SSS-Class Revival Hunter-Chapter 203: The Black Dragon (2)

“What?”

The leader of the Tower’s most supreme guild closed her eyes before she opened them again slowly. However, only a moment had passed. Her brow was furrowed. “Regressor? What are you talking about?”

“I’ve been considering telling you this for a long time. You and I crossed the Aegim Empire together. I would have felt more at ease if I told you the truth back then, but I didn’t trust you that much back then. That’s why I kept it a secret until now.”

The more I talked, the more the Black Witch’s face hardened. She could clearly tell I wasn’t joking.

“You often asked me where a rookie like me had come from because I didn’t act like a rookie despite my age. You’re right. I’m not a rookie.”

I summoned a Skill Card. “Open the Skill Card.”

The card flashed, wrapped in golden light. I turned over the glowing card and showed it to her.

Returner's Clockwork

Class: EX

Effect: Activated automatically upon your death. You will return to twenty-four hours before your death. Your memory and abilities will be preserved even after your return.

※ You will receive a penalty after the Skill activation.

※ The higher your Class is, the stronger the penalty is.

※ The Skill has been copied from Hunter Yoo Soo-Ha.

“Wait.” The Black Witch grabbed my hand, the one holding my Skill Card. Because of this, she couldn’t read the Skill description; she stopped me from revealing my own Skill. “Don’t.”

Her jet-black eyes, which resembled a bottomless well, seemed somewhat vigilant. It seemed the abyssal pool of cold water beyond her eyes was rippling. There was an unfamiliar tone and tremor in her voice.

“Don’t do this, please. I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but I’m aware of what will happen in the end. Some boundaries should never be crossed, no matter how close we are.”

The Black Witch sounded as if she had expected something like this to happen a long time ago. Perhaps this insight was a result of numerous experiences from her past.

“Don’t tell me your secret. Don’t share it with me. If you do, Death King, we’ll pass the point of no return. When people rely on each other too much, they become overdependent.”

I nodded. “I know that.”

“You and I are good friends. You’re a trustworthy colleague. You of all people shouldn’t hope that we become anything more. I take care of my own business, and you take care of yours. Isn’t that the best-case scenario for both of us?”

The Black Witch was asking me to keep my mouth shut. Her serious attitude made me think it was difficult to define the nature and depth of a relationship with another person.

But I insisted. “Then please decide after you hear me out.”

“That would be too late.”

“No, I can turn back time. Even if we talk about my secret now, I can make it like it never happened. That’s my ability.”

The Black Witch remained silent.

In the pioneer village’s square, the villagers got up and instinctively went to search for water. They groaned, feeling that their bodies had become wearier during their long slumber.

“Uhhh...”

“Urgh...”

The Black Witch looked around.

“Let’s not talk about it here,” she said in a quiet voice, still holding onto my hand. “Teleportation.”

The next moment, we were no longer in the square but at the port. Ships were anchored down with ropes, creaking as the waves clashed against them. The ocean embraced the ships’ cacophony. For a moment, we stood in silence, simply listening to the sounds of the ocean.

“Alright. Okay.” The Black Witch nodded, her mind seemingly made up. “I’ll hear you, but we can’t talk about this kind of story sober.”

When the Black Witch waved her hand, a black vortex appeared in the air, as if someone had cut a part of the world and painted it black. She put her arm in there without hesitation and, a moment later, pulled out a liquor bottle.

I was a little surprised. “Is that a Skill?”

“Yeah, Item Storage. I can only store a limited amount of items, but there is no better Skill than this for destroying evidence after killing people,” the Black Witch spoke casually as she took out glasses. “Consider it an honor. No one knows I have this Skill. Among the Hunters who are still alive, you’re the first to witness this Skill, Death King.”

The Black Witch handed me a glass. We didn’t speak a word as we emptied the bottle.

Before the intoxication could eat away at my mind, I broke the silence. “I’m a regressor. Umm... I don’t know where to start. I have a Skill that turns back time. To be exact, I go back in time twenty-four hours after I die. Thanks to this ability, I have overcome countless difficulties. I also survived on the tenth floor and twentieth floor because of my Skill.”

I showed the Skill Card to the Black Witch. This time, she didn’t look away.

She sighed in realization, as if she had been looking for the final missing puzzle piece for a long time. “I see.”

“You knew I was hiding something?”

The Black Witch tilted her glass. “Kind of. I at least knew you were lying about being a clairvoyant. The excuse was too convenient. I’ve been watching you from the side, but it didn’t seem as if you knew what would already happen. You always fought as if you were at risk of drawing your last breath. I see. It’s not that you know the future. You just go back to the past.”

The Black Witch stared at me. “There’s something I really want to ask you.”

“Go on.”

