The Tale of an Infinite Regressor

< Chapter 2 >

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Companion II

Shin Noah

The same phenomenon repeated itself in the 24th and 25th iterations.

I had to experience a worldline where Old Man Sho had died no less than three times.

The only difference from the other iterations was whether I had even a single companion or not, yet the perceived difficulty had increased five or sixfold.

It gave me a glimpse of how much I had been relying on Old Man Sho.

Finally, the 26th iteration.

“Sorry about this.”

Old Man Sho handed me a coffee as soon as he saw my face.

There was a cafe in the old Baekje Hospital building. It seemed he had predicted I would come rushing and had used the cafe, which had no other customers, to brew the coffee.

The café au lait made by Old Man Sho was really delicious. I suppose it must have been the 11th iteration when he learned barista skills.

“Look at me when you speak, sir.”

I said in German. By the 26th iteration, I was well versed enough to recite poetry in the foreign language.

“Can you forgive me?”

“7, 7, 7.”

“…?”

“Do you know what these numbers mean?”

“…Casino slot machine jackpot?”

“No. They represent the number years in the iterations I endured without you. Altogether, that’s 21 years. Damn, I haven’t seen you for over 20 years and now I might even forget your face. Let’s talk face to face.”

“……”

Old Man Sho seemed too embarrassed to speak.

I sat opposite him and sipped the coffee. By now, I could raid any café for coffee beans, but this was a luxury I hadn’t been able to afford since my fifth year.

Having died after living 7 years in the previous iteration, a genuine café au lait, not some alchemist’s imitation, was a rare luxury indeed.

Thus, regression wasn’t all bad. Coffee. Draft beer. Cigarettes. Friends and colleagues who hadn’t yet died… Being able to vividly experience them again was incredibly important to me.

“21 years… That’s curious. From my point of view, it hasn’t even been an hour since I last saw you.”

It didn’t seem to apply to Old Man Sho.

To be more precise, the most precious thing was missing from his ‘list of things he could vividly experience again.’

“But I understand. I haven’t seen my wife’s face for over a hundred years myself. I know what that feels like.”

“……”

“I can see her face in photos. I have some videos saved with her voice that I can watch. But still, there’s something like a dry well inside me that never fills up.”

The ominous premonition had not missed its mark.

If this had been like any other regression story, Old Man Sho would have held onto his sanity, and I would have found some miraculous solution within the time limit, and perhaps the elderly couple would have reunited after more than a hundred years.

“I want to see my wife in person instead of relying on just picture and videos.”

But, as I said, my story is not one of success but rather a story of sequential failures.

Old Man Sho’s mind had crumbled. In less than thirty seconds, he had tried to take his own life three times just so he could return to his wife. There was no way for me to save him.

“Do you not understand me? At least you should. So, use your ability on me…”

“No.”

I firmly refused.

Just as Old Man Sho had an innate talent for swordsmanship, I too possessed several abilities beyond regression. There would be time to mention my abilities gradually.

The ability Old Man Sho referred to now was ‘Time Seal’. I had no intention of using this power on a colleague right in front of me.

“You know, sir. Once time is sealed, that’s it. It’s over. No matter how many regressions, the seal won’t break.”

“Yes. But at least I could talk to my wife in my dreams.”

“You’d just be repeating the same day forever.”

“What difference does that make from our current situation?”

This time, I was at a loss for words.

“…Still, it can’t be done. We can’t afford to lose our strongest advantage like this.”

“Then let’s do this.”

Had Old Man Sho anticipated my reaction? As soon as Plan A was rejected, he immediately proposed Plan B.

“Keep trying until you find a solution. Regress and save the people in Seoul within one minute, or admit that it’s all impossible and give up like me.”

“What about you, sir?”

“I’m tired. Really… I’m worn out. So, I’ll just rest until you come to a conclusion.”

That night, Old Man Sho took his own life.

That was the ‘rest’ he spoke of.

“…My word.”

True to his status as a sword saint, Old Man Sho could simply use his aura to blow up his head effortlessly. It would have been a painless death.

Even at the 27th, 28th, 29th regression, nothing changed.

Old Man Sho was found dead, his life taken away on the rooftop of a building that had once housed a hospital and was now a café.

Whenever I cleared the dungeon at Busan Station and went to the café, there was always a cup of Café au lait on the table where we used to talk, steaming gently.

Under the coffee cup, there was a note.

-Maybe it’s time to give up, friend?

I smirked.

“…Suddenly, I have a favorite café I visit every 10 years.”

Suddenly, I thought about the life of my comrade.

The life of Old Man Sho was reduced to 10 to 20 seconds of conversation with his wife, and 10 minutes to prepare Café au lait for an old colleague who might visit him.

This routine hadn’t changed even as the 29th iteration progressed to the 1183rd. One body on the rooftop. One cup of Café au lait on the table.

