A Regressor's Bucket List

“…I have no excuse.”

“It's fine. But I'll be taking this as compensation for the trouble.”

“…You said my title so naturally, I just assumed you were a Hero sent by the Hwasan Sect to subjugate us.”

As U-jin, who had taken the secret manual, explained the tangled circumstances, Namgung Soso, who had been frowning, turned pale and bowed her head.

“…Frankly, even though my own achievements stalled at the entry-level of 1-star, I still find it hard to believe you are only at the level of a Hero candidate.”

Indeed.

While Namgung Soso was the one who had misunderstood, from her perspective, it was a situation where a misunderstanding was bound to happen.

It hadn't been long since she'd heard about the Constellation's request to subjugate the Demonic Cult, and U-jin hadn't actively defended or explained himself either.

Seeing U-jin not object to how he was being treated and not refusing a duel.

She naturally assumed he was a Hero who had come to carry out the 'Subjugate the Remnants of the Demonic Cult' request, and his outstanding skill, which contradicted his claim of being a Hero candidate, further convinced her.

Of course, U-jin was also aware of this but had intentionally not denied it to speed up the conversation.

In the end, U-jin's choice was the right one.

If he hadn't pushed Namgung Soso to her limit, he would never have seen her perform the Heavenly Demon's Reigning Steps.

It would have taken much longer to find the secret manual of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, or in the worst-case scenario, he might not have found it at all, failing to achieve his plan of fully rebuilding the Demonic Cult.

“So.”

“……”

“Where did you get it? This secret manual.”

At U-jin's direct question, Namgung Soso stared at the floor for a moment as if organizing her thoughts, then finally parted her lips.

“…I was a child of a fallen family called the ‘Namgung Clan’.”

The story began a long time ago.

“Until my great-grandfather's generation, we were a renowned sword family, respected wherever we went in the Murim… but in a previous generation, we suffered the calamity of extermination, losing not only our family's secret manuals but even the unique swordsmanship of our house.”

“……”

“My father was reluctant to speak of the exact cause, so I don't know the details… but it seemed to be related to the Great War between the Orthodox and Demonic Factions that took place 100 years ago.”

For a moment, U-jin's head tilted.

He didn't quite understand the direction of the story.

He had clearly asked about the secret manual, yet she was starting her explanation with her fallen family, a story she would not easily tell elsewhere.

But Namgung Soso's expression was too earnest for him to say, 'I'm not interested in that,' so U-jin set his questions aside for the moment and listened to her story.

“My father, who barely survived the family's destruction, left our ancestral home and was pushed to the outskirts, eventually ending up here in the Shandong region, the very edge of the Murim. So, this place is my hometown.”

“Hmm… and so?”

“Although we lost our house's unique swordsmanship, my father still made a living by wielding his sword and hunting the Magical Beasts that occasionally appeared on the outskirts. Influenced by him, I too grew close to the sword from a young age.”

“……”

“Then, by chance, an elder from the Hwasan Sect who was visiting Shandong recognized my talent and took me in as a disciple. I began to learn the sword in earnest, grew rapidly, participated in the War against Demons on the eastern front of the Murim, the , and was recognized for my merits, becoming a Hero.”

Namgung Soso spoke as if it were a matter of course, but unlike those from the Lower-Dimensional Planes who are all recognized as Hero candidates after passing through the Gateway Zone, it was not so easy for a native resident of the Upper Plane to earn the title of Hero.

First, they had to participate in the War against Demons as a soldier and have their contributions recognized to some extent to qualify as a Hero candidate.

From there, they had to strive further and build up achievements to officially acquire the title of Hero.

Of course, the requirement of achieving significant deeds to become a Hero was the same, but compared to Plane Transcendents, who received various forms of support as Hero candidates and could have a relatively stable preparatory period, residents of the Upper Plane had it much more dangerous, as they had to start from the very bottom as soldiers and work their way up in the War against Demons.

“At first, my father was pleased. Others who knew me were also happy, saying a talent had emerged from this barren Shandong Peninsula. But from that point on, things started to go wrong.”

“Go wrong?”

“I naturally formed an Exclusive Contract with the guardian Constellation of Hwasan, the 'Sword Sage,' where I learned my swordsmanship. Now that I had earned the title of Hero, I thought I could save my hometown from the hordes of Magical Beasts that threatened the Shandong Peninsula every year. After all, the Shandong Peninsula was officially a region on the front lines of the War against Demons.”

“…But it didn't turn out that way.”

“Yes. Following the requests of the Constellation, the 'Sword Sage,' I participated in all the other regions of the War against Demons, fending off invasions from hordes of Magical Beasts, but strangely, no requests were ever issued for my hometown.”

It was a rather common story.

There was a limit to the available manpower on any front in the War against Demons, and the Constellations had no choice but to prioritize based on importance.

