Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 447

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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447. The Truth (4)
The Entity, speaking an ancient truth, reminisced with a melancholic air.
[The first was hatred.]
The first.
Thirteen contemplated what that number signified.
If things don’t continue in sequence, there’s no need to count them. So if there is a first, there must surely be a second and a third as well.
[I despised humans who didn’t cherish life, and I was furious at the god who granted them this heavy and magnificent existence.]
[Unwilling to labor for them any longer, I vanished, returning all of time to nothingness.]
“Vanished, you say….”
[To become a fragment of time and cease to exist… it wasn’t nearly as pleasant as I’d imagined. After all, I had become half-human by then, no longer a true Time Management Authority official.]
The veil obscuring time’s divisions peeled away, layer by layer.
“Manager number twelve….”
Why had he been the twelfth manager?
Why had I been assigned the number of the thirteenth manager?
He pondered, and pondered still.
He’d always assumed the numbers were merely designations to distinguish the countless Time Management Authority officials from one another, but now, retracing events with human thought and human emotion, patterns emerged before his eyes.
‘Did I ever truly have… colleagues?’
He’d simply taken it for granted that ‘others existed.’ Even when speaking to Ha-jin, he’d used the phrase ‘we,’ believing himself to work alongside other Time Management Authority officials.
Yet looking back now, he realized he’d never once exchanged words with any other Time Management Authority official besides himself.
It made sense.
A clock hand turning without will could never have colleagues.
[After I ceased to exist, the god resurrected everything, including me.]
[Though they remained submerged in eternity for an immeasurably long time, they never once perceived it. How absurd and pitiful that was….]
It was only natural for humans incapable of perceiving time’s passage.
Even if hundreds of millions of years yawned between their today and yesterday, if they couldn’t feel it, it was no different from time that never existed at all.
What was unexpected, however, was that the god had resurrected even the very existence of time itself.
As Thirteen furrowed his brow in confusion, the Entity continued speaking in an unhurried voice, as if it knew everything.
[I cannot be excluded from resurrecting a span of time approaching eternity itself.]
“But….”
[Everything returned to ‘how it was.’ Except for one thing….]
“…?”
[A branching point emerged for the Time Management Authority official.]
“A branching point, you mean….”
[You know this story well enough.]
[Me, who remembers all of this, and you, who performs the role of a clock hand without knowing any of it.]
[Doesn’t that sound familiar?]
Thirteen knew well a name that bore striking resemblance to the branching point he described.
“…A split in personality.”
A split in personality.
It was the very dilemma that the Chosen Regressor Dan Ha-ru and Kang Ha-jin were experiencing.
“I am….”
And that meant….
“I am you.”
I am him.
And he is me.
Perhaps from the very beginning, the premise itself of dividing time into you and me, him and us was foolish.
[That’s right.]
From the darkness, The Entity slowly revealed itself.
It was an old man.
No, a small child.
No, a young man and a middle-aged woman.
It was a form that could not be defined as any one thing, yet one thing was certain.
[I am your past self, my present self, and his future self.]
That it bore a striking resemblance to the form undergoing humanization.
[Though our reasons differed, each time God revived us, we yearned to become human with a different question mark, and we coveted life.]
[The first time was hatred, the second was love, the third was sorrow, the fourth was rage, and then came boredom and tedium….]
This time too.
The Entity had certainly said “this time too” regarding its resolve from moments before. Thirteen felt the meaning of that ambiguous expression finally becoming clear.
[We have already experienced eleven orbital deviations and annihilations, and the desire to covet life and become human became a tremendous will that circled this timeline.]
[The next manager tried each time to seize that will and obliterate it completely, yet for some reason it never quite succeeded.]
[That will ultimately created the twelfth deviant, and we named him ‘The One Who Returns’.]
The twelfth deviant.
‘The One Who Returns’ was the manager of the twelfth timeline, and was something like a collective entity of the ‘will’ gathered from the first through eleventh.
I was born to stop him, and simultaneously I was his past, present, and future.
Now, finally, everything came into sharp focus.
And just moments ago, I too had made the same choice as ‘him’—to become human instead.
“That means….”
A being without a heart was experiencing what it felt like for that heart to break.
Thirteen hurriedly examined my body. Perhaps because I already carried so many question marks within me, the lines of my half-transparent form were becoming increasingly distinct.
At this rate, I would soon cease to exist.
Annihilation itself was not frightening, but according to what was just said, my annihilated self would become another ‘will’ and return to The One Who Returns, lending him even greater power.
Unable to accept becoming that without resolving anything, the moment Thirteen gripped my body tightly—.
[What was different?]
