Chapter 160: The Limit

Chapter 160: The Limit The Limit

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“........A show......”

“Hahaha, that’s right! The slaughter show you also witnessed!”

With the clacking of shoes, Nare proceeded down the hallway.

Occasionally laughing in apparent amusement as she nostalgically recounted her past, but the contents – the life Nare had experienced – were frankly nothing but cruel.

An inescapable hell with no way out.

This woman had been trapped in that hell endlessly.

Could I endure if I fell into the same situation?

Just imagining it made me shudder involuntarily.

Impossible.

It would be impossible for me.

My heart would reach its limit in no time at all.

Perhaps this woman Nare had already reached her limits long ago and broken down.

Her laughter sounded so hollow and parched.

“It started from a mere petty fit of rage. As usual, time rewound and I returned to the head’s study room. Then I happened to notice the ‘Ring of the Ranrananga White Lizard’ on my finger.”

Gazing at her bony, slender fingers currently bare, Nare continued speaking.

“That ring is a treasure of our family, passed down to each head generation after generation... Actually, contrary to what those fools believe, simply wearing it doesn’t automatically make one the acknowledged head. But it can still be called a symbol of the Luclees family head.”

“.........”

“‘For the mere reason of being the bloodline meant to become this family’s head, I ended up repeating this hell’... That’s what I thought at the time. I suddenly felt an intense hatred toward that ring. So I immediately took it off and threw it out the window.”

“Outside?”

“Yes. And then a commotion occurred. If I recall, one of the servants happened to find the ring that had fallen outside at the time? And Doj obtained that ring, leading to a dispute over who would possess it.”

<Well, that would happen.>

“If Sarelka had just said ‘That ring belongs to me,’ it could have ended there. But that cowardly man couldn’t do that. Doj tried to have Keranko inherit the ring instead. Which Karashia couldn’t accept. Resulting in violence breaking out – Karashia killed Keranko with ‘Agzeliary.'”

......I see.

A similar event to the tragedy we had witnessed occurred.

“By that point, I had gained the strange ability to perceive everyone’s actions within the manor from this room, you see. While watching that commotion unfold in the study room, I felt... I felt a thrill I had never experienced from the repeated cycles until then. And I impulsively committed suicide.”V/\IssịT n0(v)eL/b(i)(n).co/m for the b/est novel reading experi/en/ce

“Eh?”

“I wanted to try various things. Just by discarding that ring, my hated acquaintances would hurt and kill each other of their own accord! Hahaha, ahahahaha! It was delightful! So amusing! I began researching how to make them suffer even more! I tried all sorts of things. Even if I failed, I could just die and try again, so I could experiment quite casually!”

No no no, you may call it casual, but you were dying each time you tried again, weren’t you?

<It seems this woman Nare’s heart has already broken somewhere, to the point she no longer fears her own death at all.>

However, Nare paid it no heed as she flung open Keranko’s room door without warning before I could stop her.

The moment she did, startled voices and screams erupted from inside the room.

......That was the development I had imagined, but it didn’t happen.

Not a single sound came from the room’s interior.

This was strange.

Thinking that, I hurried over to Nare and peeked into Keranko’s room as well.

What entered my vision then was a shocking sight.

Inside the room, as I had expected, Keranko, Fateu, and Doj were present, enjoying tea.

However.

Keranko and Fateu were frozen in postures mid-conversation with each other.

Doj was frozen in the motion of pouring tea from the pot into Fateu’s cup.

Like a still image, they were all “frozen in time.”

“Th-This is...!?”

Looking closer, even the tea being poured from the pot in Doj’s hands had its motion stopped, as if frozen in an instant.

“We’ve reached the time limit.”

Nare began speaking again with a somewhat bored expression.

“After a certain time passes since the rewind, this happens. Time itself stops progressing any further. It wasn’t like this before... People’s time continued moving without stopping, even if I lived a long life. At some point, I realized it had become like this. The extent of the space too. At least within this country, I could go anywhere before. Now it’s impossible. When I noticed, the manor’s surroundings had become enveloped in a mysterious haze, preventing me from venturing beyond.”

Why...?

<Ah... I see, it’s already... reached the limit, hasn’t it?>

The limit?

<The strange power causing time to loop... Its source was likely a god. This repeating “small world” loop persists based on some god’s power. That god’s power is...>

Depleting, isn’t it...?

<Yes, probably. Nare likely caused an exorbitant number of loops beyond that god’s expectations for the sake of revenge, draining their power. Thinking about it, Emi, that’s probably why you retained your memories while looping too. The current god likely lacks the surplus power to control the soul of an alien intruder like you who newly entered this world.>

“Well, there’s your answer to your question. Even if I wanted to live a new life after achieving my revenge, I’m no longer permitted that. Quite literally, I have ‘no future.’ For the people of this manor... including myself.”

Nare turned to face me.

A parched smile on her face.

That expression, despite smiling, was utterly exhausted beyond any recourse.

“Say, Emi. I have a request. With power like yours, I think you may be able to do it.”

And with that exhausted face, in a faint, drained voice, Nare said this to me:

“Won’t you put an end to it?......Our time.”