{Ahh, how can this be!}
The moment she realized that I could see her.
She muttered as if truly startled.
{A child who can look at me just fine has a presence this faint. What a mysterious harmony this is!}
The [Matron] stared at me, as if interested.
As I received that gaze, I thought.
‘I heard an external existence might intervene, but.’
No.
No matter what.
‘Meeting one right away after hearing that warning—how does that make any sense, damn it.’
At least because I had Mirinae’s warning, I couldn’t be caught completely off guard.
But it was definitely the kind of situation that made curses spill out in my head.
{Ah, aaah. Yes. If I look closely, I can see you. You, you!}
And then.
She studied me closely and then—
{My goodness. Even on this land...... there was a hero!}
She said that in a voice filled with rapture.
{Ahh! I thought there would be none born on this land who formed an order. What a splendid sight!}
Leaving Jang Youngwoong, collapsed on the floor and letting out bizarre groans, behind.
She cried out as she approached me.
{Why were you hiding like this? If you hadn’t been hiding like this, there would have been many who would have come to find you!}
Reaching out a hand toward my face.
A woman asking in a warm voice full of affection.
“......I don’t like standing out.”
{Heehee, what an amusing child. To have formed an order and yet be so timid.}
As if it was funny.
She said, smiling with a bright, innocent laugh.
{Well, whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. What matters is...... that I found you first, when no one else could!}
“......?”
{Heehee. You’re truly lucky. If I had decided not to look around this place, I would have regretted it greatly.}
And then.
The [Matron] held out that faintly glowing hand to me.
{My child.}
“Huh?”
{Would you like to become my child.}
What she brought out
was an adoption proposal.
“Become your child?”
I answered in a wary voice.
“What are you expecting from me that you’re making that offer?”
{Expecting something? You don’t know about parents.}
“What?”
{A mother expects nothing from her child. Rather, a parent’s heart is only to give to their child.}
It sounded heartwarming if you only listened to the words.
But from my position as the one hearing it, it wasn’t heartwarming at all.
{I will give you the power I possess. I will share all my authority with you.}
When she reached her hand out around her,
centered on the mist spreading from that hand, the surrounding scenery slowly began to change.
{I am the Matron of all regretful ones in this universe. All those who shed tears of blood while holding deep regret are my children.}
“.......”
{Those who have suffered bone-deep regret learn to empathize with another’s regret. And when I, who have shed more tears of blood than anyone, look at you.}
That changed scenery
was, to me...... quite familiar.
{You too...... look like you have many regrets in your heart.}
The first thing that appeared was a military base deep in the mountains.
And outside that base.
I could see dozens of beasts wrapped in thick hide, tearing open the fence and crawling inside.
-Krrrraahk.
Those monsters, shaped like gigantic bipedal lizards, spread through the base.
And a few of them were heading toward a facility with white smoke rising.
The cafeteria.
-I saw earlier that we were running low on salt.
And then.
Inside that cafeteria—
Bring some from the storage.
-Yes.
A soldier.
At a senior’s order, was walking toward the outside of the building.
Toward that very place
where beasts that saw humans as nothing but prey were approaching.
{If only you hadn’t said that then.}
And then.
With her hand on my shoulder, the Matron looked at that scene and spoke.
{You are thinking that instead of sending your junior on an errand, if you had gone yourself......}
“......So you’re just stealing other people’s memories as you please. Shouldn’t you respect a kid’s privacy?”
Even as I gave a bitter smile,
I couldn’t deny what she said.
Just like she said.
That scene was something I had regretted over and over.
-Kuh, kuhuk.......
Because of my thoughtless order.
My junior was being torn apart and eaten in a miserable state.
‘Junhyeok was a better cook than me.’
They had learned cooking early at a Japanese restaurant.
An ace who cooked well and had a good personality.
{I have looked over the regrets of many children, and most of them were about themselves.}
If they hadn’t died that useless death from my order.
They might’ve awakened as a better cook than me.
{But you are not.}
Someone like that died for nothing.
Because of an order from me that was nothing.
