How To Raise Your Regressor

"Whatever you say, Ms. Philanthropist," Samur rolled his eyes.

Neia's love for human life, or maybe her aversion to taking a human life, was a bit too much for him.

'Or perhaps she's not fond of the idea of using human lives to play a game. What a fucking noob,' Samur thought.

No matter what they did, those humans were going to die, so they might as well get some fun out of it. There was nothing more to it.

After all, even if the present seemed everything to them, it wouldn't matter once they moved on to the future.

…

Woah, that was deep.

Anyway, while Neia was still stuck in her moral conundrum of whether she should compete with Samur in return for having a chance to ask anything from him, Samur stepped inside the warehouse.

While making sure to not step on the corpses as he didn't fancy dirtying his shoes or trousers, he started walking through the dark, empty corridor.

There was no one here. Were they waiting for him ahead?

"Neia, is there anyone around me?" Samur asked as his myopic eyes couldn't see clearly through the darkness.

?…Weren't we supposed to be competing?? Neia was dumbfounded; how could Samur be so shameless?

"Well, the competition is important, but my life is more impor- pfft!" Samur barely stopped himself from bursting out laughing.

?…?

"Hehehehe, ha," Samur stopped chuckling. "Like I was saying, my life is more… important than any bet we could make, right?"

?…That's rich coming from you.?

Wasn't he always rambling about killing himself?

"Oh my, why would you say that?" Samur gasped.

He didn't remember doing anything that might elicit such a sarcastic response from Neia.

As he wondered about her reply, Samur reached the end of the hallway he was in.

Just as he was about to turn right, something- someone, rather- jumped out at him from behind the corner with a sword in his hand.

"Guh!" Of course, before this ambusher could do anything, his head was blown off.

Samur looked at the hole in the wall to his right from which smoke was coming off and smirked.

Neia was coming around; she was doing way better than he expected, in fact.

This was good. After all, in addition to his personal chef, Samur wanted her to be a One Dragon Army who could decimate entire armies with her 'healing powers'.

?Are you really asking me that?? Neia asked, bewildered.

A late reaction, sure, but she was focused on protecting Samur so no one can really blame her.

"Obviously," Samur said as he finally took the right. "My, my."

Samur had no choice but to stop; his way forward was barred.

In front of him was a group of people. Well, guards actually.

Given that they were glaring at him like he was their hateful enemy and had their swords pointed at him, it didn't seem likely that they would even consider sitting down to peacefully negotiate.

Fucking primitive troglodytes.

Of course, if Samur so wanted to, he could forcibly force them to sit down on the negotiation table (like, they would have no choice but to sit if they had no legs), but killing them would be far easier.

"Kill him!" The man standing in front of that group shouted.

Those behind him gripped their swords even tighter and got ready to pounce on Samur.

Of course, since their current world's setting was high fantasy, battles were bound to be more than a simple exchange of swords.

As Samur has expected, behind the guards were two robed guys holding staffs.

They were magicians, assuming this world followed the cliché custom of mages dressing in loose robes and having their magical staffs with them at all times.

It was entirely possible that those guys were mere decoys and the real mages were hidden among the guys holding swords.

At least, that's what Samur would have done had he been their commander.

As Samur was pondering over such mundane matters, the two mages finished chanting their spells. It seemed that they had not chosen the strategy of bamboozling their enemies.

And yes, while Samur might make one believe otherwise, mages in this world had to chant if they wanted to conjure even the most basic of magic spells.

Of course, the more complex the magic spell, the longer and harder was the chant required to cast it.

"I-impossible! Chantless casting?!"

So one can only imagine their surprise when they saw Samur conjure several thick ice spears out of thin air with just a snap of his finger.

However, before the mages could even think of a way to stop him, the head of one of them burst apart.

"Wha-" Before the second could make a sense of what was happening, his head exploded as well.

"Damn, you're going all out," Samur chuckled.

Neia would make for a fine weapon of mass destruction. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

He wouldn't turn her into a literal weapon, obviously.

