The 7th-Run Regressor Collects Calamities - Chapter 57

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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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Episode 57. Ayase Haruka (3)
“It hurts, Leo….”
“Oh, I’m sorry!”
Song Ji-hu shook his head as if he’d witnessed something he shouldn’t have, watching Matsumoto Leo behave like some lovesick boy.
“Thank… you.”
As Matsumoto Leo undid the bindings, Ayase Haruka gripped Song Ji-hu’s hand tightly.
“Only by your side….”
Her wet eyes fixed on Song Ji-hu with absolute clarity.
“The voices have quieted… truly, I’m grateful. I will repay this kindness.”
“Well, consider the debt settled. My negotiations with Matsumoto Leo are already done.”
At that, Ayase Haruka shook her head.
“That aside… this is a personal debt of mine.”
At those words, Matsumoto Leo’s face hardened like stone, his pupils trembling as if struck by an earthquake.
She was the very heart of Kage. And now she was choosing to bind herself to Song Ji-hu of her own volition.
Song Ji-hu understood the weight of her words well enough, but continued refusal would look awkward, so he simply gave a short nod.
Treatment would need to continue several more times anyway.
The reasoning was sound, and having someone at the core of Japan’s intelligence network at his side? There was nothing wrong with that.
‘Whether it’s Kage, Abyss, or those apostles—they’ll move one way or another.’
Song Ji-hu cast the Mental Barrier over Ayase Haruka once more.
“Rest for now. You must be exhausted.”
Yet Ayase Haruka’s hand would not release his sleeve.
The moment she felt the source of her peace beginning to withdraw, her eyes began to tremble.
“Would it be possible… to stay just a little longer? Until I’ve adjusted?”
Faced with this ambiguous and delicate situation, Song Ji-hu scratched his head and glanced toward Matsumoto Leo’s troubled expression.
“Could you stay with her for a while?”
“Well, for a time, sure. But she needs to adapt. The Mental Barrier should provide sufficient first-line defense.”
It wasn’t a complete cure, but it would serve as a temporary measure.
“Yes!”
At Ayase Haruka’s bright smile, Matsumoto Leo pressed his palm to his forehead.
At first, it was relief. Reason had returned to her eyes. Each time she’d suffered an episode, Matsumoto Leo hadn’t slept a wink.
For him, seeing her cry with clear, lucid eyes was salvation in itself.
‘This is a dilemma….’
But that relief quickly shifted to unease, guided by instinct.
‘If her peace only exists when Song Ji-hu is at her side….’
Haruka’s tranquility was bound to this man.
‘He said treatment wouldn’t end with one session… but what if, even after treatment is complete… it remains this way?’
The first treatment had clearly succeeded, yet the air in the room felt subtly askew.
No one could smile. Everyone knew exactly where Haruka’s newfound peace was tethered.
“Ah, ah…!”
It was Haruka who broke that suffocating silence.
She slowly raised her upper body, her hands splayed open as if receiving divine revelation, her head tilted back to gaze at the ceiling.
“I understand….”
And as she rose, her clear voice began to recite what seemed like divine guidance.
“I will remain here.”
“What?! Haruka!”
Her luminous eyes turned toward Song Ji-hu.
“By your side.”
“That cannot be!”
“…this too is the will of the one who gave me voice.”
“Once treatment is complete, you may take me.”
“No. I’m staying.”
Song Ji-hu said she could go; Ayase Haruka insisted she would stay. Caught in this delicate impasse, Yoon Young-su’s fists clenched.
‘It’s beginning again.’
Without drawing a blade, without uttering a single threat. Just sitting quietly.
‘The Guild Master is taking all of Japan for himself.’
Eun Seo-jin said nothing, but harbored the same thought as Yoon Young-su.
Against Park Jung-ho, when recruiting USAA—each time, he simply did his part. Yet somehow, a massive American guild now stood at his side.
She’d witnessed this spectacle many times over; she should have grown accustomed. Yet each time, goosebumps rose on her skin.
Because of that illusion, their faith in Song Ji-hu deepened by yet another layer.
“Sigh….”
In the chaos of the situation, Song Ji-hu shook his head slowly and slipped quietly out of the hospital room.
