The Broken Possessors of the Infinite Regression Academy - Chapter 175



Chapter 175 – Aria – 1

As soon as Aria said the word ‘Possessor’, her body reacted and moved before her mind.

He covered the body and pressed down from above, and used magic to block its arms and legs, then grabbed its shoulder with his left hand and brought the eternity he was holding in his right hand to its neck. The blade that touched its neck emitted an eerie blue light.

“It hurts, Mira. Could you be a little more gentle?”

But Aria was indifferent. Despite feeling the touch of eternity directly on her neck, she smiled as usual, not seeming surprised or even nervous.

“… … You, what is your identity? Where did you hear that?”

“Oh, is this such a surprising thing? That no one other than Mira, Priscilla, Rosaria, Laura, and Elisier knew that they were all possessed?”

In the conversation, the honorifics for Priscilla, Rosaria, and Laura disappeared, and they were no longer referred to as Ciel, but as Elisier. This meant that the expression just now was definitely not a coincidence or a mistake.

It was done deliberately and intentionally.

“Then don’t you think so?”

He pressed down on Aria’s neck forever. The blade pressed into the back of her neck.

“You seem so surprised. Why don’t you calm down a bit? You’ll probably pass out later, Mira.

“Just answer the question. Don’t beat around the bush.”

“In this condition?”

“Your mouth can move. Don’t talk nonsense.”

A light sigh escaped between her lips.

“Umm… … I can’t help it. I wanted to talk to you in a more comfortable atmosphere. It’s okay. I’ll understand. Then, Mira, what would you like me to explain first?”

“Everything you know.”

“Oh, that’s a bit difficult.”

Aria made a troubled expression. I couldn’t tell if she was acting or if she really felt that way. She looked genuinely troubled just by looking at her expression.

“If I were to tell you everything I know, you would have to stay here with me for over a hundred years. I’d be happy to, but Mira-san, you need to get back as soon as possible. For the sake of the people you left behind. If that’s okay with you, I’ll tell you everything I know as you requested. Is that okay with you?”

“… … .”

I took a deep breath. Aria knew very well that although I was the one aiming the weapon, she was the one in control of the conversation. In the end, she knew that I would not be able to kill her.

Or maybe there is a separate corner of belief.

“I think you’re having a hard time deciding what to talk about first, so I’ll give you a choice. First, I’ll ask you who I am. Second, I’ll ask you what my purpose is. In the end, I’ll tell you both, so you can choose whichever one you find more interesting.”

I wondered if I should agree to that suggestion. Rather than choosing an option like Aria said, wouldn’t it be faster to just rack my brain and force her to open up?

“I’m telling you in advance, it won’t work if you try to force me to open my mouth. I’ll forgive you once, so if you don’t believe me, try. It’ll just be a waste of time anyway.”

It seemed like Aria had figured out what I was thinking about when she saw me hesitating. She surprised me with a bright smile on her face.

After hesitating for a while, he opened his mouth as if he still felt reluctant.

“… … First.”

“Yes. About who I am? I thought you would want to know more about me, Mira. So, can you please let me go now? I understand that you want to climb on top of me, but this just doesn’t look right.”

“Should I start by cutting off one of your arms so that you can’t talk nonsense anymore?”

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“Be scared. I’m joking, I’m joking. It’s just something I said, so please don’t treat me too harshly. I’m still on Mira’s side?”

Aria, who had been spouting nonsense calmly, bit her lips and thought deeply about something.

“Where should I start… … Oh, wait a minute. It just occurred to me, but would it make sense to tell you about my true identity?”

“What the hell is this?”

“That’s right. Mira-san, you probably already know who I am. Aria April, the protagonist of the yuri romance novel written by Laura. Do you need any further explanation here?”

In that moment, the strength left my limbs.

The protagonist of Laura’s lily romance novel. That was a word that should never come out of the mouth of a character in a novel. It felt like my head, which was already about to burst, had been hit hard with a hammer.

Aria took advantage of my daze and pulled away. I wondered when the binding spells on my wrists and ankles had been removed. I just blankly watched Aria get up.

Finally, Aria, who had brushed off her skirt, added, sticking her tongue out.

“Or should I say Lee Seo-ah instead of Laura? When I was writing the novel, I was still in the pre-occupation period.”

When I heard the name Lee Seo-ah, my limbs that had lost their strength began to move again. I stood up, supporting my center of gravity forever.

“You… … How much do you know?”

“It’s a bit awkward to ask how much you know. I’m the one who brought those people here, so wouldn’t it be faster to ask what you don’t know rather than what you do know?”

“what?”

“Hey. Why are you asking that? You heard everything. I said that I was the one who brought Lee Seo-ah, Ha-yoon, Kang Ye-na, and Yoo Chae-won here. Oh, and Mira too. I almost forgot the most important person.”

There was no doubt about it anymore. It was a name we had never properly called each other, so we were saving it for when we returned to our original world. The fact that Aria knew that meant so much.

“… … Then, you must have known that they had been regressing repeatedly until they were on the verge of losing their minds.”

“Yes. I knew. Because I brought you.”

“Surely you killed the goddess… … .”

“That’s right. I’m the one who killed the demon. I sealed his power so that he couldn’t use it without my permission, and I planted a parasite in his heart so that he would die a horrible death if he did something stupid. Since the parasite was created for the purpose of killing, I didn’t think about what would happen next, so I didn’t know it would grow like that.”

