### Chapter: 300
Lovers, love.
These two words are inseparable for humans.
Even in the most loathsome places, it’s sometimes the presence of a beloved that helps one endure.
The same can be said for the three women whom Arthur returned with.
If they had lovers, they wouldn’t make such mistakes.
Mary, who climbed to the position of commander, could prevent disasters by heeding her lover’s advice.
Sigrid realizes through her ever-supportive lover that the emperor’s throne isn’t everything.
Abella wouldn’t trade the world for magic, knowing she has a lover more precious than all her spells.
For the three of them, love acted as a sort of control mechanism.
And Arthur willingly chose to take on this role to prevent annihilation.
By the time Arthur had regressed, these three were already in significant positions.
One was a future-sure great magician.
Another was already gaining fame as the Empire’s spear candidate through her mastery of spear techniques.
The last one was, after all, a princess of the Empire.
If Arthur were to indiscriminately dispose of them, it was obvious all their affiliations would turn against him.
Yet, waiting indefinitely for them to err before removing them wouldn’t work either.
The three women would still be systematically wreaking havoc in the world.
Destruction was looming ever closer.
Thus, Arthur shifted his approach.
Instead of consuming time and energy to eliminate the three, he could simply become their lover.
In fact, when Arthur became their partner, they performed quite well.
Although, despite that, the destruction ultimately couldn’t be stopped.
Arthur had his own thoughts about it.
“If I regress while being their lover, I can persuade them and skip the initial romance. This way, I can face the impending doom without wasting any more time.”
Arthur detailed why he made such a choice.
Kraush vaguely thought that Arthur just needed three companions to support him through the exhaustion of regression.
But behind that, there was this intricate situation.
“However, right now, I don’t exist as their lover.”
Arthur’s eyes once again locked onto Kraush.
“Because you erased me from this world.”
The one who wiped out the self that had regressed to save the world wasn’t just anyone; it was you, Arthur implied.
The three, having lost their safety net, began to spiral out of control.
Kraush, upon hearing Arthur’s words, fell silent.
He understood why he had made that choice and how he had lived until now.
And he recognized how little effort he had put into understanding Arthur.
But—
“So in the end, the world we lived in before regression was a world to be tossed aside.”
The heat burning in Kraush’s eyes was even greater than Arthur’s.
Arthur had repeatedly regressed to prevent the world’s downfall.
So much so that he had even brought along three of the seeds of destruction.
He too had lived desperately to thwart the regression.
But that was merely Arthur’s story.
Kraush finally realized why Arthur calmly accepted the world’s destruction.
And why he didn’t more actively employ his best means to combat it.
‘To Arthur, my world was a world to abandon from the start.’
Arthur sacrificed the world where Kraush lived to remove the three causing destruction.
To Arthur, if he regressed, there would always be another world, and he could just start anew.
But Kraush had lived in that world.
Kraush had seen with his own eyes his cherished friends perish, confronted the death of his first love, and knew those who willingly sacrificed for him.
Those memories still occupy a deep place in Kraush’s heart.
Now, their lives had certainly been altered because of Kraush.
But still, Kraush couldn’t help but recall the pain and death they suffered in the previous cycle.
That was another reason Kraush clung so desperately to preventing destruction.
He knew of that cycle, and hence had lived frantically to avoid creating the same outcome.
“Arthur, I’ve just realized how meaningless the world seems to you.”
Arthur, who had countless regressions, didn’t value this world.
As such, he didn’t regard his own regression highly enough to avoid letting it slip from his hands.
Hearing Kraush’s words, the current Arthur chuckled despairingly.
“The reason this world feels meaningless is because of the world itself, isn’t it?”
Arthur slowly rose from his seat.
He had walked towards the window before he noticed it.
“I am not the Arthur you remember. My memories are passed down through Abella, after all. I haven’t retained the memories of every time line. Moreover, the time lines I did inherit were filled with gaps.”
Kraush grasped why, despite inheriting the time lines, Arthur wasn’t able to wield his full power.
He hadn’t absorbed the memories as a whole but rather piecemeal.
In a sense, Arthur had truly become a halfwit.
“Therefore, I cannot tell you exactly what the Arthur you knew thought. However…”
He pointed outside at the view.
“It’s not me who betrays; it’s this world.
Within the countless time lines I traversed, I was betrayed countless times, discarded, and forcibly exalted as a hero.
All while being burdened with the hopeless mission to inevitably prevent the world’s destruction.”
Arthur firmly felt the pain he had gone through in those fragmented time lines.
If the world fell apart, he’d die and then regress again.
To survive, Arthur had to clothe himself in the guise of a hero.
“Kraush, don’t speak as if you know everything just from one regression.
No matter how well things look to you, there will always come an irreversible moment.”
A fragile smile broke upon Arthur’s face.
“And when that moment comes, will you not crumble as well? Just like when you tried to take my regression.
Having experienced regression, can you honestly say you won’t seek it again?”
The horrifying emotions hidden in that smile slowly shook Arthur’s body.
