Flames were rising like waves, sweeping through everything in their path. The sky had long turned pitch black due to the thick smoke.
Involuntarily, I winced at the screams echoing from all around.
Is this the hell prepared for me?
That thought suddenly crossed my mind.
I have lived a life where getting my hands bloody is part of everyday existence.
For the sake of survival, I’ve already taken countless lives, far beyond what two hands can count.
Though, compared to Abel from the original story, it’s not as many.
Still, that doesn’t make me a clean person. Whether it’s killing thousands or hundreds, the fact remains the same: my hands are stained with blood.
Thud, thud.
I slowly walked down the distant path.
The scenery I passed was depressingly similar.
Burning houses, people covered in flames rolling around and screaming, others collapsing due to suffocation from the smoke.
How long had I been walking past them when I finally saw the town square, the source of the flames. The majestic statue of the Emperor once stood there. Now, only a statue with a broken torso remained.
On what appeared to be the pedestal of the statue, a familiar figure sat.
“Adelle?”
Short, black hair and ruby-red eyes—Adelle, a woman beautiful enough to bewitch anyone at any moment, sat there.
The mature appearance caught me off guard compared to when I had first met her.
She turned her head upon noticing me. Staring at me intensely, Adelle then smiled.
It wasn’t her usual innocent smile but something distant, twisted, as if saturated with death. Her lips curled in a harsh smirk.
“It’s been a while, Abel.”
“What is—”
This wasn’t the Adelle I knew.
It wasn’t about her dropping honorifics; something fundamental about her had changed.
“…Is this a dream?”
My senses seemed dulled compared to normal. If I had to describe it, it felt akin to a lucid dream.
If not, none of this makes sense.
Perhaps I’m having a precognitive dream.
“Why so surprised? Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Adelle remained seated next to the statue while watching me silently. Soon, she gracefully landed on the ground and began walking cautiously.
Looking closely, I noticed numerous bodies scattered around her. Each had a punctured chest and neck, bleeding profusely.
The scene was horrific, a veritable bloodbath.
“I still love Abel, even now.”
“Wha—”
Adelle wiped the blood from her finger into her mouth. At the sight of it, I felt a chilling sensation and instinctively rubbed my arms.
Unfazed by my words, she approached me without hesitation. Her ruby-red eyes gleamed with bloodlust.
“The Crown Prince is dead, and the High Mage is dead too…”
Adelle muttered quietly before breaking into a smile.
The look of death in her eyes and the twisted smile struck fear in me for the first time regarding her.
“Finally, the Emperor is dead as well.”
Adelle tapped the head of the man lying at her feet. The familiar blonde hair and golden eyes belonged to a disfigured body, its limbs severed, its eyes wide open.
Could this be the Emperor?
“Did I really give it my all?”
While crushing the Emperor’s neck without hesitation, she wiped her smile off. Without the smile, her face revealed only a grim void of nothingness.
“How many times did I die? Thousands? Or maybe it’s tens of thousands?”
“Snap out of it, Adelle!”
“Sorry, I lost count after the thousandth time.”
Communication was impossible. She was just spilling out words in one-sided fashion.
Her eyes were unfocused. She wasn’t under the influence of any mind-control magic.
It was simply the endless regression that had driven her insane.
What events could’ve transpired to bring her to this state?
Even though this is just a dream, I couldn’t make sense of it all.
Though it might be absurd to question the logic of a dream…
Before I knew it, Adelle had approached me and tightly embraced me.
The overwhelming stench of blood made it hard to breathe. Beyond the warmth, there was an ominous aura that felt suffocating.
“What about the others?”
“Hm? Oh, you mean the princesses and princes?”
She wasn’t just referring to them. No, Adelle never used to speak so lightly of them.
Does she even consider them human anymore?
“I used them as discardable cards. Their vengeance-driven obsession proved quite useful.”
Goosebumps ran down my body.
“Why, would you do such a thing?”
“Huh? Because you’re the only one important to me.”
Muttering the words while still holding me tightly, Adelle’s eyes had no life left in them.
Only after seeing her eyes did I recall a passage from the original story.
One of its side stories: “If… the Monster of Red Flames.”