“You-”

“I’m telling you in advance, please don’t be angry. There’s a reason for everything I do.”

“… … The reason? You just called it a reason? You dragged us here, left the other four to repeat the same actions until they lost their minds, and even killed the goddess and the demon, and you call that a reason?”

“Of course. Why do you think I’m doing this? Why do you think I try to answer Mira’s questions every time and explain everything in detail? It’s all to convince Mira. I need you. And after hearing my explanation, Mira will understand why I had to do that.”

“Convinced? You? Me?”

“I can be confident. It’s a complicated story with a lot of details. Since you mentioned that you were curious about my identity, I’ll start by answering that question. I don’t feel like explaining it in a dark space like this, so let’s change places.”

Aria’s feet moved lightly. Then, the sky that had been dark turned blue in an instant. Flowers bloomed on the ground, leaving no room to step.

Aria crouched down with her knees slightly crossed, picked a black tulip that had bloomed at her feet, and brought it to her nose. A bright smile appeared on her face that was completely out of place in the current situation.

“Miss Mira.”

Aria, who had been closing her eyes for a long time and savoring the scent of the tulips, opened her mouth. Her eyelids opened, revealing the pupils hidden within them. The pupils, which seemed to contain the blue sea, turned toward me.

“Miss Mira, how much have you heard about this world? The author who created this place was right next to you. He must have revealed his identity a long time ago. What did Isseo-ah… no, Crown Princess Laura say about this world?”

“… … It was a novel that I started writing out of interest, but I ended up finishing it in a hurry because I lost interest.”

I don’t believe in trying to convince you, but it seemed worth listening to what that fancy ‘explanation’ was all about. There’s that one-in-a-million chance, after all.

Of course, the guard was not lowered. Even now, the light was ready to be pulled out at any time.

“It seems like he didn’t lie. There must have been a way to mix in the lies to his advantage.”

Aria’s body slowly rose. Her fingers spread. The tulip she had been holding was buried among the gorgeously blooming flowers. Aria lifted her foot and trampled the tulip that had fallen to the ground.

I had the illusion that I heard a sound.

“… … I, Mira-san. I woke up in a world that was so arbitrarily completed.”

With a cold face I had never seen before, his lips began to open.

“It was a world where time had stopped for everything but me. There was no sunlight, no wind, and nothing I could do. Thinking back now, it would have been better if I had never woken up. It would have been much better if I had caught the Demon King and lived happily ever after with Leona, even though they were just two women.”

“You woke up, how?”

“I don’t know, me either. But one thing was clear to me. In a world where everything else had stopped at the end of a novel, I was the only one who was not ending but beginning. Only my time was passing, and that was a curse to a woman like me, who was nothing more than a character in a novel.”

The expression on his face became very hazy. It was a face that looked like it was smiling or crying.

“I’ve been wandering around a world where time no longer has meaning for a very long time. All by myself. I don’t know how long it’s been. I’ve given up counting after a thousand years. Can you think of anyone? Can you think of a ‘real person’ other than a character in a novel like me?”

Aria raised the corners of her lips as she spoke the words, “real people,” with great emphasis. The corners of her lips that had been raised rose again in less than a second.

“My status as a saint, the knowledge I had learned, and the magic I had used were all useless in the time that had stopped. No matter how much magic I poured out, no matter how much divine power I poured out, the world was not damaged at all. To be honest, I really wanted to die back then. So I tried every possible method to die, but I was able to walk around just fine, but I wasn’t even scratched at all.”

“… … .”

“One day, as things were going downhill day by day, a miracle happened. Mira, what do you think that miracle is?”

“… … I don’t know.”

“Fragments of another world.”

Aria’s gaze turned slightly downward. Her eyes were fixed squarely on my left hand.

“Fragments of another world have appeared. A world where not a single life remains, a world that was falling apart because there were no more mediators to maintain space and time, has flowed into this place. What do you think? Doesn’t this remind you of something?”

I know. I know. I couldn’t help but know what it was. But I couldn’t answer.

“As I absorbed the fragments of the broken world, a completely different knowledge seeped into my head. It was knowledge of the world of the author who wrote this work. Mira will never know how shocked I was at that time. It was like I was frozen for a hundred years.”

“… … .”

“Anyway, when I found out about the author of this novel, I was consumed with a desire for revenge. He was like my creator, so even if I couldn’t kill him because I lacked the ability, I wanted to at least get revenge on him. So I dragged him to this world and threw him into the body of Crown Princess Laura… … Then another miracle happened. Time, which had stopped, started flowing again. It also rewound again and started from the beginning.”

A bright smile appeared again on Aria’s face, which had been frozen coldly.

“This is the first reason why I said that Mira-san was fate. If Mira-san hadn’t existed, or if she had been possessed but died without being able to escape, or if she had escaped leaving behind a living being, I would still be trapped in a world where time has stopped, going crazy alone. It’s as if my entire life originated from Mira-san.”

“So, it was fate that the fragments of the world came here?”

“Yes? Of course. It was inevitable. A world that can no longer maintain its space and time is drawn to the nearest world. To merge with each other. Naturally, it had to come here.”

“Of course?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?”

Aria opened her eyes wide. Her round pupils gradually narrowed and turned into captivating eyes.

“You really didn’t know. Didn’t she tell you this? Seriously, she didn’t lie, but she had other intentions. She left out the most important part.”

The alluring eyes soon turned into a bright smile.

“That woman’s previous work was the dark fantasy world that Mira first possessed. I’m glad you know about it now.”