{The regrets lodged in your heart...... most of them are about others.}
And that wasn’t all.
After that, too, there were many soldiers who died because of my wrong orders.
{You poor, pitiful, good child.}
When I had nothing to do and sank ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) blankly into thought,
those times would suddenly come to mind, and I’d have to clutch my chest—countless times.
{Don’t you want to correct that regret?}
But.
No matter how much you regret it, you can’t go back to the past.
That’s what I thought, but—
{If you are with me, you can.}
When she stretched out her hand again—
SHWIIIIIIK!
As if a video were being played in reverse.
Junhyeok’s body, which had been torn apart and eaten by monsters, rose back up.
The flesh that had gone into the monsters’ mouths clung back onto that body.
{You have seen the appearance of this land, haven’t you. The glorious sight where all regrets are corrected, and it regains its past form.}
Junhyeok, who had returned to that time,
the very time when I was talking with them.
{All your regrets can be corrected like this as well.}
The senior soldier, blankly staring at the scene.
‘Me’ grabbed Junhyeok’s shoulder and shoved them back.
-No, the errand just now is canceled!
Picking up the ladles scattered around the cafeteria, ‘me’ handed them to the two juniors and headed for the oil pot.
-Sergeant Shin?
-Grab the ladles! We’re splashing boiling oil! Youngest, you go inside and get a knife!
A little later.
The monster entered the building, just like the original history.
But the three soldiers, already prepared for the attack, splashed boiling oil as they fought.
And as a result of stabbing into the wounds that created—
{No one was hurt, and no one died. What a good thing this is.}
The three cooks
succeeded in killing the monster without a single casualty.
‘Sure, it’s not wrong.’
Just like she said.
{You will be given a chance to correct all the regrets you experienced in life.}
That sight.
Was the sight I had imagined over and over, wishing it could be so.
A sight that, even seeing it again, couldn’t be better.
{And that’s not all. You will become the eldest grandchild of this mother. All those across the universe with deep regret will become your brothers and sisters. Those children can empathize with your wounds. They will lick your wounds with you, and they will follow your orders.}
Swish—
She held out her hand softly.
{Come with me, my child. This mother will never treat her child poorly.}
It was definitely an attractive offer.
But.
I looked at the Matron with a flat expression and said.
“I don’t really like that.”
{What?}
I remembered what Mirinae said.
Those external existences exercise their influence through those who belong to this world.
Someone born on this land who formed an order was optimal for exercising that influence, or something.
And then.
“You say you’ll never treat your child poorly? Then let me ask one thing.”
Someone who hadn’t formed an order
couldn’t fully accept that power, or something.
“Then is that man lying over there not your child?”
Collapsed on the floor.
A man letting out bizarre groans, unable to accept the reality he experienced.
“When I first met him, he looked pretty healthy, but not now.”
That man
had a face grown quite gaunt.
{You seem to be mistaken about something. This mother gave that child a chance.}
“A chance?”
{I enabled that child to correct all the regrets they experienced, and in that process, I also adjusted that child’s perceived time appropriately so their mind would not collapse. And even then, I did not expect anything from that child. Don’t you feel this mother’s careful consideration?}
Mirinae said.
The reason he could find me was because he was physically close.
And the next existence to find me...... would be an existence with deep ties to me.
If that mechanism applied to others as well—
‘That existence’s name is [Matron of Regretful Ones].’
The reason she discovered Jang Youngwoong and gave him a chance
was probably because Jang Youngwoong was the one holding the most regret in the Republic of Korea.
“You didn’t expect anything? Then why.”
Sure, just like she said.
By gaining her power, Jang Youngwoong would have been happy, at least up to a point.
But.
“After correcting all regrets from the past, you still didn’t take that power back.”
If the goal really was to let them correct their regrets.
Then at the point they succeeded in reclaiming every regret from the past,
Jang Youngwoong’s “repetition” should have stopped.
But.
Even until the moment we met him afterward, he was still repeating time.
Even though at that point, there wouldn’t have been anything left to regret.
“Want me to guess?”
