Chapter 46

Chapter 46

“……?”

What did I just see?

I thought my eyes must be playing tricks on me, so I immediately raised my hand to rub them.

Of course, my attempt ended in failure. That was because Mr. Yoon Juyeong, who had been watching me closely from the side, grabbed my hand and launched into a full speech about how rubbing your eyes is bad for your eye health.

I let Mr. Yoon Juyeong’s nagging go in one ear and out the other while I kept reading the information floating before my eyes about “The Rusty Sword of the Second Tarik.”

‘…What the hell is this? Something happens with a set effect?’

Was this “regression” really the kind of regression I thought it was?

With both hands still held by Mr. Yoon Juyeong, I blinked blankly and looked up at Jeong Seojin. The moment our eyes met, Jeong Seojin silently nodded without a word.

“Um, Mr. Jeong Seojin… Is this for real?”

“It’s real.”

“…Really?”

“Really.”

“Master. Was there something in there that shouldn’t exist?”

“Uh, no, well, this… I’m not sure if I should say it shouldn’t exist, but…”

No, an item like this actually existed in the world? For real?

I read the item description again. Of course, the content I’d already read didn’t suddenly change now. The shocking information I’d seen was still there in the item’s description window, exactly as before.

Regression to a point in time desired by the equipment’s owner.

“You can… turn back time? By collecting five pieces of equipment identical to this one?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. So here’s what I’m asking.”

Before I knew it, Jeong Seojin had carefully taken hold of the hand Mr. Yoon Juyeong had released. I flinched as if a carnivore had bitten my arm, shrinking back and blinking dazedly.

Maybe it was because shocking news kept hammering into my brain. My head simply wouldn’t work properly.

“Can you make that effect work even without collecting all five pieces?”

Regression. What was regression?

In a dictionary sense, it meant returning to one’s original place by going full circle, but the “regression” mentioned in this item description meant something slightly different.

Regression: a phenomenon where the subject of the phenomenon returns to a specific point in time they desire.

‘No, this sounds like something out of a fantasy novel… Well, if you think about it, dungeons appearing and hunters’ situations are pretty close to a fantasy novel too.’

If you thought about it, the situation humanity was currently in was like a fantasy novel itself, but even so, turning back time wasn’t something that could be treated as ordinary.

I finally let out a deep sigh and pressed my hand to my forehead. What was I supposed to say about this? I felt like I’d suddenly swallowed an enormous amount of food I couldn’t digest, my stomach bloated and heavy.

“…Mr. Jeong Seojin.”

“What?”

“I really… I really have a mountain of things I want to ask. Let me start with just two for now.”

“Ask away.”

“W-Wait, Master. Are you really going to listen to that guy?”

“Uh, well, I can at least hear him out, right?”

Honestly, what Jeong Seojin was asking… activating that “set effect” wasn’t that difficult for me.

It was truly astonishing, absurd, amazing, and burdensome… but it was true. It was just a feeling, but on the premise that I wanted to do it, I could modify the options or effects attached to this equipment to a certain degree.

‘It seems that because I’ve “dominated” this equipment… I can only touch the supplementary parts attached to it.’

Regardless of whether I actually intended to grant Jeong Seojin’s request, at least it was certain that I “could.”

That was why I could ask, and had to ask, why Jeong Seojin had made such a request in the first place. Because “regression” wasn’t something that affected just me and ended there.

Fortunately, Mr. Yoon Juyeong seemed to understand my intentions. With a face that was a strange mix of dissatisfaction and anxiety, he eventually closed his mouth. I gave him an awkward smile as an apology, then looked back at Jeong Seojin.

Jeong Seojin’s face was utterly calm, showing not a single trace of emotional disturbance — hard to believe he was the one who’d just dropped such a bombshell.

Honestly, it was a bit irritating that the person who actually made the statement seemed completely unfazed, while I, the one who heard it, was this shaken.

I forced down the dissatisfaction I’d been harboring inside and opened my mouth, striving to stay as calm as possible.

“First. Why do you want to turn back time?”

“Do you remember what I said last time?”

“What was that?”

“That there’s something I want to reclaim and something I want to find.”

“…Ah.”

Come to think of it, he had told me something like that before.

I slowly nodded to show I remembered. Seeing my gesture, Jeong Seojin confirmed that I recalled his words and continued his explanation.

