In her second life, the woman lived like a broken person.
She couldn't bear the gap between her first life and the present. She was shattered.
But her husband and son took care of her devotedly.
Through her husband and son's dedication and effort, the woman gradually recovered, and in her later years, she was able to regain a peaceful life once again.
She breathed her last once more among her loved ones.
"Thank you, dear. Thank you, son. Because of you two, I truly had a blessed life..."
Click. Click. Click.
And another regression took place.
"..."
Again, it's that day.One summer. The hut where her father slit his wrist and committed suicide.
The woman looked inside the hut with trembling eyes. She stared without avoiding the mountain of records and memos her father had left behind.
She realized.
That the task passed down from her ancestors, from her father... was as unavoidable as this curse.
Anyway, time is endless. Life is infinite.
She left her father's corpse and slowly walked into the hut.
And faced the ancestral task that came down with the curse.
***
The woman wasn't brilliant, and the research was unfriendly.
She had to use her entire third life just to organize and understand the research left by her father and ancestors.
But there was definitely progress. At least, she was now able to understand the research so far.
"The foreign gods forcibly widened the boundary between life and death, this world and the afterlife, and began to interfere with this world through that gap..."
The gap created in this way is the midpoint between life and death. The other side of the shore.
'The spirit realm'.
The foreign gods planted trees of the races they chose in this artificial space and let them take root.
"This tree has its roots in the spirit realm and its trunk in this world, and it makes it transmit the external power received from the spirit realm to this world..."
This is the principle of magic.
And the reason why only certain races can use magic.
At this point, the woman had a question.
"Then why did the foreign gods give only certain races the racial tree... the guardian tree?"
The answer came from behind.
"Because they're in the middle of a destruction game called 'Race War'."
"...?!"
When the startled woman turned around, the Demon King was standing there. As always, he wore a sardonic smile.
"Congratulations on getting this far. You've caught up well with that dull head of yours."
The Demon King mocked, but instead of responding, the woman asked about her curiosity.
"Race War? Destruction game? What's that?"
"This world was chosen as a playground for the foreign gods."
The Demon King explained willingly.
"So they created the space called the spirit realm and began to interfere with this world based on that space. They started playing with this world in various ways, and one form of entertainment is the 'Race War'."
"..."
"The foreign gods give power, blessings, and the grace of magic to the races they like... and then they watch as these chosen races fight, kill, and destroy each other."
The woman asked bitterly.
"Is that... fun?"
"It is fun. Think about it. Let's say there's a hill full of ants. Several ant armies are in conflict, and you pick one ant army."
"..."
"You can vividly watch that ant army you support and lend strength to seize control of the hill after a desperate battle. There are few entertainments as fun as this."
Before the entertainment of transcendent beings, the beings of this world were literally no different from a single ant.
The woman, who was shaking her shoulders without realizing it, asked.
"Is repeating my life also one of those entertainments?"
"Seems your brain is starting to work. That's correct."
The Demon King nodded.
"While there's certainly fun in watching tragedies on racial, national, and world scales, the true taste of tragedy comes from watching an individual's destruction up close."
"..."
"You are also one of the subjects of such tragedy. Your ancestor sold your fate for generations to come."
The woman carefully examined the shadow-like form of the giggling Demon King and cautiously asked.
"What... exactly are you?"
"I am a 'mediator'."
Unexpectedly, the Demon King answered freely.
"Once I was an 'observer' like those foreign gods, but I loved this stage full of tragedy so much that I jumped onto the stage myself - a fallen constellation."
"..."
"Such a worthless evil that mediates all this tragedy to outside the stage."
Though she couldn't understand everything he said, the woman vaguely felt.
"So, please show me an interesting tragedy. Your own unique and desperate tragedy."
That the being before her, though powerful, evil, and transcendent.
Was somehow pitiful.
Those who can only find joy in such tragedies...
Somehow, she felt sympathy and pity for them.
***
After her fourth life passed, and in her fifth life, the woman was able to master all of her ancestors' research.
And she was able to theoretically establish the research results that her father had finally derived.
"If we steal branches from the trees of the 4 major races, the guardian trees, and graft them together..."
From her father's handwriting tainted with madness, to the woman's clear and neat handwriting.
She read aloud the conclusion drawn from the completely organized magic theory.
"We can create a guardian tree that doesn't lean towards any side. And then we just need to register humans as the owners of this guardian tree..."
This was what the ancestor who first received the 'curse of regression' had tried to do.
For the human race, too small and insignificant to be chosen by the foreign gods, the only way to escape their current state of slavery was to steal the flame of magic.
"Do you think that's possible?"
A taunt was heard from behind.
The Demon King, who had appeared at some point, was looking over her shoulder at her research.
"The guardian trees of each race are protected under strict guard. Not only are they national treasures bearing the fate of their races, but they are also the core pieces of the Race War watched by all the foreign gods visiting this playground."
"..."
"How do you, a mere ordinary human, intend to steal a branch from such a tree?"
The woman rose from her desk with a bitter smile.
"I can do it. Because I have endless time."
"You will surely be broken and crushed. Well, that too will be a joy to watch..."
"And, above all."
Cutting off the Demon King's words, the woman declared.
