A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 130

“Well. I’m not so sure… but I don’t think I deceived you about anything.”

“……”

“I called you to reconcile.”

At U-jin’s answer, Tom scoffed.

“Hah! Reconcile?”

“……”

“Did you just say reconcile?”

As if he’d heard something he shouldn't have, Tom pointed an accusatory finger in the direction Jerry had flown and shouted.

“Do you think I hunt Vampires out of some personal grudge? The extermination of the Vampires is the calling of my clan and my duty to the fallen Beastkin Nation.”

“……”

“For the sake of every Beastkin on this land, I have an obligation to kill him. This isn’t some child’s play that can be brushed aside with a handshake.”

“…Is that so? Doesn't seem all that different to me.”

“…That’s enough.”

Perhaps deciding that further words were meaningless.

Tom turned his body.

Tom's mind was already a mess.

No, to say it was simply a mess wouldn't cover it; his thought process had ceased to function properly.

The reason was simple.

To put it with a little exaggeration, there wasn’t a single aspect of the unfolding situation that made any sense.

‘…….’

U-jin was a rookie who hadn’t even shed his Hero candidate label, yet he wanted the revival of the Beastkin forces.

Jerry was supposed to be dead, but he was alive.

Jerry knew he was coming, but he didn’t flee.

And despite seeing all of this, U-jin wore a nonchalant expression as if he knew everything, telling him to reconcile.

A series of incomprehensible events.

This whole scene was too clumsy to be a trap, yet too nonsensical to be the truth.

A situation twisted into such a knot that he had no idea where to even begin unraveling it.

Therefore.

“…Let's see if you can remain so nonchalant after I take his head.”

“……”

“If he revived after I burst his heart, this time I’ll cut off his limbs and bury them in different places. If he revives even then, I’ll chop him into tiny pieces and throw him to the magical beasts for food.”

The method he chose was to cut the knot entirely.

“…This time, it won’t end with just confirming that he has stopped breathing.”

Whether this was a trap or the truth, at the center of the tangle messing with his head was Jerry Junior, and while he didn't know how he had come back to life, if he snuffed him out, he felt he could get to the bottom of this twisted situation.

Who the mastermind was and what their intentions were in creating this situation was something he could figure out after.

There was no hesitation.

It was the method he had always adopted when faced with similar situations in the past.

Killing Jerry Junior was something he had already done once, and it was what he was supposed to do anyway.

He didn't know if U-jin genuinely wanted reconciliation or had some other ulterior motive, but he had no intention of playing along.

*Paaat-*

Stepping on the windowsill, Tom leaped in a single bound to a position above Jerry, who was still embedded in the yard outside.

“……”

His clothes were in disarray, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

It seemed his external injuries had already healed, as his limbs were in place and unbroken, but judging by the fact he was still coughing up blood, his internal injuries remained.

Even seeing that helpless figure, Tom drew out the claws of his right hand to their maximum length without a flicker of hesitation.

They were nearly a foot long.

Except for his most active period, he rarely drew them out to this length.

But this was a being who had come back to life by some means.

From Tom’s perspective, he had no choice but to think he had to be more thorough.

Ugeugeugeuk-

He pulled his right arm back.

The muscles, stretched to the limit of their range of motion, tensed, and a powerful force, as if to tear the very universe apart, condensed.

This time, his resolve was not just to burst the heart, but to tear the entire body apart.

Pure killing intent, without a hint of hesitation, gathered at the tips of his claws.

KWAANG-!

And at the peak of that extension, his arm, which was swinging down toward Jerry with a sonic boom that ruptured the air, was…

“……!!!”

Geugeugeuk-

He urgently twisted its trajectory.

The process was so desperate that Tom's arm, trained to its limit, screamed with the *udeudeuk-* sound of protesting joints.

The altered trajectory missed Jerry’s body, embedding itself in the ground to his left, and with a *kwagwagwak-* sound, five massive furrows were gouged into the earth.

A sudden cloud of dust filled the surroundings.

Kwaaak-

From within the dust cloud, Tom clutched his twisted elbow and pushed himself up, staring forward with a look of utter disbelief.

‘…Why in the world.’

The reason Tom had so urgently changed his attack's path was simple.

Someone had suddenly jumped into his attack's trajectory.

It went without saying, but it wasn't U-jin.

Nor was it U-jin's companion.

It was.

A young Cat Tribe Beastkin, so small they barely came up to Tom's waist.

* * *

“…Hmm.”

This wasn't the original plan.

To move the story forward, the encounter between Tom and Jerry was necessary, but considering the relationship between the two, it was a foregone conclusion that this disaster would occur if they were brought together without any explanation.

However, there was a separate reason why I didn’t stop that guy Tom from charging in blindly and offered no explanation until we got here.

