Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 1447. Continental War (27)

‘Expecting honesty from Commander Jin is foolish.’

If I had to pick the least honest jerk among the people I knew, I could confidently name Commander Jin. Now that I thought about it, I knew nothing about his personal life. He was the type who kept things strictly professional. He had never really talked about himself, so the fact that I had even been in his room before was a miracle.

‘Even if Dispatch showed up, they probably wouldn’t be able to dig up this bastard’s private life.’

I even wondered whether he had a private life at all. Other than work and gambling, I had no idea what he would do during his spare time. He didn’t seem to have any close friends, either, and it also didn’t look like he was dating anyone.

There was no way I could expect a proper answer by prying into the past of someone so unreadable. I didn’t know the details, but it was certain that something had happened between Jin Cheong and Ryu Han.

Otherwise, there was no way a crazy killing machine would take an interest in him.

‘It’s probably similar to the curiosity he has toward us.’

The reason wasn’t hard to guess. Jerks who weren’t human to begin with always took an interest in something humans possessed. The Outer Gods were like that. Seraphim, Cherubim, Dominions, and Thronus envied something humans had.

Of course, the reasons differed—the Outer Gods wanted to be loved by the Creator, while those jerks simply envied humans, but the important thing was that they wanted to become human.

Ryu Han was biologically human, so it was a bit strange for him to have that desire, but wasn’t it natural for anyone to be drawn to what they lacked? The most plausible conclusion was that this inhuman bastard had gone through some incident, and he saw something in Jin Cheong.

Now, he could be seeing the same thing in the Keepers of the Moon.

“Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Heuk...”

‘He’s really loud.’

“Sob! Soooob!”

‘Ah, geez.’

“Why did you leave hyung behind?!” Sung Ji-Hoon yelled.

‘You suddenly became some hot-blooded manga protagonist, which resulted in Chang-Ryeol getting injured. How the hell is that my fault?’

Of course, he looked like he randomly shouted out of anger over his own helplessness. The Holy Sword Hero was stupid, but even he couldn’t deny that, in that situation, I made the best possible decision.

‘He reminds me of Sun Hee-Young and Hee-Ra back during the Doom Ki-Young incident.’

“I can’t let... everyone die,” I said.

“W-what?”

“I couldn’t afford to lose you or anyone else there for nothing. It’s not like I wanted to make that kind of decision either,” I told him. Of course, it was only natural for me to fill my eyes with tears and show a weaker side of myself than usual.

The Holy Sword Hero was busy shifting responsibility onto me to cover up his own mistake, but his face stiffened upon hearing that. Since he wasn’t a truly malicious idiot, he seemed to have realized what he was doing.

In the end, it didn’t take long before large tears began to fall from his eyes.

“Heuk... heuuuk... It’s because of me...” he muttered.

‘Yeah, it’s all your fault.’

“Heuk... I still didn’t hear his name... heuk... kgh... If it wasn’t for me...” he cried.

‘Oh, come on. I told you he’s coming back.’

It wasn’t just the Holy Sword Hero. The soldiers clearly sank into gloom. The atmosphere was so deflated that it felt like it would never recover, and since even I was shedding tears, I had unintentionally caused a misunderstanding.

Alps started thinking that the situation was truly dire, and she looked like she was forcing back her tears. As she stared blankly at Lee Chang-Ryeol’s arm in her hand, her expression seemed filled with every possible emotion. It was clear she genuinely believed we could lose Lee Chang-Ryeol.

She was also blaming herself. Had she been good enough, Lee Chang-Ryeol wouldn't have been forced to save her.

In the end...

“Heuuuk... heuk... heuuuuuk...”

Alps ended up crying as well...

‘No, he’s absolutely not going to die. Why the hell is everyone underestimating Chang-Ryeol?’

Had Alps not grown up seeing all kinds of ugly situations since the Holy Sword Hero Project days? Could it be that she really believed in the possibility that Chang-Ryeol, who had been through hell and back, would die just because he had lost an arm?

I had no idea what she thought of him, but a top-tier assassin with complete pain tolerance training would be able to escape as long as the opponent wasn’t our Hyun-Sung.

“Prepare to move the troops as soon as we return,” I instructed.

“...”

“I don’t think the one who came to capture us was only that single person,” I said.

“...”

“And... don’t worry about him. He’ll definitely make it back alive,” I reassured them.

“What?”

“He’ll definitely come back alive. I’m sure of it,” I repeated.

‘First things first. Preparing to run is the right thing to do.’

Of course, I thought there was a high chance Ryu Han had been left behind alone, but just because one managed to get away once didn't mean one would get away the second time around.

We were ambushed, and we couldn't erase our traces during our retreat. In other words, the Keepers of the Moon's headquarters would soon be exposed. If we didn’t want to lose our pieces for nothing, the most rational choice to make here was to leave.

The commanders seemed to agree with my order, and as soon as we reached the main force, they began driving the soldiers hard. Since it was something they had already repeated many times, the retreat was speedy.

Just then, I heard someone shout, “Enemies!”

‘Ah... damn it! I had a feeling this would happen.’