***
“So… that person… must be quite important, it seems?”
Yoon Young-su, who had come to the office that still lacked finishing touches, asked Song Ji-hu carefully.
At the meeting with the Yakumo Guild, which received support from Japan, the name of some strange organization called Kage had come up, the man he’d thought was just an ordinary employee, Matsumoto Leo, had stepped into the foreground, and a woman named Ayase Haruka whom he’d never even heard of had appeared out of nowhere.
Moreover, every Hunter who had come with them hung on her every word and gesture.
“Well… a miko from Japan, so to speak?”
“Like those mikos you see at those Japanese shrines… are you saying that’s what she is?”
“But this is the age of Hunters now, isn’t it. She’s become something like a spiritual pillar of Japanese politics and the Hunter world.”
“So… is she a person, or a miko?”
Yoon Young-su was so overwhelmed by the sudden flood of information that he couldn’t keep his wits about him.
“Ah, of course it’s confidential. You mustn’t tell anyone.”
“Yes? Yes! I understand!”
Yoon Young-su felt cold sweat trickling down his back. It was mysterious how Song Ji-hu knew such things in the first place, but it was equally mysterious how he spoke of it so casually.
“How is Ryu Jin doing?”
“He’s hard at work on it. As you instructed, I’ve been dropping by often to make sure he takes his meals properly. Eun Seo-jin and Im Jae-hyeok have also been visiting regularly to check on his progress.”
“Take good care of things. Make sure someone like Huk-cheon doesn’t come sniffing around.”
If Abyss was targeting Ryu Jin, then one warning to Huk-cheon wouldn’t be the end of it.
Song Ji-hu glanced at the calendar on his desk.
“It’ll be soon.”
Everything was turning like clockwork, fitting together perfectly. Several variables had cropped up, but they still fell within Song Ji-hu’s predictive range.
“Yes? Soon?”
“No, rather… when will the construction be finished?”
“If it’s just our guild building, we should be done within this month. But what about the old buildings in the vicinity? They look rather unsightly… shouldn’t we consider demolishing them?”
Zero Point had purchased all the land within a five-hundred-meter radius of this ruin, and Song Ji-hu had designated only one location for the guild building.
“By the way, how’s the road acquisition coming along?”
Faced with a question that returned as another question, Yoon Young-su gazed out at the land spread before the window.
“We’re in the final stages of the acquisition process. Since the surrounding area is all our land as well, we’ve gone through the procedures to revoke its designation and converted it to general property.”
“Good. The old buildings will probably be cleared up within a month on their own.”
“Yes? How…”
Yoon Young-su tilted his head in confusion at Song Ji-hu’s way of speaking, which always seemed to be several steps ahead.
“Other people will take care of it themselves. And… Director Yoon, it would be good if you also started recruiting subordinate staff to manage things.”
“Is there perhaps something lacking in my support?”
Song Ji-hu shook his head. He knew better than anyone what Yoon Young-su was capable of.
Besides, recently it seemed his resolve had become quite firm.
“That’s not it at all. Director Yoon needs to move with me, after all. We need personnel to run this guild office, don’t we? The training ground under construction as well. And this vast property too. Plus, Jin will be here.”
The Mana Concentration Phenomenon would unfold soon, and when it did, guilds and Hunters and corporations from all over the world would line up with bundles of cash, desperate to get in.
They would demolish the old buildings on their own, construct new ones on their own, and bring money to lay at the feet of those who controlled this place, calling it rent.
“Ah, if that’s what you mean… two or three people should be enough.”
“No, let’s start by recruiting at least twenty or so.”
“Yes? Twenty people? That’s inefficient. Most of them would be idle, given our current guild operations.”
Yoon Young-su shook his head firmly. He agreed that we’d need more people, but twenty seemed excessive.
“We’ll need them all eventually. It’s good to hire in advance. Reviewing applications, conducting interviews, and finalizing hires takes time anyway.”
Song Ji-hu fell silent for a moment, then continued.
“Well… we’ll definitely need quite a few in finance, and for support and legal we should look into the programs the Association provides… and I’d like to have medical and health personnel as well.”
