Chapter 271: Regrets of a Second Life

As Qiu Nuoya mentally revisited Igor’s account, Viktor tilted his head in confusion.

"Wait a moment... Nidhogg?"

"That’s right, Nidhogg. It’s the place I took you to when we first met."

"Then..."

"Exactly. I left the royal capital before that request was even issued. I went looking for you and proposed that we take on Nidhogg together. That was a real headache, let me tell you. And the hardest part wasn’t defeating the monster. It was figuring out how to get you to come with me in the first place. That was a much bigger challenge."

"So that’s why you did that..."

"Did what?"

When Qiu Nuoya tilted his head at Viktor’s words, Viktor suddenly looked startled. He quickly shook his head.

"It’s nothing."

Seeing Viktor’s flustered reaction, Igor chuckled.

"It’s not like I did anything particularly wrong. I just took a little advantage of his terrible drinking habits."

His drinking habits, huh? Viktor really did have a problem with alcohol.

When Viktor got drunk, he became clingy and affectionate, showering everyone around him with attention and seducing people regardless of their age or gender. Well, he probably had no intention of seducing anyone, but with that beautiful face of his, who could resist when he gazed at them with teary eyes and murmured, "I want you to love me. Please stay by my side"?

Whether this had gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion was something Viktor had always been rather evasive about. Still, Qiu Nuoya had heard that such incidents had become less frequent after Viktor started spending time with Igor.

If Igor had taken advantage of Viktor’s terrible drinking habits to drag him into a dungeon, Qiu Nuoya could more or less guess what must have happened.

"So, did you manage to defeat Nidhogg?"

"Yeah. I gathered plenty of information about Nidhogg beforehand and made thorough preparations before taking it on. And I had the world’s greatest mage as my partner, too. We didn’t exactly defeat it effortlessly, but we managed to take it down safely without suffering any injuries."

"Indeed. It was a formidable opponent, but since there were two of us, I remember the battle being relatively easy."

"You’d been a completely solo adventurer up until then, after all."

A completely solo adventurer... So Viktor had been working alone back then. But hadn’t Igor had other companions at the time?

"What happened to the other members of your party, Igor?"

"Ah... I left them behind in the royal capital. I couldn’t exactly tell my companions back then some absurd story about how I’d traveled back in time from ten years in the future and wanted to start my life over. By the way, remember that guy who approached us on the way from Shulk to Maze? He was the man I’d nearly killed in my original timeline. If we hadn’t defeated Nidhogg, he would have lost an arm and a leg."

Oh! Qiu Nuoya remembered him! He couldn’t recall the man’s name, but he was a burly beastman carrying a greatsword. The man had laughed and said he was still an active adventurer.

So he was the person whose injuries had driven Igor to leave the royal capital...

Wait a minute. If that man was alive and well, wasn’t there any reason for Igor to stay away from the royal capital anymore?

"Um, there’s something I’ve been wondering about. Igor, why didn’t you return to the royal capital after defeating Nidhogg? If you’d successfully defeated the very monster that drove you to leave the capital in the first place, couldn’t you have simply gone back to your family?"

"Yeah... You’re right. That’s exactly right..."

Igor rested his elbows on the table, interlaced his fingers, and pressed his forehead against them as he let out a long, heavy sigh.

"I got greedy," he muttered.

"I couldn’t explain the circumstances to my companions, but I did give Eliza a general explanation before leaving the royal capital. She told me she’d wait for me, and I believe she really did wait until I finished defeating Nidhogg. But even after the battle was over, I didn’t return to the capital."

"Why not?"

"I got greedy and started thinking that if I stayed with Viktor, maybe we could even defeat that dragon... If I could slay a dragon, I wouldn’t just be an ordinary adventurer anymore. I’d become a hero. That achievement would go down in history, and even after retiring from adventuring, I’d have no trouble finding work. I’d practically be guaranteed enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life... In short, I let greed blind me."

What a shock! Qiu Nuoya had always thought Igor was the sort of person who lived without being concerned about such worldly desires.

"Besides, I’d started to genuinely enjoy being an adventurer. Even when I invited you guys into dungeons, I thought that gaining combat experience as a party would eventually prove useful. But while I was busy thinking about all that, Eliza went and got together with him..."

Ah, how cruel fate could be.

Still, it was hard not to feel bitter when Qiu Nuoya considered that if Igor hadn’t given in to greed and had simply stayed with his family, Ignis might never have taken the position Igor held in the present.

"I thought that getting a second chance at life meant I could fix all my past regrets. But by chasing my own desires, I only ended up creating more regrets. Even so, this second life has been meaningful in its own way. Back then, I had no idea this country was in such a desperate state, facing a crisis like this..."

"You mean the monster stampede?"

"Yeah. The monsters’ rampage back then was certainly no ordinary event. I knew nothing in my previous life about the existence of the mana pool, the being sealing it away, or how that seal weakened once every hundred years or so. Back then, I simply fought because a request had been issued, without understanding what was really going on."