Chapter 40 - His Time (1)

It did not age. It remained young through every season.

["Estelle."]

It grew more beautiful by the day, the scent of freshly picked apples lingering at its fingertips. The tops of its feet smelled richly of grapes. Whenever it walked, people were enraptured, as though drunk on wine. Its hair was a golden field of fully ripened grain; whenever it fluttered in the wind, the village fell under the spell of autumn's fragrance.

["Estelle, the Saintess of the Borderlands."]

At some point, people began to call it that.

["Saintess."]

A woman worn down by poverty came carrying a sick newborn. She said she had come from far away, following rumor after rumor.

["Please, I beg you. My child is ill. Please give this poor little one your blessing..."]

["Do you know the rules?"]

["Yes, yes. I know them...!"]

Estelle nodded.

["Leave the child here. Come back at dawn tomorrow."]

The woman bowed her head and left.

A tiny child remained where the mother had been. The swaddling was old, but soft. The woman had chosen the softest rags she owned, stitched them together, and wrapped her child in them. Old swaddling, a blanket fresh with the scent of milk... Estelle briefly buried the tip of its nose in it.

How fragrant.

Humans were so desperate in their love.

["Goo?"]

The child reached out and stroked Estelle's hair.

Estelle smiled. Even wrapped in rags, life was radiant. Estelle considered itself blessed that this undeserved miracle existed in the world.

["It's all right."]

Estelle's shadow writhed.

["You won't hurt anymore."]

["Gaa..."]

The shadow's maw opened wide.

["Poor little thing."]

Estelle quietly swallowed the newborn whole.

The child's death was docile. It did not even struggle. It merely sank helplessly into the shadow.

As the newborn's flesh and bones dissolved, memories flowed into Estelle. Memories that had clung to the child's flesh and bones. The pain of birth, the sensation of a swollen uvula, its mother's smile...

["Yes."]

Memories as brief as its short life. After looking through that fleeting life, Estelle gestured toward its own shadow. The shadow bubbled up.

["Live a little longer."]

At that moment, the shadow shrank into the shape of a baby. The black shade took on the color of flesh. That flesh-colored form wriggled slightly, smiling as innocently as a young animal.

["Gaa!"]

Estelle smiled.

["Poor little thing."]

The mother arrived as soon as dawn broke the next day. Had she stayed awake all night? Her face was haggard. Estelle, who had stood by the door waiting for dawn, handed the swaddled baby to her.

["The child should be healthy now."]

["Ah..."]

["Your child won't suffer even minor illnesses. Please keep cherishing this little one, just as you have loved them until now."]

The mother's face crumpled.

["Thank you..."]

Rumors began spreading from the fringes of the continent.

["Saintess..."]

Those rumors ate away at the small kingdoms.

["Thank you, Saintess..."]

The small kingdoms on the borderlands were the first to stir.

["Estelle."]

Next, the great kingdom encompassing those smaller realms stirred.

["Saintess Estelle."]

Other small kingdoms that had endured by using the great kingdom as their defensive wall were thrown into turmoil. The continent was vast. And throughout that vastness, unhappy humans abounded.

Those whose flesh rotted under the grip of dreadful diseases.

Those who limped along, lamenting.

Those born disabled.

Those who had gone blind.

["Saintess of Salvation!"]

The world's blinded eyes, crippled arms, limping legs, and rotting flesh gradually gathered around Estelle. Each time, Estelle's shadow grew a little larger.

["You who will save us!"]

As Estelle's shadow spread, human dominions shrank. Officials could not govern villages abandoned by their people, and kings could not reign over cities whose subjects had fled.

["Salvation of all the sick!"]

Estelle.

The kings realized it was an epidemic with a new name.

And the kings knew very well the one thing needed to eradicate a disease.

["Burn it!"]

Fire.

["Burn the witch's nest to the ground!"]

Estelle heard screams.

A raging inferno was burning people alive.

No.

That wasn't it.

["Show no mercy. They're all cursed monsters! Don't let a single one escape!"]

People were burning people alive.

"You creatures who refuse to see people as people."

It sounded like a groan. Heard another way, it was closer to a scream.

Groans gathered into a shadow, and screams congealed into a blade.

