[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
Chapter 96 - Another Possibility (4)
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in yet another place.
It wasn’t by my own will.
I would simply lose consciousness, and then wake up somewhere new, just like now, staring blankly.
The concept of “forgotten memories” felt like a distant dream, a haze that clouded my mind each time I regained consciousness.
Beep—
A faint ringing echoed in my ears.
I exhaled sharply, then inhaled, and exhaled again, gasping for a long while before slowly opening my eyes.
I began to recall everything.
The Duchess was dead, and Luna had boldly put her name forward as a candidate for head of the family.
And Isabel...
— You know, I have no one but you.
Yes, that’s right.
She had said something like that to me.
— The moment you drink, you can read forgotten memories of the past.
What on earth could these forgotten memories even be?
Are these bizarre things I’m experiencing now actually part of Kyle Winfred’s past, lost in the depths of memory?
I glanced outside the window.
A vibrant garden and a display of early spring flowers in full bloom.
Yes, it was the familiar scenery of the Winfred Ducal estate.
I was still trapped within this cursed “forgotten past.”
Knock, knock.
A familiar rhythm of knocks.
A moment later, click. The door opened, and the old butler entered the room.
“A letter has arrived for you, Young Master.”
“A letter?”
“Yes, Lady Isabel has sent you a letter.”
He handed me the letter, saying it was from Isabel.
Its contents were about the upcoming wedding.
I immediately asked the butler for the date.
The timing of Kyle and Isabel’s wedding was significantly earlier than I remembered.
And judging by Isabel’s strange attitude toward Kyle, it seemed her claim of them being lovers wasn’t just an empty lie.
I tossed the letter into the fireplace and watched it burn.
A strange sense of exhaustion washed over me.
The single, abstract phrase “forgotten past” wasn’t enough to explain all of this.
It felt as though the entire world was broken.
Kyle Winfred was no longer a villain.
The world’s malice no longer pointed at him.
Isabel, Luna, Rudine—all of them now showed care toward Kyle as if it had always been that way.
It was all so grotesquely unnatural, as if mocking all the pain I’d been through.
There were no perpetrators in this world.
No one to blame.
How could this be?
I remembered everything perfectly.
I had endured every tragedy that was originally supposed to be Kyle’s fate, gritting my teeth without knowing why.
And I alone remembered it all.
In this peaceful world, I alone needed someone to resent.
All the suffering I endured firsthand had now become nothing more than an illusion.
“Ha.”
How many memories had I viewed like this?
— Memory playback has concluded.
At last, the relentless playback of these memories came to an end.
But.
— Would you like to replay the memories?
The system asked me again.
As if there were still more memories left to view.
****
The second playback wasn’t much different from the first.
Isabel still loved Kyle, and Luna still cared deeply for him.
Rudine too, unchanged.
But that didn’t mean everything was exactly the same.
“The head of the merchant guild... is named Merlin?”
Merlin Trivia.
In the original timeline, she was supposed to have been called a saint of her time, but here, she was a wealthy merchant running the empire’s largest trade guild.
The strangest thing of all was her actions.
It was as if she’d anticipated future events, sweeping up the empire’s resources in advance.
With her profits, Merlin funded the Papal See, supported countless individuals across the empire, and lived luxuriously in the shadow of the imperial family.
The second playback ended.
The third playback was similar.
Everything was the same, with only one difference: Merlin.
In the fourth playback, and in the fifth, and the sixth.
Only Merlin lived a life that strayed from her predetermined role.
By now, whenever the playback began, I’d formed a habit of ordering the butler to investigate Merlin’s actions first.
The tenth playback began that way.
This round would likely be similar too.
Just as I was starting to grow weary...
“Young Master, I have found information on the individual you requested.”
“Speak.”
The old butler adjusted his monocle and began his report.
The information that followed was shocking.
“She has died.”
“...What?”
“She chose to end her life by hanging herself.”
Merlin had chosen death.
For no apparent reason, she’d given up on life.
In the twelfth playback.
The thirteenth.
The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth.
In every timeline, without exception, she chose death.
There was never a chance to stop her.
The moment each playback began, she was already a cold corpse.
The playback continued.
Endlessly, I witnessed her death.
Until the point where I couldn’t even remember which playback it was.
“Currently, Merlin Trivia is reported missing.”
For the first time, she hadn’t chosen death.
And then—
“The black mist...”
An unprecedented disaster swallowed the empire whole.
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]