Five Time Regressor Walks the King’s Path - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sword Queen shouted while dragging me along as she pleased.

“There’s no time to talk. Let’s get out of here.”

“Where are we going?”

“Downstairs, of course.”

I used my strength and stopped after hearing her words.

Then she staggered and almost fell, looking back at me.

“What are you doing? We have to get out of here.”

“But why?”

“You must’ve seen the witch’s grudge. Even if it’s you, you can’t bear the miasma that penetrates through aura!”

My brows furrowed.

This woman.

“You’re so nosy.”

“No-sy?”

“Sorry, but the miasma’s nothing to me. I can last a few years here, even without my aura.”

And when I told her the truth, Sword Queen made a strange expression.

“……Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then I came here…”

“For nothing. Did you have to follow me, when we’re not even close in the first place?”

She was quite charismatic when she was Emperor’s bodyguard, but in reality, she was a nosy old lady.

“…What the hell are you?”

“I’m Ha Chun-Sung.”

“No, not your name, how the hell did you become like that?”

“There’s no reason for me to tell you?”

Sword Queen sighed when she heard me.

“Yes, that’s true. But knowing how to be strong like you will make it even easier to clear Crown Road.”

“With what trust can I give you that information?”

“Based on the fact that we both share the goal of clearing Crown Road.”

I laughed out loud when I saw the sincere eyes of Sword Queen.

“The result of believing is this regression.”

And as soon as I continued, her eyes began to gradually grow.

It was because she also noticed the implication of my words.

Anger rose again in her eyes, and they burned fiercely.

“Are you treating me like a Yashin?”

“At least, I wouldn’t go that far. And…”

I spoke proudly to the angry Sword Queen.

“I can clear Crown Road by myself.”

As soon as I arrogantly voiced my plan, she blinked her eyes and laughed.

“That’s some amazing confidence. But do you even know what the witch’s grievance is?”

That remark brought me to a grinding halt.

In reality, I had yet to investigate much about the witch’s grievance.

Seeing my reaction, she laughed again.

“You don’t know anything, yet you shouted so arrogantly.”

“So you know. Is that it?”

“That’s right. Although we failed every time because of the miasma, we weren’t just playing around the past month.”

I looked straight at Sword Queen.

“The price of the information.”

“Clear Floor 22.”

What she said was what I could do best.

I knew the meaning of her words when I faced her sincere eyes.

And at that moment, she collapsed.

I was shocked because I didn’t think she would suddenly collapse, so I hurriedly looked her over.

White complexion, cold sweat.

Recognizing her condition, I immediately sighed.

“Did you come inside when you can’t even bear the miasma?”

“…To clear Crown Road, we can’t lose any more regressors.”

As I spoke, I leaned the collapsed Sword Queen up against a wall and stood up.

“Do you want to go back to Earth, too?”

“My younger sibling is waiting.”

Family.

The word “family” made me smile for a moment.

The youngest son of a rich family with outstanding brothers.

Having experienced a situation on Earth that would only appear in dramas, I murmured…

“…Yeah, I have to go back.”

Sword Queen looked up at me when she heard my voice, and carefully asked me,

“What did you leave behind on Earth?”

“Money and discharge.”

“Discharge? Are you a soldier?”

Haha, rotten Republic of Korea.

But it was true.

It was also true that I didn’t want to go back to that damn uniform every five years.

“Give me some information.”

“…Okay.”

When I said it as if warning her to stop talking nonsense, she gently backed down.

And she started telling me the information of Floor 22 that she’d collected so far.

* * *

Money has not been coming in recently.

I heard the news.

The country is in a drought.

Farming was bad, and the national treasury began to empty.

Now that prices are rising and farmers are dying, the state has no time to care about orphanages.

After the young prince, who was not yet of age, ascended the throne, the nobles began to fight.

In order to further elevate their position and wealth, aristocrats began to reduce unnecessary investment in funds.

Our orphanage was run by the government and donations from aristocrats.

When both were cut off at the same time, the orphanage’s funds began to decline sharply.

‘If this keeps up, the orphanage will close.’

If that happens, the children at the orphanage will be taken to the streets.

‘What should I do? What should I do?’

As the director, even if I go out alone and make money, I can’t feed all the children.

However, a new solution wouldn’t appear by just staying still.

One day, two days, four days, a month.

After three months passed with just thinking…

The balance was almost in the red.

“One month left.”

Nervousness mingled with anxiety on my face.

At night, I only dreamed about the orphanage closing, and during the day, I wondered what to do with the children.

While I was living in anxiety, one day after the next, a person came to the orphanage.

The old gentleman, who stood out in simple clothes, white hair, and a beard, asked if he could see the children at the orphanage.

I introduced him to the children because I thought he wanted to adopt them.

The old gentleman, who looked around at the children, said he would come back next time, and a few days later, he indeed came back.

“I want to adopt a child.”

“Oh, really? First, talk to the child, and then fill out the adoption papers…”

“I would rather not fill out the adoption documents.”

