Chapter 55 Exams (1)
The Test (1)
Flames surged in waves, sweeping through everything in their path. The sky had long since turned pitch black from the thick smoke.
The screams echoing from all directions made me involuntarily grimace.
Is this hell prepared just for me?
The thought occurred to me suddenly.
I'd lived a life where blood on my hands was an everyday occurrence.
The lives I'd taken simply to survive were already too numerous to count on both hands.
Compared to Abel from the original work, it might not seem like much.
But that didn't make me any cleaner. Whether I'd killed thousands or hundreds, the fact that my hands were stained remained the same.
Thud. Thud.
I walked slowly down the path stretching into the distance.
The scenes passing by were all similar.
Houses engulfed in flames. People rolling on the ground screaming as fire consumed their bodies. Others collapsing from smoke inhalation.
How far had I walked past them?
A plaza that seemed to be the epicenter of the flames came into view. Where the Emperor's majestic statue once stood, only the lower half of the shattered monument remained.
On the rock that served as the statue's pedestal sat a familiar woman.
"...Adel?"
Short-cropped black hair and ruby-red eyes that glowed crimson. It was Adel, her beauty still capable of enchanting anyone at a glance.
I paused, struck by how much more mature she looked compared to when I first saw her.
Noticing me, she turned her head in my direction. Staring intently, Adel soon curved her lips into a smile.
Not her usual innocent grin, but a twisted smile that seemed steeped in death, the corners of her mouth contorted unnaturally.
"Long time no see, Abel."
"What is this..."
This wasn't the Adel I knew.
Her dropping honorifics wasn't the issue. So much about her now was different from the Adel I remembered.
'...A dream?'
My senses felt duller than usual. If I had to describe it, it was like a lucid dream.
Otherwise, none of this made sense.
Perhaps it was a prophetic dream.
"What's wrong? This is what you wanted, isn't it?"
Adel stared fixedly at me from her perch beside the broken statue. Then she gracefully landed on the ground and took careful steps forward.
'That's...'
Looking closer, countless corpses littered the area around Adel. Each one had their chests and backs pierced, blood gushing from the wounds.
The scene was so horrific that calling it a sea of corpses and blood wouldn't be an exaggeration.
"You know, I still love you, Abel."
"What in the..."
Adel licked the blood from her fingers, making my skin crawl as I brushed my arm involuntarily.
She approached me without hesitation, as if my words meant nothing. Her ruby eyes glowed blood-red.
"I killed the Crown Prince, killed the Tower Master..."
Adel murmured this before letting out a faint laugh.
Her dead eyes and twisted smile. For the first time, I felt fear from her.
"And finally, I killed the Emperor too."
She tapped the head of a man lying at her feet. Familiar blonde hair and golden eyes. His limbs severed, his expression frozen in horror.
Could that really be the Emperor?
"Did I... do my best?"
Without hesitation, she stomped on the Emperor's neck, her smile vanishing. All that remained on her face was a dark, hollow emptiness.
"How many times did I die? Thousands? Maybe tens of thousands?"
"Get a hold of yourself, Adel."
"Sorry. I lost count after a thousand regressions."
She wasn't listening. This wasn't a conversation—just her pouring out words.
Adel's eyes were faintly unfocused. Not from mental magic.
Just a mind shattered from endless cycles of regression.
What could have happened to reduce her to this?
Even if this was a dream, I couldn't begin to guess.
Though searching for logic in a dream might be foolish...
Before I knew it, Adel had closed the distance and embraced me tightly.
The overwhelming metallic scent of blood made me gasp. Beyond her warmth, the aura of death was suffocating.
"The others..."
"Hm? Oh, you mean the princess and princes?"
That wasn't all I meant. But since when did Adel speak of them so casually?
Did she even consider them human anymore?
"I used them as pawns. The revenge-crazed ones were quite useful."
Goosebumps prickled across my skin.
"Why... would you do this?"
"Huh? Because you're the only one who matters to me."
Adel murmured those words while embracing me. No trace of vitality remained in her eyes.
