Chapter 1

Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi

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Chapter 1

There is a haunted house on Ave Street.

The house used to be quite glamorous. Although, now, the eerie mansion with no windows and covered in molds was the place to test courage for the local children.

However, until a few weeks ago, a woman suddenly showed up.

“You idiots, get out of here!”

Even in the chilly weather, a shabby woman with sparse hair in a sheer summer dress, holding a broomstick, was chasing away the children.

“Uwaaa!”

“It’s a black witch!”

“…Phew.”

Celine sighed as she looked back at the fleeing children.

Those children will not know that she was actually protecting them from this cursed house. In fact, her situation does not change whether the children die or not.

But, she couldn’t let an innocent life die…

It was when Celine was about to move her body to a sunny place.

“Ack…!”

For a moment, her ankles seemed to burn. Celine let out her scream and looked down hurriedly.

As the viper squirmed, it shoved a fang into her ankle once more.

“Aaaaackkk!”

Celine grabbed her ankle and rolled. She was in so much pain that she could not think anymore. Soon, the pain engulfed her whole body, and darkness came only after struggling for several minutes.

No one witnessed her icy body.

It was Celine Hunt’s 84th death.

***

“Heeeukk…!”

A man groaned in the dark.

Cold sweat ran down his pale skin profusely.

“Again, that dream…?”

Leonhard Bernoulli, a young northern wolf, got up from his bed and went to the window.

It was a quiet night without a single bird crying, though the pounding heart never calmed down. Because he knew that even if he fell asleep again, that woman, Celine, would appear again.

Leonhard shut his eyes.

In his dream just a moment ago, he had a vivid picture of the woman howling while clutching the ankle bitten by a viper.

“Aaaaackkk!”

Pale and tired, and then she stops breathing…

“Uhuk!”

Holding onto the cup that the servant had prepared in advance, Leonhard drank the cool water to cool himself down.

‘…I’m going crazy.’

And, because of that, he hadn’t slept properly for exactly thirty-nine days.

Because every night, in his dreams, a woman named Celine appeared and died horribly. Even the pain, bitterness, and injustice that the woman suffers from dying can be felt by him.

For the first few days, the woman was simply terrified. But, as days passed, the spirit of the woman became exhausted, and she even cried out and cursed her own name, ‘Celine.’

Everyone was worried that the successor of the Grand Duke was getting tired day by day. However, neither the doctor nor the Archmage could come up with a solution.

“I have to find her somehow…”

Already a week or so ago, the Bernoulli family’s intelligence network was given an order to find the woman. Nonetheless, no matter how detailed the description was, the empire was vast, and Celine was a rather common name.

As a result, Leonhard’s annoyance was at its peak. The informants brought in the first face of a woman they saw.

Doubts about whether the woman actually existed circulated among members of the Grand Duchy, but Leonhard dismissed it with a single word.

‘I just know.’

His senses were telling him that she was a living person somewhere in this empire.

Leonhard did not lose hope, as his sense of slaughtering countless enemies had never been wrong.

“…Did you not sleep today?”

A calm voice came from behind his back with a feather-light chuckle.

Hearing that, Leonhard slowly turned around. An informant from the Bernoulli family, who sneaked in unnoticed, fell to his knees.

“I found her.”

Even upon hearing that, he didn’t wiggle an eyebrow. Rather, it was disappointing how slow it took them.

“Twenty years old. Her full name is Celine Hunt. She was the daughter of a fallen noble, and she lives alone on the outskirts of the Capital. It was said that her family died in an accident a few years ago.”

Listening, Leonhard nodded his head slightly. The description matched exactly the woman of his dreams.

“Did you bring her? I will check right away.”

“That…”

The informant frowned.

“Oddly enough, we couldn’t get her out…”

“What do you mean?”

“No matter how much surveillance, she suddenly disappears…”

A strange conviction seized Leonhard.

Because it’s an unusual nightmare, in a way, it goes without saying that the owner would be also unusual as well.

“I will go see for myself. Just in time, my father said that he was sending a letter to His Highness Ricardo, so I guess I can deliver it myself.”

“Young Lord!”

The informant raised his head and deterred him.

“As you can see, both the woman and the house she lives in were unusually dreary. She could be a black witch!”

At his words, Leonhard laughed.

“Isn’t that what people in the world are saying to me?”

“Young Lord…!”

The informant shouted in shock.

“Besides, what about a black witch? It’s my job to cut them down with Rashir.”

Finishing his words, he then glanced at Rashir, the famous sword standing next to the bed, with affectionate eyes. There was only one person in the Empire who could draw out Rashir, who nullifies all magic with blue flames and inflicts extreme pain on the enemy.

A reluctant word came out of the informant’s mouth.

“…There is no doubting the Young Lord’s abilities.”

At that, the corners of Leonhard’s lips rose slightly.

“If you really think so, then don’t worry.”

