Regina Lena – To the Unforgiven - Chapter 44

— It’s also coincidental.

 

Said Regina, the Unforgiven King.

 

— For a child with the same name as mine to reach the abyss.

 

“The abyss…?”

 

— What made you so desperate at that young age?

 

Rena hardly understood what Regina was saying.

 

So Rena blinked her eyes, and soon recalled that she was rebelling and raised her eyebrows again.

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

— About what you just went through.

 

When Rena questioned, Regina answered smoothly.

 

— Was there ever a moment when the world stopped and only your consciousness remained?

 

“That…”

 

It wasn’t just the dead that stopped?

 

Rena thought the dead moved and stopped following her. But apparently, the whole world stopped.

 

— That is what I call those who are separated from time. The one who touched the abyss.

 

While Rena was trying to understand the unfamiliar concept, she recalled hearing Regina’s voice in the midst of stopped time.

 

“T-Then is that the case with you too?

 

— Correct. I, too, have touched the abyss and this is how it is.

 

Regina said, stroking her own cracked leg with her hand.

 

— So are the others. Everyone who has seen the abyss has gone mad and reigned as the kings of the Tomb.

 

“The kings of the Tomb…?”

 

— I mean the kings of the dead surrounding you earlier.

 

Regina revealed the Tomb’s secrets as if talking about insignificant things.

 

This place, which was arbitrarily named the  “Tomb” on earth, was not actually a place to be called by such a narrow name.

 

If the world of the living was a lake, this was the sky with rain clouds, the valley where streams flowed, and the sea that embraced everything.

 

This was an invisible world that supported the visible world.

 

What the living called the Tomb was nothing more than the threshold of that great ring, a small entrance made of temporal sediment.

 

“Then…”

 

Rena’s heart sank down at the words that were difficult to comprehend.

 

Rena thought she was just falling into a pit, but apparently she fell into another world altogether. As soon as she realized it, a fear came over as if she had been abandoned in an open sea.

 

— Are you afraid?

 

Rena nodded her head, unable to say no.

 

— How the hell did a being like you reach the abyss?

 

Regina sighed.

 

— I thought only those who could become monsters would sink here.

 

“Monster…?”

 

— Those monsters, driven by remorse or belief, indulging in pleasure or intoxicated with blood, or devoted to revenge.

 

Regina stopped her words and held Rena’s chin with her fingertips. Then she whispered as if she was sorry.

 

— But for what reason did you come down to the abyss? Not even dead, but alive.

 

“…I’m here because my father sent me.”

 

— Your biological father?

 

“Yes, my biological father…”

 

Regina fell silent at Rena’s heavy reply.

 

However, it was no longer a new story to Rena. Rena spewed the words ignorantly because she had been crumbling over the past 10 days.

 

Rena asked Regina, who was rather silent.

 

“What am I going to do now?”

 

— Are you asking for permission or asking for advice?

 

“Huh?”

 

— Now you can decide for yourself. What to do, what to be.

 

“Well, can I go back then?”

 

— To the world of the living?

 

Rena, who was not sure how she would live here, nodded with expectations. Then, Regina’s lips drew a long arc.

 

— Well, if you want. But what’s the use of going back?

 

“What…”

 

— The world has already abandoned you. They won’t welcome you back, so why not take a rest?

 

“A rest?”

 

— If you wish, I will help you rest without pain. That would be better than going back to the living or becoming a king of the dead.

 

Rena soon realized that the ‘rest’ Regina was talking about was death.

 

Although Regina was talking about giving her a painless kill, it was a kind and realistic offer.

 

Rena thought that she might be better off with that.

 

But after thinking about it for a while, Rena shook her head.

 

“…I want to go back to where I used to live.”

 

— The reason is?

 

“I want to meet my father.”

 

Rena squeezed her lips and bit her lower lip.

 

Even in the midst of this, her father was the reason why she was determined. It was a little miserable.

 

But she was just curious.

 

That night, Rena, who had gone to visit her father in anticipation of a birthday present, was handed over on the spot. It was an unimaginable day.

 

So Rena was curious about her father’s thoughts as much as she felt betrayed by her father.

 

How could anyone sell their daughter like that? Was it something that he had prepared for a long time, or if there were some unavoidable circumstances? Did he regret it now?

 

Was I a good person even if I was sold like that?

 

Rena wanted to solve the mystery first before getting a rest.

 

She chose the toughest road.

 

— You’re taking the toughest road.

 

Regina didn’t stop Rena. In addition, she was kind enough to teach Rena how to return to the world of the living.

 

Fortunately it was easy to get back.

 

However, as Regina had said, the world did not welcome Rena at all. In particular, Rena’s father betrayed her in another way.

 

As soon as the father heard that his daughter had appeared, he sent someone to burn the whole area.

 

Rena, who had been imprisoned in the attic, was also trapped in the soaring flames and smoke.

 

Death approached, and at that moment, Rena fell back to the Tomb.

 

Regina, who was waiting in the Tomb, hugged Rena without saying a word as if she knew this would happen.

 

Rena’s breathing gradually returned due to the Unforgiven Kind’s comfort. And it soon turned to crying.

 

Once again, Rena, who was abandoned, wept bitterly. She wept because her own shallow expectations were pathetic and she did not know why she had to be hated so much.

 

When she woke up after crying like that, Rena returned to this world and sat alone by the burnt-out puddle.

