Regressor Instruction Manual

Chapter 1297. The Magic Tower (10)

Of course...

‘I’ll have to keep my identity hidden.’

There was no need for me to affirm it twice, so naturally, I wrapped a scarf tightly around my face. Breathing felt a little uncomfortable, and the wind sweeping across my face felt unpleasant.

When I glanced at the mirror, the results looked pretty convincing. Whether it was from disease or burns, I looked like a boy whose face and body had suffered severe injuries or the lingering aftereffects of a spell.

‘Pretty realistic.’

Just outside Heren, I spotted plenty of kids like me. I was talking about kids who had lost their homes and were now living as vagrants on the streets. Some of them had wounds that forced them to wrap themselves in bandages, and some even had skin that was actively rotting from some kind of disease.

I was certain that even if one or two more kids like these appeared out of nowhere, no one would really care. Big Boy was correct; there was an unwritten rule about how one ought to mind one's own business.

It’d take quite a while for Big Boy’s party to return from their errand. Getting in here was easy enough, but passing off stolen items was a complicated process, and they would probably have things to collect as well, so I assumed they’d be back in about five hours at most.

Rather than going out the front door, it seemed better to leave through the window. Looking down, the height seemed perfectly manageable for a jump, and I could see a pile of trash right by the inn, so I decisively jumped down.

“Ugh... damn, it stinks...” I mumbled.

Heren appeared before me again. I saw people busy on their own errands, vagrants crouched in corners, and fools sitting slumped as if they had given up on everything, staring only at the sky.

Occasionally, guards wandered the streets, but their patrols seemed purely for show. As I expected, not a single person showed any interest in a kid with his face wrapped in a scarf, aside from the occasional idiots who wanted to vent out their anger.

Some even shoved me away, while others skirted far around me, as if they didn’t even want to get close to me. The owner of a crumbling, shabby shop yelled at me to stay away from the front of his store.

“Get lost, you filthy rat! Damn... you stink!”

“Damn it!”

I even saw people ready to throw a basket of filth at me.

“Didn’t you hear me? Get out of here right now!”

‘Hey, I’m leaving. Can’t you see moving away?’

“If you’re going to beg, do it somewhere else!”

‘I’m just passing through, you idiot.’

“...”

“Damn it. Just my luck. You’re not carrying the plague, are you?”

‘Plague, my ass.’

“Don’t you dare come near here again, you little brat!”

Even when I hurried away, their curses showed no sign of stopping. Contrary to my expectation that I’d be able to head to Kim Hyun-Sung’s place without any trouble, my path was becoming difficult for a different reason.

In the end, I was forced to stick to the narrow alleys.

Being chased like this only carried me farther and farther away from Kim Hyun-Sung’s place.

‘Seriously, it’s a miracle someone like Big Boy became who he is today, despite growing up in this kind of dump. It’s a miracle.’

The process was arduous, but the results were worth it. I was in disguise, but my slightly awkward demeanor was making things appear more realistic.

When I peeked at myself through the Telescope, even I couldn’t help but be impressed. I looked exactly like a kid who had spent years surviving on the street. Even though only a few hours had passed since I left, I had already become a part of Heren.

The closer I got to Kim Hyun-Sung’s place, which was a place I visited once in the first life, the quieter the surroundings became. Compared to the city center, this place was much closer to the forest. Since I was in the first life's timeline, the world wasn't really developed, so my destination felt even farther away from the city.

Just then...

‘It’s Kim Hyun-Sung.’

I finally saw him in the distance, staring blankly up at the sky. His face was no different from what I saw through the Telescope earlier. It seemed that he was done crying, but he still looked like someone who had given up on life entirely.

“...”

“...”

‘Still... it looks like he can bounce back.’

At least, he wasn’t as bad as he was during the Doom Ki-Young incident. At the time, he had completely abandoned everything. Lethargy was clinging to him, but his eyes hadn’t lost their light entirely.

He even noticed the kid who suddenly came looking for him.

He glanced at me briefly but soon lost interest. Clearly, he didn’t want to bother with me.

I hadn’t planned exactly what to say or how to pull him back up, but I had a rough sense of the direction I needed to take.

There was no need to force a conversation or try to stir him with some grand line.

After all, Kim Hyun-Sung told me himself that he stayed in Heren for several months. This was a long-term project, not a short-term one. Of course, I could use extreme measures to speed things up, but I didn’t want to go that far.

This sort of thing had to happen naturally.

Keeping a certain distance from him was only natural. Kim Hyun-Sung, too, showed no signs of moving. He simply sat there blankly, making no other movements.

‘I have to approach him like a lost pet.’

'We just happened to run into each other just now, right?'

'A kid chased out of Heren was wandering here and there until he met you by pure chance.'

“...”

