Memoirs of the Returnee - Chapter 297



Only Noblemtl

The Regressor’s Notepad 297

Artificial Intelligence (3)

───!

Two swords are carved side by side on the pure white snow mountain. A snowball as big as a house shatters loudly, and the falling debris melts in the heat of the Solliet.

I put my sword away. Soliet put her sword away too.

“after!”

Solliet breathed a sigh of relief, but I was dissatisfied.

“… …Why are you following me?”

This guy keeps imitating the swordsmanship. Arcne’s swordsmanship would be much more effective against Snowball.

“Zion’s swordsmanship is really good. It feels like I’m used to it.”

It’s like something familiar.

Whether she regresses or not, is it because the ability to be a swordsman is ultimately a talent that suits her?

“You. That’s copyright infringement.”

But it is not a good thing. Not for Soliet, not for the Arcne family.

“Let Zion be my teacher.”

“Your teacher is a family man.”

The Arcne family is actually a ‘swordsmanship’ family.

It means that the family was not created to pass down swordsmanship, but rather that the family was created to pass down swordsmanship.

Because of this, before returning, Soliet, who had chosen to be celibate, had no choice but to cut ties with her family.

“… … It’s fatal. I taught you Arcne swordsmanship, didn’t I?”

“It’s different from that.”

“What’s different?”

“You… … Ugh. Let’s just walk.”

We climbed the road, but it was still cold, so I leaned against Solliet’s back.

“Don’t turn off the stove.”

“… … Then please teach me swordsmanship.”

“I said I’d watch and learn anyway.”

Still, this isn’t too bad. If you’re learning Arcne as a base and Absolute Sword as a finishing move.

“Yes. Then I will continue to watch and learn.”

Solliet spoke in a somewhat cheerful tone and turned up the heat of the fireplace. The radius became warmer.

Thanks to that, I’m starting to feel a little sleepy, but I’ll hold out until a suitable camp comes up.

* * *

5,000 meters above sea level.

The cold is now somewhat magical. Not that it’s really magic, but it’s as cold as magic.

Because of that, I got into trouble.

I’m on the verge of fainting due to the cold and the side effects of abstinence. I still have the problem of getting sleepy when I run out of energy.

“… … Soliet. It’s nice here. Let’s rest for a moment.”

After climbing nonstop for about 16 hours, I discovered the cave-like terrain of Seolsan Mountain.

It’s a gap where the walls overlap in the shape of the letter S, and it’s quite wide, so if you build a sturdy igloo inside, you could easily spend a few days there.

“Yes. Let’s go and rest.”

Solliet also agreed, perhaps because she was tired.

“Shall we just unfold the sleeping bag first?”

“No. Let’s make an igloo.”

I moved my eyes using magic. It was “psychosis.”

“Oh, Zion. Did you learn this too?”

It’s Rakel Dra’s, but Soliet probably doesn’t know anyway.

“Oh. I learned it just in case.”

They dragged snowflakes into the gaps to build an igloo that could sleep four to five people.

In 30 minutes, a pretty decent igloo was completed.

Why, not the ones kids make for snow pranks, but the regular igloos you see in cartoons.

“Let’s go in.”

“yes.”

We went inside.

Kew- Soliet exclaimed in admiration, sounding like an old man.

“It’s cozy, Zion. Can you light a stove here without it collapsing?”

This guy is finally admitting that he is a stove.

“If you release a lot of magic power, it will melt, of course. But even if you turn on a stove, it won’t collapse.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Uh. Let’s light a fire first. You’re wasting your magic power.”

Even a human stove is not infinite. It needs to be refilled with fuel at regular intervals.

I took out the burner. A mountaineering cooker that operates on horsepower. It was one of the supplies, and as soon as Soliet touched it with her finger, it burst into flames.

Warmth quickly filled the igloo.

“……after.”

I lay on the floor groaning. Solliet took out the frying pan.

As if he was hungry, he put the frozen meat he had received in a frying pan and cooked it until sizzling.

“… … .”

I saw such a Soliette. Soliette felt my gaze as she tasted the ripe meat.

“Zion is also baking.”

“… … Uh. But isn’t it lacking?”

I calculated it, and the amount of food in the backpack is ridiculous. It’s not even enough for half a day, let alone a day.

Even without that, the two of us would have a basal metabolic rate equivalent to that of 3-4 average men combined.

“Then Zion, are you not planning on eating it?”

Solliet asked, as if she was a little excited.

“No, I’m going to eat it.”

“……yes.”

I don’t know why I’m disappointed.

“It means you have to hunt. You have to keep hunting and persevere.”

“Um… … If you want, you can plant the flag and go down. 5,000m is more than enough to pass the first test.”

I shook my head, laughing hysterically.

“Who do you trust?”

“… …Who do you believe?”

The current Soliet is too naive.

Maybe I’m just being too cold-hearted, but whatever.

