Chapter 101

The world brightened before his eyes as if he had suddenly turned on a gaming console after shutting it off.

Familiar ceiling, a musty smell he had encountered somewhere before.

His mind was in utter confusion.

Leandros had left him.

He had been imprisoned after falling for Yurik's trickery.

He had fled to the west with Russel.

He had sent Russel away and stayed alone.

Yurik, who had been lured in, had considered him his adversary.

When he had reached a point of no return,

He had killed himself to reset the world.

Was this the fourth time?

His head throbbed where it had been crushed by the statue.

It wasn't just his head that hurt.

His entire body ached as if he had the flu.

His eyes were caked with what might have been tears or sleep, making it difficult to open them properly, and his nose kept running.

There was even a ringing in his ears.

He didn't have the strength to move even a finger.

But still.

"Tomorrow's sun will always rise. A fine adult doesn't postpone tasks to others."

Since he had reset anyway, he should think about how to approach the ending more safely this time.

Without encountering Yurik as much as possible, without becoming entangled with him, allowing Leandros to become the protagonist who would save the world.

When he got up with a positive mindset, everything spun around him.

But it was alright.

This was nothing for someone who had just regressed.

As he was thinking it was nothing to worry about, the bedroom door opened, and Arndt came in.

Arndt, who was entering with a crude bowl, was startled and hesitated when he saw him sitting up.

"I-I'm sorry, Your Grace. I didn't know you were awake... Your Grace, Your Grace! Your face is!"

His face?

Had it swollen badly or something?

He had regressed, not eaten ramen in the middle of the night.

He touched his face while watching Arndt, who looked like he was about to have a seizure.

His cheeks were all wet, as if he had been crying in his sleep.

He didn't think much of it.

But the palm he looked down at was covered in red.

In that moment, he recalled the moment when his head had been shattered and he had died.

"Huh."

Damn.

To experience bleeding out completely during death as a commoner among nobles?

This was something to experience once in a lifetime.

He saw Arndt's back as he threw the bowl aside and ran off, calling for Leandros.

* * *

"There are no external wounds, but you must take special care."

"Care or not, I was just getting up and there was blood coming out, that's all."

Leandros warned sternly.

"If you collapse from lack of blood, I cannot take responsibility."

"That's right, Your Grace. You know very well that we can't call a physician right now even if we wanted to."

Leandros and Arndt nagged in unison.

Hearing them talk about how he needed to nourish his body and how he shouldn't leave the bed made him feel a bit warm inside.

It really felt like he had returned to the old days.

...Though he had indeed returned to the past.

"Yes, yes."

"Don't just laugh it off like that! You absolutely must lie down and eat or drink something, absolutely!"

"Okay. I understand."

"If anything happens from now on, have Arndt do it."

"Even washing hands... No, okay. I got it."

"Sir Leandros is right! Even if your nose itches, please call me!"

"Yes, yes... No. That doesn't seem right."

"Even when you open your eyes in the morning, try to stay lying down. Until Arndt removes the blanket."

"What kind of talk is that now?"

"Should I even chew your food for you?"

"Stop talking such nonsense!"

Were they going to breathe for him next?

Finally raising his voice, the two fell silent.

He waited for his heart, which was pounding from just raising his voice once, to calm down before continuing.

"I'll rest as much as I can, so both of you, please shut up. Besides, I have something to say."

"What? What is it?"

Arndt's eyes grew round.

After organizing his thoughts for a moment, he answered slowly.

"I fell ill on my way back from the royal palace. And even after I came to the ducal residence, I couldn't regain my senses for a while. Right?"

"That's right, Your Grace. For days, your fever rose but you couldn't regain consciousness. If it weren't for your body temperature, we would have thought Your Grace had passed away."

"During that time, I had a revelation."

Revelation.

The impact of that word was greater than expected.

Upon hearing the word "revelation," Arndt covered his mouth with both hands, and Leandros's lips tightened into a straight line.

"W-what kind of revelation? What did you see in your dream?"

"The content was too long and vast to remember everything. But the first scene I remember is."

He shifted his gaze from Arndt to Leandros.

"The royal palace collapsed. Demonic beasts swarmed in from all directions, hunting, tearing apart, and devouring the fleeing people."

A speculation about the "end of the world" from the original work.

When the stars align in their correct positions,

Humans disappear and demonic beasts swarm,

And gods who have been absent for a long time open their eyes.

He continued to describe the horrific scene.

"No one came to help no matter how much I screamed. The same was true for other people. And on this land, people disappeared, and only two humans remained."

"Do you remember who they were?"

"One was His Highness the Crown Prince."

"Crown Prince Yurik den Menadia!"

Arndt shrieked.

In contrast, Leandros calmly asked again.

"Who was the other one?"

"It was a face I knew well. He was standing alone against His Highness the Crown Prince. And that person was you, Leandros."

Replacing the original protagonist was an impossibility.

There was only one person he recognized as the protagonist here.

Leandros.

The escort knight of Duke Arenheit,

The one who had left in his previous life, tired of his antics.

He couldn't say anything for a long time in response to his words.

That was understandable, since he had called this a "revelation."

As far as Leandros knew, a revelation was seeing a confirmed future.

The ability to see all the scenes leading up to that future was what distinguished it from a prophecy.

