Members of the Dark Squad agilely infiltrated the interior of the Star Palace.
Lucas trailed behind them at a leisurely pace.
Walking down the halls of the Star Palace, Lucas was briefly lost in memories.
Of the beautiful youth he'd spent here with Serenade, Alberto, and so many others.
Dustia, who had tenderly cared for him after he lost his parents and came here.
Ash, who'd take arrows for him and told him to call him 'brother'.
Those sparkling, beautiful days were now trampled by the intruders' military boots.
'...'
Lucas came to a halt.
He then drew the sword that Ash had gifted him, which hung at his waist.
Shing-!
As the sound of the blade meeting the open air rang out, the leader of the Dark Squad looked back at him quizzically.
Tears rolled down from Lucas's blue eyes as he glared at the leader of the Dark Squad. The leader clicked his tongue.
"Planning to stop us now?"
'...'
"You should've just kept the door closed in the first place, kid. You opened the door for us, the blade's already in your gut, what's the point now?"
"That's not it."
Lucas spat out the words fiercely.
"I've clearly aided you all. I've kept my promise to Lord Fernandez. So, Lord Fernandez must spare my family... Separate from that, I intend to die here accidentally."
If Dustia and Ash had to die today, Lucas had resolved to die here as well.
"The serum's side effects will make me rampage, unable to distinguish friend from foe... and attack you."
"Listen kid, stop the nonsense. Just put that sword away, and we'll let bygones be by-"
But before the leader could finish, Lucas stabbed a syringe containing the serum into his own neck.
As soon as it was injected, a magical chemical reaction spread throughout Lucas's body.
Feeling as if his veins were inflating, Lucas bent over, trembling.
"Khah, Ahh...!"
His golden hair disheveled, his blue eyes flared like fire.
The tears flowing down his cheeks looked like trickling flames.
"I kept my promise, right? So... for Lord Ash's sake, let me die."
'...'
The leader clicked his tongue and gestured to his subordinates. Then, he drew two daggers from his own sheath.
"You guys handle the second empress and the crown prince. I have to deal with this pitiful kid."
Lucas, his mouth slightly open and breathing ragged, lowered his posture.
And then, wielding the sword he had received, he leapt like a beast.
***
Hall at the entrance of the Star Palace.
"Mother! Please, snap out of it!"
Standing at the first-floor entrance, Ash screamed. Ash was looking at Dustia, who was on the third-floor balcony.
With a noose made from ropes around her neck, Dustia swayed perilously above on the third-floor balcony.
"It's dangerous, Mother! Come down now!"
Ash looked around for help, but there was no one.
As luck would have it—no, as if it was meant to be—Alberto was even given a forced vacation today.
Serenade, who usually came every day to care for them, was also absent today.
Ash prayed with both hands and then finally knelt on the floor, begging Dustia.
"You promised to live with me, Mom! Please, don't do it, please...!"
"Ash."
Dustia's face was serene, as if she were back to her old self before the madness struck.
"This may sound absurd, but listen well. Your mother has lived through this day thousands of times. I know exactly what's going to happen next."
"I understand, Mom. I get it, so please come down and we can talk...!"
"I have to die so you can inherit the curse of our clan and survive today. Yes, this is the only way."
With a peaceful and warm smile, she slowly opened her mouth.
"I'm sorry, Ash. I'm really sorry for leaving you with this curse. My son. But this is the only way for you to live..."
A single tear trickled down from her smiling eyes.
"Your mother will always be by your side."
"No, Mom! Don't!"
"I love you."
Dustia leapt off the railing.
"No—!"
Along with Ash's scream, Dustia's lifeless body hung in mid-air.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Dustia's suicide ended quickly.
Her neck snapped from the rope before she could suffocate, cutting her life short.
Screech— screech—
Dustia's body swayed like a pendulum, hanging from the rope. A faint gray magic power emanated from her corpse and flowed into Ash, who stood there blankly shedding tears.
-Click.
As if winding up a clock,
"Kuh-ack, Kuh-ack?! Keuk, Kuh-ack!"
Ash, who had collapsed on the ground, violently coughed and trembled.
Soon enough, his shaking subsided, and his jet-black eyes grew cold.
"...Ah."
As Ash slowly stood up, his voice had changed slightly.
"Damn it. This feeling never gets easier, no matter how many thousands or tens of thousands of times I go through it."
The youthful cheerfulness unique to a fifteen-year-old boy was nowhere to be found.
His voice was tired and worn, as if aged over time.
"Couldn't you have picked a different point for the loop... why is it always this moment when I return?"
Looking up at his mother with eyes filled more with emptiness than sorrow, Ash let out a dry sigh.
"Couldn't you consider how your son feels, having to see your corpse every time he loops back?"
He wiped away the tears that wetted his cheeks, as if annoyed.
Ash then turned his body around.
"And you guys are really getting on my nerves."
Members of an assassination squad had already poured into the first-floor hall.
There were about twenty of them.
Each one, specialized in killing, slowly surrounded Ash.
"Sigh..."
Ash extended his arm forward after flicking his hair back.
"Come at me, you fuckers."
A sardonic smile hung on the boy's lips.
"I'm in a shitty mood. I'll vent a little."
"...?"
The assassination squad members were the ones confused.
A young prince with no combat abilities, and unarmed at that, was provoking them.
The only explanation was that he had lost his mind.
But what did it matter?
He was fated to die here anyway.
The agents simultaneously drew their knives and charged at Ash from all directions.
***
The two daggers swung by the assassination squad leader had both impaled Lucas.
One in the shoulder, the other in the side.
Lucas's sword, in turn, was lodged in the assassination squad leader's body.
