A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 163

『It was not my intention to kill from the beginning.』

His first words, spoken calmly, were an explanation of ‘himself as the Man-eating Beast’.

『…I was merely a lingering thought that remained here to protect my daughter.』

Allen Tigris III, who had lost his life during the fall of the Beastkin Nation, held a powerful will to protect his lone daughter even at the moment of his death.

Thus, even after his life ended, his Thought Form remained here, a lingering thought solely for the purpose of protecting his daughter…

…Valencia Tigris.

A Thought Form, its existence sustained by a powerful will, would exert its influence on the world by expressing that will in some way.

If there were 100 Thought Forms, they would exert their influence in 100 different ways, and Allen Tigris III's Thought Form influenced the world by singling out the wicked around her.

…The reason was simple.

It was what he was most confident in and best at.

The bloodline of the Tigris family, which had ruled the Beastkin monarchy for generations, possessed eyes that could see through the essence of things.

The human heart was a confusing thing, as the saying goes, it is easier to know the depth of ten fathoms of water than the heart of one person, but the White Tiger clan possessed the ability to see through it.

That was ultimately why they could clearly distinguish between the good and the evil among countless humans.

Their eyes, which could see through essence, possessed an intuition that penetrated the invisible plane beyond the visible.

In the first place, the fact that the Beastkin Nation had been able to stand firm and survive as the leader of the neutral forces amidst the stormy continental situation, where factions were divided between The Order and the Demon King, was partly due to this ability.

Its effectiveness was something that went without saying.

『In fact, at first, I didn't even go as far as killing. I merely instilled fear in them and chased them out of the village.』

I had thought so too.

If the Man-eating Beast was indeed the Thought Form of Allen Tigris III as I suspected, the assumption that he wouldn't have resorted to killing was one of the factors that made it difficult to clearly identify him.

Leaving aside Allen Tigris III's personal will, the Tigris family was fundamentally magnanimous in nature.

…No, in truth, it was closer to a disposition they were born with.

They knew instinctively that if they did something as extreme as taking a life, their eyes that saw through essence would become clouded.

『…The problem arose when some time had passed, and my existence began to fade.』

‘…As I thought.’

It was the natural course of events.

No matter how strong the will of a lingering thought without a medium was, it was difficult for it to last more than 10 years.

Let alone 100 years, which was literally ‘unheard of’.

It was not a very rational assumption to think that something that had likely never happened in the near-eternal history of the Upper Plane would be possible only at this time.

『And then, a human came to find me, somehow knowing about me.』

“…….”

Human.

That was the only clue that came from his mouth.

But in that moment, one person immediately came to my mind.

A human who possessed information related to the Primordial Demonic Beast, knew of Allen Tigris's existence, and was eccentric enough to shove a fragment of it into a Thought Form's body.

Looking across the entire Upper Plane, there was only one such person.

『…Isaac Einstein.』

“…….”

『That's the name he said he uses.』

A hint of regret colored his eyes.

“So you were forcibly injected with it?”

He shook his head.

Dori dori-

『No. I made the choice. It wasn't something that could be done by force in the first place.』

“…….”

『A Thought Form vanishes the moment its will disappears. If that human named Isaac had tried to do it by force, it would have ended with my annihilation.』

“…….”

『…I was the one who made the choice. For me, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.』

From Isaac's perspective, it must have been some kind of experiment.

All the things he always perpetrated in his residence, the White House, were of this nature.

The only difference between what happened inside there and this was that it had been released into an uncontrolled, external situation.

『…By the time I felt regret, it was already too late.』

“…….”

『After that squirming thing encroached upon my consciousness, this body was left as an ambiguous existence, neither a Thought Form nor not a Thought Form.』

“…….”

『I don't know exactly what substance it is, but as it filled my body, it gave rise to a murderous intent. In that process, all I could do was use my remaining will to turn that murderous intent towards the wicked.』

It seemed the puzzle pieces were more or less falling into place.

『…Of course, that probably wasn't the right thing to do. But if I hadn't done at least that, it might have affected those around me or…….』

“…….”

『Perhaps it might have even touched Valencia. It was an impulse beyond my control from the start.』

“…….”

『It probably would have been dangerous if you had been even a little later in awakening your power as a Sacred Beast with the Sword of the Son of Heaven. Until just before, I was literally holding on by a thread.』

Sword of the Son of Heaven.

There it was again.

From here on, it was a story I knew nothing about.

“…What is this Sword of the Son of Heaven? All I know is that it reacts to the Beastkin.”

『…It seems you truly know nothing.』

Shaking his head once, he gave a brief, summarized explanation of this broken fragment of the Nameless Sword.

