Bang!
Yujin kicked the shelter door open with a rough shove.
Then he drew ragged breaths, frantically scanning his surroundings.
Cradled against his chest, Leila hung limp and weightless.
He crossed to the nearest bed and lowered her onto it with careful, deliberate hands.
The gentleness of his movements was that of someone handling a precious, irreplaceable thing.
But even the slight shift of her body must have been agony.
Leila's face twisted, and a groan tore from her lips.
"Ha— hgh…!"
Crunch.
Her hand seized the bedsheet, fingers trembling violently.
The white linen beneath her bloomed red in an instant.
The cause was the horrific wound carved into her abdomen.
A gash that gushed blood as though something razor-sharp had torn clean through her.
For anyone other than a Valkyrie, it would have been a death sentence long before now.
*Why….*
Yujin could barely breathe.
He had tried so hard to stop this. To prevent Leila's death.
He had ground down his own heart, piece by piece, wanting nothing more than a future where she lived.
And yet, here they were again.
Once more, saving her had been impossible.
A despair he could not expel settled deep inside his chest.
He was on his knees on the floor, fists clenched, when—
Leila, still lying on the bed, coughed in agonized spasms.
"Gh— hk, hh… Com… mander…."
"Leila!"
As her eyes fluttered open, Yujin hesitated.
Should he keep up the act — the incompetent Commander he had been performing all this time?
Did it even mean anything, in front of her, like this, on the edge of death?
But then again, stopping now meant nothing either.
He had been so cruel to her, all this time.
Revealing his true self might only wound her further.
After all, the reason she had ended up like this was entirely his fault.
She had every right to resent him for it.
He decided to keep the performance going, somehow.
"I— I need you to protect me, and you go and do— what exactly are you—"
"It's… all right…. You don't have to… keep acting… Commander…."
"What…?"
But Leila stopped him cold.
Her tone carried the certainty of someone who had known all along.
The answer was so far outside anything he had anticipated that the words died in his throat.
Leila looked up at him through barely-open eyes.
She held his gaze, curled her toes tight, then reached out and took his hand with careful fingers — and her expression softened into something apologetic.
"I'm sorry, Commander…. I didn't want you to see me like this… I made a mistake."
"What in the world happened—"
"Hh… hh…. The truth is…."
Leila gave him a brief account of what had happened.
Late at night, seized by a vague unease, she had climbed up to the wall.
That was when she spotted the Erosion Species horde closing in on the city.
The numbers were absurd — she had sent word immediately.
But for some reason, communications inside the city wouldn't connect.
Left with no other choice, she had faced the Erosion Species alone.
No matter how long she fought, no reinforcements came.
In the end, a breach opened in the solid wall that had been holding the city.
Only then did the branch notice something was wrong and declare a state of emergency.
"I… tried so hard…. I'm sorry…. I suppose… alone, it was always going to be… too much…."
"This wound—"
"I was worried about you, so I came to the shelter… and I let my guard down, and this happened…. I shouldn't have… relaxed…."
The picture assembled itself in Yujin's mind.
After fighting wave after wave of Erosion Species to hold the wall.
Leila, exhausted to her core, dragging herself here to find him.
And then, inside this shelter, she had been ambushed by the black Erosion Species.
Already at her limit, she had managed to wound it.
But she hadn't been able to avoid the killing blow.
The black Erosion Species had burst out of the shelter and lunged at Lute.
Leila had been collapsed at the foot of the stairs.
He had arrived only minutes after it happened.
"I— ah…. If I had only come… just a little sooner…."
A few minutes. That was all that had stood between this and something different.
The realization struck Yujin with a devastation he had no words for.
Every dark emotion tangled together into something shapeless and unrecognizable.
The weight became unbearable. The strength drained from his legs.
He felt like a child who had lost their way and couldn't find it back.
*Am I just supposed to watch this person die? Over and over… for how long?*
The torrent of feeling dragged his consciousness under.
His sense of direction vanished. A sharp ringing stabbed through his ears.
The stress was enough to feel like it was crushing his mind — his senses began to fracture.
He had already lived through this same scene twice. He should have been used to it by now.
Instead, the memories of before surfaced and made the pain worse.
His mind was reaching its limit — the kind that doesn't come back from.
