Cough!
The moment his spear pierced my chest.
All strength drained from my body, and it felt as though my insides were being twisted apart.
Agonizing pain unlike anything I had ever felt before.
Fuck, I can’t breathe.
I had forgotten even how to breathe.
I couldn’t tell whether what was spilling from my mouth was blood or water.
With the smell of iron boring through my nose and invading my brain, it had to be blood.
Red liquid burst from my mouth amid that overpowering metallic stench, and I thought there might have been something like chunks of flesh mixed in with it.
"Ian——!!"
I heard someone scream my name as though their throat were tearing apart, but only for a moment.
Riiiiing.
After that, all I could hear was a shrill ringing in my ears.
And that was not all.
The golden spear did not stop at merely embedding itself in my body.
Hummm—hummm.
As if pleased that it had landed properly, it began vibrating at a tremendous speed.
"Cough!"
As the golden spear violently vibrated inside me, it tore through all my internal organs starting from where it had pierced me.
I had to vomit so much blood that I wondered if my body had always contained this much.
Fuck, I really feel like I’m going to die.
"...You fucking bastard. Did you shove a dildo into someone’s body?"
The fact that I still felt like making jokes probably meant my body really was sturdy.
With trembling hands, I gripped the golden spear tightly.
I would not pull it out.
Now that it was lodged in me, I would probably die whether I pulled it out or not.
But if I pulled it out, I’d die without being able to hit that bastard.
Yeah. I would surely die of blood loss.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Even if I died, I would land one good hit on that bastard before I went.
Using Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method, I firmly locked the spear in place so it could not be pulled from my body.
The man’s face twisted in alarm when his golden spear would not come out of me.
Then Kafka and Angelica charged in from both sides and unleashed Mad Orlando upon the man.
The man’s body was ground apart by the frenzied storm.
Cuts were appearing on the Sword Master’s body.
It was strange that people in their forties could deal damage to someone in his seventies, but Scaramuccia had a gimmick where physical damage hit harder when he was immune to magic.
So it was not strange that we could damage him...
At that moment.
Slaaash——!!
Sword energy coated the golden spear, creating an opening.
Like it was carving me out, the man’s golden spear pulled free from my body.
Ah, fuck. I hadn’t accounted for sword energy.
Thanks to that, an even larger hole than before was left in my body.
So this is what it feels like to become a donut.
The inside of me felt cool, as if I could feel the air passing through it.
I could hear nothing. I could see nothing.
It looked like Kafka was running toward me while shouting something.
Sorry, I can’t hear you.
I needed to say something, but I did not have the strength to speak.
Ah, fuck. Is this what dying feels like?
My knees gave out.
Rather than simply collapsing, it felt as though every joint in my body was slowly melting away.
As my gaze turned toward the floor, it began drawing ever closer.
Ding!
With that notification sound, my vision went completely dark.
[DEFEAT]
[You have been defeated.]
But why?
My eyes were closed, yet I could see the notification window.
Shouldn’t I be unable to see it?
The pain was gone, and I could hear nothing.
My consciousness felt like it was floating in the air.
It felt as if I had simply died.
So why could I see a notification window before my eyes?
And not just any notification window.
It was exactly the same UI that appeared when you lost a stage in the game.
[.........You possess a Dreamland Ticket.]
Then another notification window appeared before me.
Countless square slots unfolded in a row before my eyes.
The inventory.
Inside it was an image glowing gold, as though urging me to take it out.
It was the Dreamland Ticket that had not been torn.
[The hidden gimmick of the Dreamland Ticket planted by the "Magic Knight" has activated.]
[Please challenge it again with every possible preparation!]
It was the same.
Exactly the same UI that had appeared like it was trying to encourage me whenever I was defeated.
But there was one thing I knew now.
That I felt like I could tear that ticket now.
I reached out and grabbed the ticket.
Then I tore it.
The darkness receded, and light began to appear.
The light struck my face, and when I could see again—
I was in the library.
The place where I had just died.
