Princess Connect: Regret Override — The Single Taboo That Saves the Fallen
This is the story of a boy who commits a taboo to save his lost comrades.
The setting is the floating guild called Cafe Etoile, at the edge of the Astraea Continent. Its member is Rent, a boy who is a trainee cook. He is an ordinary boy — no talent for swords or magic. But his devotion to his friends is unmatched.
One day, a mysterious monster called Void Gate appears before Rent and his friends. This monster erases the very existence of anyone it touches. His comrades vanish one after another
Princess Connect: Regret Override — The Single Taboo That Saves the Fallen - Vassals of the Black Mist — The Night When the Reason to Protect Is Questioned, and the Laughter Is Lost —
The bakery's stone oven had been pouring out heat since morning.
Rent lined up the finished loaves on the wooden counter with flour-dusted hands. The crusts were golden brown. Thin wisps of steam rose up.
"Ren, are those baguettes done yet?"
Her voice flew over. Rent answered without turning around.
"Almost. Don't rush me."
"I'm not rushing you. There's a line of customers."
Yui poked her head out from the shop entrance. Her flax-colored braid bounced on her shoulder with the movement. Her sky-blue eyes fixed on Rent's hands.
"That baguette looks a little burnt, don't you think?"
"This much gives it a nice toasted flavor."
"Hmm. Well, if you say so, Ren."
Yui gave a small laugh and headed back to the shop.
Rent kept his hands moving, sliding the next batch into the stone oven. Let the dough rest. Score it. Watch the flame. In two weeks, his body had memorized this routine.
Two weeks since he'd started working here as a live-in apprentice.
Wake before dawn. Prep the dough. This shop — inherited from Yui's mother — was small, old, but warm. One stone oven. Three shelves. A sales floor about four tatami mats wide. Even so, neighbors lined up every morning for fresh-baked bread.
"Yui's Bakery."
The sign's letters glowed faintly in the morning sun.
Rent worked at this shop.
As an apprentice. A live-in baker.
(In this world, that's who I am.)
Rent quietly gripped the silver pendant hanging from his neck, hidden beneath his apron.
The pendant still stained with Yui's blood.
(No one knows who I am. Not Yui. Not anyone.)
(Even so, I can stay here.)
(That alone is enough.)
He told himself that, over and over.
Voices came from the shop.
"Good morning. What's today's recommendation?"
"The honey butter rolls just came out."
Yui's voice carried well. Bright. Kind. The kind of voice that lifted your spirits just by hearing it.
Rent listened to that voice as he kept baking.
—After closing.
The sun had tilted low. The customers had gone.
Rent was cleaning the sales floor. Sweeping the floor. Wiping the shelves. Taking down the sign. Yui was in the back, counting the leftover bread.
"We sold almost everything today."
"Yeah. The croissants were popular."
"Your croissants have gotten so good lately. At first they were all misshapen."
"At first, yeah."
Rent smiled wryly.
Those early days were rough. He didn't know how much force to use when kneading. His shaping was crooked. His baking was uneven. Yui made him redo things over and over.
"But you improve so fast. Maybe you have talent?"
"It's the fruit of hard work."
"Don't steal my lines."
Yui giggled.
Rent heard that laugh.
He definitely heard it.
It reached his ears.
But—
(I can't remember the sound of her laugh.)
Rent stopped moving the broom.
He could see Yui's smile. Her lips curved. Her eyes narrowed. Her cheeks lifted slightly. He knew she was laughing.
But the "sound" of it wouldn't take shape in his memory.
He couldn't recall it as sound.
(This is the price.)
Rent bit his lip.
The price of the regression magic. Losing pieces of existence, one by one.
The first thing he lost was the memory of Yui's laugh.
"Ren?"
Yui peered into his face.
"What's wrong? Are you tired?"
"No. It's nothing."
Rent started sweeping again.
"Okay. ...Hey, Ren."
"What."
Yui lined up the leftover bread and spoke in a casual tone.
"I feel like I've met you somewhere before."
Rent's hand stopped.
"Weird, right? We just met. But it feels like I've known you for a long time."
