Memoirs of the Returnee - Chapter 211



Only Krnovel

The Regressor’s Notepad 211

Meaning of Villain (4)

Raye was worried.

I was in agony.

I was troubled.

If Rakel Draaga is after me, what on earth should I do in this situation?

Although the Mila suit is always worn as underwear under one’s clothes… … it is an emergency suit, so its performance is not particularly outstanding.

That means we can’t guarantee victory.

“… … What are you going to do?”

The child asked. Raye glanced at the boy.

“What did you say your name was?”

“Deviyo.”

“How old are you?”

“10 years old.”

“… … It’s great.”

10 years old.

When I was 10, I only remember watching my dad invent things and getting upset because he wouldn’t let me play with him.

Raye looked back at the line.

“I’ll go to Ellie first. Ellie can’t give in.”

“but-”

“You should do that for your own safety, too.”

Raye’s eyes turned sharp.

“Ellie is Senator Petra’s daughter. If you don’t want to get out of here safely and end up dying a dog’s death, listen to me.”

A serious, subdued tone. However, there is no way to deny the line in those words.

Line sighed.

“Okay, but keep in mind. If Ms. Elise turns into an infected being… …even if all of us rush in, we won’t be able to handle it, and in the end, we will.”

He paused for a moment and pointed to the screen of his laptop.

“I guess I’ll have to join forces with Rakel Dra, not you.”

“… … Do whatever you want. It’s like selling your soul to the devil, isn’t it?”

Raye tried to go out, shouting brightly, but Rein blocked her way.

“What? Why are you blocking the road?”

“You can’t get out.”

“No, then-”

“Please communicate by radio.”

Line pointed to Raye’s waist. There was a walkie-talkie the size of a large stag beetle.

“… … You really are annoying. I understand.”

“thank god.”

Devo looked up at Raye and smiled.

“what?”

“… … I feel safe when I have Miss Raye. She will protect us.”

“What… … .”

Raye pouted her lips for no reason. She looked back at the line with a hardened expression.

“But, while I’m here, don’t touch Ellie at all.”

“Okay, I promise.”

Line nodded as he put his sword away.

* * *

… … Void’s infected terror.

This incident was originally quite far in the future before I regressed.

I still don’t know why it became so twisted, but anyway.

I searched through the overly large towers one after another. The swarming infected were an obstacle.

After repeating patrols and hunting like that for over a dozen hours, finally.

“… … Something seems fishy here.”

I found a place with a slightly eerie atmosphere.

23rd floor. It’s a space decorated like a theme park. There’s a haunted house, a railroad, and a cave.

I activated the SZX-9500.

A strange magical power was captured inside the haunted house. A magical power that wriggled like a living thing. It was the ‘source’.

“Found it.”

I picked up the radio.

“Elise. Can you hear me?”

─… … Yeah. I can hear you.

The boy’s voice was still laced with pain, but he seemed to have come to his senses somewhat.

“I checked the internal magic waves from outside. They say there are some unusual waves on the 23rd floor?”

─… … Really?

Elise answered tremblingly.

“uh.”

─Okay. Then… … .

A number of voices come over the radio. They are the tones of ordinary people. They are each asking in the above-mentioned tone whether support is coming from outside.

There will probably be a lot of support.

Mostly ‘military’ though.

─… … I’ll pass this on to Raye.

This infectious agent terrorism cannot be solved even in the previous life.

The military and knights were dispatched and killed all the infected, and most of those who held out, like Elise, eventually died when the alien lifeforms burrowed into their brains.

Of course, Elise is a special case.

The guy has magnetically restrained any alien lifeforms from messing with his brain.

─Zion.

Suddenly Elise said.

“why.”

──Ugh… … Just… … No. Nothing.

There’s no strength in his voice. He’s completely different from his usual confident self.

“Hang in there.”

I cut off contact.

Now, I plan to hide here for a while.

Void will definitely return to the scene.

* * *

“23rd floor?!”

─Yeah.

As soon as Raye received the radio call, she jumped up and down.

“Okay! Hey! We got a call from outside!”

Then he spoke straight to Devo. Devo looked surprised, and Line looked suspicious.

“… … That can’t be. It would be impossible.”

“It’s impossible!”

“Oh, if it’s an auditory hallucination, then that could be the case.”

“You’re talking nonsense! Rather than that, let’s go to the 23rd floor first. Ellie, you’re such a genius, right? You’ll definitely be able to dismantle the spell. Oh, wait a minute. Ellie!”

Raye spoke into the radio.

“What do we need? Tell me everything you need!”

─… … Microscope. Magic stone solution. Paper. Magic detector. Powder.

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Raye wrote down the supplies on Devo’s notebook.

“This. Bring it to me.”

“… … .”

Line looks somewhere without saying anything, then nods quietly.