To protect itself, his heart began to turn away from reality.
*Right. Think about the next one…. Next time, I won't be late. I'll save Leila.*
Yujin's eyes darkened and sank inward.
This loop had failed. But there would be another.
If the next one failed too, there would be one after that.
He accepted this loop's failure.
His plan had been insufficient. That was why it hadn't worked. Nothing more.
So this was simply how this particular story had gone.
Better to think ahead than to feel the grief.
Next time, he would build a future where no one died.
He was about to cut away something vital without a second thought.
Until Leila's hand touched his cheek.
"I'm sorry. I've made you look like that again…."
"Again… what do you mean?"
For a moment, he couldn't understand what she was saying.
He had never let her see him in pain. Not once, as far as she should have known.
Something deep moved behind Leila's eyes.
No — what was this feeling of wrongness, anyway?
For some time now, small questions had been gathering around her.
Why had she trusted him, even as he played the incompetent Commander?
Why had she been willing to risk her life for someone like him?
Why had she just now told him he didn't need to keep acting?
Yujin stared at her, uncomprehending.
Leila looked back at him, and smiled — faintly, barely there.
"I'm sorry for being so late…. Commander. I remembered."
She caught his crumbling world before it fell.
*
Oh, that was close…!
Pouring every last drop of concentration into performing that wistful expression.
I felt the cold sweat cooling on my skin and let out a quiet breath of relief.
The reason was simple.
I had just barely managed to stop the Commander from breaking.
*This guy was about two seconds away from snapping completely, wasn't he?*
As a connoisseur of regression fiction, having consumed the genre across every corner of subculture—
There was one direction the Commander absolutely could not be allowed to go.
That was the type who starts treating loops as expendable resources.
The kind who seduces a woman he doesn't care about just to extract information, then kills himself.
The kind who throws himself into death over and over like feeding coins into a machine, chasing a perfect run.
The kind who tosses his life away without a second thought just to smooth over some minor deviation….
Needless to say, that was the worst possible evolution from my perspective.
The moment a regression-user like that decides to throw away a loop—
They shut the door on their heart and stop showing any emotion at all.
*My Commander needs to pour everything he has into every single loop. That's what makes tormenting him worthwhile.*
Once someone breaks completely, there's no putting them back together.
So, just this once, I was willing to make a concession.
Honestly, what am I even doing, wasting my time on something this tedious.
He should be genuinely grateful to me, you know?
I grumbled internally, then refocused on the scene in front of me.
The Commander looked genuinely shaken by my sudden declaration.
But even without a lengthy explanation, he seemed to grasp the meaning.
"When exactly… did you—"
"Hmm, I wonder. When was it…?"
*Cough, cough.*
I forced out a labored cough, performing the struggle convincingly.
Thanks to Runner's High, the wound was real but the pain wasn't.
But watching me slowly dying in front of him, the Commander clenched his jaw so hard I could see it.
Even though this wasn't the time for it, my body gave a little shiver of delight.
"Actually… every night… I had a dream."
"A dream… you mean—"
"I became friends with the Commander… the Commander told me he was a regression-user… and then someone attacked us, and I died in the Commander's arms. A short dream. At first I had no idea, but…."
"…."
"That actually happened, didn't it?"
The emotions on the Commander's face as he looked down at me were layered and complicated.
Anguish. Grief. Sorrow. Surprise. Bewilderment….
And joy.
Yes.
The Commander was genuinely, deeply glad that I had remembered the previous loop.
The relief of sharing time that no one else could remember.
Looking at me reflected in his eyes — what was he thinking?
I used Sentiment to stimulate my tear ducts and let the tears fall.
Then I drew a shaky breath and let my face crumple.
"You idiot…! You really are… such an idiot, Commander."
"…Gh."
"Being saved like that… doesn't make me happy at all…! In the end, the Commander just… keeps being miserable…! This isn't… what I wanted…!"
Tears tracked down the corners of my eyes and soaked into my hair.
*I hate this way of yours.*
A little blunt, perhaps — but if I didn't say it plainly, he wouldn't listen.
This kind of pointless, self-sacrificing plan needed to be stomped out before it could take root.
Oh, wait, come to think of it….
Is this the first time I've cried in front of the Commander?
Maybe the impact lands differently this way.