No matter what Samur might do to her and what kind of nonsensical overpowered abilities he'll grace her with, he would make sure that she would always retain all her emotions, her capability to reason and make decisions on her own, and her freedom.

That way, what Neia will become will depend solely on her, which would be way more amusing than directing her life.

Samur was different from those who turned Vafferan into the so-called Ultimate Weapon (lol).

'Right, I should look into what exactly Vafferan is capable of as the Ultimate Weapon,' Samur made a mental note.

After all, as far as he had heard, right now Jennifer, the Guild Master of the Old Blood Guild, was the holder of the title of the strongest human.

The only way that was possible was if no one knew that Vafferan was the Ultimate Weapon, or that the Ultimate Weapon was still incomplete.

Of course, while he was thinking all that, Neia was diligently doing her work; taking out the scums who kidnapped Lecia.

"W-what the hell is that!?" One of them screamed before having his head blow off, just like those before him.

"S-set up a defensive shield-" This guy's head was blown off as well.

'Is she seriously trying to win? Wow. This woman is more of a psychopath than me,' Samur thought.

He finally launched the ice spears hovering in the air. He didn't want to lose.

Each of those spears was as thick as two arms combined, so getting hit by them anywhere other than the limbs meant certain death.

However, as those guys were busy dealing with the unknown 'thing' that was killing them one by one, they had momentarily forgotten about Samur.

By the time they noticed, it was already too late; the spears were already at their chests.

"Shi- guh!" Their pathetic groans were the only things that escaped as their hearts were completely destroyed.

As before, the ice spears melted after killing their targets.

All that was left behind was a pile of bodies, some without their heads and some with large holes in their chests, soaking in a bloody pool.

"I'm still in the lead," Samur's leisurely voice broke the deathly silence permeating the atmosphere.

?…? Another chill ran down Neia's spine.

How could Samur be so relaxed even though he was standing in front of a scene of carnage?

She was just looking through the sensors so couldn't make out the full picture, yet she was already on the verge of awakening the trauma she had buried in her heart after so much effort.

Yet Samur was nonchalantly talking to her like absolutely nothing had happened.

It was almost as if he was used to this scene.

"Can you check if anyone else is left on this floor?" Samur asked.

?…? But all he was met with was silence.

"Oh god…" Samur rolled his eyes; as expected, this was taking a toll on Neia. "Neia!"

?Ah! Y-yes??

"Check and tell me if anyone is still left on this floor."

?Oh, um, wait a second, please,? Neia zoomed her scope out a bit to get a broader picture of the ground floor. ?No, there is no one… here,? she replied after a few seconds.

The realisation once again hit her; they had killed everyone on the ground floor.

They had taken the lives of every human present on this floor.

Most of them, if not all, must have families they wanted to return to, ideals they wanted to devote their lives to, things they thought were worthy enough to die for.

Yet their lives were mercilessly taken away by Samur and her.

Of course, those guys weren't completely in the wrong. They kidnapped Lecia.

But did that really warrant killing them so ruthlessly?

Neia wondered. If she continued walking down this path, treating human lives as mere resources to be used… would she end up just like her father?

"Don't dwell too much on it," Samur's words brought her back from the neverending spiral of questions.

?That is… impossible,? she weakly replied.

"Well, the choice is yours, of course," Samur shrugged. "But remember, you consider life to be far more sacred than it actually is. Even if we had spared them, their lives would have been just as meaningless as their deaths are."

?How… how can you say that...?

"Their current life is nothing more than one of the countless lives they have lived and will live. Their tragic end today means absolutely nothing in front of the sheer scale of their role on the Grand Stage of Life."

?So what? That doesn't mean that we can kill just anyone we want,? Neia's voice was colder than she had intended.

"Of course not," Samur shook his head. "These small lives are just as important as their overall 'life'. I'm just telling you not to think of their deaths as the be all and end all of everything."

?…? Neia bit her lips.

"Anyway, let's go. Lecia is waiting for us."

'Assuming she's still alive,' Samur thought.