Click.
With an inexplicable sound, Thirteen felt my body suddenly become light.
[You are the first child to decide, of your own will and not because of ‘will’, to grasp a question mark in your hands.]
[And for the sake of humans, you willingly accepted annihilation to seek the truth.]
Thirteen soon discovered what that lightness came from.
My body had vanished.
The humanization had stopped, and I had returned to being the System and the Time Management Authority.
[So that’s why I….]
[I still can’t let you disappear.]
The Entity finally revealed itself completely.
What had been merely a formless shape now bore a visage far closer to human.
Thirteen immediately recognized that it had absorbed his own humanization phenomenon wholesale.
[No… No, this won’t do! You’re a Time Management Authority administrator just like me! If you humanize, you’ll dissipate! It’s dangerous…!]
“Fortunately, my vessel is far larger than yours, freshly born as you are. I have more than enough capacity to wait for the humanization to halt before I reach dissipation.”
With features gradually becoming visible, it smiled with leisurely composure.
Its tone—as if asking, ‘Don’t you think I’ve weathered such trials countless times before?’—carried within it the weight of ages.
“Never before has anyone reached all truths while bearing a question mark, nor has that question mark ever existed solely for humanity’s sake. If there was any variable at all, it was only The One. It seems I’ve placed my wager in precisely the right place, wouldn’t you say?”
‘The One’ surely referred to Kang Ha-jin.
Thirteen offered no particular response, but the Entity continued speaking with a smile, as if it had never expected one.
“Judging by The One Who Returns’ movements, something will certainly happen ahead, just as you said. But the moment you attempt to prevent it or interfere, you will dissipate. All we can do is observe.”
[Like this…. You’re saying we must simply watch? Helplessly?]
“Let’s have faith in those children.”
Pandora’s box slowly revealed its depths.
In the wake of the truths that poured forth, only one thing remained—hope.
“Throughout countless opportunities, I’ve tried to obstruct that will through you, a Time Management Authority administrator. But the more I did so, the stronger that will became, and the temporal energy it generated only accumulated.”
“But humans… humans are different.”
The Divine loved humanity.
So deeply that they were granted the greatest power and strength of all.
“We are bound by the laws of nature. Time merely flows, after all.”
“But humans possess free will. They have the right to choose and determine their own world. Sometimes that creates miracles, and sometimes it creates justification to overturn everything.”
As administrators of time, they could not interfere with or manipulate the human world.
The One Who Returns’ desire to become human by borrowing Dan Ha-ru’s body stemmed from fleeing such constraints.
And judging and punishing it was likewise beyond their capacity.
Time simply exists, after all.
But humans…
Perhaps it might be possible for humans, who carry the universe within them as they live.
“And….”
The Entity’s words trailed off uncharacteristically.
With an expression far from pleased, wearing a bitter grimace, it forced the words out alongside a painful smile.
“Ha-ru still bears a heavy responsibility.”
[…Ha-ru does?]
“It seems he intends to dissipate. He’s refusing to be absorbed into the primary personality, seeking to obtain a completely new life instead.”
[Ah….]
So it came to that after all.
Since Thirteen had somewhat anticipated this, he simply slowly accepted the fact. What truly intrigued him was what responsibility remained for that child.
The Entity opened its mouth with a cold, heavy expression.
“Do you truly believe that child can obtain peace without bearing any responsibility for having arbitrarily manipulated the timeline alongside The One Who Returns?”
[…!]
“God is merciful. Yet simultaneously, He is ruthlessly just and impartial.”
“Even if The One Who Returns exploited that child, ultimately it was her own choice. She must bear full responsibility for what she has done.”
[Then… are you saying that’s what The One Who Returns will soon bring about?]
“Perhaps. All I know is that what must eventually unfold will unfold. Nothing more.”
At that unyielding stance, Thirteen fell silent.
Sensing that he had sufficiently come to terms with the current situation, The Entity slowly withdrew into the void of nothingness, leaving only a faint voice in its wake.
“For now, do not return to those children. Continue to observe The One Who Returns as you have been. Should you detect anything suspicious, report it.”
[…Yes.]
“Trust your friend… a little more.”
The universe that child carries within herself is far more resilient and radiant than you imagine.
With those words, The Entity vanished from sight. Now only Thirteen remained in this space.
[….]
Though humanization had ceased, The Entity seemed not to have stripped away even the power of thought that dwelt within him.
Thirteen returned to where he belonged, recalling the cheerful and optimistic laughter of his one and only friend.
[…I understand.]
But please, let none of this burden them too heavily.
That first earnest wish dissolved into the void and vanished.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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