Rent kept his back turned.
He didn't want her to see his face.
"You're imagining things."
He kept his voice from cracking.
"You think so?"
"Yeah. I'm just a live-in baker. You and I met two weeks ago for the first time."
Something deep in his chest creaked and groaned.
(No. I've been with you since we were ten.)
(We made a promise at the top of Mont Étoile.)
(That we'd run a bakery together.)
(You gave me half a pendant.)
He wanted to say it. All of it.
But he couldn't.
"...I see. So I'm imagining it."
Yui's voice sounded a little lonely.
"Hey, Ren."
"What."
"Can I call you Ren from now on?"
Rent couldn't turn around.
"...Yeah. That's fine."
His voice almost shook.
(Ren.)
(Yui calls me by my name.)
(A stranger she shouldn't know.)
(But that's part of my real name.)
He was about to cry.
Rent clenched his back teeth.
"Thanks. Well then, let's close up for today."
Yui shut the shop door.
The sunset dyed the cobblestone street orange.
Rent let out a small breath into that light.
—Night.
The island air was chilly.
Rent walked the streets alone.
His destination: the Mirage Island Library.
A small library ten minutes on foot from the guild house. About eight thousand volumes. Mostly island history and cookbooks, but the basement held sealed ancient texts.
(That's where the book was.)
(Where the Book of Regression was.)
Rent pushed open the library's heavy door.
Inside was quiet.
The pale blue light of magic stone lamps dimly lit the rows of shelves. The smell of paper and old wood.
Behind the counter sat an old man.
White hair. Round glasses. Hunched over, reading a thick book.
The old librarian, Renfield.
An old man who'd been guarding books in this library for over thirty years.
"Good evening."
When Rent called out, Renfield slowly raised his head.
"Oh. You again."
"There's something I want to look up."
"Again? You really are studious. A baker, yet you only read books on ancient script."
Renfield narrowed his eyes behind his glasses.
"What are you researching today?"
"The collapse of the ancient civilization."
"Ho."
"I heard there was a magic called the Gate of Time. And that it destroyed the civilization."
Renfield stared at Rent's face for a while.
Then he slowly stood.
"Follow me."
Renfield pulled a bundle of old keys from behind the counter and descended the stairs to the basement.
Rent followed.
The basement archive was cold.
Stone walls. Narrow passages. Old books packed tight on both sides.
"Here."
Renfield held out a single book.
The cover was faded. The pages yellowed.
"A copy of the records of the ancient civilization. Believed to be about fifteen hundred years old."
Rent took the book.
He opened it.
Dense rows of ancient script.
"The ancient civilization researched the 'Gate of Time,' which controls time. But that power distorted the laws of the world, and the civilization destroyed itself through the contradictions it created."
Renfield explained in a flat voice.
"Since then, time manipulation has been the greatest taboo, monitored by the Star-Law Council."
"...I know."
"Figured. Even children on this island know that story."
Renfield pulled out another book.
"But do you know about this?"
What he held out was a fragment of an old document.
The paper was tattered. More than half the text was unreadable.
"It says that before a large-scale 'Black Mist' appears, small familiars always appear as omens."
Rent's finger stopped.
"Black Mist... familiars..."
"Yes. Black mist-like monsters. Terrifying things that erase the existence of anyone they touch."
Renfield pushed up his glasses.
"This island's records contain a similar account, only once in the past. About fifty years ago, a small black mist was sighted on the island's outskirts. And one month later—"
"One month later, what?"
"A large-scale black mist attacked the island. The records say one-tenth of the islanders vanished."
A cold chill ran down Rent's spine.
(One month.)
(One month after the small familiars appear, the main body comes.)
(Then, in this world I've returned to—)
"What's wrong? You've gone pale."
"...It's nothing."
Rent stared hard at the document fragment.
"What shape do these familiars take?"
"Who knows. The records only say they're small clumps of black mist. Some are dog-sized. Some smaller."
"Where do they appear?"
"It varies. The records say they were sighted in the harbor warehouse district."
Rent bit his lip.
