The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

Ravian walked through the capital’s streets, specifically through a district that seemed to belong to the upper-middle class.

Young women strolled about with airs of grandeur, imitating noblewomen, folding paper fans in their hands as they covered their mouths whenever they laughed or whispered into their friends’ ears.

That, in particular, was something Ravian noticed quickly, since many of the girls cast him those appraising looks—the kind that judged a person—whenever he passed by a group of them.

But Ravian did not get annoyed. On the contrary, he showed no notable reaction at all, simply walking past them while peering into the narrow alleys whenever he passed one.

’Where are the gang members in this damned city, man?’ Ravian asked himself, glancing left and right like a madman as he searched for any of them.

But no matter how hard he tried, he could not find so much as a vagrant, let alone gang members like the ones who used to be sprawled all over his old district back when Karius had taken him from his home.

’How boring... I need something to drink.’

Ravian thought, scanning the area for a café or something of the sort.

He soon found a tavern on one of the corners, with a sign that read:

The Hunt tavern.

’Looks good enough.’

Ravian decided to head inside.

Ravian entered to find people sitting and laughing loudly at their tables, and the tavern felt like a place completely sealed off from the city outside.

Men roared with laughter as they drank the liquor brought to them by the servers.

Meanwhile, near the far end of the tavern, Ravian glimpsed a commotion far bigger than the one near the entrance.

But a voice soon pulled him from his daze.

”Welcome, sir. How may I serve you?”

A maid approached, dressed in traditional servant attire.

Ravian was caught off guard for a moment, because this was the first time he had ever seen a girl wearing a maid uniform in real life. He had thought those things existed only in anime.

”Sir?” the maid called again when she noticed Ravian spacing out.

”Ah—ahem. Just a cup of coffee, please,” Ravian said quickly, pulling himself together.

”Coffee?” the maid repeated in astonishment.

”Coffee.” Ravian nodded with complete seriousness.

The maid left with an odd look on her face to prepare the cup of coffee he had ordered.

’What’s the problem? Can’t I order coffee just because I’m in a tavern? Tsk, tsk.’

Ravian shook his head as he ventured deeper into the tavern, watching the people with a curious, exploratory gaze.

You could not blame him. He had grown used to knights and fighters around the clock, so it was strange to see ordinary people drinking, getting drunk, and laughing at the top of their lungs in a tavern.

Then Ravian noticed a bald, smooth-faced man with a lecherous look on his face, flirting with the barmaid at the drink counter.

’Hell yeah! Finally, something new.’

Ravian thought, drawing closer to the man, who was smiling stupidly and touching the barmaid’s hand every time she served him a small cup of liquor, while the discomfort on her face was plain to see.

Ravian sat down on the stool beside him, his whole body turned toward the lecherous man as though he were the day’s entertainment.

The man was raking his lustful gaze over the barmaid’s figure, but he soon felt a stare far heavier than his own suddenly land on him, sending goosebumps racing across his entire body.

The bald man looked to his right and quickly found a boy with strangely white hair, handsome features, and red eyes sitting beside him, chin resting on his palm as he watched him with rapt attention.

”What the hell is wrong with you, dude?” the bald man said, stunned by the sheer amount of attention the young man beside him was directing his way.

”Huh? Why did you stop, you perverted oaf? At least keep going until my coffee arrives,” Ravian said, frowning in genuine annoyance.

He had always watched scenes like this in movies and novels, and now that he could finally witness one with his own eyes, he had no intention of missing the opportunity.

”Hah? Did you just call me a bald pervert, boy?” the bald man said, glaring hard at Ravian to intimidate him.

”Hmm? Aren’t you one, though? You looked like the most perverted bald man alive just now, harassing that beautiful barmaid over there,” Ravian said, gesturing at the girl with long black hair.

The girl blushed when she heard the indirect compliment aimed her way by a handsome young man.

The bald man’s eyes widened with rage when he noticed the girl blushing at Ravian’s words, and he whipped back toward him furiously.

”You handsome bastard! Are you trying to steal my fiancée from me?!” the bald man bellowed at him in anger.

”Hah? You call that an insult? And this beautiful barmaid is your fiancée? Don’t make me laugh, man,” Ravian said, waving his hands as if telling him to try again.

”You bastard! I’m not joking. I’m planning to propose to her, and then she’ll be my fiancée,” the bald man said with total seriousness, jabbing his index finger into Ravian’s chest to drive his point home.

