Translator: Nox
Chapter 5
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His body was growing lighter.
His breathing was becoming easier, unbelievably so.
At the same time, the slender body in his arms was growing colder and colder.
"...Hey. Stop this right now."
He tried to pull her hand away, but her fingertips were already as cold as ice.
"Stop it right now, Odelia!"
"No."
But Odelia, clinging to him, desperately shook her head.
"If not now... I'll never be able to again."
"Don't do it! I never wanted any of this!"
Ludville shouted, veins popping out in his neck.
The fierce cry didn't last long.
Soon, it turned into a desperate plea.
"Please... stop. I'm begging you..."
But it was already too late.
Odelia smiled faintly, then collapsed in his arms.
"It's okay now."
What was okay? Before he could even answer that nothing was okay,
"If you go straight out that way, you can escape. ...So you have to live."
Odelia drew out the last of her strength and pointed somewhere with trembling fingertips.
"Live. That's my last request."
The corners of her lips still held a faint curve.
Until the moment her breath was cut off.
Odelia, who had confidently declared that she would live longer than him, died so futilely.
Far earlier than the average lifespan of a Purifier.
Now that Odelia was dead, a new Purifier would soon be born.
The Cardel family would surely click their tongues, saying they had to tame the newborn from the beginning.
It was just a slightly hastened death, the unchanging fate of the Purifier for hundreds of years.
It had always been this way, and it would continue to be so.
That was how the story should have ended.
But...
There was one person.
One who could not accept the flow of fate.
"You said you'd live longer than me..."
His lips, chapped with scabs, trembled.
Ludville's fingertips brushed down Odelia's cheek, as if caressing it, as she closed her eyes in his arms as if falling asleep.
"...That's a lie."
"Odelia."
"Please, answer me..."
His shoulders shook.
It didn't take long for his suppressed, rough breaths to turn into sobs.
The moment he let out a cry, he finally broke down completely, wailing.
Having spent his life as a test subject, Ludville was small and emaciated even after becoming an adult, nothing but skin and bones.
A completely different appearance from what Odelia remembered.
However, the light in his eyes was still alive.
Shining brightly even in the darkness.
"God, demon, whoever it is, I don't care. It doesn't have to be a miracle. Even a contract, a curse, anything is fine, so please, just one more time..."
Hot tears fell down Ludville's lips.
He prayed desperately, as if squeezing himself dry.
"Take everything. My name, my memories, my soul. So please, just let her live..."
At that moment, the air rippled.
As if time had stopped, the air twisted, and a gem emitting a radiant light appeared.
It was a palm-sized blue crystal.
It vibrated and pulsed minutely, like a living heart.
"This is..."
One of the many sacred objects of the Cardel family.
The Cardel family had built an image as Descendants of the Dragon for hundreds of years, collecting many sacred objects and storing them underground.
One of them had suddenly appeared before Ludville.
And the scene changes.
A floor splattered with red blood everywhere.
Ludville was lying on the floor, his whole body covered in blood.
He still held the blue gem in his hand.
He was surrounded by knights of the Cardel family in silver armor, as if besieging him.
Someone shouted as if grinding their teeth.
"That insane test subject dares to steal the family's sacred object!"
The knight standing at the very front drew his sword. And plunged it towards Ludville's heart, who was lying as if dead.
Odelia was startled and ran forward without realizing it.
But at that moment.
The gem shone brightly, emitting a blue flash.
The intense light engulfed Ludville's body.
Like a burning star.
Brilliantly and cruelly.
And...
Everything disappeared.
The blood, the pain, the sword blade piercing him.
In the silent darkness, for the first time, time began to flow backward.
The red blood that had been pooling on the floor was sucked back into his body, and the knights surrounding him sheathed their swords and stepped back.
Everything rewound as if it were a clockwork mechanism.
And when he opened his eyes again.
Ludville had returned to ten years ago.
To the very day he was sold at the slave market and dragged to the Cardel family's underground laboratory.
'...Gem of Regression.'
The ring Ludville always wore on his hand.
That was the identity of the gem embedded in the ring.
What triggered it was unknown.
It was just that on that day, the gem reacted to Ludville's voice as he knelt and prayed before Odelia's body.
He was chosen, and he gained the ability to turn back time.
"No way."
The first time he experienced the regression phenomenon, Ludville denied reality.
"...I can turn everything back."
Next, he felt hope.
"I can save you."
Ludville laughed in joy.
"We can live together."
This time, he ran away with Odelia.
But as a powerless slave, he was caught before he could even escape the Cardel territory, executed on the spot, and Odelia was dragged back underground.
Time turned back again.
The gem had become subtly smaller than before.
'I have to build up my strength.'
Ludville chose to escape from the Cardel family for the time being.
While serving a retired knight, Ludville picked up a sword for the first time in his life.
The boy, who couldn't even hold the sword properly and staggered, became stronger than his peers after much effort.
But it was far from enough to become a knight.
Ludville decided to devote this life to mastering swordsmanship. He devoted himself to training until he became an old man.
When he died, time turned back again.
The gem became even smaller than the last regression.
In a new life, he became a knight of the Cardel family.
And seized the opportunity to escape with Odelia.
Hiding on a cargo ship, the two fled to another country and built a small cabin in a rural territory to live together.
"Odelia."
Ludville took out a pair of newly bought silver rings from his pocket.
"I can't offer you anything expensive or make any grand promises, but..."
The most expensive rings he could buy with all the money he had saved.
With trembling hands, he put the smaller one on Odelia's finger and the larger one on his own.
"This is a token that I will be by your side forever."
He slowly and deeply kissed her ring.
With the face of someone suffering from a terrible first love, he whispered.
"...I love you, Odelia."
The unadorned, raw confession contained only pure affection.
Ludville held her in his arms with all his heart, as if this moment were the last moment that would never come again.
But Odelia's body had already been damaged beyond repair due to long-term exploitation.
She died at the age of twenty-nine.
Ludville despaired, but it was okay.
There were still many opportunities left.
'...I need to find a way to heal her body.'
Ludville traveled all over the empire, searching for a cure that would heal Odelia's body.
But there was a limit to the information that a knight of humble origin could obtain.
'I need power.'
Time turned back again.
The gem became smaller.
He participated in the war as a child soldier.
He threw himself in recklessly.
Ridiculously, he was immediately pierced by the enemy's sword and died.
Time turns back again.
The bloody stench of countless battlefields.
The screams that burned in the flames.
The names of the comrades who fell at the tip of the sword.
He died countless times.
He collapsed countless times.
He gained merit and became a Viscount, a Count, and even a Duke.
The title of Grand Duke was a minor achievement among the thousands of achievements he had held in his hands.
He saved this land, occupied enemy countries with advanced medicine, and even learned magic to perform miracles.
He even became the head of the underworld and dabbled in all sorts of forbidden arts.
But he couldn't save her.
No matter what he did.