 

.

.

.

 

Rena, who had reached the abyss, then became an undead being.

 

More precisely, she fell to the Tomb just before her death and avoided the situation of losing her breath.

 

So, she went through a myriad of situations that an average person would have already died and ended up going through once in a lifetime.

 

Dozens of indirect deaths.

 

Nevertheless, it was thanks to the poems and Regina that Rena was able to stay sane.

 

If it was a poem that supported the abandoned Rena, it was Regina who guided such Rena.

 

Rena learned a lot from Regina. Not only did the things that a child has to learn from an adult, she also learned the structure and secrets of this world, and everything about her father with Regina’s help.

 

So she once blamed Regina.

 

‘There are things in the world that you don’t have to know.’

 

Rena smiled bitterly as she remembered that time.

 

Regina had taught Rena so much, and Rena was frustrated and collapsed whenever she faced the overwhelming truth.

 

The feelings that Clavis revealed earlier were similar to Rena’s.

 

For Rena, Clavis’ situation and position were something she didn’t want to know, but she couldn’t turn a blind eye to, even though she didn’t want to handle.

 

Rena reflected on Clavis’ inner thoughts, and eventually got sick of it and shook her head.

 

She then hurried her steps and memorized a poem like a habit. But that didn’t last long either.

 

Rena’s favorite poem contained warm consolation, and Rena in her growing days was able to memorize these poems to calm her heart.

 

But it was also true that as she grew up, she felt a little lost.

 

The world is really mean, and those who have adapted to that meanness enjoy everything in the world.

 

In the midst of it, memorizing poems alone sometimes felt foolish.

 

However, that did not mean that she would abandon her current beliefs. Rena still loved the poem.

 

Although it did not fit into this grim world, Rena still loved the poem.

 

But memorizing poems alone felt like she was far from the world, so she was just lonely.

 

‘Alone?’

 

Rena, who was self-conscious, suddenly questioned her own thoughts.

 

‘Alone? Am I really alone?’

 

The moment she thought about it, she remembered the last schedule for the day, so Rena took a quick step across the hallway.

 

Poems were good. They were kind and strong, and they were full of a heart to comfort the reader.

 

Rena loved poems and wanted to emulate them, but the world and people did not recognize such Rena.

 

They suspected that abandoned children could not be like that, that they were definitely broken somewhere but desperately hiding it, and that they would be sharpening a knife inside.

 

She almost became a little lonely because she didn’t feel understood.

 

But when Rena realized she was mistaken in her own way, she happily moved on to her steps.

 

The place where Rena headed was the Doom Palace hidden in the deepest part of the Imperial Palace.

 

Rena took a short breath in front of the ruined castle and she listened inside.

 

She could see the red rift leading to the Tomb and knights in black uniforms guarding the area.

 

Rena found him easily among them.

 

A person who did not fit in with this mean world, a person who resembled poetry.

 

A person with whom she felt at ease when talking face to face, as if reading a poem.

 

There was such a cute person over there who thought she was teasing him if she sincerely said he was pretty.

 

As Rena entered the Doom Palace, the Eastern Duke guarding the rift asked coldly.

 

“What is the Southern Representative doing here?”

 

To that overbearing voice, Rena also responded formally, hiding her true feelings.

 

“I’m here to inspect the Tomb for the next expedition.”

 

“Who allowed it?”

 

“It has been approved by the church.”

 

Rena said so, and she pulled out one of the cards that arrived this morning, a church permit.

 

The Eastern Duke looked at Rena with suspicious eyes and said coldly.

 

“I’ve never heard of it.”

 

“I heard that the entire authority here lies with the church.”

 

But Rena did not back down.

 

The Eastern Duke looked at the Southern Representative, who was fighting stiffly, and then got up from his seat.

 

“Then I will go too.”

 

“Your Grace, the escorting knights…”

 

“I will go alone. Keep the ranks.”

 

As the secretary tried to move at the Eastern Duke’s improvised decision, the Eastern Duke raised his hand to block it.

 

“I’ll check what you’re doing in the Tomb.”

 

The Eastern Duke left behind the secretary’s concerns and walked to the rift first. At that arrogant attitude, the Southern Representative followed with a stiff face.

 

Eventually, as they walked side by side, Rena whispered softly.

 

“Mr. Lynn, you usually don’t talk much.”

 

“Mmph.”

 

Instead of answering anything, Lynn let out a grunt. It wasn’t to be careful of his mouth, but not to be embarrassed.

 

So Rena bit her lower lip to hold back her laughter, and Lynn’s brows furrowed to look more serious.

 

The two of them, who reached the crack, stood there and looked at each other for a moment.

 

Rena and Lynn, who formed a secret alliance, planned a Tomb reconnaissance as the first step in making it a reality.

 

It was because there was no way to know what was going on in the Tomb from the outside, so it was good to make up things.

 

Rena wanted to tell Lynn a lot about the Tomb. She was willing to teach him if they were on the same side, just as Regina did to herself in the past.

 

It’s because he was so pretty.

 

She was vigilant, suspicious and tried not to cross the line, but to no avail.

 

He was still a gentle rarity in this relentless world, and Rena, who loves poetry, couldn’t help but like him for his resemblance to poetry.

 

So Rena chose Lynn.

 

He was Rena’s last poem to cherish.