It was a complete mess, and the Iris Fan Club Trio were sprawled around exactly as they had been before.
The difference was—
"Ris——!!!"
Haede was alive.
Before my eyes, Haede’s brown hair streamed behind her as she moved to shield Iris.
Scaramuccia’s golden spear was just about to pierce her chest.
I did not know why I had reset.
I did not know why Haede had not died.
But there was one thing I knew now.
It was not too late yet.
Whatever had happened, even if some miracle had occurred.
As long as I knew it was not too late yet, that was enough.
Kwang——!!!
An immense shockwave tore through the air as something collided.
A shield that blocked everything, and a spear that pierced everything.
The golden spear merely trembled, unable to penetrate the invisible barrier.
Prydwen’s ability.
Its effect of blocking any attack once had prevented his golden spear from piercing Haede.
"You’re late..."
Haede’s little complaint nearly made all the strength leave my body.
I tried to throw a joke at her, but the memory of her dead body came to mind, and I could not even remember the joke that had been on the tip of my tongue.
"It’s all right. This time, I’m not late."
I was not late.
Reassured by that fact alone.
And to turn that fact into reality rather than the past.
I raised my shield, keeping his spear from reaching her.
"Where in the world did you...?!"
Perhaps my sudden appearance had caught him off guard, because I could clearly feel his agitation.
I deflected his attack with my shield and followed up with the Logres Quick Sword Form.
I was not aiming for his body, but his horse.
I could not reach him while he was mounted anyway, so I had to target the horse first.
I drew out white sword energy and swung it, deeply slashing the horse’s neck.
But perhaps because it pulled back quickly, it was only badly cut; I failed to force it to return to its summoning.
I clicked my tongue and withdrew.
Then, to determine the gimmick, I checked which of his eyes was shut.
The sealed evil eye was his right one.
He was currently immune to magic.
Which meant physical damage would hit him directly right now.
But Angelica was nowhere to be seen.
There was no one better than her for dealing physical damage.
I did not know where she had gone.
Or whether I had come back too early.
Wait. In that case—
Wasn’t I at a greater disadvantage than before I died?
What a headache.
The strongest physical technique I could use was Blancart, but since he had easily blocked it, I had to consider it practically unusable.
A weapon that knocked you off your horse the instant it touched you.
Naturally, there had been no mounted characters in the game, so I had never dreamed a gimmick like that was hidden in the golden spear.
Then fighting while mounted was impossible.
In other words, I was completely fucked.
Kafka.
I-Ian?
I telepathically called out to Kafka, who was in the shadows.
Judging by his trembling voice, it seemed that because of his contract with me, he too had regressed along with me.
"Y-you’re alive..."
Kafka slid out of the shadows and touched the place where the spear had pierced me.
"There’s no wound. You were pierced by that spear, so how...?"
I did not know either.
When I tore the Dreamland Ticket, everything had gone back to how it was.
But the bad news was—
It seemed that starting over would not change anything.
Angelica was absent, and the Iris Fan Club Trio were all lying sprawled out.
I did not know when the evil eye might switch again.
And once he switched from magic to physical attack power, we would not be able to deal damage to him.
This was seriously fucking awful.
While I held out, I had to hope Isabella or Dante would arrive.
Letting out a deep sigh, I took up my stance behind the shield again.
"Ian de Logres."
I announced my name and pointed my sword at him.
It was common courtesy to announce one’s name before beginning a duel.
But Scaramuccia merely glanced at me as if he could not care less.
Then, like me, he leveled his spear forward.
But another problem arose.
The problem was that the spear was not pointed at me, but at Haede behind me.
Come to think of it, that was strange.
He had not even delivered finishing blows to the Iris Fan Club Trio, all of whom could be called strong.
Yet, strangely enough, he had killed Haede.
Right before Iris’s eyes, too.
Why?
Why had he needed to kill the weaker Haede?
It would have been easier simply to finish off the trio in case they got back up.
I did not know why Scaramuccia had left the defeated trio alone and killed Haede first.