In the left chest.
In the heart.
The leader had tried to subdue Lucas rather than kill him. Lucas noticed this and took advantage of it.
He intentionally took hits in non-lethal areas, and in that moment, drove his killing strike into the leader.
The leader was a strong man, but he had failed to fully grasp the boy's concentrated will and determination. So, he allowed a fatal wound.
"Kuh-ack, Kuh-ack! ...Well, looks like you got me good..."
The leader coughed up blood and laughed as he collapsed.
"So you're a McGregor after all..."
Thud.
The leader's body fell lifelessly to the side.
After confirming the leader's death with his blazing eyes, Lucas, swaying, headed towards the Star Palace.
Lucas had taken multiple hits, not just to his shoulders and sides. Blood oozed from his entire body, and it felt as though he would lose consciousness at any moment. But he kept walking.
He had intended to die next to Dustia and Ash.
'If nothing else, let me die... with them...'
Leaving behind footsteps stained with blood, Lucas gritted his teeth.
From the garden to the entrance of the Star Palace, there was no place untouched by memories.
With his face distorted like a beast's due to his feral state, Lucas choked up.
I want to go back.
To those days.
To those days that were as beautiful as flowers...
Summoning the last of his strength, Lucas entered the first floor of the Star Palace.
"...?"
He was met with an inexplicable sight.
All the members of the assassination squad lay dead, rolling around as corpses. Without a single exception, they had all died.
And atop the pile of those corpses--
"You're late."
Ash was sitting.
Drenched in blood as if he were a king of hell seated on a throne, he greeted Lucas with a casual yet desolate smile.
"Traitor."
"What... How...?"
Unable to comprehend the situation, Lucas stammered. Ash casually shrugged.
"Every time I regress, the same guys attack me in the same way. Would be pretty pathetic if I couldn't beat them by now, don't you think?"
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince... Is that you...?"
The atmosphere had changed.
It had changed too drastically.
Gone was the gentle, innocent boy; the man who stood before him now was like a harsh, biting wind, tinged with the scent of blood and dust.
"The Crown Prince? Sure, I am the Crown Prince."
Ash chuckled softly as he rose from the pile of corpses.
"Now, traitor. The Crown Prince you should kill is right here. Are you going to tear me apart, or has rabies clouded your judgment so much that you can't even recognize your target?"
Ash's piercing eyes radiated palpable hostility.
Lucas staggered backward.
"No, I didn't... I didn't come to kill you, my brother..."
"Don't call me 'brother.' Damn it. Makes my skin crawl."
Ash shoved his hands into his pants pockets and strode toward Lucas.
"If you hadn't opened that door tonight, my mother would still be alive."
Dustia's corpse had already been moved to the first floor by Ash.
Only then did Lucas confirm Dustia's death, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"If you hadn't colluded with them to save your own family, my mother would have lived much longer...! And I would have started this godforsaken loop a little later!"
Ash growled menacingly as he reached the trembling Lucas.
"It's all your fault, Lucas. All of it."
"Ah, ah... Aaaah..."
While Lucas couldn't fully understand Ash's words, the undeniable truth was that he had betrayed him. Unable to utter a word, Lucas trembled.
His right hand still clutched a sword.
In one swift motion, Ash grabbed Lucas's wrist and pressed the sword against his own neck.
"Go on, you disloyal mutt! Attack! You came here to stab me, didn't you?"
As Lucas's sword tip lunged toward Ash's neck,
Thump!
Lucas hastily wedged his left arm between them, blocking the blade.
Blood spurted from Lucas's left arm where the sword had lodged. Ash glanced at him irritably, then shoved him aside.
Thud!
Lucas's body rolled limply onto the floor,
Clang-!
and his already damaged sword shattered into pieces.
Amidst the ruins of shattered swords and pools of blood he had spilled, Lucas knelt on the ground and sobbed, his head pressed to the floor.
"I messed up, I messed up..."
"..."
"Please kill me, Your Highness... Kill me, please..."
As consciousness began to fade due to the backlash from turning into a beast and excessive bleeding, Lucas continued to apologize until he eventually lost consciousness.
Ash, who had been watching Lucas with disdain, sighed deeply and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Consistently useless from start to finish..."
Ash then skillfully pulled out some bandages from a nearby cabinet and applied first aid to Lucas's wounds.
Despite his blood-soaked hands, he wrapped bandages around them and then took a cigarette from the cabinet, lighting it and placing it in his mouth.
Click-
Though he had lived a life far removed from smoking, his movements were incredibly natural, as if he had been smoking his entire life.
"Phew..."
As he exhaled a long puff of smoke and leaned back,
"Well, it seems like the situation has been resolved, hasn't it?"
A mage wearing a gray robe leisurely walked into the hall.
Though it was an unexpected appearance, Ash, as if he had anticipated it, bit down on his cigarette and scowled.
"This wouldn't happen to be the great 'Prophet' of our Everblack, always a beat late?"
"Haha. Prophet, you say? Let's forgo such flattering titles."
The mage who had appeared five hundred years ago and assisted in the revival of Everblack.
The 'Prophet' who had transformed the black thorn tree into a magical lighthouse and led the construction of the empire.
As he slowly removed the hood of his robe, the face of a man with disheveled gray hair and thick glasses, through which his eyes were not visible, was revealed.
Glaring at him, Ash spat out the smoke.
"Nice to see you again, you damn Director."
The Prophet—Aider, then responded with his characteristic, elongated voice.
"Did you enjoy your short vacation, 'Save Slot'? Now, let's begin this round of the 'game'."
Then, Aider bitterly corrected himself.
"No... the last round of the game permitted to us."
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/MattReading
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