“It’s for that. To reclaim what I want, I need to turn back time. As for what I want to find… honestly, as things stand, there’s no hope. It vanished without leaving a single trace.”

“…Alright. I’ll accept that you have a reason you desperately want to turn back time. Then let me ask a second question.”

“Go ahead.”

“What do you want to do after you turn back time?”

“……”

Unlike when I asked why he wanted to turn back time, the answer to this question didn’t come right away.

Instead of pressing him for a quick reply, I waited patiently for his answer.

I figured that since he seemed like someone who had never shared this kind of story with anyone before, he would need time to think it over carefully.

As I expected, after enough time had passed for the second hand to tick dozens of times, Jeong Seojin slowly began to speak.

“I’m going to find a woman.”

“…A woman?”

“Yeah. My benefactor… and my savior.”

I kept my mouth tightly shut and remained silent for a moment. Given that this was coming from someone like Jeong Seojin, I had expected the weight of it to be considerable, but…

‘A savior, huh.’

It was a heavier and more delicate story than I had imagined. I carefully traced the word ‘savior’ that had slipped from Jeong Seojin’s lips in my mouth. Savior. A savior…

“So I take it the woman is what you ‘want to find.’ But you also said there’s something you want to reclaim, right? What’s that?”

“My biological family.”

Compared to how difficult it had been for him to talk about his ‘savior,’ this answer came out as casually as tossing a pebble on the roadside.

I carefully replayed the phrase ‘biological family’ that Jeong Seojin had uttered. Biological family…

‘Were things… bad between them?’

No matter how I thought about it, it was a word that wouldn’t easily come from a harmonious household.

As if confirming my thoughts, Jeong Seojin continued the rest of his story with a perfectly composed face, having wiped away all the emotional agitation he had briefly shown when talking about his ‘savior.’

“To make a long story short, since it’s messy… it was a family where a man beat his five-year-old son badly enough to send him to the emergency room, and a woman put bleach in her son’s rice, eyeing the life insurance payout.”

“……”

That was truly the shortest and most brutal description imaginable.

A family that was not just dysfunctional but had hit rock bottom with no hope in sight.

And from the story, I had a feeling that ‘five-year-old son’ was none other than Jeong Seojin himself…

‘To have turned out this well despite being born into a family like that…’

He didn’t have any major flaws in his character, nor did his actions show any serious problems. And considering he didn’t display any violent tendencies toward those weaker than him…

‘You’re amazing… Jeong Seojin…’

I knew he’d tell me not to treat him like a kid if he heard that, but honestly, that’s what I thought.

Sigh. For him to have grown up this well despite being born into such a family…

Of course, him tormenting me with titles like ‘master’ was a bit much. And the fact that he seemed to have taken a liking to teasing me was also really annoying.

“You must have… been through a lot, Jeong Seojin.”

“Not really? If you heard the story, you’d know I didn’t live with those bastards after I turned five. Because I lived with… my savior, like I said earlier.”

“Ah.”

So that’s why he called her his ‘savior.’

I nodded as the pieces finally clicked into place. It made sense that someone who had saved him from a family like that deserved to be called a savior.

Hmm, but.

‘…Why would he want to find those bastards?’

Even if they were that kind of trash family, you’d think there’d be some lingering attachment… but Jeong Seojin’s attitude when mentioning his trash family was far too matter-of-fact for that. In the end, I asked about the question that had been bothering me, as carefully as I could.

“Um, but… why do you want to find people like that?”

“……”

There it was again, that long silence.

He’d talked about his family like it was nothing, but when asked *why* he wanted to find them, he fell silent. How was I supposed to interpret that?

A strange chill ran down my spine, and I broke out in a cold sweat as I looked at Jeong Seojin.

And unfortunately, my ominous premonition had never been wrong.

“I’m going to kill them.”

“…Excuse me?”

“More precisely… I’ll grill them first to see if they know anything about my savior’s whereabouts, and *then* kill them.”

“Huuuuh?”

“Unfortunately, those bastards all got killed by monsters during the Monster Parade.”

While I was struck speechless by the sudden shock, Jeong Seojin, with a subtle expression as if gauging my reaction, nevertheless finished what he had to say.

“Maybe if I’d still been an unawakened back then, but after I awakened, I could kill those bastards without leaving a trace, so why would I hold back? If I go back to the past, I’ll save those bastards from getting killed by monsters, and then kill them myself. …Of course, finding my savior is the top priority.”

Ah. I see.

I see…