Was it something like, they were already down, so he could just move on?
Sigh.
I let out a breath.
It was because the situation looked hopeless at a glance.
I could not use my strongest skill.
My strongest ally was nowhere to be found.
How many times would I have to die before I could clear this?
Or could I even clear it at all?
I stroked the area where my chest had been pierced once, then channeled mana into my legs with Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method.
Stats brought close to superhuman levels by Flower of Chivalry, combined with leg strength further enhanced by mana through the skill.
When I kicked off the ground, my body shot forward at tremendous speed.
The Logres Quick Sword Form.
Using that speed as momentum, I tried to cut off his head—
But he swung the golden spear, blocked my sword, and redirected it away.
Then, completely ignoring me, he pointed the tip of the golden spear at Haede and charged.
Why, seriously?
He was ignoring me to kill Haede first?
What the hell is this bastard thinking, charging in like that?
But that was enough thinking.
Now was the time to move my body.
This was an opportunity I had been given with great difficulty.
And if I stupidly failed to protect her again—
Then I would not even be able to make the excuse that I was too late.
I landed against the library wall, poured mana into my legs once more, and used the wall as a foothold to launch myself like a bullet.
#
What was this?
This sense of dissonance.
A strange sensation that felt somehow familiar.
It had been a brief moment, one that would have been fine to forget.
But instinctively, I was able to realize it.
Time had turned back once.
I had remained standing still, and even my position had not changed.
Yet I could tell that the time around me had suddenly warped and reversed.
I did not know why it had gone back.
Why?
Then, at that moment.
Time reversed once more.
The first reversal had left me with a sense of dissonance, but the second filled me with anxiety.
I could not calm the trembling that suddenly rose in my chest from that anxiety.
I was not trembling because there was another regressor besides me.
No. I was trembling because I, too, was regressing along with him.
Because to regress, one had to die.
And of all times, intruders had attacked the academy.
What if someone had been killed by those intruders, causing time to reverse?
Or... what if he did not even realize he was regressing, and was simply repeating the regressions over and over like a machine?
I would never see tomorrow.
So I had to find the person who was regressing now.
And either help him, or make sure he did not die.
I had to do one or the other.
So I kept running toward the direction of the explosions, until I spotted a blond man standing at the end of the corridor.
My face crumpled.
Because he was Kyle. Kyle de Astoria.
The Empire’s second prince, and my former fiancé.
I had been desperately avoiding him, yet of all times, I had to run into him now.
But this was not the time to dwell on that. I squeezed my eyes shut and desperately prayed that he would pretend not to know me and simply pass by.
"Lady Isabella?"
But he ended up calling my name.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and slowly looked at him.
"Did you wish to say something, Your Highness?"
I forced down the turmoil boiling inside me and replied with a false smile.
Why had he stopped me? What in the world did he have to say?
Was he going to make excuses again?
Was he going to apologize again?
Stop it. I was truly sick of it now.
I wished he would simply say nothing at all.
Even hearing your words is hard for me now.
I did not want you to appear before me.
I did not want to hear your voice in my ears.
Even if I had learned that the man I loved had been wearing a mask of lies.
Even if what you had done was not something the you of this time had done, and would never do.
Even if I knew that the apology you offered was sincere.
That did not make what you had done something that never happened.
Because this heart that hates you is real.
So please.
Do not apologize.
Do not make excuses.
If you truly care for me, just leave me alone.
And so, looking at the second prince who had called me over but said nothing—
"If you have nothing to say—"
I turned away without hesitation.
"You felt it too, didn’t you?"
The second prince’s voice came from behind me again.
What in the world had I supposedly felt?
At that moment.
The feet that needed to run at once refused to leave the ground.
More precisely, I did not try to take a step.
The sensation he was talking about.
There was only one thing that could be called something I had "felt."
Unable to believe it, I slowly turned around.
"Judging by your expression, it seems I was right."
The prince looked at me with an expressionless face as he nodded. His face was blank, but his eyes were full of certainty.
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