“...”

The kid was harmless. Of course, it wasn't like child soldiers or assassins were nonexistent in this world, but at the very least, he wouldn't feel that kind of danger from me.

In fact, that was exactly why Kim Hyun-Sung had no interest in me.

I was just an ordinary kid that one could see anywhere in Heren. To someone who had once been the Guild Master of the Blue Guild, one of the major guilds in Lindel, I was nothing more than a pebble on the roadside—the weakest link in the food chain.

I found the strange intriguing, and so I began circling him out of curiosity.

Naturally, Kim Hyun-Sung said nothing.

“...”

“...”

It was only natural that a sickly boy like me would take an interest in Kim Hyun-Sung.

After all, he hadn't cursed me or hit me. He didn't even react, even if I got too close to him. Despite being a child abandoned by the world, I still believed that it was a bright and joyful world, and this random meeting was an exciting event for me.

“Rooooooooar!”

A roar echoed from behind.

‘Wow, talk about perfect timing.’

Just to be clear, this situation wasn’t staged.

A monster had strayed from its pack and was charging at a powerless kid. This was pure coincidence. I probably let out a faint scent that would attract monsters, but honestly, who could have guessed that there would actually be a monster around here?

It was a pretty big monster, too. It looked like it could crush a sickly boy with just one claw. If its claw landed on my body, my bones would shatter into pieces, and my insides would explode, killing me on the spot.

Perhaps it would simply swallow me whole with that gaping mouth.

‘You’re not just going to let this happen, right?’

“...!”

‘I know you’ve given up on life, but you’re not going to just watch a kid die in front of you, are you? You wouldn’t do that, would you?’

I was too stunned to scream. I stared wide-eyed at the monster, unable to overcome my fear...

‘Hyun-Sung, please do something.’

I squeezed my eyes shut.

‘Please...!’

When I cautiously opened my eyes again, I was relieved to find that nothing had happened...

“...”

“...”

‘Ha! I knew I could count on you!’

“...”

“Argh...”

‘I knew you couldn’t just turn away!’

Kim Hyun-Sung stood before the sickly boy, blocking the monster’s path and gripping its claw.

“Roooooooooar!”

The monster, now even more agitated, roared and swung its claw again, but it was sent flying away so easily that it barely qualified as a fight.

Without even drawing his sword, Hyun-Sung twisted and snapped its neck.

With a heavy thud, the monster collapsed to the ground. The sickly boy glanced back and forth between Hyun-Sung and the fallen monster in a daze.

Unable to speak, the boy’s eyes shone brightly as he looked at Hyun-Sung. He didn’t know what was going on, or how exactly things had played out, but he was at least smart enough to understand that the man before him had just saved his life.

Slowly and very carefully, I reached out a hand toward Hyun-Sung...

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to get lost?!”

“Ah...”

“If you’re going to bed, go sleep somewhere else!”

“...”

“Damn it. Just my luck. Are you carrying some kind of plague?”

“...”

“Get lost, you filthy brat! Damn it, you stink!”

In Heren, the boy encountered adults who treated him with hostility. Just the thought of them made him shrink back. There was an unspoken detail about the sickly boy’s lore.

He had never received any help his entire life. In other words, the stranger before him had just become the first person to even offer him help.

No matter the circumstances, those who had received a helping hand would become fond of their benefactor.

“Agh...”

Mustering up the courage, I reached out and tugged on Kim Hyun-Sung’s hood, only for him to quickly jerk back in surprise. The boy thought that he had made the person in front of him upset, but Kim Hyun-Sung simply walked past the sickly boy. He returned to his seat, refusing any further interaction.

‘This guy is ridiculously aloof.’

The distance between us had narrowed a little. Summoning a bit more courage, I took another step toward Kim Hyun-Sung.

Kim Hyun-Sung didn’t bother avoiding the boy.

The word "annoyed” would be a better word to describe his feelings. He probably thought I would lose interest and wander off if he just waited a little bit.

‘Well... he’s not wrong.’

Instead of retreating, however, I took one more small step forward, like a wary cat edging toward its benefactor.

He hadn’t dropped all his guard, but little by little, I was getting closer to him. Now, I was close enough that if I reached out, I could touch him. I stared up at Kim Hyun-Sung’s face.

Then, I rummaged through my clothes and pulled out something, as if to repay him.

‘A piece of bread.’

It looked a lot like the bread from a tutorial dungeon. Hyun-Sung looked at me with a questioning face, but there wasn’t much he could say. I gestured for him to eat, and he just stared at me blankly.

Moments later, I ran away. When I checked on Hyun-Sung through the Telescope, I saw him taking a very small bite of the bread.

"..."

"It’s good."

This wasn’t so bad for our first meeting.

"It’s good."

'Flag planted.’