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“…Robert.”
There was no reply. Adele, her trembling hand reaching for his limp body slumped against her shoulder, moved her lips at the warmth she felt.
It was still warm, but it was growing cold. Why—why? How could this be?
“Robert.”
Her hand, touching his back, ca away covered in blood. Robert was there, in a world painted crimson.
His back pierced, his chest pierced by the mana blast from monts ago. Adele stared blankly at the wound, her eyes slowly beginning to tremble.
He was dead—no, that couldn’t be. He had said it would be nothing. He had always returned unhard whenever she thought he was dead. He would be fine this ti too, Adele thought, slowly lifting Robert.
He was like a puppet with its strings cut. He must have fainted. He always went limp like this when he was exhausted.
She could heal his wounds. Even if she didn’t have a clear thod in mind, Robert couldn’t be dead. Robert had died and co back to life countless tis.
Soone like that couldn’t die so easily. Adele steeled her resolve.
“Soone will co soon. We can be a little late in marching on the capital… We can leave after you’re healed.”
It could be delayed. No matter what Kaitel was planning, it wasn’t more important than Robert’s life.
If he lived, if he lived… After seeing him get up as if nothing had happened, she could scold him, get angry at him for doing sothing so reckless.
Robert’s feet, slung over her back, dragged along the ground. Blood flowed down her back, then stopped, and Adele chuckled hollowly.
His blood was cold. The hand she was holding, his body slumped against her, was cold.
She tried to ignore it. There was still hope, it wasn’t too late. But she couldn’t deny the fact that she couldn’t even feel the faint breath she had always felt.
Her bitten lips turned white. Her trembling legs gave way, and Robert’s body slid off her back.
It was unnatural.
He wouldn’t be like this even if he had just fainted. A living person couldn’t not breathe. His body wouldn’t be this cold if he were alive.
The Northern wind was cold, a bone-chilling wind despite it being autumn. His blood congealed, and his pale face, eyes still open, was pressed against the ground. řäΝȫ฿Ę𝙨
“He’s alive.”
The hazy mories she thought she had forgotten, the things she had wanted to forget, resurfaced. Her father, who had disappeared, and when she found him again, he was dead.
She had always been the one to die first when she was with Robert, so this was the first ti she had felt this way.
She didn’t want to feel it again. Her trembling lips were bitten until they bled, and the hand that had been caressing Robert’s cheek now clutched his shirt, crumpling the fabric.
She couldn’t even rember the last ti she had cried, and she lowered her head, feeling the tears streaming down her face.
Her chest ached with each sob. She had so much she wanted to say, so many things she hadn’t said yet.
“—.”
Adele, holding his completely cold body, muttered softly. Her voice wouldn’t co out properly, her throat constricting, and she felt a sharp pain.
It was happening again. She had lost soone precious again.
Back then, it was because she was powerless, and this ti, she had only been on the receiving end of his help.
She had beco stronger. She was called the Grand Duchess, and she had never shown a single mont of weakness in front of Robert, always pretending to be strong.
Just where had things gone wrong?
The adjutants had noticed Adele crying uncontrollably for the first ti in her life, but no one dared to approach her.
Robert, his chest pierced, still didn’t respond. The warm breath she had always felt, the smiling lips, didn’t move. He was dead.
Adele, realizing that she could no longer see him, stared blankly into the void. She couldn’t maintain the composure she had always held.
She couldn’t accept reality, so she just… stared blankly at Robert, wishing it was all a dream.
“Don’t… leave .”
The woman, who had been alone since childhood, was alone again. She had lost him last ti, and her vow to protect him this ti had been broken.
She wiped away the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing, but her tear-streaked face wouldn’t return to normal. And Robert wouldn’t co back to life.
As everyone held their breath in the silence, unable to even utter a word, a soldier rushed in from the side and delivered an urgent report.
“Urgent report-!”
“Be quiet! Can’t you see the atmosphere here?!”
“I-It’s not that. The Saint has arrived!”
The silence that had seed eternal was broken in an instant. Everyone present realized that the Saint was their only hope in this situation.
Adele slowly raised her head and gave the order. A simple order to bring the Saint to her.
