Why Do I Regress When They Die

Volume 1 – Chapter 03 – The Mysterious Woman

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“I’m the who caused all of this mess! I can’t let a civilian sacrifice themself for me!”

“I’m rather confident in my swordsmanship; I will flank and we will attack from both sides!”

Familiar sounding lines rang in the forest as a girl – wielding a stick in her hand to the best of her ability – supported a man locked in a fierce melee.

「BOOOM——」「THUD——」

Traces of fatigue and exhaustion became more evident on the girl’s and the man’s faces as they continued to weave and skirt the orc’s massive swings and blows. 

The whole purpose of this fight is to have her not worry about me and quickly run away while I continue to distract it…

While the man sorted out his thoughts, the orcs club trajectory abruptly changed and swung over to him; he seemingly forgot to evade it during that crucial moment.

“WATCH OUT——!”

The girl was violently startled by the abrupt shift. Without enough time to consider better options, she instinctively rushed over to the dazed man and shielded him from the titanic, hurling blow.

「CRAAACK——」

With a sickening crunch, she got viciously struck. Due to the massive power and weight gap between her and the hurtling club, under the full-on collision, before she could even scream from the pain, her body flew and quickly careened off the cliff’s edge.

“……Eh?” 

The man was utterly shocked by her sudden action and the turn of events; Why and how is she so desperate to save others? Isn’t it very rude to sacrifice yourself for others without asking for their consent?

You kept droning on about how orcs are very dangerous, yet in an instant, you wouldn’t hesitate to shield others from an orc without even regarding your own safety! What the hell is up with your thought process? How can a stranger’s life be more valuable than your own??

As her body flew in the air, the girl finally managed to lock gazes with the shocked man. Quickly yanking off her necklace, she chucked it towards the man with her last remaining ounce of strength.

The necklace traveled in an arc and flew up from the cliff; Yun Qiu could only powerlessly stare as he listened to the last words from the girl’s frail voice, getting fainter as she plunged to the bottom of the cliff.

“Please… get out of there… safely..!”

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Yun Qiu arrived to 「Norland」slightly ahead of schedule. Traveling alone is far quicker than the pace of the party of Knights since they have to escort and ensure Irene’s safety during their return.

But Yun Qiu didn’t arrive in the first city to meet up with her again; at least, not at the moment.

When Irene is getting escorted back to the city to return to her family, it creates a safety period where Yun Qiu: doesn’t need to worry about her wellbeing for every waking second, nor does he needs to protect and guard her 24/7. But that doesn’t mean Yun Qiu can relax and unwind during this grace period.

After learning from his countless failures, Yun Qiu deduced which routes have the shortest clear time and highest success rate. For context, to begin with, Miss Irene is a daughter of a notable noble in the city. 

Since this world’s social hierarchy is heavily founded on the Middle Age’s feudal system, contacting a prominent noble family like Irene’s with Yun Qiu’s current social status is practically inconceivable. Not to mention that since Irene’s family is currently in a rather delicate situation – Yun Qiu needs to take additional steps and detours to reach them.

As one arrives at 「Norland」, a border city of the 「Dragon Feather」 Kingdom, one will discover that this city is rather vast and assembled with architecture style reminiscent of Earth’s Medieval Ages Era. With its unique geographical location, it functions as a bustling trade city with close relations with the surrounding two neighboring kingdoms and a prime thriving hotbed for thugs and bandits from various nations due to its prosperous commerce.

Primarily dividing the city are two sectors. One is the 「Inner Circle」, located in the Northern District, a relatively clean and safe precinct where the nobility, knights, and affluent locals reside.

Everything else besides the Inner circle is known as the 「Outer Circle」: the sector where everyone and everything not privileged or included in the 「Inner Circle」 is dumped. In short, it’s a separator between the rich and the poor.

Yun Qiu knew that if he wanted to enter the city from the well-maintained northern gate, he would need to pass a rigorous inspection – which was not ideal since his current identity wouldn’t permit him to enter.