“Sir!”

“We’ll move to the next location!” I ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

“As quickly as possible, and keep the soldiers safe,” I added.

The people looked terrified.

Alps seemed to have understood how urgent the situation was because she steadied herself with Lee Chang-Ryeol's arm inside her bag. She realized that this wasn’t the time to worry about Lee Chang-Ryeol. She looked as if she were about to support me immediately. Her face told me that she wasn't going to let me suffer even a single scratch until Lee Chang-Ryeol was back.

‘Yeah, that’s the right mindset.’

“Stay close to me, sir,” Alps said.

“Miss Alps?”

“I’ll protect you,” she added.

Just then, spells and arrows rained down on us. We still couldn’t see the enemy with the naked eye, but the sky filled with light and trails made it easy to guess the scale of their forces.

A thunderous boom slammed into my ears. Debris flew everywhere, and screams echoed, announcing that a battle had begun. Calling it a proper fight would be generous. We were running away, not fighting back.

All we could do was minimize the damage as much as possible. Arrows poured down like rain, striking soldiers who screamed as they fell to the ground, while one man engulfed in flames twisted as if he were dancing before collapsing to the ground.

Our forces desperately tried to retrieve the wounded, but even that wasn’t easy, and enemies carrying spears and shields were already closing in behind us.

‘It won’t be long before we’re completely mixed together.’

“Sir, this way!”

The Holy Sword Hero seemed to have come to his senses. Watching his comrades falling to the ground one by one, he could no longer stand still. He drew his sword and shouted, “Everyone, run!”

He was doing a half-baked impression of Lee Chang-Ryeol. As shield and spear troops flooded in and reached our lines, the Holy Sword Hero gnashed his teeth and cut them down.

The strange thing was that he wasn’t killing them.

“Jin Yoo!” Sung Ji-Hoon called out.

“Mr. Ji-Hoon, you need to move now!” I shouted.

“Damn it, go, now!” he shouted back.

‘How am I supposed to go when you're not coming? God damn it!’

“Miss Alps!”

At first, I wondered whether it was just a coincidence, but the longer the fighting dragged on, the clearer it became that our Holy Sword Hero had no intention of killing the enemies.

The Keepers of the Moonlight were trying their best to minimize killings, even classifying conscripted soldiers as victims of the war. This was written into the hastily drafted rules, sure, but no one had ever told him to obey those rules in a situation this extreme.

Even while deflecting spells and arrows with his sword, and even though he fought dozens of enemies charging toward him at once, he never struck in a way that could be fatal to the soldiers.

He even tried to keep their injuries to a minimum. Cutting apart weapons and shields, or leaving nonlethal wounds that stopped them from moving... this was all he did.

Considering how shaken he was just moments ago, it made even less sense. I expected him to vent his rage over losing his nameless hyung by happily carving the flesh of the Republic’s troops, but when the lid came off, he was doing the exact opposite.

Unfortunately, his actions meant there was no way he could hold them back on his own.

He couldn’t stop the Republic’s soldiers, who were simply throwing themselves at him.

Despite that, the Holy Sword Hero still refused to kill them.

‘What the hell is this pointless bullshit he’s pulling?’

Then, I understood why he was acting like this. I also understood why he lashed out at Ryu Han earlier.

“...”

“...”

‘He must’ve seen himself in him.’

I was certain of it. He saw his former self in Ryu Han, the version of himself who could kill people without feeling anything at all. Before he met me, he thought of this continent as a game, firmly believing that those he killed were just NPCs.

The reasons were different, but the outcome was the same.

He and Ryu Han had killed people without feeling a single thing.

“Aaaah! Sir!” Alps shouted.

‘Stop calling me.’

Perhaps when he said he would never forgive Ryu Han, he had actually been talking to his former self. I felt like his reckless insistence on not hurting others was his way of proving that he and Ryu Han were different.

More than anyone, he probably wanted to erase who he used to be.

He was in the middle of doing that right now.

“Damn it! I told you to run! What the hell are you doing?!” Sung Ji-Hoon shouted.

“Mr. Ji-Hoon!”

‘Yeah, but at this rate, our people are all going to die, you idiot. What kind of lunatic chooses a no-killing route on a battlefield?’

We had to shake them off, but they wouldn't let go of us.

'Damn it. At the very least, he should take off an arm or a leg. That way, a medic or a priest would have to show up to deal with them, buying us time.'

On a battlefield, bleeding out was just a natural death caused by unavoidable circumstances.

'It won't be your fault even if they bleed out to death. That’s what you should be telling yourself.'

“Damn it! Enemy sighted at three o’clock! Everyone, prepare for combat!”

When retreat was no longer possible—

“Uh...”

—a pale fog engulfed the surroundings...

For a moment, I wondered if some god had decided to help us, or if the Mist Summoner had jumped into the fray.

I looked around and soon heard a familiar sound.

“Ssshhh.”

“...”

“Hoooo...”

“...”

“Hooooooo...”

The faint scent of tobacco tickled my nose.

“Ssshhh. Hooooooo.”