Witnessing the scale of what seemed to be serious recruitment efforts, Yoon Young-su tried to gauge what was going through Song Ji-hu’s mind.
‘Is he planning to build something like a guild city? If so… the more people who come for treatment, the more management staff we’d need, and we’d need hotels and things nearby too… and the training ground in the back… is he planning to use it as some kind of private rehabilitation training facility?’
Especially the fact that they’d need so many in finance seemed to suggest he intended to rake in money from treating Mental Contamination and then put it into circulation.
‘Since this land is mine, and Eun Seo-jin’s land is here too… can we collect rent and such?’
Yoon Young-su carefully tried to gauge Song Ji-hu’s plan. And anew, he was struck once again by a realization: nothing Song Ji-hu said was ever wrong.
Of course, Yoon Young-su’s prediction wasn’t entirely off the mark. Except for one thing—the Mana Concentration Phenomenon.
***
While Song Ji-hu was still conversing with Yoon Young-su, Matsumoto Leo sat beside the sleeping Ayase Haruka, lost in thought.
‘If Haruka stays in Korea… Ugh…’
It was a headache. The organization called Kage had been built upon Haruka’s abilities. Her Divine Revelation and Judgment Ability.
Her revelations became intelligence, and that intelligence balanced the Japanese Hunter society. If Haruka wavered, the entire tower would shake.
‘If Song Ji-hu made up his mind, he could use Haruka to access all of Japan’s information however he pleased.’
Japan couldn’t easily eliminate Ayase Haruka and Kage.
He had to take her back to Japan. But he couldn’t. If he forced her to go, her anxiety symptoms would intensify.
And her seizures would recur. If he dragged her back by force, he’d be destroying Kage’s heart with his own hands.
‘I’m losing my mind… Song Ji-hu never told me to go, never said to stay either.’
In that instant, his fists clenched at Song Ji-hu’s composed reaction. The indifference written across the man’s face made it all worse.
‘No, what’s wrong with Haruka! If it were me, I’d keep her by my side!’
With no one to protest against in this situation, Matsumoto Leo felt hollowed out entirely.
“I… I need to find a way.”
Dozens of scenarios unfurled and collapsed in his mind without pause, yet none of them sat right.
Not that there was no path forward. His pride simply wouldn’t let him take it.
‘A second treatment… Haruka’s will and the Abyss Guild….’
That path meant remaining at Song Ji-hu’s side. Save Haruka, and there was Song Ji-hu. Follow Haruka’s wishes, and there was Song Ji-hu. Strike at the Abyss, and there was Song Ji-hu.
Whichever way he tried to flee, the man stood waiting at the end.
Too intricate to be coincidence. Matsumoto Leo, no matter how hard he racked his brain, couldn’t convince himself that Song Ji-hu had deliberately woven this net.
Just then, his mobile phone vibrated softly in his pocket.
[No peculiarities detected. Unable to confirm backing. No contact points.]
“Nothing again….”
Matsumoto Leo pressed his palm to his forehead.
He would’ve preferred something — anything — to surface. At least then he could begin to understand the man named Song Ji-hu.
‘Superior to Kage’s intelligence network? And leaving not a trace behind?’
The question was hardening into certainty, and it was driving Matsumoto to the edge of madness.
So came the next day.
In the Hospital Room with only Ayase Haruka and Matsumoto Leo, the latter stepped forward before Song Ji-hu first.
“…I have a proposal for you.”
Matsumoto Leo spoke slowly.
“Kage’s intelligence network. Our influence within Japan. And all cooperation necessary to contain the Abyss — every bit of it, I will walk alongside you.”
Cold sweat seeped through Matsumoto Leo’s back as the words left him.
These were nearly all he possessed, but there was no other choice.
An alliance. Rather than be stripped bare, to stand as an equal in partnership.
Those eyes that seemed to read his very intentions, and after the suffocating silence, Song Ji-hu’s answer came through.
“Very well.”
Song Ji-hu’s reply was brief and measured.
The 7th Regression: A Collector of Calamities
Author
: Song Tan
Publication Date
: July 21, 2026
Publisher
: ACES Media Co., Ltd.
Editor
: ACES Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACES Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder.
No content may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
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UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260709064

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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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