Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

Allen had so far acquired three books.

The black book: the possessor.

The white book: the regressor.

And the gray book: the reincarnator.

The three books he’d obtained after his regression had been incredibly useful—except for the gray one that he couldn't read—but…

'The problem is that I don't know who they are.'

The gray book had no content at the moment.

And it wasn’t clear who exactly was associated with the book.

‘I knew that Heisel was given a human body under unique circumstances.’

Yet the book had no reaction.

The gray book had shown no response, adding evidence to the suspicion that Allen's prediction had totally missed the mark. Therefore, he had no choice but to leave it alone until some special event occurred.

The black book showed the past from Julius's point of view before his regression.

Its inability to tell the future beyond the present point in time served as a disadvantage, but it still gave him so much help that it offset that minor downside. 

Allen turned his head, staring at the final book. Frowning, he slowly recalled the information he knew about it.

The white book described the current series of events from Allen's point of view.

Originally, it had no significant purpose apart from maintaining a clear record of his memories of the past, so he hadn’t really found it particularly useful.

'The first time was at the Spring of Spirits on Mount Nicaea.’

While he’d been taking the reward meant for Julius to find, the white book had suddenly fluttered about like mad as a phrase popped into his mind.

「The book linked to ◯◯◯◯ detects ◯◯◯◯! ◯◯◯◯ reacts to ◯◯◯◯!」

Although it had already disappeared from the white book, Allen could still vividly recall that sentence.

'And then the next was when I was trapped in the forest with the witch.’

The words had come to mind when he’d almost fought a boring war of attrition, until he’d found the core of the boundary.

Thanks to the white book's help in finding the nucleus, it had been easy to get out.

「The book linked to ◯◯◯◯ confirms the conditions. The presence of ◯◯ has been recognized! The target associated with ◯◯ is nearby! Please eliminate the ◯◯!」

「The conditions have been met. ◯◯◯ ◯◯ (tentative name) is manifested!」

「Three steps to the right. Two steps back. A shock wave reaching up to 400 meters within eight seconds.」

This, too, had been erased, so it only existed in Allen's memory.

The last time that information had appeared was during the earthquake when he was eating with Heisel.

「The book linked to ◯◯◯◯ detects danger in ◯◯! ◯◯◯◯ reacts to ◯◯!」

That sentence hadn’t disappeared, still remaining in the white book.

'What does this all mean?'

Allen's eyes unfocused as he sank into deep thought.

Since the earthquake, Allen had been trying to guess the meaning behind those censored words, or just any clues at all about what the phrases meant.

The book was out of the ordinary, even to Allen, who had broadened his horizons of imagination to encompass even the unimaginable. Magic, too, was a foreign entity that twisted and mangled with the harmony of the world. The imagination of a sorcerer was the driving force behind the manifestation of that which could not typically exist within reality.

Allen tried to draw the most plausible conclusions based on past memories. Why was this happening?

'The force that gave me this white book and access to its abilities… It must want something.’

Once he’d established a thesis for his thoughts to ruminate over, theories arose in his mind, sprouting off that foundation like branches from a tree.

In the white book, there is always a "book linked to ◯◯◯◯"… That’s always the opening line.

Allen thought that ◯◯◯◯ was some kind of demon or something with similar power or knowledge.

He suspected that the person who sent him back couldn’t have done so heedlessly, so he hypothesized that the notification itself was a kind of instruction.

'I think it'd be more reasonable to give direct instructions rather than coded messages like that, but…’

He couldn’t make any reasonable guess about the intentions of demons. No, he doubted whether it was even the doing of a demon in the first place, but that wasn’t the topic of his meanderings at the moment.

It could’ve been by the hand of a demon, or perhaps the mercy of a god. In any case, the regression had already taken place and could not be reversed.

In that case, he should just use it.

Until the time came when he would have to pay the price for regression.

Allen thought there had to be meaning in the periodic appearance of the white book. That was a given.

Then what was its purpose in doing that?

‘Why would they warn me of the dangers to come…? They must want me to be prepared.’

Danger always accompanied by a forewarning… was generally related to the actions of dark sorcerers or demons. 

After that introductory phrase, there was always a saying in the middle of the sentence that something had been sensed.

「…detects ◯◯◯◯!」

「…◯◯’s presence is known!」

「…detects danger in ◯◯!」

Even when he found the core of the barrier, this sentence appeared:

…The target associated with ◯◯ is nearby! They want to stop ◯◯!

At that time, the only thing he thought could be "the target associated with ◯◯" was the witch belonging to the dark sorcerer group Estedor.

The general goal for dark sorcerers was to create disasters, and ultimately…

'To try to summon the Demon King.’

