The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

This time, Ravian felt as though he’d truly slammed back into reality.

He wasn’t invincible just because he’d obtained Sovereign Pride, and he wasn’t invincible just because he’d found a way to raise his odds of returning from death. And yet here he was—facing death again, barely a few hours after clawing his way back from it. Did they honestly expect him to toss away the only life he had left so easily?

’Keep dreaming.’

He didn’t know how yet. But from this point on, he would not give up anything without a fight.

And standing before him right now was a living legend—a man who embodied both martial and strategic terror in equal measure—looking at him as though he were already a corpse.

Bam!

Karius’s foot connected with Ravian’s head with crushing force.

”Pff—!” Ravian spat blood.

Then Karius seized him by the neck and hoisted him into the air one-handed. Ravian felt as if a guillotine had snapped shut around his throat, letting just enough air through to keep him from blacking out entirely.

”Didn’t you hear me? I told you to finish what you were saying. How exactly did you die twice? What do you mean by that?” Karius said, tightening his grip for a moment before easing it just enough to let Ravian draw breath.

Cough!

Cough!

”My lord—why so harsh?” Ravian rasped, his expression grim as he wrapped both hands around Karius’s wrist and tried to relieve the pressure on his throat.

”Someone like me has already died twice. There’s no need to wring it out of me—I’ll tell you everything. There’s really no need for the violence.”

”Hmm? Then tell me—do you belong to the Sin Cults?” Karius said, his expression unreadable as he let go and dropped him to the floor.

Bam!

Ravian hit the ground flat on his back with nothing to cushion the fall, which made everything hurt considerably more. He could feel his body already starting to knit itself back together, but moving was going to take a little time.

”M-My lord, this whole thing is a misunderstanding,” Ravian began, and Karius’s expression snapped back toward anger at once.

”Do I look like I’m in the mood for jokes, boy?” Karius growled, already taking a step toward him.

”No, no—that’s not what I mean. All I mean is that you took the word ’death’ too literally. I didn’t mean actual death,” Ravian said quickly, waving a hand in denial.

”Then what exactly did you mean?” Karius asked, halting mid-step.

Ravian lowered his head and stayed silent for a few seconds.

”Look around you, my lord. What do you see?” he asked, raising his head again.

”What do I see? Is this a philosophical question?” Karius lifted an eyebrow and swept his gaze around the room.

He found nothing remarkable—some trash here and there, a worn-out bed in the middle of the room, and a heap in the corner that looked like... the missing gang member? His eyes lingered on Emy’s corpse for a moment, then returned to Ravian.

”What are you getting at, boy? Just say what you have to say. I don’t have time to spare,” Karius said—though a strange feeling about the whole situation had already begun to take root in him.

”What I meant by death, my lord, was simply a way of describing the pain my heart has been through,” Ravian said.

”First, my father and mother—and now Max’s gang found out about the relationship between me and a woman from their own group. Her name was Emy. The very moment I felt hope return to my life because of her, they discovered us, and they used some kind of magic to kill her and leave her like this.” His voice dropped, and tears began to gather at the corners of his eyes.

”That’s all, my lord.”

”What?” Karius stared at him, genuinely thrown by the revelation. This female gang member—she’d been in a relationship with this boy? This poor, battered young man in front of him? Was he serious?

”Clever,” Karius said after a moment, nodding slowly—then his expression cooled into something sharp.

”Truly clever. But it seems you’re underestimating me, just a little, aren’t you?”

And in the next instant—

He vanished from where he stood and reappeared directly in front of Ravian, lifting him by the neck again and drawing him close. Just as he was on the verge of truly ending this, something stopped him.

A scent.

A faint, distinctly feminine scent that had no business clinging to this body—and yet there it was, worked into his clothes in the way that only came from prolonged, genuine closeness.

Karius’s eyes widened slightly.

”You... you’re telling the truth?” he said, unable to fully accept how foolish that girl must have been—to pass over every other man and choose this one, a boy with nothing especially remarkable about him beyond the white hair and crimson eyes that lent him a somewhat striking look. He was neither particularly handsome nor imposing in build.

’But there’s still something off about all of this,’ Karius thought, studying Ravian carefully.

”Then why kill her and leave you alive? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to kill you too?” he asked, tilting his head.

”T-They told me they’d let me live until I returned the money I owe them, so their bosses wouldn’t come down on them—and then they’d kill me afterward, the same as her. They also said that if I didn’t bring the money within a week, they’d kill me anyway, and that I’m not allowed to leave the area in the meantime.” Tears were spilling freely down Ravian’s face now.

