I think back to the first time I met Teresa.
It was during a time when I didn’t yet understand the concept of reincarnation and was striving to gain my father’s approval.
Yuria still viewed me unfavorably.
I remember it as a mentally challenging period, still unable to shake off the shock of losing my mother.
In the midst of it all, Teresa approached me.
I remember the day I first met Teresa, as she spoke to me while I stood alone on the balcony, following the social gathering.
Creeeak – the old hinges rattled as the dusty door swung open.
In the old mansion, there was only one person’s presence.
I take a step forward, recalling that name: Teresa.
– You’re too much. No matter what, how could you treat someone like this…?
She was the first person to get angry over my wounds and the first to empathize with my situation.
That’s why my heart was drawn to her.
Maybe it’s only natural for my heart to turn towards someone who embraced me after my mother, from the moment I was born.
At least, I thought I was sincere. From the first death until I faced a few more after that.
It was Teresa who became my support in enduring consecutive deaths.
Sure, I was also Miragen at one point, but that’s a story for later.
I remember feeling the meaning of being engaged to wear thin and feeling betrayed after experiencing my fifth death.
When I first died, all I could think about was to focus on my family.
I felt wronged about the Crown Prince being accused of treason, but I believed that as long as I earned my family’s trust, any suspicion would be cleared up quickly.
Wasn’t I the only Duke in this Empire?
In such a place, where it was said that, even if a Crown Prince was involved, the charges of treason would be hard to shake off.
Yet, nothing changed. When I gained trust from my family, strange things happened, and it all fell apart.
So I sought the cause, and it was Teresa.
Surely it couldn’t be her. My heart hoped otherwise, but eventually, I found out what she did through Taylor.
– I’m sorry. I didn’t expect to get caught like this, it surprised me a bit. Just when did you start tailing me?
The facade of a person can flip in an instant, and the woman who always wore a gentle smile had a cold smirk like never before.
There was no affection in her eyes anymore.
The one who smiled at me, who promised a future filled with love, was gone.
I didn’t believe it. I figured it would just be this round, as I repeated deaths that didn’t even need to happen.
If Teresa was going to pull such tricks, I would die; if she showed such intentions, I would die; and when I saw her extracting my assets again, I hung myself.
What I realized in the repeated life was that I had never been loved in the first place.
I think I wandered quite a bit from that time onwards.
I deliberately kept an engagement to entice Miragen, taking her as my heart’s sanctuary, albeit for a moment.
Even after Miragen died and I picked up a sword again,
I still kept Teresa as my fiancée. There was no particular reason for it.
I just wanted to uncover the detailed reasons behind my deaths, exploring all variables.
Even with the family’s support, I died.
Even after tolerating Teresa’s antics and even going as far as marriage, nothing changed.
Thus, I turned my gaze to the Crown Prince, ultimately reaching the goal of wanting to kill the Crown Prince.
I thought something was twisted. There were things that could not be fixed by effort.
No matter which direction I took, or whatever means I used, time flowed relentlessly towards my death.
If, if only. Even while living with such words on my lips, Teresa always held on to them.
At last, I am living in a time without Teresa.
The dust-covered floor was gradually becoming clean.
As if someone had walked through this area, I realized Teresa was drawing closer to the floor revealing its colors.
If I were to meet her, what should I say first?
When I actually thought about it, I had nothing in particular to say to Teresa.
It was only natural, as I never imagined we would meet again like this.
As I was going to kill Teresa, what would I say to the target I was about to eliminate?
– “There wasn’t a letter today. I might feel a little sad about that.”
As I climbed the spiral staircase, my memories also ascended alongside me.
There were quite a few memories spent with Teresa. Perhaps even more than with Yuria.
The memories of the time I believed for a moment always tormented me, and I smiled bitterly at the thoughts that filled my head.
– “Next time, if the Lady of the House bothers you, just tell me. I will do something about it.”
Yuria, having heard Teresa’s words, imprisoned me underground.
I didn’t know it was Teresa’s scheme.
I simply trusted her, and perhaps I should only blame myself for that trust.
Trusting was my sin. Believing in a person and thinking they would be good was my fault.
– “Isn’t it the fault of the person you trusted? I don’t know why I thought I would love someone like you.”
If that’s the case, does that mean there are no innocent people in this world?
If wanting to be trusted is a sin, then dreaming of a future where everyone survives is a foolish and incompetent act.
I would rather become a fool.
It’s something I have given up on now.
The man who wanted to become a fool is not dead yet, right?
The future that the 101st Robert will paint is likely to be even bleaker than that.
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Kugung-
As I reached the end of the staircase, a massive door appeared.
In stark contrast to the old and worn mansion, it was a clean and sophisticated door, as if it had just been made.
As if it read my movements, the door opened to me of its own accord.
Slowly, the door opened.
Even as the wind swirled around and ruffled my hair, my gaze was solely focused on the woman sitting beyond the door.
When I first began my reincarnation, there was a greeting that I heard as I blankly watched Teresa in the garden.
– “Good morning, Robert.”
“Good morning, Robert.”
Though it was a little colder and more sinister than before, the words remained the same.
However, there was quite a difference in what was visible.
Having always heard her words against the backdrop of the garden, I was now hearing them in a room stained with blood.
I gripped the sword. With trembling hands, I held the hilt tightly and looked directly at Teresa.
The blood-soaked woman was looking at me.
