CH 27

The scene of Ophelia collapsing was so slow that her death felt like eternity.

He reached his hand out towards her as she collapsed without even looking back at him.

The entire body of Ophelia that he had embraced was dyed bright red.

He pulled her body, from which he couldn’t feel even a sliver of warmth, into his arms a little more. But nothing changed.

Why do humans cool down so quickly?

Suddenly, a scene flashed by.

In the distant past, when he couldn’t even remember properly, he had someone in his arms like now.

The next moment, Richard’s lips were greatly distorted.

“Why…”

A sigh close to a growl emanated from those deep, stressed lungs.

Why is he trying to save Ophelia now?

Richard’s face, looking down at Ophelia, slowly crumpled.

A very, very long time ago, to the extent that it felt like eons.

When he didn’t even know what he was going through.

As the crown prince, Richard made the usual choices that ordinary people would have made.

There were countless such choices, but one of them was to save lives.

Those who sacrifice themselves for him until he dies.

“Your Highness! It’s dangerous!”

“You must get out of here!”

“Hurry!”

When he was still immature.

It was a time when he was so weak that he had to run away, abandoning his escorts, unable to kill the two assassins.

Funny enough, he hadn’t even aged a year since then, but through the experiences he had in the many regressions, the current Richard had become incomparable to the Richard of that time.

His unwanted experience and years have made him a strong man beyond anyone’s reach in this world.

But he never wanted to be strong like that.

Never once.

“Your Highness! Hurry! Ahh!”

“Go! Run away… Keuk!”

In the past, Richard fled from the assassins.

He didn’t say anything like ‘how could I leave you alone’. 

It was no different from insulting those who gave their lives to protect him, the crown prince.

He thus survived.

And in the subsequent regression.

Richard struggled to save the escorts, and at some point, he was able to slaughter all the assassins with just one swing of his sword, let alone struggle.

“Your… Your Highness?”

Around the period when the swords of the escorts, who were trying to fight with all their might, became useless.

His feelings for those who had died protecting him had long since faded.

“Cleared it.”

Blood and flesh were dripping from the sword, while Richard’s face was dry, without a single drop of blood on his cheeks.

Eons passed again, and in any case, Richard no longer saved anyone.

Even himself.

He didn’t want to live, so he just died and regressed.

Then, when he got tired of even that, he would kill the assassins and end that ‘one cycle’ of regression.

Unable to die, Richard continued to live.

Even when Ophelia insisted on ending the regressions, it would not have changed much.

It’s still a bloody infinite loop that never ends.

So, the emotion he was feeling right now, this heart-strangling sense of loss, must be already worn out.

The desire to save someone must already be weathered, leaving no dust behind.

Why only her.

Why Ophelia?

‘I want to save her.’

Was it impossible to erase such absurd thoughts?

Slowly, Richard gazed at the assassin who was about to attack, and his lips parted slightly.

“…If…”

The mutter that flowed out along with his hot breath scattered without even reaching anyone’s ears.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

After hearing Iris’ scream, Richard closed his eyes while holding Ophelia in his arms.

The burning pain that supported his chest was indeed a new death.

.

— Ophelia Bolsheik, during the fifth(?) infinite regression… 

“Take her away.”

When Richard’s words fell and Hermia was dragged away, dry saliva went down Ophelia’s throat.

Soon… now. In a few minutes or even a few seconds, the earthquake would start.

It was actually an understatement to say it started.

Minor earthquakes had been occurring for a long time, so it would be more accurate to say it’s an earthquake big enough to be felt.

Ophelia didn’t even know how many times this regression was.

But unlike other regressions, that didn’t matter.

As this regression was the same as the gambling theory.

In a game of guessing odd or even when rolling a dice, if ‘odd’ was rolled several times in a row, people usually think that the roll would produce ‘even’.

However, each time the dice was thrown, a new situation was created, and the probability of odd and even would start anew.

Therefore, whether it would be odd or even would always be a fifty-fifty probability, and the current infinite regression was the same.

No matter how many times she regressed, the probability of success and failure was always fifty-fifty.

And there was only one thing Ophelia had to choose from those two options.

However, because she is human, she has expectations.

It has been unsuccessful so far.