"Because now I want to do this."
She originally had no complaints about her life.
She was content living quietly with her loved ones in a small village.
But as she inherited the research passed down from her ancestors and learned more about the true nature of this world...
She began to open her eyes to the truth.
The fact that this village life, which seemed peaceful and happy, was actually a life managed as slaves by other races.
They just didn't think it was strange because they had been subjected to exploitation, abuse, and treatment like livestock from birth.
Once she awakened, everything looked different.
The crops taken away every autumn, the young people conscripted and dragged away for wars of other countries, the tyranny of rulers who came every season to beat and destroy...
She decided she would no longer watch with open eyes.
"I don't understand the difficult things well... but this is certain."
As she packed her bags, she spoke as if making a vow.
"I don't want to pass on a slave's life to my child."
"...!"
"I have to go. If I keep knocking, won't a path open up?"
Not because of the task inherited from her ancestors, but entirely of her own will.
The back of the woman moving without hesitation.
"..."
The expression of the Demon King watching her changed slightly.
The woman packed her bags and left the house.
It was then.
"Mom?"
Her son, who had woken up, followed the woman out, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
"Where are you going?"
"..."
The woman, who had been looking at her young son with complex eyes, eventually crouched down in front of him and stroked his head.
"I'm sorry, son."
"Huh...?"
"But someday you'll understand mom."
Pushing all the words she wanted to say deep inside.
The woman forced a smile.
"I'm sure you will."
And the woman set out on her journey.
It was a long way to steal the flame of magic.
***
The woman failed countless times.
She was shot with arrows while approaching the tree. She was caught in a trap while touching the branch. She was stabbed with spears, tortured, beheaded, thrown as dog food.
Click. Click. Click.
Hundreds of lives were repeated.
The woman changed her approach. She decided to try gaining the favor of the respective races to approach the guardian trees.
It wasn't easy for a human, treated as a slave race, but she didn't give up.
Click. Click. Click.
Hundreds more lives were repeated.
Now she had succeeded in getting her hands on a branch of each race's guardian tree once.
However, there was a limit to what could be accomplished in one lifetime.
She optimized the route to bring back one branch from each race's guardian tree from the point of regression to the end of her life.
Moreover, she had to establish methods to avoid being tracked or to shake off pursuit teams after bringing them back.
The journey was arduous, long, and endlessly delayed.
Click. Click. Click.
Again, hundreds of lives.
No, thousands? Or tens of thousands?
Forgetting even to record the journal she always used to write, the woman was now moving according to the experience engraved in her body.
A strange desire burning inside her, which she herself couldn't understand, allowed her to keep fighting without stopping.
"..."
Even the Demon King, who had always mocked her from behind.
As she advanced little by little with indomitable will, he gradually withdrew the light of ridicule from his face. And began to watch the woman's journey seriously.
Thus, with the body of an ordinary human.
After countless attempts...
She finally succeeded in obtaining branches from all four guardian trees.
Although she was in a state where her hair had turned completely white and she could barely straighten her back due to old age.
Not only her physical body, but even her soul was in a state so aged that it was cracking.
But she finally did it.
"..."
The woman looked at the four branches gathered in her hand with eyes full of emotion.
Evergreen, Everblue, Everred, Evergold...
The elf's evergreen tree, the mermaid's coral reef, the beastkin's maple, the dwarf's golden branch.
Returning to the lakeside hut, now abandoned, she began to create a new tree by grafting these four branches together.
The theory was perfectly established. It was something she had verified countless times in her mind while repeating her life endlessly.
And,
Flash...!
She succeeded.
The four grafted branches transformed into a single tree trunk, and the woman blankly stared at the transparent-colored sapling in her hand.
"Congratulations."
The Demon King, who had appeared at some point, unusually spoke in a moderate voice.
"To think you'd really reach this far... I admit it. You've achieved a great feat."
"..."
"Now, finish what you've been dreaming of."
The woman slowly breathed her power into this tree that didn't bear the light of any race.
And she wished.
"...The light of magic for my race too..."
Then, the transparent branch that had no particular characteristics began to change.
Black color rose from within, and sharp thorns sprouted. The thorns pricked the woman's hand and drank her blood.
"Ah...!"
Looking at the completed human guardian tree, the woman let out a sigh.
This was the first birth of the Black Thorn Tree, Everblack.
Hugging the thorny tree to her chest, the woman shed tears.
"I did it, I really did it, father..."
She had completed the task passed down from her ancestors.
Now humanity would gain the light of magic. They no longer need to live as slaves.
Standing at the end of her journey, the woman smiled happily.
***
However.
As always, the world didn't flow as expected.
"Witch!"
"We're all dead because of you!"
"Execute that woman! We must show our innocence!"
In the center of the village where she was born and raised.
Tied to the execution platform, the woman looked around in bewilderment.
At the pile of firewood under her feet, at the villagers throwing stones at her.
And...
"..."
At her aged son, looking at her with a devastated face among the angry crowd.
The woman trembled as she faced this.
Why.
Why did it turn out like this...?
"Didn't I tell you countless times."
The Demon King standing behind the woman muttered softly.
"That your life can only be a tragedy..."
--TL Notes--
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