”Which means I’m already sentenced to death, my lord. I was just waiting for it.”

Absolute Focus was every bit as useful in the realm of imagination as anywhere else. All Ravian had to do was summon the memory of his mother’s death and hold it in his mind as he bowed his head—and the tears came on their own.

Karius looked at him for a long moment, then turned his gaze to Emy.

’The manner of her death is genuinely strange. There’s no way that boy did this. And judging by how weak his soul power is despite having awakened, it seems he hasn’t been awakened for long at all.’

Karius ran back through every detail that had come out of Ravian’s mouth, hunting for holes.

He found none.

Which left only one possibility.

Karius took the bag off his back and set it on the ground with a dull thud, then reached inside and drew out something—or rather, someone’s head, held up by the hair like a lantern in his hand.

Ravian’s eyes went wide.

Karius caught the reaction, but something about it felt different from what he’d anticipated—at least compared to before.

”Ha... haha—hahahahahaha!” Ravian broke into full, unhinged laughter as he stared at the head in Karius’s hand.

”Thank you. Thank you, my lord—whoever you are. You avenged her. You avenged my beloved. Thank you, truly.” And then Ravian slammed his forehead against the floor in a display of gratitude that didn’t stop there.

Bam!

Bam!

Karius went utterly still, watching the sheer intensity of Ravian’s reaction with an expression that had lost all its composure, before quickly moving to stop him before he could do any more damage to his already broken head.

”What in the hell—are you insane, boy?! Do you want to finish yourself off?!” Karius said, his voice stripped of its earlier cold authority.

”No, my lord. You didn’t only avenge my dead beloved—” Ravian looked up, his gaze now fixed on Max’s head, burning with something raw and unfiltered.

”You avenged my poor father as well. Even I would have been dead within a week if that man had lived.”

’So that’s how it is.’

Karius looked at Ravian’s expression—if anything, even more pitiable than before—and the resemblance that had been nagging at him since the start surfaced once again, quietly and uninvited.

’It seems I nearly killed a truly innocent young man.’

He returned Max’s head to the bag alongside the other two, tied it shut, and stood.

”Very well, boy. I apologize for what I did to you, and I hope you can forgive me.” He said it plainly, without ceremony.

”And while it’s strange that you don’t seem to know who I am, despite living in this city, I’ll introduce myself all the same. I am Karius Dmitri—Marquis of the Dmitri Family and the man responsible for this city. As compensation for what happened, I will be taking you as my disciple from this day forward.”

He said it without waiting for Ravian’s response.

”Antonius.”

A figure stepped from the shadows without a sound—the right hand and personal guard of Karius Dmitri.

”What is your command, my lord?” Antonius asked, bowing.

”Call the carriage early. This boy is in no condition to move on his own. Take him to the camp and have him treated. Place him under the Death Squad’s banner, under Malrik’s command. Understood?” Karius said, watching Ravian’s face as he spoke.

And he saw exactly what he’d expected—shock. Pure, unmistakable shock, which Karius read as the boy’s reaction to being taken as his disciple and having his identity revealed.

What he didn’t know was that Ravian’s shock had nothing to do with either of those things.

’What? No. No, no, no—not that place again. Not again. Please. This doesn’t change my future in the slightest!’

Ravian screamed inside his own head, watching his past repeat itself with a helplessness he had no power to resist—because he didn’t have the strength to move, let alone escape from someone like Karius.

”As you command,” Antonius said, and vanished to summon the carriage.

Only Karius and Ravian remained.

”It’s alright, boy. Don’t worry.” Karius looked at him one last time, and something faint and fleeting crossed his face—a trace of sadness that disappeared almost before it appeared.

”A girl named Claria will see to everything you need. Once you’ve recovered, I’ll summon you to the Dmitri residence to begin your training personally. Until then—I’m ordering you to stay alive.”

And then he, too, was gone, leaving only Ravian in the room, lying on the floor a few feet from Emy’s body.

”Damn it. Damn all of you...” Ravian breathed, staring up at the cracked ceiling, without the strength to do anything else.

Then another tear slipped from the corner of his eye—for reasons he couldn’t fully name.

Sniff.

He drew in a sharp breath and pulled himself back together.

’It’s fine, Ravian. All you have to do is survive tonight. Others have survived worse than this—so you will too. At any cost. At any damn cost.’

The resolve that filled his eyes as the thought took hold was almost frightening in its intensity.

Ravian had believed one thing since childhood: the harder and more painful your past, the more dazzling and brilliant your future would become. A man with no past had no future worth speaking of.

And Ravian had made up his mind to walk this path all the way to its end.

As for why—

Only he knew.