The Broken Possessors of the Infinite Regression Academy - Chapter 177



Chapter 177 – Aria – 3

“Yeah. I kind of had a feeling that would be the case.”

Aria was smiling with a cold smile that I had never seen before, her eyes half-closed. Judging by her expression, it seemed like she had no intention of hiding it anymore.

“How did you figure it out? I thought I was well prepared.”

“If you want to say you prepared well, you should at least not have shown any suspicious behavior. And you should have controlled your speech.”

“Suspicious behavior… … For example?”

“What I just said. The way you referred to the four people you brought here didn’t seem like the kind of attitude that someone would feel sorry about. It felt like you were just replacing a broken part. Even if that’s how you feel, Laura, it’s strange to treat the other three the same way.”

If you were sorry enough to apologize hundreds or thousands of times as you said, you wouldn’t have said it that way.

“Do you remember the midterm exam of the sparring practice? You smiled strangely when you went out to fight Leona. The smile you had just now was exactly like that. Now that I see it, I understand. I didn’t pay much attention to it because it was just a small, fragmentary thing, but if you had a past like that, I would be suspicious.”

“Hmm… … I guess there wasn’t any concrete evidence. What a shame. Then I guess I should have just pretended I was being fooled and caught him.”

Aria’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if she had vaguely realized that Gwangchang was my bluff.

“I couldn’t help it. Living alone among humans who had stopped time for over a thousand years, I became the type of person who couldn’t resist anything that looked interesting or intriguing. I tried hard to hold back, but sometimes I couldn’t suppress my impulses.”

I can’t stand it when something is fun, La. It was an expression that seemed like something I’d heard before. I thought for a moment about where I’d heard it. Then, one thing came to mind.

“… … The demon’s clone?”

“That’s right. That’s what I said when we first met. I see you still remember that. I’m glad.”

“I thought the corpse of the demon and the clone that appeared in front of me looked a bit different. Was it because of you?”

“That’s right. Originally, I was planning to just sit back and watch until it was time, but as I said earlier, I’ve been living alone for over a thousand years, so I’ve lost a lot of patience. Seeing Mira-san alone, I just couldn’t stand it anymore.”

Aria smiled brightly.

“Now that I’ve been caught like this, there’s nothing I can do. I have no choice but to change my plans. Mira-san. I’ll send you back to your original world along with the other four people I brought, so please help me.”

“Why should I help someone who was just trying to trick me?”

“Not everything I said was a lie. First of all, the story of the past is true. It’s true that time in this world stops without a reader, and that Mira’s power can prevent such a phenomenon. The only lie is my attitude toward the people I brought here.”

“How shameless.”

“This is an opportunity that comes once in thousands of years. Whether shameless or not, we must use any means necessary to achieve success.”

Aria released her backpack. Her upper body, which had been slightly bent forward, slowly returned to its original angle.

“Well. What do you think, Mira? Will you save me, a shameless person like me?”

“… … What on earth makes you so sure? I’ve never once been able to fix the world with my own strength.”

“Oh, that’s not it? It’s not the method that I lack, but the output. I know the method, but I couldn’t do it because I lacked the strength. However, if I inherited Mira’s power, it would be different. I’ve seen all the feats Mira accomplished while absorbing the fragments of the world and the remnants of memories left in that world. For example, the memories of single-handedly defeating monsters that fit the description of dark fantasy.”

It seemed like he was talking about a memory he had seen when he was under the spell of the Elder Lich. He let the words slip in order to tease him out.

“If it’s because I don’t have enough strength, then I might not be able to do it. I don’t know if you know, but my strength is half—”

“It’s sealed?”

“… … I guess that’s what happened.”

“Haha, you look really happy right now, Mira. You must have guessed from the moment you asked that I might have done it, right? Since you seem to know, I don’t think I need to explain it to you. Yes, I did.”

He must have found out that I lied, so it seemed like I had no intention of hiding it anymore. Aria smiled slyly and turned away from my cold gaze.

“Since it’s good, it would be better if you didn’t make such a scary face. I sealed Mira’s trauma as well, right? You should be grateful to me instead.”

“You did it without me asking and now you want me to thank you?”

“Think about it. After being possessed here, Mira-ssi has changed a lot. If it weren’t for me, Mira-ssi would have been left alone and rotting away in the original world. Just like I was when I was left alone. She would never have been able to overcome her past trauma.”

I couldn’t refute that. I had taken a leave of absence from college and spent an entire semester locked up in my room, but after coming here, my phantom pain had eased to the point where I didn’t feel any pain even when holding a light bulb.

“Would we be destined for nothing? Mira-ssi, me, and I, Mira-ssi. We save each other like this. It’s fate. Am I wrong?”

“Aria, if you brought me here with pure intentions, then yes.”

However, since the purpose of bringing me here was not for treatment but for my own comfort, I had no intention of expressing my gratitude for that. It was the other four people who eased my trauma, not Aria.

I’m done talking. Now that I know that they were trying to use me, talking any further would be a waste of time. I brought back the eternity I had lowered.

“I see. That’s too bad.”

Despite my reaction, Aria just stood there, seemingly having no intention of fighting. Then, suddenly, she opened her mouth.

“Let me ask you one thing. Have you satisfied your curiosity?”

“Yeah. Thanks to that, I realized you were beyond help.”

A bright smile appeared on the face facing me.

