CH 11

Every time the monster dug into his brain, a terrible pain penetrated his head. The pain got worse as time passed, and Yuzef inevitably became sensitive and neurotic.

It was a relief that was all. The brutal pain was enough to drive a person mad.

It was not long before Yuzef turned thirty years old.

Yuzef, struggling with a torturous headache, finally had a hunch that the monster was about to devour him completely. He had to find a way to live. He wanted to live. It was unfair to die like this.

And so…

He went back in time again.

‘I can’t get used to this headache no matter how many times I experience it.’

The past arrived by turning the hourglass upside down.

There was still a headache. Because the monster coiled in his head was still eating his brain.

But this was enough to hold out. It didn’t make Yuzef go insane like he was on the verge of death.

‘Where else should I look for clues this time?’

Yuzef, who washed his face roughly, stood upright. Just then, his figure was reflected in the mirror in front of him.

A young face, relatively normal complexion, hair color that didn’t seem to belong to a human, and bright red eyes.

It was an objectively useful appearance, even if it was a trace of a loathsome monster trying to eat him. Thanks to this, it was easy to access high-quality information by gaining favor with the aristocratic society.

He had to live somehow. He wanted to live.

…However, it was not an easy matter.

Life was fleeting. The curse that ended someone’s life at the early age of thirty that could have naturally been carried on if there were no major accidents, was cruel.

Since then, Yuzef had rewound time several times. To move on into the world after the age of thirty.

It was after another several regressions that he encountered the Duchess of Dieren again.

‘That beautiful face still remains the same.’

A year after her bereavement from her spouse, the duchess was no longer wearing mourning clothes.

Was that why? She looked even more beautiful than in his old memories.

Night-black hair fixed around the neck, cold and soft violet-like eyes, straight body lines wrapped in white skin, blooming from red lips…

…Even a bewitching smile that left one mesmerized.

When he asked her to dance, Yuzef realized again that the monster in his head had calmed down.

‘Was it not a coincidence?’

Perhaps the Duchess of Dieren would be the clue to breaking his curse and putting the monster to rest. Yuzef approached her.

How many times, how many times, how many times.

So he could be sure.

If he wanted to live.

If he wanted to breathe in the world after thirty.

‘I need her.’

The problem was her fate, which was almost as unfathomably perverse as his own.

Lizelotte Karin Dieren, she was always in the countless lives that Yuzef experienced.

She died earlier than himself.

With her three children whom she cared for like her own life.

The Alperon estate?

Trade routes?

That was just an excuse.

The only goal of Yuzef Overeem Alperon was to prolong his life.

And for that, the Duchess of Dieren was needed.

“The right person?”

When I blinked and asked back, Lord Yuzef affirmed.

“Oddly enough. When someone other than the Duchess took charge of this business, things always broke out and had to be stopped.”

“That truly is strange. Was there not a reason?”

“There were various reasons, but frankly, wouldn’t it be more efficient to invest in someone who is guaranteed success rather than to try to block the cause beforehand?”

That’s right.

“So it has to be seen properly by the Duchess.”

“……”

Hmm. Certainly.

‘I understand if that’s the circumstance.’

It made sense at once. Because I was also a person who specialized in rolling money.1

In fact, after taking the name of Dieren, I was heavily involved in the internal affairs, including the management of the mansion, as well as the external affairs to stabilize and grow the dukedom.

Thus, over the course of ten years, the Duchy of Dieren grew to its present level.

In fact, before I touched Dieren, it was such a disastrous fief that it was embarrassing to even call it a duchy. They were making only a small county’s income at most.

‘It can’t be helped since the duke was so incompetent.’

Fortunately, I was a person who felt more energetic when my daily life was hectic. Above all, I was more apt at external affairs than at internal affairs.

As a matter of fact, that was also why I missed my marriageable age.

‘I was originally the one who was supposed to inherit the Randgritz Barony.’

For reference, my parents, the Randgritz’s, was a family that started out as merchants. That was why although they were a baron family, their wealth was comparable to that of most ducal families.

…Hm. It was a story that was too bitter of an experience.

“It seems that you experienced it through regression or something. How many times have you regressed?”

“It’s difficult to calculate. The number of times was meaningless to me anyway.”

“Then what is the point?”

“It’s personal from there.”

“Hmm.”

Even if I believed in the regression and all, he was still a dubious person.

Well, what does that have to do with me? As long as we can be sure that we need each other for a purpose and never betray.

“Very well. If that is true, I have no reason not to hire Lord Yuzef.”

“You will not regret it, Duchess.”

There was no need to measure each other any longer. We concluded the contract on the spot.

The tutors that Viscount Baden had obtained arrived when I and Lord Yuzef had just exchanged the signed contract.

After deliberately keeping them waiting for about an hour or so, I called the visitors into the office.

There were a total of four visitors. But there were only two of them who could really be called private tutors.

The other two, well.

‘I expected it, but they really came together.’

They were the Viscount and Viscountess of Baden who came to put on airs under the pretext of introducing the tutors.

To tell you in advance, I disliked Viscountess Baden more than Viscount Baden.

Aside from her strict impression and ill-tempered personality, she often bumped into me in society because of her vanity and arrogance.

Isn’t she still glowering at me and fighting alone?

“No? Aren’t you Count Alperon?”

At first, Viscount Baden and his wife entered the office, flushing with anger from having to wait for an hour or so. Then, when they ran into Lord Yuzef, they were stunned and just blinked for a while.

“Hoho, I didn’t know there was a preceding visitor. You could have spoken slowly. Oh, I should introduce myself. I am Viscount Baden. This is my wife…”

And a little later, they were busy smiling and greeting each other after understanding the reason why they had to wait.

He even boasted about how great Lord Yuzef was to the tutors he brought with him.

“Count Alperon here, as you may already know, is a very great man. He’s the center of society these days. Even His Majesty the Emperor is very interested in Count Alperon, to the extent that he invites him to dinner every evening.”

Did he?

“Not only that. How skillful Count Alperon is, every business he touches makes huge profits. I heard you bought a racetrack and an opera house this time? Did you start a hotel business before that?”

That sounds like foul play, using the ability of a regressor or something.

“Moreover, I heard that he even received an offer to join the Tower of Honor not long ago. It is the first time that a person is capable of learning at that level without going through an academy, and it is very fussed over in the academic world.”

……

An offer to enter the Tower of Honor.

That would have a very close bearing on the letter of recommendation that Lord Yuzef brought to me. One of the people who wrote the letter of recommendation was a Tower of Honor scholar.

‘By the way, with Viscount Baden talking like that, Lord Yuzef has already established a great position in the capital’s society.’

It was an irresistible force that my eyes directed to Lord Yuzef. What in the world has that man been doing all this time?

“…?”

At that moment, perhaps by chance, Lord Yuzef and I’s gaze crossed each other in midair. Then, Lord Yuzef immediately crinkled his eyes in a coy manner and smiled charmingly.

‘I can’t believe he’s trying so hard to look good to me.’

Yeah, business isn’t easy.

“Oh right, Count Alperon. They say you’re still unmarried, but if you don’t mind, my daughter…”

“Come now. Now, it’s better to share your private affairs separately, Viscount Baden. Aren’t you here to introduce the tutors who will be in charge of educating the successors of the Duke of Dieren?”

At that point, he cut off Viscount Baden’s words moderately.

If I kept listening, I would not be able to tell whether he came here to introduce a tutor or to have a social gathering.

“Ah, hmhm. I was going to introduce them now. Then, starting with the scholar over there…”

“No, Viscount Baden.”

afterword

1. To increase one’s profit by lending money in return for interest.[]