Only after seeing those eyes did a fragment from the original work resurface in my memory.
If Side Story: The Scarlet Monster.
A bad ending route written in the side stories, depicting what happens when Adel, after countless regressions, stops at nothing to achieve her goals.
As if the bleak ending of the main story wasn't depressing enough, the original author personally penned this what-if route.
In it, Adel—using even her own life as a tool—single-handedly defeats not just the Crown Prince but even the Tower Lord and ultimately the Emperor, only to bind Abel in eternal captivity. That was the gist of it.
"Abel, I love you."
"..."
I couldn't utter a word.
All I could do was silently meet Adel's gaze. Then chains erupted from her hands.
An artifact pivotal to sealing the Emperor in the original work—Gleipnir.
The crimson chains, woven like cloth, coiled around my neck. A chilling sensation crawled over me as Adel's bloodstained smile filled my vision.
"Let's be together forever."
With those words, my consciousness sank. A sensation of endless darkness enveloping my entire body—and then my eyes snapped open.
"Ghk— Hah...!"
I gasped violently, bolting upright. I'd known it was a dream from the start.
But I couldn't remain composed after seeing that version of Adel.
Because what I feared most was precisely that side of her. Hadn't I grown stronger precisely to avoid such a scenario?
"Ha... haah..."
My hands trembled.
My mind was still hazy. The insomnia from that nightmare was to blame.
Every time I tried to sleep deeply, without fail, that nightmare returned. A broken Adel, trying to bind me forever.
After I personally killed Duke Hardenberg—Abel's father—I thought I'd left insomnia behind. Apparently not.
The cause was obvious.
It stemmed from the anxiety that took root after Adel nearly died at the Emperor's hands in that village.
I'd never imagined she'd face the Emperor directly, let alone be pushed to the brink of death.
"Sigh..."
Adel's Infinite Regression is absurdly overpowered. But it's not invincible.
According to the original work, there are specific conditions under which her ability can be neutralized. One of them is the Emperor's existence.
If Adel dies by the Emperor's hand, her regression won't trigger. There's complex lore behind it, but that wasn't the point.
Had she not summoned me through our contract in her dying moments, she might have truly perished.
If that had actually happened...
"Get a grip."
I slapped my cheeks sharply with both hands and stood. Dawn hadn't broken yet—pale moonlight seeped through the window.
At this rate, I wouldn't get more than a few hours of sleep anyway.
With that thought, I slowly left my room.
The ducal mansion was silent at this hour. None of the usual chatter or laughter among the servants bustling about their tasks.
Well, everyone was probably still asleep.
In the original work, there were no servants, were there?
Who'd want to work in a duke's estate where the master casually murdered staff for entertainment?
At best, Laura and Allen were around, but most tasks were handled by automaton-like puppets, if I recalled correctly.
Shaking off the thoughts, I stepped outside and inhaled the crisp dawn air.
"Sigh..."
Come to think of it, in my past life, I used to wake up at dawn every day for jogging.
The first few months were hell, but after that, it became second nature.
...No time for that now.
As a duke, even a moment's rest meant work piled up. I no longer had the luxury of morning workouts. Still, I sometimes missed those days.
Back when I had nothing but youth and the drive to take on anything.
...Am I getting old?
Mentally, I was already well past fifty, so yeah—definitely old.
"Hyah!"
"Just a little more!"
A familiar voice carried from the distance.
Curious, I headed toward the sound. Reaching an empty clearing, I spotted Adel and Arin practicing spirit magic.
"Triple Wood Slash!"
Blades of wind materialized midair, cleanly splitting three floating logs. Had she improved this much in just a few days?
"Next, ah—Your Grace."
Arin noticed me and bowed. Adel followed her gaze, eyes widening when she saw me.
"Abel, long time no see."
"Are you fully recovered now?"
"That was ages ago. I'm completely fine now."
She swung her once-broken arm effortlessly as she answered. Unlike the hollow-eyed Adel from my dream, her vibrant energy made me chuckle.
This was the real Adel.
Not the deranged version from my nightmare.