『In a word, it is a sword that awakens the power of the Four Gods.』

* * *

The Four Gods.

The four auspicious animals that rule the directions of east, west, south, and north.

It was a myth that held such a large place in the Eastern legends of the lower planes that I was very familiar with it.

Even so, for U-jin, it was a story that was a little difficult to accept.

…The reason was simple.

While their names were well-known in the lower planes, in the Upper Plane he had experienced before his Regression, the ‘Four Directional Gods’ were as good as defunct.

『Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise. They are also called the Four Directional Gods or Sacred Beasts, a term that collectively refers to the four divine beasts.』

It wasn't that I didn't know the content.

Taking a cue from the fact that the royal bloodline of the then-ruined Beastkin Nation had the appearance of a ‘white tiger’.

I, U-jin, had once wandered around searching for whether the legend of the Four Directional Gods existed in the Upper Plane, hoping they could become a military asset.

However, after using my forces to search for information and scouring the continent, the conclusion I ultimately reached was that the Four Directional Gods did not exist.

Except for the ‘Tigris family’, the royal bloodline of the Beastkin, I couldn't find any other traces of the other Sacred Beasts.

It wasn't a conclusion I had reached lightly.

At the time, my forces had searched for their traces in earnest, and even after confirming the death of ‘Valencia Tigris’, I had deployed a considerable number of personnel to investigate and search for any sign of the Four Directional Gods.

But.

“The Four Directional Gods existed? For real?”

『…What do you mean, existed? They all exist even now, in the present.』

Allen Tigris III's words that followed were even more difficult to believe.

To think they exist even now.

『Take me, for instance, right before you. I am clearly a being born of the bloodline of a Sacred Beast.』

From U-jin's perspective, it was such an absurd story that it was hard to believe even though he had heard it directly.

『It's not generally known to the public, but the royal family clearly recognizes us as one of the Four Sacred Beasts.』

“…….”

『Of course, I too have not reached that true power…….』

Of course, it wasn't hard to believe that the Tigris family, who had been the kings of the Beastkin, possessed power identical to the White Tiger from the legends.

They also had the commonality of possessing ‘eyes that see through essence’.

In the first place, the significant clue that had made me suspect and search for the existence of the Four Directional Gods before my Regression was the existence of their bloodline.

However.

The problematic part was every other aspect.

Excluding the Tigris family, known as the royal bloodline of the Beastkin, I had failed to find any other trace that the ‘Four Directional Gods’ actually existed, despite all my efforts before the Regression.

Even.

“…The Azure Dragon too?”

『…Of course. They have existed in every era.』

“…….”

The ‘dragons’ he spoke of were known to have gone extinct long ago.

‘…No way.’

Of course.

Thinking simply, it wasn't as if there had never been cases where a being believed to be extinct actually existed.

Jerry himself was a member of the Vampire Clan, which was said to have been annihilated, yet he was alive and well by my side.

However.

The case of the Dragon race was not on a scale that could be compared to Jerry's.

The Vampire Clan was merely one of the Beastkin tribes, and it had been less than 100 years since they were said to have gone extinct.

In terms of scale and time, it was ridiculously small and short in comparison.

Well, of course.

Objectively speaking, it might be laughable to describe the Vampire Clan, which had once held the rank of count in the Demon King's Army, in such a way, but.

‘…….’

A dragon was a dragon.

The Dragon race was a race with such a strong presence that it was difficult to describe them as a single race.

In the primordial era of the distant past, a time so ancient that not even accurate records remain to guess the exact period, the strongest race that was said to have ruled both the sky and the earth of this world was the ‘dragons’.

Even in this Upper Plane, where all sorts of imaginary beings live and breathe, the Dragon race was treated as a ‘being of imagination’.

Although they had completely lost their dominance and been wiped out with the appearance of the Primordial Demonic Beast.

The Dragon race was a being from the distant past that boasted an overwhelming presence and majesty.

The meaning and presence carried by the name ‘Dragon race’ were too great and powerful to be simply compared to the extinction of the vampires.

…That's why it was all the more difficult for U-jin to accept.

He thought that if a being with such a presence was still alive, it should have been known to the world long ago.

Moreover, this was not an era of peace where they could live in hiding, but a continent that had become an arena of war where The Order and the Demon King's Army fought over territory every day.

U-jin found it hard to believe that such a being could remain hidden in the midst of such turmoil.

But.

『…It is the undeniable truth.』

For those eyes, which did not speak falsehoods and revealed the essence of things, to be telling a lie.

That, too, made no sense.