The Broken Possessors of the Infinite Regression Academy - Chapter 170



Chapter 170 – Masin – 1

“When I sent you back that time, I told you that I would definitely tell you next time. About what I said I would tell you.”

“Ah… … That’s right. Right. Actually, I didn’t really think much of it. Mira, you always seemed to have something to hide. Not just from me, but from other people too. I just thought, “That’s how it is this time too.”

“that’s right.”

He nodded without denying it.

“It was, it has been, it is now, and it will be in the future. Do you have any resentment?”

Leona, who had been smiling bitterly, started to act.

“No. Not at all. If you don’t want to talk, then you don’t want to. That’s the end of it. I don’t intend to blame you, Mira, for not telling me or hiding something. Doesn’t everyone have a secret or two they want to hide? Including me.”

“Really? You have something to hide too?”

“Of course. I’ll let you know when our relationship becomes deeper. Well… … If you’re really curious, you can try to become deeper? I don’t think it’ll take that long for you.”

Leona twisted her body as if embarrassed by what she had said. After a while, her cheeks, which had flushed slightly, regained their original color and she finally met his gaze again.

Instead of a bitter smile, a bashful smile appeared on his face.

“So, how much are you going to tell me?”

“It depends on how much you can trust me.”

“All of them.”

The answer came back immediately. There was no hesitation in the look he gave me or in the words he spoke.

“You were the first to trust me. You helped me to calm my mind, to have the right mindset as a warrior, and to awaken the true power of the Holy Sword. Mira, you did all that for me, so why wouldn’t you trust me? If you told me to make a cake out of dirt, I could do it. So you can tell me anything.”

“Even if what I say is the exact opposite of Aria’s? Would you still believe me over Aria?”

“… … .”

Leona pretended to look surprised. Her lips moved several times, and her voice sounded shaky, as if she had lost all of her confidence from before.

“Why are you suddenly saying something like that? It makes the listener feel uneasy.”

“I heard something from the goddess. She told me never to trust a certain woman. I never heard who it was though.”

“… … Surely, you don’t suspect that woman of being Aria?”

It seemed as if he had immediately grasped what I was trying to say. His voice sounded not only hushed but also gloomy.

It can’t be helped. It means that I, of all people, am suspecting my childhood friend, who I’ve been closer to than anyone else since I was little. It’s only natural that I’d feel complicated if I were caught in the middle.

“No. I don’t doubt it. I don’t want to do that to you. There might be someone else we don’t know about. But the reason the goddess said that is because ‘that woman’ is near me, and if there’s a need for that, Aria’s priority is the most.”

“Why? You wouldn’t just think that way for no reason. Why is Aria first? In what way?”

Aria’s appearance, which was different from usual, flashed through my mind. The way she approached me and spoke to me first, even deceiving my senses, or the way she smiled at me so strangely that it seemed like she would burst apart.

And the way he spoke to me with a voice that almost felt like madness, saying that our relationship was destined.

All of her actions were inappropriate, neither as the Aria of this world that I knew, nor as Aria April, a character in the romance novel written by Laura.

“I once said I didn’t believe in fate. Remember?”

“Of course I remember. Aria was a believer, and I was similar to Aria. Is that the reason? Because our perspectives on fate are different? If that’s the only reason, think about it again—”

“It’s not for that simple reason.”

Leona, who had been practically begging, stopped talking. Her expression did not soften at all.

“… … What is it, then?”

I leaned back against the sofa. Silence followed. This was the first time I was revealing my secrets to someone in this world, not the four people who shared the same world as me, so I needed to prepare myself mentally.

If we go any further than this, there is really no turning back. That means Leona is not just someone you can trust, but someone you have to trust. It is a realm that even the parents and Beatrice of this world have not yet reached.

“I… … am someone who comes from a very far away place.”

And the choice I made was to follow my intuition.

“How far away is it?”

“So far that you and everyone else can’t even imagine. Maybe so far that you might think the world you live in is different from ours.”

“But you are of the Crate family—”

“It’s a story related to my past. Not the past of the Crate family, but the past of the person I am.”

Perhaps because it was the first time she had heard the story of my past, Leona’s gloomy expression from earlier was nowhere to be seen, and she was concentrating with all her senses sharp.

“That’s why I think it’s strange that Aria thinks of me as her destiny. I think that’s absolutely impossible. Even if it’s some vague and dreamy story like destiny, it shouldn’t be possible. It shouldn’t even be said.”

“But… … Since we met like this in the end, you could think of it as fate. That can’t be true, and it shouldn’t be like that, but we met.”

“How do you know if I never told you?”

I am a human who has come to this world, and no matter what I think of the people of this world, Aria is clearly a character in a novel written by Laura.

The character in the novel felt a sense of destiny from the possessed person? It’s not an entirely unreasonable claim, but it’s also hard to accept it rashly.

It’s one thing for me to take the people of this world for granted, and another thing entirely to take such claims at face value.

“… … .”

Leona sat for a while with a thoughtful expression, then cautiously opened her mouth to ask a question.

“It’s a bit weird to say it myself, but why are you telling me such things? We’ve only known each other for half a year. Of course, I’ve become really close with you in the past half year! Anyway… … Isn’t it because you have that maid with you that you can tell me such things?”

“Because one day, Leona, there will come a moment when you have to make a choice.”