"Be swallowed by your own malice!"

The Demon King swung its sword. The sword trembled as though groaning.

"Kim Gongja!"

The Witch shouted.

"I'm fine!"

I stood facing the Demon King.

WHOOOOSH!

The air surged like a raging current. A red beam seemed about to erupt from the Demon King's sword.

'Right?'

I concentrated aura in the soles of my feet.

'Or left?'

A fifty-fifty chance.

The Demon King's blade screamed.

A sword redder than blood and hotter than fire engulfed me.

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

'Left, then.'

I die.

Whenever I die, I return to twenty-four hours earlier.

[6 days, 23 hours, 53 minutes, and 27 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again.]

The skill description for Regressor's Clockwork Watch explicitly states that the user retains their "memories and stats."

Those retained stats included skills.

[You have died.]

[5 days, 23 hours, 51 minutes, and 42 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again.]

And as the Sword Emperor's attendant spirit sharing my memories of regression demonstrated, skills carried over exactly as they had been at the moment of death.

Their abilities, power, causality, and memories.

Of course, even their cooldowns.

[You have died.]

The day turns around.

[4 days, 23 hours, 49 minutes, and 33 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again.]

I clear the eleventh floor.

No one dies.

I climb to the twelfth floor and cross blades with the Demon King.

The Black Dragon Witch helps me.

The enraged Demon King summons a hundred ghosts.

I charge at it and die.

[You have died.]

[3 days, 23 hours, 47 minutes, and 15 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again.]

I die.

[You have died.]

[2 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes, and 28 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again...]

I die.

[You have died.]

[1 day, 23 hours, 43 minutes, and 13 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again...]

The day turns around.

[You have died.]

[23 hours, 41 minutes, and 53 seconds remain until you can use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again...]

And then.

That day comes again.

[You can now use Summon a Hundred Ghosts again.]

For every seven sword fights I repeated, I could wage one decisive battle.

"... Kim Gongja!"

The Witch shouted.

I nodded.

"I'm fine."

In this life, I leaped to the right without even looking at the beam.

SHAAAA!

The red beam pierced empty space in vain. Dozens of skeletons were caught in it and met violent deaths. But ten times as many goblins and orcs burned.

"You!"

The Demon King's voice twisted with rage.

"A mere mortal! Do you possess the eyes of prophecy?!"

"Something like that."

Except that the price of that prophecy was a week of my life.

"Ruthless."

The attendant spirit clicked his tongue.

"You really are one ruthless bastard."

He constantly demonstrated right before my eyes where I should swing my sword and how I should move my feet.

"But this is a seriously sweet deal. Hey, Zombie! Try testing whether you can stack summons later. Hole up somewhere, wait a week, and summon them again."

I furrowed my brows.

'Let's talk later! Please!'

"I figure the earlier summons will probably get canceled and only the later ones will count, but who knows? Maybe you'll get a miraculous bargain bonanza where four thousand becomes eight thousand, and eight thousand becomes eighty thousand. Man! Then you'll change classes from Zombie to Zombie King! Zombie King Kim Gongja! How cool is that?!"

'I said, stop talking! You're distracting me. I can't concen—'

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

'Fuuuck!'

"Though your body dies and dies, a thousand deaths anew; though Zombie turns to skeleton, with soul or without; could my scorn for Kim Zombie ever fade away?"

'I fucking died because of you! Now I have to repeat another week!'

"That's because you're a weakling. Not my fault. Nope, not at all."

The attendant spirit cackled.

'I swear, sooner or later, I'm going to fuck you up!'

"Oooh. But I'm already dead? How are you going to fuck up a dead ghost? Bleh! Is our little Zombie getting mad? Peekaboo."

'You son of a—'

"Channel that anger into killing the Demon King already. I cleared the twentieth floor alone without any of your bullshit overpowered skills. Oh, how pathetic you are, Kim Zombie."

'Damn it!'

Despite all that talk, we steadily drove the Demon King into a corner.

The skeletons held its army in place. The Sword Star slaughtered any monsters that approached us. I died in weeklong stretches to predict the Demon King's attacks, and with those predictions, the Witch freely landed effective blows.

"Black Dragon leader! Right next!"

