CH 2

What kind of words did she need to use to tell the story in a normal way and make sense?

“I would return! Until Your Highness doesn’t die!”

Ophelia wrapped her hands around her head. That was the same explanation as before.

Richard’s low voice fell over her frustrated head.

“I know.”

“So, let me explain again what this means…. What?”

“I said I knew.”

He swept his face with one hand.

“I’m also returning like you.”

The boredom and resignation were buried beneath the calm voice.

Ophelia was once again at a loss for words.

She wondered if what she had just heard was hallucinations or not. Ophelia, who opened and closed her mouth, and Richard stared at each other for a while.

Hey … Don’t tell me, you too?

Towards Ophelia who asked with her eyes, Richard answered with unimpressed eyes.

Hey, me too.

A few seconds after tacit understanding, Ophelia cried.

“Your Highness is also returning? And ever since you died?”

“It’s just like what you said.”

“Oh … oh my God.”

Ophelia lost strength in her legs and flopped down next to her bed. She raised her trembling hands to rub her face while dragging Richard.

“The same… the same regression….”

The wonder, bewilderment, and joy of the fact that she had met someone in the same situation and the fear that this situation wasn’t caused by her own madness came at once.

Ophelia shut her eyes tightly and opened her eyes whilst raising her head. She was as pale as a sheet, and then she asked Richard again.

“Three days ago. Do you remember the assassins?”

“Yeah. Now that you mention it, you shouted that there were killers.”

Richard tilted his head slightly as if he had just realized it.

“I returned for the first time that day. Though I always died before Your Highness. That is not the point. What time did Your Highness return to that day?”

“Before entering the banquet hall.”

“If you could be more specific….”

“It was literally just before I entered the banquet hall.”

At the end of his answer, the two of them were silent. She asked about the timing of the return to find any clues about this crazy regression.

However, it was a failure because she didn’t know whether it was the same time before the Crown Prince entered the banquet hall alone and when her mother scolded her.

Then another clue… Ophelia, who had been searching for three days, raised her head.

“Your highness! Then why did you do that when you kept returning?”

How come every time she returned, he acted exactly the same way until she did something.

“Why?”

“Why did you just stand still?”

Richard didn’t answer.

“If Your Highness doesn’t die, the regression will be over! No, are your conditions for ending the regression different from mine?”

“Is your return condition my survival?”

“Yes! It is the most obvious fact I have realized in this damned return for n times.”

“Then it’s no different.”

“Then why don’t you do anything…?”

Ophelia didn’t speak anymore. No, she couldn’t.

Much more than the deep resignation in his voice, buried in Richard’s dark golden eyes.

For she saw a deeper, darker resignation and despair.

She didn’t know how many times she had been speechless since faced him. Ophelia frowned, then shut her mouth.

When she asked him the question, tried to hear the answer to why he was so stupid even when she grabbed him by the collar and shook him.

“I’m tired.”

Her head, which had been going down gradually, was lifted again. Richard wasn’t looking at Ophelia.

Staring somewhere far away, out of focus, he continued to speak in a terribly calm and dry voice.

“I’m exhausted. Why on earth do death and regression repeat itself? No, it doesn’t matter if it’s repeated. But I can’t figure out how long or how many times I have to repeat this. It just … doesn’t end.”

His sincerity quietly poured out as if he were talking to himself.

His stagnant and rotten heart wrapped around Ophelia’s.

After returning for the first time three days ago, she woke up with cold sweat just from the day’s memory.

She checked her watch several times a day, and she looked anxiously around her, unable to stay calm for a moment.

Unable to bear her mind being shattered, she kidnapped the Crown Prince.

She wanted to break free from that terrible death and regression cycle.

However….

However, the Crown Prince, who had the same experience as Ophelia, had been going through that damn regression much longer than she had.

Ophelia unconsciously took the prince’s hand, which was hanging on the edge of her bed.

It was too big to cover it all with her own hands, but she held it tighter because the Crown Prince’s hand was colder than hers, which was chilled by her tension.

Richard’s eyes slowly turned to her.

Ophelia didn’t say that she sympathized with his suffering. She didn’t even shed a tear for him.