The Shandong Peninsula was not important enough to warrant the use of a Hero, and its underwater region was so treacherous that even the Demon King's Army didn't bother using it as a route.

The 'hordes of Magical Beasts that troubled her hometown every year' that Namgung Soso mentioned were not a formal offensive by the Demon King's Army, but merely Magical Beasts equivalent to deserters who had broken away from it.

It wasn't an issue important enough for a Constellation to bother with.

That is.

“…In the end, while I was active on other fronts of the War against Demons, an unprecedented, large-scale Magical Beast outbreak occurred on the Shandong Peninsula. My father died in the process of fending it off.”

“……”

“That was two years ago.”

…From the Constellation's perspective, that is.

“As soon as I heard the news of the Magical Beast outbreak, I relinquished my Hero title and moved immediately, but it was already too late.”

“……”

“Unable to bear the sense of loss and rage from losing my only blood relative, I became a wreck and lived as a shut-in. Then one day.”

A slightly different mood colored Namgung Soso's voice.

“…An elderly blind man came to my house.”

“……!”

“Actually, he wasn't a complete stranger. Even when I was young, there was an old blind man in Shandong called 'Blindman Shim' who went around begging, and my father had shared food with him a few times. So, assuming he had come to beg again, I gathered some snacks to give him. But…”

U-jin's eyes grew grave.

“…He shook his head and instead offered me that secret manual.”

“……”

“He said he came thinking that someone from the Namgung family might be able to carry on the value of the Demonic Cult, even if just a little…”

The story that followed was somewhat cliché.

Having understood even a fraction of the mysteries of the Heavenly Demon's Reigning Steps, she saw immense potential in the secret manual and used it to establish a private organization to protect the Shandong Peninsula.

And that was the true identity of the 'New Demonic Cult,' with her as its leader.

In other words, the 'New Demonic Cult' wasn't some gang of thugs that had taken over Shandong, but rather a type of self-defense force created to protect the area from the deserters of the Demon King's Army.

Having heard the whole story, U-jin nodded as if he had a grasp of the situation and asked Namgung Soso a question.

“What did you mean when you said you no longer need this secret manual?”

“That's… as you saw earlier, I couldn't even properly master the movements in the book's preface. It is undoubtedly a powerful martial art… but it's been over half a year, and I still can't master a single movement…”

“……”

“Also, I originally intended not to keep it for myself but to have everyone in the New Demonic Cult learn it. I tried calling a few who seemed talented in the martial arts to learn it… but they couldn't even mimic a fraction of it and ended up suffering internal or external injuries instead. So I had given up. I decided it was beyond my domain.”

Finishing her story, Namgung Soso added in a slightly cautious tone.

“…The reason I went out of my way to tell you all this is because I thought you, Sir U-jin, might know what the blind man meant when he said, 'someone from the Namgung family might be able to carry on the value of the Demonic Cult, even if just a little,' and why no one can learn this martial art even with the secret manual.”

“……”

“If my feeling is correct… you don't seem to be a simple Hero candidate…. Do you have any idea what might be going on?”

After Namgung Soso's question, U-jin, who had been silent for a moment, muttered in a barely audible voice.

“…No way.”

* * *

From the first moment he saw the Heavenly Demon's Reigning Steps, a question had formed in U-jin's mind.

No matter how much of a footwork technique it was, no matter how much of a degraded, degraded, degraded version it was compared to the original.

Even if it was incomplete.

‘…Someone other than Cheong-yi using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?’

Because, based on my experience before my Regression, that was absolutely impossible.

Even I, who had mastered the art of imitation, could not perfectly replicate that punk Cheong-yi's Heavenly Demon's Reigning Steps.

Of course, there was the difference that here, a secret manual existed, unlike back then when that punk Cheong-yi was my only reference material, but whether one could use the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was never a matter of mere information.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was a bloodline martial art passed down only to those qualified to succeed the patriarch of the Demonic Cult.

Meaning, only those who inherited 'that bloodline' could imitate even a fragment of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

In other words, what Blindman Shim told Namgung Soso—'someone from the Namgung family might be able to carry on the value of the Demonic Cult, even if just a little'—

‘…Does this mean she's a collateral blood relative of that punk Cheong-yi?’

It likely meant that the Namgung clan, however distant, had inherited that bloodline.

Of course, he couldn't be certain, as he didn't know the detailed inner workings and circumstances of a family that, as Namgung Soso said, had already suffered the calamity of extermination long ago.

But that was the thought that immediately came to mind.

‘…So that Blindman Shim character ended up handing over the secret manual with his own hands.’

Having reached a tentative conclusion, I pushed open the large, closed doors of the main hall.

Creeaak—

Then I turned back and said to Namgung Soso.

“…I'll go and check it out myself first.”

“Huh? Where are you…”

Smirk—

“I'm going to meet that blind old geezer and ask him directly. What the hell he meant by that.”