"Got it!"

The Witch scattered ink-dark aura. The mirrors reflected it. Once, twice, three times, four times—each reflection doubled its strength.

SHAAAA!

Amplified dozens of times in an instant, the ink-black strike snapped the Demon King's waist.

"GRAAAAH!"

In the heart of the frozen world, the Demon King's scream tore through the sky.

"Hahaha! Nice shot, madam!"

I laughed. I swung my sword as I laughed.

"Who are you calling madam?! I'm not married yet!"

"What have you been doing all these years without getting married?!"

"I'm. Still. Young!"

"Oh, come on. That's just the elixir of eternal youth talking! I know all about it."

"You... Once we kill the Demon King, you and I need a little talk."

We crossed the line between life and death countless times.

Sometimes the red beam caught the Witch. Sometimes it swept up the Sword Star. One second. Then another. We fought desperately, staking our lives. Every strike from the Demon King was lethal, so even a single second of carelessness was fatal.

[You have died.]

But it doesn't matter.

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

My resolve to die is stronger than the Demon King's power to kill.

"You... bastards..."

Twelve times.

"How dare you... my grudges... my resentments...!"

The Witch's aura pierced the Demon King's body twelve times. Only then did its movements slow a little. Black, filthy water sizzled at the points where it had been struck.

'Huh?'

Was I imagining it?

For an instant, before the filthy water bubbled up... I thought I saw flesh-colored skin instead of black. It lasted only a fleeting moment. When I turned my eyes to check again, the Demon King's body was already covered in filthy water.

"Guh!"

The Demon King withdrew its sword.

Though its face had no expression, I could feel it glaring at us.

[The Demon King of Autumn Rain has decided to retreat.]

What?

[The Demon King of Autumn Rain is retreating to the thirteenth floor!]

That's fucking ridiculous!

Heat surged from my heart to the top of my head.

"Wait! What kind of boss runs away when we've practically beaten it?!"

"Do not misunderstand! I shall return!"

"Would you look at this bastard?"

I swung my sword. But the Demon King's body crumbled before I could reach it. As though an invisible drainpipe had appeared in the hole in the ground, the pitch-black filthy water rapidly flowed into it.

"Hey! You black sesame shake of a bastard!"

It wasn't just the Demon King. The monsters born from its shadow also collapsed, bubbling and foaming.

GURRRGL!

It was like a toilet flushing. The monsters became a dark torrent and vanished into the hole in the ground.

"Wow."

All of a sudden, only the Witch, the Sword Star, thousands of boneheads, and I remained on the plain.

"What the..."

I stood stunned, wondering whether all my countless deaths were about to become pointless deaths in an instant.

[The Tower acknowledges your choice.]

A voice sounded inside my head.

[Creating hidden quest.]

[The twelfth-floor quest is being revised!]

"... Huh?"

And the announcements kept coming.

[The thirteenth-floor quest is being revised!]

[The fourteenth-floor quest is being revised!]

[The fifteenth-floor quest is being revised!]

[The sixteenth-floor quest is being revised!]

[The seventeenth-floor quest is being revised!]

[The eighteenth-floor quest is being revised!]

[The nineteenth-floor quest is being revised!]

I was speechless at this phenomenon I had never experienced before.

Quests could be revised?

"..."

As I stood with my mouth open, words appeared before my eyes.

Words meant for me.

[Hero of the Frozen World]

Difficulty: Unknown

Mission Objective: You have made a resolution. You will not tolerate a single victim.

To expect no reward from those you save is called justice. To expect no recognition from those you save is called devotion. One who devotes themselves to justice is called a Hero.

O Hero!

The humans of the continent will not know of your justice. They will not realize your devotion. Yet justice remains justice, and devotion remains devotion. Will you choose to remain a Hero even in a frozen world?

The Demon King has fled, wounded. It has not yet gone far. If you so desire, you can pursue it freely.

Now, only your choice remains.

A quest meant only for me.

"..."

The voice rang out.

[Will you accept the quest?]

My heart pounded.

It was a question that required no hesitation at all.

"Yes."

The voice answered me.

[The hidden quest is now active!]

[Quest name: Hero of the Frozen World.]