A Regressor's Bucket List

As I walked down the road, whistling a cheerful tune, Loxy muttered in a tone that suggested she didn't understand at all.

“…Is it that great? Does sitting down for a moment and having him touch your back really change that much?”

Pfft—

“You were talking it up so much, I thought he was going to give you some killer wings or something, but you don't look any different on the outside.”

From her perspective, it was understandable that she wouldn't get it.

Certainly, if you only looked at my outward appearance, nothing about me had changed.

But the Trait ‘Augmented Circuit’ I’d obtained in advance through Bamboo Hat Mister was incomparable to something as simple as wings.

Just by the numbers, it was a unique Trait that only two people in the entire Upper Plane, Bamboo Hat Mister and I, could use.

‘Mana Augmentation’, operated through the Augmented Circuit, had been a signature Trait that, along with my vampire Trait, defined my combat style in my past life.

■Augmented Circuit (★☆☆)

[You can use the Augmented Mana Circuit. The Augmented Circuit enhances the outputted mana a second time.]

■Half-Vampire (★☆☆)

[A Half-Vampire possesses superior regenerative abilities compared to others. This effect increases dramatically when absorbing the blood of a hunted target.]

‘…So the foundation is complete, I guess.’

As I mentioned before, wasn’t a Trait I was supposed to acquire at this stage.

It was written in my bucket list, but I had originally planned to obtain this Trait not in the first chapter of preparing for the Demon King hunt, but two or three chapters later.

It wasn't something I had planned to touch during the first chapter for the Demon King hunt, ‘Rebuilding the Demonic Cult’.

…Nevertheless, the reason I obtained this Trait in advance at this stage was simple.

‘…It might get a little twisted, but.’

Einstein's intervention.

To handle that major incident, I needed to make some preparations of my own.

After all, my opponent was ‘Einstein’; I couldn't just clash with him unprepared.

Now that things were already so twisted, I couldn't afford the luxury of sticking to the order of my bucket list.

Even without this, I figured it was better to secure whatever advantages I could in advance.

“…More and more, compared to what I first thought.”

“……”

“No, I think the scale is growing at a rapid pace.”

Pfft—

“You can say that again.”

Just as Jerry said, it seemed the flow of events after my Regression was moving faster than I’d thought.

I knew because I had experienced it once in my past life.

Events have a sort of inertia; once it starts accelerating, it’s nearly impossible to slow it down.

That even if I couldn't see it, a chain of events was undoubtedly occurring in places I hadn't considered.

And in the end, that overwhelming current, much faster than I had anticipated.

Could bring about the conclusion of this Regression.

“…Somehow, I don’t think it’s just a feeling this time.”

I knew it all too well.

* * *

We climbed along the cliff path and returned to the stopped train.

“Huh?”

Seeing the train in the distance, Loxy knit her brows and let out a sound.

“That…”

The reason was simple.

“I think the train’s engine is running right now…?”

The train, which should have been stopped due to a lack of fuel, had its engine brazenly running, spewing mana decomposition material from the exhaust pipe on top of the driver’s car.

“…Looks like someone came.”

“Seems so.”

Jerry’s guess was reasonable.

The people who remained on the train during our brief journey were all ordinary civilians.

There was no way they could have found a way to restart the train on their own, and the idea that the train just coincidentally (?) restarted itself was even more nonsensical.

If it wasn't us, it was correct to assume a third party had intervened.

Swish—

Jerry turned his head to look at me.

“……”

“……”

As I stared back at him, he reluctantly opened his mouth.

“…Do I really have to ask?”

“What, am I a vending machine that spits out the answer you want just by looking at me?”

“……”

“Heck, even a vending machine needs you to press the button for what you want.”

“…I see.”

After a brief pause, he asked his usual question.

“Do you have anyone in mind?”

“…Roughly.”

Thump, thump—

It was a question with an obvious answer, one that didn't require deep thought.

Not many people knew the train was stranded here, and among them, only one or two would bother to make the trip all the way out here on their own time.

Thump, thump—

So.

It was one of two possibilities.

Either The Order had processed things with incredible speed and their representative had arrived earlier than expected.

Or.

Screech—

*Thud!*

“…Huh? Hero-nim!”

Eliya von Deina Mercullurt.

…My reckless apprentice priestess, covered in soot, had forced her way here.

* * *

After a simple round of introductions for the newcomers, Jerry and Eliya, we immediately boarded the train.

“…This is a compartment I rented, you know.”

“Don't be so stingy. You still made sure no one else could come in, out of consideration for us.”

“…How does that count as your consideration?”

“It's just a feeling.”

“…The sentences don't connect. Answer with a little more sincerity.”

Since the detached compartments had led to a shortage of seats, we gave up the first-class car reserved for the Heroes to the other passengers.

We boarded the compartment that Jerry had rented entirely for himself.

The train departed quickly.

Since Eliya had brought Mana Stones and already started the engine, all that was needed was for the engineer to take his seat.

Clatter—

Clatter—

Around the time the train picked up speed and the sound of it crossing the gaps in the tracks became somewhat regular.

Suddenly, my eyes met Eliya’s.

“…You didn't have to come all this way. I would have been fine on my own.”

“Even so, as your apprentice priestess, how could I just wait when a Hero candidate goes off to catch a named Magical Beast without knowing how fearsome they are?”