The informant quietly bit his mouth. When Leonhard decided on something, even the Grand Duke and his wife couldn’t change his mind.

The next day.

And so, Leonhard Bernoulli rode his horse towards the Emperor without an attendant.

***

“I die. I don’t die. I die. I don’t die… I die.”

Celine muttered mournfully as she plucked the daisy flower leaf by leaf. It seemed that she was destined to die today.

‘How am I going to die today…?’

Slowly, she took out and put on thick boots that even the viper’s teeth could not easily penetrate. For fear of being stung by bees, she carefully plucked the flowers as well. In addition, Celine never put fire in the rusty oven for fear of starting a fire. She was worried about tetanus, and she always wore gloves.

Still, despite all her efforts, today, Celine will die…

She’s the heroine of the horror game [ Celine’s Nightmare ]

She cried so much that a tear fell from her eyes, thinking that there was no more to flow.

‘I’m tired…’

Was it a goddamn sin that she likes horror movies and horror games?

[ Celine’s Nightmare ] was a game recommended by a friend who knew her well. She was immersed in the story as the cute character goes through a bloody dead-ending in a cursed mansion.

After playing all day, the main character barely escapes the threat of death and sees the first ending that makes her happy.

The moment she tries to start the second play to see the true ending that tells the true story of the story…

She became ‘Celine’ at the time of the tutorial.

The first thing Celine had to get used to in her new life was her death. It had been exactly forty-one days since she got possessed as of today. During that time, Celine died countless times.

On the first day, she died five times.

It happened three times on the second day.

On the third day, for fear of death, she lay motionless all day.

It was very stupid. Just like Celine did in the actual game, her limbs gradually paralyzed and she suffocated because she couldn’t even breathe…

All the deaths were painful.

But, what made Celine suffocate in fear even more than a painful death was the thought that now might be the best time.

Celine is now twenty years old. It was still just the tutorial age.

In the first stage of the main story, which begins after the tutorial, Celine was twenty-five years old. In other words, five years from now, there will be dead endings that are incomparable to today’s.

Recalling that thought, Celine shook her body.

It would be nice if there were save points just like in the game. Nonetheless, she just endlessly revived. And, as she continues to feel the pain of death slowly disappearing.

It was just like that just yesterday.

After she was bitten by a viper, she awoke and found that the wound on her ankle was still sore and her whole body was sore from the poison.

It was like the day she died in a fire. When she awoke, Celine was coughing from the ashes, and her whole body was burning as if it had been burned.

“I’m immortal. Immortal Celine!”

Celine exclaimed with joy.

She started muttering to herself lately because she’s going crazy if she doesn’t say anything. She has no one to see, anyway.

‘Ah, except for them…’

Celine frowned sharply.

A few days ago, people wearing dark masks that she had never seen in the game appeared and went crazy. They captured Celine in an instant and tried to take her out of the mansion.

To be honest, she was a little overjoyed.

She could get out of this mansion where death lurks everywhere!

But, the expectations were quickly dashed. She was tied up, and Celine, loaded in the carriage, returned to the mansion at some point. It was no different than when she tried to escape alone.

‘Are those humans part of the tutorial…?’

She thought the tutorial was annoying and skipped the tutorial halfway through.

Celine shook her head. As long as they don’t kill Celine, it doesn’t matter to her. Lately, she has had her head filled with thoughts about how she could die less.

The hope that she could get out of the game, or that there would be a fundamental way to stop this death loop, was long gone. The more she tried to escape from the game, the more horribly she died.

Celine moved her steps slowly. Because she was wearing a thin dress, her body shivered. If she doesn’t get in quickly, she’ll die of the flu.

—Creak!

Out of nowhere, she could hear the door open wide.

Celine hurriedly turned her body. Her eyes widened spontaneously and her mouth opened.

A really, really handsome man was breathing heavily and staring straight at Celine. The pale blue eyes burned with emotions that were unknown to her.

“Who… who are you?”

A puzzled question flowed from her mouth.

She couldn’t do anything but stare at the man’s face as if possessed. It was as though her whole body froze. Although she felt like a fool, Celine couldn’t help it.

He was a handsome man who could make you believe he was a Greek statue carved with the soul of a human being. Even the deep dark circles under his eyes sparkling like sapphires looked like essentials for a handsome man soaked in rain.

The man’s eyes narrowed, and his sexy lips moved. Celine followed the movement of his lips as if bewitched. A beep sounded from the side of her chest ‘who the hell is this man?’, though she ignored it.

A soft voice escaped from his handsome lips.

“I thought you were going to die, but you look perfectly fine.”

“Yes…?”

“Say. Why are you dying in my dreams?”

“Who, who are you—”

Celine bit her lips. It was because she recognized the pattern embroidered on the man’s right chest.

A pure white rose trapped in a thorn vine.

Grand Duchy Bernoulli’s coat of arms.

…The man was Leonhard Bernoulli, the villain of [ Celine’s Nightmare ]

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