Therefore, revelation was more conducive to changing the future than prophecy, which could only see the outcome.

But,

"Since Your Grace has dreamed of a revelation, I believe you also know how to prevent such a tragedy."

"I told you, it was an extremely long revelation. I can't remember all of it. Besides, I was sick."

What would he do if he said he couldn't remember?

Leandros's face contorted slightly.

"Your Grace."

"I'll try my best to remember, but I can't promise. Even if I miraculously recall everything, Hartmann is in a different situation from before, so I can't be certain that the future can be changed."

"You shouldn't take a revelation lightly, Your Grace."

"I know. I know, but I'm not as adept at utilizing revelations as the former Duchess."

Leandros said no more.

He probably thought that saying anything more would be like nagging him.

Arndt cautiously asked.

"Could there be a reason why you suddenly dreamed such a revelation?"

"I don't know either."

"The former Duchess said that while one couldn't dream revelations at will, she often received revelations about matters related to herself."

Well, both Yurik and Leandros had built many relationships with him through multiple iterations.

When he merely shrugged his shoulders, Arndt glanced at Leandros with a face full of concern.

"It would be good if the bad future doesn't occur."

"It could be something that happens ten years from now, or it could be the day after tomorrow. But there's something more important than that."

"What is it?"

"That we have nothing to eat for dinner tonight."

No matter how many times he returned, Hartmann at this point was still impoverished.

They couldn't keep surviving on watery porridge with just a few floating grains.

"Both of you, open the banquet hall and strip off some gold decorations. Arndt, even if you enter the hall, don't go near the candlesticks. Leandros, collect the gold and sell it all in the nearest village."

"What? You want to damage the banquet hall?"

Arndt jumped up in protest, but when he glared, Arndt left the room, whimpering.

The gold collected by the two became their travel funds.

With some cash in hand, the next steps were obvious.

First, go to the west and raid the illegal gambling den disguised as a chapel to secure funds.

Second, use that money to dress neatly and visit Baron Arnold's territory to retrieve the former Duchess's relic, half of the black horn, from Amelia.

And third.

"...So, if possible, I would like to bring Lady Arnold to the Hartmann ducal family."

"You're asking me to send my daughter to the ducal family? That's out of the question. She is too frail now to travel long distances."

Baron Arnold's words were dripping with arrogance.

That was natural.

In his previous life, when he had discussed Amelia's residence, it was after the Hartmann ducal family had become quite well-known, which it wasn't now.

At best, it was probably just a useless ducal family with only a semblance of prestige left.

So Baron Arnold didn't feel the need to show him respect, but.

"I see. I thought that the Hartmann ducal residence, being close to the Dikenter Mountains, would allow for recuperation in much cleaner air than here."

"We have plenty of clean air here too, Your Grace. So please stop making such absurd proposals and..."

"How about 10,000 gold coins?"

"...Pardon?"

The baron asked back with a momentarily dumbfounded expression.

He instructed the baron's servant standing nearby to bring a pen and paper.

As he wrote on the paper the servant had hurriedly brought, he answered.

"10,000 gold coins. If Lady Arnold doesn't show improvement in her condition within a year of arriving at Hartmann Castle, she will immediately return to the baronial family, and I will pay 10,000 gold coins."

"W-what, what are you..."

"That just means Hartmann values Lady Arnold highly. Besides, I want to treat her as well as possible."

He extended the hastily written temporary contract toward the baron.

Baron Arnold couldn't readily take it and just stared at him.

"What are you planning, Your Grace?"

"I have no ulterior motives. Don't misconstrue human goodwill."

As if he would tell him his schemes.

He wouldn't understand anyway.

The baron was wavering between the gold coins and his pride.

After watching the baron caught in conflict, he casually dropped.

"I heard by chance that you were considering sending your son, the young lord Arnold, to study abroad."

"How did you...?"

"How I heard isn't important. With this money, it wouldn't be impossible for the young lord Arnold to study abroad."

In the previous iteration, he had chatted with Amelia and briefly talked about her brother.

Her brother was much older than Amelia and, being the only male in the family, was set to inherit the family name.

Amelia had said that the baron and his wife wanted to give everything to their precious son.

-If they could afford it, they wanted to send him abroad. Because it's rare for nobles to study in the Holy Empire and Hyperdoria's Mu Dolran, Comodoreum. But they didn't have any particular business. Since studying abroad is expensive, they couldn't help it.

It wasn't too late now.

The baron's eyes began to waver.

After pondering for a moment, he said.

"If my daughter's illness can be cured at the ducal residence..."

Whether it was before or now, he was still selling his daughter.

He nodded and said naturally.

"As the baron said, it would be difficult for Lady Arnold to move over long distances, so wouldn't it be good to assign an attendant to her, at least until she arrives at the castle?"

"I was already thinking of doing that, even without Your Grace's consideration."

"I meant someone who could protect the Lady in urgent situations, besides the maidservants who will attend to her."

This much bait should be enough.

He rose from his seat, leaving Baron Arnold who couldn't take his eyes off the "10,000 gold coins" written on the contract.

A month after returning to the ducal residence from the west.

At a time when they were busy with internal repairs and renovations,

Amelia arrived with her attendants.

And among her attendants was a servant with a strangely pale, white face.

It was a face he knew.