Beatrice, Nika, and the chairman. They are all people who are one step away from Aria. In particular, Beatrice, who doesn’t even appear in the original work, is someone I wouldn’t have even come into contact with if it weren’t for me.

But Leona was different. She was someone who would be by Aria’s side, and by my side as well. So there would come a time when she would have to decide her own path.

When you stand at that crossroads, it is entirely up to you to decide where to stay.

“… … Ugh.”

Leona lowered her head with a sad expression. It seemed as if she couldn’t possibly choose between Aria and me.

“Don’t worry so much about it. I told you. I’m not trying to suspect Aria. I hope I’m wrong. My evidence is too weak. All I have is my gut feeling, and if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to say anything suspicious. It’s you, Leona, that’s why I can say this.”

“I know. I know… … but just thinking that it might happen makes me… … .”

Leona, who had been muttering gloomily, suddenly raised her head as if a good idea had occurred to her.

“Then why don’t you just ask the goddess who the woman is that she spoke to? She would know, right? Right?”

“… … I was going to tell you about that anyway.”

I leaned back against the sofa again. This was going to be a shocking story, incomparable to what I just heard. Leona also seemed to be very nervous at my attitude.

He opened his mouth slowly.

“The goddess has passed away.”

Standing tall, Leona’s body froze. Her head creaked like a rusty doll. Her lips trembled as she formed words.

“Th, that… … What does that mean… …? The goddess has passed away?”

“It’s exactly as I said. There was an incident a while ago where the divine power disappeared and the holy sword went out, right? That happened because the goddess passed away. Her last words were to not trust that woman. That’s why I said I didn’t hear who that woman was.”

“Nonsense, that’s impossible… … That can’t be, that can’t be… … .”

He looked down at the holy sword, its golden eyes still radiating a clear light.

“Then what about the Holy Sword? Why is the Holy Sword fine? Look! It’s fine now! The Saintess has regained her strength! So did she die and come back to life?!”

It would have been better if that had been the case. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The reason the priests can exert divine powers is because of my light. If the goddess had been resurrected in the first place, she would have spoken to me somehow.

What I was aiming for was to alleviate the confusion, not restore the divine power, so it was unexpected that even the Holy Sword was restored.

“I can understand it. It must be confusing. It must be questionable. I don’t know who killed the goddess, and I don’t know what’s going on right now.”

“Then-”

“So. I plan to find out from now on.”

Leona stumbled out of the Crown Prince’s room. The series of events was too shocking to understand or accept.

‘You might have to choose between Mira and Aria?’

It was so horrible that I wanted to cry.

Both of them were invaluable to Leona. Not to mention Arya, Mira was the one who made Leona Brunhild into the warrior that even Arya could not make.

Mira, in particular, was a precious person in another sense. If I had to take the side of only one of those two people, it seemed like it would be easier to fight the Demon King.

“What are you thinking so seriously about, Leona?”

“Heheheh …

Leona, who was rubbing her constantly blurry eyes with the back of her hand, jumped back when she heard a familiar voice next to her.

I looked to the side, holding my pounding heart. There was Aria, frozen in place with her arms outstretched. Her surprised expression was a bonus.

“Oh, Aria? What brings you here? Weren’t you at the library?”

“That’s right, Leona, you didn’t come for too long, so I went around looking for you. When I asked where you were, you said you went to Mira’s. That’s why I came, but since it was the crown prince’s room and it seemed like the conversation hadn’t ended yet, I waited.”

“Hey, did you hear that?”

“Hear, what?”

Aria tilted her head innocently. Even to a woman like her, she was cute on a whole other level. Leona tried to calm her surprised heart.

“… … It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

“huh.”

Aria, who was about to stand next to Leona with a bright smile, turned around.

“What about Mira? She’s staying in the room?”

“Uh, yeah? Oh, yeah. Right. He said he had something else to think about.”

“Really? That’s too bad. I wish we could have gone back together.”

Leona tried to calm her complicated mind by looking at Aria who was licking her lips with regret.

Looking back now, it was quite an amazing thing.

Aria, who had hated hanging out with guys since she was little, and even hated having them approach her or talk to her, was the first to talk to Mira, and even approached her in an extremely friendly manner.

It makes sense that he spoke first because he was the second in command and wanted to find out who the first in command was, and he was friendly to her because he thought it was fate… … but Mira thought it was strange to even think that way.

“Oh, yes, Leona. I saw something interesting in the library.”

“What is that strange thing?”

As they walked down the hallway, Aria looked back at Leona with sparkling eyes.

“The divine power contained in the holy sword does not stay still, but constantly circulates with its source. So, if you follow that cycle, you can find the source of the divine power. Since it is a library in the palace, there are many incredibly precious books.”

“circulation?”

Leona tilted her head. It was the first time she had heard of it. Was there such a concept in the Holy Sword?

“Aria, a little more detail-”

From noble mtl dot com

“You were here, warrior!”

The Royal Guard ran towards them from afar and interrupted their conversation. Leona swallowed what she was about to say at the urgent appearance, and Aria took a step aside.

“What’s going on?”

“The Succubus Queen who is staying in the palace has brought other news.”

“Any other news?”

“Yes. It is said that a voice rang in the heads of all the demons, telling them to prove their power by killing humans if they wanted to become the new master of the magic sword.”

Leona’s golden eyes, hearing those words, were fixed on Mira, who was walking towards her with a stiff expression.