CH 6

— Imperial Calendar Year 588. April 19th.

Ophelia Bolsheik, the 14th of the third infinite regression.

“Your Highness, don’t stick your head out.”

Richard couldn’t have responded to Ophelia’s sharp words, for she was sitting on his legs and pressing with her whole body, or her words might change.

Under the dimly lit desk, Ophelia sat with Richard underneath, exerting all her might to press down on his needlessly firm chest and irritably broad shoulders.

Of course, Richard could easily push her away if he wanted to, but he let it be as she was desperate enough that she threw herself at him.

Furthermore… 

“If my secret funds are blown away, I’ll let you experience firsthand that there are more troublesome things than death in infinite regression.”

It was not that scary, it was annoying. Wasn’t that a pretty cute threat?

A few seconds later, Ophelia swallowed her saliva and counted backwards from ten.

“…four, three, two, one.”

Unlike the very tense Ophelia, the impatient Richard muttered just one thing.

“It’s a success, so breathe.”

“Oh, uh-huh! Haah, haah.”

Ophelia, who had been holding her breath for a while, closed her eyes tightly and opened them again.

“Last name.”

“Last name?”

“Success! It succeeded! Aaaaah! Goddammit, we finally made it!”

As Ophelia slapped Richard on the shoulder and cheered, the corners of his lips subtly collapsed again.

He died over and over and over and over and over again.

And he returned to the way he was before he died, as if he hadn’t been dead.

Therefore, for Richard, the fact that he survived or regression was over was no longer a pleasing fact.

Another infinite regression would begin anyway.

The very happy Ophelia right in front of his eyes, who had slammed him down with her body as heavy as a cotton bat, must also know.

That it was not the end.

“Your Highness, today is over!”

“Yes. It’s done.”

Still, it wasn’t bad to see her so happy.

That’s right. It was not bad.

At that moment, Richard’s parched chest moved only very slightly.

It was like seeing an oasis in a mirage while drying out in the middle of an endless desert.

It was a whim.

Just like when he cut off the head of the assassin who cut off her throat when she grumbled that she didn’t want to be decapitated.

This, too, was nothing. Like nipping a hangnail off with a nail clipper, it must be a whim of concern.

Ophelia leaned back to get up from Richard’s body, but he pressed her head down.

“You’re going to bump into it.”

“Oh, my.”

Having been hit several times already, Ophelia shrank her neck down like a tortoise.

As Richard reached up, Ophelia’s gaze followed his hand.

He lifted the heavy desk with one arm while in a very unstable sitting position beneath her. Without even dropping a single sheet of paper piled up on the desk.

Soon, Ophelia asked, narrowing her eyes.

“With this amount of strength, you can catch the crossbow that flies through that thick triple-glazed window.”

“I don’t know because I haven’t tried it, but I’ll try it when I get a chance.”

“Yes. It’s very kind of you to experiment with my words. Plus, you hid under the desk according to my opinion.”

With her mouth sticking out like a duck, Ophelia grumbled, and came off him lightly.

As the nerves that had risen up to the top of her head were relieved, her body automatically became tired.

With the permission of Crown Prince Richard, Ophelia half-laid on the sofa in his office. Looked up at the seemingly expensive ceiling, she opened her mouth and said,

“Your Highness, it’s so hard to see your face.”

Richard was silent at the out of the blue remark, and Ophelia continued her words.

“Like this infinite return, I think there will be other cases where I’ll die at home without knowing why. Since I won’t know when that is, I’d like to request an audience in advance.”

“Ah.”

Even as Ophelia raised her limp body and sat up on the desk, she glared intently at him, her blue eyes flashing.

“I want to be able to run to Your Highness anytime, anywhere.”

If one were to judge solely by those words, it was like a desperate confession of love.

“Then, wouldn’t it be better to always be by my side?”

This reply was also for a loved one.

However, in their heads, the ‘death’ of love did not wander.

A temporary contract to be signed under mutual consent for a relationship that wouldn’t be strange even if she was with him all day and all the waking hours… 

“Will you become the crown princess?”

“Please make me an aide!”

There was a brief silence between Richard and Ophelia, who spoke completely different words at the exact same time.

They had similar lines of thought, yet the results were so different; both couldn’t figure out why.

In great haste, Ophelia kicked the crown prince.

“What nonsense are you talking about!”

She was being really outspoken. She couldn’t even recall how many times she was not careful with her words in front of Richard during the third infinite regression.

“If you’re the crown princess, it wouldn’t be strange if you’re always by my side.”

Hearing his dry voice and looking at his expressionless face that suggested there was no problem, some would say, ‘That’s… That’s right.’

However, it did not go so smoothly with Ophelia.

“If the crown princess stays with Your Highness all day, there will be an uproar that she should be deposed immediately.”

“I love you so much that I want to keep you next to me, so what’s the problem?”

Ophelia’s eyes widened like a flounder’s when he replied as easily as if he was pulling candy out of his pocket.

“Whether Your Highness likes it or not, if I’m the crown princess, I’ll have obligations to fulfill, and no matter how much of a contractual relationship it is, I cannot forsake all of those obligations and stick to Your Highness.”

“If you want to move in instead…”

“That’s a problem too!”

Ophelia cut off Richard’s words without mercy and continued with a sigh.

“More than anything else, we both know it’s a contract, and when this situation is resolved, we can just cancel the contract, but we can’t be sure of the aftermath.”