“Okay, I’ll call someone and get it.”

“You have to bring Ellie too.”

“Let’s do that.”

He’s surprisingly docile. It feels like he has some hidden agenda though.

“… … I told you. If you do anything to Ellie-”

“No. If there is support from outside, I don’t need to do that. If the support is real.”

It’s a meaningful statement, but for now, we still have to trust each other. Nothing will be solved by just fighting and being suspicious.

Raye passed it on to Elise.

“Ellie, we’ll go there now.”

“me too.”

At that moment, Devo raised his hand.

“I’ll go too.”

“… … You’re a baby. Stay here.”

“It’s okay. I can handle magic, so it’ll be helpful. I can be your assistant, Elise.”

Devo looked strangely confident. Raye looked at the line, nodding.

“That’s right. He’s a kid who helped us a lot.”

“… … .”

I’m still a little anxious, though, okay.

“Okay, but don’t ever come out.”

There’s no need to kill a brave child. Each and every combatant is important.

* * *

On the 7th floor, Raye met Elise and her group. However, there was a person she had never seen before and a child on the bed.

“… …Who is that person?”

Raye asked who they were. Elise answered.

“The boy is Mr. Jackson. The girl is Yeri. She was exhausted as soon as she got here, so I put her to bed.”

“You’re a survivor… … .”

“Aren’t you infected?”

Line frowned and looked at them closely. Raye pushed him hard.

“Oh, please take it easy!”

“… … .”

Line glared at her silently. Raye touched Ellie’s cheeks with both hands.

“Ellie. Can you get up to the 23rd floor? Wow, it’s hot. Look at the heat… … . It’s a bun.”

“… … Let go.”

“Why are you wearing a hat?”

“… … .”

It’s to cover up the magnet attached to my head. No matter how bad the condition is, it’s just so funny.

“Ellie… … ”

“Oh, I told you to let go.”

Elise slapped Raye’s hand away and looked back and forth between Line and Divo.

“… …Why is there a child?”

“She’s a smart kid. She knows how to use magic. She’s smart. She wants to be your assistant.”

“… … .”

Elise looked a little puzzled, but didn’t want to think too much about it. That was the situation.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Devo looked at her in surprise. Elise frowned with a headache and said,

“It’s okay… … Hurry up and let’s go to the 23rd floor.”

* * *

Elise, Raye, Line, Divo, and four other escorts, and a cart full of items for spell analysis.

The eight of them arrived at the 23rd floor together. Of course, they encountered countless infected as they went up. They were originally human, but they were killed by Line’s sword and knocked out by Raye’s magic.

Raye couldn’t bring herself to kill them.

Line glared at the world with eyes that said it was frustrating, but in fact, Raye herself was more frustrated than anyone else.

If only there was a way to turn them back into humans… …

“I think so.”

Elise pointed to the haunted house. An eerie atmosphere was detected inside.

“Let’s go in. Mr. Line? You take the lead.”

“… … Mr. Laye too. If an infected person comes later, please make sure to kill them.”

They slowly entered, keeping a close eye on the four pillars and preparing for the possible intrusion of infected organisms.

Slowly, slowly.

“… … Ugh.”

Elise occasionally groans, and Line watches with an ominous expression for 10 minutes.

They finally reached the ‘source’.

“I think so.”

There was a huge magic spell on the floor. It was bloody and writhing, like an octopus moving around alive.

Elise swallowed as she looked at it.

“Prepare the items. I’ll look into it.”

“Shall we lift the barrier first?”

Line asked. Elise shook her head.

“… … No. We need to find a way to eradicate this infection first. We can’t go outside yet.”

“Fortunately, you think the same way as me.”

Line let out a faint sigh of relief and took over.

“Can’t we reverse the spell and send out a wave that kills all infected?”

“Why are you killing them all!”

Raye quickly intervened. Line furrowed his eyebrows.

“Then what do you do?”

“We have to separate them from the infected! Ellie! Is that okay?”

“… … Easier said than done.”

At that moment, Elise was gritting her lips as the pain grew worse.

Ttukbuk─

Somewhere, heavy footsteps landed.

“… … What? Who was it just now?”

Raye tilted her head. She looked around. The haunted house was quite dark, so she could barely see the silhouette.

Instead, Raye counted the numbers on the silhouettes.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… … nine.

“… …Why nine people?”

The moment Raye said that,

Srrrrung──!

Line drew his sword and aimed it at them. Raye also quickly lit the fire.

Hurrah!

The blazing flames illuminated the darkness. Among Raye’s group, a person stood as if darkness had pressed down on him.

The villain in the hockey mask.

Raquel Draco.

“You──!”

Raye stopped herself as she was about to spit out her magic. Raquel Dra was standing right behind the short child.

