Brave—Zich’s eyebrows twitched at the mention of his name. Perhaps he was used to it, however, since he didn’t show any negative reaction beyond that.
“To tell you the truth, when Zich Brave first appeared, I thought the heavens were working in my favor. I even thought that maybe Bellu really existed, and faith that I never once had began to sprout inside me.” Ultel’s eyes looked teary as he recalled the memory, and Zich felt a strong urge to pierce those eyes with his fork, but he repressed it.
“Serpina’s abilities were truly fearsome. That was true for the army of monsters she led around, but above all, it was her personal abilities that were truly frightening. Although I was glad at first that my thoughts hadn’t been wrong, I soon fell into despair at the thought that I must kill or restrain her to get what I wanted. Thus, when you and your companions appeared, it really felt like a blessing from the heavens.”
“That’s not me but Brave. Don’t mix that up.”
“It appears that you dislike your past self.”
“Past or not, that’s not me.”
“Well, if that is what you wish, I will abide by it.” It wasn’t even a difficult request to fulfill. “Anyways, Brave splendidly led his companions to push back the Core, and the battle between the two forces became fiercer and fiercer!”
Zich already had knowledge about everything Ultel said. Yet, Ultel didn’t stop there. His voice grew louder and faster. It seemed like he was becoming excited thinking of the time which he considered to be the turning point of his life.
“I immediately deployed all the forces I could muster to ambush them both at the right opportunity. Of course, my subordinates couldn’t do anything against the two normally, but it was possible to do something if there was a momentary gap, since what I wanted wasn’t their lives anyway!”
“You wanted the Brushel System.”
“Yes! The system that allowed regressions! If I had that, it didn’t matter how strong Brave and Serpina were! I could just turn time back to the point before Brave grew to his potential and Serpina was still sleeping!” In front of the mighty power of regressions, individual strength was as completely meaningless as the life of a worm crawling underground.
“After taking them by surprise and encountering them, I was able to stand in front of the Brushel System. Of course, not anyone could control the Brushel System since Serpina was the only qualified one.”
“However, I had an item that could turn the situation around.” Ultel smiled cheerfully. He stroked the ring on his right index finger.
“Now that I think about it, I suppose this is the reason why Serpina suddenly popped out. I mean, there must have been a push for her to suddenly wake up while she was quietly part of the Brushel System as the core. It’s not as if the system was broken or anything.”
The World Tree’s great mana perfectly protected the Brushel System for a very long time. Naturally, if there hadn’t been intervention from the outside, Serpina wouldn’t have been able to wake up as the Core. If she woke up by herself, it would’ve been unnecessary for Zich to come all the way here to save Lyla.
“The Emperor’s Ring,” Zich noted.
“It’s the item I discovered among all the resources the Bellids had accumulated through generations and with great effort. When I first found it, I wasn’t certain what it was. I knew it was quite a rare item, but there was no way for me to be certain if it was an artifact belonging to the ancient empire, much less belonging to the emperor. After Serpina popped out, however, I became sure that the ring was the real thing. With it, I gained the power to meddle with the Brushel System.”
Ultel stretched out his fingers into the air and stared at the ring on his finger. “When I first used the power of regression, I thought I was dreaming. My wrinkled skin turned smooth and supple, and I regained all the vigor and stamina I had once lost. You must have also felt the awe and dreamlike feeling of regressing.”
Zich recalled the first day of his regression. “Nope.”
“Don’t lie. There’s no way you didn’t feel...”
“I was first stunned and confused, but some guys immediately crawled into the picture. Then, I immediately had to battle my arrogant younger brother and another guy after that. On second thought, it seems like I never took a moment to dwell on my emotions about my recovered youth. That is pretty regretful.”
Ultel was momentarily left speechless by this answer that went beyond his imagination.
“...As expected of the regressed Zich Moore.”
“That’s enough praise for me.”
“All right.” Ultel had no intention to even deal with Zich’s nonsense anymore. It was much more difficult to deal with Zich who regressed once than Glen who regressed countless times.
“Okay, so that’s how you regressed,” Zich said.
“Yes. It was obvious what I needed to do next. I didn’t have the ring or the Brushel System in my grasp because of the regression, but I could easily retrieve them since I had turned back time. Furthermore, I was able to get my hands on several artifacts belonging to the ancient empire, such as items that could create Demon People, fragmentary information about the empire, and so on. Thus, I began to make some moves toward my aspirations.”
“Like Glen Zenard, right?”
“How offensive. Don’t you also dislike being compared to him?”
“Ah, that’s right. I went too far just now. Let me sincerely apologize to you.”
To think that Zich would apologize so easily—it seemed like Glen was truly unredeemable trash in Zich’s view.