『It feels a bit unpleasant to think that something that was already extinct has come back to life. But I don't kill without conviction, simply letting my feelings dictate the life and death of others.』

『…….』

『…He is dead. And that is the end of it.』

The moment he found out in the Darkest Dungeon that the blood of a Vampire flowed through my body.

I was curious why he had been so certain that Jerry was dead.

Confirming the gist of the story from that guy Tom’s reaction the moment he saw Jerry.

That was a detail I couldn’t have known with the knowledge from my past life, no matter how many times I regressed, so there was no other way.

Well, it was something I would have had to address one way or another even if I left it alone, but I deliberately chose not to intervene in order to check for any variables in a domain I didn't know about.

If things went wrong here, all my subsequent plans would be ruined.

‘…So that’s how it was.’

I confirmed that part for sure.

Tom Hardist’s last hunt was Jerry Junior, and he had personally burst his heart.

He had killed him himself and seen it with his own eyes, which was why he had been so certain of Jerry's death.

Now that I knew the reason, the purpose for letting things get this far was achieved, and if it progressed any further and Jerry’s limbs were actually torn off, the problem would become quite serious, so I was thinking of intervening around this point.

Psik-

A proxy showed up out of nowhere.

‘…Jackie, was it?’

It was the little Cat Tribe Beastkin kid I’d glimpsed when talking to Jerry before entering the Darkest Dungeon.

I remembered him because of the impressive patch of white fur in the middle of his head.

He had appeared before Tom's claws as they rushed toward Jerry and blocked his attack.

It wasn't planned, but the scene looked quite good.

From that guy Tom's perspective, there could be no event more incomprehensible than this.

His face, pale with shock, proved it.

“What in the world……”

The one who directly blocked that guy Tom's attack was the little Cat Tribe Beastkin kid named Jackie, but he wasn't the only one to appear from within the scattering dust.

A few of the Beastkin that Jerry had gathered appeared hesitantly from behind Jerry, and from between the temporarily repaired, dilapidated houses, many more Beastkin were watching the situation.

At a glance, their numbers had increased, so it seemed that after hearing my words about 'a Territory acquired for that purpose', that guy Jerry had brought over more Beastkin from other places.

Psik-

‘…Looks like he actually trusted me.’

Before we entered the Darkest Dungeon, he was the one who said to take him off the team if I was going to bring Tom Hardist along, but it seemed he had come to trust me.

Well, that was something I already knew the moment he chose not to run away.

“Why……”

From that guy Tom's perspective, there could be no composition more difficult to comprehend.

He was a man who had endured his whole life with the sole pride of living for the Beastkin, yet the current scene made it look as if he were the one threatening them.

He was probably thinking that his and Jerry's positions should be reversed.

His subsequent cry proved that fact.

“…Why are you protecting him? That bastard is a direct descendant of the Vampire Clan that destroyed our Beastkin!”

A voice filled with anguish, as if he couldn't possibly understand, burst from Tom toward the Beastkin.

“He carries the blood of the detestable traitor, the Demon Dracula. You’ve all been deceived by him!!!!”

His shout was not without effect.

After his voice echoed, a moment of silence fell.

Followed by a clamorous atmosphere.

- …If he’s a direct descendant of a Vampire, does he mean Count Dracula?

- A Demon?

- No, then our lord isn’t human but…….

- What is going on.

The gazes of the Beastkin, which had been on Tom, turned to Jerry with looks of disbelief at his shout.

Presently, one of the Beastkin from the back rushed out and grabbed the little kid's wrist.

“Jackie! Get over here right now. What do you think you’re doing, this is dangerous!”

A bitter smile formed on Jerry's lips as he watched the chaotic scene.

Was it because he felt empty now that the identity he had hidden for so long was revealed?

Or was it disillusionment, seeing the Beastkin he had saved from slave traders change their expressions at the single word ‘Dracula’?

Or perhaps he found the fate bestowed upon him as The Last Vampire to be laughable.

It was difficult even for me to know exactly what was going on in his tangled mind.

But from my perspective, one thing was crystal clear.

…The little Beastkin kid blocking his path.

That kid, at least, was completely unfazed by Tom’s shout, by the fact that Jerry’s identity was a Dracula.

“Mom, you said so!”

Meomchit-

At the child's sudden shout, Jerry’s hand, which had been running dejectedly through his hair, froze.

“You said that because this black-haired mister protected us, we have to protect him later.”

Spreading his arms wide, the child bared his teeth quite seriously and glared at Tom.

“You said he's blunt and a difficult person, but that we should never forget him for our whole lives!”

“……”

“Mom, you said so.”

The Beastkin who appeared to be Jackie's mother wore a troubled expression, and strange looks colored the faces of both Tom and Jerry.

She clearly thought she had to get her child out of there, but since these were indeed the words she herself had stressed, it seemed she had no retort.

Psik-

And perhaps, now.

“…The kid’s better than the adults.”

It seemed like the right time for me to step in.

“Isn't that right?”