Regressor Instruction Manual

Kim Hyun-Sung looked very desperate. It was as if he was telling me to take Jung Ha-Yan and that she wouldn’t be of any help if she stayed back. Even though her intelligence was high, her ability to work was close to zero. Her efficiency could increase if she stayed with me, but if I wasn’t there with her, then she would probably put the guild in chaos. There had been a time when Kim Hyun-Sung went on an expedition without me and he realized just how difficult it was to control Jung Ha-Yan without me. Not only did she cry, get tired and fall asleep every day, but she even became somewhat hysterical. Kim Hyun-Sung was busy taking care of administrative work, so he didn’t have the luxury to take care of Jung Ha-Yan.

‘You… bastard.’

The problem was that I was also in a situation where I couldn’t take care of Jung Ha-Yan either.

‘I’m going to be a part of the high society.’

I was going to attend the social party as Cha Hee-Ra’s lover, so taking Jung Ha-Yan with me wouldn’t make sense. Not only would she get in the way when I talked with the nobles and the noblewomen of the Holy Empire, but my actions of showing off my relationship with Cha Hee-Ra would become restricted. The lucky break that I was looking forward to was about to crumble down, so I thought that it wouldn't hurt to rebel a little.

“Being together may seem nice, but as you can see, Ha-Yan said that she isn’t feeling well… I’m worried about whether she’ll be able to endure the long trip or not.”

“Ah!”

“Just now, she complained that she felt pain in her stomach,” I said.

“I’m fine now! Really!” Jung Ha-Yan almost immediately spoke up.

‘Jung Ha-Yan!’

She had just thrown away her opportunity to exaggerate her pain forever all because she wanted to chase after the immediate pleasure. Her pretending to be in pain just now seemed like a lie.

‘I need to think…’

“No, Ha-Yan. You still need time to recover…”

“Doesn’t noonim feel the calmest when she’s next to you, hyung-nim?” Park Deok-Gu asked.

“Y-You’re right, Deok-Gu oppa,” Jung Ha-Yan said.

I had no time because I was going to leave soon. I wanted to make a plan so that I wouldn’t attend the party with Jung Ha-Yan, but I couldn’t think of a way to respond to a conversation that had no logic.

“Love is the sweetest remedy. It’s the panacea I tell you!” Park Deok-Gu said excitedly.

‘What kind of logic is that?’

“No, Mr. Deok-Gu. Mr. Ki-Young is right. Even though her body has fully recovered, she still needs time for her to become stable even though her body and magic don’t seem to have any problems,” Sun Hee-Young spoke up.

“It’s because it’s her mind that needs stability, Hee-Young noonim,” Park Deok-Gu said.

The moment Jung Ha-Yan woke up, no, from the moment it was decided that I was going to go to the capital with Cha Hee-Ra, I had a feeling that he had already designed this elaborate plan. I felt helpless when Park Deok-Gu and Kim Hyun-Sung ignored my opinion and declared their thoughts and for some reason, they trusted Jung Ha-Yan’s magic-like words to the point that it felt strange. Considering all that, there was nothing I could say to change their minds.

“...”

It was decided. I thought that the only thing I could do was talk in a slightly miserable tone. “I guess it can’t be helped. I guess I’ll go with her.”

“Ahem…”

“You’ve made the right choice,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

“Nice, noonim!” Park Deok-Gu cheered.

“Hehe…”

As the loser, I lowered my head while the victors cheered. I sighed, but there was nothing I could do about the situation. The only thing I could do now was to educate Jung Ha-Yan well.

‘I should especially educate her about Cha Hee-Ra.’

“I can’t believe how much time has passed!”

“Mr. Ki-Young and Miss Ha-Yan should start preparing.” Kim Hyun-Sung suggested.

“Before that, I have tasks that I need to hand off…” I said.

“Oh, I see. Have you already packed your things?” he asked.

“Yes, of course. They can be brought down right away,” I answered.

