The Man with Hypnotic Powers Doesn’t Hold Back the Second Time Around

Chapter 214

After the kiss with my master, the seal was broken.
Following that, a conversation with Hypnosis Spirit revealed many things I hadn’t known.

Firstly, the one whom Hypnosis Spirit calls "Mom."
The contents of her soul have now melted into my own body. I suspect it's her power, but exactly what it is remains unclear.

Secondly, the triple-layered seal I had with my wives through our kisses.
That was a mechanism to protect me from the power of "Mom"—a divine force I could never have handled from the start.
It seemed the purpose was to gather enough strength to handle it, through the three of them.

And lastly,

[Don’t ask too often~? To your little sister, don’t make her do anything strange.]
"……."

I had learned the one important lesson from Hypnosis Spirit: I should never use my hypnotic powers for weird purposes.

...Well, I guess that’s fine.
I haven’t used it since I became involved with my wives, after all.
Even Shia and I have already done everything.
Alice and I promised to do it during the break.
With my master, we were just about to do it.

In other words, my reproductive life was flourishing.
There was nothing I had to force myself to hold back anymore…

-Chill.

‘…What was that? I just felt an overwhelming sense of unease for a moment.’

That strange, unexplained sense of danger struck me out of nowhere.
It wasn’t the usual kind of instinct I felt.
It was like some future version of myself was shouting STAY at me.
Could this be the kind of gut feeling a CEO might get, I wondered.

-Snicker.

‘It’s just a misunderstanding. How would I have that kind of ability like that old man?’

I shook off the ridiculous thought with a brief snicker.
Then, I refocused my mind.

To be precise, I poured my strength into my soul form.

-Swoosh…

‘Hmm, this feels familiar.’

Suddenly, my vision cleared.
The blurry world around me snapped back into focus.
I was back in the familiar academy basement storage room where I had been earlier.

"…Hah!? Disciple!! What in the world is going on?!"
"Ah, Master…"

Thud. Shake shake.

"Just now you disappeared in an instant, and then reappeared like this…!! What happened?!"

Master grabbed my shoulders, shaking me vigorously.
She seemed to believe I had disappeared and then reappeared.
It wasn’t hard to guess what this implied.

"Sigh…"
‘So this is why my body changed, just like the Saintess’s.’

Now I understood why Hypnosis Spirit had pointed out my naked body.
I mean, if I had just summoned my soul normally, there would have been no reason for me to be naked.
There was no reason for my soul to mimic the state of my physical body.

Which meant that my soul must have followed my physical body’s condition.
In fact, the strange sensation I was feeling all over my body made sense now.
All of it pointed to the fact that—

—I’m in a soul-like state.

‘It feels a bit different from a pure soul…’

-Crack.

"…!!? You suddenly—!"
"Mm. The concept is similar."
"…Concept? What are you talking about?"
"My body is in the same state as the Saintess. Half-soul, should I say?"

In front of my astonished master, I demonstrated a few things quickly.
I transformed from being naked into a tracksuit in an instant, for example,

"I can’t just make anything, but objects that are familiar to my soul, like…"

-Whoosh.

"I can even summon a sword."

I drew a katana from my body, something only possible within the soul.
These were skills I could only perform within the soul form.

The only difference now was this:
These things now shared the same properties as the Saintess's abilities.

"Though normal materials pass through, if I focus..."

-Snip.

"They can be cut just like this."

I sliced through a sheet of paper just to demonstrate.
Even cutting it from the middle, the blade passed through like a ghost, only beginning to slice halfway through the paper. It was quite a fascinating sight.

"Remarkable! You really could defeat me, after all…"
"Master, you’ve already defeated me ages ago. Ahem."
"…Ah, right! Hehe. With everything going on, I forgot about that."
"Master, you’re so~ adorable when you’re absent-minded."
"Hehe~ You too, Disciple~?"

The atmosphere lightened with our playful exchange.
I took the opportunity to compliment my master.
She, too, relaxed and smiled brightly in return...

-Suddenly.

"...Wait, hold on! This isn’t the time for this!! Why did this happen all of a sudden?!"

True. Now wasn’t the time for lightheartedness.
I had to explain quickly.

"So, what happened is that I—um…"
‘How should I explain this?’

My mouth seemed stuck.
To explain this, I’d have to reveal the truth about the ‘???’ seal inside me.
Not to mention, I’d have to confess about my regression.

Naturally, I knew that the hypnosis preventing me from revealing my regression must’ve been lifted with the seal.

"Regre—"

-Thrum.

"…Tsk."
‘So this is the ‘Law’.’

It hurt a bit as I tried to speak.
Just like the time I collapsed when I almost revealed my regression to my master during the start of the semester.

I suspected this was the ‘Law’.
The universal law that punishes results without causation.

‘It’s not as painful as before, but I could probably hold on if I need to.’

But the real problem wasn’t just the pain.
The bigger issue was whether she’d believe me if I told her.

After all, if I suddenly blurted out, "I’m a regressor," who would believe me?
There’s a limit to how much of an unexpected "coming out" moment one could have.

And furthermore, from Master’s perspective?
A completely unknown, ominous being suddenly comes up to her and says,
"We were married in my first life~."

What a cosmic-level stalker I’d be.
Even I got chills thinking about it. But still, it was something I had done.

‘It can’t be helped. I’ll have to cover it up.’

-Grin.

"I’m not entirely sure, but when I kissed you, Master, this happened, right?"

So I decided to brush it off.
There was no time to explain, and I wasn’t confident enough to tell the whole truth.
Besides, I didn’t want to be hated by Master.
So, I’d just pretend I didn’t know.