“Think about it. The rule itself is that if you plant a flag, you can go down the mountain. But who takes care of that flag?”

When I asked, Solliet’s eyes widened slightly.

“This knight exam is all about competition. There must be a lot of people who will take off every flag they see. There must be people who go out of their way to look for flags. Or there are monsters swarming around here who might break them.”

Soliet nodded as she listened to me.

“The climb itself is a test, but in the end, if you can’t protect the flag, you’re eliminated.”

“Ah… … I guess that’s definitely true.”

She seemed to understand and distributed the cooked meat on plates.

We split it exactly in half, but it wasn’t enough.

“… … I have to go hunting.”

Solliet’s face turned into one of impatience. Her stomach also growled.

At some point, he regained his appetite and became a complete glutton.

She took out a whetstone. I watched quietly as she sharpened her sword against it.

A hand that is sharpening a whetstone. Serious eyes. Long hair tied up like a ponytail.

All of the guy’s appearances are the same as before the regression.

Before the return, the Soliet I loved… … .

Oh, and leave out the meat grease on your mouth.

“hey.”

“……yes?”

“Sword-fighting. Did you learn it by watching me?”

I asked that for no reason. It seemed that Soliet still had faint memories from before her regression.

“Of course. There is no one but Zion, so who can you learn from? By the way, is the name of the swordsmanship called Absolute Sword?”

“… … Ascalo.”

“Ascalu… … Can’t you accept me as your disciple?”

Soliet made her eyes serious.

Shake— Shake—

Sharpening a sword on a whetstone makes me feel unnecessarily fierce.

“… … Let’s go hunting. I’m so hungry I can’t sleep.”

I got up.

“yes.”

Soliet followed suit.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee───!

As soon as I came out, a strong wind blew like crazy.

“boiler!”

“… … You might as well call it a stove.”

I was glued to Soliet. I turned on the SZX-9500 and tried to find some prey… …

“uh?”

“Did you find it? Hmm.”

Soliet asked, swallowing hard.

“Oh. I found someone.”

“yes?”

A man climbing a mountain with frost all over his body, seen from afar.

Gerken.

He’s in a pretty precarious state. Not on the verge of collapsing, but already down, only moving his feet.

“You have amazing mental strength.”

You could say it’s like Gerken. Of course, even for Gerken, this environment itself wouldn’t be easy…

Then a flash of light came to my mind. Suddenly, the thought of this magical cold flashed through my mind.

“… … I guess it wasn’t me.”

“What are you talking about?”

At first I thought the cold was attacking me.

But, is that really possible?

The target was Gerken.

I just so happened to be taking the same route as that guy.

“Come on. Let’s go get him… … Oh. There’s food right next to him.”

“Food?”

“Oh. Beast.”

The difference between a beast and a monster is that both are dangerous, but a beast can eat you.

“It’s a bear.”

A pitch-black black bear. It is plump and fleshy, and its two eyes are glaring at Gerken.

It seems like they came up to eat the vulnerable Gerken, but that’s actually a good thing.

“Let’s go catch it.”

“Yes! I guess I’ll make bear soup today.”

Soliet prepared to sortie, her mouth watering.

* * *

Bubble bubble- Bubble bubble-

Gerken opened his eyes to the sound of the soup boiling. He lay there blinking quietly.

“… …Are you awake?”

Someone called him. Gerken flinched and raised his upper body.

“What are you so surprised about?”

“… … .”

It was Zion Ascal.

Gerken looked back and forth between Zion and Gomguk without saying a word. The situation was unclear to him.

Because my memories of climbing the mountain are intermittent.

Zion said.

“You fainted. Because of the cold.”

“… … .”

Bubble bubble─

Gerken asked, his mouth watering at the sound of gomtang.

“Did you save him?”

“Yeah, that’s right. With Soliet.”

Gerken looked around the interior. Soliet was not there.

“They’re slaughtering outside right now. Meat, leather, and other useful things. You eat this.”

Zion offered a plate of gomtang. Gerken didn’t refuse. His hunger was almost murderous.

Gulp─ Gulp─

After drinking, he asked Zion.

“… Can you stand the cold?”

“What… … I’m having a hard time too. Only Soliet is okay.”

Then Zion made a slightly strange expression.

“You are being held in check.”

“……check.”

Gerken asked back.

“Oh. I heard you became Professor Teia’s disciple.”

The news is already spreading. The moment he gets his knight’s license, Gerken officially becomes Teia’s apprentice.

“Probably Libra. It must be Libra.”

Zion is convinced that this is Libra’s restraint.

Libra will harass her by provoking her under Teia Ishil. She will persistently and persistently shake up those around her, and eventually isolate her.

Gerken is the loyal servant who remains by her side the longest.

However, he is the one who betrays her at the most important moment and causes Teia to commit suicide.

Perhaps he will betray Teia in this life too.

“… …Why Libra?”

“Your professor declared war on us.”