If so, ◯◯ could be assumed to be referring to the Demon King.

He didn’t know why they would want to summon the devil. But it was clear that they were trying to achieve it at all costs.

And because of all of the violent behavior associated with that, he kept running into Julius.

Thinking in that same line of reasoning, the white book must have been trying to outline what it wanted from Allen.

The white book wanted Allen to defeat the Demon King and his evil forces.

Of course, that theory may be incorrect.

In the first place, the meaning of ‘◯◯’ may differ between sentences, and any guesses that served as the basis for that conclusion were also just mini-hypotheses within his overarching one. 

'I don't know why the words first started to appear at the Spring of Spirits.’

The same was true of the situation in the forest.

Did the white book only feel the need to help him when witches were in his proximity?

If so, shouldn't it have helped him out in the case of Chimera sorcerer, the first person he’d encountered related to Estedor?

His hypothesis doesn’t hold up when considering the lack of response in the Heavenly Forest, an event that happened after his first interaction with the book. 

Apparently the god in question there had been corrupted by dark sorcerers, so how could the book, under the running hypothesis, have had nothing to say?

Could it have been related to Julius? If it was related to something about Julius from before the regression, how could he find a common thread between all of the situations…

'There is too little information.’

He stopped grasping for straws.

In the absence of any real evidence, hasty judgment would only mess with his head.

But it was still important to do this.

When the most recent sentence had appeared, unlike the previous two times in which the words had disappeared immediately, it remained intact on the page.

'If I find something in this dungeon practice-raid related to dark sorcerers, demons, or the Demon King himself…’

Perhaps he’d be able to fill the gaps in the fragments of clues.

* * *

* * *

"William, did you get any sleep…?” Ariel asked with a concerned look.

On the morning of their departure for the dungeon, William was reading a book with bloodshot eyes, indicating that he might not have slept at all.

“I just can't sleep when I'm nervous… I'd rather read a book instead…”

Turning his head, Allen took in William with dark eyes. He seemed even more anxious, too tired to properly estimate the danger of the ruins.

'It'll take a few days to get there, so he’ll get some sleep at some point.’

It was the sort of situation where they’d be in transport for a good deal of time, but one could make what they wished of the journey. If they got hit by a boring sandstorm or something, they could catch up on sleep then.

"How about you, Evan? Are you as nervous as William?”

"I-I'm not nervous at all. I-I would even say I'm rather looking f-forward to it."

"…Really?"

"Yes!"

Allen smirked. He wouldn't have been this nervous if it were just any ordinary ruins. There was no particular reason to be anxious, at least as far as they knew.

Megaruins were several times larger than any ordinary ruins, rife with hideous tales worthy of its qualifier.

A place where the ghosts of people long passed floated around while monsters slept deep within its catacombs. Where colleagues right beside oneself could disappear if they escaped line of sight for even a moment.

Most of the tales were just superstitions spread through word of mouth among mercenaries, but many actually believed them.

"How about you, Allen?"

"You know me."

Ariel’s eyes sparkled as if they were hiding some secret. "Yes. Compared to the others, Allen seems so calm."

"It’s just practice, anyway. If it were really dangerous, the Academy would take care of us," Allen replied, shrugging his shoulders as if he had nothing to say.

"…Ah."

"And the upperclassmen will be there, too. If you're really worried, we can just ask them for help."

"Really?"

When he turned to meet their gazes shifting toward him, he saw Evan and William glancing toward him, but pretending not to. Knowing they would surely toss and turn all night if he didn’t, Allen began to relay to them the information he had heard from Rachael.

"I've been told… I've heard that right before we enter, we’ll be given an artifact that can help us escape instantaneously."

"Oh!!"

Evan jumped to his feet and cheered. When Evan noticed that he was being judged for that action, he gave a little cough and sat back down in his place.

"Hmmm, it'd be all right if we didn’t have that kind of thing, but ahem, for the Academy to look out for its students… like… I couldn't resist.”

The corners of his mouth soared upward, contradicting his assertion. William yawned loudly, as if Allen's words had relieved him a little.

"Ha… That's a relief… But Allen, how did you get that information…?”

"My fiancée told me.”

"Oh." At Allen's simple answer, William nodded, seeming to recall the rumor.

"I'm glad we have so much support… The upperclassmen in my club didn’t tell me though…”

"Same for me. I guess they thought it was funny to not let us know.”

"I mean, you only go in blind once, right?" Ariel responded with sympathy to William's somber words.

William nodded at Evan's response.

"…If that’s all true, then I feel like the relationship I had with my upperclassmen has been fake all along.”

