A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 87

“The order is wrong.”

“……”

At the short remark, Jerry's brow furrowed once again.

The angle was slightly different from before.

If before it was a frown of 'incredulity,' this time, the ends of his eyebrows were drawn closer together, as if he truly didn't understand what was being said.

“…What do you mean by that.”

“I mean. The Order's approval for establishment, solving the illegal slave problem, and uniting the Beastkin.”

“……”

“You’re saying these three are the problems, right? You probably listed them in order.”

Nod—

“…That's right.”

“Then of course it’s an impossible task.”

As explained before.

The Order's aversion to establishing new guilds wasn't merely on the level of 'reluctance'.

It was partly due to the immense ripple effect of a figure like Isaac Einstein, but the Order as an organization was inherently conservative and tended to extremely avoid things that happened outside predictable bounds.

As such, the Order had no intention of taking risks to approve a guild system they had already suffered through once.

Moreover, unlike in the past when the Refugee Phenomenon was the biggest problem threatening the Order's existence, the refugee issue was not as serious in the current Order's Alliance, which was now bound by a certain degree of camaraderie and trust.

Proof of this could be clearly seen in the stance the Order took after Einstein.

Without any exaggeration, the Order hadn't approved a single guild establishment request among the countless that flooded in after Einstein.

Literally, the establishment of new guilds was completely blocked at its source.

In such a situation, it was self-evident that obtaining approval for a guild was practically impossible.

It was in a similar context that Jerry brought up the guild establishment issue first.

First, this dormant territory had to be approved as a guild for the Beastkin to have equal status with those belonging to other factions of the Order.

That was the most important and difficult of the obstacles he mentioned, and it was a task virtually defined as impossible.

He had no choice but to think that the latter two were only possible on the assumption that the first was resolved.

‘…….’

The obstacles I had thought of weren't much different from what he'd said.

…To be honest, they were exactly the same.

In my opinion as well, those three things were what was necessary to create a territory for the Beastkin.

However.

“Just as you said, getting approval to establish a guild is practically impossible in the current situation. It’s so obvious that anyone would think so without needing an explanation.”

The point where his thoughts and mine diverged was precisely that ‘order’.

“…So-.”

“……”

“In the ‘current situation,’ that is.”

Jerry's head tilted.

“Let's try changing the order a bit.”

The establishment of the guild was not first.

…In the end, a guild was merely a means to manage a faction existing outside a Constellation's jurisdiction, and its essence was the single faction formed within it.

Grin—

“…What if.”

“……”

“What if the majority of the existing Beastkin were already living in a dormant territory that hasn't even been designated as a guild?”

* * *

They were now evaluated as a weakened race, scattered across the continent as illegal slaves, but…

Back in the days when the continent was still divided into various neutral zones.

From the Beastkin's perspective, during their 'tribal nation' era when numerous Beastkin tribes like the Dog-kin, Cat-kin, and Rabbit-kin gathered to form a single federation.

Among the demi-human factions, the Beastkin were the ones who had built a force that could be called truly unrivaled.

At the time, the only demi-human faction known to the public that could be compared to the Beastkin was the Elves.

And even the Elves were considered a step below the Beastkin.

Of course, it would be a stretch to say that the ancient Beastkin nation would be revived just by gathering them now.

Too much time had already passed.

Including Jerry's Vampire race, which was known to be extinct, there were also Beastkin tribes that had gone beyond merely dwindling in numbers and had been completely wiped out.

And it was true that even among the remaining Beastkin tribes, many had suffered such a blow that they could be considered virtually annihilated, having lost their tribe's history and traditional skills.

…However.

Even so, they were the Beastkin.

“…Wouldn't they have no choice but to approve the guild's establishment? From the Order's perspective.”

“……”

No matter how close to annihilation they were now, the ‘potential’ they possessed was second to none among the factions belonging to the Order.

If a force of that magnitude were to gather again and settle in one place.

Beyond the simple likes or dislikes of granting a guild permit, from the Order's standpoint, they couldn't possibly stand by and watch, as a matter of principle.

What if.

It was a long shot, but.

If the united Beastkin were to declare a neutral zone and then be swayed to join the Demon King's Army.

From the Order's perspective, there would be nothing more dreadful.

“……”

After thinking in silence for a moment, Jerry nodded and muttered lowly.

“…Indeed.”

“……”

“There's some possibility in that story.”

It seemed he found my words somewhat plausible.

Of course.

That didn't mean he accepted my entire plan.

Although he nodded, his furrowed brow hadn't completely smoothed out yet.

