would become a moment remembered only by Athanas. Thinking of it that way, it truly was a nightmare. Because he could wake up from it.

Yet, the thought of Fabio lying in a pool of blood in the nightmare Athanas left behind made his entire body feel as if it were freezing over.

“…I’ll make it okay. I can do it. Fabio. Please trust me. I have a trump card as well. I didn’t tell you, but do you know what it is?”

Athanas wanted to reassure Fabio. He wanted to apologize. Before everything returned to nothing.

“Don’t be surprised. I am….”

Fabio weakly reached out. A blood-stained finger brushed across Athanas’s lips. Shh.

Splat.

He heard a sound that made the back of his neck chill. Only then did Athanas remember Andrea’s presence. It was strange. To completely forget a person in the same room, even for a brief moment.

‘A Vassal of a terrible Evil God who can Twist Perception and hide their own existence…’

Athanas tensed up.

Andrea stood there like a shadow. Snakes cascaded down from beneath his priestly robes.

“…There’s no way a slayer possesses human emotions. If he did, he would never have done such a thing to Alicia. Yes.”

Andrea muttered.

“So, this is all an act?”

Athanas hugged Fabio tightly. An alarm bell rang in his head.

“To make him stop acting… I must remove the reason for the act.”

In that instant, hot blood splashed across his face. Involuntarily, Athanas looked down.

He felt no sensation in the fingers that had felt as if they were burning.

This time, he could not resist the urge to use Regression.

* * *

He took a deep breath of the cold dawn air.

There was no burning pain in his fingers. His location was the office.

He didn’t even think about silencing his footsteps or avoiding being seen. Athanas ran.

“Fabio!”

He flung the door open. Fabio looked up and saw Athanas. It was the face of a living person—flushed and full of blood. He saw Fabio, startled, put down his stylus and stand up from his seat. He heard a voice asking what had brought him here so suddenly.

‘He’s alive.’

Athanas wanted to hug Fabio. He wanted to overwrite the previous sensation with something else. He wanted to confirm it for sure. Whether there were any injuries, whether he was truly safe. He wanted to check every inch and breathe a sigh of relief.

‘But before that…’

Athanas drew his sword.

Attacking an unsuspecting person is a simple task.

When hit by an unexpected attack, a person perceives the blow a beat later. In his arrogant youth, he used to perform such tricks in every match. He would stop the sword right before the Adam’s apple and watch the opponent’s pupils contract. Then he would count how long it took for the words “I lose” to leave their mouth. The slower they were, the weaker they were. He used to rank them in his mind like that. He stopped doing it after being told it was a morbid hobby.

He just had to not stop the sword there.

Andrea let out a choking sound. That was all.

As the sword was drawn, blood sprayed. Athanas thought calmly. This was his first time killing a Vassal of an Othergod. Would it be the same as killing a human? Should he cut the head off entirely? Or burn it? Should he pour holy water on it? Athanas looked back at Fabio to seek advice.

Fabio had turned pale. That bloodless appearance overlapped with the sight he had seen earlier, making his heart feel as if it were dropping. Athanas wanted to tell Fabio that there was nothing to worry about now. He had to tell him that it wouldn’t happen again…

“What… what have you just done?”

…That terror was directed toward Athanas.

It felt as if he had suddenly been splashed with cold water.

“…I can explain.”

He just had to explain calmly.

This time, he would not use Regression again. It didn’t matter if he earned their fear. Hiding things solved nothing. He had realized it this time. If he hid Regression, he couldn’t explain many things. If he couldn’t explain, it became dangerous. They might be scared or feel betrayed at first, but they would understand soon. Even if they didn’t understand, it didn’t matter. It was better to be alive and feared than to die without anyone to rely on.

“Don’t come closer!”

At the sharp voice, Athanas came to a dead halt.

“Have you gone mad? Killing someone so suddenly…!”

“…This man is a Vassal of an Othergod.”

“But he hadn’t done anything yet!”

Fabio’s voice was trembling.

Hadn’t done anything?

At those words, something surged up inside him.

“Condemning one who has not yet committed a crime is against the Doctrine…!”

“I saw it.”

“What?”

“I said I saw what this man did. He committed a crime so terrible that a painless death like this is far too generous.”

“What crime did he commit? More importantly, when did you see that?”

Athanas fell silent for a moment.

“…Your breathing is too fast. It would be best to take slow, deep breaths.”

Athanas lowered his sword with slow movements. Fabio’s gaze wavered.

“You said… you could explain, right?”

Though trembling, Fabio did not run away. Instead, he took a step forward. Athanas felt a strange sense of fulfillment. He felt as if everything would be resolved well.

“Yes. Once you hear it, you’ll understand everything.”

“Hieek…!”

However, smiling was not a good choice.

‘…At least he didn’t call the Saintess immediately.’

Fabio was merely trembling, clutching the Saintess’s Sacred Relic tightly. To avoid startling Fabio further, Athanas slowly knelt and sat on the floor.

“Bishop Andrea killed people. Moreover, he killed them intentionally, after torturing them horribly.”

“Do you know who the victims were? Was it perhaps a child…?”

“Fabio.”

“…Yes.”

“The one who died was you.”

“What?”

His reaction indicated he didn’t understand what that meant.

Athanas calmly unfolded the situation. Everything that had happened, and the fact that he had returned by using Regression.

Athanas thought Fabio would be greatly shocked and frightened by ‘Regression.’

But Fabio’s reaction was different.

“…Athanas. Let me ask one thing. Do you happen to have high resistance to mental Blessings? Or do you usually carry a Talisman that increases such resistance?”

Athanas replied that he did not.

Fabio looked at the ceiling for a moment and took a long, deep breath.

“Athanas, what you saw was likely a hallucination shown by a Distorted One. It’s something that didn’t happen. Do you understand?”

Fabio explained earnestly.

“You must have felt something strange. You might have done things you normally wouldn’t. ‘Distortion’ clouds a person’s judgment by greatly amplifying or reducing emotions. Didn’t you feel that? No, I can tell just by hearing the explanation. Who in their right mind would forget there’s an enemy and tend to the wounded when both are present? Naturally, you should worry about the enemy first! Tending to the wounded is something to do after the situation is over. There’s no way you would have confused that. Therefore, the fact that you acted that way means your emotions were already manipulated by Distortion…”

In short, the situation Athanas experienced was a lie, he had fallen into a trap, and his current actions were rash.

“…Are you listening to me?”

He was listening. He was watching intently, even noticing how Fabio’s face flushed slightly as he spoke with passion.

“Then you didn’t suffer any pain. That’s a relief.”

“No, what do you mean ‘a relief’? You just killed a person! You’ve committed a murder where you can’t even prove self-defense!”

Fabio grew angry.

“Even if a curse that clouds judgment was cast, it should have disappeared the moment you used Regression! To kill a person so simply! What on earth were you thinking? Because you have Regression? Because if you kill someone, you can just turn back time and make it as if it never happened? So you just tried killing him first? If this is natural to you, then just how many times have you…!”

Fabio looked at Andrea’s corpse and squeezed his eyes shut.

“…This is a game. This is a fucking ultra-high-definition game. The graphics are fucking insane. It’s a virtual reality game…”

After muttering that for a while, Fabio opened his eyes and looked at Athanas.

“…Still, it’s a relief. I thought you were some crazy murderer who kills people without a second thought. If you killed him thinking about using Regression, then at least you’re being rational. Efficient, too. Right?”

“No. I will not use Regression.”

“…What?”

90 – Chapter 90