The Author's POV

'Why did it happen again?'

While sitting on the curb in front of the bus with a perplexed expression on his face, Kevin mused to himself about the situation.

Why did they die again?

He did everything that he was supposed to do.

He didn't go toward the inner city and lead his parents away from home, yet, they still died.

This time by a road accident.

The demons weren't even responsible for their deaths.

Kevin's gaze lifted toward the clouds in the sky. Staring at the clouds that were moving ever so slowly in the sky, he had a sudden thought.

'...I wanted to spend more time with them.'

***

Bang―!

"Watch out, Kevin!"

Once more, Kevin watched as his parents threw their bodies over to protect him. This time, their bodies were completely severed in half, and blood spilt all over Kevin.

The expressions of helplessness and anguish that they displayed just prior to passing away left an indelible mark on his mind as he could only watch them die in front of him.

Crash―!

"Get behind me, Kevin!"

Booom―!

"Ahhhh!"

Unbeknownst to him, the same events kept happening over and over again with each and every one of his regressions.

Before Kevin even realized it, he had reached his twentieth regression, and for the twentieth time, both of his parents had passed away right before his very eyes.

This time, it was due to an explosion that occurred outside of the city.

'...Why?'

Kevin never managed to muster the required strength to come to the aid of his mother and father, no matter how many times he tried. Each time, they would suffer a horrible death, and he would be left all by himself once more.

The heaviness in his heart, which had been barely noticeable at first, became increasingly obvious with each and every one of his regressions, and it intensified with the passing of his parents in all of the regressions.

Over the course of those twenty regressions, he would have an immeasurably better chance of defeating Jezebeth, but despite his best efforts, he continued to fall short in every single one of his endeavours.

Kevin understood that it was only a matter of time before he could beat Jezebeth.

Be it one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, or a million regressions...

Kevin had all the time in the world to accumulate experience and become stronger.

Jezebeth was still ahead of him by quite a lot, but Kevin knew that his time would come very soon.

...In those times, with each regression, he would spend more and more time with his parents. By the time the twentieth regression happened, he had spent at least a century of his life with them.

He pretty much knew them like the back of his hand.

...and it was because of this that he found it more difficult to part ways with them every five years since his birth.

After each of their deaths, he would experience a sharp pain, and the colour that had been slowly developing in his vision would slowly fade away.

would continue indefinitely, with no means

It was their fate.

over here, you bastards! Come and

forget about me! Go

divert the attention of the demon away from him, Kevin's chest began to feel as if it

'Why? ...Why?'

repeatedly wondered inside of his mind, his eyes

own. Putting your needs above mine is how I show you that I love you. Isn't that what every

told him during his fourth regression rang in Kevin's head, even though

began to form in the corners of his eyes, trickling down the side of his cheek before softly landing on

he finally better understood the meaning of

his hand forward toward where his parents were, Kevin

"Don't go..."

Don't leave me.

*

Many years later.

Ashton City, Lock Library

came to a stop near a particular word as he paged through

and feeling sad about it. Loneliness causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted. People who are lonely often crave human contact, but their state of mind makes it more difficult to

on the area around him, and he traced his finger across

that the

impression that the world, which seemed already to be devoid of meaning to

to better understand the sensations he

old if one counted all of

of emptiness that was eating away at his body gradually became worse, to the point where every

why he was

was so that he could better understand what he was feeling and find an answer to

and looked at the cover

Johnson's guide to

mistake for the records to have birthed me

front of

the moment was his identity. The identity of a

deal with such pointless issues; however, as more time passed and regressions took place, Kevin realized that he was not

sensations that he experienced in the immediate aftermath of the passing of his parents were classified as

understood that he could not run away from

death of his parents or his own death, the biological system that he was born with

that made Kevin realize that he could no longer

to better understand this so called thing

Clank―!

got out of his chair and grabbed the book that

"Hm?"

verge of turning around to return the book when he suddenly became aware of a faint light off

someone

it was very strange to see

exam

a young, skinny man with jet-black hair covering

currently glued to a large book, and beside him was a stack

[Demon anatomy]

to watch out for

curses and what is known about

the books that were piled up in front

face, it was obvious that the young man was showing signs of anxiety, given the rapidity with which he was turning the pages of the books and the low mutterings

curse... where is it? ...where is it? ...There must be

looking for the cure to the

asked, stopping in front of the young man and startling him out

"Eh, ah!"

Clank―!

front of him fell back and hit the floor, resulting in a deafening crash. It was a good thing

young man's expression changed dramatically the moment his

"You...you're Kevin Voss."