It seemed he could see the possibility when he roughly thought it over in his head, but it didn't look like all his questions had been resolved yet.

“…But, it's literally just a possibility.”

Sure enough.

After a brief pause, he added.

“…Even if we postpone the issue of the guild's establishment approval, the other two problems are not easily solved either.”

Just as he said, even if the guild issue was pushed to the back, the problem of the Beastkin faction wouldn't be solved in a snap.

That is, as he had mentioned before.

‘The illegal slave problem’ and ‘the problem of uniting the Beastkin’.

Those two problems still remained as tasks to be solved.

“…Do you know the exact scale of the slave market?”

Shrug—

“Beats me.”

“…In the Murim Empire, just in the slave markets of the Shandong Peninsula alone, the number of Beastkin traded annually exceeds one thousand.”

“……”

“…If you expand that scope to the entire continent, the current scale of the slave market involves the trade of, at a low estimate, tens of thousands, and at a high estimate, hundreds of thousands of Beastkin.”

Swish—

As if bothered by the sunlight streaming in without his sunglasses, he stood up, drew the curtains, and continued speaking.

“…The problem of illegal slavery conducted in the shadows is not something that can be solved so simply. The fact that it continues despite being prohibited by the Order's decrees means the concept of 'slavery' is already too deeply rooted socially, culturally, and economically to be dealt with.”

“……”

“…Solving that problem at its root means…”

Swish—

“…directly reaching out to all components of the related market, such as the poachers who first capture the Beastkin, the high-ranking official buyers in each nation, brokers, and the direct merchants.”

“……”

“…Exercising influence over all those places is not an easy task. Especially not in a short amount of time.”

Disbelief and doubt still lingered in his voice.

Even after hearing my opinion, it seemed his thought that solving those tasks was next to impossible didn't change easily.

…However. There was one thing that had changed.

“…Do you have a plan for that too?”

It was Jerry's attitude.

His attitude in asking that question had certainly changed.

Unlike before, when he had completely denied it with eyes full of disbelief, he was now actually asking me for a ‘plan’.

“…Darkest Dungeon.”

My answer to that was simple.

“Why do you think I'm going in?”

A question.

It was a single sentence thrown back as a question.

* * *

“…Darkest Dungeon. Why do you think I'm going in?”

From that ‘strange question’ returned in response to his inquiry about a plan, Jerry was able to pinpoint one odd thing.

‘…Going in.’

When discussing the Darkest Dungeon, U-jin's sentence strangely took an active, not a passive, form.

Normally, the correct expression here would have been 'being sent in' rather than 'going in'.

Because a prison is originally a place one is sent to by the will of others, not a place one enters of their own volition.

And at that point, Jerry could faintly realize the answer to a question he'd had in the back of his mind.

That is.

As he'd suspected, the ‘Hero-slaying Incident’ that occurred back then on the Shandong Peninsula had been part of U-jin's meticulous plan.

‘…….’

He had felt something was strange from the beginning.

It hadn't been a long time, but.

The U-jin that Jerry had seen was not the type of person to commit an ‘impulsive act’.

If one focused on his actions, one might mistake him for someone who did many impulsive things because he always acted outside of common sense.

But Jerry knew well that, in retrospect, almost everything had been under U-jin's plan.

He just hadn't been able to accept it, deceived by the 'common sense' that surely, no one would walk into that land of death on their own two feet.

‘…….’

When his thoughts reached that point…

…the keywords ‘Beastkin’ and ‘Darkest Dungeon’, which had seemed completely unrelated, began to entangle in Jerry's mind.

Old memories.

Nostalgia.

Resentment.

Repentance.

Hatred.

Atonement.

The two words that had stirred Jerry's heart, bringing up all sorts of emotions and memories.

Soon, they caused the portrait of a certain individual to surface in his mind.

…A face he had faintly recalled even when U-jin first entered the Guild House and spoke of his 'trip to the Darkest Dungeon'.

The face of an old friend he had seen in the calm surface of his coffee cup.

Grin—

Watching U-jin raise the corners of his mouth, Jerry helplessly confessed the individual's name.

“…Tom.”

The last remaining ‘Vampire Hunter’.

A Silver Wolf Clan Beastkin who was imprisoned in the Darkest Dungeon after hunting the last vampire.

The rightful heir of the Lycan family, which, along with the Dracula family, was regarded as the greatest combat family among the Beastkin tribes back when the Beastkin nation was still powerful.

His name.

“…Tom. L. Hardist.”