Ravian looked at him for two seconds without the slightest expression on his face, then turned to the black-haired barmaid and beckoned her over with his hand.

The barmaid obeyed Ravian’s commanding aura without a hint of hesitation, not even noticing how she looked in front of the bald man as she obeyed another man like a docile puppy right before his eyes.

The barmaid came closer until she stood across the drink counter from Ravian.

”Come closer,” Ravian said, beckoning her nearer still.

The barmaid’s cheeks flushed deeper until the redness reached her neck as she leaned toward Ravian across the counter.

Ravian leaned in as well, and contrary to the girl’s expectations, just as she was about to close her eyes, Ravian’s head veered toward her ear.

”I’ll get rid of that pervert for you, for good, in exchange for one night’s lodging here at the tavern,” Ravian whispered into her ear.

The girl was startled, having expected something else entirely, and her embarrassment only deepened when she realized where her own thoughts had wandered.

”What do you say?” Ravian asked, settling back into his seat as she straightened up too, the blush refusing to leave her face.

”All right.” The black-haired girl nodded in agreement.

Ravian’s calm smile quickly widened into a triumphant one as he turned his gaze back to the bald man, who looked about ready to explode from rage and sheer pressure at this point.

Because from his point of view, the girl he flirted with every day, the one who rejected him every day, had suddenly walked over and obeyed some random pretty boy at first sight after one smooth move in front of her. Worse, the guy had whispered something indecent in her ear, and she had nodded yes.

At least, that was what was playing out in the man’s imagination, sending his fury climbing to such crushing heights that his face nearly matched the barmaid’s in redness, though for a reason entirely other than embarrassment.

”You thieving son of a—!” the man suddenly screamed, rising from his stool and lunging to grab Ravian by the throat.

”No, no. Bad boy.”

Ravian slapped his hand aside with utter ease, knocking the man’s arm back with jarring force.

”Agh!” The man winced, feeling as if his shoulder had nearly been dislocated from that single slap to his arm. But he was not willing to back down.

Not after what had happened.

Not in front of the girl he had been courting all this time.

”I’ll kill you!” the man screamed, snatching one of the glass cups off the counter and smashing it before charging at Ravian.

”Kyaa!” the girl shrieked when she saw the clear killing intent in the bald man’s attack.

This was no simple scuffle anymore.

”Tsk, tsk. Now you’ve crossed the line, you bald pervert,” Ravian said quietly, watching the bald man barreling toward him with a cold expression.

Then—

Void Shadow.

Ravian activated his ability, his eyes on the man’s shadow cast behind him by the oil lamps.

And in the very next instant...

The man’s shadow began to vanish.

Rapidly.

Visibly.

The bald man’s charge did not stop as Ravian took a single step back.

And when the man had barely reached him, Ravian sidestepped once to the left.

But the bald man did not follow him.

He kept rushing forward, only for his speed to suddenly bleed away as his body collapsed, his head striking the floor beside Ravian’s feet with a dull thud.

”My, my. Do you see what the end of perversion looks like?” Ravian said with a disappointed expression, looking down at the man’s shadowless corpse beside his foot.

Everyone in the tavern froze at the scene, not a single sound escaping their mouths from the sheer shock of it.

Then Ravian turned back to the same black-haired barmaid with perfect poise, as though he had not just ended a fight in under two seconds.

”Call a medical carriage, the Medical Association, the Physicians’ Guild—whatever it is you have in this city—and tell them someone slipped while drunk and died, by the look of it. Then kindly show me to my room, miss,” Ravian said with a strange coolness, smiling at the barmaid before simply strolling toward the open hall he had glimpsed at the back of the tavern earlier, as though the exchange that had just taken place had nothing to do with him.

The barmaid kept staring at Ravian, jaw hanging, as though she were looking at a ghost.

’Have I fallen in love?’ the barmaid thought, pressing a hand to her chest.

But to her misfortune...

To Ravian, she was nothing more than a ticket to a room for the night.

Ravian noticed that she was looking at him, so he returned her gaze, examining her one last time—and soon, he noticed something strange about that barmaid.

She had just seen someone die in front of her, even if indirectly, and unlike some of the customers who had panicked and left, she remained calm as she stared at him.

’Strange...’

That was all that passed through Ravian’s mind for a moment before he heard the system notification.

[Ding!]