The Regressor's Ice Is Golden - Chapter 45

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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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045.

We collapsed into sleep the moment we returned to the lodging, not even bothering to wash.
We’d been wound tight as springs ever since the Short Program ended and work came crashing down, and then we’d speed-run to Chizuru’s Ice Rink and squeezed in an unplanned night practice on top of it all.
So when the alarm went off, the state we woke up in was nothing short of catastrophic.
Coach Park stared at me with half-lidded eyes, his hair sticking up like a magpie’s nest.
With barely a chin-jerk, he gestured toward the bathroom.
“……Shower.”
I didn’t answer, just wobbled up from the bed.
For the record, my legs looked no different from a newborn fawn’s at that moment.
‘Oh…….’
The sound of water pouring from the showerhead felt impossibly distant.
Hot water cascaded down my back, and my eyes drifted shut of their own accord.
I genuinely wanted to go home.
Though I knew I wouldn’t.
When I came out of the shower, Coach Park had already stripped to the waist and packed everything for the day.
Even the clothes I was supposed to wear.
His back was still plastered with tape.
“Go shower.”
“Y-yes…….”
At this rate, he’d collapse before I did.
I peeled off his tape with a heavy heart and sent him toward the bathroom.
After throwing the tape in the trash, I happened to glance out the window.
Nagoya spread out beneath a cold blue sky, utterly unreal despite having rushed through it in a blur just last night.
Even so, I’d done what needed to be done.
I changed clothes and picked up my phone.
I left a brief check-in message in the group chat that Cha Jin-hee and Park Ji-ho had started.
The gist: we’d managed to find equipment, so the Free Skating Competition was on.
If Coach Park and I didn’t update them, these two would hear nothing.
Cha Jin-hee especially must have spent the whole night crying like that yesterday, reading her parents’ faces the entire time.
‘I hope her eyes aren’t too puffy.’
I’m confident she’ll read it before school starts and she turns off her phone.
Once I’d confirmed Coach Park called the company from his phone, he emerged from the shower.
He took his clothes inside and came out already dressed to leave.
He roughed his dripping hair dry with a towel,
“All right, then.”
and met my eyes with a grim expression.
“Let’s go.”
The towel draped over the chair where he’d left it.
Today was the Free Skating Competition.

Since we’d been here before, we walked at an easy pace and arrived at the rink right on time.
There were fewer skaters than yesterday, but the tension was just as thick.
There was a medal on the line, after all.
I closed my eyes as I listened to the athletes’ oath.
If I won a medal today, what color would it be?
If I couldn’t win one, what place would I finish?
And the Grand Prix Final……would I even make it there?
I drifted through the atmosphere appropriately, clapped along with everyone else, and then it was time for the draw.
“Kim Ha-seol.”
I walked forward and saw the same silk pouch waiting for me as yesterday.
Without much thought, I reached in and pulled out a number.
[2]
‘Oh, that works out.’
The ice gets a bit humid after ice resurfacing, see.
This is perfectly manageable.
Especially compared to whoever drew the first spot.
In any case, the final group draw turned out like this:

1. Amasaki Rika
2. Kim Ha-seol
3. Vivian Megrez
4. Cha Seo-hee
……

What a ridiculous draw.
Cha Seo-hee, sitting in front of me, glanced back over her shoulder.
I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead, careful not to meet her gaze.
Since she was already skating before me anyway, a collision this early felt like more trouble than it was worth.
So the moment the draw ended, I slipped away like a fugitive and hunted down Coach Park.
He’d already found a spot and was laying out the mat.
“How many?”
“Coach, don’t be shocked.”
Coach Park let out a horrified sigh when he heard the news.
“Don’t lose your nerve. You’ve got a solid mental game, but there’s no point eyeing a wall you can’t scale anyway.”
“Hah, hah, hah…….”
I laughed, hollow and spent.
No matter how clean I skated, I’d be buried in base score by any athlete packing a Quadruple Jump.
Besides, right now there wasn’t much point dreaming of high scores anyway.
While stretching on the mat, I did a careful inventory of my body.
The muscle soreness and fatigue I’d worried about this morning weren’t too bad.
“How are you feeling today?”
“Just a little stiff. Nothing painful.”
I settled into position and rolled up my left leg.
But Coach Park pulled up the leggings on my right leg too and grabbed the tape.
“Let’s tape both today. This isn’t even the leg you normally use, and even if we stick with the simplified routine, it’s better to support both.”
A few moments later, my legs were wrapped tight with tape from sole to knee.
“Try walking.”
“How’s it feel?”
“Perfect right now.”
“Okay. Pull your leggings back up.”
But the taping wasn’t the end of it.
Coach Park produced a hot water bag—he’d found warm water somewhere—and began applying heat compress to my joints.
“Not too hot?”
“Ooh, ooooh.”
I couldn’t help but vocalize at the warm, comforting pressure on my joints.
Coach Park glanced at me for a moment, then shook his head.
“When did you start sounding like a middle-aged man?”
“You’re rubbing off on me.”
“Smart mouth. Oh, and the rink called. They found our original ice time.”
My eyes snapped open at that.
“And give that friend of ours my regards, yeah? We owe them so much for this competition.”
“I was planning to anyway.”
I’ll probably catch the Free Skating stream today, but talking to them in person would be better.
If things go well, I might end up stopping by their place with a gift for dinner.
I nodded slowly and fished out my earbuds.
“I’m going to review the choreography.”
“Already? Wait till the heat’s done.”
“Just my arms, just my arms.”
With plenty of time still to kill, I couldn’t just lie around sleeping.
Coach Park settled down next to me, muttering something about catching a few winks, while I plugged in my earbuds and started moving my arms.
After quite a bit of arm work, Coach Park’s phone alarm suddenly went off.
He must have set it ahead of time for the heat treatment interval.
Coach Park, who had already silenced the alarm and fallen asleep, lay face-down on the mat with the hot water bag resting on his lower back.
By the clock, Group 3 was doing their run-through right now.
‘Time should be fine.’
I left Coach Park behind and stepped out of the rink.
The clear sky glared down with a harsh brilliance, and the humid air carried an oddly refreshing quality.
The weather wasn’t much different from yesterday, but somehow it felt new.
So it came to pass that the quiet corner of the ice rink, empty of spectators, was oddly comforting.
Enough so that she’d run through Turandot to completion on that bare stretch of ice more than once.
That had proven sufficient warmup for the day’s competition, and the run-through would be no exception.
“Up, check! Up, check!”
Right up to the very end.
The fog blanketing the rink seemed somehow thicker than yesterday.
The ice, still damp from the sea air, was soft and treacherous underfoot.
“Most of your jumps right now are landing at about sixty-five percent success rate.”
“That’s uncertain ground.”
“You might do better to back off the power a bit. The ice is already plenty slick, so don’t force extra edge pressure on purpose.”
Throughout the run-through, including my own turn, we tested every jump we could verify.
Connected Toe Loop, Connected Loop, and Euler as well.
Even if we can’t land them in actual competition, it’s good to keep Plan B options in mind.
So when the run-through ended, our conclusion was this:
“Still unstable.”
I rested my chin on my clasped hands.
“But if I commit to it, it’s doable.”
“All right.”
Junior Grand Prix, Event Six—Japan.
By now, the spectators should be filing in, with the first group being announced.
Coach Park pulled out a notepad.
“Time to lock it in.”
“Yes.”
I glanced sideways at my status window.