To be honest, I just wanted to run away without handing over my task, but if things didn’t work out while I was gone, then it would be my job to fix them. I had already told Hwang Jung-Yeon about the majority of my tasks, but there was a difference between Kim Hyun-Sung hearing about it and not hearing about it. Since there wasn’t enough time, I showed him the documents that I had prepared in advance and he nodded as I explained them. Since his intelligence wasn’t low, I was certain that he could do these - our Hyun-Sung wasn’t stupid. Honestly, there weren’t any major tasks.

“There aren’t any major tasks that have to be taken care of. We have already picked the new staff members and reestablished the workflow so that people would know exactly what to do. I think all you really need to do is to organize the sorted documents and comprehend them. Of course, as the final person in charge, you need to authorize tasks or check on them as well.” I explained.

“I see,” he said.

“You’ll receive reports from Miss Jung-Yeon regarding the alchemy planning department and from Kim Mi-Young, the newly appointed team leader of the imperial legal team. I wrote a guideline regarding the tasks that the business team is currently taking care of so please check up on all the production and distribution lines. For the items that I have already checked, I would appreciate it if you could also check them yourself,” I told him.

“Okay, I understand,” he said.

“You also need to check all the issues from the crisis response department and also…”

As I continued talking, I noticed how Kim Hyun-Sung’s expression changed little by little and I was sure that he must have realized by now the sheer amount of work that I had done.

‘You’re competent.’

He looked as if he was saying this to me. Honestly, the results were made because of the joint efforts of the guild staff members and me. It wasn’t only because I was competent. Even though I didn’t enjoy working, I did my best to show our regressor just how competent I was. Of course, the reality was that I wouldn’t have been able to create these results without the help of the new staff members. The reason why the guild was starting to solidify its foundations once again was that the loyal servants were working hard, but no matter the reason, the fact that Kim Hyun-Sung started to think of me as a competent person was the beautiful part of all of these. There wasn’t a need for me to hand over the credit that I deserved to the slaves.

‘I just need to take care of Kim Mi-Young myself.’

“Roughly…”

“Okay, I understand,” Kim Hyun-Sung interrupted me.

At this point, Kim Hyun-Sung looked kind of guilty and he felt bad for handing over Jung Ha-Yan to me.

‘As long as you know… I’ve already forgiven you, Hyun-Sung.’

“Th-Thank you,” he said.

“Miss Jung-Yeon should know the majority of the plans and guidelines,” I told him.

I wanted to tell him that he just had to work on the tasks with a human computer that had a good memory, but I felt bad for Hwang Jung-Yeon, so I decided to hold it in. After explaining a lot of things to him, I realized that a lot of time had passed and even though I wanted to give him more details on some of the tasks, I couldn’t make Cha Hee-Ra wait any longer.

“I’ll get going now, Mr. Hyun-Sung.”

“Things will become lighter by the time you return and I’m referring to your workload,” he said.

“I feel bad for handing over my tasks to you,” I said.

“There’s no need for you to feel bad because this is also a good opportunity for the Blue Guild. I had a lot of work to do as well… with Mr. Deok-Gu and Ye-Ri’s training… and I was thinking about recruiting new party members that’ll go on expeditions or accept requests,” he explained.

“Hahaha.”

“Thank you.”

“No, I should be the one thanking you,” he said.

I was worried that maybe I had a death flag on me because we were happily saying goodbye to each other, but I was sure that nothing was going to happen.

Just like before, the Blue Guild would focus on recovering and returning the guild to normal, Park Deok-Gu would grow and Kim Ye-Ri should grow even more considering her potential. Lindel’s liveliness would continue, and the talented people would also continue to flock over to the Blue Guild. Seeing the slightly gentle look on Kim Hyun-Sung’s face, I couldn’t help but think that he must have grown fond of me. I didn’t think that I was a sentimental person, but his expression touched my heart.

‘Stop looking at me like that. Your hyung understands, you bastard.’

When I reached out my hand, Kim Hyun-Sung grabbed it and when the handshake seemed too simple, I thought that maybe I should hug him, but when I moved slightly closer to him, I felt awkward. When Kim Hyun-Sung saw me, the corner of his lips went up as he patted my back first.

‘You handsome bastard, you have a strong body.’

After the slightly awkward goodbye, Park Deok-Gu quietly approached me. “Hyung-nim…”

He opened his arms as if he was asking for a hug, but after punching his chest instead, I immediately spoke up. I didn’t want to hug him because being in his arms was probably going to be painful.