The reason was probably—
“You wanted to use that bastard to spread your power across this land.”
{.......}
That perfectly normal scenery of Seoul right now is fake.
No, “fake” might not be the exact expression.
To put it more accurately—
‘A...... [Otherworld], created by that bastard’s power.’
Not simply a dream or an illusion.
An otherworld that the one called this ‘Matron’ overlaid onto reality.
If you dig into the essence of it, a space closer to a dungeon.
“Jang Youngwoong said he can only turn time back within the place his influence reaches. More precisely, the place Jang Youngwoong’s influence reaches became your territory.”
And.
They said the external existences must use the residents of this land as a medium in order to interfere with this land.
“You wanted to use that bastard to expand your domain and get your spoon on this land. If we lucked out and entered under Jang Youngwoong too, we’d become your subordinates. You could’ve put the entire Korean Peninsula under your influence in an instant. But here’s the thing.”
And then.
Every time I destroyed Seoul over and over, and Jang Youngwoong kept repeating over and over—
“Every time he repeated...... his face kept getting more gaunt.”
Jang Youngwoong’s level was 35.
A level far below 40, the standard for an “order.”
And yet, the Matron exercised her power through Jang Youngwoong as a medium,
and now she’d come down like this, even if only partially, and was looking at me.
“Jang Youngwoong was a human who couldn’t fully accept your power. The more he used your power, the more he broke down.”
Unlike the past, which would have been nothing more than an illusion,
and therefore could be repeated tens of thousands of times without issue—
‘This place where we are now is the present.’
Repeating time while even manipulating our memories
must have taken enormous power.
They didn’t seem to notice it themselves.
But Jang Youngwoong was probably collapsing little by little.
And then.
“You didn’t care anyway, right? Or not?”
{......I merely thought it would be good to have a land that could embrace all regretful children.}
“In the end. You had a purpose for driving a Jang Youngwoong with no qualification that far, huh.”
I ground my teeth,
then laughed like I couldn’t believe it and said.
“You wanted to erase regret? You don’t expect anything from your child? Bullshit.”
{Truly.}
“You just needed a pawn.”
Yeah.
From that bastard, since earlier—
{Truly, you are a child I like very much......!}
“I could taste it.”
The taste of lying.
Thickly.
*****
{Truly, you are a child I like very much......!}
“Like hell.”
I brought my hand to my waist and stared at her.
The figure of the woman who had been endlessly benevolent until just now was already nowhere to be found.
A gigantic figure swelling larger and larger.
{Ahh, ahh. You are different from those who simply raised their order with brute stupidity. Since you formed an order yourself on such a barren land, you are a child with value befitting that.}
And then.
Along with a thick scent of lies,
I could feel the taste of anger from that bastard too.
{I will ask one last time.}
At some point.
Even that benevolent voice hardened.
{Become my apostle, human.}
With a flat, emotionless voice with not a shred of humanity in it,
that bastard offered me the proposal.
{If you do, I will make all regrets inside you as if they never existed.}
But.
What I had to say to that bastard was only one thing.
“Get lost, asshole.”
{......If you speak that far, then it can’t be helped. Correcting a wayward child is also a mother’s role.}
“I’ve been wanting to say this since earlier.”
The [Matron], who had been like a holy mother emitting a faint light.
That figure had vanished somewhere before I knew it.
“My mom is alive and doing just fine, you know? Why the hell are you my mom.”
What I could see in front of my eyes now was—
A giant made of ominous dark crimson.
“There’s no such thing as a mom this disgusting.”
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of eyes, bloodshot red, floated in midair.
And those eyes were shedding thick tears of blood.
Those flowing red tears of blood gathered together, forming the body of that giant.
{You will regret rejecting my proposal.}
That hand, smeared with tears of blood, covered my eyes.
And when I came to my senses—
{If you carry that regret and beg again, then I will take you in at that time.}
“......Huh?”
What appeared before my eyes
was a little child.
-Suya!
Holding a small puppy in their arms,
a young boy was crying as if the world were tearing apart.