An artificial intelligence that kills a perfectly healthy person and bleaches their soul. This is the price paid for pointing out unethical behavior that Teia can never admit to.

“Hurry up and eat some gomtang. We should start going up soon.”

Tung-

Zion put the gomtang down on the floor of the igloo. Then he grabbed the burner and went outside.

“… … .”

Gerken observed the situation and then picked up the entire pot of gomtang and ate it.

Gulp─ Gulp─ Gulp─ Gulp─

I ate the meat as is, and chewed the bones whole. There was so much meat in it that I was full after eating about half of it.

“……after.”

Gerken, who had filled his hunger, also came out of the igloo. Solliet and Zion were standing there.

“… … I will repay the favor.”

Zion chuckled at Gerken’s words.

“Eunhye, just take this and go.”

Zion gave Gerken a third of the bear troop supplies, including bear skins to wear and meat to eat later, all wrapped up like a bundle.

Soliet frowned in surprise.

“… … Ah, Zion. I slaughtered that for three hours just to eat it-”

“Take it.”

Zion held it out. Gerken looked at it quietly.

“We can’t go together because our powers are different. Just don’t die.”

Teia and Libra.

Now that we are at odds with each other, we can’t even pretend to be close with empty words.

“thanks.”

Gerken held the bundle to his side. Solliet pouted her lips like a child whose toy had been taken away.

“Oh. Go.”

Behind Gerken, who was slowly climbing up, the sound of Soliet and Zion’s conversation flowed in.

─… … I worked hard to slaughter it.

─Ah, you can catch it again. There are two of us.

─Huh… …But what do I do with this igloo? Do I break it?

─No. Just leave it. Let’s leave it as a gift to the kids who climbed up to 5,000m.

─Yes? You said it was a competition.

─There’s no need for us to be so obsessed with restraint, right?

─… … Well. Well, I guess so.

There is no need to compete so fiercely that you lose your appearance.

Gerken smiled faintly as he listened to his voice slowly dissipating.

* * *

──The next day.

A team of four college students, male and female, arrived at the same 5,000m above sea level.

“It’s 5,000m!”

It may have been a long time ago for some people, but it was an achievement they had never expected.

They were a middle-ranking third-year student at a local university, with nothing outstanding about them. They stuck together and got through two days with nothing but evil and brute force… It was almost a miracle.

“It’s 5,000m, it’s 5,000m!”

“Uh-huh-huh─”

“Huhh …

They hugged each other and cried. They cried for a long time.

But soon the cold reality set in.

“… … If you plant a flag and go, you’ll get picked, right?

“maybe.”

The format of the first test itself is ‘climbing as high as possible’, but in the end, it is similar to a flag-pulling game.

Even if I climb high, my grades go up when I pull out other people’s flags.

There are many people who lost their flags before they could climb very far.

“… … Can we last the rest of the time?”

One of the four muttered sullenly.

There are still three days left until the end of the exam, but there is no more food, I am exhausted, and the cold and environment are much harsher.

If you encounter a beast at this time, you can assume that there is a 90% chance that you will die.

“Let’s go down and plant the flag.”

“And then it gets taken away.”

“… … Let’s hide it. We’ll leave it to fate. If we stay here any longer, we’ll die.”

“… … .”

They sank heavily. They had worked hard, as hard as they could, to get to 5,000m, so now they had to leave it to luck.

Otherwise, how can you leave it to luck when you’ve worked hard to get to 5000m?

“Okay. Let’s hide the flag.”

They were worried, but eventually they raised the flag and-

“Hey guys!”

At that moment, one of the people who was scanning the area pointed somewhere and shouted.

“Look over there!”

“Why, why?”

“Over there! Over there!”

“where?”

“Ah, just follow me!”

One ran first, and the other three followed.

“igloo!”

It was a neat igloo built into a crevice in the mountain range.

“Is there anyone inside?”

“No, I don’t think there are any.”

“Let’s go in first.”

The knight who discovered the igloo went inside first. Inside the cozy room, on the floor, there was a pot of gomtang (beef bone soup).

“There’s soup? There’s even half of it left.”

“okay?”

“… … Hey. Let’s go out. If there’s an owner here, then.”

“Master… … Huh?”

One of them lifted a piece of paper from the ground.

“… … There’s a note here. Look at it.”

Then he showed the contents to the other group members.

[Write as much as you want and rest comfortably]

Feel free to use it and rest comfortably.

“… … .”

“… … .”

“… … .”

The four of them were silent for a moment. They remained silent for quite some time.

And then they looked at each other and nodded, feeling something sad.

There are many people in this world who are crazy about competition, and many who have the mindset that they can survive only by eliminating others.

There are people with such kind and warm hearts.

“This is why the world is worth living in.”

They took out the burner and placed the pot containing the gomtang on it.

Click-

“… … It must be really delicious.”

“There’s some flesh too.”

As the gomtang was bubbling over the fire, the four of them smiled with a mixture of emotion and tears.