Adelle transforms into someone merciless and unscrupulous after enduring countless cycles of regression. That side story detailed her “Bad Ending” route.
The author of the original work must’ve felt it wasn’t enough to end it on such an uncomfortable note, so they penned this alternate route themselves.
In that story, Adelle sacrifices herself to defeat not only the Crown Prince and the High Mage, but even the Emperor, binding Abel to her forever as a result.
“Abel, I love you.”
I couldn’t say a word.
I could only silently stare into Adelle’s eyes. Chains erupted from her hands.
The artifact that played a pivotal role in sealing the Emperor in the original story—Gleipnir.
The scarlet chains coiled around my neck. Along with an eerie sensation, Adelle’s blood-streaked smile remained vivid in my mind’s eye.
“Let’s be together forever.”
With that final utterance, my consciousness faded away. Darkness enveloped me completely, before my vision snapped back open.
“Khh… haa…”
I gasped for breath and suddenly sat up, knowing long before this was a dream.
Yet, there was no way I could calmly respond to seeing Adelle like that.
Because her form in the dream reflected exactly what I feared the most—hence why I had grown stronger to avoid such a situation.
“Ha, haa…”
My hands trembled.
My mind remained blurred, thanks to the insomnia triggered by that nightmare.
Every time I drift into deeper sleep, that nightmare haunts me. The nightmare where Adelle, broken beyond repair, tries to bind me.
Ever since I killed Duke Hardenberg, Abel’s father, I thought I would be free from insomnia, but apparently not.
The cause was clear.
It was due to the insecurity that arose since that day when Adelle nearly died at the Emperor’s hands.
After all, none of us expected that she would be pushed into such a dire situation, directly confronting the Emperor and facing near death.
“Hmm…”
Adelle’s ability to infinitely regress is incredibly advantageous. However, it isn’t infallible.
As mentioned in the original, there are a few scenarios where her power is nullified. One of those cases involves the Emperor.
If she were to die at the Emperor’s hand, Adelle’s regression wouldn’t activate. Though there are complex settings behind this, the important detail is this:
Were she dying and not able to summon me through a contract, Adelle could’ve really perished.
If such a scenario were to happen…
“Pull yourself together.”
I slapped my cheeks with both hands and stood up. It was still the dead of night, with the faint moonlight peeping through the window.
There was no way I could fall back asleep at this point.
With that thought in mind, I slowly stepped out of the room.
The mansion was quiet at this hour. There was no bustling noise from the servants who were usually laughing and working joyfully.
Of course, this was the time when everyone should be sleeping.
“Come to think of it, there were no servants in the original story, right?”
How many would want to live in a mansion ruled by a Duke who casually kills his servants?
Still, there were a few exceptions like Lora and Alan, but most of the work was handled by the automatons, lifelike puppets, that I recalled.
Shaking off my thoughts, I walked outside, greeted by the chilly dawn air.
“Ah…”
Reflecting on it, in my past life, I used to start daily jogging every morning at dawn.
At first, it was exhausting, but eventually, it became a habit.
“…Though now it would be hard.”
The nature of a nobleman’s job leaves me no time for morning exercises, what with duties piling up the moment I rest. Still, I do miss those days sometimes.
The days when I had nothing and only relied on sheer youth to challenge anything.
“…Am I growing old?”
When considering the mental age, I’ve easily surpassed fifty. So, yes, I’ve aged.
“Haah!”
“Go just a bit more!”
Familiar voices reached my ears.
I turned to find Adelle and Arin practicing spirit magic in an empty clearing.
“Three consecutive wood chops!”
Swirling blades of wind sliced through three airborne pieces of wood floating in the air. It’s impressive how much she’s grown in such a short time.
“Just—oh, Master Duke.”
Noticing me, Arin bowed, and Adelle, following her lead, turned and immediately widened her eyes upon seeing me.
“Abel, it’s been a while.”
“Are you feeling better?”
“Which era are you talking about? I’m completely healed.”
She demonstrated by freely moving her arm that had once been broken, proving her words. Seeing this energetic version of her made me smile softly.
Truly, this is the real Adelle.
Not the mindless shell I had encountered in my dream.
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