So perhaps now is the time to be successful?

Even though she knew that a lot of failures didn’t mean success, she had hoped so.

“It’s here.”

At Richard’s soft whisper without a reference, they stood at the crossroads yet again; it was unknown how many times it had been. 

Would this earthquake be a success? Or would it be a failure?

A blink of an eye felt like eternity.

Beads of sweat rolled down Ophelia’s forehead and hung on the tip of her nose.

—Uuuung.

As the minute cries of the ground echoed through his ears, Richard grabbed the head of the assassin rushing towards Ophelia, who was trying to block his attack, and plunged it straight down to the ground.

—Uuunk.

Even with the eerie sound of the assassin’s bones being crushed into the ground, only joy spread across Ophelia’s face as she looked up at Richard.

“Finally!”

“Yes.”

“Finally! The big guy didn’t come right?”

Realizing that the ‘big guy’ Ophelia was talking about was an earthquake, Richard lifted his hand from the back of the assassin’s head and nodded.

“Yes.

“It’s over! It’s over! Oh my gosh, it’s over!”

While Ophelia raised her hands and cheered, Richard wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

In his arms, Ophelia continued to cheer, not hiding her elated expression of happiness.

—Klang!

Of course, in the meantime, the assassins kept running.

Richard kept Ophelia in his arms and dodged the assassins very lightly and simply.

Eventually, he couldn’t avoid them any longer and he struck back.

The assassin who tried to stab him with a dagger fell and broke his neck, and the one who ran over from the side was kicked and nailed to the wall.

“I can’t believe it’s over now!”

Amidst the cheers that only Ophelia and Richard could understand, the blood and flesh of the assassins splattered as the blades collided. It was a mess.

Additionally, the present earthquake produced only weak vibrations that did not require any further regression.

…It wasn’t just Ophelia and Richard here.

Although Hermia was taken out, Iris, the count, and the investigator were still in the room. Well, excluding the assassins.

And the three of them looked even more stunned than when they just heard the truth about the death of one person, the amazing secrets involved, and that the Neir family was behind it.

All those who were running wildly right before their eyes were assassins. Even though it was the outer area of the Imperial Palace, they were able to break into this place to try to assassinate the crown prince.

But what kind of situation is this?

Why is that aide smiling and shouting ‘hurray’?

In very rare cases, when a person becomes so terrified, they could go crazy and laugh maniacally.

However, in any way, it looked like she was smiling broadly because she was genuinely happy…?

In addition, not only the crown prince, but also his aide, well-avoided the weapons wielded by the assassins.

Somehow, despite having an untrained body that looked a little stiff, she was able to move nimbly. 

“Huh… uh.”

The unconscious sigh that flowed from the count’s mouth accurately represented his present, indescribable feelings.

To be frank, it wasn’t just the aide. The crown prince didn’t seem very normal either.

“It’s a hindrance. All the escorts should step back.”

The blood of the imperial family, the center and heart of the empire.

Considering that the next emperor was strong enough to declare that having an escort would get in his way, there was no problem in how he dealt with the assassin itself.

But… 

“Y-Your Highness? Your Highness?”

Richard was causing the assassins to fall on the ground one by one in an unusual way, to the extent that Iris, the chief aide who served him from a close distance, did not know what to do besides to call him.

“Oh, my God.”

As if in disbelief, the investigator rubbed his eyes over and over again.

Richard didn’t even draw his sword. It seemed that all he had to do was lift his hand.

As if the assassins were doing it on purpose, they either fell forward and landed on their faces or backwards and hit their butt.

Up to this point, the crown prince appeared to have an amazing skill, and it was unknown what kind of wind was blowing today, but it felt like he just wanted to do it like this.

“Ophelia, just put your feet down.”

“Yes!”

“Ophelia, lift your hand vigorously.”

“Yes, es!”

What the hell is going on?

The crown prince was naturally and perfectly working with his aide to eliminate the assassin, using that said aide as a weapon.

Even if Richard wanted to use a person as his weapon, where did the naturalness of Ophelia, the one who became that weapon, come from?

Everyone watching was about to lose their minds.

It didn’t take long before the assassins noticeably diminished, to the point where one could count the remaining with one hand.