My eyes were filled with questions and vigilance at the words of the old man.

There were people like this occasionally.

People who show up to get something out of the children.

Adoption documents and procedures existed to weed out these people.

“If that’s the case, you can’t.”

“It’s been hard running an orphanage recently, right?”

As I tried to get up, my body stiffened at the words of the old gentleman.

He had a deep smile as if he knew the whole situation.

“I have a lot of money. It’s enough to save an orphanage.”

“But you can’t adopt a child without adoption papers.”

“If the orphanage disappears, all the children will be on the streets.”

The last word went deep into my heart.

I knew that.

At this rate, all the children at the orphanage would end up on the streets.

But I couldn’t let this man adopt the children when I didn’t know what he was going to do to them.

“You would break the path of saving everyone at the expense of the few… That’s what you’re thinking.”

And the old man grinned as if he had read the thought from my anxious expression.

“That’s all right. You’re a person great enough to run an orphanage, so it’s a natural reaction. It’s only a problem of time for me, so I’m not in a hurry either. If I come back after the orphanage is ruined, then that’s all.”

The old man spoke in a low voice and rose from his seat.

“It would be enough to have one person a year. But if the orphanage goes down, there will be a lot of them, so that’s not bad either.”

My pupils shook.

He was telling me that he would take all the children with him if the orphanage collapsed.

This was a threat.

It was a threat to decide whether to follow his words now and send one orphan to him once a year, or have the orphanage collapse and have him take all the children away.

And the time I was given was until right after he left through the door.

Clatter.

“Please, wait.”

And just before he opened the door, my mouth finally opened.

My lips trembled and my hand clenched into a fist.

Blood veins showed around my eyes and tears began to leak out, but I held back and said the words he wanted to hear one by one.

“Your proposal, I’ll… take it.”

My voice filled the room.

The old gentleman removed his hand from the door with a kind smile.

“Good answer.”

That’s how I signed a contract with the old gentleman.

After that, I decided to send one of the children of the orphanage to the old gentleman every year.

He came every year, picked one of the children, and informed me.

I arranged for the adoption of the child as he told me to, and the old gentleman sent the child into the hands of the sender.

As such, the orphanage continued to receive money in abundance.

The old gentleman kept his promise.

Carmine.

Sofia.

Eva.

Oricia.

Four years later, and before I knew it, I had sent four of my children.

[Teacher, was I really adopted?]

[What kind of people are my new mom and dad?]

[I’ll do my best.]

[Teacher, why are you crying? I’m going somewhere nice. Oh, are you afraid we’ll be separated? I’ll come back again, don’t worry.]

Each of the children’s voices was still vivid in my ears.

But for four years, the children never came back to the orphanage.

And another year.

The day after I had sent away the child that the old gentleman had chosen.

Knights from the country came to our orphanage alongside soldiers.

“Witch, where is the witch?!”

The knight at the forefront pulled out his sword and shouted.

Surprised by the cry, the children entered the building, and I, the representative, approached the knight while trembling.

“Sir Knight, what do you mean by witch?”

“Are you in charge of this orphanage?”

“Y-Yes, I am.”

At that moment, the knight’s sword pierced my chest.

Without answering my question, my heart was pierced by the sword and blood spilled out as I collapsed. My eyes were filled with questions.

How come?

Why all of a sudden?

“It’s the children of the witch! Kill them all! They are offerings to be made to the devil!”

“N-No. No!”

Even while bleeding out, I could hear the knight’s voice vividly.

“Kyaaaak!”

“Mom, teacher, teacher!”

“Help me! Sir, I….”

He instructed a soldier to seize the children, and then he cut the screaming children’s throats.

The orphanage was quickly devastated, and the surroundings were stained with the children’s screams.

“Stop, stop!”

Far from hearing the plea, they finally set the orphanage on fire, and tears of blood flowed in my eyes.

The knight had said something about a demon summoning ritual.

Which meant that the old gentleman had sacrificed children to summon demons.

Five children died in pain by his hands.

No, it was because of me.

The children were raised by my own hands, and I sent them to die.

All the children in the orphanage died because of me falling for temptation.

“Ah, ahhhh!”

A voice of infinite grief reverberated in the sky, and I breathed my last breath.

* * *

Sword Queen finished her explanation.

“Today is the day before the knights come.”

“Is the clear condition to block the knights?”

“No, it’s after that. We’ve done as much as we can to stop the knights, but we failed to clear the Floor. After that, everyone couldn’t bear the miasma and had to give up.”

Did they do up to that point?

I was lost in thought when I heard the explanation.

‘The object of the witch’s grievance would be herself rather than the old gentleman.’

A grievance against herself for having abandoned her children.

Now that she had already sent her children away, her grievance was already in progress.

I just needed to figure out how it explodes.

‘What a pain.’

If blocking the knights doesn’t work, then should I kill the old gentleman?

However, it was questionable whether killing him would resolve the witch’s grievance.

‘For now, I have no choice but to proceed further.’

I’ll only know if I try.

I looked back at Sword Queen.