CH 26

Not only Ophelia, but everyone present stumbled.

And the very next moment.

—Krrrr.

With a sound like something hardened and breaking, the ground where the door was located began to crack.

Iris, the investigator, and the count could not even blink when they saw the cracking of the ground they had never seen before, but it was familiar to Ophelia.

—Kkigyakk!

The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the sound of the window frames and door twisting and snapping.

Ophelia hurriedly turned to Richard and shouted.

“Your Highness, this is not a simple earth tremor or shaking, but an earthquake that is so catastrophic that the ground is completely turned over…!”

She had to roll on the ground before she could finish her words.

Because part of the floor on which they were treading was splattering stone dust at an unbelievable speed and widening its ‘mouth’.

The others in the room were not much different from her. All were rolling on the ground.

Iris instinctively grabbed a pillar, but she looked up with a bewildered expression as even the pillar rattled and vomited stone dust.

The investigator and the count were just looking down at the deep, deep, black cliff between them from a distance of one step.

With an earthquake this big, someone would be screaming and crying, not just here, but everywhere.

But no one could properly listen to the shouts of those outside this place.

The rapidly changing circumstances did not allow for that.

—Rumble rumble.

The cry of the earth shook the air, spreading a terrifying hum.

—Jaaak.

The walls and pillars of the Imperial Palace could not withstand the shaking and split apart with a roar. The mirrors and chandeliers trembled, falling to the floor and smashed.

As the badly broken pieces of the chandelier flew in all directions, Richard pulled Ophelia’s curved shoulders.

A shard of glass scraped her ear and ripped through the air with a scratching sound, but her pounding heart was so loud she couldn’t hear it.

And it wasn’t just Ophelia who had a racing heart racing.

Now, people were witnessing an unprecedented situation in front of their eyes, where the ground cracked and collapsed, becoming an endless cliff.

“God… Oh, God.”

The words that slipped out of someone’s mouth probably represented the hearts of almost everyone who was currently experiencing this earthquake.

Just as solar eclipses were believed to occur by the will of the gods in ancient Egypt, people had the tendency to associate most of the great natural phenomena that they were not aware of with the gods.

Naturally, Ophelia, who had already learned about the principles of this earthquake while dozing off in compulsory education, did not seek god.

She was as pale as the others, but she found someone who could hear her out, not stuck in a daze or wailing to God.

“Your Highness.”

His voice, which was half-rested and subsided, was extremely low, but the answer came back without even a gap.

“Here it is.”

Ophelia grabbed his arm and took a deep breath.

“You know what I’m going to say?”

“Yes.”

The two then opened their mouths almost at the same time.

“Regression.”

“We must regress.”

After a very brief silence, Richard placed his hand over Ophelia’s, which was holding his arm.

The tepid warmth didn’t ignite hot, but at least it wasn’t cold.

And for Ophelia and Richard, that itself was somehow enough.

The fact that they were not alone.

The fact that they had a comrade in this amazing yet suffocating loops of regression.

And the fact that the person they were with was each other, not someone else.

That was enough for now.

Ophelia had a somewhat tearful smile as she watched the fire bursting out of the hallway, and let out a despondent voice.

“I never dreamed that I would volunteer to go back.” 

“Same here.”

“But…”

“Yes.”

The Imperial Palace, or even the entire empire, was not prepared for such a catastrophe.

The shaking of the ground was now so strong and rough that it was difficult to stand still.

“You could wait on all fours and regress.”

When Ophelia threw a shitty joke, Richard responded with a grin.

“There are assassins that crawl on all fours. They mainly work in the bathroom.”

“No, um. That’s really… something I didn’t want to know…”

—Kieeeek!

Before she could finish speaking, an ominous roar echoed above her head.

Without even looking up, the huge structure above their heads shattered and fell.

Richard lightly swung his un-grasped hand, and the four-piece stone structure hit by his bare hand fell to the floor, avoiding people.

“Uh… achoo!”

Ophelia, sneezing vigorously in the cloud of dust, asked, rubbing her nose.

“Where, no, when will we regress to?”