It was a ti when a miracle was needed.
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A winding white path wasn’t what he saw. At first, there was only pitch-black darkness.
He wondered why the regression wasn’t happening, then rembered his vow at the beginning of his 101st life, about eternal death, and laughed in disbelief.
He hadn’t wanted it to happen like this. Was this so kind of cosmic joke?
Well, if the regression had started in this situation… it would have been quite difficult to endure.
He didn’t regret dying in Adele’s place, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there had been a better way.
…He didn’t know what Adele was doing right now.
This darkness where he couldn’t even tell how much ti had passed since he opened his eyes, this abyss that didn’t seem to want anything from him… Perhaps it was his personal hell.
As he lay there, unable to even grasp the passage of ti, a light suddenly leaked from the ceiling, touching him and flowing towards a certain point.
He followed the flickering light, as if it was urging him to follow, and finally, he saw this space.
“Ruins…?”
The problem was that it was so collapsed and destroyed that it was difficult to discern its original form.
It definitely looked like ruins, but he couldn’t tell what it had been used for. There were towering pillars, probably ant to support the ceiling, but that was all the information he could gather.
He continued walking, but nothing changed except for the stones that crunched under his feet.
The light dimd, and the darkness that had enveloped the surroundings receded. He looked up at the sky, and brilliant stars showered their light down on him.
The destroyed ruins and the star clusters embedded like jewels, the pitch-black canvas painted as if in a picture, a new stroke of white beginning… He felt sothing change and turned around, and saw a woman wearing a hooded robe.
When had she been standing there? He instinctively reached for his weapon, then frowned slightly, realizing he didn’t have one.
Had his senses dulled so much that he couldn’t even feel her presence? It might have been because he was dead. He didn’t want to acknowledge it, but he was definitely dead.
Fortunately, the woman didn’t seem hostile. The light that had been wriggling in the air disappeared, seeping into the woman, and he realized that this space belonged to her.
He wondered why she had summoned him here.
“We finally et. I’ve been waiting for this mont for a very long ti.”
“…That sounds like you’ve been waiting for to die.”
“That wouldn’t be wrong. Your will was crucial for this eternal regression to end.”
Her quiet smile seed mocking, but strangely, he didn’t feel angry. He felt a familiar presence, but she seed to notice his observation and turned towards him, moving her lips.
“I was planning to explain everything even if you didn’t stare at like that. From the fact that there will be no more regressions, to the reason you’re in this space.”
“I’m curious about that, but I’m more curious about sothing else.”
“What is it?”
“…What’s Adele doing right now?”
He was more worried about what would happen afterward than about his own death. Was she devastated? Was she crying too much?
He hoped she wasn’t too sad, and he felt uneasy about their parting without any preparation.
The woman, pondering the na Adele, chuckled and looked at him intently.
He frowned, wondering what was so funny, and the woman sighed and continued.
“You don’t have to worry. You’ll see her again.”
“What do you an, see her again?”
“It ans you’re not dead yet. Although your body was pierced, your heart ‘briefly’ stopped in that mangled state. A miracle is still on your side. My will also intervened to so extent. I had anticipated that sothing like this would happen.”
The more he listened to her, the more his eyes narrowed. She spoke as if she had known about his regressions from the beginning, as if she was aware of everything.
She had answered his question, but he had only asked out of desperation.
He had thought this space was unusual from the mont he saw it, but what kind of being was this woman to be able to give such an answer?
It didn’t take long for that question to be answered. The woman removed her hood, and he saw a familiar face.
“…Ad, riana?”
“I imagine the resemblance is quite striking. That child inherited my divine power, so she would naturally resemble . I’ve always been by Adriana’s side, and also with you.”
There was only one being who could be described as such. The one who had bestowed divine power upon Adriana, the one he had expected to be involved in his regressions in so way.
“Allow to introduce myself again. I am Eden, the goddess who created and observes the moon.”
The woman, who looked exactly like Adriana, smiled. But he still couldn’t answer, he needed ti to process this situation. He had thought it was all over, but… it wasn’t.
Nothing.
Nothing was over yet.
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[Translator Notes]
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