‘It’s understandable.’ Ultel thought it wasn’t strange, since he thought the same way.
“In the end, you passed on the regression ability to that guy.”
“Yes, it was too bothersome. Even if I could regress, it wasn’t an easy task to amass power and authority in every timeline.” Although Ultel came closer to his aspirations every time he regressed, it was troublesome to prepare for it each time. “Furthermore, whenever I thought I took care of the guy between me and my goal, a new annoyance popped out to hinder me. Like Brave, there were guys who tried to hold me down in every timeline.”
Ultel glared at Zich with a look of annoyance mixed in. However, Zich didn’t feel anything since he didn’t identify as Brave. Instead, he glared back at Ultel just as menacingly.
Ultel continued, “I needed information. Of course, I was able to get more precise and detailed information as I regressed, but I told you, didn’t I? It was a hassle to get there. Moreover, regression was not infinite.” Ultel was referring to the fear experienced by previous Clowon emperors after regressing too much. “At that time, I came up with a brilliant idea. If regressing to get information was annoying and a hassle, I should leave it up to someone else.”
“So that’s why you chose Glen Zenard.”
“Correct,” Ultel chuckled. “Our dear, pitiful and poor Sun Hero, Glen Zenard. All he had was a handsome face and delusions of grandeur.”
Ultel spoke with a very pitiful tone, but his words were terribly derogatory. “I was very lucky to meet him too because I had to choose the right person. First, they had to be ambitious. If I gave the regression ability to someone who wanted to live by making a lot of money or those with similar goals, I wouldn’t be able to get the information I want. In addition, they couldn’t be too smart, since I was giving them such a powerful ability.”
“And Glen Zenard was the one who fulfilled all the conditions?”
“A guy with the goal of becoming a righteous hero, yet he is someone with such an ugly heart that he can’t be satisfied with solving existing problems. Instead, he creates more confusion and chaos to solve it. Isn’t he perfect for the job?”
“Well, his goal wasn’t to be a hero. Rather, he was obsessed with the by-products attached to the name of a hero.”
“Yeah. I also needed an idiot like him whose abilities were so lacking that even if I gave them the regression ability, they wouldn’t even question it.”
“Agreed.” Zich deeply agreed with Ultel’s assessment of Glen. “He really has the talent of a perfect puppet. That hero idiot.”
“Right?” Ultel raised his glass toward Zich, and likewise, Zich raised his glass. As if they were toasting, the two tilted their glasses toward each other.
“For Glen Zenard!”
“Blessings for the hero idiot!”
Had Glen witnessed this scene, he would have vomited blood and screamed his heart out. However, Glen Zenard wasn’t present, and if he had been, he wouldn’t have known what they were talking about because most of his organs that collected external information had been destroyed.
“Also, doesn’t that idiot have some ridiculous competitive spirit against you?”
“Didn’t we agree to stop comparing ourselves with him? We both did it to each other and agreed with how disgusting it felt.”
“This is just the truth. If you want to blame someone, blame the idiot who insisted on standing on the same level as you.”
“It wasn’t me, but Brave.”
“To him, it’s the same person. That guy who is incapable of knowing his place really helped me a lot. To fulfill his desire—to become the greatest hero in history by beating Zich Brave and winning all the wealth and glory—he began to regress.”
“And you pretended to be under his command to help him.”
“Yeah. That way, I could collect information more quickly.” Ultel softly laughed once again. “Isn’t this really hilarious? There’s not much I did. All I did was secretly spread a rumor before he regressed that the Bellid pope, Ultel, thought that the incarnation of Bellu would appear at a specific time and place. If someone arrived at that exact time and place, Ultel would believe them to be Bellu’s incarnation and swear his loyalty.”
“So Glen really believed that piece of information and ran to the place at that time and you...”
“And I pretended to serve and extol Glen Zenard as the incarnation of Bellu.”
Zich and Ultel both burst out laughing. They laughed so hard that they stamped their feet and punched the table.
“Hahahahhahaha! Just think about it! That idiot calmly saying, ‘I’m the one you’ve been waiting for,’ with a solemn expression on his face! I’ve lived quite a long time thanks to the power of regression, but I swear it was the hardest time in my life to suppress my laughter!”
“Ahahhahaha! Ah, damn it! I should’ve seen it myself!” They continued laughing for a long time.
“Haha! Anyway, he kept trying to regress to obtain his perfect life, and I was able to steadily gain more and more information. I don’t have memories of when he regressed, but according to the information I saw through the Brushel System, my plan was going well. Moreover, his plans, which used to be full of variables and disorder, gradually turned more systematic. I thought his plan would be completed soon, and his existence would disappear at the same time, but...”
“All of a sudden, a lot of variables appeared in this timeline, right?”
“Yeah, and the reason is your own regression.”