I glanced at him sideways, gauging his reaction.
He bowed his head, as though he had no other choice, and answered.
"But if I don't do this, then you—"
"Just give up…! I'm just one ordinary Valkyrie among many…. There are plenty of Valkyries in the world who would suit the Commander far better than—"
"I can't give up…! No matter what I do…!"
Whoa, hold on.
Could you not bring that desperate, anguished face quite so close to mine?
The emotional composure I was barely holding together nearly flew right out the window.
Do you have any idea how hard I'm working to contain myself right now….
Haah. This is hopeless. I genuinely can't take much more of this.
I need to wrap this up and move on to the next loop.
That face just now — I'm filing it away for later. I mean it.
"Commander. I… found out a few things."
I reined in my feelings and let a few meaningful pieces of information slip to the Commander.
The black Erosion Species had the ability to leap through shadows.
And most likely, it was the trigger that brought the Erosion Species horde with it.
In other words — neutralize it in one decisive strike, and the mass assault wouldn't happen.
The Commander listened to every word without a trace of doubt.
He nodded, slowly and seriously, as though committing it all to memory.
"Then… please… regress…."
"…Yes."
"Pfhh…. Even knowing you'll go back… dying is… a little scary. I'm sorry. This must be hard for you too, Commander…."
"It's… all right now."
I took the Commander's hand in mine.
Then, as though I had finally reached my limit, I let my eyes drift shut.
In truth, it wasn't entirely a performance.
Midir's attack had left my insides in ruins.
My thread wasn't going to hold much longer.
Time to let this loop go, then.
Oh — but first, let me confirm what I prepared in advance….
I used Sentiment to ease myself slowly into a state of suspended consciousness.
"Please make it… a happy ending…. Commander."
"I will. Without fail."
"It's not just me… or the other Valkyries…. The happy ending has to include… the Commander too, all right…?"
"Yes. I will build a future where everyone can smile. Without fail."
What is that. It sounds like a campaign slogan.
I suppressed the laugh that was threatening to bubble up.
Meanwhile, my body began its slow preparations for sleep.
Not truly dying — but a state indistinguishable from it.
The grip I had kept on the Commander's hand went slack.
"Next time too, I'll remember… for certain…."
Ah, perfect.
Even I have to admit — that's a flawless closing line.
May these words of mine remain with him as a curse.
Commander, don't you dare give up. Not for the rest of your life.
Dance with me forever in this delightful world of ours.
My consciousness began to scatter, like falling asleep.
Every sensation dissolved into something beyond comprehension.
Like sinking into the deep ocean floor, I descended into the dark.
The end of the 3rd loop.
*
When Yujin opened his eyes, he was sitting in a train seat.
The fourth time now — the familiar interior of the train heading to Lumia.
He had shot himself with the pistol from the shelter. He knew he had returned.
He rose from his seat immediately and looked down the train corridor.
*Leila remembers the Regressions too…!*
A lonely road that no one else could understand.
The one person on that road who would remember him.
Leila's presence had grown larger in Yujin's world — immeasurably so.
He couldn't bear to wait for her to come to him.
He moved quickly, heading against the direction of the train's travel.
*I want to see you.*
*I want to feel that you're safe.*
Soon, Yujin spotted the back of Leila's head.
"Leila!"
"Commander?"
She turned, and her expression held nothing but puzzlement.
The look of someone who had absolutely no idea why he had come to find her.
Only then did he realize — she hadn't remembered yet.
*She said she had a dream… didn't she?*
Perhaps it was different for her, not being as directly connected as he was.
A small pang of disappointment moved through him.
Even so, he held onto the hope that she would remember someday.
And so he let himself want a little more than he should have.
The image of Leila growing cold was still vivid and raw.
He wanted to feel her warmth.
Of course, reaching out and touching someone without permission wasn't something he should do.
But she was kind. Surely she would forgive him something this small.
He reached out toward Leila, naturally, without thinking.
And then something entirely unexpected happened.
"…Huh?"
"Wh— oh."
Smack!
Leila slapped his hand away without hesitation.
The flat rejection froze him in place.
But her own expression was equally flustered.
As though she herself didn't understand why she had done it.
Something had gone very wrong.
Yujin felt it — that premonition, settling in his chest.