“……”

“I found the shortest route and rushed over as soon as I hung up.”

Eliya let out a soft sigh of relief and murmured.

“Still, what a relief.”

“……”

“When I arrived, I couldn't find you anywhere, so I thought I might have been too late. It looks like you didn't meet the named Magical Beast.”

Sshhh—

A momentary silence fell over the car at her question, which seemed both knowing and unknowing.

“……?”

Sensing the strange atmosphere, Eliya tilted her head and asked again.

“You just came back because you couldn't find it, right…?”

Being the quickest of the three to come to my senses, I was the first to fib to her.

“…That's right. We didn't meet it.”

“……?”

“Yep, that's right. We definitely didn't meet it.”

It wasn't a lie.

We had never actually met a ‘living’ named Magical Beast.

…Unless you counted the severed head of a named Magical Beast, the demon hiding under the cliff, or the Demon King's right-hand man.

“…It's harder than you'd think. To meet a named Magical Beast.”

It was a statement that pricked the conscience, coming after we had just had a huge brawl with the Demon King's Army's strategist and a demon.

But it seemed the years of practice he had maintaining a poker face hadn't gone anywhere.

Jerry once again revealed no expression on that shameless face of his.

“Hee hee. You're right. I don't know if we were lucky or unlucky, really…”

With the finishing touch to this blatant lie coming from Loxy's ripe eye-smile, it seemed we had managed to make the story stick.

“Hmm… Something seems strange…”

“……”

“Well, whatever. As long as you're safe, that's what matters.”

…Eliya didn't press the matter any further.

“It won't take long to get to the next station. I came here through the portal over there, after all.”

“……”

“At the train's speed, it should take about twen—”

It was a good change of subject, right on time.

“Ah, about that.”

“……?”

“I'm planning to go all the way to the Shandong Peninsula.”

When I told her our yet-unmentioned destination, her head tilted to the side.

“What? You don't have to do that. It would make sense if the train guard request was still valid… but it's already been marked as a failure…”

It was natural for her not to understand.

Just as she said, my superficial reason for going to the Shandong Peninsula now was, at best, a ‘just because’.

“Yeah. I know that. I just feel like going over there.”

“……”

“It just feels like a waste, you know? To just leave like this when it's the city we were originally supposed to reach.”

To add a slightly flimsy basis to my claim, I placed a hand on Jerry's shoulder.

“And this friend I met on the train said he's going there. He said he needed a conversation partner, so I promised I'd be one for him.”

Our teamwork hadn't been bad so far, so I was about to wink at him, but.

“…Remove it.”

The moment I placed my hand on his shoulder, his eyebrows tilted downwards as he took out a handkerchief and lifted my hand off.

“…Unclean.”

“……”

It seemed his characteristic mysophobia had flared up.

As if his own shoulder was so clean.

“He doesn't seem like the type who needs a conversation partner…”

Eliya had a displeased expression, but.

…To be honest, it didn't really matter whether she accepted it or not.

Adding a justification was just my way of showing her some courtesy.

The authority to decide a Hero's actions naturally belonged to the Hero.

An apprentice priestess could try to dissuade him, but it was impossible for her to block what a Hero wanted to do.

“…It's not like I'll be there for long. I heard it's a semi-lawless zone, so I thought there might be some interesting things to see.”

“……”

“There's no need to rush, is there? Not for someone who just came out of the Gateway Zone after overcoming a life-or-death crisis.”

“…You can’t stay for too long.”

Eliya reluctantly nodded.

Judging by her expression, she seemed quite disappointed that ‘The Chosen One’ wasn't properly utilizing the early-game advantage of getting the Constellations' attention.

The Shandong Peninsula was a corner of a corner on the Central Continent.

It was a region beyond the interest of the supervising Constellation, and even though it was on the War against Demons front lines, a place like that was unlikely to have any decent quests.

From her perspective, this precious time must feel like a waste.

‘…Should I have just told her?’

Of course, there was the option of revealing everything to her.

Jerry knew about the plan to hunt the Demon King, and Loxy even knew the truth of my Regression.

There was no rule saying I couldn't tell Eliya.

However.

Pfft—

‘…She’d probably faint on the spot.’

Knowing her personality, if she heard the words ‘Demon King hunt’, she would likely worry herself sick, rack her brain, and spend 24/7 thinking only of ways to stop me.

That much was obvious, so I didn't.

…Of course, she would find out eventually, but there was no need to 'ask for trouble' by telling her prematurely.

Let alone the Demon King hunt, even the immediate ‘Rebuilding the Demonic Cult’ plan was a mission that required putting one's life on the line.

I tore my gaze away from the pensive Eliya and turned back toward the train window.

‘…The Demonic Cult.’

This was the real start of the Demon King hunt.

Though, it was an intro with a rather high difficulty to be called a tutorial.

But in terms of steps, that's what it was.

From here on was the real preparatory stage for the Demon King hunt.

There was a long list of 'bucket list' level tasks that required risking my life.

I couldn't guarantee whether I could do them or not.

They were a series of tasks that, at my pathetic level in my past life, I couldn't have even imagined.

They were just things that had to be done.

Swish—

Perhaps a lot of time had passed.

Beneath the darkening sky, the dawn was beginning to break.

“…Things are about to get really busy.”

It was a morning that didn't feel entirely welcome.