The lady who broke up with Richard.

For good or bad, people would look at her with red eyes.

Moreover, if one thought of her mother, it would not be difficult to draw a complicated situation into the very gutter.

“The problems that will come later will come only when we solve the problems in front of us right now.”

“No, that’s why I want you to use me as an aide!”

“More restrictions on action…”

“Ah, the crown princess doesn’t not have any restrictions! That position is more restrictive than a single aide, I know, and you know, and the whole world knows!”

Ophelia, huffing, suddenly realized.

When the words came out that she should be the crown princess, she panicked and went crazy, but…

“You’re trying to solve the troubles caused by the vacant crown princess seat. During the anniversary of the founding of the country, the emperor himself said that Your Highness should find a partner soon.”

Richard kept his mouth shut as if he had no intention of denying, and Ophelia pushed her face up to his nose.

Before, it was burdensome to face him, who was the most perfect sculpture, but human beings were animals of adaptation.

He was a comrade trapped in the same damn loop of infinite regression, and he only worked properly when he wanted to.

As she regressed dozens of times because he did not move, the love of a thousand years that did not exist had also cooled.

Now, even when he was close enough that she could feel him breathing, her heart didn’t pound, and she wasn’t bothered even if the exhalation from her nose hit him hard.

“I’m just a young lady from a normal county, and it’s not like I’m a great beauty, or have any special talent that goes beyond the ordinary. Surely, the person who fits the seat of the crown princess is not me! It should be someone else.”

Of course it would be. He was the only protagonist in a fantasy novel. The author must have made him a partner.

There might be one or several, but the author probably wouldn’t have left the protagonist alone for the rest of his life.

“Therefore, please appoint me as an aide. I will work hard like a cow.”

Towards Ophelia, who thrusted out her chest and pounded hard, Richard did not give a positive answer.

“I’m not considering a position other than the crown princess. Aren’t you the one who wants to be by my side?”

‘Are you saying that the thirsty man should dig a well?’

(TL/N: Whoever is most in urgent need of anything is supposed to do it in a hurry.)

‘If this is the case, then the direction of the negotiations will have to change.’

The tails of Ophelia’s eyebrows lowered as she fell down in front of him.

“Your Highness’ future is bright, and you are the number one groom in the empire, or the continent. So even if you break off your marriage with me, it will be a flower path rather than a hindrance.”

She exaggeratedly curved her shoulders and continued speaking.

“But! Not me. I don’t have anything…”

“Didn’t you say you were investing secret funds? And it’s pretty successful too.”

“This… this lady who has a little money, will be blocked from getting married if she is dumped by the Crown Prince!!”

As Ophelia massaged her shoulders with her head turned to the side, openly grunting, something strange rang in her ears.

She squinted at Richard.

Did she just hear the sound of the wind escaping?

‘Don’t tell me that the stone statue who doesn’t know if it’s alive or dead laughed…’

“All right.”

“What?”

“From tomorrow on, you will be my aide. I can’t remember the last time I laughed like this. So I should listen to one thing you want.”

.

When the negotiations between Richard and Ophelia came to a dramatic conclusion.

At the mansion of the Marquisate of Neir, the third closest residence to the Imperial Palace, a very business-like conversation was taking place between the marquis and her daughter*.

“Are you serious about me being the crown princess?”

“Alternatives are always necessary, and preparations for work are not always quick to start. Didn’t I teach you that much?”

“I understand very well, but is the only alternative the crown princess seat?”

A fishy smile resembling the marquis’ hung on Raisa’s lips.

“Do you think that crown prince will show a tiny gap to the crown princess, or give her relatives as much power as a piece of dust?”

“I don’t think either can be done.”

“Then, what is it? It’s not like I’ll be pregnant and want to use my child. I’m sure Marquis Neir won’t come up with such a vulgar and opaque plan.”

Raisa, who was blatantly sarcastic, twisted the corners of her lips and continued.

“Besides, if I become the crown princess, I’ll have to give up the marquisate, right? It won’t happen unless I die.”

“Stop, go out.”

The marquis gave a firm order without answering Raisa’s words. She stared at her mother with venomous eyes, but in the end, she was forced to leave.

No matter how much she struggled, she was still only the esteemed daughter of the marquis, and the power of the family was concentrated on her mother, the head of the family.

—Kieek.

When Raisa’s fingernails scratched her ears and the diamond earrings in them, the servants bowed their heads more deeply while straining their shoulders.

‘To be the crown princess.’

‘Does that mean you won’t give me the marquisate?’

—Kieek, kieeeeeek.

The sound of her manicured nails scraping against the diamonds were shattering, but Raisa didn’t care.

“I can’t let that happen.”

Whoever the marquis planned to bring in. She would not let anyone else sit where she couldn’t sit.

The Marquisate of Neir must be hers.

The experience of being deprived of what was originally hers in front of her eyes became more and more unbearable the more she went through it.

(*) it wasn’t specified in earlier episodes, but as we can clearly tell now, Marquis Neir is female. Her title is ‘marquis’ rather than ‘marchioness’ likely because she inherited the title, not married into the Neir family. Changes have been made to the relevant parts in earlier episodes.

Ame: Apologies for this oversight ;_; I can’t guarantee it doesn’t happen again as for now, I haven’t tl ahead… I should get to that soon…