How to Raise Your Regressor

"Let's go back to the beginning, to the time when you saved Lecia," I said.

"What about it?" Azell asked, clearly interested in what I wanted to say.

Is it just me, or is this guy too eager to have his blunders brutally pointed out?

Something smells fishy.

Sure, you could say that he wants to reflect on his mistakes and improve or some shit, but I'm impressed that he wants even after seeing what I did to Lecia.

Either he's zealous in quest to be a better man, or, and this is more likely, this little mamacita is up to no good.

"As far as I'm aware, you punched Lecia's father and knocked him out, packed Lecia's stuff and just… brought her here. This, in case you weren't aware, is what is typically known as kidnapping, but that is beside the point right now."

Huh, isn't Lecia like a kidnapper magnet? She's always getting taken away against her will.

Nice.

"You could look at it that way," Tristan 2.0 averted his gaze.

"Also, the father later died under some mysterious circumstances, but that is also beside the point."

And by mysterious circumstances, I mean that he got his head blown off by a disgusting hard scope.

"What's the point, then?" Neia asked.

This dragon sure is restless. Have some patience, mate. We'll get there when we get there.

"What I want to ask is this; why did you save Lecia?" I looked at the wanker in question (wait, everyone here is a wanker, so that sentence is a bit misleading). "Did you just happen to stumble upon her, saw her situation and decided to save her because you couldn't bear to see her suffer so much? Or did you know about her before you set out to free her from the clutches of her evil father?"

I already know that philanthropy, or kindness as it's more commonly known, wasn't the sole reason Azell rescued Lecia from her father; he's the motherfucking Regressor after all.

Going by the common tropes seen in such literature, Azell must have brought Lecia in because she's probably going to be an important, powerful figure in the future (surprising, I know, but that's how the world unfortunately works).

Or perhaps Lecia is one of the main villains of the future, and Azell brought her under our care to keep her under his control and prevent her from becoming a villain. That way, he could increase his chances of winning.

If look at it this way, it's also entire possible that Azell plans to shove a machete down her throat if she shows signs of turning into the fearsome enemy that once terrorized him and his comrades in his previous life.

I seriously hope it's the latter.

Anyway, I digressed.

Like I was saying, it's different because I already know the truth, but did the others never wonder why Azell suddenly brought a 13 years old girl and asked them to take care of her? Like, what is this, an orphanage?

I'm actually impressed that none of them accused Lecia of being his secret daughter or sister.

Well, she obviously cannot be his daughter because 5 years old cannot impregnate anyone (that's if we assume that Lecia wasn't conceived through some highly advanced IVF technology), so the only other option is her being his sister.

That would also explain why he wanted to protect her from the moment he met her.

Huh, now that I think about it, I never considered that possibility either.

What if Azell and Lecia are actually siblings that got separated when they were young? It's possible that Azell and Lecia parted right after Lecia's birth. That would explain why she doesn't know that she has a brother.

If that's indeed the case, then I just pranked a girl into developing romantic feelings for her blood-related older brother.

Yikes.

"Why, you ask?" Azell asked.

"Yes."

Now is the time, Azell. Tell us whether Lecia is your long lost relative or not.

"Is it really important, though?"

God-fucking-damnit, Azell. Does he not realise how serious this situation really is?

I guess he doesn't. I never told him that Lecia is most probably madly in love with him, after all.

Shit.

You know what? Fuck it.

Let's just proceed with my original plan. I'm sure everything will turn out well.

Even if it doesn't… Well, Azell will handle it. He's a Regressor; it's about time he showed us what he's actually capable of.

And what better way of proving himself than handling his little sister's romantic love, right?

…

You know what?

Let's just do what I do best; pretend this never happened and move on like I was the man who got his side chick pregnant.

"Not exactly," I replied. "Your reason for saving her doesn't really matter. What matters are your actions. Like I said, you punched Lecia's father in the jaw, then you just… brought her here. Then you called ME and asked me to be her 'mother figure', saying that you'll also help from time to time. Can you not identify the problems in everything I just said?"

He probably cannot, but hey.

"…" Azell stayed silent, his eyes prodding me to continue.

…Is he genuinely not aware, or does he want me to put my own thoughts forward so that he can compare mine with his to reach closer to the right answer?

Seriously, the man's either a dumbass, or he's too efficient in wanting to grow.

"The first is the way you handled the situation with her father; you just punched him, picked Lecia up and bailed out of there. You literally acted like a child kidnapper, which obviously didn't work well for you. Lecia's father came back for her. Anyone would. Like, what were you expecting? That your punch will make her father come back to his senses, realise how wrong he was and make him give up on her so that she could finally live a peaceful, happy life?"

"The… way I handled it might not have been the best, I admit," his head drooped a bit.

"But that's not all, because of your poor planning, Lecia ended up witnessing her father's death," I glanced at her and she averted her gaze.

Right, the reason she was at the place of her father's death was because she wanted to kill him with her own hands. Yikes.

"…I wonder whose fault that really was," Neia scowled at me.

Shit, don't tell me she suspects me of killing Lecia's father. Her detective skills are on overdrive tonight.

It's almost as if she's trying to get more points from me to ultimately prove that she can be a better guild leader than Azell.

"Both Azell's and Lecia's, actually," I met Neia's gaze. "The former for not accounting for the father's reaction, and the latter for actually going to meet her father behind our backs for god knows what reason. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Lecia went there to kill her father or some shit."

"I-I had nothing of that sort in my mind!" Lecia exclaimed.

Heh.

"Well, of course, you did not. No sane person would think of killing their father," I smiled a bit, then turned to Azell. "Anyway, as if the fiasco with her father wasn't enough, you actually had the audacity to leave Lecia to me."