Instead, he opted to go to the southern gate, where its security is more laxer compared to the north. Before Yun Qiu could enter the city, a guard halted his advances.

“Halt! Rou—”

“—Routine inspection, right?”

But before the guard could finish, Yun Qiu had already filled the rest of his sentence for him.

Out of all of the gates, Yun Qiu chose the south not only because the security was lax – but because one of the guards was also one of Yun Qiu’s old pals.

The guard liked to specifically choose outsiders and non-locals to conduct ‘routine checks’ and then proceed to charge them the so-called city entry fee. To bluntly rephrase, this is called extortion. Since Yun Qiu is dirt-broke right now and doesn’t have any time to waste, he decided to get this situation out of the way quickly.

“Uh……?”

The interrupted guard was startled for a bit before nodding. “That’s right, it’s a routine inspection. Now go—”

“—go stand there for a body check? Hm, how odd, doesn’t 「Norland」 not have a standard practice of conducting routine inspections in the gate barring the Northern Gate, am I right?”

“eh……?”

The guard was getting more flustered; how could he always guess what I was about to say? But looking at his face, I’ve never seen him before, so he should be new here.

“There is nothing non-standard or odd about this; I’m just conducting a routine—”

“—the content of ‘routine inspections’ does not enclose unauthorized searches and checks, no? As you can see, several people have already gone past me, and you didn’t search or inspect a single one. Oh, another few just walked past me, and you still haven’t halted and searched them. Well, do you get what I mean now?”

Yun Qiu donned a playful grin as he raised and patted the guard’s chest with the back of his hand.

“Look, if you wanted to make some extra change just now, you just picked the wrong person. Just do your job properly now and carefully pick which chap to con later.”

After saying his piece, Yun Qiu briskly strolled into the city gate without waiting for the guard to respond: leaving a very bewildered guard standing there in a stupor.

“Wh-what the heck is up with him…?”

It was a piece of cake resolving the problem encounter with the guard – or in his words, before the guard had enough time to react to make things difficult. 

Entering the city, Yun Qiu then proceeded directly to the halls of the 「Adventurer’s Guild」, where it lays the first step of his next plan.

In every major city in this other world, there resides a powerful, influential organization along with its countless members – aside from the knights, who are more specialized in defense and upholding public security – known as the 「Adventurer’s Guild」

From exploring the 「Dungeons」to acquire precious loot and resources, handling monster threats lurking beyond the city’s walls, and many other various tasks, the 「Adventurer’s Guild」 addresses them all.

Back then, Yun Qiu put a lot of effort into running errands and investigating all sorts of matters for the guild. But now, he didn’t step into the guild to do transactions and deals like in the past. 

Stepping into the halls, Yun Qiu went straight to a woman wrapped in a black robe huddling in the corner.

Yun Qiu brought out a「Magic Crystal」 and placed it directly on the table with a 「Clack」

 “This is a 「Magic Crystal」 of an Elite Orc Warrior. Take it for 2 gold and 50 silvers.”

“Um?”

Under the black robe emerges a young woman who appears to be in her 20s. She had stunning long silver hair – the lustrous glimmer of her flowing silver hair was especially eye-catching. Although you can’t entirely catch her face and figure obscured underneath her large robe, you can catch curious glimpses of her marred face – where a frightening, hideous layer of a burning red scar from a fire mantles her face.

Judging from the swaths of empty tables surrounding her, she seems unpopular and unwelcome in this guild. 

Although no one in the guild knew her, Yun Qiu knew in his mind that she was a renowned alchemist in disguise who had arrived in 「Norland」 not long ago.

There’s a basis for why Yun Qiu came here and specifically sought this woman out; this stunning yet harsh-looking woman can be considered an imperatively crucial component for the next step of Yun Qiu’s elaborate plans to succeed.

Translator’s Notes:

Comments: Yo, Instant Coffee here. I was planning to mass release 4 chapters instead of 2, but looking at the, uh, looming major test dates, I decided to translate 2 instead. Hope ya enjoyed these 2 chapters, as they’re a pain to edit into something readable, concise, and entertaining.