Chapter 55: The Trial (1)

Flames surged like waves, engulfing everything in their path. The sky had long since turned pitch-black from the thick smoke.

The sound of screams echoing from all directions made me unconsciously furrow my brows.

Was this hell prepared just for me?

That thought suddenly crossed my mind.

I had lived a life where bloodstains on my hands were routine.

The number of lives I had taken—under the pretense of survival—was already too many to count.

Of course, compared to Abel from the original story, it was hardly anything.

But that didn’t mean I was clean.

Whether I killed a hundred or a thousand, the fact remained that my hands were stained with blood all the same.

Tap. Tap.

I slowly walked along a path stretching into the distance.

The scenery I passed was all too familiar.

Houses consumed by fire. People rolling on the ground, engulfed in flames, their screams piercing through the chaos. Others collapsed from suffocation, unable to escape the choking smoke.

How long had I been walking past all this?

A plaza appeared before me—the apparent source of the fire.

It was once the place where the emperor’s grand statue stood tall.

Now, only a shattered upper torso remained.

And atop the stone pedestal that had once held the statue, sat a familiar figure.

“…Adele?”

Short, jet-black hair. Eyes glowing like rubies.

A woman whose beauty was so mesmerizing it could bewitch people in an instant—Adele.

I faltered for a moment.

She looked far more mature than when I had first seen her.

As if she had noticed me, Adele turned her head in my direction.

She stared at me for a long moment before breaking into a smile.

But it wasn’t the usual, carefree smile she always wore.

No, Adele’s lips twisted into a grin soaked in death itself.

“It’s been a while, Abel.”

“What is this…?”

This wasn’t the Adele I knew.

It wasn’t just the fact that she no longer used formal speech.

Everything about her had changed.

‘…A dream?’

My senses felt duller than usual.

If I had to describe it, it felt like a lucid dream.

Otherwise, none of this made sense.

Or maybe… I was experiencing a vision of the future.

“Why are you hesitating? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Still seated beside the broken statue, Adele looked at me blankly.

Then, she gracefully landed on the ground and stepped toward me.

‘That is…’

Only then did I notice the countless corpses strewn around her.

All of them had gaping holes in their chests and the napes of their necks, blood pouring from their lifeless bodies.

It was a massacre—one that could only be described as a sea of corpses and blood.

“You know,” Adele murmured, “I still love you, Abel.”

“What the hell…”

She wiped the blood from her fingers and licked them clean.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Ignoring my reaction entirely, she continued to approach, her ruby-red eyes glimmering with an eerie light.

“I killed the crown prince… the Tower Master…”

Adele muttered to herself, then let out a soft chuckle.

Her dead eyes and twisted smile—

For the first time, I felt true fear from her.

“And finally, I killed the emperor.”

She lightly tapped the severed head of the man lying at her feet.

Golden hair. Golden eyes.

His limbs had been severed, his face frozen in a look of agony.

Was that really… the emperor?

“I worked really hard, didn’t I?”

With that, she stomped on the emperor’s head.

The smile faded from her face, leaving behind nothing but a hollow emptiness.

“How many times have I died?” she whispered.

“Thousands? No… Maybe tens of thousands.”

“Snap out of it, Adele.”

“Sorry. I lost count after a thousand.”

I couldn’t reach her.

She wasn’t talking to me—she was merely spewing words, lost in her own world.

Her eyes were unfocused, but this wasn’t the result of mind magic.

No, it was simply the consequence of enduring endless loops of regression.

What in the world had happened to her?

Even though this was just a dream, I couldn’t even begin to guess.

Maybe it was foolish to search for logic in a dream, but—

Before I knew it, Adele was right in front of me.

And then, she pulled me into a tight embrace.

The overwhelming stench of blood filled my lungs, suffocating me.

The warmth of her body—beneath it, I could feel the unmistakable presence of death.

“…The others…”

“Hmm? Oh, you mean the imperial princess and prince?”

She spoke as if they were nothing more than mere pawns.

No—had she ever even considered them human in the first place?

“I used them as sacrifices. They were pretty useful, being so obsessed with revenge.”

A cold chill ran down my spine.

“Why… would you do this?”

“Hmm? Because you’re the only one who matters to me.”

She whispered those words as she held me tightly.

There was no light left in her eyes.