She just spoke each word firmly with burning eyes.

“‘Two heads are better than one. There’s a saying that it’s better to do anything together. Your Highness is no longer alone.”

The moment she said that the spark of hope didn’t dramatically ignite in Richard’s eyes.

“So let’s put an end to this damn regression together.”

Even with that said, Richard didn’t raise his eyebrows at all. His mouth was still firmly shut, and the resignation in his eyes did not disappear.

But Ophelia went on without giving up.

“I’ll tell you from the beginning what I’ve been through. If anything is bothering you, please point it out right away.”

Thus Ophelia’s story goes back to three days ago.

⌛

– Imperial Calendar. Year 588. April 13th. 10:02 p.m.

Three days before she kidnapped the Crown Prince. The beginning of infinite regression.

The first infinite regression, the 0th regression.

“… behave, so you don’t do anything bad.”

“Yes.”

Ophelia nodded her head softly, shedding her mother’s sharp voice into one of her ears.

She was tongue-tied, then her mother turned away with the sound of the wind.

Ophelia’s stiff shoulders dropped slightly as she looked at her mother’s back.

National Foundation Day. The most glamorous and most important party of the year.

All nobles listed on the Imperial List must attend.

From the Emperor who was at the top op the power pyramid, to the baron’s children who were at the bottom.

A day when everyone gathered.

It was such a special day, but Ophelia entered the banquet hall in a dress that wasn’t much different from her usual clothes.

Ophelia attended only to suit with others anyway.

Those of her age, who was at the right age for marriage, had to do everything they could to raise their ransom regardless of gender.

However, Ophelia has already decided on her fiance and the engagement date.

She shook her head when she recalled her fiancee’s eerie gaze.

Let’s think on the good side. She was ready to run away anyway.

“Oh, hello. How are you? Today … uhm, today is….”

A young lady looking up and down at Ophelia, clouded her words.

No matter how hard she tried, she wouldn’t be able to look at Ophelia and say good things.

“It was just like any other day, but today you are more beautiful.”

When Ophelia said that with a smile, the young lady tried to hide her proud expression and waved her hand.

How many times had she said the same thing? 

It looked like the size of a thumb, but she could see his highness the Crown Prince. Ophelia let out a long sigh.

She could get out now.

She turned her body towards the door.

“Huh?”

Ophelia didn’t even know what had happened. A rush of heat surged from her stomach.

She looked down at her stomach. Blood was dripping from her pale apricot dress.

Ophelia’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. The sword that pierced her stomach was pulled out roughly.

Her vision gradually spun.

The next moment, it was dark.

“I-I thought I was dead. No, I didn’t even know I was dead.”

“When I first died, neither I did.”

Ophelia couldn’t laugh at the unexpected remarks of the prince who meekly agreed. For she wasn’t equipped with a mental to laugh while throwing a joke about death.

Instead, she continued her story.

“I returned right after I died. I thought the second was just weird. I thought it could be a deja vu. Of course, the result is….”

“Dead.”

Again, the Crown Prince quickly added a retort.

As if to prove that the words about what she had already gone through all were never nonsense.

Ophelia’s saliva ran down through her throat. Her tongue was dry, but she spoke again.

“Third time, I died while trying to make sure it was just a dream…. Oh, come to think of it, your highness caught me on the third time.”

Her words put the Crown Prince in thought for a moment.

He had already went through too many deaths and regressions until he could hardly remember all of them.

No, he tried to erase it from his memory. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to hold out even now when he had given up everything.

Ophelia immediately shrugged her shoulders.

“Anyway, the fourth time, I died when I finally realized that it was reality, and the fifth I died while struggling to survive.”

The Crown Prince raised his hand and stopped her story.

“How far does this story go?”

He was expressionless, but his shining gem-like eyes were dull and showed boredom.

“That’s it. Well, after dying and returning, I got out of it.”

“By saving me?”

“Yeah, well, all I did was scream and pop some assassins who were aiming His Highness in the back of the head. As I said before, I’m good at hitting in the back of the head. After repeating it dozens of times, I get better on my own.”