“Sometimes before this earthquake happens.”

“Even if it’s before this earthquake, we don’t have enough time to prepare for something so powerful.”

Even if they went back days, weeks, or even months or years, they could not reconstruct the Imperial Palace or the entire empire with an anti-seismic design.

‘In the first place, no one here has knowledge about earthquake resistance or anything…’

In the end, there was only one answer.

“As you know, we don’t have the time or knowledge to prepare for an earthquake right now.”

‘If you tell me one thing, I can tell you ten.’

At Ophelia’s words, Richard immediately guessed the next suggestion she would make.

“We’ll have to repeat the regression.”

“Yes. If we regress, the next situation will be slightly or completely different.”

“Yes.”

“So that the earthquake is not such a big disaster, we must regress… until a future where it ends with just a few vibrations that Your Highness felt… Yes, we must.”

Ophelia’s voice grew quieter and softer, and at the end it was almost a dejected laugh.

The damning unwanted regression had now become invaluable, incomparable to anything else.

There were many things happening in the world.

She realized anew that there was nothing wrong with the old saying.

Even the things she didn’t want to know.

“Ophelia.”

Richard, who had gently pulled her back and rescued her from a remote cliff leading to the bottom of the cracked ground, said in a dry voice.

“I agree to regress, but there is one problem.”

—You should know what I’m saying.

Ophelia, who blinked rapidly at Richard’s words, quickly noticed what the ‘problem’ was.

“You’ve never done regression arbitrarily.” 

“Yes.”

“…Me too.”

A deeper silence fell between the two as the sound of various things breaking and disintegrating echoed all around.

The only thing they knew for sure about the regression was that Richard’s death was the trigger.

Richard’s death…

“Your Highness, do you…”

“Do I?”

“Do you like plums?”

“I never thought that I liked it in particular.”

“It’s a pity, but if you soaked plums in honey, it’s a really good drink.”

Although Ophelia was calmly continuing the story that came out without context, she wanted to strangle herself right away.

Now… she couldn’t bear to continue the story.

‘Are you crazy, are you really crazy?’

Ophelia cursed herself and bit her lips.

And Richard, knowing what she was trying to say, did not give any particular answer.

He already tried it, and it didn’t work.

Every time he tried to commit suicide, whether by fate or whatever, an assassin would pop out and kill him.

If he jumped from a high place, a spear protruding from somewhere would pierce his heart, or if he wanted to drink poison to try to die, he would be poisoned before that.

“Ophelia.”

“What? No, so plum…”

“No more about plums. Whenever I was about to die, an assassin would always come out.”

“You’ve tried… It’s not that, I mean…”

“Yes.”

Even though the problem was solved, Ophelia did not cheer.

She couldn’t be happy, nor could she say let’s do it right away.

Even though the ground on which she is treading is torn apart, and the whole place is falling apart.

Still, Ophelia couldn’t open her mouth.

“If we go on like this, everything will be gone before we can do anything.”

Richard smiled and added.

“I’ll try it now.”

The next second.

Ophelia’s eyes widened. 

She instinctively blocked Richard’s front.

“Ophe…”

Before Richard could call her.

Ophelia stood in front of Richard, willingly blocking the assassin’s sword with her chest.

Even though she was sure she would die with a sword stuck in her body, she did not hesitate or flinch.

Literally, not at all.

—Puuk!

—Kuureugh!

Along with the sound of blood spurting, a roar as if the sky was collapsing ripped into his ears.

Richard’s golden eyes were filled with red blood.

Like a rose in full bloom that was thrown away at once, like all its red petals and soft leaves were torn apart by a storm.

Vivid red blood splattered along with bright red hair.

Right in front of Richard’s eyes, Ophelia fell, surrendering herself to the countless deaths she had met.

Richard didn’t blink once.

He knew that her death was not forever.

How many times had he already seen it?

No, he had seen it so many times he couldn’t even count it with both fingers.

Ophelia’s death.

Because she always dies first, then he dies.

But, why… There was a scratchy feeling in his heart. Without his realisation.