Who was the mad one? The regressor who had relived his life over a thousand times without ever taking his own life, or the one who had killed himself over a thousand times?

The only thing that had changed over the iterations was the content of the phone calls between Old Man Sho and his wife.

「Dear God! You finally answered the phone!」

「Emit? What’s the matter? I’m at a conference right now…」

「I love you, Adele. I will love you forever.」

Was he trying to relive that brief life by listening to the phone call over and over again? Old Man Sho always recorded the conversations he had with his wife, allowing me to overhear what the elderly couple discussed every time.

「I love you, Adele… I love you.」

For the first 10 iterations, nothing changed. Old Man Sho desperately conveyed his love to his wife.

However, after more than 30 iterations, the content of the calls began to change subtly.

「Adele, actually, I’m reliving my life. The world is going to end. But I still love you.」

「My God. Are you drunk? Why are you acting like a child? Wait, Emit. There’s a strange noise coming from the sky…」

「Do you remember? 20 years ago in Turin. I went under the bridge and picked a yellow flower for you. What was the name of that flower?」

「What? You called me now just to ask that?」

「Please answer, Adele. If you don’t, I’ll die.」

Regression.

「Sorry. What was your brother’s name again?」

「Maximilian, but why…」

「Ah! Right! Maximilian! Ha ha, I had forgotten! Thanks!」

「Ha… You’re hopeless. Huh? There’s a strange noise coming from the sky…」

It was intriguing.

As the regressions continued, the phone calls between Old Man Sho and his wife shifted from being merely one-sided transmissions to something resembling real conversations.

Of course, these were calls that lasted only about 20 seconds before being cut off, but when pieced together, they really seemed to constitute a conversation.

「I’ve never liked that guy Maximilian.」

「What? All of a sudden?」

「He doesn’t think family is important at all! He’s a rotten thinker. He just pretends to listen to you.」

「Emit? Wait a minute. It’s strange, there’s a noise coming from the sky…」

「Honey, do you remember Christmas? That time your brother brought someone he said was his girlfriend. Tell me honestly. Maximilian, he’s actually gay, isn’t he?」

「What? All of a sudden? Why would you ask that over the phone… Wait, Emit. It’s weird. I can hear something from the sky.」

「Just as I thought! My intuition is never wrong. Adele, your brother is indeed gay!」

「Dear God! Emit, what are you talking about all of a sudden?」

「No, I don’t have any prejudices. I’m just sad that you and your brother assumed I wouldn’t understand and have kept it secret from me all this time.」

「This is crazy. What the… Wait, let’s meet and talk about this later! There’s a strange noise coming from the sky.」

「Adele. We need to be more open-minded with each other! I’m not a narrow-minded old man like your father!」

Ignoring the fact that the elderly couple’s life was ‘paused,’ the conversation between the two was undeniably an open and evolving dialogue.

“There was some sense in the old man’s words.”

Ultimately, I had no choice but to admit it. Just as Old Man Sho had said, this was indeed a ‘rest’.

As the episodes progressed and the calls lengthened, vitality returned to Old Man Sho’s voice and memories of his long-forgotten past revived. Now, the fact that this world was coming to an end seemed hardly important to him.

However, despite this, Old Man Sho did not stop taking his own life. Rather, if one were to describe it from his perspective—he did not stop making calls to his wife.

By the time I reached the 500th regression, I had stopped eavesdropping on Old Man Sho’s calls. The contents of the conversations had become too private for an outsider to casually intrude upon.

I can assure you, I had absolutely no desire to know about the old man’s sexual preferences.

Probably the old man couldn’t even imagine that I was fully aware of his call history.

Yet, at the start of each cycle, I never failed to stop by the building to drink a Café au lait.

Emit Schopenhauer. A colleague who had briefly been part of my distant past.

The Café au lait he brewed had become for me a sort of ritual, a way to steel myself, thinking, ‘Ah, let’s do our best this cycle too.’

This was still the case, now at my 1183rd regression.

Underneath the coffee cup, there was always a note.

-Haven’t given up yet, friend?

Well, to be honest, I had.

But I didn’t want to readily confess to this man (who was now much younger than me) that I had given up. Someday, I might tell him, but for now, I wanted to be spiteful.

After spending thousands of years alone, surely I was entitled to a little spite.

‘…I wonder what he’s talking about with the lady of the house now?’

Suddenly, I was curious.

After a long while, I collected Old Man Sho’s smartphone and decided to listen to the recorded calls.

As I pressed the play button, Old Man Sho’s vibrant voice boomed out.

「Honey! I’ve always told you to drink Zero Cider! Sugar is bad for your health!」

「What?」

I took a sip of my Café au lait while listening to the argument that filled the shop like background music.

The coffee was delicious.

-Tale of the Companion Conclusion.