He screamed.
He raged.
He grieved.
And with each passing life, he grew numb.
Comrades he once laughed and talked with slowly became nothing more than background figures.
Even the enemies who had once plunged him into despair no longer stirred the urge for revenge.
No matter whom he cut down, guilt no longer touched him.
He did not know how to stop.
For the sake of protecting one person, he endured thousands of deaths and failures.
If he died, he started again.
If he fell, he rose again.
All for a single ending:
A future where Odelie lived.
“……”
Odelie watched his endlessly repeating lives.
“…Enough now…”
All of his memories crashed over her like a tidal wave.
A staggering weight she could never possibly bear.
Even though she continued to witness his memories, the sheer flood of information left her unable to comprehend most of it.
She could only stand, overwhelmed, in the face of one truth:
The man who lived and died for her.
The man whose every beginning and every end in every timeline pointed only to her.
Hundreds of failures.
Thousands of deaths.
He died, and died again.
He rose, and fought again.
Even after losing everything, he never stopped.
Repeat.
Repeat.
And repeat again.
Unwavering, merciless repetition.
The Gem of Regression shrinking with each use.
The ring he never once removed, clutched in his hand.
Her chest tightened until her heart could barely beat.
Her vision darkened.
Love.
Hate.
Compassion.
Devotion.
Regret.
Rage.
Madness.
Every fragment of his emotions shredded Odellie’s mind.
“…Stop!”
Unthinking, Odelie reached out.
Toward the man who once again drew his sword in that endless stream of memories.
“Please… stop now…”
She knew this was a time already gone.
She knew, better than anyone, that he no longer existed in this world.
“You’ve done enough. I’m okay. I am okay. For me… why… why go this far…”
But before her reaching hand could ever touch him—
Ludvil died.
And for the first time, he died for real.
He saved Odelie.
And finally sank into eternal rest.
She had wondered before.
Right before their divorce, her body had grown weak, wasting away day by day, as if counting down to death.
And yet, at some point…
She regained vitality.
She felt alive again.
Alive enough to work as a healer in their new village.
She had thought a miracle had happened.
But in truth…
“…It was your miracle, wasn’t it?”
Something even a god could not do, he achieved with nothing but a human body.
She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the ring tightly.
The blue light of the Gem of Regression had dimmed to the brink of fading.
As if to signal that Ludvil’s memories—no, his life—had ended.
“……”
Odelie prayed, without thinking.
If there is a next life—
If such a thing truly exists—
She wished he could live for himself this time.
“…Without ever getting tangled up with someone like me.”
She hoped, desperately, for his happiness.
At that moment, the ring on her finger burst with light.
And then—
Crack!
The Gem of Regression split, shattering into countless fragments.
“…!”
The shards of blue light scattered across the air like a galaxy.
Then, in an instant, all the light surged toward Odelie.
At the same time, everything warped in a storm of motion.
Light flared.
Sound distorted.
Time inverted.
And then—darkness.
“…Haaah!”
The next moment, Odelie gasped awake on a damp floor.
‘This place…’
Moist stone walls.
Cold, rough stone beneath her knees.
The underground secret chamber of House Kardel.
“Cough—!”
Her stomach heaved violently.
Something surged up her throat—
Blood.
Hot.
Sticky.
Metallic, filling her mouth.
Red spilled from her lips, staining the hem of her white dress.
A pain she knew well.
Suddenly, the ground trembled faintly.
Then came a series of explosive booms, like fireworks, followed by distant shouts and cheers.
“Glory to House Kardel!”
“Hail the blood of heroes, the descendants of the dragon!”
“Glory to the Luminere Empire!”
The same signal that came every year, on this same day.
“…I’ve returned.”
Six years ago.
The day Ludvil had first approached her with a proposal for a contract marriage.
Odelie drew a shaky breath and glanced down at the loose ring on her thumb.
The ring with the Gem of Regression, which had been with her and Ludvil for so long.
The gemstone that had barely held its shape was gone entirely now, not even dust left behind.
It had given Odelie one final chance.
“…Why?”
She had wished for him to live happily, free of her.
So why had fate sent her back to this moment?
What kind of cruel trick was this?
Clack-
The sound of a lock turning.
Odelie instinctively lifted herself halfway up.
“You look sturdier than I expected. I should have reinforced the barrier more.”
Had she … been hoping for someone else?
The moment she saw his face, the warmth drained from her eyes.
It was Gawain.
Gawain Kardel, firstborn son and official heir of House Kardel.
Her half-brother, who had the “good fortune” to be born without any powers.
That luck allowed him to become the Empire’s celebrated hero, the so-called Messenger of God.
While Odelie’s blood and suffering became nothing more than the stepping stone for his glory.
“Don’t think the ceremony’s end means you can rest. This is only the beginning. There’s a mountain of impurities for you to cleanse.”
Odelie barely listened.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the door, her thoughts consumed entirely by Ludvil.
Gawain let out a soft, mocking laugh.
“What? Waiting for someone to come save you?”
“……”
“Don’t be selfish. If you endure, the entire Empire survives. That’s the burden you were born to bear, Purifier.”
He strolled slowly through the blood-scented chamber, his tone calm yet laced with icy mockery.
“For the family, for the Empire… Don’t even think of betraying the sacrifices of the dozens of ancestors who gave their lives.”
“……”
“The moment a Purifier fails their duty, the Empire falls. And so do you. Nothing will remain.”
At that, Odelie let out a short, cold laugh.
Gawain’s face froze instantly.
“…What’s so funny?”
Once, she had believed.
In Kardel’s “duty.”
In the Purifier’s “fate.”
But not anymore.
Not now, when she carried both her own memories and Ludvil’s.
She knew better than anyone that all of it was just glorified enslavement—
Obedience dressed up as honor.
“You’re saying the Empire will fall because of me?”
“Exactly. Which is why—”
“Then it sounds like the Empire can’t function without me. Even with its so-called hero.”
“……”
“So you admit you’re powerless on your own.”
Sparks of fury lit in Gawain’s eyes.
Annoyance, humiliation, and wounded pride burned together into raw rage.
“…You dare.”
He ground his teeth and glared down at Odelie.
“You dare judge me with that filthy mouth?”
His heavy footsteps thudded against the floor.
He stopped just in front of her and whispered like a venomous snake:
“Don’t forget—you’re the most worthless being in the world. Unlike me, the heir, you’re nothing but a tool to this family.”
He seized her by the collar and hauled her up.
“Someone like you can be killed and buried, and that’s the end. A new Purifier will be born, just like always… Do you know what that means?”
His lips twisted into a sharp, arrogant smile—
The smile of someone who had never known defeat.
“It means God is always on my side.”
Odelie suddenly realized something.
Her life stolen.
Her years drained away.
Even the bare minimum rights of a human trampled underfoot.
And through all of that, she had never once taken revenge.
‘…I see now.’
This was her single, irreplaceable chance—
The chance to break her chains and make her own choice.
She tilted her head slightly and spoke in a quiet, decisive voice:
“…Is that so? Then prove it.”