“Thank goodness. It was worth the time.”

As soon as I heard the words, “I was wasting my time,” I instinctively kicked the ground and ran away. Whatever that meant, it was clear that it wasn’t going to be in my favor.

“Huh?!”

Before he could even reach Aria, the strength left his legs. His left knee buckled and rubbed against the floor. The tip of the sword that had been pointed at Aria fell back to the floor.

I barely managed to hold on to my body, which was about to collapse as I planted my eternity on the ground. I felt something slipping away in real time. I was overcome with a sense of helplessness that made it impossible for me to move even a single fingertip.

Aria was smiling while looking at me like that.

“You… …what did you do?”

“What did I do? I wasted time. Since Mira-ssi wouldn’t hand over her power, shouldn’t I make it mine by force? I didn’t explain it in detail for nothing. Even if it were me, it would take a lot of preparation to take the power away from Mira-ssi. Well, it would have been better if Mira-ssi had been persuaded by me and handed over her power herself. I was sincere in my own way.”

“This crazy-”

I tried to force myself up, but I stumbled and fell back to the ground. I couldn’t do anything. I had to force myself to even breathe. A look of regret came over Aria’s face.

“Since you came here, it was certain that you would lose strength sooner or later, so please don’t waste your strength on me. You won’t be able to leave anyway. Mira, you can stay here and continue to be my battery. If you stay here for a thousand years, you’ll probably change your mind. My thoughts will never change. I mean, we’re in a fateful relationship where we save each other.”

Aria came up to me and squatted down with her knees slightly together. Then she pulled the sleeve of her uniform up to the middle of her palm and patted away the sweat on my forehead.

“Shall I tell you something good? About why I sealed Mira-san’s powers and memories.”

“… … .”

“Originally, I tried to absorb its power as soon as I brought it here. However, no matter how I looked at it, it seemed impossible to eat it all. So I sealed half of it away along with its memories, and ate the remaining half… … You didn’t expect it to be that great, did you? I thought it would be impossible to take it all, so I only took half, but I almost couldn’t hold out, right?”

The fact that you tried to absorb my power as soon as you got here means that the statement that you waited because you couldn’t ask someone who saved the world to save it again is also a lie.

It wasn’t that surprising anymore.

“I was lucky I was able to vomit it out and return it to Mira, otherwise my body would have burst and I would have died.”

“… … I wish I had died back then. What a shame.”

“Hehehe. Don’t worry about it. Oh, there’s no particular reason for me to tell you this. I’ve been slowly eating away at you so much that I can hold out for a long time now. I even had to release the seal to avoid being caught by Mira, but it’s meaningless now, right? Just think of it as the price you paid for giving me something good.”

“What a surprise.”

After saying that short phrase, I took a deep breath. Aria stroked my cheek a couple of times and then got up from her seat. I asked Aria, who was getting up.

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“If I gave you power… … were you planning on giving it back to me?”

Aria, who had been staring at me like that, smiled faintly.

“You already know the answer, right?”

“… … .”

“Then I’ll see you in a thousand years, Mira. The next time I come here, it’ll all be over.”

Aria turned away as if she didn’t even care about me. This moment of carelessness was her chance. She took a deep breath and focused her strength on her left hand.

Even at this moment, a sense of helplessness was engulfing my entire body, and it felt like I was pouring water into a bottomless pit, but I gritted my teeth and pulled out my divinity.

Aria was humming a tune as she created a dimensional gate. If she had absorbed my power, she would feel the divinity gathering behind her, but she didn’t even look at me, thinking it was just a tantrum.

It was time to pay the price for his arrogance.

He released all the strength he had been gathering in an instant. He aimed the spear of light in his left hand at Aria’s heart and threw it with all his might.

As the background became brighter as if the sun had risen, Aria looked back, perhaps sensing something strange. With a startled expression, she tried to avoid the light, but the time given was too short.

“Gyaaah!”

A tearing scream erupted. The spear had pierced Aria’s left shoulder. A hole exactly the size of the spear had appeared in her shoulder. Blood flowed down her limp left arm.

‘Wow.’

It was a not very satisfactory result.

If my body was fine, it would have burned down the entire space nearby, and even if it wasn’t, it was clearly at an angle and speed that should have pierced the heart, so it failed. I didn’t think it would react like that at this distance.

The backlash that came from forcibly pulling out my strength came back. I lost eternity and fell to the floor. My whole body felt like it was being squeezed like a dry rag. I barely managed to raise my head.

Aria was blocking the hole in her left shoulder with a pained expression. Green light leaked out from her hand, and her shoulder instantly recovered. That’s why I should have killed her in one go.

Their eyes met. Aria smiled faintly, sweat dripping down her face.

“You’re doing quite well, Mira-san… … I can’t believe you could rebel in that state… … I’m truly impressed.”

“… … .”

I couldn’t answer. Just breathing required all my strength, as if I was sprinting.

“You said you would let me test you once, so I’ll let you test me this time. But not twice. You’d better keep that in mind.”

Aria, who had been shaking, staggered and disappeared through the dimensional gate. I was left alone and buried my face in the floor. It was difficult to even raise my head while lying face down.

After catching my breath for a moment, I clenched my teeth again and was about to raise my upper body.

“This way… … this, all… … human, … .”

From somewhere, a voice I had never heard before was heard.