Her eyes, which I thought were only filled with hate, contained indescribable emotions directed at me.
The gaze turned toward me.
“…It’s really been a while.”
When Robert came to visit, all of my memories had already returned.
Teresa smiled softly.
The wounds covering my body were ones I had inflicted on Robert, so it struck me how I had managed to endure this.
Even with this newfound strength, it was painful to bear, especially in a mere human body.
I realized I had lived 101 lives.
Ultimately, I also knew that I belonged to Robert’s 101st life, completely different from the boy Robert first met who came to kill me.
If it were not for that reason, he wouldn’t have brought up the topic of breaking off our engagement.
“Should I say it’s been a long time, or that we’ve met too many times? Honestly, I’m confused right now.”
“Now I can’t even call you human anymore. Did you really want revenge on me that badly? Sacrificing even your own identity, killing people along the way.”
Robert’s gaze fell directly on Teresa’s body.
Rather than resembling a person, she looked much more like the demons that the dead dragon had summoned in the past.
Her skin was so pale it appeared gray, and her eyes were pitch black.
I knew she had been affected by the dead dragon, but no matter how I looked at it, the constantly regenerating flesh couldn’t be called human.
“It can’t be helped. Everything fell apart because of you.”
Then she burst into a chuckle.
Her mind, which had been confused upon regaining her memories, had somewhat returned to normal.
It was she who had killed her family, and it was she who had killed the attendants.
Wasn’t her older brother’s death merely a coincidence in the end?
Robert had witnessed her older brother’s death multiple times, so he had completed his revenge on Violet splendidly without lifting a finger.
There would be no revival. Now that there was a connection to the dead dragon,
the possibility of Violet thriving in this empire was nonexistent.
Rather, it was impressive that she didn’t abandon herself even after dying a hundred times.
If I were Robert, I would have dealt with the betrayers first.
Regret, Teresa chuckled softly.
If this emotion she held now could be called regret, it was something too vicious even for her.
Hadn’t she approached him from the start without a hint of love?
And yet, she got caught, and things became tangled up like this.
There was no reason to feel regret. However, this squirming feeling in her chest was.
It was a feeling more complicated than that.
An emotion that had been carried over through the repetitions of reincarnation, gained through killing Robert multiple times and experiencing that pain.
The heart that had only sought revenge now flickered slightly as her eyes turned toward Robert.
“You’re a pitiful person.”
Could this be called pity?
To a man who gambled his life on foolish acts and died a hundred times,
and to herself, who had killed such a man multiple times, it could be a ridiculous emotion.
Yet now, having realized how twisted she had become, she understood that all of this wasn’t Robert’s doing.
She could now see him with a somewhat objective perspective.
“I’m not sure what you consider pitiful.”
“If a person has died a hundred times and is still alive, wouldn’t anyone think that way?”
“…What do you mean?”
It was the face that expressed the strongest emotion among all the expressions seen so far.
I chuckle softly as I see my body shudder. Perhaps no one has realized the memories of the previous cycles until now.
A cackle of laughter escaped from my torn lips.
Robert’s gaze grew a bit more serious, and his featureless blue eyes turned toward Teresa.
“Have you recalled it? About the past.”
“I remember it all now. How I killed you, and how you died.”
I fixed my gaze on the finger that pierced my temple, then chuckled and added.
“I’ve remembered everything.”
“So that’s why you were so composed. I thought you might be a little mad.”
“Why would I go mad over something I did? And recalling the memories won’t change anything.”
Kugugugung—
The ground began to tremble.
The ability gained from the dead dragon’s power was special. It was a strength that ordinary people did not possess, a power granted only to those known as magicians.
Eventually, Teresa twisted her mouth as she pulled out a red tentacle from the ground.
“I can’t just die nicely here.”
Sreung—
As Teresa watched the sword being drawn cleanly, interest sparkled in her eyes.
That sword was anything but ordinary.
It was wielded not by the powerless Robert but by someone who had mastered the sword at some point.
She hadn’t seen all his lives. She had only caught a glimpse of the life he led, the life in which she had died.
If this feeling was to be called regret, it didn’t quite fit.
This was resignation. Simply realizing what she had done.
Now, she could let everything go without a care.
Wasn’t there no place for her to return to, having killed her family?
Even if she lived here, she would eventually die somewhere.
It wouldn’t be too bad to die at the hands of the fiancée she had spent such a long time with.
“…Ah, there’s one thing I’ll tell you.”
As she whispered with an enchanting voice, Robert’s body trembled once again.
It was simply ridiculous how he reacted to her every word.
What on earth was that man thinking standing there in front of her?
A man who had once sincerely loved her, but later realized he had been betrayed.
What kind of eyes was he looking at her with?
“The words I said that I never loved you were truly sincere. Every word you’ve heard in my life was the same.”
Teresa couldn’t understand Robert.
Perhaps it was only natural that neither could understand the other.
However, it was certain that this would only end when one of them died.
It wouldn’t be too bad to die at Robert’s hands.
After all, it was a connection formed through a bad fate; if he suffered by killing her… wouldn’t that be the cleanest conclusion?
– Teresa.
There was a man who gently whispered to her.
Yet, there was also a woman who sought to use him, even going so far as to kill him.
Recalling the letters that had always been sent to her, Teresa smiled faintly.
Soon, that laughter grew louder, transforming into a laugh of madness.
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