The Obsessive Regressor of The Academy

41. The Returner

Fortunately, Grace was subdued by Asel before she could act any more indecently.

A magic that appropriately combined hangover magic and sleep magic, both infused with mana. Thanks to that spell, Grace awoke after a short nap, blinking with clear eyes.

She had downed over five bottles of cider like a madwoman, yet her head wasn’t dizzy, but clear. It felt sharper than before drinking.

*‘Asel’s room.’*

She could quickly discern it from the permeating scent. Grace playfully brought the blanket she was covered with to her face and sniffed. As she did, her mind began to calm. The corners of her eyes drooped, and her lips twitched.

“…”

She remembered the disgraceful things she had done while drunk. The five bottles of apple cider she drank after returning to the dormitory. She reminisced about the past while drinking, and before she knew it, it was past midnight. The stars twinkled in the sky, and the moon shyly hid behind the clouds.

It was the perfect time to wallow in sentimentality. So after clearing away all the bottles, Grace gazed out the window, reminiscing about the past in her drunken state. Recalling memories in a slightly dizzy state was even clearer than when sober.

It was at some point during this recollection of the past that she found herself in Asel’s room.

Frankly, Grace’s past wasn’t all that happy or harmonious.

Failing at home, struggling at the bottom ranks of the academy until graduation, with only the nanny who raised her as a friend. Even so, she yearned for her family’s recognition and love, and she worked hard to finally master all the Bloodline Inheritance swordsmanship.

But it was all in vain.

Because her family had been annihilated. No, to be precise, the empire itself had fallen. One day, the plague demon suddenly descended, and with a wave of its hand, most of the nobility, including the imperial family, melted away. Afterwards, as the plague spread and lawless zones expanded within the country, the empire’s demise was swift.

Those who barely survived all sought refuge in other countries.

Grace was the same. She scraped by, day after day, a sellsword in the Kingdom of Kidwin, a nation ruled by a corrupt royalty.

Thankfully, the swordsmanship she’d clawed her way up to was enough to keep her head attached to her body for the longest time. As the days piled on, her reputation bloomed, and she finally received the recognition she’d so desperately craved, not from family, but from strangers.

It meant nothing. Everything grated. And so, Grace never partnered with anyone. When a contract was done, she holed up in her room, never to be seen.

Just kill, get paid, drink, and sleep. That was her life, until the day she met Acel, the famed mage hunter and spell-hater.

“You’re awake?”

“…!”

The voice shattered her reverie. Grace jolted, frantically ripping the blanket she’d been holding to her nose away. Acel, having entered the room with a glass of cool water, chuckled wryly at the sight.

“…What are you doing?”

“O-Oh, it’s, um… it’s just…”

It was a bizarre spectacle, by any measure. To gaze with longing while sniffing someone else’s blanket was enough to make even a monk question your intentions. So, rather than offer a flimsy excuse and invite suspicion, she decided to face it head-on.

“It makes me feel good to smell it! Relaxed!”

The words were barely out before regret struck. Grace’s face flushed crimson in the blink of an eye, and she buried it completely in her hands, writhing from side to side. A full-bodied expression of embarrassment.

Acel muttered under his breath, watching her.

“…Is the alcohol still affecting her? No, the magic worked just fine.”

Since becoming a mage, he’d never once failed a spell. And yet, here, had the magic failed? Impossible. Especially since he’d already confirmed that it had taken hold.

Then what, exactly, was Grace’s reaction supposed to mean?

“…”

Choosing not to dwell on it, Acel used his magic to lift Grace, who was contorting herself like she would rip the blanket, into the air.

“…Hngh.”

Grace dangled suspended. Looking utterly mortified, she desperately avoided Acel’s gaze, though she offered no resistance to the magic. She simply waited patiently for her emotions to subside. Acel, in turn, picked up a book he’d been half-reading and waited with her.

Barely five minutes passed before Grace spoke softly.

“Um… Acel…?”

“Feeling better now?”

“Yeah… I think you can put me down…”

Her voice was much clearer than before. Acel closed his book and nodded, gently setting Grace back on the floor. She fussed needlessly with the pajamas she was wearing, glancing sideways at Acel.

“So.”

Acel fixed Grace with a steady gaze.

“Why did you suddenly come to find me? And why were you drinking so much?”

“…Just. Something bad happened.”

“Is this about Saya?”

“…A story that was about Saya. It’s all ancient history now. She wouldn’t even know, but I remember it all so vividly.”

“This isn’t the time for riddles, is it?”

Asel spoke, letting out a weary sigh. Grace’s shoulders hunched further inward.

He knew she had something she couldn’t say. Her reactions, the way she carried herself – it was all too clear.

What he couldn’t fathom was the scale of the knot in her heart caused by it. He could only vaguely sense it was impossibly vast.

*‘If I just let her go like this, it’ll happen again.’*

That much was clear, it wouldn’t be good for either Asel himself or Grace. For the sake of the future, he needed to ease her *simma* – the demon in her heart – even just a little right now.

Their conversation in the tent had succeeded in peeling back a layer, but it was barely a dent. Even if she seemed fine on the surface for a few days, her insides would be rotting away.

“The first time we met…”

Asel began, fixing his gaze on Grace who stood stiffly. Their identical eyes met in the empty air.