And at that moment, a memory surfaced—

The if side story. The Crimson Monster.

A bad ending route where Adele, after countless regressions, abandoned all morals and used any means necessary to reach her goal.

A side story the author wrote as if the original novel’s tragic ending wasn’t bleak enough.

In this route, Adele sacrificed herself over and over again, single-handedly slaying the crown prince, the Tower Master, and even the emperor—only to eternally imprison Abel by her side.

“I love you, Abel.”

“…”

I couldn’t say a word.

All I could do was stare into Adele’s eyes.

Then, from her hands, chains emerged.

An artifact—Gleipnir—the same crimson chains that had once sealed the emperor in the original story.

The fabric-like chains coiled around my neck, tightening with a terrifying finality.

As the eerie sensation sank into my skin, Adele smiled—her lips painted in blood.

“Let’s be together forever.”

And with those words, my consciousness faded.

The world was swallowed by darkness—

And then, I woke up.

“Khak—ha…”

Gasping for breath, I shot upright.

I had known all along it was a dream.

But that didn’t make the sight of Adele any easier to accept.

Because my greatest fear—

Was seeing her like that.

It was to prevent this very future that I had become stronger.

“…Haah.”

My hands trembled.

My mind was still hazy, weighed down by the lingering effects of insomnia caused by that dream.

Every time I tried to sleep deeply, without fail, the nightmare would return.

A nightmare where Adele, completely broken, tried to imprison me.

I thought I had left insomnia behind after personally killing Duke Hardenberg, Abel’s father.

But apparently, I was wrong.

The reason was clear.

Ever since that day—when Adele nearly died at the hands of the emperor in that village—I had been plagued by an unshakable sense of anxiety.

I had never imagined that she would not only face the emperor directly but also come so close to death.

Haa…

Adele’s infinite regression ability was beyond extraordinary. But it wasn’t invincible.

According to the original story, there were a few specific conditions that could nullify her power.

And one of them was the emperor himself.

If Adele died at the emperor’s hands, her regression would not activate.

There was a complex web of lore behind this, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

What mattered was that if she hadn’t managed to call for me through our contract in her final moments—

She might have died for real.

And if, by any chance, that had actually happened…

“Get a grip.”

I slapped both of my cheeks hard and pushed myself up from the bed.

Through the window, a faint moonlight shone, signaling that it was still before dawn.

There was no point in trying to sleep any longer in this state—I wouldn’t get more than a couple of hours at best.

With that thought in mind, I stepped out of my room.

The duke’s estate was silent at this hour.

Gone were the usual sounds of servants chattering or laughing as they worked.

Well, of course. Most of them would be asleep by now.

‘In the original story, were there even any servants here?’

Who in their right mind would want to work in a mansion where the duke killed his own servants on a whim?

At least Laura and Allen had been around.

But for the most part, I recalled that mechanical dolls—automata—handled most of the chores.

Shaking off idle thoughts, I stepped outside and took in the crisp dawn air.

Haa…

Now that I thought about it, in my past life, I used to wake up early every morning to go jogging.

The first few months had been hell, but after pushing through, it eventually became a habit.

‘…It’d be tough now, though.’

As the duke, I no longer had the luxury of morning workouts. Even a short break meant work would pile up.

But still, I sometimes missed those days.

When I was young and reckless, taking on anything and everything without hesitation.

‘…Maybe I’m getting old.’

Mentally, I had already passed fifty.

So, in a way, I was old.

“Hyaap!”

“Just a little more!”

A familiar voice echoed from a distance.

I turned toward it and started walking.

In an open clearing, I found Adele and Arin training in spirit magic.

“Three consecutive wind strikes!”

Blades of wind materialized, slicing through three floating wooden blocks in rapid succession.

She had improved this much in just a few days?

“Next, right away—ah, my lord.”

Noticing me, Arin quickly bowed.

Adele turned as well, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw me.

“Abel, it’s been a while.”

“Are you feeling better now?”

“What kind of question is that? I’m completely fine.”

She twirled her once-broken arm effortlessly, proving her point.

A chuckle escaped me.

The Adele standing before me now—full of energy—was nothing like the one in my nightmare.

Yes, this was the real Adele.

Not the empty, broken version I had seen in that dream.

– – The End of The Chapter––

 

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