“Always remember, Deok-Gu. If I can do it, you can do better.”

“I’ll keep that in my heart every day,” he said.

“And eat with Miss Jung-Yeon once in a while. She has been pestering me every day so that you two can meet,” I told him.

“What?!” he exclaimed.

“Please take care of yourself, Miss Hee-Young, although it probably won’t take that long…” I told her.

“I will. Make sure to do your best out there,” she said.

“No volunteer work while I’m gone. Let’s continue building a beautiful Lindel when I come back,” I said.

“Okay…”

“You too, kid,” I said.

“Okay, go do your best, mister…” Kim Ye-Ri said.

When I looked at Jung Ha-Yan with her bag in tow, she quickly came to my side as if she was afraid that I was going to leave her behind. When I opened the guild house’s door, I saw the red-headed Cha Hee-Ra, but what caught my attention the most was the beast behind her.

“Huh?”

The monster’s head was a bird and it had wings attached to its large body, so this had to be the monster that I only heard of in mythology.

“A griffon?” I asked.

“There are only two of these in the city of Lindel and there’s nothing better than taking this guy when traveling far. The Holy Empire wanted to mass produce these, but they failed in doing that… so they’re very rare.” Cha Hee-Ra explained.

“I see…”

“I didn’t think that three people would be attending… I’m not sure if my Boong Boong will like it though since it usually only carries two people,” she said.

“Aren’t the other members of the Red Mercenary Guild attending?” I asked.

“The remaining members will follow us by land. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable if we got there first? We should enjoy ourselves since we’re going to the capital, so hop on. I’ll be first, my honey can be second and your second girlfriend can take the last spot… you might fall, so be sure to hold on,” Cha Hee-Ra told Jung Ha-Yan.

After nodding, I carefully got on top but for some reason, I couldn’t get used to it, and naturally, I was scared. Just riding on this monster’s back made me nervous so I had no choice but to naturally grab onto Cha Hee-Ra’s waist. Of course, she smelled nice and even though I felt something soft, I didn’t have the luxury to enjoy it.

“Eeeek…”

‘It hurts.’

“Eeeeeek!”

I guess my actions made Jung Ha-Yan mad because she grabbed my waist and tried to pull me away from Cha Hee-Ra. She probably didn’t think of the possibility that both of us could fall to the ground if I let go of Cha Hee-Ra.

‘We’ll both die if we fall, Ha-Yan. Please stop pulling meee…’

I felt like something was going to happen. The more the griffon flew into the air, the more I noticed how the guild members were getting smaller and smaller as they waved at us. Hwang Jung-Yeon and Lee Sang-Hee were the two people that I didn’t manage to say goodbye to and I saw them waving at us from a window. It was the same for Park Joong-Ki and Kim Mi-Young, who had helped me a lot these days.

“You took your sweet time saying goodbye. I guess you’ve grown fond of them, honey. I didn’t think that you were that type of person,” Cha Hee-Ra said.

“Noona, I’m only human you know,” I told her.

“You have a cute side, too. You can hold on tighter, but be careful and make sure that your second girlfriend doesn’t fall,” she said.

I accepted her suggestion and tightened my grip around her. When I waved my hand while feeling a bit nervous, I heard a voice from below us.

“Hyung-nim! Noonim! Make sure that all three of you return to the guild!” Park Deok-Gu yelled.

‘It won’t even take two months, Deok-Gu.’

Even if we returned two years later, the three of us wouldn’t come back together. As long as Jung Ha-Yan, who was nodding at what Park Deok-Gu had said, didn’t do anything unexpected.

‘Don’t make any promises, Ha-Yan.’

I thought that it wasn’t so bad being sent off like this despite hearing weird things like that and for some reason, I recalled what Park Deok-Gu had said when we first arrived in Lindel.

‘Hey world, Park Deok-Gu is here!’

Those weren’t the exact words, but I could remember him shouting something similar to that. When I looked down as we flew up, I finally understood why Park Deok-Gu had shouted those words.

‘It looks small.’

The endless continent looked so small that it seemed like it would fit in the palm of my hand.