A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 107

Inhale-

Exhale-

A cigar was held awkwardly between his index and middle fingers.

But with a breath that was not at all awkward, the guy who inhaled and then exhaled the hazy smoke murmured dreamily.

“…How ridiculous.”

“……”

“To think I’d be doing this for the first time at my age.”

As if that little roll of tobacco was such a wondrous thing.

The guy scanned the cigar all over, his brow furrowed this way and that.

Pfft-

“Is it that good?”

“…Yeah, it’s not a bad feeling.”

Answering my question obediently, the guy nodded and blankly drew in the smoke again.

‘…For now.’

Things were going according to plan.

Of course, him rushing at me first was unexpected, and even I felt a chill down my spine at his claws as he charged with a sonic boom, but.

In any case, I had predicted that once he smelled the cigar, he would drop his aggression.

Aside from the sticky, unpleasant feeling of the blood splattered all over me when he screeched to a halt, it could be said that things had gone more or less according to plan.

Inhale-

Exhale-

Following his lead, I also took a drag of the cigar, and its characteristic hazy feeling erased my idle thoughts.

Shhk-

‘…His first time.’

Although he himself had put it that way… strictly speaking, it was wrong to say that this was his ‘first’ time with a cigar.

No, it wasn't just simply wrong.

In fact, he was someone who should have been more familiar with this thing called a ‘cigar’ than anyone else.

『Was everyone like you?』

『…What do you mean?』

『I'm asking if all the Beastkin were chain-smokers. How can a person smoke three packs a day?』

Pfft-

『I am a Beastkin, not a human. Besides, I'm on the milder side. At least I don't smoke two at once.』

『…….』

『When the 15th night of the full moon came, everyone was busy going up to the rooftop. Once up there, three packs was nothing.』

Back in the days when the Beastkin were still thriving.

The warriors of the Canine Tribe, including the Lycan Clan, were famous for being chain-smokers who smoked cigars incessantly.

In fact, cigars were a common item in his country, so much so that they were the item boasting the largest trade volume at the time.

Just as he had said in the past, he had seen cigars constantly since he was young, so calling it his first time wasn't exactly a fitting expression.

…However.

The reason he reacted with such wonder while looking at the cigar was because this was the first time he was ‘personally’ smoking one.

Exhale-

“First time?”

When I feigned ignorance and questioned his words, the guy nodded.

“…Yeah. It’s my first time.”

“……”

“Before my coming-of-age ceremony, I couldn’t smoke due to the clan’s rules, and after that, the country that made and sold cigars completely collapsed.”

“……”

“The one you gave me is the first.”

It was a story I had already heard from him in the first playthrough.

Around the time he was about to have his coming-of-age ceremony.

An anthrax epidemic broke out in ‘Cigarette Island’, a small nation in the Upper Plane that monopolized the production, distribution, and sale of cigars, and the production of cigars was fundamentally halted.

The story went that due to the schism of the Beastkin Nation that coincided with this, all the stockpiled cigars were burned, and by the time he became an adult, getting a cigar became harder than plucking a star from the sky.

Of course, a lot of time has passed now, and with the emergence of another producing nation, it has once again become a common item anyone can buy.

But he had said that a long time ago, around the time he turned himself in and entered the Darkest Dungeon, cigars were practically a discontinued item.

In the first place, demand was greater than supply, and then the supply was cut off.

It became something you couldn't get even if you wanted to.

It was a case of what you’d call bad timing.

…Well.

Even if there had been a supply of cigars available back then, during the period when the Beastkin Nation was dismantled, he was so busy hunting down vampires that he was probably in no state to pay attention to such things anyway.

“……”

Exhale-

The guy, exhaling another hazy puff, muttered as if recalling a time in the past.

“…It's definitely much better.”

“……”

“I wondered why everyone was always smoking this harsh stuff….”

***

Cigar.

One might think of it as simply a type of tobacco, but to him at least, it was not something so light as to be defined merely as a ‘recreational product’.

Of course, at a glance, it might seem similar to the tobacco of the Lower-Dimensional Plane in all aspects, including appearance, name, and effects.

But the Cigar of the Upper Plane differed from the tobacco of the Lower-Dimensional Plane in its ultimate scope of action.

The tobacco of the Lower-Dimensional Plane's effects are limited to acting on the central nervous system through neurotransmitters, but the cigar, specially crafted by the Upper Plane's mana engineering methods, provides an additional special calming effect on the ‘Mana Circuit’.

Of course, it couldn't be used for just anything.

It was usually used for medicinal purposes, such as calming pain caused by the Mana Circuit or for improving deformed Mana Circuit structures caused by genetic predisposition.

Among these, the pain of Moon Madness possessed by Tom and his ‘Lycan Clan’ was where this calming effect was most prominently displayed.

No medicine in the Upper Plane could suppress the unique pain caused by Moon Madness, but only the special mechanism of action of the Cigar was effective against that pain.

The fact that the Beastkin were once the largest importers of cigars was ultimately due to this context.

For the few members of the Canine Tribe who experienced even mild symptoms and for the ‘Lycan Clan’, which was active as the foremost warrior family of the Beastkin at the time, the Cigar was not merely in the realm of a recreational product, but was closer to an ‘essential consumer good’, treated on the same level as food, clothing, and shelter.

