—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
What had he thought when he first saw the light? A child wouldn’t have many thoughts as the dawn broke before his eyes. He must have wanted to live well.
The frail young lord, having lost his mother early, faced countless hardships as he grew up. His fingernails were pulled out, he bled, his flesh was carved.
Even amidst the searing pain, he hadn’t forgotten his mother’s teachings. Trust people, even though their nature is inherently evil.
How could he have given up so easily? It was attachment. He couldn’t abandon his attachment to his own belief that all her teachings were right.
He repeated the path he knew was wrong, and he crossed the easily passable path with difficulty.
He wasn’t a saint.
He wasn’t that great of a person. He was just someone who had been lucky enough to have the opportunity to regress.
He had accidentally come into contact with the power of the Four Dragons, and perhaps someone would pity him.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he had broken down during the regressions, and if the Goddess hadn’t intervened, he would have been corrupted by the Four Dragons and ravaged the world.
He had fallen in love. It hadn’t taken him long to realize it was a one-sided infatuation, but his heart hadn’t been broken.
His first unrequited love had been painful, but the rekindled relationships were sweet. Sweet enough for him to cling to the impossible dozens of times.
He had challenged a twisted fate, knowing it was twisted. He didn’t have to protect them, but he had grown stronger, intending to die before them.
He had gripped the sword, and with that sword, he had seen the end.
It was refreshing. Perhaps because it was the first time he had felt that way while regressing, he could finally move forward.
He had gone mad from the unchanging fate, even after dying several times. He had torn at his own throat, tortured himself, wishing for eternal death.
Did he still wish for that death now? Well.
Robert chuckled, finding his own thoughts absurd. At first, his goal had been peace.
Now, it wasn’t.
He had formed countless connections, and this incident had made him realize something clearly.
That the connections he carried, his own life, weren’t so light. He still had too many attachments to die without regrets.
He couldn’t act thoughtlessly. He admitted it, this sacrifice… had been too reckless.
He could have blocked the attack with only minor injuries. If he had combined his mana with Adele’s, they could have ended it with only minor injuries.
He had been blinded by the name Adele. He had valued his own life too lightly.
Amidst the clearly crumbling light, the man who had been a duke sighed.
The collapsing space, a space where only fragments of light remained, buried amidst darkness. Everything in existence was mixed together.
A mindscape, the inner world of someone who had experienced not just an ordinary life, but a hundred regressions.
Could it be considered normal, even if it only contained fragments? Simply observing it gave rise to enlightenment.
Just feeling it allowed him to take a step forward. And if the owner of that inner world, the one who had lived through those times, directly confronted it…
He couldn’t regain consciousness immediately even as the space crumbled.
The energy he had received from the Goddess, the icy energy that had been buried within his heart, began to circulate throughout his body.
It was cold and chilling, like a winter wind, but within it, there was Adriana’s kindness. Like Miragen’s playful smile, there was a unique charm.
The coldness like the winter wind reminded him of Adele. It might be embarrassing, but he couldn’t help but feel complicated emotions whenever he thought of the three women.
He had long abandoned the thought of choosing just one. He would either die, or take all three of them with him, if possible.
‘It’s not like I’m greedy.’
But it had to be that way. He couldn’t let anyone feel left out and sad.
If he accepted the feelings of all three and it caused conflict between them, he would leave the continent altogether.
To a place where even Adele couldn’t find him. There were also distracting thoughts he had in the mindscape. He acquired knowledge he hadn’t known before.
He discovered techniques he hadn’t seen, opened pathways for mana he hadn’t found.
The sword, something he had grasped to protect.
That’s why he had to be stronger than anyone else.
Was he the strongest now? He wasn’t enough. He was far from being able to defeat the Four Dragons, far from being able to defeat all the demons and remain unscathed.
He couldn’t grow physically stronger just by swinging his sword in the mindscape. Even if his body grew stronger, it would only slightly increase his strength.
What he needed was to fully reach the enlightenment he had only faintly sensed.
His breathing grew ragged. As the mindscape crumbled, Robert’s energy fluctuated. It was the same in the real world.
His heart pounded, energy overflowing. The mana that had started as a small spark now surged, filling the room.
Adele and Adriana’s faces paled.
There weren’t many emotions that flickered in their trembling eyes. Confusion, and a glimmer of hope that Robert might be waking up.
What if he didn’t wake up?
That couldn’t be— As that conviction passed, their hands reached out to stabilize Robert’s mana.
Thump, thump.
A beating heart meant flowing mana. If the heart stopped, the mana would stop too.
Robert, sensing the external influence, actively circulated his mana. He found techniques amidst the hundreds, thousands of imagined sword swings.
He could sense the power of the Four Dragons within the energy the Goddess had infused him with. That great evil could easily manifest just by sensing its power.
It obscured the mountains, covered the sky. The earth trembled with its roar. Even beasts went mad just by meeting its gaze.
Its scales couldn’t be easily pierced by a sword, and even the most powerful mages would struggle to defend against the smallest flames the dragon conjured.
“Saint, what’s going on-!”
“I think he’s about to wake up.”