Master seemed to overlook it…

"Did you do it too?! Master?!"
"Huh?"
"When I kissed you, all these strange memories started popping up, too!"
"……?"

What? Her response was completely different than I expected.
A whole series of question marks flooded my mind.

"Memories? I don’t have any of those…"
"But Disciple? Did we meet when I was thirty-three?"
"……How do you know that?!!!"

My mental question marks quickly turned into exclamation marks.

Wait—thirty-three?
That was Master’s age when we first met in my previous life.

So this means…

"Could it be, Master? Was I in that memory…?"
"And also, Disciple, remember when you and Alice and Yushia were fighting over me…"
"……!!!"

The memories from my first life, before I regressed, came flooding back.
Not just for me, but for my master too.

A surge of emotions overwhelmed me.

-Shiver.

"That’s… true. All of it."
"...What?"
"That! You helped me when I was at rock bottom, training me through everything! That was all real!!"

I had thought these were just my memories now.
But now, the thought that Master remembered too made me incredibly happy.
I was on the verge of tears.

"I thought you had forgotten it all… I thought you couldn’t remember."
"Wait. Disciple, are you sure this is real? All of it?"
"Yes…!!!"

-Muttering.

"All those times I got scolded for putting a hole in the condom, or when I wore cat ears naked and acted all coy…?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, never mind!!"

It seemed that, instead of being happy, Master was more disturbed.
But I couldn’t blame her for that.
After all, when the reason I got close to her was because of my first kiss, I could see why she’d feel awkward.

-Pause.

"——Huh?"

A thought flashed through my mind.

Master had regained those memories from our kiss…
But wait, I kissed Shia and Alice too, didn’t I?

[Yujin. Nothing happened with Alice, right? You didn’t kiss her or anything, did you?]
[And what about Ninomiya? You stayed in the same hotel, didn’t you? Did she ever... you know?]

-Startled.

‘Wait… could it be that the two of them have been subtly paying attention to the other wives…!!?’

A chill ran down my spine.
If Master’s memories were coming back, it wouldn’t be strange if the other two remembered as well.

My body moved on its own.

"Master! Let’s go back quickly!!"
"Hmm? Why all of a sudden?"
"The situation outside is dangerous! We need to act quickly or the monsters will be unstoppable!"

First, I needed to persuade Master.
The only one who could deal with the monsters was me.
I convinced her with the perfect reasoning.

Well, honestly, I just wanted to finish off those monsters and then gather my wives for a chat.

Anyway, I really needed to return as soon as possible.

"...Aren’t we going to finish what we started?"
"Huh?"
"The baby-making part..."
"We can do that later. For now, let’s take care of those monsters!"
"...Hmph!! Hmph, hmmm!! Hmmm!!!"

Despite Master’s playful grumbling, I had no choice but to take her and head out.
With a body that had changed in many ways.
Towards the scene of my regression’s nightmare. The EX-Rank Gate.

-Chatter.

"Unit 3 will join with Unit 19 for a two-minute battle…"
"Sorry I’m late!"
"...Yujin!!!?"

The scene was still a mess.
The number of monsters had doubled from earlier.
The awakened ones were clearly exhausted.

Thanks to the coordination with the units, they were able to fight back, but…
They had been getting beaten relentlessly by the monsters for hours without being able to land a proper hit.
Exhaustion was inevitable.

I rushed forward.

"Lead those monsters to me."
"No, more importantly, what’s going on with you? Why can’t we see you in the future..."
"There’s no time for explanations! Trust me and lead the way!"

A manly line, I know.
Kong’s reaction was, well, unsurprising.

-Zzzt.

"Unit 0! Lead the monsters to HQ and retreat while drawing them!"
"Mr. Bockjikkong?! How could you open up the front like this?"
"My sixth sense is telling me this is a losing battle…"
"I know, but it’s just one monster! It’s not a big loss!"

Trusting me, Kong mobilized the units.
Despite opposition from Sybilla and the President, they managed to lure one monster towards us.

-Swoosh.

"Hey… wait, Yujin?!"
"Finally here, you turtle!?!"
"Papa’s here!"
"Hah, you finally made it. Do you have any idea how dangerous it was for us to fight like this? You’re such a troublesome old man."

Four awakened ones came running to me.
Alice. Shia. Haru. Winterer.
It seemed Kong had paired up those who knew each other.

And in front of them…
A single monster, showing no signs of injury, grinning widely.
It looked like a hideous eel-like creature.

"Disciple, I’ll help you…"
"We’ll try fighting first. I’ll be back soon!"

-Slash!!

I lunged at the monster with my katana forged from my soul.
At full speed.

And then…

The nightmare-like monsters.
Unbearable violence. Unreasonable strength.
The monsters spilling out of the EX-Rank Gate…

-Slash.

"""""……Huh?"""""

It was cut down.
So simply, it felt almost anticlimactic.

***

After quite some time had passed.

Kong, the President, Sybilla.
Shia, Alice, my Master.
Haru, Winterer.

The people most closely connected to me gathered around.
To someone like me, who was no longer fully human.

I sat there, slumped like a sinner bearing the weight of guilt.

"This… this is…"

-Stammering.

[Well, I did give you everything, but I didn’t expect you’d want to use this empty shell of a body…?]

"Suddenly, sexual harassment? Yujin, is that your thing? A kid like you…"
"Sure, it might be the size of what I saw in the ‘Eye of the Beholder,’ but still, come on."
"Ugh. Dad’s a total mess. Not even human."
"This is totally unfair!!!!!"

I protested to the judge, feeling totally wronged.