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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Clues about regression. I hadn’t given it much thought, hadn’t formed many theories.
I hadn’t delved deeply into it.
I had simply accepted it as a miracle, a chance to turn back time and retry everything.
Why did I regress? Why did time always revert to the summer of my twentieth year?
I could have returned to the moment before my death, or perhaps to my childhood, before everything began.
If that were the case, I would have had more time to contemplate and could have resolved everything in fewer regressions.
It wasn’t long ago that I started questioning why I always returned to the summer of my twentieth year, a difficult period with limited options.
I couldn’t find any information about the Moonstone, even when searching for the artifacts.
It was as if it never existed, its traces erased from the world.
That question led to more questions, a series of inconsistencies that brought me here.
The meaning of the inscription on the wall of this ruin was simple.
It was a simple answer, but it resolved some of the questions I had been pondering.
“So, what remained was precognition.”
While it was known as a seal, the mural depicted the Four Dragons split into two.
To be precise, they were divided into mind and body, and it was the body of the Four Dragons that was sealed.
The precognitive abilities, weakened by time, were considered nonexistent.
It was a misconception. The precognitive abilities still remained, retaining their power.
My hand traced the mural, moving quickly.
My reading speed increased, as did my comprehension.
I needed a lot of knowledge to understand and process all of this.
It took only a moment to combine this information with what I had learned about the Four Dragons from Arwen.
My eyes narrowed as I continued reading the mural.
I already knew that turning back time was one of the Four Dragons’ abilities. But I hadn’t given it much thought.
I had assumed that the Moon Goddess could also manipulate time if the artifact contained her power.
But the mural clearly refuted that assumption.
The Moon Goddess couldn’t interfere with time.
The only being capable of manipulating and utilizing its distorted flow was the Four Dragons.
In other words, the artifact known as the Moonstone wasn’t created by the Moon Goddess.
“…Then.”
My outstretched hand pointed to a mural depicting a dragon hidden within time.
The dragon’s objective was simple: to reclaim its body.
It had to reclaim its body and destroy this world created by the Moon Goddess.
But finding its body within the distorted flow of time wasn’t easy.
A body capable of accepting its destructive nature, a body that could withstand its power.
Preferably, a sentient being.
The sentient beings in this world were the demi-humans and humans.
Had the dragon tried to contact the demi-humans?
The next mural answered that question.
It depicted the demi-humans fighting against the dragon that emerged from time, all of them perishing.
The survivors fled to a vast forest.
I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the image of the vast forest.
The forest where the demi-humans resided, the Southern region of the Empire…
The vast forest, located in the center of the continent, was known as the demi-humans’ territory.
The terrified demi-humans fled to the forest seeking refuge, and the great forest would become their home for a long time.
It was a statement that seemed to predict the future, but it was close to the truth.
The demi-humans still resided there, even a thousand years after the disappearance of the Four Dragons.
While they had been briefly displaced during the Empire’s rise, the forest had always belonged to them.
The demi-humans had rejected the dragon, so I assumed the next vessel it sought was a human.
There was only one sentient being capable of accepting the dragon’s time-traveling consciousness.
I paused, running a hand over my face.
Adele, who had approached me, was staring intently.
She seemed to have noticed I was reading the inscription.
While she couldn’t understand the content, she must have realized it was something serious.
“I’ll… read a little more.”
“Do as you please. It seems serious.”
My hand moved to another mural.
The inscription was slightly faded, but the image and text clearly depicted the dragon making contact with humans.
Humans found the dragon intriguing, and not all rejected the being that had defied the gods.
After all, a tenth of the Empire didn’t worship the Moon Goddess.
Adele looked at the human interacting with the dragon and spoke hesitantly.
“Is he with the dragon?”
“I don’t have enough information to explain it in detail, but yes. It’s about regression.”
Adele frowned at the mention of regression.
She knew that time reversed when I died.
She seemed to find it difficult to talk about, clearing her throat several times before continuing cautiously.
“Regression… you mean what you’re experiencing?”
“I suppose it’s an explanation… but a lot of things are different.”
The source of the regression wasn’t the Moon Goddess, nor was it me. Then who had created the Moonstone?
The answer could only be the Four Dragons.
The only being capable of interfering with time.
If the mural wasn’t misleading, and the Moonstone was still resonating with this ruin… there was only one conclusion I could draw.
The Moonstone was created by the Four Dragons. I was living within a repeating time loop created by them.
But why?
I pondered this for a moment, then realized the mural ended there.
Or rather, it had been erased. Not deliberately erased by someone, but faded with time.
The faint remaining characters clearly mentioned time, but the information was incomplete.
I would probably need the Church’s help to find more information about this place.
Or perhaps I should ask Arwen for help.
She was the foremost expert on the Four Dragons at this point.
She wouldn’t have visited this ruin in the North, so perhaps this place would be helpful for her research.
“Did you find anything?”
I shrugged at her gaze.
I had found something, but it only raised more questions.
The only thing I had discovered was that the Moonstone might belong to the Four Dragons.
My regression was intentional.
It wasn’t solely for my benefit, it was intertwined with the Four Dragons’ intention to reclaim their bodies within the distorted flow of time.
I tried to be optimistic, but there was nothing positive about this.
I forced a smile.
I didn’t want to show my confusion in front of Adele.
“Do you think you look fine just because you’re smiling?”
Her words, seeing through my facade, made my smile falter.
I had tried to hide it, but was it that obvious?
Adele looked at me, blinking slowly.
She muttered that it was a mistake to come to this ruin, then approached me, taking my hand.
“I’m sorry. For bringing you here.”
“…There’s no need to apologize. It’s something I need to consider.”
“Then I should apologize even more. If it’s something you need to consider, then I need to consider it as well.”
I didn’t understand her words at first, but then I did, and I looked at her.
She didn’t seem embarrassed at all.
Her confident, almost defiant attitude flustered me.
“I don’t want to hear you say it’s a secret anymore. I’ve been thinking about this since I remembered our past together, but we’re not the type to keep secrets from each other. You and I.”
“It’s not that I’m trying to keep secrets-”
“You’re trying to protect me by keeping it to yourself, aren’t you? Do you think I don’t know you? I know. I know what you’re thinking, why you’re hiding things from me.”
Adele approached me, and I didn’t back away.
I stood still, almost inviting her closer, and she stopped right in front of me, her lips inches from mine.
I could feel her sweet scent, and I smiled wryly. She chuckled softly and continued.
“If you’re looking for something, I’m going with you this time. That won’t change, no matter what you say. Try to stop me if you want. Try to tie me down somewhere.”
“Why would I do that to you, Adele? It’s just… it’s dangerous. You know what the Four Dragons represent.”
The Four Dragons weren’t simply related to me.
They were connected to the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince was involved in Adele’s death.
That was why I wanted to keep Adele out of it as much as possible.
Even if this was a first, it was painful to even consider that small possibility.
Should I consider her actions stubborn, knowing she had died at the Crown Prince’s hands?
No, I thought about it differently.
It wasn’t stubbornness but affection. I understood her feelings because I had come to understand her through my past lives.
“You’ve always prioritized others over yourself. You said you didn’t want to tell me because it was dangerous? I hate that even more. It’s frustrating to simply know that you’re doing something dangerous. So, I’m going with you this time. No matter what you say, no matter how you try to stop me.”
With an unwavering gaze, the woman who resembled the cold winter continued.
“I’ve decided.”
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