The Third Life Begins
I set the thought aside and focused slowly on what Pelican was saying.
It took a surprisingly long time for her words to reach their end.
According to Pelican’s summary of everything she had learned, the situation was as follows.
First, the Death Bee’s ability would awaken, allowing the user to adjust the intensity of its strength at will.
Second, the only way to awaken any race’s innate ability was to keep using the power itself.
Third, once awakened, the ability would grant an enemy a fatal effect with only the slightest cost.
“Does that mean the healing-reduction effect of the Death Bee’s power is to blame?”
“Yes. Especially against other species like me, who possess overwhelming regeneration. There is simply no more effective way.”
Fortunately, the Death Bee’s side effect did not render the user’s own body untreatable. So as long as I could endure it… in the end, I would come out ahead.
“But from the beginning, the premise itself is absurd. Enduring that much agony just from one attack—how is that supposed to keep happening…”
“Incidentally, I should mention that the awakening of Dullahan-nim’s Death Bee is determined solely by the number of times it is used.”
“…Huh?”
Solely… by the number of times? Then…
“So even attacking something as trivial as a passing ant would have the same awakening effect as crushing a Demon God?!”
“Yes. Has Dullahan-nim ever used the Death Bee during this time on anything other than difficult targets or strong opponents?”
As she said, I had used the ability only a few times before, and each time I had targeted massive trees or dangerous beasts.
Other living beings had been so easy to drop that I hadn’t bothered with them. People, in particular, I had avoided clashing with entirely.
Now I was being told that, to fully utilize the ability, I would have to use it against beings I could otherwise defeat without even trying…
“If I had tried this from the start…”
At least twenty years had passed since my transmigration. But I had changed nothing.
I hadn’t caused my own isolation, of course, yet I couldn’t claim I had done anything right.
In the end, I had simply accepted the outcome and kept living.
Lost once more in that unspeakable self-loathing, head bowed low, I felt a hand gently wrap around my body. I turned slowly.
“But things will be different from now on, won’t they?”
That was the very self who had only moments ago been willing to fight to the death and even argued with me to leave. And Pelican—the Demon God herself—was the one who had granted me another chance.
“Remember this well. The strongest human who once brought down Pelican in a single strike—the one who is stronger than any being in this world.”
“…So what? I was dying together with you. It was just mutual annihilation.”
“Then… you, the true strongest who commands the strongest lifeform as a slave. Hehehe…”
Being made to serve the strongest made me the strongest too… If it had been at any other time, I would have dismissed it as nonsense. Yet hearing her say it now somehow felt good.
Whether I was figuring out how to use the power properly, or whether the hope of living an entirely different life from my two miserable ones was flooding me, or whether it was simply the joy of finally possessing Pelican completely…
I had no idea why hearing her nonsense made me happy.
Lost in that inexplicable delight, I finished the first day of my third life.
**
The next day finally arrived, and I began my academy life in this new world for the first time.
Leaving the modest quarters I had called home, I gazed slowly at the grand sight of Palette Academy before me.
Only talent can decide everything.
I slipped behind the massive plaque bearing the academy’s motto and watched the students entering and muttering to themselves.
“Amazing… I never thought I’d see this sight again.”
{Heh heh, all thanks to that capable slave, me, Pelican!!}
She had said it herself, so I was glad she hadn’t. I had only known her for two days, but her vicious mouth was already a problem.
In any case, the black crystal necklace I now wore—Pelican’s form—hung around my neck as I entered the academy slowly.
The moment I stepped inside Palette Academy, the faces from my past began to appear, as if the years had never passed.
“Lady Alice, it is an honor to meet you. I am the second son of Count Fred…”
“You are as beautiful today as ever. Glory to the flower of the empire…”
“Kyah! Lady Alice… you are so beautiful… and you have already reached the fifth circle? That is truly impressive.”
“Even though you are the same age as us… to have already reached the fifth circle, and to be a princess of this empire… I am so proud.”
{…What is this?}
“It’s nothing. A kind of follower who worships and praises Princess Alice.”
In the past, I had only heard her speak ill of me once, yet it was precisely because of them that my academy life had collapsed.
Even if she no longer cared about me, I had been targeted by her followers.
‘They had nearly killed me more than once… so we must have been destined enemies after all.’
{Destined to… die?} They’re just a place that teaches humans, aren’t they? How could something like that happen there?
Pelican answered in a voice of pure shock when she heard my thoughts. Even as a Demon God, this was an incomprehensible act.
{So what happened to those people back then? Since they tried to kill the master… they probably lost at least an arm, right?}
‘All innocent.’
{…Huh?}
‘Completely innocent. The reason: insufficient evidence. The ones who attacked me were the children of the empire’s major power brokers.’
At that moment, I was simply stunned. They had suddenly called for a magical duel and hurled lethal magic at me, breaking every rule in place.
I had no choice but to run. In the end I could no longer run, and the wound that never healed remained—my last remaining magic circuit had completely shattered. My circle, already at its limit, had broken beyond the maximum of three circles in the original story.
With only a sliver of hope left in this world, I had been told by the hospital that my magic was finished.
After receiving that death sentence for magic, my emotions had twisted completely.
No longer able to feel anger, only emptiness. From that moment on I…
Only sought the perfect chance to end this wretched life. That was why, the moment I heard Karl had fallen, I raced there faster than anyone.
“…Still, I’m glad I got the chance to die.”
That was why I had thought it lucky to die alongside Pelican. That was why I had not treated the Pelican who had killed me as an enemy.
{…}
I walked slowly toward the princess and her followers, not sensing anything strange about her suddenly falling silent after hearing my inner monologue.
“…Excuse me, could you move just a little… Du… Dullahan!!”
I finally reached the distance where her eyes could see me. She looked up, panicked, and hurried over.
“It has been a long time, Your Highness the Princess.”
“…No, it hasn’t. I saw you yesterday.”
I whispered it close to her ear. Her face changed in real time—astonishing to watch.
“You…!!”
“So, what business do you have with me? My class starts at nine o’clock, after all…”
In public, I responded politely to the grotesque princess.
Her entire body trembled. I smiled the way one does when laughing, then leaned in again so only she could hear.
“So, when exactly do you plan to bother me this time?”
“…Eh?”
She looked at my words, her expression rotting, and let out a foolish sigh.
I stared at her with cold eyes, then walked past her slowly, whispering so only she could hear, and left.
“So take off that filthy mask and go back to who you really are.”
The girl who had crushed my life shouldn’t be pretending to be sorry for it.
Why was the victim the one acting so depressed, as if she were the victim? Why was she making a scene?
“…You damn bitch.”
“…Ah.”
Dullahan finished the hallway and left. Alice, left alone, immediately lost her balance and collapsed.
“Your Highness?! Your Highness!!”
“I’m sorry… please forgive me…”
I only asked for forgiveness that no one else would ever hear.