It was ‘Divo’.

“… … Divo!”

“Mr. Raye, calm down.”

Line gulped. He raised his sword and aimed it at Raquel.

Raquel placed both hands on Devo’s shoulders, as if she were taking him hostage.

“don’t do it!”

Raye shouted loudly. Elise looked at Rakel Dra with her headache-stricken eyes, but her focus was completely unfocused.

“Let go of the child. Take me hostage instead. Isn’t this why you came here?”

Then he held out his hand.

The guy didn’t react at all.

“… … You son of a bitch! Let the kid go!!”

At that moment, Devo looked up at Rakel Dra and whispered very quietly, in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

… … I know.

Raquel’s gaze slanted. He looked straight at Devo.

… … that you won’t kill me.

Debo made an expression similar to a smile.

A heavy bass rumble settled inside the hockey mask.

─You saw it.

… … Yes. You saved the child. You must have faith, too. Like me.

Raquel Dra was silent.

An extremely quiet ghost house. Raye’s skin was burning and her hair stood on end.

Debo continued speaking slowly.

… … I brought the person you want. We can be together.

─Who do I want?

Devo lowered his gaze and looked at Raye.

Raquel Dra will want you to kill Raye. If you kill the only daughter of the Hilton family, there will be a huge chaos in Trick City.

At least, that’s what Devo is sure of.

As the same villain.

… … I know who you are, too. I’ve written anagrams like you, right? Mr. ‘Dale’.

Divo.

It’s a void.

… … I know who you are, too. I’ve written anagrams like you, right? Mr. ‘Dale’.

─That’s right.

Raquel Draga turned Devo around to face her. Devo looked up at him and smiled, and he spoke to him very quietly──

He whispered something.

“… … !”

In an instant, Devo’s relaxed expression suddenly changed. His eyes were filled with shock. His skin became cold and stiff.

“Oh, no!”

Devo turned around with a loud shout. He reached out to Raye and cried out.

“Save me, save me!! Save me──!!!!”

“Divo!”

Raye tried to run to him,

──!

Raquel was the first to erupt in anger.

The diva collapsed in an instant.

A small body that falls over helplessly.

The image was captured on Raye’s retina.

“Ah… … This son of a bitch──!”

Rakel Draga took out her wand. She swung it at Raye, who was rushing towards her.

Kwa───!

Then, a massive weight of convection pressed down on her. Rein also extended his sword, but Raquel’s whirlwind blade struck his heart first.

“… …La, Mr. Line!”

Raye looked down at the line falling like a blade of grass, lying face down.

“Keuu, keuuu!!”

I struggled with all my might, but dozens of tons of pressure were pressing down on my body.

I was out of breath. I couldn’t move a single fingertip. I couldn’t even activate my ‘suit’… … If that’s what they’re doing, the rest of the escorts are self-evident.

I can only kneel before him, not daring to rebel against him.

Because life is precious.

The only one left, Elise, glared at Rakel Dra.

“……you.”

─Dismantle the barrier.

“No. The infection will spread. First, we need to find a cure to the infection-”

─There is no such thing. This is not poison. Those infected have already become one with the alien life form and can never go back to their previous state.

Elise’s eyes wavered.

─But you are not yet. The alien magic in your head is stuck to you. It cannot penetrate your brain.

Raquel Dra’s diagnosis was very quick.

Did he figure out his own condition just by glancing at it?

─It’s just a matter of time. You don’t have much time left.

“… … Then? How? How can I survive?”

─To extract an alien life form directly by drilling through the skull. It requires delicate surgical operation. For that, you must open the barrier.

“… … .”

Elise narrowed her eyes. She looked at Raye cautiously.

“Euguggeuk… … . Keuggeuk… … .”

The guy doesn’t seem to have any free time. Not at all.

Elise also knows the magic technique that subdued Rakel Draga Raye. It is a technique that gathers convection currents to briefly hinder the opponent’s movements.

It’s a very simple “fluid manipulation”.

However, the technique that is merely “fluid manipulation” is incomprehensibly powerful. Its output and performance are far greater than most magic.

To put it simply──

The difference in class is extreme.

Raquel Dra is no ordinary sorceress.

Certainly, the current Elise is no match for her.

No, it is impossible even if a first-class magician who has been rolling around in the field comes.

─There is no time to worry.

Elise looked around.

The fallen Divo. Laye, lying on the ground, groaning like an animal. Rein, bleeding and dying. The others, kneeling, looking only at him, begging with their eyes to please do as Rakel Dra says.

“ha…….”

Elise sighed. She looked Rakel Dra in the eye, of course her eyes were invisible because of the hockey mask, and said,

“… … But promise me. If you open the barrier, I’ll spare the rest of you.”

Raquel Dra nodded as if she had been waiting.

──I promise.