(The harbor warehouse district.)
(In the previous world too, the familiars appeared there.)
"...Thank you. That helps."
Rent tried to return the book.
"Wait."
Renfield grabbed Rent's wrist.
"You're not from this island, are you?"
Rent's heart jumped.
"...What are you talking about?"
"Islanders can't read ancient script. But you've been following the old document's text with your eyes like you can read it perfectly."
Renfield's eyes sharpened behind his glasses.
"Who are you?"
"...Just a baker."
Rent shook off Renfield's hand.
"Excuse me."
Rent left the basement archive.
He felt Renfield's gaze on his back.
(Bad.)
(He's suspicious.)
(But that's not the priority right now.)
Rent left the library.
The night wind cooled his heated body.
(The familiars appear in the harbor warehouse district.)
(If it's the same as last time, it's tonight.)
(Yui goes out on night patrol.)
(And then—)
Rent started running.
—The harbor warehouse district.
The smell of tide hung thick.
The street lined with warehouses emptied of people at night.
Magic stone lamps cast long thin shadows on the cobblestones.
Rent arrived at the warehouse district, out of breath.
(Where.)
(Where will they appear.)
He looked around.
Quiet.
Only the sound of waves and wind.
—Then.
"Kyaa!"
A scream rang out.
Rent's body moved on its own.
He ran at full speed toward the voice.
He rounded the corner of a warehouse.
There was Yui.
Her flax-colored braid was disheveled.
Her sky-blue eyes were wide with terror.
And in front of Yui—
Two black mists.
Dog-sized black clumps.
Their shape wouldn't hold. Their outlines wavered.
The surface of the mist writhed.
"Ren...!"
Yui noticed Rent.
"Run!"
Rent drew the knife at his hip.
A baker's knife, blade about twenty centimeters.
(I have no sword. No magic.)
(But this—)
(As a cook, I've held it every day.)
One of the black mist familiars lunged at Rent.
The mist stretched.
A grotesque movement, mimicking the shape of a dog.
Rent reversed his grip on the knife.
(Here it comes.)
The familiar leaped.
Rent dropped low and dodged sideways.
As it passed, he swung the knife through.
Shhk.
He felt the impact.
The black mist split for an instant.
One familiar let out a high-pitched shriek-like sound and scattered.
"Got it...!"
—But.
The other one was closing in on Yui.
"Yui!"
Rent threw himself in front of Yui.
The familiar's mist wrapped around Rent's left arm.
"Guh...!"
Pain.
A burning, stabbing, cold pain.
The mist dug into his arm.
"Ren!"
Yui's scream echoed deep in his ears.
Rent swung the knife down.
Shhk.
The familiar's mist was cut apart.
The remaining mist vanished with a death-rattle-like sound.
Silence.
Only the sound of waves.
Rent dropped to his knees.
His left arm was hot.
He looked. His sleeve was torn. His skin had turned black.
Miasma.
From the wound, something like black smoke rose faintly.
"Ren, Ren!"
Yui ran to him.
"Are you okay? Stay with me!"
"...I'm fine. Just a graze."
Rent forced a smile.
"Liar. You're bleeding so much. And this black stuff..."
Yui's voice trembled.
"Let's go back to the shop. I'll treat it."
Yui supported Rent's right shoulder and helped him up.
"Can you walk?"
"Yeah."
The two left the warehouse district.
—The back of the bakery.
A small living room next to Yui's room.
Rent sat in a chair.
Yui took bandages and medicine from the first-aid kit and treated Rent's left arm.
"Does it hurt?"
"I'm fine."
"There you go, acting tough again."
Yui applied the medicine, staring at Rent's arm.
The blackened skin.
"...This isn't a normal wound."
"No."
"Why was something like that in the warehouse district?"
"Who knows."
"Ren, do you know something about that black mist?"
Yui's eyes looked straight at Rent.
"...I don't know anything."
"Liar. You drew your knife without hesitation. And you seemed to read the mist's movements from the start."
Yui's voice was gentle.
But serious.
"Tell me. Who are you, Ren?"
"...Just a b
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