“You seemed to know me. You even knew my name already.”

“…”

“But that was the first day I ever saw your face. It was a bizarre situation, a total stranger suddenly showing up and asking if I knew her.”

“…Sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“No, it wasn’t just a lapse in judgment. There had to be a reason why you acted that way, a cause that necessitated I knew you. And then the second meeting.”

As the story went on, Grace’s expression twisted in a peculiar way. Conversely, Asel felt a puzzle piece slotting into place in his mind.

“You called me ‘mercenary’. And said I used a sword. But I’ve never even held a sword in my life. Swordsmanship? I’ve never even seen the basics, not even some third-rate style, nor do I have any intention of learning it.”

“…”

“I brushed it off lightly back then. To be honest, I figured you were just a reasonably bright mental patient. It’s not that rare for prodigies to lose their minds at a young age. But you’re not crazy. You don’t seem like someone with delusions or schizophrenia. So what is it? What on earth was your motive for saying those things?”

He dredged up and examined each fact that had seemed insignificant and buried in his memory.

Just recalling it brought the situation, his feelings, and the other’s actions from back then as vividly to life as if it happened yesterday.

Asel continued, recalling the image of Grace hiding under the covers, swallowing back tears.

“Why were you crying then?”

“…”

“What is the cause, the *causa*, of all your words and actions? What is the nature of the thought that’s eating you away?”

“…If I tell you…”

Grace, who had been silent until now, mumbled in a low voice in response to Asel’s question.

“…will you believe me?”

“Maybe I won’t.”

“……”

“But believe it or not, that’s a decision you make after hearing the answer. I don’t think agonizing over it alone is something *you* should be worrying about.”

“……”

No answer came back. Grace bit her lip tight, clenching her fist as if wrestling with something. Her eyes darted back and forth, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly. The impulse to speak warred against the need to stay silent, a conflict throwing her heart into turmoil.

Just how heavy a burden was she carrying, to agonize like that? Asel was inwardly curious, but patiently waited for Grace to speak first. Pressuring her now wouldn’t yield a genuine answer.

And so, time continued to flow. But the situation remained unchanged. Asel watched Grace with a calm gaze, and Grace, unable to hide the turmoil within, swallowed hard.

Quite some time passed.

Grace spoke, her voice hesitant.

“…There’s a condition.”

“What condition?”

“Instead of just telling you, there’s something I need you to do, Asel.”

It was unexpected, but Grace’s expression was so pitiful that Asel readily nodded.

“Tell me.”

“Don’t think of me as a strange person.”

“……”

“Don’t avoid me. Even if you scorn me, despise me, hate me, just let me watch from nearby.”

“……Grace.”

“Just… just…”

Love me like you used to.

The words couldn’t escape her lips. It was too much to ask of Asel. For Grace, Asel was a monumental figure, but for Asel, Grace wasn’t that significant.

In the end, Grace forcibly swallowed the sentence she’d almost uttered, forcing a bitter smile as she continued.

“Forgive me. I’ll try.”

“…That’s all?”

“Yes. That’s all.”

She nodded as she answered. Asel responded without a moment’s hesitation.

“I accept.”

“…Really?”

“It’s not a difficult request. So, what’s the burden you’re carrying in your heart?”

Asel asked.

“…I remember them, but they don’t know me.”

Grace, perched on the edge of the bed, spoke in a hushed voice.

“Those we fought alongside, those we bonded with over shared pasts… all the connections we forged, nothing remained. Only emptiness filled the void. Why me? Why did it have to be me?”

“……..”

“Our wedding vows, promising forever, the sweet nothings whispered in the dark, even the names we chose for our future child, laughing as we did… all of it, now undone. No matter how hard I try, how desperately I struggle, it’s all lost in a past that will never return.”

“…….”

“It’s a relief that the deaths of those I loved and cherished never happened, but the fact that they don’t remember me, not even a little… it’s been rather difficult to bear. To be honest, I just wanted to let go, to crumble completely. But I couldn’t.”

Asel listened quietly to Grace’s story. Pieces of a puzzle began to fit together in his mind with dizzying speed, coalescing into a single image.

Time, the past, memory.

Three words deeply intertwined. And the content of Grace’s tale.

Combining them all, a single word formed within Asel’s brain.

His eyes widened.

“Wait, Grace… you…”

“The man I loved left me with some words before he died.”

“…….”

“Please, take care of the next world. My path ends here, but I hope that on the branch you drift to, a future awaits where you and I can be happy.”

Tears glimmered in Grace’s eyes.

“May our love be eternal there as well.”

“…….”

“Asel, I…”

Grace trailed off, picturing the man, his lower body already gone, dying before her. Thanks to the demon’s reprieve, he had quite some time to rasp out his final words.

-Please acknowledge me when you see me again. Maybe I’ll remember you. Even if I don’t, don’t be too disappointed or sad. I don’t want to see you cry. Smiling suits you best.

“I…”

-And if I don’t remember you, don’t speak carelessly about what you’ve been through. Not until you’re certain I believe you. But if, for some unavoidable reason, you need to tell me… say this.

“I’m a regressor, actually. We were married in the previous iteration.”

A single tear traced a path down Grace’s cheek.

“And… I loved, love, and will always love you.”

This time, please don’t forget.