“On the eleventh floor, the Hunters and we fought in a large-scale war for the first time. Everyone was so excited that the next stage was finally unlocked after so many years that they threw themselves to the eleventh floor. We fought the Demon King’s army there. Do you remember?”

The question was long overdue. I nodded.

“Yes, I do.”

“At that time, not a single Hunter died. It seemed like a miracle. Some people were injured, but no one died.” The Black Witch hesitated for a long time. “Did you regress back then?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Until no one died?”

“That’s right.”

The Black Witch pursed her lips. The pool of water beyond her eyes rippled a little harder. “How many times did you do it?”

“A lot.”

“Ten times? Twenty times?” frёewebηovel.cѳm

“A bit more than that, I think.”

“Even on the twelfth floor?”

“And on and on after that. I think I always did that until I met Raviel.”

The Black Witch’s breath quickened. “Why? You had no reason to try that hard.”

I looked straight into her eyes. “It’s not because I was born to be a good person. If I had gone up to the eleventh floor alone, I would never have been able to repeat it hundreds of times. You and everyone else always had my back. Every time the number of casualties decreased, you smiled a little brighter.”

She didn’t remember any of that.

“Up until then, I had never seen you smile out of genuine happiness. When hundreds of Hunters died while clearing the stage, you maintained your poker face and did what you had to do... But you changed a little when the number of casualties decreased to two digits.”

Only I remembered this change.

“I think less than forty Hunters are dead!”

“Impossible... Maybe less than ten people are dead....”

“I didn’t think that’d be possible in a battle like this. I didn’t know...”

She used to be like a tightly sealed flower, but her smile had bloomed over time. I still remembered that moment so clearly.

“I thought your smile was very beautiful.”

The Black Witch clenched her hand around the glass.

I smiled. “I was happy and learned for the first time that I could make someone genuinely smile. Thank you, Black Dragon Master—I mean, Senior.”

“Why are you thanking me?”

“Because of you, I’m able to walk a path I would never have been able to walk on my own. I love my life and I get to spend it with the person I love. Even if you didn’t mean for this to happen, I could keep walking forward because of the smile you showed me that day.”

This was what I had always wanted to say to her.

“You’re very inspiring, at least to me. You aren’t alone. You may worry daily about having to say goodbye to someone dear to you, but you don’t have to do that with me.”

I had the Skill to rewind the day I died, so I wouldn’t truly die.

“I’m fine. You don’t have to stop the assassination attempts that target me. Don’t worry about what will happen if you can’t stop them. I’m here, and I’ll continue to be by your side for as long as you let me.”

The Black Witch put down her glass.

“It’s okay to fail,” I continued.

“You can’t...”

“You don’t have to be afraid of failures now. Do whatever you want. Even if something goes wrong, I will always have another chance at life.”

“You can’t say things like that.”

She was afraid. I already knew what her biggest fear was. When she, the Paladin, and I had been drunk, the Black Witch had told me something.

“Don’t be late, Death King. Never be late.”

The irreversibility of death was what she was most afraid of. Therefore, I decided to give her the gift that she had been desperately yearning for. Only I could tell this to her.

“It’s okay to be a little late in my case.”

The Black Witch paused as if pricked by a thorn.

“As long as I’m by your side, nothing is irreversible. You can start over anytime, so you can venture and gamble a little more, Senior. You deserve that.”

The ocean breeze tousled her black hair.

“You are much more skilled than me in many other ways, like managing an organization, starting a business, and ruling those in the Tower. Those are talents I don’t have. Likewise, the talent to start over in case things go awry just happened to be given to me. We can accomplish so much more when we are together.”

She was my dear friend, so I looked away from her tears. I lowered my head slightly and held her hand.

“I already rely on you, so please rely on me too.”

The Black Witch swallowed down one sob at a time. “You’re... really... You’re so evil, really. After all you said, can you really make it as if this conversation never took place? What you’re basically saying is that it’s okay to talk about this because you can just reset by dying and going back a day. If I want to make this conversation a thing of the past, then does that mean you need to die?”

“Yes.”

The Black Witch squeezed my hand and mumbled, “You’re crazy. You’re out of your mind... Just wait and see. I’ll use you until you regret it. What did you call it? Regression? You have this kind of ability, yet you dare to share it with me? You really don’t know what kind of person the head of the Black Dragon Guild is, do you? Just wait and see. You lunatic...”

I waited for the Black Witch’s tremors to subside. After some time passed, she finally calmed down. “Anastasha. That’s my real name, Gong-Ja.”

I looked up at her faded smile.

She added, “I’m going to use you in every way possible, so brace yourself.”

I smiled back heartily. “Okay, Senior Anastasha.”

Among those who climbed the Tower, I now had my first friend who knew my secret.