This was why many of the Canine Tribe members were fond of cigars, even to the point of being called ‘chain-smokers’.

At least while smoking a cigar, the pain of Moon Madness subsided, even if just a little.

…Well.

If not for that context, the guy who was charging with the intent to kill wouldn't have stopped so abruptly just because I pulled out a single cigar.

Exhale-

*Tap-tap-

“…You said your name was Seo U-jin?”

Nod-

“So.”

The guy started, naturally flicking off the ash from the tip of the cigar as if he had completely adapted to it now.

“Why did you, come looking for me?”

It was a direct question, just like him.

“…I took it since you offered, but I can't comprehend why you'd go out of your way to bring a cigar from the outside and give it to me.”

“……”

“I also don't understand the 'long time no see' greeting you threw at me at first.”

“……”

“How, and why, did you come to find me?”

It was a sharp question, but his tone wasn't hostile.

Of course, the question itself contained a certain degree of vigilance, but still, this was a question, not a threat.

Compared to the terrifying exchange we had over the pool of blood, the situation was much better.

Pfft-

Instead of answering his words, I threw a question back at him.

“The Howling. Are you going to stop now?”

Perhaps because he didn't understand the context. A look of confusion colored his face.

Grin-

“Let's ask questions one at a time. I have things I'm curious about too.”

The guy, who tilted his head for a moment as if something was strange, frowned and asked.

“…Shouldn't it be fine for me to ask first?”

“You asked for my name earlier.”

“……”

“The count started from there.”

The guy, who was looking at me with a somewhat displeased expression, soon shrugged his shoulders and answered.

“No. I'll continue.”

“Why?”

“Of course, as you said, I only do this on days when my Moon Madness acts up, but that's not to say that me thrashing these things is entirely because of it.”

He was right.

Of course, if you had to pick the biggest reason, it would be Moon Madness, but strictly speaking, writhing in pain wasn't something he could only do to mutants.

The sense of urgency might be less, but with his physical specs, he could have substituted that struggle by smashing stones or boulders.

Therefore, for the reason why he insisted on ‘Howling’ to be fully explained, another element was needed.

And I didn't know that reason exactly either.

When I met him in my past life, I had just vaguely thought he did it because of Moon Madness; I never bothered to press him with such questions.

‘…….’

However, after time passed and I got to know him a little better, I began to feel that his personality and his actions were strangely mismatched.

A feeling like a piece of the puzzle was missing.

Of course, I had a vague guess as to the puzzle piece that fit into that empty spot, but I wanted to hear it for sure from his own mouth.

One way or another, this guy was someone who would take on a key role in the upcoming ‘Demon King Hunt’.

To be more precise, he would be a cornerstone for the ‘Resurrection of the Beastkin Forces’, which could be called one step in that process.

“…To put it simply, there is a purpose in killing the mutants themselves.”

Pfft-

‘…As I thought.’

People on the outside say there's no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in the Darkest Dungeon, but strictly speaking, contrary to the rumors, forced labor was indeed imposed on the convicts sentenced to the underground prison.

Of course, such labor was not explicitly stated in the penal code.

The only duty a prisoner of the underground prison had to fulfill was to serve out their sentence period.

But the Order was not some small, backwater organization. They weren't foolish enough to waste manpower that could clearly be used for labor by isolating them here.

They did it because there was a good reason.

‘…Controlling the proliferation of mutants.’

The ultimate reason the Order imprisoned convicts here was to control the proliferation of the mutant magical beasts that emerged from somewhere inside the Darkest Dungeon.

Having discovered and studied the mutants within the dungeon early on, the Order realized the potential danger these beings of unknown origin could bring.

Of course, only the Order could open and close the dungeon's entrance, and since it was always kept closed except when a convict was entering, there was no immediate danger.

However, if the mutants within this Darkest Dungeon, located beneath the Order's headquarters, reached a saturation point.

And if, for some reason, they were to forcibly open the dungeon entrance and rush out.

The Order would have to face a third enemy, the mutants, on top of the Demon King's Allied Forces.

The measure devised to prevent such a risk in advance was this very ‘underground prison sentence’.

Having the introduced prisoners live and compete with the mutants, creating a state of natural struggle within the ecosystem.

It was a way to naturally suppress the proliferation of mutants through this, and to maximize the labor of prisoners who would inevitably show less enthusiasm if used as Penal Soldiers or the like.

In other words, for the convicts imprisoned here, surviving against the mutants was, in itself, labor.

So, in a way, contrary to popular belief, it was the Order's ‘underground prison sentence’ that best embodied the meaning of ‘punishment’.

“…Even with the cigar, nothing changes. In the end, that is the only atonement I can perform in this place.”

…And he was one of the few people who saw through that meaning.

‘…Atonement.’

From that word, I was certain.

The reason he never left this Darkest Dungeon until the very end in my past life was because his ‘atonement’ was not yet finished.

…Then that's enough.

The fact that he still carries ‘that incident’ in his heart.

That was enough.

Tssss-

Having heard a definite answer from his mouth, I pressed the burnt-out butt of my cigar onto the corpse of a nearby mutant to extinguish it.

And then.

*Heave-ho.*

I placed both hands on my knees to stand up and said to him.

“Alright then.”

“……?”

Grin-

“Let's go, power-level me for a bit.”