“People are people wherever you go, I guess,” Ariel said, seeing everyone more relaxed than before. Her eyes were set on Allen.

"In that sense, I'm lucky to have Allen on my team"

"…I agree.”

"You're also the second in the class… I'm rather worried that we'll be a burden as colleagues."

Evan agreed, and William wiped away his sweat with a handkerchief as if he was nervous still.

"If you just do as you practiced, it won't be a problem. You know, I was worried too… that I might have been burdened just because of my class rank."

"Oh, Allen, you’ve given us too much already.”

"That's right! You didn't even try to take advantage of me for being a commoner…”

When Evan coughed to catch William’s attention, William hurriedly corrected his words.

"Oh, well, not that there are others who do."

"I mean, as long as you know.”

"Haha…"

Ariel smiled at William's repeated apologies.

A lively conversation between the commoner and aristocrat—the atmosphere was so different from before that Allen couldn’t even recognize it.

"…Yes, well everything is all good as long as you’re good. Let's do our best.”

He felt the difference even within himself.

‘I didn't mean to get to be this comfortable with them.’

They had met up a few times since the practice session, and eventually, their relationship had changed to the point where they even asked each other personal questions. Even their language had clearly changed from when they had first met.

But unlike the rest of the team, Allen hadn’t been entirely sincere in his relationships with them.

Even so…

"Colleagues…"

It didn't feel so bad.

* * *

There were 36 applicants from the sophomore and junior classes and 141 freshmen, plus 15 professors and assistants who accompanied them. With them was a procession of hundreds of people, including camels and horses to lead the carriages, horseman to lead the horses, and porters as well.

Julius stood at the end of that long procession.

Yellow, yellow-green, orangish-yellow, yellow, yellow, green…

Julius opened his eyes, overworking his Iridescent Eye for the first time in a long while.

However, it didn't turn out as well as he’d hoped.

‘Sure enough, there weren't any side characters talented enough to appear in the .’

It was the expected result, but he was still disappointed.

He couldn’t believe there was nobody of use. The yellow people still possessed the talent of a brilliant genius. If it were his first time using the skill, he would’ve been grateful to be surrounded by that crowd.

But…

‘I guess it’s best for them to be rare.’

At this point, he thought it would be better not to expect anything from other side characters, excluding the original characters from the .

That way, he wouldn’t have to spend more effort worrying about how to lessen the damage done to the Academy.

The enemy that he was to face at the end of the original story was the Demon King himself. Gathering a few geniuses was more efficient than lugging around dozens of budding talents.

'…If it hadn't been for that shit, the ending wouldn't have sucked so bad.’

He was, of course, going to prevent the story from following the original’s plotline. That said, he didn’t know what the future would hold, so he had to procure the power to deal with the Demon King in advance.

If he could gather enough powerful forces together, he wouldn't even need Heisel…

"No, no, that's not it."

"What's not it?"

Julius took a few steps back, looking shocked, like he had been caught in the midst of a bad idea.

"Why are you so surprised, did you have an unpleasant thought? Like… abandoning Dongdong?!?”

Gyaho! Gyaho! Gyaho!

Dongdong looked at him struggling, to see if he was surprised. Julius smiled at Aveline, who wore a playful expression.

"There's no way I would ever do that. Dongdong, leave your terrible friend behind and play with me instead.”

Gyaho, gyaho.

Julius took the bundle of fur from her arms and held it within his own. The fluffy texture of its fur made him feel better.

'This would make such a nice scarf.’

He stroked Dongdong, who was shaking in his arms, perhaps sensing his morbid intentions.

He watched as students stuffed themselves into the carriages by their assigned groups. He stared blankly at the scene, but was roused by Mattias's voice.

"Come on, Julius. It’s our turn."

"Oh, sorry."

Julius quickly hopped onto the carriage and slowly went over the plan.

‘I have to earn a lot of merits in this practice-raid somehow.’

He had until the end of his freshman year.

For some reason, there was no attack by Circulation.

Perhaps due to the butterfly effect or some other reason, the story of the original had changed. That ruined his plan to collect a truckload of merits.

All that was left for him to do was what he could accomplish on his own.

Unlike what his family had in possession, the items he could take from the Academy's storehouse looked absolutely extraordinary. He knew he needed to work as quickly as possible, before anyone else could take them.

Thus…

'I need to stand out.’

In this event alone, he could get 100, or even 1,000 merits.

He had to get himself into that storehouse before the student body President.

Even if it had to come with some sacrifices, it had to be done.

Because there were no more freshmen that could be useful to him.

Julius grinned at the thought of what he might find there.

In that smile, there wasn’t even a single ounce of guilt.