For some reason, Kraush felt as if, despite Arthur laughing, he was crying inside.
“Kraush, regression is a curse. This world has been firmly entrenched in the pit of that curse for ages, reliving it endlessly.
Those who have tasted regression are bound to choose it again, falling prey to that curse.”
Arthur trembled at his own ugliness and frailty.
Even if it was just memories strung along time lines.
Arthur beheld the choices and failures he made throughout those myriad timelines.
Kraush saw the current Arthur resembling a tower that could topple at any moment.
“…I’ve lived my life in ruins.”
So Kraush spoke.
“I crawled along the ground, my legs shattered, moving only on all fours.
Yet I crawled. For some worlds, you just have to crawl to get by.”
Though he watched others walk and run innumerable times.
Kraush persistently crawled, determined to catch up.
Even if he couldn’t stand on the same plane as them, he crawled and crawled to pursue them.
“Haha, so you say you’re standing on your two feet? Because you’ve fallen and gotten back up, huh?
Don’t kid yourself. Those who have truly fallen can’t just rise up again. After exhausting every last bit of their strength, are you saying someone like that can just stand again?
That’s only possible for those who still have the strength left.”
As if he were speaking about someone else.
Arthur outright denied Kraush’s words.
“You still can’t get back up.”
But at that moment, Arthur hesitated upon hearing the next words.
Kraush looked at that startled Arthur and smiled bitterly.
“I’ve never stood on my own two feet. Even now, I’m still crawling with all my might.”
Those who manage to stand on their own two feet likely possess a wider view of the world.
Knowing how hard it is to crawl, they strive harder not to fall again.
They bless themselves, ensuring safety and walking the guaranteed paths with caution.
But Kraush had none of that.
Kraush didn’t look to the future.
He clung desperately to the present, pouring every ounce of himself into the struggle.
He had to prevent destruction to secure a future.
Kraush continued to crawl determinedly on the ground.
“What’s there for one still crawling to fall apart?”
You might slip a little, but there’s no way you can crumble.
Silence enveloped Arthur.
Because he understood what Kraush was conveying.
Arthur and Kraush fundamentally progressed in different ways.
Kraush was throwing everything away to solely stop destruction.
In contrast, Arthur couldn’t act in that manner.
He wanted to move on to the next world while holding onto what he had in hand.
That was the fundamental difference between Kraush and Arthur.
A breeze blew.
The wind that entered stirred Kraush’s hair as it swept past the window.
The symbol of the Holy Royal Family—his dark blue hair—flowed in the breeze, and beneath it, Kraush gazed at Arthur.
“I think I get why we couldn’t become friends.”
Regret formed on Kraush’s face.
Arthur too had once trusted enough to share about his regression.
Yet Kraush betrayed that Arthur.
Their paths were too different, making it impossible for Kraush to accept Arthur’s regression.
Thus ultimately, the two diverged.
“…Was I the greedy one then?”
“No, it was just that I was the one who became twisted.”
Kraush was acutely aware that he was a worn-out human.
Before the regression, after everything he went through, a part of him had surely fractured.
And that had solidified into a goal of only preventing destruction, maintaining the current Kraush.
“Arthur, I will prevent destruction.”
Thus, Kraush could speak those words with unwavering conviction.
“Even if I leave not a speck of ash behind in this world, I will prevent every extinction I can.”
That was Kraush’s life goal.
“So take care of what you have in your hands this time.”
The role of preventing destruction would be taken on by him.
Kraush turned to leave, grabbing the door handle to go out.
After all, everyone was training, so he intended to join them.
“…Kraush.”
At that moment, Arthur’s voice rang out from behind.
As Kraush slowly turned his head, he saw nostalgia and loneliness in Arthur’s eyes.
“Since that day I killed you, I’ve been endlessly replaying the time line.”
Arthur stated that he hadn’t fully inherited the time lines.
Thus, Kraush sensed that he didn’t know all the time lines in which he had betrayed Arthur.
“Whether it’s regret or something else, I still don’t know.”
In Arthur’s eyes, there were many emotions reflected, from hatred toward Kraush to the haunting sadness and regret behind it.
Arthur gripped his chest tightly.
“If only I hadn’t killed you then, would you and I have built a different relationship?”
Kraush fell silent at Arthur’s question.
The current Arthur was trapped, unable to break free from the time line he had inherited.
Kraush recognized that truth.
How might Arthur have turned out had Abella not concerned him with the time lines?
Certainly, he wouldn’t have to wear such a pained expression.
“I have no idea.”
The time line Arthur spoke of no longer existed.
So Kraush couldn’t grant the response he desired.
“This damned world has never gone as intended.”
“…True.”
Arthur didn’t say anything more.
His appearance, imbued with a feminine quality different from how Kraush had remembered him, betrayed an unusual solitude and longing.
How did Arthur and he live in that world, he wondered.
Could it have been that he too had grown strong enough to stand back-to-back with Arthur?
As Kraush pondered this, he went ahead and closed the Lion’s Order door behind him.
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