***

“You made it.”
“Here I am.”
Park Ji-ho, having left the academy, met his ally for today’s mission with somber resolve.
Cha Jin-hee, shouldering a heavy bag, took the lead with equal gravity.
Their destination was, unexpectedly, the National Library.
The reason for this choice was simple enough.
There weren’t many places where two unmarried minors could spread out a laptop and do their business without interference or unwanted privacy.
And among those, this was the only one that could pass muster with Cha Jin-hee’s conservative parents.
He’d considered feigning madness and heading to an internet café, but if word got out, there was no telling what trouble might land on Cha Jin-hee.
“Hello, we have a reservation for the media viewing area—seating for two.”
“Ah, yes. Your name?”
After confirming the name and library card at the information desk, they were directed to their reserved spot.
It was clean and blessedly empty.
“I didn’t know it’d all be open like this.”
“Right? Can’t exactly scream in here either.”
Park Ji-ho settled into his seat with a wry purse of his lips.
The time was now 6:07 p.m.
All the skaters they meant to watch were clustered in the final groups, and Group Four hadn’t even finished yet.
This was the basis of Cha Jin-hee’s viewing strategy for the evening.
He fired up the computer, pulled up YouTube, and found the sports media channel that was streaming the figure competition.
The red border around the profile confirmed the broadcast was live.
[20XX ISU Figure Junior Grand Prix Event 6_Nagoya, Japan_Women’s Free Skate_Kim Ha-seol, Cha Seo-hee competing]
Once the stream was running, they each pulled on one side of a shared headset.
“Sound okay?”
“Yeah.”
Now they’d have to cheer in silence—literally.
Just then, Group Four wrapped up and the announcements for the final Group Five were underway.
Park Ji-ho glanced sidelong and typed out a message.
[What number are your sister and Kim Ha-seol going?]
[Kim Ha-seol’s second. Cha Seo-hee’s fourth.]
Cha Jin-hee watched the warmup skaters with a dry swallow.
[And there’s one formidable competitor—a Japanese skater who does quadruple jumps. She’ll skate first.]
[What? How the hell are we supposed to beat that?]
[There have been a few female skaters who’ve landed it before. The base score is just so high.]
Tap-tap-tap—in the silence, only the faint clatter of fingers on a phone screen broke through.
[But your bones grind down doing it. Right now she’s still junior, so her body’s light enough to get the rotation. We’ll have to see how she handles it as she gets older.]
Cha Jin-hee filtered through the athletes moving across the screen, tracking only those who mattered to her.
Kim Ha-seol’s condition looked better than she’d expected.
When she heard the skate blade had snapped clean in two, her heart had sunk—but somehow it had worked out, and for that she was grateful.
‘She’s nervous, but steady.’
And her sister was… a little anxious, it seemed.
The tournament favorite, for her part, looked composed.
Why wouldn’t she, coming out with a Quadruple Salchow in her arsenal?
If she landed it, that is.
[We’re beginning.]
The warm-up time ended, and skaters filtered one by one off the ice toward the boards.
Only a single competitor remained on the frozen surface, ready to start.
The skater’s profile appeared on the broadcast screen as coverage commenced.
{From Japan, Amasaki Rika. She’s in her second year as a junior, won first place at the third competition, and possesses the most powerful jump arsenal in this tournament.}
{That’s right. Her opening jump. The Quadruple Salchow. Whether this lands or not will likely decide the medal color for today.}
The skater, finished with her opening bow, took her place in the center of the ice.
{A medley from the film “Dream of the Blue Mist Flowers.” Let’s watch together.}
Returned Player’s Ice 45
E-book publication date | 2026.06.05

Author | Korkarolli
Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Publishing house | Potence

Address | [04783] 10F, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260514092.0045
List price | 100 won

ⓒ Korkarolli 2026

This e-book is protected under copyright law as a copyrighted work.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author and may not be reprinted, reproduced, distributed, or shared in any form without written consent from both parties.

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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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