As Adriana calmly replied, Robert’s body showed signs of revival. Flames flickered from his perfectly healed body.
The life force within his heart, which even the Saint’s miracle hadn’t been able to replenish, surged forth, circulating throughout his body like a newborn child.
It was different from before.
A power close to resurrection was surging within his body. Whether he could endure this process and wake up depended on the synchronization of his inner world and reality.
The mana they wielded had to be perfectly aligned. It was dangerous. If he failed, the two would be separated, forever unable to harmonize.
How could they achieve perfect synchronization unless their hearts were connected?
An ordinary person wouldn’t even attempt it, but Robert and Adriana simply circulated their mana without hesitation.
Through the heart to the legs, through the legs to the arms, through the arms to the chest, through the chest to the head.
It would be hard to find something more difficult, but the weight of their accumulated connection made it… not so difficult.
Now, they could understand each other’s feelings just by hearing each other’s voices.
Rumble-
Adele enveloped the room with her mana as Robert’s mana erupted. Others couldn’t be alerted to this commotion.
The inner world where Robert existed was also collapsing at an accelerated rate. But his enlightenment was also rapidly filling up.
He was moving towards the realm he hadn’t been able to reach before, the realm beyond the wall he was only now glimpsing because he hadn’t realized he had talent.
He had learned and mastered countless techniques he hadn’t known or seen before. But techniques weren’t important in defeating the Four Dragons.
‘Return to the origin.’
He wouldn’t be able to defeat the dragon simply by knowing how to grip the sword or how to swing it.
The moment he thought about his will to kill, something responded. His tightly closed lips twisted into a smile. He had a feeling.
The enlightenment that had seemed so distant was now approaching as his body throbbed.
Sword, body, mind.
Countless images surged forth, of how he had gripped the sword, how he had swung it, with what intentions he had cut.
It didn’t take long for them to become one and blend together naturally. Light flickered in his empty eyes.
Like a flower bud blooming, as the surging mana calmed down, Robert’s breathing gradually stabilized.
He was coming back. He wasn’t foolish enough not to know that, and Adele, wearing a complicated expression, tightly gripped Robert’s hand.
With the hand that didn’t have a ring, she held his left hand, which had a ring.
What would he say when he woke up and saw his finger?
-…What is this?
She imagined him throwing the ring away in disbelief.
Would he really do that?
Perhaps he would be offended. It was a confession she had made without his knowledge, while he was unconscious.
It was her wishful thinking that their feelings were mutual, he might have feelings for another woman.
In fact… he might have already done so with the Saint or the Princess.
-I prefer Miragen.
-I prefer Adriana.
Adele gasped, her expression hardening. It wasn’t easy to hide her killing intent from Adriana, who was beside her.
What should she do with the Saint if that happened? If it had been before, she would have acted immediately, but her wild nature had been tamed for a while now.
She wouldn’t act rashly. Especially if it was something Robert would dislike. Adele could endure anything for him.
Twitch.
As the mana completely spread, Robert’s body began to move slightly.
His mind and body were becoming one, and his consciousness was about to return. There was no need to hold onto his mana any longer.
His body revived, his mind returned.
Robert’s eyes opened in the completely vanished mindscape. He no longer needed his inner world.
It was time to return to the world.
His body twitched more frequently.
Adriana quietly held back the tears that threatened to spill. It was better to act normal.
It would be embarrassing if she looked too eager to see him.
“…Robert.”
Finally, the twitching stopped.
His eyelids fluttered open, revealing his blue eyes.
Adele rushed to his side and grabbed his hand. It was so fast that Adriana, who hadn’t learned martial arts, couldn’t even react.
“Mmm…”
His voice, hoarse from days of silence, was heard, and Robert, realizing that Adele was in front of him, smiled faintly.
He had a lot he wanted to say. About the ring on his finger, about what he wanted to say to Miragen and Adriana.
Of course, he wasn’t planning to say it now.
It would be enough to say it after everything was over, but he could at least answer her.
His expanded senses allowed him to perceive the world differently than before.
He knew where the other ring was without even looking. He sat up naturally, reached out, and took the ring from the box.
He took Adele’s hand, which was frozen in place, and slipped the ring onto her finger.
Adele’s eyes, which had seemed to be living in a world of stopped time, finally blinked.
She looked as if she couldn’t believe the ring on her finger.
An illusion? A hallucination? It didn’t matter.
Even if she died now, Adele felt a euphoria strong enough to make her die smiling.
“I think I like you too.”
“Huh…? Uh, y-yes. Me too—I, I like you… you…”
Although it was something he was saying to another woman in front of the woman whose feelings he had already accepted, what could he do?
Since he had to accept the feelings of all three women… he had to be prepared for this.
Robert chuckled, looking at Adriana, whose aura had turned noticeably colder, and moved his lips.
He wasn’t planning to apologize.
Such a time hadn’t even existed, and it was enough that he had answered her the moment he woke up.
“Let’s move forward.”
He would defeat the Four Dragons and end this chaos. It was time to end his 101 lives.
No matter what the outcome might be, Robert wanted to end everything within a week.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
[Your Text Here]
